• You are the Universe. Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos are presenting what in the spiritual traditions is known as: 1) “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am the Universe), 2) “Brahman = Brahmand” (The consciousness = The vibration of consciousness when experiences the universe) or 3) “Tat tvam asi” (“I am That”). Starting from there, the two authors are saying: “You are the Universe”. In fact, the book has two parts: in the first part nine mysteries are presented, while in the second part three certitudes are expressed. The two authors are making the following distinction between i) experience (or: sensations, images, feelings and thoughts) – for instance: the mind, the body, the universe, the space, the time, the causality, etc; ii) concepts (or “constructs”) – the scientific constructs, the philosophical constructs, the religious constructs and so on (those constructs are “systems of thinking, feeling, and etc”); and iii) consciousness (or awareness). When they are saying that “C = U” (or “Consciousness = Universe”) they are picking the element “universe” from the “experience” level in order to have a relationship with the level of “consciousness”: in this way, “You are the Universe” and “The Universe is You”. Or restated:  the existence of the experience becames aware of its existence: in this way, “the Universe looked back at Itself through Consciousness”. (As a final note, while the “world” of the experience has time, space, matter, energy, causality and so on; then the “horizon” of consciousness has non-temporality, non-locality, non-subjectivity, non-objectivity, etc, etc)

The map:

Resources:

• Deepak Chopra & Menas Kafatos (2017): “You are the universe. Discovering your cosmic self and why it matters”, Harmony Books