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​Aliens and Psychedelics
Novel directions in Process Cosmology
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One of the aims of the process movement is (1) to encourage holistic thinking among artists, philosophers, theologians, and, well, all of us. The other three are (2) to foster whole or compassionate communities, (3) to support the flourishing of a whole planet, and (4) to help people become whole persons, each in his or her way. See Four Hopes of the Process Movement.

​In philosophy one example of holistic thinking, important to so many in the process movement, is Whiteheadian thinking.  Whiteheadian thinking can be thinking that uses Whitehead’s own philosophy as a framework for exploring new ideas, and it can be thinking that follows the spirit of Whitehead while not wedded to his thought in more exact ways.  Roland Faber speaks of the latter as thinking in a Whiteheadian mode. 

You’ll find both kinds in Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy.
It is an anthology of essays illustrating the many directions in which Whiteheadian thinking is unfolding today: cosmological, astrobiological, ecological, metaphysical, aesthetic, psychedelic, and religious.  Some of these new directions may be surprising to those outside the Whiteheadian world: astrobiological and psychedelic, for example.  The former involves a consideration of life beyond our planet and the latter involves a consideration of the many modes of consciousness of which we are capable.

As essays by Andrew M. Davis and John Buchannon make clear, both the astrobiological and the psychedelic are fertile areas of explanation when we "think in a Whiteheadian mode.'  I have taken the liberty to include extended excerpts from portions of their essays below, hoping that these essays might prompt readers to consider the many other works in the anthology.  Lest I suggest that these are the only two topics of the anthology, I include the table of contents at the bottom of the page.  The remainder of this page consists of five sections:

• New Integrations: Introducing the Book
• Extraterrestrial Values (Andrew Davis)
• Psychedelics (John Buchanon)
• Table of Contents of Book
• ​Concluding Remarks: Process Philosophy in Process (Jay McDaniel)

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​- Jay McDaniel, January 3, 2022

New Integrations
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"This book newly articulates the international and interdisciplinary reach of Whitehead's organic process cosmology for a variety of topics across science and philosophy, and in dialogue with a variety historical and contemporary voices. Integrating Whitehead's thought with the insights of Bergson, James, Pierce, Merleau-Ponty, Descola, Fuchs, Hofmann, Grof and many others, contributors from around the world reveal the relevance of process philosophy to physics, cosmology, astrobiology, ecology, metaphysics, aesthetics, psychedelics, and religion. A global collection, this book expresses multivocal possibilities for the development of process cosmology after Whitehead."

​Divinely Shared Extraterrestrial Values
​and Intergalactic Religion

excerpts from Andrew M. Davis' essay
on Whiteheadian Cosmotheology​

The amazement of our own emergence as intellectual beings spurs us to ask after the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence and the kind of meaningful commonalities we might plausibly share. We may never discover or come in contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life forms; nevertheless, the luring and likely sense of their existence haunts us. For many there is a deep conviction that we are not alone. It is not a matter of “if” we will discover them, but rather “when.” With programs like SETI and METI the search is on. If indeed our active grasp of the objective reality of mathematical truths, “possibilities of beauty” and ethical and moral values extends from our residence within an all-inclusive divine Mentality, then we have good reason to speak (albeit humbly) to some manner of imaginative commonality between “us” and “them” in these domains.

Let us return to the opening questions framing this discussion. McKay asked: “Do intelligent life forms elsewhere construct symbolic models of the universe that are congruent with our mathematics, science, and philosophy; supporting the argument that understanding comes from accessing another realm of Platonic ideals—a realm common to all intelligent beings?” Given what I have sought to develop, because Platonic phenomena make up something of the divine mind and because this mind includes all possible and actual things—we must answer affirmatively: there is some agreement between extraterrestrials and ourselves. By virtue of being in God we all have a kind of mind-to-mind access to the same rational, aesthetic and moral domains.  This does not mean, however, that our grasp or expression of these domains will be the same. That we are sharing experience with the fundamental truths, ideals and values of the universe remains, but how we creatively express them could (one imagines) differ quite significantly.

