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Why Are We Here?

Why are we here? is perhaps the most challenging question ever asked. It needs to be posed today in light of the evidence coming to light at the frontiers of science.

Hamlet said that to be or not to be is the question, but he did not say what the meaning of our existence is if we choose “to be.” Is there a purpose for our being in the world? Purpose is a controversial concept; conservative scientists question that it is meaningful even to ask about it. The things that furnish the universe, they say, are the product of random processes that occur without rhyme or reason, and not for any purpose. We are the products of such processes, and there is no higher or deeper purpose for our being in the world.

Spiritual and religious people do not agree; they believe that there is a purpose for our existence in the world: it is to obey the will of God—or the principles and decrees of Yahweh, Mohammed, Tao, Brahman, or the Great Spirit.

In the context of the paradigm emerging in science, it is meaningful to ask about the purpose of being in the world. The world, we have seen, is an interconnected, intrinsically whole system in-formed by something we can recognize as an intelligence—the intelligence that, in the final count, is the cosmos itself. We are not just flesh-and-bone chunks of matter in an indifferent universe, but beings with mind and consciousness in a vibrating quantum domain. There could be purpose for the existence of such beings; it is unlikely that they would be here merely by chance.

The conservative mainstream of the scientific community is reluctant to accept that there would be an intelligence underlying things and processes in the universe, and hence that there would be anything like purpose for the existence of things, including human beings. Cosmologist Steven Weinberg said, “I believe there is no point that can be discovered by the methods of science. I believe what we have found so far—an impersonal universe which is not particularly directed towards human beings—is what we are going to find. And that when we find the ultimate laws of nature they will have a chilling, cold, impersonal quality about them.”^*6

Mainstream scientists hold on to the belief that the universe is the outcome of a long chain of basically random interactions. The things that result from them have not been purposively created; they just happen to come about. Physicist Nassim Haramein explained,

The fundamental axioms and basic assumptions at the root of physical theories . . . presume that evolutionary systems emerge from random interactions initiated by a single “miraculous” event providing all of the appropriate conditions to produce our current observable universe, and our state of existence in it. This event, typically described as a “Big Bang,” astonishingly is thought to have produced all of the forces and constants of physical law and eventually biological interactions under random functions.^†7

Thomas Kuhn, the originator of the concept of scientific paradigms, recognized that there is a consistently unfolding order in nature, but did not allow that this would be evolution toward a given goal and thus that it would have a deeper purpose. He wrote,

The developmental process has been an evolution from primitive beginnings—a process whose successive stages are characterized by an increasingly detailed and refined understanding of nature. But nothing makes it a process of evolution toward anything. . . . The entire process may have occurred, as we now suppose biological evolution did, without benefit of a set goal, a permanent fixed scientific truth, of which each stage in the development of scientific knowledge is an improved exemplar.”^*8

Evolution, according to Kuhn, is an intelligible but not a purposive process, it is not evolution toward anything. However, an unbiased assessment of the way evolution unfolds leads to a different conclusion. The long-term processes of evolution are not random and they are not reversible: they manifest a distinct directionality. They drive or tend toward particular states and conditions. These states and conditions are discoverable and, in general terms at least, they can be described. Whatever their exact nature and destination may be, they suggest the presence of purpose in nature.

Indications of Purpose in the Direction of Evolution

There can be purpose for a nonrandom process unfolding in a particular direction. We can discover the nature of that purpose by noting the direction in which the process unfolds. This means discovering the direction exhibited by the evolution of the things that exist in the universe. This is what we undertake here. We first examine the direction in which natural systems (as opposed to artificial, man-made systems) evolve in the universe, and then examine the direction underlying the evolution of the nonmaterial yet fundamental phenomena we recognize as mind and consciousness.

Direction in the Evolution of Natural Systems

As we have seen, the entities that populate space and time are clusters of vibration of various dimensions of size and complexity. They are integrated clusters: “systems” coming about in the course of evolutionary processes. Particles and atoms, molecules and cells, as well as planets and solar systems are integrated clusters: complex coherent systems, the products of natural processes structuring the vibrations that emerged in the wake of the Big Bang. Why and how they have come about has puzzled philosophers as well as scientists.

