This article presents an approach to cosmic consciousness based on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's work on the phenomenology of the lived body. Cosmic consciousness is a concept introduced by Maurice Richard Bucke in
1901 following a deeply transformative personal experience. It designates an expanded experience of the world beyond selÊawareness and exhibits a certain affinity with mystical tradition. Through phenomenology, the concept is reaffirmed and more broadly applied to human relations with human and non-human nature. Cosmic consciousness is thus characterized by a decentering of the self through which one can go beyond the human perspective in a certain sense and move closer to non-human nature - animal, plant and material. Perceiving nature cosmically ultimately means developing and maintaining certain ethical virtues and living within a moral and political community that includes both humans and nonhumans.