In mathematics, philosophy and science for example, there is ample room for creative symbolic expression, beyond perhaps what we have ever imagined. These enterprises seek in various ways to unveil the truths of the universe. And to the extent that we ourselves believe (with good reason) that we have discovered dimensions of these eternal truths, we can expect that extraterrestrial mathematics (however different) will include these truths as well. The truth that 2 + 2 = 4 can be expressed in all variety of ways, but the truth remains the same. Answering Vakoch’s question then, we can expect that alien civilizations do have their “own versions of math and science” that may in fact be “adequate for explaining the universe,” but these versions will “not directly map onto our notions” in terms of expression. We may have much to learn from them about the mathematical structure of the cosmos, about undiscovered fractal mathematical sets for example; and perhaps they might also learn from us.

What is more, in a universe where beauty exists as a kind of divine telos of all existence, we can also expect intelligent extraterrestrials to be beings that harbor a deep aesthetic sense. With respect to the diversity of aesthetic expression, however, we must assume radically different appropriations of fundamental ideals such as shape, order, contrast, color and the beauty which emerges from their harmonious coalescence. The integration of these ideals will not only result in the evolutionary beauty of their own planetary environment, but also the beauty of their artistic and mathematical expressions. We should expect them to have actualized in various artistic ways “possibilities of beauty” we have never entertained. Should they have developed completely different forms of music, dance or other arts, these expressions, I maintain, will nevertheless be grounded in the harmonious aesthetic ideals that infuse existence with meaning.

Ruse’s question surrounding shared morality and religion remains. Here too we should expect that the objective moral sense that there is a difference between “is” and “ought” in the universe is also experienced and lived out to various degrees by intelligent extraterrestrials. Like us, we can imagine that they may have ideal “religious” figures, those like Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who diversely exemplify the “aesthetic sense of realized perfection” to various degrees (Whitehead, 1967c, p. 40) in reflecting the compassion, wisdom and justice in the nature of things. We might say with Whitehead that dreams of realizing such states are the “intuitions of the finest type of religious lives” (Whitehead, 2011, p. 129). This does not mean that we will have the same “morality” or “ethics” by any means, but that values such as truth, beauty and goodness will also be inherent features among the moral and ethical intuitions of extraterrestrials.

The phenomena of religion should not be equated with morality as such; nor can it be simply equated with doctrines or rituals. Due to their historical contingency, we can assume that extraterrestrial expressions will be drastically different than ours, being linked to the circumstances of their own historical development. Unfortunately, there is often a widely assumed notion that “religions” should be narrowly equated with their doctrines or dogmas. To the contrary, however, Whitehead insists that “religions”—extraterrestrial or otherwise—“commit suicide when they find their inspirations in their dogmas.” Rather, in authentic religion, there is a deeper “intuitive response,” which seeks to pierce “beyond dogma” (Whitehead, 2011, p. 129). One of the finest expressions in this regard comes from Abraham Joshua Heschel.  The adequacy of dogmas depends upon whether they claim to formulate or to allude; in the first case, they flaunt and fail, in the second they indicate and illumine. To be adequate they must retain a telescopic relation to the theme which they refer to; to point to the mysteries of God rather than to picture them. All they can do is mark a way not an end of thinking. Dogmas are obstacles unless they serve as humble signposts on the way. They are allusive rather than informative or descriptive. (Heschel, 1952, p. 168)

Rather than endless disagreements surrounding doctrinal diversity, we might say that the commonality found in what might be termed intergalactic religion, emerges much more as an attitude or orientation toward the universe as allusive to the divine axianoetic reality behind it; that is, an ultimate reality of Mind and Value (Davis, 2020). Whitehead tells us that such an attitude at base level senses that “there is a wisdom in the nature of things” that can guide both theory and practice (Whitehead, 2011, p. 128). In a way similar to Heschel, Ward states that “the religious attitude is one which sees the things of the world pointing beyond themselves, as having a meaning which goes beyond their own reality.” In this way, the religious question is much more about what the nature of the cosmos and our experience with it expresses about the “underlying reality” which sustains it. For Ward, the religious orientation “is one which takes finite things as revelations of an infinite reality lying behind them, lying both in them yet also through them” (Ward, 2015b, pp. 9–10).

