The evolution of life on our planet has produced an extraordinary variety and diversity of species, and the paths followed by many of the branches on the tree of life have held sway for millions of years before ending completely or splitting off into whole new species. The ability of each branch to continue into … Continue reading Evolution of Cognition
Memory Is Feeling Some months ago, I wrote a few brief remarks to share for the memorial service marking one year since my Mom's passing, and while preparing to deliver the remarks, I recorded myself reciting them in order to review them before the service. The first attempts with just my voice were helpful in … Continue reading Memory is Feeling
"Many theories of the origin of life have been proposed, but since it's hard to prove or disprove them, no fully accepted theory exists," --Diana Northup, a cave biologist at the University of New Mexico. Robert Shapiro, a chemist at New York University thinks "...life started with molecules that were smaller and less complex than … Continue reading In The Beginning
Michelangelo Buonarroti - The Dream of Human Life Writing about "Life," or rendering artistically the everyday scenes of our temporal existence goes on all the time in every culture and it has become commonplace in our time to read about or to see the results of those efforts everywhere we go. Actually "living our lives" … Continue reading The Fulfillment of Life
As the morning light bestows its first sweet caress, It stirs my waking dream to life, Loosening the reluctant grasp of Yesterday's liquid night; The stillness of the dark water, In the wee hours before dawn, Slowly yields to the tides within me. They ripple gently in steady, rhythmic response, As my heart reclaims its … Continue reading From Morning Light To The Next Liquid Night
"Finally we must make use of all the aids which intellect, imagination, sense-perception, and memory afford in order, firstly, to intuit simple propositions distinctly; secondly, to combine correctly (compare) the matters under investigation with what we already know, so that they too may be known; and thirdly, to find out what things should be compared … Continue reading Our Human Powers
"The truly sacred attitude toward life is in no sense an escape from the sense of nothingness that assails us when we are left alone with ourselves...the sacred attitude is one which does not recoil from our own inner emptiness, but rather penetrates into it with awe and reverence, and with the awareness of mystery. … Continue reading The Awareness of Mystery
"The individual who is not anchored in God can offer no resistance on the strength of his own resources, to the physical and moral sway of the world. For this man needs the evidence of his own inner, transcendent experience..." --Carl Gustav Jung from one of his last major works, "The Undiscovered Self: Present and … Continue reading Soul, Spirit, Heart, and Mind
It is with some humility, surprise, and measured delight that I acknowledge the accumulation of over 50,000 blog views here on John's Consciousness. While I generally find it surprising that any greater-than-normal number of visitors stop by to read here in a day or within a particular week or month as the statistics report, this … Continue reading 50,000 Blog Visits
When I close my eyes after looking at the photo above, I can still smell the late summer air as we played together on the open fields at Valley Forge National Park. I can still feel the sun on my face. I can hear again the squeals of delight from my "little sisters," as they … Continue reading The Golden Days of Youth
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