The "Multiple You" Universe

A sweeping attempt to synthesize science and spiritualism.

In her nonfiction debut, Martin, a self-described mystic, introduces her readers to the concept of “Sacred Science,” her term for the “combined study of the spiritual and the scientific.” From her point of view, life is “emergent and marvelous,” and consciousness is “the One Source of All as God evidenced within us like an energy signature”—a signature that, according to her research into quantum physics, science will soon verify. Martin gently admonishes science not to “lag behind” mystics in the pursuit of new discoveries about human cognition or the nature of time itself. On top of this underpinning of scientific vocabulary and concepts, she overlays a fairly standard picture of human souls connected to a benign “Over-Soul” that shepherds them from one earthly incarnation to the next, always intricately woven into the fabric of reality (“I know myself as connected to everything,” she writes). In support of such beliefs, Martin writes about scientific breakthroughs such as single-photon emission computed tomography, which can show how the brain reacts to meditation and religious stimulation through colored graphics detailing variations of blood flow in the amygdala and hippocampus. If Martin is aware of how deeply the advances of such technology undercut her contention that “scientists cannot tell us where the mind exists or whether it lies within the brain or within the body,” it certainly doesn’t show in the book’s smooth, confident tone. The breadth of her inquiries into the complexities of the quantum world is both impressive and inviting, but skeptical readers may notice that in her proposed synthesis of science and spirituality, it’s the science that seems to be doing most of the heavy lifting.

Thought-provoking and daringly far-reaching, if not wholly convincing.