If an all-inclusive divine reality is what constitutes our experience of truth, beauty and goodness in the universe, and if the religious drive is essentially one which seeks harmony with this reality, then we should expect to find these values creatively expressed and exemplifed in extraterrestrial religion and extraterrestrial lives. Whether or not intelligent extraterrestrials recognize this or have theology-like disciplines in ways similar to us, remains a thought-provoking question.

Minimally, I have suggested that we can in fact have some manner of imaginative confidence in the type of ultimate conclusions intelligent extraterrestrial life comes to. To the extent possible, if they too seek to make comprehensive ontological sense of their own existence, and their own experience with Platonic-like truths of a rational, aesthetic and moral character, they too may have drawn conclusions as to their participation in the Mind of God. In these ways at least, aliens may not be so alien after all.

​- Andrew M. Davis

Psychedelics


excerpts from John Buchanon's essay on
​​ "Process Cosmology: Thickening Things Up"

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[I will] give some illustrations of how Whitehead’s philosophy can help us think through these extraordinary phenomena.

As alluded to above, a number of these categories involve deep encounters with animals, plants, and the inorganic realms—sometimes at the molecular and cellular levels. An aspect of these experiences that begs clarification is whether, when Grof speaks of “plant consciousness,” for example, the implication is that the individual has become intimately conscious of the inner workings or “life” of the phenomena in question, or if it suggests that plants (and animals and minerals) are in themselves conscious entities. The experiential examples Grof provides suggest the former, but there are also hints pointing to the latter interpretation.

A Whiteheadian approach to this question begins with the observation that all cells and molecules are composed of events that are in essence feeling in nature. So sensing, during extraordinary states, that plants and even minerals have an inner vitality seems easy to accept, as well as the possibility that these qualities are accessible to human awareness under special conditions. In animals these “social” feelings are unified through a higher center of experience, which in humans we call the psyche. Whitehead however was inclined to doubt whether plants generated this kind of higher-order coordinating entity; this would be much more so the case with the mineral world. However, some of the experiences found in Grof’s cartography suggest the possibility that plant life, in addition to its cellular feelings, generates some kind of spiritual center or presence. One cannot help but think of reports of encounters with plant spirits, especially with the psychedelic substance ayahuasca. Reputedly, such encounters are frequent, powerful, and transformative...

Grof describes another set of transpersonal experiences as “Energetic Phenomena of the Subtle Body." Since for Whitehead, transfer of energy is understood as an aspect of the flow of “feeling” between and within events, the idea that fields, nodes, and flows of energy are present within and around the human body does not seem an extravagant notion. If this is indeed the case, it further seems quite possible that individuals in extraordinary states of consciousness might have perceived and mapped these energy patterns, as exemplified in the chakra systems of India and acupuncture’s meridian mappings...A cosmology broad enough to include such phenomena, while providing a scientific meta framework capable of accounting for their existence, would greatly facilitate further serious research.

The same could be said for the field of parapsychology. Although observed infrequently, PSI phenomena do make an appearance in Grof’s cartography. As with the existence of “purely spiritual beings,” Whitehead’s few comments related to the topic indicate that the philosophy of organism is patient with the possibility of at least some kinds of PSI phenomena. Once the human psyche is understood to constantly be receiving data from all past occurrences, it is not difficult to see how the information reaching conscious awareness might include thoughts or feelings from the psychic occasions of other human beings. Similarly, the moments of human experience, when completed, flow out into the universe to be felt by other newly-forming events. These received feelings, if properly attuned to the new event, might conceivably exert enough influence to create the kind of effect attributed to psychokinesis, that is, influence at a distance. When carefully examined, the many years of parapsychological research strongly supports the existence of both telepathy and psychokinesis.  With that in mind, and given that Whitehead’s philosophy offers a coherent way of understanding the processes that could lie behind these phenomena, at least some parapsychological abilities will form part of the cosmological scheme being outlined here...

