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The Secret History of the Universe: How Ancient Wisdom Made the Modern World
“Mythology and ancient esoteric beliefs are finally found in cutting edge science.” —Rick Rubin, bestselling author of The Creative Act
From the author of the global bestseller, The Secret History of the World, comes an epic new history of the relationship between spiritual belief and cutting-edge science.
A sweeping, character-driven history of mysticism and its influence on modern science—from nuclear physics to the latest AI—Mark Booth shows how scientists have walked a line between genius, madness, and ancient mystical ideas to create a picture of the universe which is deeply mysterious and unexpectedly spiritual.
The Secret History of the Universe is pure intellectual entertainment, full of dark drama, humorous anecdotes, and wild ideas. Readers will embark on an exhilarating journey in the company of some of the greatest minds of our age—from Marie Curie to Alan Turing—towards a deeper understanding of our place in the cosmos.
The result of many years of research, and deep conversations with prominent academics in the field, The Secret History of the Universe aims to illustrate a broader cultural perspective, how it can help us to understand the implications of the new science, and how it impacts the psyche and our philosophy of life.
From the author of the global bestseller, The Secret History of the World, comes an epic new history of the relationship between spiritual belief and cutting-edge science.
A sweeping, character-driven history of mysticism and its influence on modern science—from nuclear physics to the latest AI—Mark Booth shows how scientists have walked a line between genius, madness, and ancient mystical ideas to create a picture of the universe which is deeply mysterious and unexpectedly spiritual.
The Secret History of the Universe is pure intellectual entertainment, full of dark drama, humorous anecdotes, and wild ideas. Readers will embark on an exhilarating journey in the company of some of the greatest minds of our age—from Marie Curie to Alan Turing—towards a deeper understanding of our place in the cosmos.
The result of many years of research, and deep conversations with prominent academics in the field, The Secret History of the Universe aims to illustrate a broader cultural perspective, how it can help us to understand the implications of the new science, and how it impacts the psyche and our philosophy of life.
450 pages, Hardcover
Published June 2, 2026
About the author
Mark Booth
24 books77 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Mark Booth is the real name of Jonathan Black.
Mark Booth is the real name of Jonathan Black.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advance copy of this new history of science, technology and esoterica, a book that shows that many of the advances of the modern age come from old ways of thinking, different ways of thinking, and maybe even a touch of madness.
Arthur C. Clarke, scientist, futurist, writer and educator once wrote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I have to admit this is what the modern world seems like to me. I have seen phones come from off walls into people's pockets. The fear of Big Brother being everywhere has been co-opted to taking care of one's children's. Multiverses have gone from ideas in stories to multi-billion projects deep under the earth. Much of these has come from forward thinking people, who base there work on those from the past, as science always have. However there are those that look further back, to ideas that have been forgotten, scorned, even in some ways almost erased by those who thought they knew better. Esoteric ideas, lost ideas arcane myths, truths, legends and forgotten lore. Many of ideas and beliefs helped these men and women make the world we deal with today. The Secret History of the Universe by Mark Booth is a study of how the old ways of thinking had a bigger effect on the future than we knew, thoughts about religion, magic, mythology, all carried over to our brave new world.
The book is broken into different areas of thought, and offers profiles of various people who changed these sciences in different ways. Some by asking questions, some by looking to the past, at older thoughts older teachings, even teachings that some tried to erase. As Booth showed in his previous book, this kind of thinking had a far greater effect on the world than we think, and lead to many technologies, and breakthroughs. Along with the problems that we as humans are still struggling with. Each chapter has different thinkers, Babbage, Curie, Turning, Einstein, looks at their lives and accomplishments. Booth also looks at where some of their fundamental thinking came from, ancient orders, lost works, esoteric thinking, and how this carried over into their work.
