Biocentrism How life and consciousness are the keys to understanding the true nature of the universe

R. P. Lanza, 1956-

Book - 2009

Saved in:

2nd Floor Show me where

576.83/Lanza
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 576.83/Lanza Checked In
Subjects
Published
Dallas, TX : BenBella Books, Inc c2009.
Language
English
Main Author
R. P. Lanza, 1956- (-)
Other Authors
Bob Berman (-)
Physical Description
x, 213 p. : ill. ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes index.
ISBN
9781933771694
  • Introduction
  • 1. Muddy Universe
  • 2. In the Beginning There Was . . . What?
  • 3. The Sound of a Falling Tree
  • 4. Lights and Action!
  • 5. Where Is the Universe?
  • 6. Bubbles in Time
  • 7. When Tomorrow Comes Before Yesterday
  • 8. The Most Amazing Experiment
  • 9. Goldilocks's Universe
  • 10. No Time to Lose
  • 11. Space Out
  • 12. The Man Behind the Curtain
  • 13. Windmills of the Mind
  • 14. A Fall in Paradise
  • 15. Building Blocks of Creation
  • 16. What Is This Place?
  • 17. Sci-Fi Gets Real
  • 18. Mystery of Consciousness
  • 19. Death and Eternity
  • 20. Where Do We Go from Here?
  • Appendix 1. The Lorentz Transformation
  • Appendix 2. Einstein's Relativity and Biocentrism
  • Index
  • About the Authors
Review by Choice Review

In this work, biologist and physican Lanza (Advanced Cell Technology and Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine), with astronomer Berman (columnist, Astronomy and Discover), outlines the "seven principles of biocentrism" through a series of thought experiments and observations from physics, neuroscience, and biology. The adage that Homo sapiens is the universe becoming aware of itself is turned on its head. Lanza posits that the universe is a human being becoming aware of himself/herself. The book then turns to consider the implications of these principles on the nature of consciousness, religious beliefs, life, and death. Most of this material, however, is old hat. The idea that there is no true external physical reality, for example, was already ancient when Plato pondered it. The zeal with which these principles are promoted will appeal to some readers, but others might find the analysis thin. Matter is not real, space is not real, time is not real, only the inner landscape of one's mind is real. Biocentrism to the contrary, this reviewer will probably continue to cling to his antiquated "house-of-cards worldview," but those seeking an alternate worldview will certainly find it here. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic and general collections. B. E. Fleury Tulane University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

Introduction Our understanding of the universe as a whole has reached a dead end. The "meaning" of quantum physics has been debated since it was first discovered in the 1930s, but we are no closer to understanding it now than we were then. The "theory of everything" that was promised for decades to be just around the corner has been stuck for decades in the abstract mathematics of string theory, with its unproven and unprovable assertions. But it's worse than that. Until recently, we thought we knew what the universe was made of, but it now turns out that 96 percent of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy, and we have virtually no idea what they are. We've accepted the Big Bang, despite the increasingly greater need to jury-rig it to fit our observations (as in the 1979 acceptance of a period of exponential growth, known as inflation, for which the physics is basically unknown). It even turns out that the Big Bang has no answer for one of the greatest mysteries in the universe: why is the universe exquisitely fine-tuned to support life? Our understanding of the fundamentals of the universe is actually retreating before our eyes. The more data we gather, the more we've had to juggle our theories or ignore findings that simply make no sense. This book proposes a new perspective: that our current theories of the physical world don't work, and can never be made to work, until they account for life and consciousness. This book proposes that, rather than a belated and minor outcome after billions of years of lifeless physical processes, life and consciousness are absolutely fundamental to our understanding of the universe. We call this new perspective biocentrism. In this view, life is not an accidental by-product of the laws of physics. Nor is the nature or history of the universe the dreary play of billiard balls that we've been taught since grade school. Through the eyes of a biologist and an astronomer, we will unlock the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. The twenty-first century is predicted to be the century of biology, a shift from the previous century dominated by physics. It seems fitting, then, to begin the century by turning the universe outside-in and unifying the foundations of science, not with imaginary strings that occupy equally imaginary unseen dimensions, but with a much simpler idea that is rife with so many shocking new perspectives that we are unlikely ever to see reality the same way again. Biocentrism may seem like a radical departure from our current understanding, and it is, but the hints have appeared all around us for decades. Some of the conclusions of biocentrism may resonate with aspects of Eastern religions or certain New Age philosophies. This is intriguing, but rest assured there is nothing New Age about this book. The conclusions of biocentrism are based on mainstream science, and it is a logical extension of the work of some of our greatest scientific minds. Biocentrism cements the groundwork for new lines of investigation in physics and cosmology. This book will lay out the principles of biocentrism, all of which are built on established science, and all of which demand a rethinking of our current theories of the physical universe. Excerpted from Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Bob Berman, Robert Lanza All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.