Rather than trying to fashion an interpretation for the many other kinds of experiences delineated by Grof, it will suffice to mention several categories that may play a significant role in creating a more transpersonally informed cosmological understanding of the universe in which we live. These kinds of experiences include “encounters with spirit guides and superhuman beings”; “experiences of specific blissful and wrathful deities”; “extraterrestrial experiences”; and “experiences of planetary consciousness.” Many of these phenomena sound like they originate in the deep recesses of the “collective unconscious,” as Jung conceptualized these shared experiences of humankind. However, while some of these phenomena and categories might be thought of primarily in terms of enhanced access to the “inner” workings of the human mind, others suggest unrecognized dimensions and entities to be more fully explored and mapped.

One category that does merit further comment is what Grof calls “planetary consciousness.” Once again, the question arises as to whether we are talking about an enhanced consciousness of the planet as a whole or encountering a consciousness that belongs to the planet itself, that is, Gaia as a consciously experiencing entity. the latter, of course, is a much more intriguing option. Whitehead’s organic vision of the universe as complex societies of societies of societies, reimagined by Charles Hartshorne (1967) as compound individuals, offers the possibility that what William James called the “compounding of consciousness” might not stop at the level of human experience or leap immediately to God as the consciousness of the universe (James, 1977, p.  181). 

This cosmological vision is explored perhaps most compellingly by Olaf Stapleton in his far-reaching work of speculative fiction, Star Maker (Stapleton, 1987). Stapleton, a psychologist and philosopher with a strong Whiteheadian bent, portrays an Ultimate Actuality, the Star Maker, in terms that closely parallel Whitehead’s description of a “dipolar” God—one having a primordial nature envisioning and valuing all pure potentiality and a consequent nature that consciously feels the entire universe in its unfolding and that is in constant interaction with all other entities. Whitehead and Stapleton’s characterizations of an Ultimate Being have some striking similarities to three of Grof’s transpersonal categories that appear to reach most fully into the mysterious depths of Reality.

The first is the “Experience of the Demiurge and of Cosmic Creation,” where, the subject has the feeling of encountering the Creator of the universe….It is possible to sense the forces that underlie and initiate the process of creation. Various subjects identified them as overabundance of generative energy, irresistible artistic impulse, boundless curiosity, passion for experimentation, thirst for knowledge or self-knowledge, pursuit of experience, immense love that wants to be expressed (Grof, 1988, p. 142) Grof’s second “ultimate” category describes the “Experience of Cosmic Consciousness.” In this experience, our phenomenal world and everything that we experience in the ordinary states of consciousness fades away in the light of this supreme awareness as limited, illusory, and idiosyncratic aspects of this one...

The following personal account describing an encounter with cosmic consciousness sums up the experience of what the subject calls diamond consciousness: “Here seemed to be all the creative energy and intelligence of the universe as pure consciousness existing beyond time and space. It was entirely abstract, yet containing all the forms and secrets of creation.".

​The final category is: “The Supracosmic and Metacosmic Void.” This “enigmatic and paradoxical” experience is of “the primordial Emptiness, Nothingness, and Silence, which seem to be the ultimate cradle of all existence.” This is the paradox: “While nothing concrete exists in this state, nothing that is part of existence seems to be missing there either. This emptiness is thus, in a sense, pregnant with all of existence, since it contains everything in a potential form” (Grof, 1988, p. 147). There are striking parallels between these descriptions of powerful transpersonal encounters and Whitehead’s explication of God’s dipolar nature...

Hopefully, the similarities between Grof’s cataloguing of transpersonal experiences of the ultimate regions of reality and Whitehead’s description of an Ultimate Actuality speak for themselves. It appears that these powerful transpersonal experiences could be taken to be encounters with different aspects of the Whiteheadian God’s dual nature, along with heightened intuitions of Whitehead’s ultimate metaphysical principle, Creativity—both as embodied in the primordial nature and as manifested in each moment of actuality. What has been presented here represents only an early step towards fleshing out a process-transpersonal cosmology. There are many other important cosmological systems to be brought into this discussion, for example, Buddhist psychologies and mythologies, transpersonal phenomena from Sufi mysticism, and transpersonal realms related to shamanic journeying.

