Customer Reviews

Pathways of Chance

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Pathways of Chance" was a joy to write. It was an opportunity to look back on my life, recall the people I had met and explore the ideas that had intrigued me. The book begins in wartime England, continues with my life as a student in Liverpool at the time of the Beatles, it then moves to Canada, to a meeting with the physicist and philosopher, David Bohm, an encounter with the Blackfoot and other Native Americans, to my on going interactions with artists and finally a move to a medieval hilltop village in Italy and the creation of the Pari Center for New Learning.

The book is not only about my personal encounters, it is also an exploration and explanation of the ideas I have spent my life exploring: - the mysteries of quantum reality, the paradox of "Schrödinger's Cat", David Bohm's proposal that an activity of information pervades the universe and that mind was present from the beginning. The book discusses how the languages we speak affect what we see and do. It touches on synchronicities (meaningful synchronicities) and the ideas of Carl Jung, it looks at the way our understanding of the cosmos may be encoded within our bodies, the relationship between art and science, the possibility of new forms of ethical action and my hopes for the future.

F. David Peat is the author of twenty books including "From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century", "Blackwinged Night: Creativity in Nature and Mind", "Blackfoot Physics", "Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind", "Seven Life Lessons of Chaos" (with John Briggs) and "Science, Order and Creativity" with David Bohm

Unlike a vast majority of sociologist and scientists who's theories for tackling Social/Global problems merely laps back into pure academia, David Peat is unique in that his theories you can actually apply. This comes about because his theories and whole approach to life within the community around him in Pari(Italy) are interwoven.I know this because his ideas have already caused ripples in my part of the world and have lead to some very interesting and tangible results. Now in his bio David shows us all so much more through his experiences, and go on the journey that helped change so many lives!
Claire Appleby UK (T.A.M.S.).

David Peat possesses one of the most incisive, expansive minds I've
ever known. His work has inspired a generation. His
autobiographical Pathways of Chance is a fascinating roadmap of
20th-century learning and a beacon to the future. No one perceives
connections or explains them with greater clarity than Peat. This
book is a moveable feast."
Larry Dossey, MD, The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things, Healing Words and Reinventing Medicine.

Yes, physicists are strange beings and usually we fail to see just what
makes them tick or we can't imagine how anyone in their right mind would
ever become one. David Peat's new book provides an informative and honest
from-the-heart answer. This autobiographical look behind the scenes will
inform and engage you as you follow along Dr. Peat's journey through time
and meet all of the characters he found so interesting.
Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D, The Yoga of Time Travel


Here we have that rare and wonderful thing: a scientist who can truly write. Peat's
autobiography is a daring fusion of the memoir and the cutting-edge essay. It makes a
rich and readable introduction, not only to Peat's own extraordinary life and his web of
20th-century connections, but also to some of the most tantalising ideas and figures of
the period, across both science and art. It is, at times, provocative; at other times,
poignantly human. Throughout, it is erudite and, above all, keenly concerned about how
we, as a species and a planet, move forward in the 21st-century. Peat's words are subtle
catalysts, sparking in us our own potential for transformation at all levels of life.
Pathways of Chance is a fascinating book, and an important one. Read it now.
Alison McLeod, novelist The Wave Theory of Angels

David Peat has one of the liveliest, most wide-ranging, depth probing minds I've ever encountered. Peat's thoughts on physics, philosophy and the arts, put forward in a genial, gracious writing style, reads like a can't-put-down mystery novel. Pathways of Chance will surely appeal to all who are interested in any of these subjects as well as those who like reading about his and other famous people's fascinating lives.
Joseph Eger, Conductor, Symphony for United Nations, author of
Einstein's Violin: A Conductor's Notes on Music, Physics and Social Change

I've previously read several books by F. David Peat, and this fascinating autobiography enabled me to see that I've been attracted to his work because I share many interests and attitudes with him.

He was born in 1938 in a suburb of Liverpool, was a sickly child, and apparently had a family life which was tolerable but not great. From a relatively young age, he developed an interest in science and literature, and read avidly in these areas, eventually building up a personal library of about 10,000 books (makes me feel less guilty about my own sizable library!). He also developed a strong interest in the visual arts and music, himself playing drums and mandolin. As another creative outlet, he became interested in writing from a young age, and of course this was to eventually become a major emphasis of his career.

