1 result for (book:notp AND session:797 AND stemmed:speci)
[... 10 paragraphs ...]
The same energy, however, still gives birth anew to the universe. In those terms, it is still being created. The EE units, impressing a probable physical field, contain within them the latent knowledge of all of the various species that can emerge under those conditions. The groupings “begin” in the invisible universe. You can say that it took untold centuries for the EE units “initially” to combine, form classifications of matter and various species; or you can say that this process happened at once. It is according to your relative position, but the physical universe was everywhere seeded, impregnated, simultaneously. On the other hand, this still happens, and there is no real “coming-in” point.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
They are innately aware, in fact, of all such probable cooperative ventures, and imbued with the “drive” for value fulfillment. Every known species was inherently “present” with the overall impregnation of the visible universe, then.
If the universe were a painting, for example, the painter would not have first painted darkness, then an explosion, then a cell, then the joining together of groups of cells into a simple organism, then that organism’s multiplication into others like it, or traced a pattern from an amoeba or a paramecium on upward — but he or she would have instead begun with a panel of light, an underpainting, in which all of the world’s organisms were included, though not in detail. Then in a creativity that came from the painting itself the colors would grow rich, the species attain their delineations, the winds blow and the seas move with the tides.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
Because each hypothetical, conceivable portion of the universe is conscious, the Planner is within the plan itself in the greatest of terms — perhaps basically inconceivable to you. There is of course no “outside” into which the invisible universe materialized, since all does indeed exist in a mental, psychic, or spiritual realm quite impossible to describe. To you your universe seems, now, objective and real, and it seems to you that at one time at least this was not the case, so you ask about its creation and the evolution of the species. My answer has been couched in the terms in which the question is generally asked.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
These are creative distortions on your part, directly related to specializations of consciousness that cut you off from the greater concourse existing at other levels between the species and the land. Again, consciousness everywhere pervades the universe, and is aware of all conditions. The balance of nature upon your planet is no chance occurrence, but the result of constant, instant computations on the part of each most minute consciousness, whether it forms part of a rock, a person, an animal, a plant. Each invisibly “holds space together,” whatever its station. This is a cooperative venture. Your own consciousness has its particular unique qualities, in that like other comparatively long-lived species, you associate your identity with your form far more rigidly. Other kinds of consciousness “leap in and out of forms” with greatest leeway. There is a biological understanding that exists, for example, when one animal kills another one for food. The consciousness of the prey leaves its body under the impetus of a kind of stimulus unknown to you.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
(I’m sure that Jane tires of hearing me periodically rehash views that the species has engaged in at least three major wars in a little more than half a century, plus a number of “smaller” ones. Furthermore, I added, since in our “practical” world we generally renounce all belief in anything like reincarnation, or what I consider to be a true religious stance, we place all of life within each individual living “now.” To send our young to the battle field under those circumstances, then, to deprive individuals of the one life — the one priceless, irreplaceable attribute — seems the worst crime imaginable, I told Jane. I said more in a similar vein, while all the time a basic part of me knew that I was oversimplifying the human condition by far.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
It seems also that the future must be built upon that one known species or world past. Often it may simply sound like a figure of speech when I talk about probabilities. In many ways it may indeed appear to be almost outrageous to consider the possibility that “there is more than one earth,” or that there are many earths, each similar enough to be recognizable, yet each different in the most vital respects.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
In a way, man is trans-species at this point in probability. It is a time and a probability in which every bit of help is needed, and your talents, abilities, and prejudices made you both uniquely fitted for such a drama. At the same time, do not dwell too much upon that world situation, for a concentration upon your own nature and upon the physical nature of your world — the seasons, and so forth — allows you to refresh your own energy, and frees you to take advantage of that clear vision that is so necessary.
(A point I mentioned at break — the difficulty of seeing clearly just what man is up to as a species.)
[... 3 paragraphs ...]