The SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE: How Quantum Physics Proves the Existence of the Soul [Hardcover]

Fred Alan Wolf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1996

The American Book Award-winning author of Taking the Quantum Leap examines the startling answers modern science provides for questions about the soul--in a provocative exploration of the realm where religion, philosophy, science and spirituality intersect. Line drawings throughout.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Wolf (Quantum Leap, LJ 11/15/81; Parallel Universes, S. & S., 1990) provides an interesting investigation of the soul?what it is, how it differs from the self, and what role it plays in good and evil. Wolf provides further insights into the "both/and" world of quantum physics as well as the spiritual and scientific basis for the soul. The 14 chapters engage the reader in soul physics, magnetic, emotional, feminine, and world soul and in soul searching (how does the soul remember?; is there an ancient basis for a modern soul?; and the heartfelt relationship of one soul to another). Public libraries would do well to add this to their collections since the discussion invites scientists, believers, and skeptics to a captivating exploration. Both the mainstream religious believer and the New Age participant will find something here to challenge them. The numerous notes and six-page bibliography make this a comprehensive examination inviting further probing.?Leroy Hommerding, Citrus Cty. Lib. System, Beverly Hills, Fla.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Now there's a subtitle with legs! The book to which it applies, however, is both better and worse than it promises. Better, because the book is more careful and exact, and worse--especially for the reader looking for the philosophical magic bullet--because the book is more careful and exact. Physicist Wolf, author of other popular books on his specialty (Taking the Quantum Leap [1989], The Body Quantum [1986], etc.), proves scientifically the existence of the soul, but only by defining soul so broadly that many will be disappointed. For it is not the personal soul that he is concerned with. Rather, Wolf's soul more nearly resembles the world soul of the gnostics. As usual, Wolf is methodical and clear at explicating physics and thereby provides physics-phobics a wide bridge to understanding some often arcane material. Patricia Monaghan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (November 7, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684812002
• ISBN-13: 978-0684812007
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fred Alan Wolf is a world-renowned physicist, writer, and lecturer who also conducts research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness. He is the author of 13 books, 3 audio CD courses and received the National Book Award for "Taking the Quantum Leap". He is a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars and was Professor of physics at San Diego State University for twelve years. Dr. Wolf has appeared in many nationally released films including "What the Bleep Do We Know?" and "The Secret." His latest book due out in the Spring of 2011 is "Time-Loops and Space-Twists: How God Created the Universe."
He has been interviewed on several radio and television programs including New Dimensions Radio, Western Public Radio, National Public Radio, and many others. He was the visiting scholar/scientist-in-residence in the Pacific Northwest sponsored by The Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy during the spring season, 1994. He has spoken numerous times before The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, and several other prominent organizations and been interviewed on a number of television shows between the years 1995 to the present including: The Discovery Channel's The Know Zone, Sightings, The Thinking Allowed Television Series, The Malone show, The Evidence for Heaven. Star Trek IV, Special Collector's edition, The Fabric of Time, The Case for Christ's Resurrection, Down the Rabbit Hole, and the PBS series Closer to Truth.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aleph... Isness, just is., February 4, 2001

By 

Joel Brown (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE: How Quantum Physics Proves the Existence of the Soul (Hardcover)