A book that might seem overpowering in some ways, full of science, philosophy, mythology, and a lot of ideas, but one that endlessly fascinating. Booth has a real skill with the narrative, making things make sense, and never getting bogged down in showing the work, and the ideas. Booth can explain the ideas of the Rosicrucians just as well as describing particle physics, or quantum mechanics. Booth mixes both old thinking and new thinking in ways that shouldn't make sense, and yet does. Each page has a new way of looking at something. Each idea drawing on both knowledge and even a little madness. Sanity does come up a few times in this book, one that might have helped solve many problems thought unsolvable, but not without their risks.
A book not for everyone, but one I enjoyed. Some sections even with Booth's careful explanation might have missed me, but that is my fault not Booth. This is a fun book, and a very learned one. Again not for all, but those who know or care will quite enjoy this.
Arthur C. Clarke, scientist, futurist, writer and educator once wrote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I have to admit this is what the modern world seems like to me. I have seen phones come from off walls into people's pockets. The fear of Big Brother being everywhere has been co-opted to taking care of one's children's. Multiverses have gone from ideas in stories to multi-billion projects deep under the earth. Much of these has come from forward thinking people, who base there work on those from the past, as science always have. However there are those that look further back, to ideas that have been forgotten, scorned, even in some ways almost erased by those who thought they knew better. Esoteric ideas, lost ideas arcane myths, truths, legends and forgotten lore. Many of ideas and beliefs helped these men and women make the world we deal with today. The Secret History of the Universe by Mark Booth is a study of how the old ways of thinking had a bigger effect on the future than we knew, thoughts about religion, magic, mythology, all carried over to our brave new world.
The book is broken into different areas of thought, and offers profiles of various people who changed these sciences in different ways. Some by asking questions, some by looking to the past, at older thoughts older teachings, even teachings that some tried to erase. As Booth showed in his previous book, this kind of thinking had a far greater effect on the world than we think, and lead to many technologies, and breakthroughs. Along with the problems that we as humans are still struggling with. Each chapter has different thinkers, Babbage, Curie, Turning, Einstein, looks at their lives and accomplishments. Booth also looks at where some of their fundamental thinking came from, ancient orders, lost works, esoteric thinking, and how this carried over into their work.
A book that might seem overpowering in some ways, full of science, philosophy, mythology, and a lot of ideas, but one that endlessly fascinating. Booth has a real skill with the narrative, making things make sense, and never getting bogged down in showing the work, and the ideas. Booth can explain the ideas of the Rosicrucians just as well as describing particle physics, or quantum mechanics. Booth mixes both old thinking and new thinking in ways that shouldn't make sense, and yet does. Each page has a new way of looking at something. Each idea drawing on both knowledge and even a little madness. Sanity does come up a few times in this book, one that might have helped solve many problems thought unsolvable, but not without their risks.
A book not for everyone, but one I enjoyed. Some sections even with Booth's careful explanation might have missed me, but that is my fault not Booth. This is a fun book, and a very learned one. Again not for all, but those who know or care will quite enjoy this.
June 18, 2026
I despised Booth’s last book. It bordered on unhinged in its grand conspiracy, and I finished it only to gather fodder for future novels that might need someone ranting about how they were too cool for the Illuminati—which was a trial, as it is difficult to read while cringing.
So, I was ready to give this another one-star.
And yet. This is coherent (for the most part) and fluid, and I was eager to discover his foundations for every chapter. Occasionally, the Booth from the previous book poked his head in to say something ludicrous, but he knew better than to stick around for more than a few paragraphs, so we can forgive him. He cites widely and convincingly. He welcomes the reader in. He made me chuckle a few times, which I did not expect. All of my highlights and notes were things I wanted to mull over and explore later, or even to cite in my own work. At times, he reminded me of a more sober Bill Bryson, which is high praise indeed.
Are all his claims solid? Obviously, they are not. He falls into some of the contemporary metaphysical traps, like thinking that the weirdness of things on the quantum level explains the weirdness of fakirs and saints. However, I approached this book looking more to be entertained than educated. This is a place from which a seeker could start, and gain wisdom by second guessing and debunking Booth’s conclusions. He cherrypicks, avoiding facts that would discount the point he is trying to make, but it is such a vast improvement over Secret History of the World that I can allow him this indulgence.
