A Huge Influence
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I bought this book back in 1985 and must say that the information within it, being new to me at that time, blew me away. It informed and impacted so much upon my view of the world that it has remained one of the most influential books in my life; a stepping stone to so many other threads. More than twenty years on, its contents may be 'old news' as the subjects have become popularised and the masses have been introduced to them via many programmes on the TV. Even so, I expect that for those still yet to discover its wealth of information, it will prove to be equally enthrawling, although it can be heavy going at times. For the price, can you afford NOT to read it? It might change your life.
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Parallels are not equivalents.
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There are many solid books on connections and continuity in history and religion and physics. However Jacob Bronowski, "The Ascent of Man", would turn me over in my grave if he found out that I was reading such books as this. There are too many quasi science quasi religion books that want to take some principle and reinterpret it to be a New age truth or prove the some old blind philosopher beat us too it for example (The Seat of the Soul.) Dr. Capra is drawing parallels in two fields and not trying to say "see I told you so". He takes the time and pages to describe the science and also does a pretty good job of distilling complex religions down to single chapters. I leave it up to Dr. Capra and you to determine if there really is any parallel. A parallel does not mean equivalents. If you are a Gary Zukav sort of person this book will not help you at all.
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Gobsmacking
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When I was a boy, aged about 8, I used to lie awake at night worrying about how the universe could possibly have been created out of nothing. I wouldn't say Capra has made me feel alright, but I have certainly reduced my consumption of valium.
To get serious I am not at all a physicist, but have a longstanding interest in mysticism. For me this book went quite a long way towards explaining modern physics. I am amazed how 'far out' it gets - Capra starts by taking us through relativity and quantum theory - explaining that electrons can be seen as particles or waves but not both, it depends how you set up the experiment. He winds up with Geoffrey Chew and Bohr suggesting that matter of any description can ultimately only be understood as to some degree a function of the mind.
Along the way he drops in elegant and pithy summaries of the philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucius and the Tao, drawing parallels between physics and the eastern view of the universe as a creation of the mind.
Having said this, to my mind, untutored (completely) as it is in physics or for that matter science in general, Capra presents a lot of ideas, admittedly in coherent form, without fully explaining them. Therefore, if this book whets your appetite to understand physics properly you are maybe going to have to go somewhere else.
But for its stated purpose, to express and point up links between mysticism and physics, you can't go wrong.
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Scientists are still playing 'catch up' to the mystics.
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Quote from book - "I also hope to find among my readers many physicists with an interest in the philosophical aspects of physics, who have not come in contact with the religious philosophies of the East. They will find that Eastern Mysticism provides a consistent and beautiful philosophical framework which can accommodate our most advanced theories of the physical world"
Originally published in 1975 this book was the first of its kind, and its findings still apply some thirty years later.
Fritjof explores eastern mysticism in the from of Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese thought, Taoism and Zen, with devoting many pages to introduce them and provides the reader with a good insight into these religions.
Fritjof does not inject much humour into his work, but does have quite an interesting take on discoveries in that discoveries, most often come to people in an almost daydreaming state, as did this book come into being. His writing is clear and at times concise, at others, elaboration on the subject is very well included and there is little in this book to get bored with.
What Fritjof does is take excerpts from the different schools of thought and shows how this correlates with scientific findings of the 20th century; he does this with ease and grace. The main thing to be taken away from this book is the idea that some of those things were written 1000's of years ago, and science has been playing `catch up' with the mystics. Definitely worth reading if you like science or not, but more so if you like science.
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interesting
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An interesting read. Covers a lot of ground, and draws some fascinating parallels.
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