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Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant
What do a marigold, starlight over South Africa, and the birth of a child have in common?
Every person, plant, and star springs up from information compounded by interaction.
We are embedded in an ancient, intricate world. Changing combinations of atoms pass
through the long filter of history and natural law, to form planet Earth, whales, and our
own thoughts. Based on the growth of evidence explaining how the world is put together,
we have become the first generation to have a narrative that unites electron motion to
our breath, and that connects hydrogen fusion in the sun to the energy that powers our
own minds. We can describe how the proteins in our mitochondria pinch and place into
perfect position metal ions that were forged in exploding stars. We cohere for a moment,
suspended between information, order, and transformation of all things.
This book is a scientific and literary exploration of those discoveries that reveal our
deepest identity. Through our urge to understand and communicate, we have uncovered
new meanings that infuse our days with wonder.
Every person, plant, and star springs up from information compounded by interaction.
We are embedded in an ancient, intricate world. Changing combinations of atoms pass
through the long filter of history and natural law, to form planet Earth, whales, and our
own thoughts. Based on the growth of evidence explaining how the world is put together,
we have become the first generation to have a narrative that unites electron motion to
our breath, and that connects hydrogen fusion in the sun to the energy that powers our
own minds. We can describe how the proteins in our mitochondria pinch and place into
perfect position metal ions that were forged in exploding stars. We cohere for a moment,
suspended between information, order, and transformation of all things.
This book is a scientific and literary exploration of those discoveries that reveal our
deepest identity. Through our urge to understand and communicate, we have uncovered
new meanings that infuse our days with wonder.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 9, 2013
11 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Paul R. Fleischman
32 books34 followersPaul R.Fleischman’s legacy book, "Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant" expresses Dr. Fleischman’s knowledge as a psychiatrist, scientist, meditator, poet, lover of literature, and world traveler. Each chapter builds on the next and takes the reader deeper and deeper into the understanding of human life’s connection to all life. Readers of the book say that the writing is powerful and the concepts build on themselves like a suspense novel. Wonder makes an impression that commands full attention. The book makes a significant contribution by bridging the two domains of scientific and religious cosmology, and it does so with inspiration and elegance. It connects the dots of biology, physics, and spirituality and helps to crystallize thoughts, and to generate new thoughts and insights. Paul R. Fleischman is also the author of, "Cultivating Inner Peace: Exploring the Psychology,Wisdom and Poetry of Gandhi, Thoreau, the Buddha, and Others," "Karma and Chaos," "You Can Never Speak Up Too Often for the Love of All Things," "The Healing Spirit: Explorations in Religion and Psychotherapy," "Spiritual Aspects of Psychiatric Practice," "Vipassana Meditation: Healing the Healer and the Experience of Impermanence," and "The Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2014
'The mind that sees and understands the star is no less radiant than its object.'
Paul R. Fleischman, M.D. is a psychiatrist who trained at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident. He was a psychiatric consultant to numerous New England hospitals and clinics, and lectured at conferences, universities and institutions throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. He was honored by the American Psychiatric Association with the Oskar Pfister Award for being an `...outstanding contributor to the humanistic and spiritual side of psychiatric and medical issues.' Now retired from a more than 30-year private psychiatry practice, he lives with his wife in Amherst, Massachusetts and remains a teacher of Vipassana meditation, speaking perceptively about its value, employing poetic and scientific terminology, to Western professionals. His eight published books include An Ancient Path; Cultivating Inner Peace; The Buddha Taught Non Violence, Not Pacifism; Karma and Chaos; Spiritual Aspects of Psychiatric Practice and The Healing Spirit. He has lectured throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Africa and India. His interest is integrating the scientific world view with the Path of Vipassana Meditation.
As profoundly impressive as Dr. Fleischman's credentials are, they do little to prepare the reader of WONDER: When and Why the World Appears Radiant for the experience this book provides in opening our minds and our perception of integration of self in the universe. In the most eloquent manner he takes us from the beginning of being and references the contributions of the great thinkers of the past and present, unifying biology, chemistry, physics, poetry, literature, spiritual teachings, asking as many questions as he answers because that is the core of knowledge, and offers us a journey not so much through time but through space and the reduction of all things of matter to the smallest particle while all the while explaining that everything is compounded by interaction.
