Customer Reviews

Quantum Mind: The Edge Between Physics and Psychology

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In Quantum Mind, Arnold Mindell takes the reader to the common root underlying both physics and psychology to reveal physics as the basic pattern for understanding psychology, and the psychology of perception as the basis of physics. Mindell offers a wealth of practical guidance backed by theoretical insight. He brings quantum awareness to such everyday matters as difficult relationships, physical symptoms and life-threatening illness, spiritual emergence, and the complexities of community life in a world of human diversity. Starting with the psychological foundations of numbers and counting, Quantum Mind takes the reader on a fascinating tour of mathematics, quantum physics, relativity, and cosmology -- showing at each point the myriad levels on which human consciousness and the physical world intertwine and co-create one another. The reader comes to know the universe and individual consciousness as two sides of an interactive mirror reflecting one another. Quantum Mind is a seminal, ground-breaking, enthusiastically recommended, completely accessible survey and analysis that will engage, inform, and challenge students of psychology, psychotherapy, physics, and the symmetry between the mathematics of physics and everyday perceptual experience.

Mindell's Quantum Mind is bringing the discussion on the connection between consciousness and matter to a new level. I want to focus on the aspect that was the most exciting to me. He shows, that our definition of physics, of psychology and of religion needs to be updated, and how in fact the progress of both sciences is blocked by how these fields define themselves. Mindell makes it clear, that psychology cannot make the next quantum jump without including the insights from QM, and physics needs the study of consciousness to understand the contradictions it's facing. Mindell brings forth his process-oriented concepts, which bridge these two worlds, and in fact establish a new scientific field, for which a term still needs to be coined.
As a psychologist, I found the theoretical and mathematical aspects of physics really well explained, and liked it, that I had a choice as a reader, how detailed I wanted to get involved in them. I was still be able to follow his line of thought in those instances, when I choose to skip the math parts.

The exercices in the book show, how modern physics and psychological theories are not only abstract concepts, but experiences that we have on an ongoing basis, and how they are connected to our personal development and spiritual understanding of our existence and the universe we live in. We understand Newtonian physics experientially, when the cup that we drop on the floor keeps breaking. We develop a similar intuitive understanding of Quantum Mechanics in addition to the theory, when we do Mindell's exercises at the end of each chapter. This is one of the huge side benefits of this book. QM never became popular knowledge because its concept are not "anschaulich" or intuitive, but rather mathematical. Mindell's book belongs in every personal and public library.

Mindell draws an extraordinary picture of the mind as a manifestation of a totality, an indivisible totality of matter, energy fields and spirit. His early studies of nuclear physics and analytical Junguian psychology, come together with an extensive and very lively and very long first hand experience, working with individual clientes, with conflict (racial, religious, gender, etc.), states of conciousness, extreme states such as coma or schizofrenia, seen from a compasionate non judgemental perspective. He is very convincing and easy to read, even when entering dense materials. He has been an excelent guidance for my practice as a body psychotherapist, as a teacher, as well as for my private life. I am most gratefull for his work, and wish his books were more readily available in Spanish.

Arnold Mindell's astonishing, visionary Quantum Mind is nothing less than the unified field theory that Einstein, Pauli, Feynman, Jung and others believed in, but failed to find before their deaths! It is not only this, but much, much more.
Eugene N. Kovalenko, Ph.D.
Los Alamos, NM

This book was recommended to me by a mentor in the field of Adlerian psychology. At first glance, the title is a bit daunting but after reading the first couple pages I was absolutely hooked! I will be honest and say that while it's definitely fascinating and I am able to take lessons away from it that are absolutely applicable to life lessons, it's a bit different psychology than I am personally interested in pursuing. This is based on Jungian psychology... very complex, process-oriented, and a bit 'flashy' for my Adlerian taste buds; but I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys exploring different aspects of consciousness and understanding of reality!

Quantum Mind is an interesting approach exploring the nature of conciousness. It is an interesting read although a bit wordy. Themes are stressed and repeated. The links between mind, physics and math seem profound. This reader found the mathematical reasoning enlightening but the physics seem somewhat vague. It is a worthwhile read for those interested in our minds connection to the universe.

Being someone who has been on the path of self-discovery for many years, I find this book to be an informative piece of the puzzle that we call ourselves. Dr. Mindell pulls together physics, mathematics, and self- discovery in a way that I have not previously seen. Quantum Mind is a must read for anyone who is attempting to understand themselves and their environment. This book is a book that has a lot of information that is based on physics and mathematics so the book is more of a study time than a story time.

I wish I had been led to this experience with his work years ago. I'm glad I have now and it will become a reference for me for years to come.

(I just happened to see that the review I wrote for this book is no longer posted here. Did this website delete it? Why weren't the other reviews deleted if it was an accident? Makes me wonder...)

Anyway, I'll just re-cap some of what I went to the trouble of typing before (Amaz. should watch themselves; people won't bother writing reviews or trusting ratings if they find that reviews & ratings mysteriously disappear!!)

This book is junk. It's for baby-boomer new-age wannabe's who are desperate to feel that there's a meaning to life. It's vague clap-trap, old ideas paraded as something new on the author's part but with no substantial insights of his own. The author quotes scientists' ideas but then acts like HE has somehow gone further with those ideas, which he hasn't (unless you consider vague generalities & empty filler to be progress). He's the type of author who literally makes money off of holding therapeutic "workshops" for groups of gullible people who don't know much about science, where they discuss each other's "feelings." Nothing wrong with that, IF you file it under THERAPY.

One part of the book that really crystallized my feelings for it was the transcript of one of those touchy-feely, inane "workshops," where the author's wife gets herself into the mindset of a baby to experience the "edge" of that experience... she makes some baby noises...talks about the sensations of pretending to be a baby... I kid you not. Then the workshop group laughs and spits out some more generalities and pretends like they've "gotten somewhere." What drek! If reading that kind of stuff sounds deep or meaningful to you, then order this book right away, because that's what you'll get.

If you're someone who knows something about science and likes to think a bit more seriously, spend your time on a book like physicist Brian Greene's _The Elegant Universe_ for an understanding of modern physics and all the weird, far-out things it implies. Read _The Holographic Universe_ by Michael Talbot for the far-out ideas presented within (some are flimsy, but a lot of it is quite interesting). Read _Wholeness and the Implicate Order_ by physicist David Bohm. All those books show that, yes, quantum physics points towards some very strange conclusions, and the universe is probably way stranger than we thought.

But _Quantum Mind_ by Arnell is as fluffy and lite as the clouds on its cover. It seems to be aimed at flakey scatter-brains who want to feel connected to everything, but can't, and who don't know enough about the history & philosophy of science to realize that this book really doesn't offer anything useful, insightful, or new. It's fine to feel a desire for connection to the universe, but to publish this big thick book that manages to be so short on real ideas is a joke. I can't believe I wasted my money on it. You've been warned.