Customer Reviews

God Theory, The: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What's Behind It All

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Bernard Haisch is an eminent astrophysicist who is a member of an increasingly large group of prominent scientists who are trying to bridge the seemingly impossible divide between the conventional Reductionist worldview, Creationism and Intelligent Design. For over a century it has seemed as if there is no possible way to reconcile the camps that seem to be totally at loggerheads with each other.

Haisch begins with two observations: First, what we often call the "Goldilocks Theory:" why is it that certain key physical constants have just the right values to make life possible. The term is also applied to describe the key zones around a sun - not too hot and not too cold - in which planets are conducive to the development of carbon-based life forms. The second starting point is a phrase that is found in many religious traditions around the world, from the Middle East to India and China: "Let there be light, and there was light." He believes that consciousness is our connection to God, who, or which, is the source of all consciousness. This infinite conscious intelligence has infinite potential, and its ideas become the laws of physics. In his view the purpose of the Universe is the transformation of potential into experience. So consciousness is the origin of matter, the laws of natures and of all the universes that may exist.

Bernard is the co-author of a remarkable theory about inertia: that it is the property of matter that gives it substance, and that this solid matter is sustained by an underlying sea of quantum light: the zero-point. It is good to remember that one of the most celebrated theories of all time - Einstein's theory of special relativity - is based on the properties of light. Bernard proposes that light, in the form of a universal electromagnetic zero-point field, creates and sustains the world of matter that fills space-time.

One of the immediate implications of these ideas is that we are all imbued with some splinter of God consciousness, that God is experiencing through us, that we have purpose and that our relationship should be one of partnership rather than domination or servility. A second implication is that we should live a life that allows the expression of this intelligence, because in that way we evolve, grow and achieve ultimate satisfaction and happiness. The brain is a filter rather than a creator of consciousness and it is possible to develop the brain so that more of this consciousness is able to manifest. This squares well with the recent data on neuroplasticity and the impact of meditation on the structure and function of the brain. These ideas are familiar to anyone who has studied Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist philosophy, or the writings of mystics and contemplatives who have described the universe as the "body of God." But it has rarely been expressed so clearly and placed in a scientific framework.

Bernard Haisch has unique qualifications for writing this book. He was born in postwar Germany but came to the United States as a three year-old child. He had a strict Catholic upbringing, and his mother wanted him to be a priest, and he attended a high school dedicated to preparing boys for the seminary. He did spend one year in the seminary before leaving to become an astronomer and astrophysicist. So the philosophical and spiritual interests were seeded early on, and in later years he began to study other religions and philosophical systems.

This is an extremely well written and entertaining book by someone who has a fine grasp of science and can explain his wok without dumbing it down. It is small in size and only just over 150 pages, including a short bibliography. It is an easy read, but the ideas, whether they are right or wrong, will likely stay with you for a long time to come.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in consciousness, spirituality and the subtle systems of the body.

Highly recommended.

I believe that God exists -- it is only that I don't know what God actually is. Perhaps Mister Haisch has God pegged via his unique theory.

It's an interesting theory (a synthesis of science and spirtuality) in which the author believes that God is attempting to experience His full measure of potential "as God" by actualizing Himself through each human being within the physical realm. (We are His incarnations.)

Just a few random things in general about it:

He comes down hard against the materialism (the belief that reality consists of matter and energy and nothing else) and reductionism (the belief that complex things can be explained by examining their constituent parts only) of scientists who refuse to accomodate even the "possibility of the spiritual", but he's equally critical of the massive failings of religion.

He focuses on the "Zero-Point Field" -- A special light energy that is supposed to inhabit all of space as mandated by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. He explores the possibility that this background sea of quantum light existing throughout the universe (the zero-point field) is what makes matter the solid and stable stuff that it is. Anyway, it's about that kind of thing.

He proposes that "consciousness" gives rise to matter and not vice versa -- it is the primary stuff of reality shaping and directing matter by an "infinite intelligence" dreaming up an infinite variety of laws and physical constant values and then letting them play out in all their varities in this and other universes.

Though I don't embrace the "God Theory" outright, I can't dismiss the idea out of hand because he makes a somewhat compelling case for it. It is as valid a possibility for explaining it all as anything else that has come before.

Mister Haisch does an excellent job in explaining scientific concepts so that the non-scientist can understand it well enough.

If you have a "scientific mindset" but can accomodate the possibilities of the "spiritual" or if you have a "spiritual mindset" but can accomodate the principles of science then you may find this theory at the very least an interesting one.

I have no negative comment about the book except that it is too short.

I hope I have been helpful to you.

