“Process philosophy conceives the cosmos as a living, conscious organism characterized by a pan-relational, pan-experiential, and pan-psychic metaphysic. This metaphysic describes a reality which is continuously unfolding through manifold compositions that are i) grounded in becoming, ii) interwoven through complex unions of affective and affectuating connections, iii) each participating together in novel unions of value-driven, co-creative moments, which, iv) taken together, energize the entirety of its cosmic being. Likewise, Process theology affirms that as the Creator is, so is creation, and vice-versa, when describing both God and reality, what they are, how they are, and why they are.” - re slater
INTRODUCTION
Every comprehensive philosophy attracts diverse interpretations. Whitehead’s process thought is no exception. Its scope is cosmological, its categories metaphysical, and its openness invites both rigorous academic engagement and speculative spiritual-and-theological appropriation as derivations to its processual foundation. This philosophic capacity is a strength but also a risk.
Without strong anchors, process thought can drift into mystical or esoteric forms that may inspire creativity but weaken its essential coherence. Making of it something more, or less, than it is as a balanced harmony between its internal forms.
At the center of this tension lies process panpsychism which describes Whitehead’s conviction that relational experience pervades all actual entities, from quarks to human persons. Properly grounded, panpsychism offers a bridge between philosophy, science, and theology. But left unanchored, it risks dissolving into vague New Age slogans or astrological determinisms. To appreciate its promise and peril, we must first understand what it is, why it matters, and how it functions in Whitehead’s scheme.
OUTLINE
- First, it clarifies what process is and how panpsychism fits within its structure. We then attempt to explain what it actually means within Whitehead’s philosophy of organism, distinguishing it from simplistic or esoteric caricatures.
- Second, it situates panpsychism within the wider history of thought, showing that the intuition of a living cosmos has deep philosophical roots.
- Third, it considers why panpsychism matters today - for metaphysics, theology, science, ecology, society, and even technology.
- Finally, it explores the ecology of anchors and attractors that shape its interpretations, proposing ways to welcome creativity without losing coherence.
1 THE MANY OPERANDS OF PROCESS THOUGHT
1. Reality is Processual
For Whitehead, reality is not a static collection of fixed, eternal substances but a continual process of complex becoming. This becoming is never neutral; it can be described in several elements or components:
i) Becoming is relational - all moments of becoming arise through the prehension, or felt awareness, of other moments of becoming
ii) Becoming is experiential - all moments are imbued with prehensive (reactive) feeling at every scale of becomingness,
iii) Becoming is panpsychic - all creative moments are innately conscious in some form or matter; that is, cosmic consciousness goes all the way down as well as all the way up; and,
iv) Becoming is teleological - every moment is attracted toward, or lured toward, richer intensities of value; that which gives fulfillment and identity.
2. Creation is Processual
Moreover, the cosmos does not consist of inert, eternally fixed objects, but advances toward novelty through -
i) momentary events of actual occasions, which
ii) prehend (feel and integrate) the past into the present, while
iii) contributing new/novel creational possibilities to the future in momentary acts of concrescence.”
Reality might be described more like a symphony than as a mechanistic machine, where each symphonic note has meaning only within the larger movement of tonal phrases, tempos, moods, modulations, themes, conflicts, tensions, and resolutions.
3. Reality has a Processual Teleology
Lastly, creational and metaphysic reality never advances towards a fixed, closed, concrete, or predetermined ends but is always advancing towards new and novel forms and harmonies of interwoven integration which is never static, never ended, never ceasing. It is restless, restlessly active, ever new and changing, and never complete.
Thus, any derivative structures built upon the foundation of process philosophy will also exhibit these qualities and characteristics, such as process theology, science, democracy, and ethics.
A "living" processual reality then is never inert but -
i) always in motion,
ii) always relationally entwined, and
iii) always pregnant with possibility.
Process cosmology, like process metaphysics, is always processual, proceeding, perpetual, impermanent, provisional, participatory, permeable, probabilistic, procreative, polyphonic, pluralistic, panrelational, panexperiential, and panpsychic.
4 - Reality is Processually Panpsychic
Whitehead’s universe is not composed of lifeless substances but of actual occasions - momentary events of becoming. Each processual occasion prehends its environment, integrates influences from the past, and contributes novelty to the future. This is the meaning of Whitehead’s oft-cited dictum: “The many become one, and are increased by one.”
