Brian Swimme received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, specializing in gravitational dynamics, mathematical cosmology and singularity theory. In addition to specializing in mathematical cosmology, Brian is an extremely gifted author and lecturer, committed to a meaningful interpretation of the human within an evolutionary universe. He is the author of The Universe Is a Green Dragon, The Universe Story (the culmination of a ten-year collaboration with cultural historian Thomas Berry), and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. Brian has produced a twelve-part video series, Canticle to the Cosmos, and consulted for and participated in a three-part BBC television series, Soul of the Universe.

For more detail on Brian's great work, visit the Center for the Story of the Universe page on his Website.

For Brian's amazingly wonderful two year course of study at CIIS that gets you excited just reading the class descriptions:
Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness
Class Descriptions


"As I try to picture steps that could be taken to right the ills of our human predicament, I think about Brian Swimme. A charismatic person, beloved by all, he makes a bridge between the age of scientific technology and the infancy of the Earth community as we are struggling for reconnection to our sacred source. He sweeps you into the grand picture of human beings as the current culmination of the still evolving universe, where, when you see with his eyes, you report differently – about the world as one. When Brian tells the story of the evolution of the universe, you feel yourself inside it, reborn in sacred space. He pulls you into a universe of meaning, where there is not only connectivity, but directionality as well, planting you in the cosmos such that you are soaring there. The universe intends for us to get it. We are headed for the goods.

"I think Brian's two slim volumes, The Universe is a Green Dragon (A Cosmic Creation Story) and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, are the most important books for our time. I like The Universe is a Green Dragon so much that I've distributed more than 300 copies, and feel equally enthusiastic about the newer book. Brian was a guest my living room in 1987, at a warm and wonderful evening where everyone who came had read Green Dragon, and we will put up video from that night on our site soon!"

- Suzanne Taylor -

This is essential Brian Swimme...from The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos:

"You've seen pictures of yourself as an infant; when you look at them, you're looking at yourself. The baby then becomes aware of its own beauty. Aren't you the further development of that baby? Well, of course, and yet the baby seems somehow other than you."

"So, too, with the star. We know we are the further development of the star, and yet we know that we are somehow different from the star. The star emerges into self-reflexive awareness of its beauty and creative work through the human mind."

"The universe is a single multiform event. There is no such thing as a disconnected thing. Each thing emerged from the primeval fireball, and nothing can remove the primordial link this establishes with every other thing in the universe, no matter how distant. You and everything you do and become are further articulations of the primal fireball..."

"We were there in the distant, terrifying furnace of the primeval fireball. Not as mere witnesses, either, but as central to the event. Our bodies remember that event, exulting in the majesty of the night sky precisely because all suffered it together. The planet is a rare and holy relic of every event of twenty billion years of cosmic development."

"When we deepen our awareness of the simple truth that we are here through the creativity of the stars, we begin to feel fresh gratitude. When we reflect on the labor required for our life, reverence naturally wells up within us. Then, in the deepest regions of our hearts, we begin to embrace our own creativity. What we bestow on the world allows others to live in joy. Such a stupendous mystery...!"

"Think of it. This supreme dynamic of love, of allurement and evocation, in action since the beginning of the universe, after billions of years becomes aware of itself. Life-enhancing and being evoking allurement knows itself, the magic of creating life and being now reflects upon its own mystery! What creatures, what living beings, what persons will follow us, entering life and the great mystery of love precisely because of our work!"




From Canticle to the Cosmos, a revelatory audio-video series about "the divine order of the cosmos," which deals with "how we can each regain our reverence for the earth and all life."

"If you look at the disasters happening on our planet, it's because the cosmos is not understood as sacred...a way out of our difficulty is a journey into the universe as sacred."

Brian says this about this Canticle to the Cosmos series: "The creation of a new planetary mythology is an organic process requiring the intelligent participation of millions of minds. My hope in producing this series is to provide a gateway for people interested in bodying forth a new form of consciousness."