THE QUANTUM SELF: Human Nature and Consciousness Defined by the New Physics

by Danah Zohar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 1989

Zohar takes Fritzjof Capra's classic The Tao of Physics several steps further in this provocative use of quantum theory--and proposes a physics of the mind and a reevaluation of man's role in the universe. Departing from the familiar conundrum of Schroedinger's Cat, which illustrates that in the world of particle physics action can be predicted only in terms of probability, Zohar, a former MIT physics student and author of Up My Mother's Flagpole (1974), describes the mind as a bubbling stew of quantum interactions--interactions that give rise to waves of memory and association until they collapse into an actualized thought or idea. Describing intimacy between lovers or between mother and infant as two minds quantumly interacting to such a degree that part of each mind ""resides"" in the other, she goes on to define immortality as the part of one's mind that remains interacting with the minds of others through memory, through one's works of art that continue to stimulate other minds after the artist's death, etc. Free will, an oft-denied element of psychology in western culture, is made possible (if unconsciously so) through the unpredictable balancing of millions of experience-influenced quantum waves. Pointing out that the difference between the quantum interactions of living things and those of matter are flight indeed, Zohar concludes that humanity need not consider itself an alien entity in the universe, but rather part and parcel with the stars above and the earth below. A stimulating work, thoughtfully conceived and unusually thorough.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION