Lynda Harris

Current understandings of the Milky Way: Scientific and Spiritual

Abstract

My presentations at INSAP VI and VII looked at various ways in which tribal and ancient cultures visualised the Milky Way and its place in the afterworld. During these periods, people believed that the physical universe and the next world were a single, integrated cosmos. This cosmos was often pictured as layered, and the Milky Way could be seen as a route along which souls travelled towards or through the various levels of the skies. As is well known, the scientific revolution changed this ancient understanding of the cosmos. After the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Hubble and others, the physical universe could no longer reasonably be seen as a location for the after-death world. The Milky Way also lost its ancient role as the soul’s path to the spiritual heavens. By the 17th century the incompatibilities between the physical cosmos and the spiritual one had become established by science, though they were not always discussed or accepted by religious communities.

Nevertheless, there are ways in which the ancient images of the next world do not conflict with recent scientific discoveries. With the development of Spiritualism and Theosophy in the 19th century, a vision of an inner universe has been developed. This, like the ancient afterworld, is layered and grows brighter and more refined as the soul ascends to levels with higher frequencies. The route leading to it can be pictured as a tunnel, as frequently described in near-death experiences. This tunnel can be seen as a parallel to the Milky Way.

The talk will be illustrated with slides.

Biography

Lynda Harris has degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Boston University and The Courtauld Institute of Art. She taught extra-mural diploma classes for the University of London for seventeen years, and has also given single lectures at the Theosophical Society, Talisman Arts and other venues. Publications include The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch (Floris Books 1995 and 2002), and The Cathars and Arthur Guirdham (Psypioneer 2001, with addenda 2014). She has also contributed articles to the Theosophical periodicals Insight and The Quest.