Customer Reviews

The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightenment

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike Dr. Goswami's other books, which often meander and seem too technical for a layperson, this book is extremely well-written and easy for anyone interested in the new physics and spirituality to understand. This is a fascinating account of exactly how quantum physics might be used to explain such complex spiritual phenomenon as reincarnation, karma, shaktipat, the chakras and physical death. Dr. Goswami's father was a Hindu guru in India. However,as a small boy hiding in an English library during the Indian War of Independence, his son read all of Einstein's works and began a lifelong journey to find explanations in the laws of physics for the most mysterious spiritual tenets of the ancient Upanishads. Today, Dr. Goswami teaches quantum physics at the University of Oregon, and is a scholar in residence at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Consequently, he seems the most qualified of the "new physicists" to integrate Eastern spirituality with Western science. This books offers people in the West nothing less than a real opportunity to understand God, and, as such, is probably the most spectacular book you'll ever read.

Seventy years after the quantum revolution began, Amit Goswami peered through the visionary window to behold a truth that Eastern traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism have known for centuries: "Consciousness is the ground of all being". For him this revelation synthesized the two disciplines of science and spirituality.

Traditional Western science has treated consciousness as an epiphenomenon of matter, an emergent property of the brain. But Goswami insists that this produces a paradox. If consciousness is necessary for decoherence, the process by which quantum possibilities become reality, how is it possible that consciousness can arise from the very material consciousness creates?

If however, we turn this idea on its head, and show that matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness, then the paradox disappears. Matter is within consciousness. "We don't have consciousness, rather consciousness has us" (52). It is only because of our memory that we have a secondary awareness, which creates the illusion that consciousness is an individual experience.

A universal consciousness helps explain some quantum decoherence experiments in which a conscious observer has been illiminated from the experiment. For example, in an experiment called the "Quantum Pinball (Scientific American, November 1991) the results showed that just the mere possibility that knowledge could be gained, was sufficient to collapse the quantum potential into reality.
Another advantage emerges from the hypothesis that consciousness is the ground of all being. It once and for all relieves us of the anthropocentric burden that the univese was created just for us. It isn't our own consciousness that has brought us into being, but rather the result of the constant self-referential communication between universal consciousness and matter, in an endless scurring toward greater and greater complexity and meaning.

In the last portion of the book, Amit Goswami includes chapters on subjects such as reincarnation, angels, and quantum healing. If this makes you queasy, rest assured, Goswami is a physicist to the core. This book was well worth the read, and a very good follow-up to his book, "The Self-Aware Universe" (see my review on Amazon).

This review by David Kreiter, author of Quantum Reality: A New Philosophical Perspective.

Many students of philosophy understand and appreciate both
Western materialist philosophies and Eastern philosophies
more centered on consciousness. Like looking at an atom,
and looking at a galaxy, these two philosophies needed a
middleground to connect them
In this book, Goswami is the first person ever to unify
the two seemingly disparate ideologies. He provides the
middleground in a way that books like "The Tao of Physics"
fail to do. (They only "hint" at the connection).

I am very happy that I bought this book.

With his insightful and occasionally inspiring observations and commentaries integrating the spiritual with the scientific, Amit Goswami's The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide To Enlightenment to present a new scientific paradigm placing human values as paramount. He shows how the principles embedded and revealed through the new science of quantum physics can help the reader tap into an inner creativity, deepen spirituality, and life a life of liberation and fulfillment. The Visionary Window is very highly recommended reading for students of physics, metaphysics, and spirituality.

This is a truely remarkable read that makes the connection of eastern beliefs and quantum physics like Fritjof Capra's, "The Tao of Physics". It is written by someone who has a thorough grounding in Hindu tradition and ancient beliefs and the basis of his PhD, quantum physics. The spiritual beliefs are remarkably well reviewed in the rigorous manner of a scientist that Goswami is by profession.

Basically this is a review of beliefs and his theses on consciousness but the link to quantum physics are wishy washy and his own concepts. To wit just a few.
P 118: "Perhaps the best evidence of the quantum nature of thought, however, is its nonlocality, as demonstrated in telephathy" Really? Telepathy is still contentious and not substantiated and not referenced in his book.
p 157: Goswami responds to a question of whether there are scientists that support cosmology as science. He responds with a reference to "several international conferences..." without naming them or anyone in particular.
p 158. A similar question about biologists who have proposed ideas similar to his own whereupon he refers to his own books and citing just one man, contentious in his right, Rupert Sheldrake.
Elsewhere he often refers to unpublished papers, conversations and unreferenced citations.

Yet Goswami raises significant questions and solutions even if the connections between the beliefs and modern science upon which this book is based are weak and for these, I am still giving it 4 stars. After all, cutting edge evolution cannot always rely on previous research. Einstein only had theory in 1918. I learned much about the nature of the core religions and beliefs even if the links to quantum physics are at best, weak.

I was about four years old when I discovered that things die, and the outrage that I felt at this news has fueled a fifty year search to understand what we're doing here. This is not my only literary quest, but it is a big one, and it has taken me all over the map. When I studied relativity and quantum physics in college, I saw - 'through a glass darkly' - that this was an important piece of the puzzle, but real understanding eluded me. I just bought the The Visionary Window, and I knew almost immediately, that this, for me, was the Ahah! book - the one that brought all the pieces together. I recommend it highly.

This is not an easy book to read, but for the spiritual seeker it can be stimulating and rewarding. Goswami is an expert at quantum physics and explains how it helps to reveal spiritual phenomena. His explanations are clear but also tedious. He answers practically every question that can be anticipated; however,in doing so he risks losing all but the most determined reader.

This is not to pan the book. It is superlative in many ways, full of undeniable wisdom. But I'm not sure he adequately addresses the ultimate question: how does it apply to the common man? Would the Creator give us a world of marvelous complexity and hide its meaning from everyone but mental giants? Goswami shows us the complexity and masters the art of elucidation. But are most people that interested in the hows and whys of our being here and what we should do about it? If there are actions to take, instructions to follow, beliefs to accept, why aren't they already clear to the least of us? Why can't everyone figure it out? These questions are addressed not only to Goswami but to all other speculators in this genre. Why can't teaching of this magnitude be simple?

I recommend this book to anyone who has the time, inclination and intelligence to get through it. That eliminates much of the world's population. And I have an idea that the Being responsible for the presence of the human race on this planet values us all. Goswami calls that Being consciousness.

He eloquently brings science and spirituality together, without injuring the sensibilities of either's adherents. He emphasizes time and again that consciousness is the ground of all being. And he wraps up the discussion with what he calls four stages of enlightenment. But it leaves me wondering how many of us billions remain unaware of them and what, if any, the consequences are.

Once again a book by Amit Goswami is clear, concise and understandable. I find his arguments and explanations for the beliefs he proposes believable and coherent.For anyone interested in getting past promisory materialism this will be of much help.
This book explains many aspects of quantum physics in very understandable manner and is of great help.

An excellent discussion of subjects way over my head but explained so that I can understand.

This is thick writing but well worth it if you are interested in this topic. The first time I tried to read it, I was on a 24 hour train trip. That was not the right occasion. This is a wide-awake-afternoon type book. You need to be able to offer full concentration and brain power. It's worth it.