The Logos Continuum: The Pattern That Connects

Talking about the sense of connectedness to the cosmos, Gregory Bateson mentioned the "pattern which connects the orchid to the primrose and the dolphin to the whale and all four to me."

This above statement is really about *belonging.* It's about being home not only in our universe, with one another, but deep down about being at home especially with ourselves. It's about a sense of Deep Ecology, too-- about webs of relationship infinitum!

This gets down to spirituality as well. The root of religion is a "binding to," a connectedness. As for our study of god concepts, theology's root means "en theos." Always there seems a connectedness.

Our peak experiences, too, exemplify a special connectedness. We suddenly see our world with different eyes, we see and feel the flow of everything in a kind of Oneness.

Our peak experiences come and go, yet they give us a glimmer of a Reality that we instantly know for a moment in time. It's the glimmer of the Pattern that Connects. And "peakers" are blessed, because momentarily they were totally in the flow of this Pattern.

But is it enough just to maybe have a peak experience that enhances our comprehension of this Pattern? For some, quite so. For others, no! Human beings are questors at heart, and the quest for the Pattern that Connects has drawn together some strange camps: science and theology.

Long antagonistic towards one another, certain groups in science and theology have begun to band together to ask their great questions of "how" and "why." Consequently these camps are now beginning to influence one another in their mutual quest for the Pattern that Connects.

Science asks the "how" of this world--but it is discovering a universe that is no longer machine-like, but rather one that seems more like an intelligent living Entity. It is discovering a universe that is a virtual web of relationships. Science is verging towards the Pattern that Connects.

Theology asks the "why" of this world. Theology is about the understanding of our faith, or about our search towards understanding of who and why we are. Like its sister, speculative philosophy, theology is involved in cosmological and ontological systems. Essentially, theology describes its revelations, its intuitive faith systems, by analogy.

But beyond this some contemporary theologians are now incorporating scientific discoveries into their ontological and cosmological quest, in their effort to make more concrete sense out of what we intuitively perceive by faith.

On the other hand, some scientists--moving beyond just their systematic empirical observations--are wondering aloud as to the completeness of such without including, somehow, the experiential--the human experience of a Great Unity!

Ancient philosophers had a name for this Pattern that Connects: the Logos! A Logos that is the Power and Mind of the universe. The trail of the Logos seems to be almost everywhere. Could it be that the Logos is the template lurking behind all major human efforts?

The intuition I am gaining from my own observations is that the Logos, operative throughout conscious history, has reached a critical juncture in its relationship with us. *We* are evolving an unifying consciousness! We are becoming more and more conscious, not only in terms of a spiritual "within-ness," but also because of new historical and theological methodologies, technologies, and science theories. Oddly we are on the brink of unitary discipline at the advent of the Third Millennium.

And I believe it is this unitary discipline--or multidisciplinary approach--that is making us far more conscious of the Great Unity that powers the universe.

Beyond becoming more aware of this Great Unity, or the Logos, I contend we now are obligated to view such in new ways. In the past we have mainly viewed this Phenomenon through spiritual eyes--but we are now, I believe, obligated to observe simultaneously the Logos from other perspectives as well.

Is it so difficult to believe that the Logos wants us to grow and use our capacities as fully as we can--especially when it comes to being in relationship with the Logos? It's indeed possible that the Logos presented itself "spiritually" when we still were at the mythopoetic level of consciousness. But today, we operate at far different levels of consciousness-- and it is from these levels, as well as spiritual, that we must begin more seriously to try to discover ever so much more about the Logos.

We now are in a period when we are beginning to approach the Logos cosmically through science.

Science theorists have embarked upon the search for the Theory of Everything. Scientists are hot on the trail, coming to terms with the Great Unity--or from their more immediate perspective, working towards a "Grand Unification Theory" that will link Quantum Physics and the Theory of Relativity.

Regardless what you call this scientific search, all the questing, all the discoveries, are about how this universe works. And I contest that such discoveries tell us ever more about the Logos, the engine that powers this universe--and WHO may be the universe! If we are to come into relationship with the Logos, we need to know such better and better. Or if, indeed, we are aspects of the Logos--then it is our task to become ever more conscious of who we are, and what we might become!

Until we come to grips with this, at the highest levels of our ability, we will not really know. Until now, our "knowing" of the Logos has relied upon our experiential knowledge about this Great Unity--for which we have many labels: the Logos, the Alpha and Omega, the Spirit Absolute, the Ground of Being, the Tao, the Cosmic Christ.

We "know" the Logos exists, because it works within and through us. And that's why it is so *important* to begin to integrate our experiential knowledge with our empirical knowledge, because the Logos is not one over the other. The Logos, to be the Great Unity, is present both subjectively and objectively-- and certainly begs for synthesis.

And as "consciousness-points" in this universe, it is likely our role is to bring forth this synthesis of understanding the Logos. If we proceed in a multidisciplinary approach towards this Discovery, such an effort could be the "Grace" that gives us truly universal meaning and mission!