Miriam MacGillis Discusses Thomas Berry’s View of the Universe, Transcribed by Janet Rudolph

Introduction: Miriam MacGillis is a modern-day prophet who not only holds a broad understanding of cosmology but brilliantly expresses it. She was an early colleague of Thomas Berry, introducing many people to the Story of the Universe. I have had the great honor of transcribing the tapes of her lecture series called Education for a Small Planet from 1986. Below is an excerpt from Tape 1B. It is edited for clarity. Excerpts from tape 1A can be read here and here.

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Thomas Berry speaks about three principles which have been at the heart of the unfolding of the universe from the beginning. They are very simple and can’t be separated. I’m just separating them now [to discuss them]. In reality they’re three in one. They are extremely simple. Very often, the simplest things are the hardest things to grasp. But once we really begin to reflect on them and their implications, it’s so logical, so clear, so simple.

The first is the principle of differentiation. When we talk about the universe and its guidance system, this principle becomes even more highly articulated when we get to the Earth. It’s a very simple dynamic. Literally, all it means is that from the very beginning everything that is, is differentiated. You couldn’t have a universe unless there was differentiation of its elements. Because hydrogen and helium and carbon or whatever, grow into more complex structures . .  it’s because they are different that they interact with each other and in that interaction cause each other to change. They cause each other to break down from being what they are in their simple state. In the dying of what they were in their simple state, they change and become transformed into something more complex.

Then that complexity interacts with other differentiation, and they break down and become capable of greater complexity and a greater complexity and a greater complexity. That’s how the universe unfolds.  

What is key is that we are speaking about this complexity, not just in its external dimension, but in the unfolding of inner potential. Thus to become capable of more and more spiritual power, or spiritual unfolding. The degree of this complexity is the degree of potentiality within the spirit dimension.

We have movement toward a greater and greater complexity but the whole time this is happening, it’s a single event. This is hard language; it borders on the mystical. You’ve got this community with itself, a community of beings; hydrogen isn’t helium and helium isn’t hydrogen but they form a community. Within, in this inner dimension. They’re all in communion with themselves. The universe is in communion with itself, inwardly and outwardly. This is what’s expanding.

Finally, when the Earth comes into being and we have all those amino acids forming, it’s that complexity, it’s that greater and greater differentiation of all those amino acids which make it possible for protein. Theirs is tremendous differentiation of the organisms that come into life just within the oceans. That’s what enables the biosphere to evolve. And it’s all that greater genetic coding into greater and greater differentiation that enables more and more complex life organisms to unfold.

As organisms become more and more sensitive to light and sound, organisms and organs, unfold. The Earth, in its unfolding of life, learns to separate not just to reproduce single cell organisms like itself, but to separate sexually, way, way back at the dawning of life. Then different sets of chromosomes evolve and combine and create an even greater complexity

Differentiation keeps moving into greater magnitudes of expression so that the community of beings becomes more and more complex. As the community of beings becomes more complex so does the capacity for communion with itself, expression of itself. At every stage, all of that differentiation is what makes it possible for the next stage to unfold and expand.

Finally, when the human comes forth, the Earth has already produced a nervous central system, it’s already learned how to see. Just think of all the millions of species that have already evolved eyes. Flies see differently than crocodiles, and crocodiles see differently than whales, and whales see differently than eagles. It’s the Earth seeing as an eagle sees and the Earth knowing itself through the vision of a whale. It’s the Earth seeing reality through the vision of a fly. It’s the Earth seeing. It’s the Earth learning to breathe.

When that differentiation comes into the human, it explodes into another level of magnitude because now the Earth not only sees, it’s self-aware. It thinks about what it sees. We’ve got this one group of people thinking about what it sees there, and this other group of people thinking about what it’s seeing there. They are all seeing something differentiated.

There is going to be black and white, or red, yellow or brown. This is as much the truth as zebras, giraffes, horses and lions. It’s not a problem, it’s truth. It’s going to be male and female.

All humans are coded through consciousness to reflect on their experience on reality and to abstract meanings from it. And to have those meanings coalesce around “Why human?” “Why we?” “Why I am?” Those meanings are going to be differentiated. Aztec isn’t going to be Mayan, Mayan isn’t going to be Jew, Jew isn’t going to be Shinto, Shinto isn’t going to be Buddhist, Buddhist isn’t going to be Hindu, Hindu isn’t going to be Christian, Christian isn’t going to be Dakota Sioux. That’s truth.

Humans take their meanings, systems and symbols, their language, history, surroundings, food, traditions, stories as they create culture. Irish culture is not going to be Spanish culture. Spanish culture isn’t going to be [Inuit] Eskimo culture. [Inuit] Eskimo culture isn’t going to be Indian culture. Indian culture isn’t going to be African culture. That’s truth.

The differences are as much a result of the process as they are in the rest of the universe. What we’re beginning to understand is that the process unfolds to the human who is marked by awareness and freedom and qualities of consciousness. The human is finally the one who is able to be aware of the differences, to comprehend them and be capable of delighting in them. That’s the real role of the human; to enjoy and celebrate them. That’s the deepest function of the human; To sing and dance the differences.

We are, finally, the universe capable of understanding why are there differences. Physicists are saying that if we don’t grasp that, then our preoccupation with suppressing the differences and bringing them into conformity [because we have this love/hate relationship with them] is going to undermine the very basis of our survival. There can’t be a universe without differences and, if at every stage of the unfolding, it was all of those differences which enabled the next stage to unfold. It’s all the differences within our histories, our wisdoms, our integrities and our stories which are the sum total of the conditions out of which we are going to move forward into the future.

The differences aren’t the problems, the differences are the solutions. That’s where we’ll get the wisdom. If we’re going to give our children the skills and tools to survive, it isn’t the skills and tools to dominate or have power over the differences. The real skills and tools of survival are to learn to understand and literally fall in love with the differences. And then integrate them so that we can go forward. If our institutions are not doing that, we are giving children skills and tools of a world that is passed. A world that has passed is no longer functional. It’s because in our youth [as humanity], in our newness, in our primitiveness, as we’ve reflected on ourselves and have unfolded this extraordinary miracle of consciousness of intelligence, that we’ve been able to reflect on ourselves and say I AM, I AM, I AM the truth, I AM who I AM, I AM true.

To be continued at a later date looking at the 2^nd and 3^rd principles: Interiority and Communion.