Panpsychism in this sense does not project human qualities onto atoms or suggest that planets have personalities. Rather, it affirms that all things possess some degree of interiority, some form of felt experience at their own scale. An electron “feels” its field; a cell “feels” its metabolic environment; a human “feels” the world with reflective consciousness. Experience is therefore graded, relational, and pervasive. To avoid anthropomorphism, Whitehead sometimes spoke of panexperientialism to emphasize continuity without distortion.
Within this relational and experiential cosmos, process panpsychism maintains that every actual occasion - from electrons to ecosystems - carries some degree of subjectivity, some capacity to feel. This is not anthropomorphism but continuity: experience is scaled, diverse, and intrinsic to all becoming. Whitehead renewed ancient intuitions of a world-soul by framing them within a metaphysical system informed by physics, biology, and cosmology.
In this way, panpsychism reveals the cosmos not as a cold expanse of brute matter but as a communion of experiencing entities. It is the hinge that makes process thought truly organic, joining metaphysics with science, ethics, and theology. Properly understood, it resists dualisms of matter and mind, subject and substance, reminding us that every act of becoming is also an act of feeling.
Here we reach the threshold of our inquiry: what panpsychism means for process thought, why it matters, and how it can be held in balance.
2 THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF PANPSYCHISM
Panpsychism is not a modern invention but a recurring intuition in the history of thought. The Pre-Socratics such as Anaxagoras and Heraclitus envisioned nous or flux as the fundamental principle of reality, while Plato hinted at a world-soul, an ordering intelligence woven into the cosmos. Centuries later, Giordano Bruno revived the idea of an anima mundi, a universe suffused with spirit, and Leibniz proposed his monads as centers of perception and appetite. Whitehead did not create panpsychism from scratch but modernized this lineage by situating it within a universe shaped by relativity, quantum physics, and evolutionary biology. His originality lay not in asserting that all things experience, but in giving this claim a coherent metaphysical framework where process, relation, and novelty are central.
Panpsychism is not an exotic novelty. It has deep roots in the history of thought:
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Pre-Socratic philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Heraclitus envisioned nous (mind) or flux as fundamental to reality.
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Plato hinted at a world-soul, an ordering intelligence woven into the cosmos.
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Renaissance thinkers like Giordano Bruno revived anima mundi, a living cosmos suffused with spirit.
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Leibniz’s monads in the 17th century proposed that reality consists of centers of perception and appetite.
Whitehead modernized this lineage by situating panpsychism in a universe informed by relativity, quantum physics, and evolutionary biology. His originality was not in claiming that all things experience, but in giving this claim a coherent metaphysical system where process, relation, and novelty are central.
3 - THE NATURE OF PANPSYCHISM
3a - Why Panpsychism Matters
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Against reductionism: It resists the view that consciousness simply “emerges” from lifeless matter as a miracle. Instead, mind-like qualities are intrinsic to becoming.
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For relationality: No entity is isolated; every being participates in webs of prehension and response.
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For value: If all entities experience, then value is intrinsic to the universe, not a late evolutionary accident.
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For theology: Panpsychism ensures God’s relational presence touches all of creation, not only human souls.
3b - How Whitehead Uses Panpsychism
For Whitehead, panpsychism is not an optional embellishment but the very keystone of his cosmology. It provides subjectivity to concrescence, energy to creativity, and a receptive medium for God’s persuasive power. Without it, reality would collapse back into brute mechanism. With it, the universe becomes a living field of events - relational, value-laden, and charged with novelty.
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Concrescence (the becoming of an event) would lack subjectivity.
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Creativity (the ultimate category) would lack inner drive.
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God’s persuasive power would lack a medium for reception.
Panpsychism guarantees that reality is never brute mechanism but always alive, relational, and value-laden.
3c - Theological Depth: God’s Dipolar Nature
Whitehead’s theology rests on the universality of experience. In God’s primordial nature, possibilities are envisioned; in the consequent nature, the world’s experiences are gathered. Only if every entity feels can God feel all things, and only if every event has value can God be the supreme companion who redeems that value. Thus, panpsychism grounds the vision of God not as a distant judge but as the lure of creative advance and the fellow sufferer who understands.
