“It is long past time to discuss the ultimate questions such as “why are we here?” … We need the answers in order to have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and do whatever it takes to overcome the challenges facing civilization today.”
Scientists can do much to help humanity simply by acknowledging that there is no scientific basis for ruling out the possibility that the universe is intelligent. This simple and eminently justifiable (if not overdue) act of open-mindedness can permeate world culture, causing personal reconsideration of everything by everyone. Because it is a more positive view than materialistic accidentalism, an increase in hope and courage is a logical outcome.
In his third work of non-fiction, Emmy® Award winning author Bill Harvey draws extensively on well-sourced quotes by Albert Einstein and John Wheeler, as well as on his own unorthodox imagination, in making his case.
“I wrote this book mainly for physicists but also for everyone. I’d like physicists to accept the scientific possibility of something very much like ‘God’, and to prioritize the subject.”
Harvey’s deeper critique of contemporary science is that, unlike the era of the natural philosophers, it has built a barrier between itself and any conception of God, closing minds and pushing our society toward discord. Harvey draws on Einstein and John Wheeler, quantum mechanics and Eastern spiritual traditions, to make the case for exploring the possibility of a First Self who created all of this, and of a One Self, connecting us all. The work is searching, and Harvey urges readers to be, too, laying out a series of experiments for individuals to feel connection to “the intelligence of the multiverse.”
There’s some humility in asking scientists simply to explore the possibilities. Elsewhere in this compact book, Harvey makes more concrete promises, insisting breezily that “Better behavior will steadily take over” and “Working together in a friendly way will become the norm” if scientists were to endorse the proposition that the universe itself may be intelligent. Later chapters connect the One Self hypothesis to familiar New Age ideas (ESP, out-of-body experiences) that will appeal to seekers at the possible cost of alienating scientists.
Takeaway: Impassioned call for the study of the possibility of an intelligent universe.
Comparable Titles: Ulf Danielsson’s The World Itself, Carl Johan Calleman’s The Living Universe.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Bill Harvey wrote this book mainly for physicists, but its considerations will attract general-interest audiences of non-scientists as well, as A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and "God" explores not only the "why" of human effort and existence, but how these considerations can lead readers to "...have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and do whatever it takes to overcome the new challenges facing civilization today."
—Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Many books and essays have been written about the nature and purpose of life. Bill Harvey takes the next step in applying these inquiries about the "God" concept to expanded purposes in, and approaches to, living life: "The "inner life" tradition—pondering the ultimate questions, studying the self—has continued alongside every step forward we have made in science and technology."
From the history of the popular denial of a higher being among scientific circles to ideas of The One Self as a singularity whose presence is all-encompassing and changing, Harvey creates a thought-provoking dialogue that encourages scientists and readers alike to adopt bigger-picture perceptions of the universe's possibilities.
The breadth and scope of this inquiry is unprecedented [emphasis ours]. Its major value, aside from individual contemplation, will be to spark equally vivid and unusual discussions in professional circles where such talks typically bow to hard, observable science over ethereal suppositions. The result is more than a theory or a dialogue about possibilities in spirituality, reality, and methodology, but an exciting new way of considering consciousness, God, and universe perceptions that invites all manner of students, whether they be scientists or general readers, to suspend preset beliefs and training in favor of a wider-ranging approach to linking hunches and perceptions to the synchronicities life introduces that too often are discarded with pat rationalization.
There is nothing pat or categorically simple in this approach, which encourages self-experimentation and awakening a form of observation and discourse that may have remained in the backgrounds of many readers' lives. Ideally, A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and "God" will receive equally wide-ranging attention and attraction—from spiritual and scientific circles to book club readers and debaters who come from psychology and philosophy circles, and who seek works that don't just reflect the boundaries of human experience and possibility, but challenges them.
—Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