If this book is accepted, it could be revolutionary. A masterpiece--talk about uniting Science and Religion!!! By the time you read just the first chapter your mouth will water for more as you wonder, "By the time I finish this will I finally have an answer to the eternal burning questions?" Well, you will have Fred Alan Wolf's answer, to God, the soul, existence, and so on. He had some difficulty and struggle to write a SCIENTIFIC account of the soul. Science is supposed to only deal with things that can be sensed and directly observed, isn't it? So what place does it have on the soul other than maybe denying its existence? Well, we've never found the soul because we've been asking the wrong questions. We have the wrong idea about the "ghost in the machine." We have the wrong conceptions about many things, Soul, Matter, Self, Conciousness, all different, though related, phenomena. He gives a tour through all past contemplations on the nature of the soul's physics. It starts off with a juxtaposition of Thomas Aquinas' and Aristotles' soulish ideas. Then it goes from Plato, to ancient Egypt, to the Qabala. (Providing us with a modern quantum physics interpretation of the Eden story) Fred not only turns to modern science theories, but also Buddhist teachings. The two fields of knowledge on agree on much more than you would ever think. Even the Dalai Lama has said that it could be possible for a soul to incarnate a computer!! Now, I'm not exactly scientifically inclined... and alot of the chapters were deep material for me to comprehend. I never studied quantum mechanics or anything, but this all depends on your own scientific understandings. Some of it may be over your head, but maybe not then again I was up late pretty tired while reading it, Hehe. But he doesn't obfuscate anything, it will nevertheless will be very interesting. (all kinds of stuff, Zero point energy, the Dirac Sea, antimatter) Once it delves more into the Zen Buddhism which he extols, there is alot of soul philosophy. Seeing that everyone is in the illusory cycle of suffering, and that we lose contact with our souls through material addictions...to the point where we don't differentiate the self and the soul. (Which are more like reflections of one another) Such is the nature of Maya. He shows us that there is no plurality to consciousness. There is really only one soul and consciousness, the mind of God, from which we all arise.

This book is DEFINITELY worth your time. And if you don't gain anything else, one thing will atleast be the most unique theory you've every heard, in the chapter titled "Resurrection Physics."1

5.0 out of 5 stars A WELL-KNOWN POPULARIZER OF PHYSICS FOCUSES ON THE "SOUL", June 28, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE: How Quantum Physics Proves the Existence of the Soul (Hardcover)

Fred Alan Wolf (born 1934) is an American theoretical physicist (and former physics professor at San Diego State University) specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He has helped popularize science on the Discovery Channel, and has produced a number of audio and video presentations (e.g., Dr. Fred Alan Wolf: The Secret of the Law of Attraction 1: The Big Bang Within You, Spirit Space; A Journey Into Your Consciousness, Dr. Quantum Presents: A User's Guide to the Universe, Dr. Quantum Presents: Meet the Real Creator--You!, Dr. Quantum Presents Do-It-Yourself Time Travel (Sounds True Audio Learning Course), etc.) He has also written books such as Time Loops and Space Twists: How God Created the Universe, Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit, Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists, Dr. Quantum's Little Book Of Big Ideas: Where Science Meets Spirit, etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1996 book, "I wish to show that the self is fundamentally an illusion arising as a reflection of the soul in matter much as a clear lake at midnight reflects the moon. At the same time, the soul is not an illusion, although it is a reflection of spirit... One goal of this book is to show how the concept of self differs vitally from the soul. To do this will require us to venture on a journey of soul-deconstruction and reconstruction, moving backward and forward through time and history." (Pg. 28)

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"My scientific mind habitually takes over, and I become skeptical and unfeeling. But my path in this life is through the mind and my intuition. So I have to work to gain subjective insight that is heartfelt as much as most nonscientists may have to work to gain objective scientific knowledge." (Pg. 23)
"So the early Bible writers would be in a predicament. How can what can't be described be conveyed as a teaching? The answer was to base the Bible in an arcane language with hidden meaning that could only be appreciated through work and study." (Pg. 101)
"Consequently, addiction cannot be cured without considering the spiritual dimension of human beings. We need to grasp that desire for a material form is the root cause of any and all addictions." (Pg. 196)
"When the self talks to the soul, the box expands. In such a moment the self feels release from tension and in self-less-communion with God and all sentient life forms in the universe. Buddhists call this Nirvana. Christians call it Faith or Consciousness of God. I call it realized compassion." (Pg. 298)
"A soulless world is nearly unthinkable, but the danger of the world becoming this way is always present. Soul awareness must be borught into the intellectual world of science." (Pg. 308)

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellant Book, October 31, 2010

By 

Shoeaddict (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE: How Quantum Physics Proves the Existence of the Soul (Hardcover)

I bought this as a gift for my father. He's reading it now and really enjoys it. He says it's pretty deep and not a book you can just pick up and read anytime...you have to sit and think about what's written.