He informs us in his introduction that `we will steer between three kinds of closed minds: that the universe is run by a person or something like a person, that the world is a machine, fixed by law, purposely clanking, making and unmaking matter, and that the closed mind is giving up, no longer trying to wake up within the world.' And from there the banquet begins. By referencing Walt Whitman, Tagore, Einstein, Loewenstein, Rachel Carson, Hubble, Melville, Davies, Carl Sagan, H.G.Wells, Freud and on and on - few of the great minds who have contributed to our current plane of perception of the universe/s are ignored. `Beings now latent in our thoughts and loins will reach out their hands among the stars.'
By exploring DNA and ATP and quantum physics and the new `discoveries' of what lies out beyond the stars as being at once part of us and will continue to be as close as our thoughts and as ancient and recurring or recycling as the never ending oneness of all things, Dr Fleischman shares that `We are the latest appearance of long chains of chance and luck, without which we never would have been born.' And the extraordinary aspect of his writing is that unlike most, he keeps the little beads of insight bouncing throughout his narrative, making his book as connected as we all are to everything. This is not a book that can be digested in a short period of time: this is a collection of explanations and postulates that in the end define `wonder'. And at the end of reading this book, closing the cover illuminates the reader with a sense of awe not only at the sheer brilliance of Dr Fleischman's writing and knowledge, but also that feeling of yearning to stand outside, at night, and gaze into the stars, feeling an at oneness with everything. Perhaps that is wonder. I wonder. The experience he has provided becomes a part of everything we see, hear, and do. ` The dynamics of destruction, followed by renewed creation, without rest, in all sizes and domains, is the source of wonder.' And perhaps that is why it is so difficult to review this book. It must be experienced.
Paul R. Fleischman, M.D. is a psychiatrist who trained at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident. He was a psychiatric consultant to numerous New England hospitals and clinics, and lectured at conferences, universities and institutions throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. He was honored by the American Psychiatric Association with the Oskar Pfister Award for being an `...outstanding contributor to the humanistic and spiritual side of psychiatric and medical issues.' Now retired from a more than 30-year private psychiatry practice, he lives with his wife in Amherst, Massachusetts and remains a teacher of Vipassana meditation, speaking perceptively about its value, employing poetic and scientific terminology, to Western professionals. His eight published books include An Ancient Path; Cultivating Inner Peace; The Buddha Taught Non Violence, Not Pacifism; Karma and Chaos; Spiritual Aspects of Psychiatric Practice and The Healing Spirit. He has lectured throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Africa and India. His interest is integrating the scientific world view with the Path of Vipassana Meditation.
As profoundly impressive as Dr. Fleischman's credentials are, they do little to prepare the reader of WONDER: When and Why the World Appears Radiant for the experience this book provides in opening our minds and our perception of integration of self in the universe. In the most eloquent manner he takes us from the beginning of being and references the contributions of the great thinkers of the past and present, unifying biology, chemistry, physics, poetry, literature, spiritual teachings, asking as many questions as he answers because that is the core of knowledge, and offers us a journey not so much through time but through space and the reduction of all things of matter to the smallest particle while all the while explaining that everything is compounded by interaction.
He informs us in his introduction that `we will steer between three kinds of closed minds: that the universe is run by a person or something like a person, that the world is a machine, fixed by law, purposely clanking, making and unmaking matter, and that the closed mind is giving up, no longer trying to wake up within the world.' And from there the banquet begins. By referencing Walt Whitman, Tagore, Einstein, Loewenstein, Rachel Carson, Hubble, Melville, Davies, Carl Sagan, H.G.Wells, Freud and on and on - few of the great minds who have contributed to our current plane of perception of the universe/s are ignored. `Beings now latent in our thoughts and loins will reach out their hands among the stars.'
By exploring DNA and ATP and quantum physics and the new `discoveries' of what lies out beyond the stars as being at once part of us and will continue to be as close as our thoughts and as ancient and recurring or recycling as the never ending oneness of all things, Dr Fleischman shares that `We are the latest appearance of long chains of chance and luck, without which we never would have been born.' And the extraordinary aspect of his writing is that unlike most, he keeps the little beads of insight bouncing throughout his narrative, making his book as connected as we all are to everything. This is not a book that can be digested in a short period of time: this is a collection of explanations and postulates that in the end define `wonder'. And at the end of reading this book, closing the cover illuminates the reader with a sense of awe not only at the sheer brilliance of Dr Fleischman's writing and knowledge, but also that feeling of yearning to stand outside, at night, and gaze into the stars, feeling an at oneness with everything. Perhaps that is wonder. I wonder. The experience he has provided becomes a part of everything we see, hear, and do. ` The dynamics of destruction, followed by renewed creation, without rest, in all sizes and domains, is the source of wonder.' And perhaps that is why it is so difficult to review this book. It must be experienced.
