Conrow Coelho, Mary
Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood
The Power of Contemplation in an Evolving Universe

ISBN 1-55605-354-1 (pbk.)
Copyright 2002 by Mary Conrow Coelho
Published by Wyndham Hall Press, Lima, OH 45806
381 pages
to order: www.awakeninguniverse.com

Review by Carmel Higgins who studied at Sophia Center, Holy Names College, Oakland, CA, in the Sabbatical program, earning a Certificate in the Culture and Spirituality program. She is passionate about the New Story and its implications for meaning and purpose. She is a lover of books, of words, and is an avid reader of topics on cosmology, mysticism, science, and religion. Carmel sees writing on such as her mission. She lives in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

I have read the book "Awakening Universe/Emerging Personhood: The Power of Contemplation in an Evolving Universe", by Mary Conrow Coelho, and recommend it highly. It needed to be written and is crying to be read. Its a 'big book': big on insights, wisdom, and sweeping in its unified vision.

Written in five parts, the book begins with the  Epic of Evolution story now emerging in human consciousness and ends with a section on  The Active and Fruitful Life . It takes us both backward and forward in time and stresses the importance of living fruitfully in the  present now . Reading its contents makes the body hum and sing, and the soul shine and shake down to its most fundamental foundations.

The author of this book develops a  new way of seeing based on recent scientific discoveries such as quantum theory, on the mystical wisdom of the ages, and on Carl Jung s psychology (i.e. the power of the archetypal imagination to connect us with a flow of images and energy from within). The result is a work that integrates contemporary science, personal experience, and the contemplative life in a way that is absolutely stunning! Written from a scholarly but comprehensive perspective, the book will appeal to many. It seems to me that it will go a long way in healing the split between science and mysticism, body and soul, and the psychological fragmentation that is so prevalent in our times; a healing most essential for humanity, personal integrity, and for the future of the Earth.

Beginning with the Preface, the author, who has an MA in biology as well as a Ph.D. in historical theology, relates her own experience with the negative side of science and her consequential illumination. This happened for her while watching Brian Swimme s videos "Canticle to the Cosmos":  I glimpsed an integration of body and spirit from the 13-billion-year-history of the universe that I had hardly realized was missing in my life. The author goes on to say that it is not enough to simply know the story of evolution,  there remains the further step of realizing our own individual participation in the unfolding story, especially in its creative and sacred dimensions. We must realize that we, too, in all the dimensions of our person and being, are an integral part of the emerging whole.

Crucial to understanding personhood and an embodied spirituality is the section on the human body as a walking museum of natural history. Here the author shows how we carry within our bodies creations of the early universe and the early Earth:  Each person is a part of the Earth that got up and walked! Our bodies are  ancient beyond the passing of our finite lives, according to the author, and carry forward the whole of the evolutionary process. Further, as persons we carry forth in our psyche and in our spirit the basic dynamic principles and creative energies of the universe.

Most impressive, and the central core of this work, is the section titled  The Generative Cosmos . Here, drawing on new scientific theories as well as on ancient intuitions long treasured by humankind, the author invites us to new possibilities. Citing the work of physicist David Bohm on the quantum vacuum, and Brian Swimme s term  the all nourishing abyss to denote the  plenum emptiness at the heart of the cosmos that has given birth to all that is, the author relates how these scientific theories are congruent with personal experience. She coins the term  Abyss/God to denote the same creative and ongoing primordial energy operating within the human; a soul churning energy that gives birth to new images, new cultural forms, and a deeper consciousness of the true Self.

This section of the book on the relationship between the quantum vacuum and personal inner emptiness is not easy reading, but well worth the effort for the sense of mystery and mission that is evoked. Reading this section, I personally shed a few tears as my mind flooded with new insight and my heart swelled with a deep conviction of who we really are within the grand scheme of things. I was reminded of the work and revelations of the late mystic and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who wrote:  I am a pilgrim of the future on my way back from a journey made entirely in the past.

To read  Awakening Universe/Emerging Personhood is to embark on a cosmic journey that is intimately personal all the way up and all the way down. This book is destined to enlighten, and to leave readers clear-eyed, awake, feeling more round, and ultimately more conscious of the meaning of human personhood in relation to the whole.

Carmel Higgins, Moncton, N.B. Canada

to order: www.awakeninguniverse.com