Is the universe alive?

Question

Meaning, everything is "alive' or on a conscious level in some way.

Does the universe have consciousness?

Answer 1

When I first learned of atoms with their electrons orbiting their nuclei in seeming perpetual motion my first impression was "They're alive!". That was 55 years ago but the impression stuck with me. Then when I studied Quantum physics I was further impressed by the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment where two paired particles are emitted and travel apart so that if you measure the momentum of one (or the spin) it should not affect the other as it would if the copenhagen interpretation and uncertainty principle were valid. This was in 1935.

There was a lot of work by physicists between that date and when Aspect and Gissin in the 1980's found correlation between polarized paired photons that proved there was instant influence of one tested photon on the other free one seperated by as much as 11 kilometers. This faster than light "signal" between them is not yet explained but my and other's imaginations fancied it was due to universal consciousness (mental) acting on the free photon (material) when the other was disturbed by measurement.in order to preserve quantum reality.

This is a "no-no" in science; you don't bring "God" or any other "supernatural" entity into an experiment to explain what happened. Scientists just shrug off the happenings as "spooky" and wait for new data to explain things in a material way. But there are other things that make me think the universe may be conscious.One of them is the human mind.

When you think or will a finger to move that will is immaterial to me; it is a conscious thought. Yet it causes a neuron or neurons to fire starting a cascade of neurons from the brain to the finger muscles causing them to move. The mental to physical transition between that conscious thought and the material neuron's firing is "spooky". Couldn't the same thing happen in a universal "mind?" This is a phenomenum testable by almost anyone.

Answer 2

That the universe is infinite in it's size/capacity/energy/mass
means that it's entierly possible that what we know as galaxies
are equivilent to what we know of as atoms in a much larger
plane of existance. So although you may say that a carbon
atom is not "alive," because it does not grow or reproduce,
it may in fact contain an infentessimally smaller microcosm
of organisms which we are unnable to see. The Milky Way
may well be that carbon atom. And if what we call our universe
is indeed expanding, who is to say this is not "growth?" Ha ha,
who knows- tomorrow it may divide into two daughter universes!
I guess my short answer is this- we are so limited in our ability
to experience the universe from a perspective other than our
own that we cannot possibly know what it is that we are a part
of, and besides, "alive" or "not alive" are relative. Nevertheless,
my feeling, and this is just a feeling, is that our condition is not
a unique one, and so I'll venture a guess that the whole blasted
thing is "alive!"

Answer 3

Interesting question. By conventional thought the universe is not alive. However that does not mean there is not life in it. But if you subscribe that a higher lifeform is a symbiotic group of entities that make up a whole, as some spiritual ideas subscribe then the universe can be said to be the physical manifestation of the universal mind. So it depends on your school of thought. But scientifically speaking, it is just the universe.

Answer 4

some say its possible to tap into a "universal truth" or a "universal consciousness".
As for the universe being alive... well if you think of it in a really really big way, maybe the universe is like a cell, the way all the components of a cell are indeed alive makes the cell alive.

Answer 5

as for a consciousness no one could be sure of that but I would consider the earth as being alive so the universe would be on a larger scale
I beg to differ with Mi Cohen plants and animals also are living

Answer 6

Hmm, if you are a pantheist or pagan, then you believe yes the universe is not only alive but divine. Other religions vary on the subject saying certain things are alive, and certain things aren't. Yet others still say some things even have souls and/or spirits.

Answer 7

In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle explains that when you measure the location of a particle (say in your body) the other particles become less predictable in their locations. All this means is that bits of matter are constantly popping in or out of existence in our dimension!!!!!!!!!That means they go somewhere else...this means we are part of something we know nothing about that in theory shares bits of our reality.....could this mean there is a universal consciousness that connects everyone and everything? I think so....means life is everything, we just manifest a unique awareness from our pin point of consciousness. (where ever that may be??)

Answer 8

theres no science to it but i say that everything is alive, as you describe it, in some sort. planets, stars all die just like any other living creature and the universe is the home to everything. the universe, growing endlessly, is just the growth of an even greater being than all of us.

Answer 9

does movement result from conscious thought? like the vibration of an atom? it is alive, but not through external help. it is alive under rules of mathematics beyond our ability to define it. but to compare to man is limiting what definition we have of "alive".

I say yes, but at various levels of definition it could be argued "no".
I still say yes though. as above, so below.

Answer 10

So long I am alive, the universe is alive for me.