April 17, 2014
‘Wonder’ Unveils Piece By Piece the World We Inhabit And Where We Fit In Creation
I never expect a scholar to be a good writer but Paul R. Fleischman is not only good but creative and at times witty. But, more important, he is an inspirational writer, sound and independent thinker.
Fleischman, author of several books and articles in scholarly journals, has recently published “Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant.” Relying on biology, chemistry, physics and math, Dr. Fleischman explains why we should view the universe and ourselves with wonder and tells why each one of us – if we truly want to – can experience a sense of wonder each day of our life.
We learn from Dr. Fleischman that wonder combines the science, poetry and spirituality that are contained within the big questions we all ask about what life really means. Every individual possesses thoughts, emotions, and feelings of wonder that can be tapped by beautiful language and wise thoughts. What the author wants us to come to realize is that our sense of wonder emerges from the world that creates us.
This scholarly book is not an easy one to read but is very much worth making an effort because it contains unique insights and information about ourselves and our world that we have never thought about before. And it is good to ponder new concepts. I avoided rushing through “Wonder” as I might a piece of fiction but instead took my time, read it over a period of four weeks, and focused on what the author wanted me to know. I was rewarded for finishing the book.
Examples of the creativity, wit and insights Dr. Fleischman offers includes these samples:
• The human mind – even Einstein’s mind – has limits of understanding. We will always remain children in a research library, indirect knowers.
• Our new world, like a wool shirt, is sometimes irritating.
• Wonder is the word we preserve to refer to events that provoke a deep echo, that make us tremble. Wonder is a signpost at a crossroads. Due to the experience of wonder, we change directions.
• It is as if we speak but do not echo. We all are saying something partly known and partly new. In the beginning was the word but we are all new phrases … We are quotes in the latest edition of a newly edited text.
• Moby Dick is important to us because it has guts. Wonder is not for weaklings.
“Wonder” is a journey through our world in which the author not only provides a roadmap but provides turn-by-turn, step-by-step directions and explanations of how individual components function so that by journey’s end we know far more than we did when taking that first step into our wonder-filled world.
I never expect a scholar to be a good writer but Paul R. Fleischman is not only good but creative and at times witty. But, more important, he is an inspirational writer, sound and independent thinker.
Fleischman, author of several books and articles in scholarly journals, has recently published “Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant.” Relying on biology, chemistry, physics and math, Dr. Fleischman explains why we should view the universe and ourselves with wonder and tells why each one of us – if we truly want to – can experience a sense of wonder each day of our life.
We learn from Dr. Fleischman that wonder combines the science, poetry and spirituality that are contained within the big questions we all ask about what life really means. Every individual possesses thoughts, emotions, and feelings of wonder that can be tapped by beautiful language and wise thoughts. What the author wants us to come to realize is that our sense of wonder emerges from the world that creates us.
This scholarly book is not an easy one to read but is very much worth making an effort because it contains unique insights and information about ourselves and our world that we have never thought about before. And it is good to ponder new concepts. I avoided rushing through “Wonder” as I might a piece of fiction but instead took my time, read it over a period of four weeks, and focused on what the author wanted me to know. I was rewarded for finishing the book.
Examples of the creativity, wit and insights Dr. Fleischman offers includes these samples:
• The human mind – even Einstein’s mind – has limits of understanding. We will always remain children in a research library, indirect knowers.
• Our new world, like a wool shirt, is sometimes irritating.
• Wonder is the word we preserve to refer to events that provoke a deep echo, that make us tremble. Wonder is a signpost at a crossroads. Due to the experience of wonder, we change directions.
• It is as if we speak but do not echo. We all are saying something partly known and partly new. In the beginning was the word but we are all new phrases … We are quotes in the latest edition of a newly edited text.
• Moby Dick is important to us because it has guts. Wonder is not for weaklings.
“Wonder” is a journey through our world in which the author not only provides a roadmap but provides turn-by-turn, step-by-step directions and explanations of how individual components function so that by journey’s end we know far more than we did when taking that first step into our wonder-filled world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews