The Origins of Man and the Universe

This book is the account of a spiritual enquiry into evolution, civilisation, our place in the universe and the structure of reality itself. It is a cosmology which relates to present science but takes us beyond the Big Bang. Charting the evolutionary work of consciousness on earth, it takes us back through man’s psyche to our original state in eternity or God’s mind.

Life, death and the whole of existence is seen as a great mythic design. The amazing complexity of life on earth is related to the reality behind everything.The evolution of consciousness is our human story and when we hear it told we can connect with our own reality more consciously. For there is a profound connection between man's discovery of the universe and self-discovery, between scientific knowledge and self-knowledge.

Barry Long (1926-2003) was a writer and spiritual teacher with an original and challenging way of communicating age-old truths.Born and raised in Australia he started out as a junior journalist and became the youngest-ever editor of a Sydney Sunday tabloid, somewhat prophetically called 'Truth'. At that time spiritual truth was far from his mind, but in his early 30s, the ambitious and successful family man began to question all his values. For some years his inner pain and suffering increased. Eventually, in 1965, he fled Australia and went to India. After many adventures, alone in the Himalayas he experienced what he called a 'mystic death', or the realization of immortality. This was the real beginning of his journey towards 'the unfathomable mystery of God or Life and that other divine mystery of true love between man and woman'.

He wrote of his insights and realizations and for thirty years gave talks and seminars in many countries. He inspired and guided many thousands of men and women without wanting to create a big organization or attract personal fame. He was concerned with the individual, not society. He taught that the way to truth and the reality of love is through direct experience, not belief or imagination; and that freedom comes from taking responsibility for one's own life. He was fulfilled by the prospect that one day someone might hear the truth from him and be able to live it. Evidently very many did. His legacy may be seen in their lives and in the work of some of those he inspired, including other teachers, notably Eckhart Tolle.