Self Aware UniverseGoswami Amit with R.E. Reed & M. Goswami (1993) The Self-Aware Universe: How consciousness creates the material world. Tarcher/Putnam Books.  

 

With many diagrams and illustrations Goswami gives the case for the self-aware universe and argues with clarity how quantum physics supports his arguments. It supports the idea of many religions mystical traditions because the consciousness of the observer influences the outcome of whether an electron is a wave or a particle. That is: that consciousness seems to create at a quantum level the entire make up of the universe.

 

Amit Goswami is well qualified to write this book which challenges current scientific thought and worldview. He is a theoretical nuclear scientist from the University of Oregon where he has served as an academic since 1968. He is originally from India and received his PhD from the University of Calcutta in 1964. He presents a description of quantum physics in which he describes how quantum physics differs from the classical description of reality. This current Western science establishment worldview is that everything can be reduced to the basic building blocks of matter. This is the worldview of materialistic dualism with matter as the primary reality and the mind separate but dependent on matter. Reality in this materialist dualist worldview starts as sub atomic particles of electrons, protons and neutrons, these make up atoms, atoms make molecules, molecules make cells and cells make brains. This materialist theory is what’s called “upward causation.” Free will is seen not to exist in this paradigm. It is seen as an epiphenomenon or secondary phenomenon, secondary to the causal power of matter. Because of this Spirituality doesn’t come into this widely accepted theory.

 

In this book Goswami challenges this current worldview that everything can be reduced to the basic building blocks of matter. Amit Goswami sets out a very different view to the materialist theory. This is that everything starts with consciousness and that consciousness is the ground of all being. He proposes that consciousness is the true foundation of all we know and perceive. This theory of “downward causation” shows that free will and the spirituality of various mystical traditions is real. Goswami is more in line with the mystics of various religions than classical physics. He explains quantum physics to lay readers and sets out an overview of how quantum physics is challenging the mechanistic worldview that everything is made of matter. He shows that in the observation of the smallest particles of matter electrons the observer influences reality and it only becomes manifest when observed by conscious beings. This explains everything of the weirdness of quantum physics including the enigma of psychic abilities. He then describes how this has common ground with new psychological theory’s as well as the great religious traditions of the world. He sums up with an explanation of the social implications of this new paradigm with regard to creativity, ethics and spirituality.

 

Goswami shows that this new theory explaining reality called “Monistic idealism” is not only the basis of all religions but also should be the correct philosophy for modern science. Mystics have always said that reality is not two things, God and the world, but one consciousness; this is what Goswami points out. He asserts that consciousness is the ground for all being and that scientists need to change their way of thinking as this way of looking at the world explains the quantum reality of the world far better. This new paradigm solves the quantum measurement problem by showing that the famous observer effect can be explained by Goswami’s “Monistic idealism.”

 

This book builds bridges between east and west, religion and science and the self and the Universe as such it is very interesting and well written.