The God Theory brings together some interesting ideas. Although none of the ideas presented are new, this quick compilation is a great way to get your interests flowing in a variety of exciting directions. The book appears to focus on two primary points:

First, that "God" is an infinite potential that has chosen to experience and realize its potential by creating our universe (and perhaps others) with its will manifested as the laws of physics and its being manifested as living creatures -- us. Haisch calls this The God Theory, although the idea was made a very popular a while back by Neale Donald Walsch in his Conversations With God series, in which he wrote extensively on this exact concept (Haisch does mention Walsch).

Second, that the reductionist, if-it's-not-matter-or-energy-then-it's-not-there attitude of modern day science is misguided. In my opinion, Haisch made this point ad nauseam, returning to it at every turn and making me think that he's got some bones to pick with some of his contemporaries. He could have made this point once or thrice then moved on, especially given that his main reason for choosing a God Theory universe over modern science's soulless, dumb universe is because science's view is a less pleasant way to describe the data -- rather than less valid way, since neither view answers "how did it start?" or "what does it mean?" in any way that is remotely provable.

But, aside from my complaints (that The God Theory is simply a repackaged version of the ideas of Walsch, and probably many others, into what you might have thought would be a new theory, and that Haisch burned too many pages beating the God-less reductionist dead horse), the book throws out some tantalizing tidbits and ideas. My three favorites are 1) the analogies he makes between white light and God -- both containing within them infinite potential, but only realizing it by subtracting some of that potential and projecting themselves upon a medium, 2) the discussions of the work of him and others relating inertia (along with other things affecting the universe's ability to exist such as atomic stability) to the zero point field, and 3) the very thought-provoking discussions of light's privileged reference point and how there must be a way to explain its apparently impossible properties that we're just not getting.

All in all, it's a worthwhile read, especially if you're interested in how science relates to some of the newer trends in spiritual thought. Not a tough read by any means, but a brain stretcher nonetheless (a good combination).

THE GOD THEORY is a delightful romp through the labyrinths of philosophy, theology, and science by one of the outstanding astrophysicists of our day. Author Bernard Haisch throws a gauntlet at the feet of physicalistic science, which views consciousness as an evolutionary accident or as an epiphenomenon of the brain. For Haisch, consciousness is a fundamental, not derivative, aspect of the world. The philosophical and theological implications that flow from this approach, which is anchored in solid scientific reasoning, are majestic. This book is very smart, very literary, very thrilling--a fine read.

-- Larry Dossey, MD

Author: THE EXTRAORDINARY HEALING POWER OF ORDINARY THINGS

There is a widely held misconception that scientists don't believe in God. The truth is that they don't believe in the anthropomorphic Judeo-Christian and Muslim God who was invented by man in the era of his scientific ignorance. In fact, scientists are recently publishing an increasing number of books trying to identify God and his relationship to our universe. This is another such book, and shares the same main title as Ronald Tarter's book published four years ago. It differs from most others, however, in that the author strays a little more into the realm of the mystic. For him, God is consciousness. That by itself may be a little confusing since there is no general agreement on the definition of the term. But towards the end he defines it as "something infinite, timeless...[that] can have no characteristics that can be properly translated in physical terms. Love, light, and bliss come the closest."

Although this God Consciousness has an infinite potential, this can only be actualized, become real, through experience. So God creates the world so that he can experience himself from a non-God viewpoint. For Haish consciousness is the origin of matter, not the reverse as physical sciences postulate. Creation is thus a physical part of God, including you, me and Fido; we are all parts of God. He maintains that we do not experience the world as it really is but only through what our brains do not filter out. As an example he points to some idiot savants who suffer from brain damage and who cannot tell right from left but can multiply in their heads two three digit numbers while carrying a conversation; not through any analytical process but just by seeing the number shapes in their mind morph into the final number. He attributes it to the [un]conscious being somehow linked to the infinite consciousness.

According to Einstein's theory, says the author, a photon traveling at the speed of light gets to its destination instantaneously, because at that speed there exist neither time nor space. He concludes that light generates matter. Light, of course, is pure energy, and energy can create particles as long as the sum of the particle properties is zero, like an electron-positron pair as an example. He discusses the zero point field (the radiation left over from the Big Bang that is spread throughout all creation), which contains a huge quantity of energy (but at extremely low potential so it is not easily accessible) but does not consider it to be God as some other writers in this field have.

Haisch ends up by scolding both science and religion; science for ignoring everything other than the material world that can be tested in the laboratories, and religion for perverting its own beliefs and causing untold damage to the people of this world. This last chapter can be considered to be inspirational.