In that regard, he was largely a self-taught university student, initially on track to get a PhD in experimental chemistry (an interest going back to his childhood), but he switched to theoretical physics instead. This led to a faculty position at Queen's University in Canada, followed by several years as a researcher at Canada's National Research Council. After he grew bored there and fell out of favor with more conservative colleagues, he left the NRC and embarked on a life journey which involved such diverse endeavors as making a movie; working on radio plays; close interaction with Native Americans, Roger Penrose, David Bohm, and many artists; writing many books; and eventually settling in the small rustic village of Pari, Italy, where he established the ongoing "Center for New Learning."

One can also get a sense of what Peat has been up to by reading the "excursions" in the book, where he discusses topics that have been of particular interest to him. These topics include involvement of the body in creative work, the foundations of quantum mechanics, the many-body problem, philosophy of language, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, synchronicity, dialogue, solutions to global environmental and other problems (he advocates "gentle action," which is similar to the Taoist concept of wu wei), and ethics. These excursions are a valuable and integral component of the book, thought I felt that some of them could have perhaps been written more clearly.

Overall, my sense is that Peat is a man of unusually diverse and intense interests and capacities, and they're unified by a core motivation to penetrate the profound mysteries of our human existence in the cosmos, with the aim of arriving at a holistic understanding. Such a quest could be characterized as spiritual, and he himself uses that word a few times, but he doesn't articulate his spiritual worldview in detail (though perhaps we can infer the outlines of it from this book). Although his quest was mostly unplanned, in retrospect Peat appears to view it as forming a coherent narrative. I agree.

The one thing I found somewhat odd about this autobiography is that Peat hardly talks about his wife and children. Was he able to spend enough time with them while pursuing his interests? What kind of financial pressure did he experience? Was his wife always supportive of his career choices? Did his children grow to share any of his interests and benefit from his wide learning? The book is almost entirely silent on these matters, which suggests that either his intellectual and family life were in separate compartments, or perhaps he just chose not to talk much about his family life in this book (in which case, he should have said so up front).

But overall, I greatly enjoyed reading this book, my appreciation for Peat as a thinker and searcher has been enhanced, I've developed a feeling of kinship with him, and I recommend this book to anyone who is inclined to grapple with the big questions in a rigorous but open-minded way.

This was a marvellous book, wonderfully readable and covering so much ground. I enjoyed both the tales of David Peat's life as well as his essays on science, the weaving of the two I thought worked excellently. A must read for anyone with an inquiring mind!

This is a fascinating book about the nature of reality. The scientific method has evolved over centuries to understand physical reality. Dr. David Peat is trained in this method, having a PhD and being a researcher in physics. He uses his skills to elucidate several insights from modern physics in terms that are delightfully accessible to non-physicists. Human experience is another type of reality. Various academic disciplines such as psychology, sociology and economics are concerned the understanding of human reality. Other windows on human reality are provided by self-awareness, introspection, and accounts of other peoples' lives. (See "The Universe in a Single Atom" by the Dalai Lama, who is highly trained in self-awareness, for another book that discusses both types of reality.) Scientists who develop an understanding of our physical universe are, by necessity, also experiencing their own human reality. Pathways of Chance includes stories about renowned physicists Wolgang Pauli and David Bohm to shed light on the human aspects of reality.

The reader receives a double gift: informed insights about physical reality, and a perspective on human reality that is advised by analytical methods more usually applied only to the physical world. Physics has made great, and occasionally controversial, strides by developing models of reality. These models have enabled humankind to influence physical reality in very powerful ways. For example, understanding the equivalence of energy and matter has resulted in the use of nuclear energy for many purposes. The models may be mental constructs, but their uses have huge impacts on our human experience. Of course, the construction of the mental models is itself a human experience, but undertaken by a few people and published in journals with language and symbols that are accessible to only a small number of trained individuals. The book gives insight into the minds of that small number of people.

Pathways of Chance reminds the reader that there is not really a solid barrier between physical and human realities. Any observation influences the system that is being observed. This is the basis of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The more accurately one knows the position of a sub-atomic particle the less certain one is of its momentum, precisely because the act of observation has an impact on the particle. In a similar way, this book may have a remarkable influence on our world as readers become aware of its insights. Indeed, towards the end of the book, Dr. Peat briefly discusses economic reality, i.e., the behavior of our social system. I recommend the book as an accessible and wide-ranging account of physics, language, music, art and human experience.