The Anunciation, by Edward Burne-Jones [1876-9] (Public Domain Image)

Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Maurice Bucke [1901]

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Contents Start Reading Page Index

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This is an attempted scientific study of illuminated individuals. Bucke provides three dozen very consistent examples of 'cosmic consciousness.' Some of these are the usual suspects, and others are contemporary case-histories which Bucke collected. Bucke proposed that these enlightened figures are evolutionary jumps, the precedecessor of a more advanced species.

Production Notes: Cosmic Consciousness is laid out in a very advanced fashion which made the creation of an etext of it complicated. Bucke used three levels of type in this book so as to allow two level nested comments. In the book, relationships between the two levels of comments are often implicit based on their position on the page. In this etext the blocks of the two kinds of comment text have been linearized and cross-referenced using HTML links. The first level of comments are displayed in indented blue type, and the second level of comments are displayed in a more indented purple type. Blackletter type is rendered using Lucida Blackletter if present on your system.

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Title Page
Dedication from the first edition
Notice
A List of Some of the Works Quoted and Referred to in This Volume
Table of Contents

Part I.

First Words

Part II. Evolution and Devolution

Chapter 1. To Self Consciousness
Chapter 2. On the Plane of Self Consciousness
Chapter 3. Devolution
Part III. From Self to Cosmic Consciousness

Part IV. Instances of Cosmic Consciousness

Chapter 1. Gautama the Buddha
Chapter 2. Jesus the Christ
Chapter 3. Paul
Chapter 4. Plotinus
Chapter 5. Mohammed
Chapter 6. Dante
Chapter 7. Bartolomé Las Casas
Chapter 8. John Yepes (Called St. John of the Cross)
Chapter 9. Francis Bacon
Chapter 10. Jacob Behmen
Chapter 11. William Blake
Chapter 12. Honoré de Balzac
Chapter 13. Walt Whitman
Chapter 14. Edward Carpenter

Part V. Additional

Chapter 1. The Twilight
Chapter 2. Moses
Chapter 3. Gideon, Surnamed Jerubbaal
Chapter 4. Isaiah
Chapter 5. The Case of Lî R
Chapter 6. Socrates
Chapter 7. Roger Bacon
Chapter 8. Blaise Pascal
Chapter 9. Benedict Spinoza
Chapter 10. Colonel James Gardiner
Chapter 11. Swedenborg
Chapter 12. William Wordsworth
Chapter 13. Charles G. Finney
Chapter 14. Alexander Pushkin
Chapter 15. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chapter 16. Alfred Tennyson
Chapter 17. J. B. B.
Chapter 18. Henry David Thoreau
Chapter 19. J. B.
Chapter 20. C. P.
Chapter 21. The Case of H. B. in His Own Words
Chapter 22. R. P. S.
Chapter 23. E. T.
Chapter 24. Case of Ramakrishna Paramahansa
Chapter 25. Case of J. H. J.
Chapter 26. T. S. R.
Chapter 27. W. H. W.
Chapter 28. Richard Jefferies
Chapter 29. Case of C. M. C. in Her Own Words
Chapter 30. The Case of M. C. L. in His Own Words
Chapter 31. Case of J. W. W., Largely in His Own Words
Chapter 32. Case of J. William Lloyd, in His Own Words
Chapter 33. Horace Traubel
Chapter 34. The Case of Paul Tyner, in His Own Words
Chapter 35. The Case of C. Y. E., in Her Own Words
Chapter 36. Case of A. J. S.
Part VI. Last Words