The book is extremely readable (with the possible exception of the chapter dealing with Einstein's theories and the Kabbalah, which involves a little more science and mysticism) and the author peppers his writing with occasional humor and personal stories. The bibliography lists twenty five books, of which ten were published after 1990. There is no index, but the book is small and the table of contents sufficiently detailed so it is not a major problem. In my opinion, however, if you expect that your readers will want to look up things in your book you should provide them with an index.

(The writer is the author of "Christianity without Fairy Tales: When Science and Religion Merge.")

The God Theory that Haisch weaves, I find compelling. As a scientist with spiritual sensibilities, this book releases me to give credence to what I internally know. Please read it.

I am a truth seeker who stumbled into physics first and, not finding complete illumination there, found Christianity. I think physics is one of the most honorable pursuits of mankind, and it has very much to say about this existence we find ourselves in. I study physics intently, and I think maybe I'm not too bad at it. But physics can only explain the physical; it is clear to me that more is going on here, and Haisch fearlessly (and fearfully) explores this in a scientifically honest way. He embraces physics while admitting conscious spirit, and he questions which is primary. This is a refreshing viewpoint in today's all too pervasive dogma of scientific reductionism. And maybe he is right. -- L.J. Nickisch, Ph.D.

In this book Haisch shows that it is not just possible, but also rational to view the universe as a purposfull and wonderfull place. He is not afraid to point to mysticism as a genuine source of wisdom, something that makes him stand out from the crowd of mainstream scientists. This is a courageous move, one that I feel is desperately needed. Having just finished a master in physics, I know well that the message in "The God Theory" doesn't go well with the common held view of the physics community (there are those who share it, they just remain silent because of the taboo). This has nothing to do with science, but everything to do with dogma. During my years of study I have come to the same conclusion as Haisch has, and it seems to me that more scientists are starting to share this view. The world is indeed a much greater place than we are led to believe, and "The God Theory" can help you see this.

As I understand it, in Dr. Haisch's view, god is an infinite intelligence that is omnipotent, omniscient and in perfect bliss. At some point in eternity god decided to experience existence. So god used part of its essence to create the universe. This essence is what makes up you and me and everything around us. In that sense we and everything around us are all part of god. His basis for his theory is that there are nine finely tuned laws of physics that allow for life as we know it and that it is so unlikely that these laws could occur by chance that there must have been a designer, that designer would be god

The idea of everything being a part of a god-force is not new. It is very similar to Taoism. The difference is that a philosophical Taoist (there are religious Taoists) does not assign intelligence to the essence of the Tao. I have no problem with the idea of a universal force that makes up everything in the universe -- this would be similar to the grand unifying theory that Einstein was looking for. My problem comes when intelligence is assigned to that force, for me that is when things start to fall apart. For a book that explores similarities between Taoism and physics I would recommend the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra -- it is rather old so some of it may be outdated, but still worth a peek if you are interested in this sort of thing.

I am unclear whether Dr. Haisch thinks it is impossible that the nine laws of physics have arisen by chance or that it is just extremely unlikely that these laws could arise by chance. If he believes that it is impossible that these laws happened by chance, then all I have to say is that he did not present any proof to back up that belief. However if his position is that it is extremely unlikely that these laws arise from chance, then I have explanation to offer other than god.

This idea that something is so finely tuned that it is so unlikely to have arisen by chance is also used when fundamentalist discuss the 'goldilocks zone'. The golidlocks zone is what is used to descibe the area in space that our planet occupies because it is 'just right' to support life and like Dr. Haisch they believe this indicates a designer. Both of these rare occurrences can be explained by the Anthropic theory. Simply put, chance, however small is enough to account for the nine laws and the goldilocks zone. If you postulate a small probability that we can exist by chance, then it is reasonable to say that it did happen by chance because our existence is proof of that occurrence. Another way to look at it is we all know the probability of winning the lottery is very small, yet millions of us buy our lottery ticket every week and eventually someone wins regardless of how small the odds are. Likewise the laws of the universe are like a lottery that we won, regardless of how small the chances are we 'won' . But regardless of that, the other flaw in this reasoning is that it assumes that these laws are the only laws that would support life of any kind. There is no way to know that if the laws of the universe were different, that some other form of life beyond our imagining would not arise. Carl Sagan put it this way "Something happened, this is the result" -- I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it.

