George, - The great Russell - no mystic, he - once hypothesised that the Universe had a sort of "proto-consciousness" as a way of trying to explain why inaminate matter seems to have an innate property whereby, in certain combinations, it becomes self-aware. - I agree that we (i.e. homo sapiens and any other creatures sharing what we have) are the conscious expression of the Universe and that this insight does not necesarily lead us to a theistic conclusion. But it begs a question to which theism is a permissable intellectual response. I have tried to articulate why in the "James leFanu" thread.