THE GRAND BIOCENTRIC DESIGN

Medical scientist Lanza, with physicist Pavšič and science writer Berman, expands the argument for biocentrism in this new exploration of the subject.

The current scientific consensus is that life is a product of the universe—but these authors argue that it’s actually the other way around. Many of the unknowns in our current understanding of physics, assert the authors, begin to make sense if one allows that nature and its observer have effects on each other—in other words, that the living, conscious mind is necessary for laws of the universe to exist and function at all. This third book on biocentrism from Lanza and his co-authors seeks to move the topic out of the realm of speculation and prove that its ideas are based on hard science: “Did biocentrism more properly fall under the rubric of philosophy than of science? We certainly didn’t think so. Yet we acknowledged that it would be nice to be able to seal the case for biocentrism on the physics alone.” The authors outline the history and principles of the concept of biocentrism, including recent discoveries that have helped the theory gain greater traction. Augmented with this new research, they make the best case they can for their view on how the universe operates—attempting to establish, once and for all, the necessity of the observer. The book’s prose is aimed at the general reader, and the authors craft their arguments—even the most complex ones—in smooth, accessible language. For example, here, they discuss the reception of Einstein’s theory of relativity: “This connectedness between spatial dimensions and the temporal component threw most people for a loop. That’s because in daily life, time seems utterly distinct from the three spatial realms.” The arguments build in complexity as the work goes on but do so in a way that’s quite thrilling. Not all readers will be persuaded by the authors’ case, but its notions are exciting ones, and they do a sound job of linking them to observable, replicable experiments. Fans of revolutionary science—or just big, cerebral questions—will enjoy this ambitious work.

A thought-provoking dispatch from the frontier of physics.