FORM AND CONSCOUSNESS
The above outline uncovers a hidden problem: “Evolution” in a scientific framework is called “involution” from the Torah perspective. The development of greater complexity on the physical plane (biological evolution) represents at the same time, increasing multiplicity (or metaphysical involution). Conversely, the process which this paper calls evolution has no counterpart in scientific theory, which limits itself to a narrow range of physically detectable phenomena.
This discrepancy in definition is resolved by postulating that two “points of view” are represented here: the perspective of form and the perspective of consciousness. (Form here means substance and the arrangement of substance. Consciousness here means simply the way an organism relates and interacts with its environment.) According to this premise, the following relationships emerge: form involves; consciousness evolves. The “objective” sequence of events constituting the Creation of the universe (both initially and continually) is expressed through the medium of form as increasing diversity and apparent separation from G‑d. The same sequence of events is simultaneously expressed through the medium of consciousness, as movement toward G‑d, toward a perfect and complete imitation of Him. Each increasing level in the hierarchy of Creation, “by incorporating in a more perfected form those things that had appeared earlier”,[5] encompasses in breadth and depth an ever widening range of the possibilities that exist in G‑d’s absolute consciousness. It is similar to what happens when you change the lens of a camera from 16 mm to a wide angle. A larger area of the scene thereby comes into focus. Thus each ascending level of life brings a wider range of the infinite Consciousness into focus and perspective through the “lens” of its particular form.
Thus biological evolution is the evolution of form. Metaphysical evolution is the evolution of consciousness. These two processes are interpenetrating and interdependent. Just as an elastic when stretched grows both longer and thinner, so does the created universe always manifest a corresponding change in form for any change in consciousness and, conversely, a corresponding change in consciousness for any change in form. There is a direct and inevitable correspondence between the two; each necessitates and induces the other.