Abrahamic, Hermetic, Vedic, and Daoist thinkers ascribed the emergence of the things that furnish the universe to supernatural agency, while scientists searched for natural causes. Philosopher Henri Bergson postulated an elan vital that counters the trend toward the degradation of energy in living systems, and biologist Hans Driesch called for a counterentropic drive he termed entelechy. Teilhard de Chardin and Erich Jantsch invoked the notion of syntony, and other investigators spoke of syntropy as the force behind the evolution of complex and coherent systems. Whatever name we give to the factor that structures the vibrations that emerged in the universe, it is clear that it is an orienting factor: a cosmic goal, or Telos, in the basic Greek sense of the word.

The Findings

Not only do complex and coherent systems evolve in the universe, the universe itself is a complex and coherent system. Already in the middle of the twentieth century, Sir Arthur Eddington and Paul Dirac noted curious “coincidences” concerning the parameters of the universe. The ratio of the electric force to the gravitational force is known: it is approximately 10⁴⁰. This is an enormous number, but it is nearly the same as that which defines the ratio between the size of the whole universe and the size of the minute quantum particles that appear in it. This is surprising, since the ratio of the electric force to the gravitational force should be unchanging (given that these forces are constant), whereas the ratio of the size of the universe to the size of elementary particles should be changing (since the universe is expanding). In his “large number hypothesis,” Dirac speculated that the agreement between these ratios, one variable the other not, is more than random coincidence. But if so, either the universe is not expanding or the force of gravitation varies proportionately to its expansion.

Later cosmologist Menas Kafatos showed that many of the ratios among the parameters of the universe can be interpreted on the one hand in terms of the relationship between the masses of elementary particles and the total number of nucleons, and on the other in reference to the relationship between the gravitational constant, the charge of the electron, Planck’s constant, and the speed of light.

Astonishingly, the mass of elementary particles, the number of particles, and the forces between them all display harmonic ratios. Even the microwave background radiation—the remnant of the Big Bang—is unexpectedly coherent: it is dominated by a large peak followed by smaller harmonic peaks. The series of peaks ends at the longest wavelength, which physicist Lee Smolin termed R. When R is divided by the speed of light (R/c) we get the length of time independent estimates have shown to be the age of the universe. When we divide in turn the speed of light by the constant R, we get a frequency that equates to one cycle over the age of the universe. And when R is squared and divided by the speed of light (R²/c) we get the measure of the acceleration in the expansion of the galaxies. These are astounding “coincidences.” They tell us that the universe is a coherent system as a whole. Its parameters are finely tuned to one another, and together they are coherent with its overall dimensions.

The coherence of the parameters of the universe is extremely precise: variations of the order of one-billionth of the value of some constants (such as the mass of elementary particles, the speed of light, the rate of expansion of galaxies, and some two dozen others) would not have produced stable atoms and stable interaction among the atoms. Already a minute variation of some of the physical constants would have precluded the evolution of the coherent systems we call living. The fact is that living systems are astonishingly coherent. The human body is made up of 10¹⁴ cells, and each cell produces ten thousand bioelectrochemical reactions every second. Every twenty-four hours 10¹² cells die and are replaced. In our body, molecules, cells, and organ systems resonate at the same or at compatible frequencies and interact at various speeds, ranging from the slow (among hormones and peripheral nerve fibers) to the very fast (along the Ranvier rings of myelin-shielded nerves). The interactions are precisely correlated, involving quantum-type “entanglements” in addition to classical physical-biological interactions.

The universe is highly coherent in itself, and it has brought forth highly coherent systems. Many systems possess a remarkable measure of intrinsic as well as extrinsic coherence. “Intrinsic coherence” means that the parts that make up the systems are finely tuned together, so that every element is responsive to every other element. “Extrinsic coherence” in turn means that the systems are coherently connected to other systems around them. Evolution in the universe exhibits a drive or tendency toward creating intrinsically as well as extrinsically coherent systems.

The evolution of complex and coherent systems calls for an explanation. Chance, even if involving a large number of systems over large time scales, cannot account for the facts: the search-space of the possible configuration of the elements that make up the systems is so vast that random trial and error would have greatly exceeded the available time frames.

