The Emergence of I

How the Universe Woke Up

By: John Payne

Narrated by: Jonathan Waters

The universe wakes up through you.

We see history as an unceasing flow of causality and time; an endless series of past events leading up to the present. We feel ourselves as the detached observers of it, somehow standing on the outside watching the world go by. But the truth is we’re not on the outside. We’re at the very center of it all.

Interweaving history, mythology, psychology, and mystical experience, author John Payne charts the journey of I from its Paleolithic origins through the emergence of language and literacy, forward through the worldviews of the Greeks and Hebrews, and on to the present time.

The premise of this book is that the universe’s most sincere project is the creation of a self-reflection point called I. Climbing up out of the universe’s primordia using the rungs of matter, animal biology, and cultural enterprises such as myth, religion, literacy, and science, consciousness has constricted itself to a place two inches behind your forehead.

And it has been waiting for you to wake up.

©2023 John H. Payne IV (P)2023 John H. Payne IV

The Buck Stops at "I"

Thorough, engaging. unusual exploration of the birth of Individuality within the immensity of the universe and the travails of earthly history. The author is interested in his story, and that infects the reader/listener with his enthusiasm. Excellent narration. One of the "discoveries" that makes Audible more interesting for me!