Whitehead’s theology depends on panpsychism. Without universal experience, God’s relationality collapses:
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In the primordial nature, God envisions all eternal possibilities.
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In the consequent nature, God prehends the experiences of the world.
Panpsychism makes this possible. Only if every entity feels can God feel all things. Only if every event has value can God be the supreme companion who receives and redeems that value. This is why process theology sees God not as distant judge but as the loving lure of novelty and the compassionate fellow sufferer.
3d - Panpsychism in Today’s Context
Far from being abstract speculation, panpsychism speaks directly to contemporary concerns. In science, it addresses the “hard problem” of consciousness and resonates with quantum relationality. In ecology, it affirms intrinsic value in every being, deepening environmental responsibility. In society and economics, it challenges us to imagine justice and democracy as cooperative webs of worth. Even in AI and technology, it raises pressing questions about the scope of experience and the need for ethical anchors. In all these domains, panpsychism offers a holistic vision that resists reductionism and cultivates relational responsibility.
Panpsychism is not only a metaphysical idea - it is profoundly relevant for our moment:
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Science: In consciousness studies, it stands beside Chalmers’ “hard problem” and Goff’s analytic panpsychism. In physics, it speaks to quantum relationality and information theory. Panpsychism gives coherence where materialism falters.
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Ecology: By recognizing intrinsic value in every being, it underwrites ecological responsibility. Forests, rivers, and ecosystems are not inert resources but centers of value.
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Society & Economy: If all beings are centers of worth, then democracy, justice, and economics must be reconceived in relational and cooperative terms.
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AI and Technology: Panpsychism raises real questions: if experience pervades, how might artificial systems participate? Even here, the need for rigorous anchors is clear.
In each case, process panpsychism pushes us toward a vision of science and society that is holistic, ecological, and relational.
4 THE ECOLOGY OF ANCHORS AND ATTRACTORS
4a - What We Mean by Ecology
Because panpsychism enlivens the cosmos, it invites many pathways of interpretation. These pathways form what we can call an ecology of anchors and attractors - some firmly tethered to disciplined inquiry, others more speculative and imaginative. Anchors ensure coherence, while attractors broaden the horizon of creativity. Together they form a living field in which process thought develops.
Mainstream Anchors
Anchors ground panpsychism within established disciplines that provide methods and self-critique. In theology, it deepens doctrines of incarnation, Spirit, and divine immanence. In science, it joins debates on consciousness, quantum physics, and cosmology, offering metaphysical depth to empirical puzzles. In philosophy, it engages both analytic arguments and continental explorations, situating Whitehead among voices such as Chalmers, Goff, Stengers, and Segall. In ethics and politics, it underscores ecological value and democratic responsibility in a cosmos where every being matters. These anchors give process thought both rigor and credibility.
Anchors tether panpsychism to disciplines with methods and self-critique:
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Theology: Panpsychism enriches doctrines of incarnation, Spirit, and divine immanence, tying process theology to biblical and ecclesial traditions.
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Science: It participates in debates on consciousness, physics, and cosmology, offering philosophical grounding for empirical puzzles.
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Philosophy: It stands alongside analytic arguments (Chalmers, Goff) and continental explorations (Stengers, Segall).
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Ethics/Politics: It grounds ecological value and democratic responsibility in a cosmos where all beings matter.
Esoteric Attractors
At the same time, panpsychism’s openness draws more speculative appropriations. New Age syncretism, with its mantra that “everything vibrates,” echoes Whitehead’s relationality but lacks critical depth. Astrology resonates with the idea of a relational cosmos, yet when taken deterministically, it undermines Whitehead’s pluralism. Archetypal cosmology enriches imagination with symbolic patterns but risks sliding into ontology mistaking mythic or symbolic imagination for metaphysical reality. Energy vocabularies like “flow” and “vibration” capture something evocative yet often reduce process categories to slogans. These attractors expand the imaginative reach of panpsychism but require discernment to avoid distortion.
Process panpsychism’s openness invites more speculative appropriations:
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New Age Syncretism: “Everything vibrates” echoes Whitehead’s relationality but lacks rigor.
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Astrology: The cosmos as a relational web resonates with process thought, but taken deterministically it contradicts Whitehead’s pluralism.
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Archetypal Cosmology: Symbolic resonance with planetary patterns can enrich mythic imagination but risks being mistaken for ontology.
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Energy Vocabularies: “Energy” and “flow” are evocative but often reduce process categories to slogans.
At the center of process thought’s ecology lies panpsychism, the hinge between disciplined anchors and speculative attractors. It's concept simultaneously grounds Whitehead’s metaphysics and tempts wider appropriation, making it both the most vital and the most vulnerable feature of his system.
Panpsychism is the hinge between anchors and attractors.
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In philosophy of mind, it is now a serious position (Chalmers, Goff, Nagasawa). Whitehead’s version adds metaphysical depth.
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In science, it speaks into quantum theory, cosmology, and consciousness studies.
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In esotericism, it can slide into planetary intelligences, crystal energies, or cosmic determinism if not carefully bounded.
The danger is collapsing Whitehead’s pluralism (“the many become one, and are increased by one”) into monism (all is one), losing the dynamism of process.
4c - Case Studies
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A Process Astrologist (name kept anonymous): Her essays creatively express process categories applied to cosmology, design, entrepreneurship, and astrology. She exemplifies the creative uptake of process thought outside the academy. Strength: accessibility, imagination, embodied practice. Risk: drift into astrology as worldview, untethered from philosophical rigor.
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A Process Professor (name kept anonymous): Engages archetypal cosmology (Tarnas, astrology) but keeps dialogue with science, philosophy, and Whitehead studies. Strength: bridges attractors and anchors. Risk: still dismissed by stricter academics as “New Age,” though substantially more anchored than drift.
4d - Guardrails and Pathways
Because panpsychism draws energy from both anchors and attractors, process communities must be intentional about how they navigate between them. The task is not to suppress imagination but to guide it with discernment, so creativity enriches coherence rather than eroding it.
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Distinguish metaphor from metaphysics: Astrology can function as poetic symbol of relationality, but not as deterministic ontology.
Methodological humility: Recognize the limits of metaphysical speculation.
Keep interdisciplinary dialogue alive: Theology, science, and philosophy provide feedback loops to keep speculative thought accountable.
Educational framing: Teach panpsychism as philosophical stance, not mystical revelation.
Build layered models: Process thought can host rigorous metaphysics and symbolic mythopoeia — each in its proper lane.
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Critical hospitality: Welcome esoteric appropriations as imaginative enrichments, but evaluate them through process categories of creativity, relationality, novelty, and value.
CONCLUSION: A CALL TO ACTION
Process panpsychism is both a gift and a temptation. It grounds Whitehead’s cosmology in a universe alive with value and relation, but it also draws interpretations that can stray into unanchored non-processual speculation.
The task is not to wall off process thought from imaginative attractors but to keep its anchors strong enough that creativity enriches rather than distorts. Anchored in theology, science, philosophy, and socio-ecological ethics, panpsychism can serve as the living heart of process thought:
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Religiously, it reimagines God as relational, compassionate, and participatory.
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Scientifically, it offers coherence where philosophic materialism fails.
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Socially and ecologically, it grounds justice, cooperation, and planetary care in the very fabric of reality.
In this way, process thought becomes more than metaphysics. It becomes a philosophy of life that resists drift into mysticism while inspiring humanity to co-create a world where relational value, creativity, and compassion shape the future.
Process philosophy envisions the cosmos as a living, conscious organism, always unfolding through relational and experiential becoming. Process theology, in turn, proclaims that as God is, so is creation - and as creation becomes, so does God (sic, panpsychic panentheism). Together, they testify that reality is not brute mechanism but a communion of value, creativity, and co-creative participation. To live within this vision is to recognize that every moment, however small, contributes to the ongoing harmony and novelty of the whole.
APPENDIX
Whitehead on Processual Panpsychism
- Reality is made of momentary “drops of experience.”
- All actual entities feel and prehend one another - even at the smallest scale.
- The entirety of the cosmos is alive with experience, value, and creativity.
Whitehead on Experience as Universal
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“The final real things of which the world is made up are… actual entities, which are drops of experience, complex and interdependent.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part I, Ch. II, §1)
→ Here Whitehead equates the building blocks of reality not with atoms of matter but with “drops of experience.”
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“Apart from the experiences of subjects there is nothing, nothing, nothing, bare nothingness.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part II, Ch. IX, §2)
→ One of his most direct panpsychist statements: all reality is constituted by experience.