There were 13.8 billion years available for the evolution of natural systems in the universe and more than four billion years for the evolution of living organisms on this planet. This span of time, although enormous, is insufficient to explain the presence of the highly coherent systems we now encounter. The probability that even the simplest biological organisms that populate the biosphere would have come about through a random shuffling of their elements is negligible. The DNA-mRNA-tRNA-rRNA transcription and translation system, basic to living systems, is so complex and precise that it is astronomically improbable that living organisms could have evolved through a chance assembly of their genes. As Jane Goodall noted, the probability that new species would emerge through a chance mutation of their genes is comparable to the probability that a hurricane blowing through a scrap-yard assembles an airplane.

In the mainstream of science, a series of fortunate coincidences is cited as the explanation of the evolution of life on this planet. Earth is in a fortunate location in the galaxy, neither too far nor too close to its sun, a main-sequence G2 dwarf star. It has the right atmosphere and the right amount of water for producing and sustaining life, it has the right mass, and it occupies a nearly circular orbit. It has an oxygen-nitrogen-rich atmosphere and a moderate rate of rotation. There is liquid water on its surface, and a correct ratio between water and landmass. Its surface temperature fluctuates within the narrow range required for life. It is also at the right distance from the center of the galaxy and is protected from asteroids by giant gas planets. In this position the sun’s heliosphere protects Earth’s surface from cosmic rays and pressures lethal for biological systems, and the planet’s own magnetosphere protects it from dangerously high energies emanating from the heliosphere.

Earth is indeed in a fortunate location: in a so-called “Goldilocks zone.”^*9 Such a location is not pure serendipity. Some two thousand “exoplanets” have been identified, planets orbiting stars other than our sun, and scientists working with the Kepler space telescope detected several thousand other stars that may have exoplanets. On the average, each star in the Milky Way galaxy has at least one planet, and one in five “sunlike” stars is likely to have an Earth-size planet in the Goldilocks zone. With two hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, there could be eleven billion Earth-size planets in the Goldilocks zone in this galaxy alone—and there are 10²² to 10²⁴ galaxies in the universe—this is highly probable because the evolution of coherent systems is not due solely to fortunate conditions.

Organic molecules, the basic elements of life, appear to have been synthesized under a surprisingly wide range of conditions. A team of astrophysicists headed by Sun Kwok and Yong Zhang at the University of Hong Kong found 130 macromolecules present even in the vicinity of active stars. They include glycine, an amino acid, and ethylene glycol, the compound associated with the formation of the sugar molecules necessary for life. Their presence suggests that they were ejected in the course of the stars’ thermal and chemical evolution.

Organic molecules were discovered in interstellar clouds as well. The incidence of the most complex of these molecules, isopropyl cyanide, has been reported in 2014 by a team of researchers headed by Arnaud Belloche at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. Its branching carbon structure is similar to that of the amino acids that form the basis of proteins on this planet.

Further evidence that the evolution of coherent systems is coded into the basic processes of the universe came with the discovery that primordial DNA self-creates spontaneously. The spontaneous self-assembly of DNA fragments a few nanometers in length into liquid crystals drives the formation of chemical bonds and creates chains of DNA. The self-organizing properties of DNA-like molecular fragments over billions of years may have produced the first DNA-like molecular chains on Earth, the same as on Goldilocks-zone planets elsewhere in the universe.

The Buildup of Coherent Complexity

The evolution of coherent systems, cosmologists believe, began in the wake of the singularity known as the Big Bang. But we have reason to believe that the Big Bang was not the beginning of physical reality in the world; it was the beginning only of this particular part of physical reality: our universe. Other universes may have existed prior to the Big Bang. There are findings that suggest that there was a universe, and possibly many universes, prior to the Big Bang. For example, we see galaxies near the edge of the observable universe as they were 13 billion years ago (it took as long for light from that distance to reach us), but many of these galaxies appear to be fully evolved, with stars ranging in age from one to ten billion years. That, however, places their origins up to 23 billion years before our time. Moreover, there are supermassive black holes [SMHs] at the center of this and other galaxies, and some of them have an estimated solar mass of 10⁹, yet the known rates at which stars are captured in black holes would have taken far longer than fourteen billion years to produce structures of this dimension. It appears that the Big Bang marked the birth of our universe in the context of a “multiverse” that included other universes. If all universes were in-formed by the same cosmic intelligence as ours, they are likely to follow a basically similar evolutionary trajectory as our own universe.

Our universe, and all universes that exist in the multiverse, were born as the energies released by their “local” Big Bang polarized the segment of the cosmic Akashic field that became their point of origin. This brought this hitherto quiescent segment of the field (the so-called Minkowski vacuum) into vibration, creating Planckscale “ripples”: leptons (electrons, muons, tau particles, neutrinos), mesons (pions), as well as hadrons (baryons, including protons and neutrons). In the course of time they acquired structure. Some of these “ripples” clustered into more embracing clusters: atoms, molecules, and multi-molecular structures. On the astronomical scale, stars and stellar systems, galaxies, and galactic clusters came into being.

The laws of nature are instructions, precise algorithms, for the evolution of coherent systems in the spacetime domain of our universe. On the physical level the crucial instruction is the Pauli exclusion principle. The principle states that no two electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom can be at the same quantum state at the same time. Electrons entering the gravitational zone of the nucleus are excluded from orbits that are already occupied and are distributed into other orbits, filling up the energy shells that surround the nucleus. Due to their exclusion, the particles captured by the gravitational field of the nucleus assemble into coherent and complex structures. As a result, the physical world is not a heap or conglomeration of particles, but a domain of coherent systems. It is built of the atoms that populate the periodic table of the elements and of the structures that form as the atoms bond with other atoms in molecules and crystals. Molecules form multimolecular structures, and these are templates for still more complex chemical and biological systems.

Other laws of nature join the exclusion principle in making the universe into a domain of coherent systems. Coherent systems are inevitably complex. A higher form of organization in a complex system does not just repeat the structure on the lower levels, but adds novelty, while repeating key patterns that remain invariant. Multilevel systems in nature are fractal (self-similar) ensembles of cooperative parts, where all parts cooperate in maintaining the system in the physically improbable state far from thermal and chemical equilibrium. Such a system embodies long-range interactions that optimize connection among its elements, safeguarding and enhancing the coherence of the system as a whole. It is multilevel and thus complex.

Similarly to Einstein, Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos attributed the laws and regularities that create coherent systems in nature to a cosmic intelligence.^*10 They defined how such a cosmic consciousness “behaves”—how it creates coherent systems. They group the structure-and coherence-creating laws of nature under a few basic headings:

Complementarity. Positive and negative, yin and yang, as all opposites balance each other without abolishing or diminishing one another.

Creative interactivity. As diverse elements interact, not just more of the same results; new forms and functions come into existence.

Evolution. The old is the basis for creating the new, and when the new is created, it integrates the old without destroying or neutralizing it.

Veiled nonlocality. Locally separate things and events are nonlocally joined together at a deeper and less evident level.

Cosmic censorship. Everything is connected with everything else, yet local perspectives remain valid: the interconnections of the whole are kept from view.

Recursion. All parts and elements of the whole share patterns and forms that mirror and repeat each other at successively deeper levels.

Due to the action of these and related laws, complexity emerges and grows in the universe. Evolution builds physical entities into complex and coherent physicochemical structures, and these into still more complex and coherent biological systems.

Coherence in the systems cannot grow indefinitely. Beyond a critical level of size and diversity, the systems become unstable, de-cohering into their individually stable components. When the limits of stability have been reached, the systems either de-cohere into stable components or join and create systems at a higher level of complexity. As a result, there is a progression from level to level of structure and complexity in nature: from the atomic to the molecular, from the molecular to the multimolecular, from the multimolecular to the cellular and multicellular, and from there to the ecological and biospherical. The overall direction in the evolution of the natural systems is toward higher levels of coherence and complexity.

How complexity builds in biological systems has been described by biologist Bruce Lipton. He noted,

First, a new organism evolves (e.g. a bacterium, a protist, a multicellular animal or plant). Evolution then leads to the creation of the smartest individual version of that new organism.

Second, when physical limitations on increasing awareness are reached, the individual organisms collectively assemble into structure communities to further maximize their intelligence. This process is complete when the cellular community evolves into a “new” single organism, which starts the process over again.^*11

This view is a radical departure from the classical theory of biological evolution. According to the Darwinian concept, the evolution of species is toward fitness, where fitness means the optimum—that is, optimally stable and enduring—adaptation of species to the environment. But if fitness were the goal of evolution, the biosphere would be populated mainly by blue-green algae, amoebae, and other unicellular, colonial, and simple multicellular organisms. Many of these species achieved a nearly perfect adaptation to their environment, and nothing short of volcanic eruptions, sudden climatic change, and natural catastrophe could lead to their extinction.

Yet the biosphere is not primarily populated by superfit and superstable simple organisms. Species evolve not just toward, but also beyond, the range of optimum fitness. They explore the environment for all niches that could support them, even those that are decidedly unfriendly to life. So-called extremophiles tolerate extremely high or extremely low temperatures, pressures, radiations, and acidity, conditions that are lethal for other species. They invade and colonize such hostile niches as active volcanos, deserts, and the deep sea. The evidence speaks clearly: the evolution of life is not toward stability and fitness, but toward the integration of ever more, and ever more varied, elements into coherent and complex systems.

The evolution and persistence of systems in nature is rooted in cooperation rather than in competition. Competition results in advantaging some species and populations over others—the law of the jungle where everyone competes and only the winners survive. By contrast, evolution relies less on competition than on cooperation; it optimizes behavior that harmonizes goals and strategies. It does not conduce toward fitness through competition, but toward coherence through cooperation.

Direction in the Evolution of Consciousness

Natural systems are not the only kinds of things that arise and persist in the universe. Consciousness, we noted, is likewise present, and it is likewise a real and fundamental presence. We should ask whether and also how consciousness would evolve in the universe, and whether that evolution would be connected with the evolution of natural systems.

It has become clear that the answer to these questions is affirmative. Consciousness appears in biological systems already on the cellular level. Lipton pointed out that the cells that make up living systems include two classes of proteins: receptors, which are the sensory organs of the cell, and effectors, the proteins that control cellular function. The receptors “read” environmental signals, and the effectors transfer the signals into physical events; these are the cell’s response. A receptor-effector complex forms a “unit of perception”—a unit of consciousness.

Evolution optimizes the capacity of cells to “perceive” their environment and to translate it into physical responses. If the evolution of this basic form of consciousness runs into constraints, cells shift from maximizing their own perception to associating at a higher level of complexity. The Tree of Life, an image created by August Weismann in the late nineteenth century, is a tree of growing complexity as well as of evolving consciousness.

The Evolution of Consciousness in Association with the Body

Consciousness evolves in nature throughout the range of evolution. It extends from rudimentary forms of cellular awareness to the articulate forms of consciousness exhibited by human beings. The simplest kinds of awareness are forms of irritability, displayed in the tropisms of cells and unicellular organisms. These grow in complexity, range, and articulation throughout the Tree of Life.

The overall direction of this evolution is evident in the contrast between its most rudimentary and its most evolved form. On this planet the hallmark of the rudimentary forms of consciousness is the awareness displayed by cells as irritability in regard to some features of their milieu. The hallmark of the evolved forms of consciousness is the mind-set that emerges in ethical, insightful, and spiritual human beings.

The consciousness exhibited by spiritual leaders and great philosophers, scientists, and artists is strikingly similar. Its key features are empathy, compassion, selflessness, and unconditional love. Tom Freke, a philosopher who is an authority on spirituality and a deeply spiritual person himself, noted that the spiritual traditions describe “awakening” (or “enlightenment”) as an experience of all-consuming oneness and all-embracing love. His own experience testifies that this is true. In the deep awake state, he wrote, “I find myself feeling profoundly connected with all that is, and overflowing with unconditional compassion which I call deep love.”^*12

Further hallmarks of an evolved consciousness have come to light. An in-depth inquiry coheaded by biologist Humberto Maturana on behalf of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University in the year 2009 has shown that people with highly evolved consciousness possess a quality of mind that is stable, peaceful, and compassionate. Such people are dedicated to improving the life and mind of others without self-interest; they sense that their work has been assigned by a higher source and they are only an instrument; their beliefs and behaviors are consistent and integrated; they draw on a deep well of energy that gives them endless endurance and unlimited patience; they have an elevated vision of the people they serve, seeing their capacity for renewal, recovery, and progress; they have convictions so strong that they are not fazed by limitations whether in financial or intellectual support; and they have a quality of lightness, remaining available even when faced with immense tasks and responsibilities.^†13

In the Western world people with this kind of consciousness are regarded as spiritual leaders, and perhaps even as saints, as Saint Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. In the Eastern world individuals with an evolved consciousness are revered as boddhisatvas or ascended masters. They are highly respected in the indigenous world as well, seen as magicians, shamans, or medicine men (and women).

The hallmarks of evolved consciousness are present in the mind-set of leading scientists. Einstein remarked that our separateness from the world is a kind of optical illusion; Carl Jung wrote that consciousness is part of the unus mundus, the universe’s single generative and creative principle, and animal intelligence researcher Jane Goodall said that she has learned that nature and herself are one consciousness. Erwin Schrödinger was explicit in defining oneness in consciousness. He said, “To divide or multiply consciousness is something meaningless. In all-the-world there is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the spatio-temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction. . . . In truth, there is only one mind.”

The Evolution of Consciousness beyond the Body

Is consciousness limited to the body? If it is, it cannot survive the body. But if it is not, it can persist beyond the body, and could also evolve beyond the body.

Thinkers both East and West noted the evolution of consciousness and speculated on its nature. The nineteenth-century German philosopher Hegel viewed mind, spirit, and consciousness as a unity that evolves from primitive sense perception through religion, art, and philosophy toward absolute knowledge. Across the generations, he wrote, humans are vehicles for the self-realization of a divine spirit. Bergson viewed consciousness as the expression of an evolutionary force that strives to enlarge the potentials of the organism to choose between more alternatives, opening the way for consciousness to pass freely and to flourish. Humanity is the highest expression of this evolutionary movement, and the movement itself is the raison d’etre of life on this planet.

Teilhard de Chardin agreed with Bergson that consciousness strives toward ever greater freedom of expression, and also agreed that a divine spirit drives its evolution. Consciousness is pulled from the future rather than pushed by the past. Through the action of love, an evolved consciousness fuses the elements of the mind into a higher unity. Attaining this “spiritual evolution” is the meaning of existence.

A related concept appears in the “integral yoga” of Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo. Today’s human being is but a step in the continued evolution of consciousness toward the highest form Aurobindo called “the supramental.” The Swiss thinker Jean Gebser described an entire complex architecture of higher and higher forms of consciousness, inspired by what he called “the Origin”—a mystical force intrinsic to all forms of existence.

Western thinkers envisaged the evolution of consciousness mainly in association with the body. In the East, wider perspectives have been adopted. Consciousness associated with the body is but one phase in the existence of consciousness, and consciousness evolves in all phases of its existence.

The above assumption is not without foundation in human experience. As we have seen, there are robust reports of consciousness beyond the brain, and even after death. Some of the reports describe the continued evolution of consciousness beyond the life of the body. They speak of the ascent of discarnate consciousness through transcendental planes, a journey that, according to Buddhists, proceeds either toward rebirth on Earth or union with the cosmic intelligence in nirvana.

A particularly noteworthy report of the evolution of consciousness in the between-life or after-life phases was furnished by the famous trance medium Rosemary Brown. It recounts the after-death experience of Frederic Myers, who was a prominent researcher of psychic phenomena in his life.^*14

Myers claims, according to Rosemary Brown, that from Hades, the first way station of the journey of the discarnate consciousness Myers calls “soul” ascends to the Plane of Illusion. Resting for a while in the Lotus Flower paradise, it passes to the next station: the Mental Plane. An advanced soul overcomes the longing for physical existence and strives to ascend the ladder of evolution. With the exception of those who aspire to a great intellectual feat on Earth or want to play a major role in the strife of earthly life, the soul is released from Illusion land, from “that nursery in which they merely lived in the old fantasy of Earth,” and ascends beyond the Mental Plane to the Plane of Eidos. Eidos is a loftier world, but beyond is still the Plane of Flame.

Myers speaks of an ascent still further: beyond the Plane of Flame, to the Plane of Light, where reason reigns supreme. Thereafter the soul ascends to the seventh Plane, which can only be described as “Out Yonder—Timelessness.” The soul dwells there not only outside of time, but outside the universe.

Our body and all natural systems evolve incessantly if periodically; our consciousness evolves periodically in association with our body and incessantly in association with as well as beyond our body, and all this evolution is nonrandom and directional. Ours is an in-formed, purposively evolving universe, and with our body and consciousness, we are an intrinsic part of it.