If you wonder at the reality in the overlap of science, esoterica, and philosophy, you could do far worse than this book, and it is worth every minute and footnote you read—and there are about the same number of each. It’s not *true,* but it is *interesting.*
I received a free copy from Netgalley for my honest review.
So, I was ready to give this another one-star.
And yet. This is coherent (for the most part) and fluid, and I was eager to discover his foundations for every chapter. Occasionally, the Booth from the previous book poked his head in to say something ludicrous, but he knew better than to stick around for more than a few paragraphs, so we can forgive him. He cites widely and convincingly. He welcomes the reader in. He made me chuckle a few times, which I did not expect. All of my highlights and notes were things I wanted to mull over and explore later, or even to cite in my own work. At times, he reminded me of a more sober Bill Bryson, which is high praise indeed.
Are all his claims solid? Obviously, they are not. He falls into some of the contemporary metaphysical traps, like thinking that the weirdness of things on the quantum level explains the weirdness of fakirs and saints. However, I approached this book looking more to be entertained than educated. This is a place from which a seeker could start, and gain wisdom by second guessing and debunking Booth’s conclusions. He cherrypicks, avoiding facts that would discount the point he is trying to make, but it is such a vast improvement over Secret History of the World that I can allow him this indulgence.
If you wonder at the reality in the overlap of science, esoterica, and philosophy, you could do far worse than this book, and it is worth every minute and footnote you read—and there are about the same number of each. It’s not *true,* but it is *interesting.*
I received a free copy from Netgalley for my honest review.
June 5, 2026
This book presents a sweeping, character-driven history of mysticism's influence on modern science, from nuclear physics to AI, revealing how scientists have balanced genius and ancient mystical ideas to craft a deeply mysterious and spiritual view of the universe.
This book is entertaining, but it's also complete nonsense. It presents factual information, reading as if it's an actual science book, but then suddenly swerves into illogical and unsubstantiated metaphysical claims (for instance, that quantum physics explains why a person can levitate during meditation).
What bothers me most is the false suggestion that because great scientists were attracted to spirituality, these spiritual beliefs must have some basis in fact. They don't. That's what makes them spiritual instead of scientific. If there was evidence for them, they would be science, not metaphysics. Newton practiced alchemy, but that doesn't make alchemy real. Humans are attracted to metaphysics because of who we are, because of how our brains are wired. We're attracted to mystery, to puzzles, to the concept of a power greater than ourselves. That doesn't make spiritual beliefs logical, even if held by great scientific minds.
It would be cool if there were evidence to support concepts like Jung's collective unconscious. Maybe someday, there will be. This author's handwavy leaps from fact to fantasy don't support inquiry into spiritual matters. His approach just makes spirituality seem ridiculous.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
This book is entertaining, but it's also complete nonsense. It presents factual information, reading as if it's an actual science book, but then suddenly swerves into illogical and unsubstantiated metaphysical claims (for instance, that quantum physics explains why a person can levitate during meditation).
What bothers me most is the false suggestion that because great scientists were attracted to spirituality, these spiritual beliefs must have some basis in fact. They don't. That's what makes them spiritual instead of scientific. If there was evidence for them, they would be science, not metaphysics. Newton practiced alchemy, but that doesn't make alchemy real. Humans are attracted to metaphysics because of who we are, because of how our brains are wired. We're attracted to mystery, to puzzles, to the concept of a power greater than ourselves. That doesn't make spiritual beliefs logical, even if held by great scientific minds.
It would be cool if there were evidence to support concepts like Jung's collective unconscious. Maybe someday, there will be. This author's handwavy leaps from fact to fantasy don't support inquiry into spiritual matters. His approach just makes spirituality seem ridiculous.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews