RESEARCHER • AUTHOR • LECTURER
ABOUT DENNIS
A RECOGNIZED LEADER IN THE EMERGING FIELD OF CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES
Dennis William Hauck is an author and researcher in consciousness studies. His work focuses on the nature of consciousness and the subtle interactions between mind and matter. Hauck attempts to merge various philosophical and scientific traditions into a broader science of consciousness and has contributed to many related areas, including the history of science, psychology and alchemy, and the serious study of exceptional human experiences.
David Metcalfe, editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies, writes: "According to Dennis William Hauck, a contemporary explorer of consciousness and author of numerous books on the subject, some of the giants of twentieth-century science, mathematics, and philosophy – such as Max Planck, Kurt Godel, and Ludwig Wittgenstein – rather than dispelling the alchemical worldview have actually helped bring contemporary theory in line with the ancient art in its exposition as a practical outgrowth of Neoplatonic and Hermetic cosmology. Hauck points out that Einstein proved an ancient tenet of alchemy that was previously unknown in physics: the fundamental idea that ‘All Is One’ and the equivalence between energy and matter. Einstein’s equation of the universe is E = Mc2, where E is energy, M is mass, and c is the speed of light. This is a mathematical restatement of the ancient Three Essentials concept of the alchemists in which Sulfur is energy, Salt is mass or matter, and Mercury represents light."
According to Dr. Bernard Lightman in A Companion to the History of Science: "Dennis William Hauck is a prolific author and has been at the center of efforts to institutionalize modern alchemy through a number of organizations, conferences, and journals. For Hauck, classical science has its limits, in that it can explain only our physical reality, not the deeper hidden reality from which the physical stems. He decided that alchemy offered one path to that hidden reality, and so, knowing that this path of discredited ‘pseudoscience’ might forever taint his career, Hauck decided it was worth the risk to discover solid evidence and challenge the dominant Newtonian paradigm."
Hauck has translated a number of important manuscripts dating back to the fourteenth century and has published over a dozen books, including The Monad Manifesto: Merging Science and Spirituality (Alchemergy 2022), Alchemy: Energize Your Life by Freeing Your Mind (Penguin 2021), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy (Penguin 2008), and The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation (Penguin 1999). He also contributed to a number of anthologies, including Awaken to a Dream (Watermark 1991), Magic of Our Universe (Camelot 1999), Nine Windows to Wholeness: Jungian Sandplay (Sanity Press 2002), Get the Picture: Conscious Creation Goes to the Movies (Moment Point 2007), and Ceremonial Magick: A Comprehensive Guide to the Western Mystery Tradition (Llewellyn 2020).
His books have been featured in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Harper's, and hundreds of other periodicals. He has been interviewed on over 200 radio and TV programs, including "NPR's Morning Edition," “CBS This Morning,” "Sally Jessy Raphael," "Geraldo," "The O'Reilly Factor," "Extra," and "CNN Reports."
Hauck is a professional member of the ASSC (Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness), the AMS (American Mathematical Society), CRS (Center for Research in Science), ATP (Association for Transpersonal Psychology), and ISSSEEM (International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine).
His websites are DWHauck.com and MonadManifesto.com. See Hauck's latest book on Consciousness Studies, The Monad Manifesto: Merging Science and Spirituality (2022) in the Books section or download a Free Chapter.
Birth & Childhood
Dennis William Hauck was born in Hammond, Indiana.[2] He grew up in the stark urban environment of South Chicago and the Calumet Region, but it was the short time the family lived in the suburban prairielands that had the greatest impact on his life. There he developed an appreciation for nature and its mysteries. At an early age, he began keeping detailed journals about his thoughts and observations.[3] (Right: Dennis at 8-years-old)
Education
Hauck attended Hammond High School, and in his junior year, was admitted to an advanced physics program at the University of Chicago. After graduating high school, he attended Indiana University. While still at IU, he received a full tuition scholarship to the University of Vienna in Austria. He moved to Europe and studied German language at the University of Innsbruck and mathematical logic at the University of Vienna. (Left: Student ID photo)
While in Vienna, Hauck discovered an archive of alchemical manuscripts in the 700-year-old university library. Fascinated by the highly symbolic writings and illustrations, he researched further and found to a group of university chemists who studied alchemy and Hermeticism. In their discussions, he was inspired by the idea that consciousness was a force of nature that could be applied to experimental work. He sought initiation into the craft of alchemy and apprenticed for two years with a practicing alchemist from nearby Prague.
Hauck discovered that the common source for much of the practical and metaphysical work of the alchemists was an ancient document known as the Emerald Tablet. His research into the origins of the tablet took him down a path that led all the way back to ancient Egypt. He uncovered previously unknown versions of the Emerald Tablet, as well as an encrypted chemical formula within the tablet that demonstrated its principles (the Arcanum Experiment). He also confirmed speculations by Carl Jung that the operations of alchemy were intended to be applied not only in the laboratory but also on the psychological and spiritual levels. He named this process the Emerald Formula. Hauck organized two expeditions to Egypt to trace the origins of the tablet, and he is considered a leading authority on its history and meaning.
VIEWS
While in graduate school in Vienna, Hauck’s study of Kurt Gödel's work on the inconsistencies of mathematics and his simultaneous apprenticeship in alchemy convinced him that consciousness was a force of nature that modern science had completely ignored. Alchemists understood this and formulated universal principles of transformation that are part of the very fabric of the universe. In his view, the Philosopher’s Stone is consciousness:
“The Stone exists in the formative realm between energy and matter," he wrote, "suspended in the twilight between what exists and what does not exist. Since the eighth century, alchemists have been describing the brain as a magical touchstone made from a hidden etheric substance that is distributed throughout the universe. That substance is consciousness." [4]
According to Hauck, consciousness is a force of Nature everywhere present in the universe. He views the Big Bang as an explosion of light and consciousness into spacetime, in much the same way ancient philosophers thought of the divine Logos. Consciousness is the ordering principle in the cosmos, an anti-entropic power that organizes the primal chaos into more perfect forms.
Since consciousness exists on all levels of reality, there is never a complete extinction of consciousness – only a change in its intensity or concentration. The spectrum of consciousness ranges from a non-verbal unconscious realm to a fully conscious level of expanded awareness, which is direct knowing of reality (Gnosis). Hauck believes sentient beings can reach the highest level of consciousness, and express the full range of consciousness possible in the universe.
At the absolute lowest level of consciousness (death), we exist only as a monadic sense of being without object, knowledge, thought, or memory. At that level, each of us exists in a primordial "I am that I am" state. Various religious and spiritual traditions attach a variety of potentialities or attributes of soul at this level, such as reincarnation and transmigration into other dimensions.
[1] Lightman, Bernard. 2016. A Companion to the History of Science. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1118620779. p.58-59.
[1A] Metcalfe, David. Matt Cardin (Editor). Ghosts. Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Publishing, 2015). Chapter 10, "American Society for Psychical Research." pp. 56-57
[2] Cambridge Dictionary of International Biography. Guilford, England: 1990. ISBN 0-948875402. p. 316; International Authors and Writers Who’s Who. Cambridge, England: 1994. ISBN 0-948875518. p. 356.
[3] Hauck, Dennis William. “Journey to the Source Workshop.” Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California. May 24-26, 2015.
[4] Hauck, Dennis William. 2013. “The Philosopher's Stone: Physical or Philosophical?” Rosicrucian Digest; Volume 91, Number 1 2013.https://www.rosicrucian.org/rosicrucian-digest-alchemy
