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Ben Crenshaw asked this question about The Phenomenon of Man:
Hello. I have been reading some of Pierre de Chardin's books this year. I have heard the quote "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; but spiritual beings having a human experience" attributed to him and that it is from The Phenomena of Man. However, that quote does not appear in that work. Does anyone know the exact source for that quote?
Ray Wikiquotes has the following entry regarding this "quote:"

[Disputed]
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings hav…moreWikiquotes has the following entry regarding this "quote:"

[Disputed]
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

This is attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Joy of Kindness (1993), by Robert J. Furey, p. 138; but it is attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff in Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide To The Coming Changes (1993) by Moira Timms, p. 62; neither cite a source. It was widely popularized by Wayne Dyer, who often quotes it in his presentations, crediting it to Chardin, as does Stephen Covey in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47

Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

The above "quotation" can be considered a paraphrase of Hegel's dictum that matter is spirit fallen into a state of self-otherness.(less)
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The Phenomenon of Man
by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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