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“The term ‘experience’ is… the most general term at our disposal to describe the nature of actual entities. They are occasions of experience.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part I, Ch. II, §2)
→ Reinforces that every actual entity, not only human consciousness, is experiential.
Whitehead on the Pervasiveness of Feeling
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“The actual world is a process, and that process is the becoming of actual entities. The becoming is a creative advance into novelty. The actual entities are creatures; they are also termed actual occasions. They are drops of experience, complex and interdependent.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part I, Ch. II, §1)
→ Highlights creativity and novelty as intrinsic to experiential occasions.
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“The notion of mere matter, with passive receptivity, is the outcome of mistaking the abstract for the concrete. The concrete is feeling.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part II, Ch. VIII, §1)
→ Rejects inert matter: reality is constituted by feeling, not substance.
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“It belongs to the nature of a ‘being’ that it is a potential for every ‘becoming.’ Thus all actual entities are dipolar: they involve both physical feelings and conceptual feelings.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part II, Ch. III, §2)
→ All entities, from electrons upward, have some degree of physical and conceptual feeling.
Whitehead on Panpsychism and Value
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“The actuality of an entity is the decision into a limited value of the potentiality open to it.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part II, Ch. V, §1)
→ Suggests that all beings decide, in however minimal a way, how to integrate possibilities into actual value.
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“Every actual entity has to decide the way it will actualize potentiality, and thereby its own definition of what is important and what is negligible.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part III, Ch. II, §3)
→ Every event, however microscopic, involves decision and valuation.
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“It is as true to say that the universe consists of creatures as that it consists of experiences. Each actual entity is both subject and superject of experience.”
– Process and Reality (PR, Part II, Ch. IX, §2)
→ Entities are both experiencers (subjects) and outcomes (superjects).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources: Alfred North Whitehead
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Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. Corrected Edition. New York: Free Press, 1978.
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Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Free Press, 1967.
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Whitehead, Alfred North. Religion in the Making. New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.
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Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: Free Press, 1967.
Foundational Process Theologians
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Cobb, John B. Jr. A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007.
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Cobb, John B. Jr., and David Ray Griffin. Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976.
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Hartshorne, Charles. The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.
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Hartshorne, Charles, and William L. Reese. Philosophers Speak of God. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.
Contemporary Process Voices
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Suchocki, Marjorie Hewitt. God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
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Keller, Catherine. Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
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Keller, Catherine. Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. New York: Routledge, 2003.
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Mesle, Robert C. Process Theology: A Basic Introduction. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993.
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Oord, Thomas Jay. The Uncontrolling Love of God: An Open and Relational Account of Providence. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2015.
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Segall, Matthew T. Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Philosophical Roots of Panpsychism
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Anaxagoras. Fragments.
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Heraclitus. Fragments.
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Plato. Timaeus.
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Plotinus. The Enneads.
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Bruno, Giordano. On the Infinite Universe and Worlds.
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Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Monadology.
Modern Philosophical Panpsychism
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Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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Goff, Philip. Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. New York: Pantheon, 2019.
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Nagasawa, Yujin, and Khai Wager, eds. Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
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Strawson, Galen. “Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 13 (2006): 3–31.
Science, Ecology, and Cosmology
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Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
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Capra, Fritjof, and Pier Luigi Luisi. The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
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Swimme, Brian, and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
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Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.
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Eastman, Timothy E. Untying the Gordian Knot: Process, Reality, and Context. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.
Interfaith and Cross-Traditional Engagements
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Abe, Masao. Zen and Western Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1985.
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Griffin, David Ray. God and Religion in the Postmodern World: Essays in Postmodern Theology. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989.
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Panikkar, Raimon. The Cosmotheandric Experience: Emerging Religious Consciousness. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993.
Applications: Ethics, Politics, Technology
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Cobb, John B. Jr., ed. For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
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Keller, Catherine, and Laurel Schneider, eds. Polydoxy: Theology of Multiplicity and Relation. New York: Routledge, 2010.
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Segall, Matthew T. Cosmological Imagination: From Myth to the Anthropocene. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming.
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Slater, R.E. Relevancy22 Blog. https://relevancy22.blogspot.com (for ongoing essays integrating process theology, cosmology, and panpsychism).