While Dr. Haisch rejects the classic image of god and heaven, he does hold to the classic attributes of god, that of an infinite, omnipotent and omniscient entity. That brings me to my other problem with this theory. The idea that 'god wanted to experience existence'. I agree with Dr. Haisch that experiencing something is different from just knowing it. But what is that difference? I think that experience brings a deeper level of knowledge. For example, you know that the Antarctic is very cold, but till you go there you do not have the knowledge of exactly how cold it is and how that feels. An omniscient god would already have that deeper knowledge, it would already know exactly what the experience of standing outside in the Antarctic in the dead of winter feels like -- therefore no need to experience existence. Also a entity that is in perfect bliss should be perfectly content, the wanting to experience something implies some sort of discontent, a need or at least a desire -- not perfect bliss. Which brings me back to: "What does god need a universe for?" with still no answer

"Science....is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is" - Carl Jung, the great Swiss founder of analytical psychology. His words could be considered the very essence of Dr. Bernard Haisch's new book, "The God Theory" - a provocative and timely look at the continuous `war' between belief in the God of the universe, as opposed to `scientism' - a dogmatic viewpoint which postulates that all knowledge, internal and external, will be discovered solely through scientific research and that a belief in a spirituality beyond the material world is both laughable and lamentable. What makes this book especially provocative is that like his predecessors, e.g., John Polkinghorne and Paul Davies, Bernard Haisch is a scientist who believes in God--a rare breed indeed! Separating himself from an almost pack-like mentality, certainly he risks censure himself from within the science community for suggesting that science alone cannot adequately explain the real nature of life and answer mankind's age-old quest for meaning. He asks an important question- can a scientist, well versed, efficient and ambitious in his chosen field be a religious/spiritual one as well? Does one negate the other? Are we doomed as a species to side either with religionists who seek to suppress and squelch scientific discovery for fear of `diluting faith," or do we side with the new `scientism' - a belief that only irrational, unintelligent and superstitious people adhere to a belief that there exists a realm outside of space, time, and even Science itself? Is not Science the pursuit of truth? And if so, does not the Ultimate Truth encompass an understanding of God as well? Dr. Haisch explores both of these viewpoints, while elucidating in layman's terms principles of the new physics and the exciting discoveries of the mind, which appear to confirm that consciousness is indeed non-local. Perhaps that human intuition that yearns for a Higher Power is both archetypically intrinsic and essential to ultimate self-discovery? "The God Theory" offers a tantalizing tidbit of information for readers to digest: perhaps science and spirituality are not enemies, but rather, for the true seeker of Truth, conjoined twins in the quest for meaning? Written in a warm, conversational style, Bernard Haisch takes the reader on his own personal journey of discovery-- that the richness of his own life as a scientist was and continues to be enhanced by seeking God as well. He invites his readers into tolerable, intelligent and most importantly - respectful - engagement with a new "21st century enlightenment" which has been, for far too long, sadly lacking in these troubled times.

First of all, I think it is very important to note that Bernard Haisch is a recognized astro-physicist who has had work published by scientific journals and also received multiple grants from NASA. He's not just another hack attempting to write a fluffy new-age book about God.

While many atheists would disagree, Haisch suggests that without God humanity is lost and without purpose...which can allegedly only lead to destructive thinking and actions by humanity. While I do indeed hope there is more to life and a God, I can't help but wonder if Haisch is blinded and fueled to write this book by his own wanting for a God or supreme being. That in itself woiuld not negate what this book has to say, though.

Haisch spends much of the book explaining why a supreme being would enact creation in all its universe and dimensions, offering a purposeful meaning to all of creation as opposed to mainstream science. In addition to this, he explains what it is that science is lacking, and why there is a need for a "god theory," something that transcends religion.

He then moves on to provide support for his ideas which include studies of consciousness, the "zero-point field," and explanations involving the nature of light (in all of its forms). Unless you are somewhat well-read in scientific theories, some parts of the book may go over your head. I have to take the author's word concerning the more scientific areas of the book. As other seemingly knowledgeable reviewers here have suggested, there may be some minor flaws in Haisch's theories, but they don't seem to be critical enough to discount the theory as a whole. In other words, it is difficult for someone like me to accurately weigh the evidence in my own mind and decide how compelling the information is.

This book is concise, short, and clearly not meant to provide you with all the answers. The book is more like a short presentation of Haisch's theory of what this "creation" is. Haisch clearly does not expect everyone to just accept his ideas. He admits to not having proof. For right now, this book offers those still searching a new way to look at their existence and god. Something logical, not opposed to scientific theory, and not just a fluffy new-age book that is published to make a quick buck. Haisch has put his credibility on the line with the publication of this book. I applaud him for moving forward with his beliefs. The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it seems to delve into karma and mysticism a bit too much, but not enough to adversely affect the book.

I greatly look forward to further studies on human consciousness, as Haisch believes that one day they will support his theory...that we are more than just mindless machines. Definitely check out this book!...especially if you are tired of the recent new-ageism passing itself off as science. Refreshing.