First Thoughts on Names

Based on a conversation with Lynnaea, I started looking up names that include forum. This would allow us to describe the purpose of the space in the name.

EvolutionaryForum.com (This seems to be Jean Houston's.)
ConsciousnessForum.com
ConsciousEvolutionForum.com
AwakeningForum.com (Sounds a little like the "awakening councils" in Iraq!)
Etc.

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Ok, at this point I need to explore whether it's useful to blow our minds as part of the creative process...

I have a funny feeling about using evolution as the primary organizing principle. Here's why: There are wisdom traditions and logical reasons to believe that all phenomena happen/happened simultaneously. If that point of view is tenable, then evolution is ONE way of making meaning out of phenomenal existence with an emphasis on the horizontal axis of time.

Part of the New Story, I think, includes experiencing / awakening to / remembering the fullness of who we are, which would include any understandings of our existence being rooted outside of time / in eternity.

If "evolution" is predominantly defined in terms of temporal processes AND if one grants the assertion that the New Story includes awakening to the fullness of who we are, then the New Story is more general than the evolutionary story. Conceivably, "awakening" would then be an appropriate meta-organizing principle. (And if "awakening" were used, there could still be conversations aplenty about what we all do once we are awake. Jean Houston's post-hero's journey would be a wonderful conversation to have in this context. Does the hero's journey end in awakening? How does the awakened one live in community? In what ways do the individual hero's journey and the collective journey of humanity intertwine? Upon awakening, do they end up at the same "point"?)

Another approach would be to redefine "evolution" in terms of humanity's process of awakening / remembering. Naturally, this would include lessons learned in daily life, scientific understandings (always provisional of course), and what have been called mystical understandings. Wisdom traditions support this integrated perspective. But if one is to redefine "evolution," then one will need to get enough people on board with the new definition. Also, one will need to be clear that evolution involves two levels: (1) relative concepts and experiences based on time that are therefore temporary in nature and (2) absolute experiences that are rooted in eternity. (Such an explicit recognition would have numerous benefits. But that's another conversation!)

Now, regarding scientific understandings, which are, thus far, embedded in temporal understandings... Organizing purely around a scientific understanding of evolution as a time-based concept could be "building our house upon the sand." Some of my physical intuitions and theoretical work point to the speed of light not being constant, but rather a function of the changing size and shape of the universe. If that is the case, then the universe is very likely not 14 billion years old, but potentially vastly older. The universe might even be infinitely old, especially under one model in which it is perpetually turning inside-out. There's even a new, mathematically validated cosmology in which space is converting into time and vice-versa - a similar idea. Why, an infinitely old universe would be perfectly appropriate if the universe is, as Bohm suggests, a reflection of a more fundamental reality, and if that more fundamental reality is eternal.

At any rate, it needn't be surprising that scientists recently discovered the oldest galaxy to date, born quite soon after the Big Bang, based on light that we think left its origin 500 million years after the Big Bang. Nor will I be surprised if we discover a galaxy from minus 500 million years "after" the Big Bang, i.e. before the Big Bang was supposed to have occurred. Though this is certainly a lot of speculation, it seems there are reasons to think that our temporal understandings could be in for a shakeup. This shakeup could completely alter the universe story once again. Thus, we don't want to build our house upon the sand, but upon the rock - presumably in deep alignment with the source of the evolutionary impulse.

So... it might be better to base the name on metaphor or poetry rather than scientific-sounding terms or other concepts that are temporally embedded!

I hope this wasn't too tedious to read. If you've made it this far, THANK YOU! :)