Richard Maurice Bucke

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Richard Maurice Bucke

Richard Maurice Bucke (born March 18, 1837 in Methwold , England , † February 19, 1902 in London (Ontario) , Canada ), also Maurice Bucke, was an important Canadian progressive psychiatrist of the 19th century. At a young age he was considered an adventurer; he studied medicine, practiced as a psychiatrist in Ontario, and was friends with a number of scholars in Canada, the United States, and England. He has written and published specialist articles and three studies in book form: Man's Moral Nature , Walt Whitman and Cosmic Consciousness , for which he is best known, a classic of modern studies of mystical experiences.

biography

Bucke was born in 1837 in Methwold, England, to Rev. Horatio Walpole Bucke and his wife Clarissa Andrews. The family emigrated to Canada the following year and settled in London, Ontario. As a descendant of a large family, he experienced a typical youth as a farmer's child. At the age of 16 he left his parents' home and traveled south to the USA to experience new things and adventure. From Columbus (Ohio) he traveled to California and earned travel and maintenance by doing all kinds of odd jobs. As a member of a tour company, he had to fight for his life during a Shoshone raid as they crossed their territory.

In the winter of 1857/58 he almost froze to death in the mountains of California; he was the only survivor of a society that wanted to operate silver mining. He had to save himself from the mountains on foot, suffering severe frostbite (he lost a foot and several toes) and only slowly recovered from these exertions. In 1858 he returned to Canada across the Isthmus of Panama.

He then enrolled in the medical faculty at McGill University in Montreal and delivered his dissertation in 1862. Although he worked briefly as a ship's doctor to finance his crossing, he wanted to further specialize in psychiatry. He completed his internship in London, England, from 1862 to 1863 at University College Hospital. From there he visited France. For several years he was an avid supporter of Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy . He also enjoyed reading poetry.

In 1864 he returned to Canada and married Jessie Gurd in 1865. The couple had eight children.

In January 1876 Bucke became head of the lunatic asylum in Hamilton; In 1877 he became director of the County Lunatic Asylum in London, Ontario, and held that post almost to the end of his life. Bucke was a progressive in his day, believed in people-friendly togetherness and a normalization of the daily routine in the institution. He encouraged physical activity, organized activity, and what we would now call occupational therapy.

Bucke always had friends among writers and literature lovers, especially poetry. In 1869 he read the Leaves of Grass , a book of poetry by the American poet Walt Whitman , and was deeply impressed. Eight years later he met Whitman in Camden; the two developed a lasting friendship. Bucke later confirmed that Whitman raised him to a higher plane of existence and established him there. Just six years later he published a biography of the poet.

Alongside this, he wrote and published a number of specialist articles, developed a theory of the evolution of human intellectual and emotional capacities, and eventually wrote a book on this theory entitled Man's Moral Nature , which appeared in 1879. Three years later he was elected to the English Literature Section of the Royal Society of Canada .

Experience of cosmic consciousness

During his stay in London in 1872, Bucke had the peak experience of his life, a fleeting mystical experience that he viewed as a few moments of "cosmic consciousness". He described the peculiarities and effects of this "faculty" as follows: sudden appearance; subjective perception of light (inner light); moral elevation; intellectual enlightenment; Feeling of immortality; Loss of fear of death; Loss of sense of sin. The term “cosmic consciousness” is derived from another peculiarity: the lively feeling of the entire universe as life in the present instead of lifeless, motionless matter. This direct perception, which he made the greatest effort to explain, is reminiscent of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's theory of nature .

Although he was well read in both French and German, and of course English, and greatly influenced by the writings of Whitman, Bucke confessed that in his attempts to better understand the experience of enlightenment, he was very indebted to Caleb Pink ("CP"), whom he met shortly afterwards. CP was a self-taught worker and worker whom many who knew him personally described him as having a Christ-like charisma and leading an admirable and honorable life.

His most famous book

For his main work Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind he researched for many years and wrote on it for a long time. It was published in 1901, the year before his death, and has been reissued since then. In it he describes his own experiences as well as those of contemporaries (especially Whitman's, but also of unknown people like "CP") and the experiences and views of historical personalities, especially Buddha , Jesus , Paul , Plotinus , Mohammed , Dante , Francis Bacon , and William Blake .

Bucke developed a theory that encompasses three stages in the development of consciousness: simple animal consciousness; the self-confidence of the vast majority of humanity (including reason, imagination, etc.); and cosmic consciousness - an evolving ability and the next stage in human development. He believed that one of the results of this development was to have discovered a long-term historical tendency according to which religious ideas and theologies became steadily less terrible.

Surprisingly, Bucke found this further development to be as evolutionary as it was spiritual (the work of Charles Darwin presumably dominated most scholarly debates of the late 19th century). In Cosmic Consciousness (beginning with Part II, Chapter 2, Section IV) he explains how animals developed the sense of hearing (locating sound) in order to survive. Sound location develops through frequency measurements, which we perceive as tones. Further developments in this area culminate in the ability to experience and enjoy music. Likewise, the animals developed a sense of the perception of light, which then evolved into black and white vision. Some animals (including humans) evolved and could perceive frequencies, which we experience as colors, and eventually these new abilities spread very widely across human society, so that very few people are still unable to play music to hear or perceive colors.

In section three of the third part, Bucke develops his prediction that the next stage of human spiritual development, which he called "Cosmic Consciousness", will develop very slowly and then finally establish itself in all of humanity.

His worldview was optimistic through and through. In Part I (“First Words”) he wrote that the universe is built and ordered in such a way that everything works together without further ado for the good of everything and everyone, that the founding principle of the world is love and that everyone's happiness is absolutely certain in the long run is.

death

On February 19, 1902, Bucke slipped on an ice surface in front of his house and hit his head. He died a few hours later without regaining consciousness.

"He was deeply mourned by a large circle of friends, who loved him for his sturdy honesty, his warm heart, his intellectual force, but most of all for his noble qualities as a man."

"A large group of friends who loved him for his indomitable honesty, his warm-heartedness, his intellectual strength, but above all for his noble qualities as a person, mourned him from the bottom of their hearts."

legacy

Bucke was part of a progress movement that dealt with treating mentally confused people. His conception of cosmic consciousness developed (although not always well understood) its own story and influenced many in their thinking and writing.

Along with classics such as William James ' Varieties of Religious Experience (who himself quotes Bucke) and some more recent publications, his study became part of the foundation of Transpersonal Psychology .

His writings are held in the Weldon Library of the University of Western Ontario Medical School , of which he was a co-founder.

Colm Feore portrayed him in his 1990 film Beautiful Dreamers with his friend Walt Whitman ( Rip Torn ).

Publications

From Bucke

About Bucke

  • James H Coyne: Richard Maurice Bucke: A Sketch. J. Hope & Sons, 1906 ( dlib.stanford.edu PDF of rev. Ed., Toronto 1923).
  • George Hope Stevenson: The Life and Work of Richard Maurice Bucke. An appraisal. In: American Journal of Psychiatry. Volume 93, 1937, pp. 1127-1150.
  • Cyril Greenland: Richard Maurice Bucke, MD 1837-1902. The evolution of a mystic. 1966.
  • Samuel Edward Dole Shortt: Victorian Lunacy: Richard M. Bucke and the Practice of Late Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry. Cambridge University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-521-30999-9 .
  • Peter Rechnitzer: The Life of Dr. RM Bucke. Quarry Press, 1994; 1997 edition: ISBN 1-55082-064-8 .
  • PD Ouspensky : The Cosmic Consciousness of Dr. Richard M. Bucke. Kessinger Publishing, 2005 edition: ISBN 1-4253-4399-6 .

swell

  • Richard Maurice Bucke: The New Consciousness. Selected Papers of Richard Maurice Bucke. compiled by Cyril Greenland & John Robert Colombo. Colombo & Company, Toronto 1997.
  • Richard Maurice Bucke: Walt Whitman's Canada. compiled by Chril Greenland & John Robert Colombo. Hounslow Press, Toronto 1992.
  • Richard Maurice Bucke: Cosmic Consciousness. (1901 edition) - several autobiographical sections

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter A. Rechnitzer: The Life of Dr. RM Bucke. 1994
  2. ↑ a b c d Peter A. Rechnitzer (1994).
  3. ^ Richard M. Bucke: Twenty-five years ago . In: Overland Monthly . I (Second series), No. 6, June 1883, pp. 553-560.
  4. ↑ James H Coyne: Richard Maurice Bucke: A Sketch. Henry S. Saunders, Toronto 1923, Revised edition Reprinted from the Transactions of The Royal Society of Canada, 1906 pp. 26-30. (Nb: Hurd says he returned in 1860)
  5. ^ A b Henry Mills Hurd, William Francis Drewry: The institutional care of the insane in the United States and Canada , et al., Volume 4, Johns Hopkins Press, 1917. (google books link) p. 555.
  6. ↑ Coyne, p. 30.
  7. ↑ Coyne, p. 33.
  8. ^ Coyne, p. 34.
  9. ^ Coyne, p. 45
  10. ↑ Coyne, p. 47; " Lifted to and set upon a higher plane of existence "
  11. ↑ “ that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain. ”
personal data
SURNAME Bucke, Richard Maurice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bucke, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Methwold , England
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1902
Place of death London (Ontario) , Canada