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257 of 273 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glimmerings of a New Science of Consciousness and Spirituality, July 22, 2007
This review is from: The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, And What's Behind It All (Hardcover)
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.
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166 of 178 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting Theory!, June 21, 2007
This review is from: The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, And What's Behind It All (Hardcover)
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.
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92 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Compilation of Interesting Ideas, September 8, 2007
This review is from: The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, And What's Behind It All (Hardcover)
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).
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