...Whitehead writes that: “Philosophy is the self-correction by consciousness of its own initial excess of subjectivity”. One might suggest that psychedelics work toward a similar end. By helping to free conscious awareness of its habitual, narrow subjective patterning of reality, psychedelics offer the possibility of radically new modes of understanding and ways of being in the world.

​- John Buchanon

​Concluding Remarks:
Process Philosophy in Process
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Whitehead’s subtitle for Process and Reality was “an essay in cosmology.”  It would be a serious mistake to think that Whitehead’s cosmology was or is complete.  The cosmology he developed, partly systematic and partly exploratory, was a beginning not an end.  And, in truth, it was not even a beginning, or at least an absolute beginning, since Process and Reality built upon intuitions also found in many previous sages and thinkers.

Whitehead’s cosmology is best understood as a fresh movement in an ongoing and unfinished symphony, prefigured and sometimes surpassed by insights from the Buddha, Heraclitus, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Lao Tzu, Spinoza, Hegel, and Indigenous traditions the world over.  What they have in common are some core intuitions, such as the idea that the universe itself is an activity not a thing, and that something like becoming, or process, is at its core.  Or the idea that all things depend on one another, such that the idea of an isolated 'substance' is an illusion.  Or the idea that, amid all the becoming, there is something like 'value' or 'importance,' which means that the things of this world, including the material things, truly matter: matter matters.  These are but three of many intuitions at the heart of process thinking.  A friend playfully suggests that Whitehead's philosophy has 127 core intuitions about what the cosmos is like and who we are within it.  I've asked him for the list but haven't received it yet.  In my own work I list 20 of them, awaiting the list's arrival.  See Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thinking.

This larger and unfinished "process" symphony, building upon such intuitions, has no pre-written score; and in this sense it is more like an improvisational jazz concert, with people making it up as they go, albeit in response to other improvisers, and with the philosophy of Whitehead as an inspiration. 

The future? Who knows where the symphony will lead, but here's hoping that it leads toward a better world, where people live lightly on the earth and gently with one another, for the common good of all, with no one left behind.  Such are the four hopes of the process movement: whole persons, whole communities, a whole planet, and holistic thinking, of which this book is an example. 

Holistic thinking takes seriously the wider, galactic context of human life and the transpersonal depths of human life.  It can lead, for example, to a consideration of forms of life on other planets (extraterrestrials),wondering if they, too, might have something like intelligence and religious awareness.  And to a consideration of the multiple states of consciousness and forms of awareness of which humans are capable (psychedelics), one of which might be a kind of cosmic consciousness in which the mind is attuned to, and perhaps dissoved into, what Whitehead calls the consequent nature of God.  These considerations may well contribute to us humans becoming whole persons and living with reverencefor life on our planet.  Certainly they are also instances of holistic thinking.  Whitehead's philosophy offers a context for undertaking these considerations in a serious, thoughtful, and imaginative way. 

Two essays in the volume, one by Andrew M. Davis and the other by John Buchanon, do exactly this.  Davis' essay at the end of the book is called Whiteheadian Cosmotheology: Platonic Entities, Divine Realities and Shared Extraterrestrial Values."  Buchanon's, dealing with psychedlics, is called "A Thicker Process Cosmology."  I offer extended excerpts above, hoping they might encourage you to take a look at the book as a whole, itself a powerful instance of fresh directions in Whiteheadian thinking.


- Jay McDaniel, January 2, 2022 

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​​Publisher link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81396-3

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Process-Cosmology_-New-Integrations-in-Science-and-Philosophy-_Palgrave-Perspectives-on-Process-Philosophy_/dp/3030813959/ref=sr_1_1?crid=4XLM2QM6C5NR&keywords=Process+cosmology&qid=1640027909&sprefix=process+cosmology%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1