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The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality
What if life isn't just a part of the universe . . . what if it determines the very structure of the universe itself? The theory that blew your mind in Biocentrism and Beyond Biocentrism is back, with brand-new research revealing the startling truth about our existence. What is consciousness? Why are we here? Where did it all come from--the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but science hasn't succeeded in providing many answers--until now. In The Grand Biocentric Design, Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People," is joined by theoretical physicist Matej Pavšic and astronomer Bob Berman to shed light on the big picture that has long eluded philosophers and scientists alike. This engaging, mind-stretching exposition of how the history of physics has led us to Biocentrism--the idea that life creates reality-takes readers on a step-by-step adventure into the great science breakthroughs of the past centuries, from Newton to the weirdness of quantum theory, culminating in recent revelations that will challenge everything you think you know about our role in the universe.This book offers the most complete explanation of the science behind Biocentrism to date, delving into the origins of the memorable principles introduced in previous books in this series, as well as introducing new principles that complete the theory. The authors dive deep into topics including consciousness, time, and the evidence that our observations-or even knowledge in our minds-can affect how physical objects behave. The Grand Biocentric Design is a one-of-a-kind,groundbreaking explanation of how the universe works, and an exploration of the science behind the astounding fact that time, space, and reality itself, all ultimately depend upon us.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2020
493 people are currently reading
2363 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lanza
33 books362 followersROBERT LANZA, MD, is one of the most respected scientists in the world. He is head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine, Chief Scientific Officer of the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and adjunct professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine. TIME magazine recognized him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and Prospect magazine named him one of the Top 50 “World Thinkers” in 2015. He is credited with several hundred publications and inventions, and more than 30 scientific books, including the definitive references in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine. A former Fulbright Scholar, he studied with polio pioneer Jonas Salk and Nobel Laureates Gerald Edelman and Rodney Porter. Lanza was part of the team that cloned the world’s first human embryo, as well as the first to successfully generate stem cells from adults using somatic-cell nuclear transfer (therapeutic cloning).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
August 7, 2023
Most of the scientific theories in this book are the opposite way as our traditional views.
Do you agree our consciousness makes the realities?
Schrodinger's Cat experiment? Superposition?
Do we have free will?
Is there Multiverse? What are the time and space?
Einstein asked, "Do you believe the moon exists when no one's looking?". Any observers?
I did not read Appendix 2 and 3 because there are all complicated explanations and scientific formulas.
This is not an easy book to read and understand if you don't like Quantum Physics.
Do you agree our consciousness makes the realities?
Schrodinger's Cat experiment? Superposition?
Do we have free will?
Is there Multiverse? What are the time and space?
Einstein asked, "Do you believe the moon exists when no one's looking?". Any observers?
I did not read Appendix 2 and 3 because there are all complicated explanations and scientific formulas.
This is not an easy book to read and understand if you don't like Quantum Physics.
June 16, 2024
"The very study of the external world [leads] to the conclusion that the content of consciousness is an ultimate reality."
—Eugene Wigner
* So begins one of the chapters in the first third of the book which deals in a somewhat rigorous (without the attendant equations) treatment of various quantum mechanical concepts like entanglement, locality, many-worlds interpretation, superposition, indeterminacy, etc. that reads very easily to the average reader and how that relates to a conscious observer being necessary for things (meaning reality) to work.
* After that comes discussions on consciousness, qualia and the subjective experience of awareness (of both philosophical and neurophysiological bents). They try to explain scientifically how various quantum mechanical processes occuring in brain cells leads to a unified conscious subjective experience without shying away from admitting when something is unknown.
* Next up comes an explanation of causation and free will (with Libet's experiments as an example) using biocentricism to unveil certain insights. Other topics discussed in the light of quantum mechanics are: Arrow of time, dreams & multidimensional reality, animal consciousness, death, immortality, quantum suicide, etc.
The authors' exposition can be thus summarized: using fully realized and verifiable scientific hypotheses and experiments to bring together various disparate concepts in proving to us what the age old sages and mystics from time immemorial have espoused and shouted from the tops of mountains, burning bushes, etc. (most especially the Hermetic and Hindu philosophies); that consciousness is the only absolute and underlying reality in this and any other universe(s) and not only that, but it brings about said reality itself. In other words, "life creates reality,...The “universe” is simply the complete spatiotemporal logic of the self."
A great read, most especially to those not very well read in the scientific concepts the author's discussed in order to arrive at their conclusion. Highly recommended for the curious and open minded.
The universe is the externalization of the soul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance around it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
2022 Read
—Eugene Wigner
* So begins one of the chapters in the first third of the book which deals in a somewhat rigorous (without the attendant equations) treatment of various quantum mechanical concepts like entanglement, locality, many-worlds interpretation, superposition, indeterminacy, etc. that reads very easily to the average reader and how that relates to a conscious observer being necessary for things (meaning reality) to work.
* After that comes discussions on consciousness, qualia and the subjective experience of awareness (of both philosophical and neurophysiological bents). They try to explain scientifically how various quantum mechanical processes occuring in brain cells leads to a unified conscious subjective experience without shying away from admitting when something is unknown.
* Next up comes an explanation of causation and free will (with Libet's experiments as an example) using biocentricism to unveil certain insights. Other topics discussed in the light of quantum mechanics are: Arrow of time, dreams & multidimensional reality, animal consciousness, death, immortality, quantum suicide, etc.
The authors' exposition can be thus summarized: using fully realized and verifiable scientific hypotheses and experiments to bring together various disparate concepts in proving to us what the age old sages and mystics from time immemorial have espoused and shouted from the tops of mountains, burning bushes, etc. (most especially the Hermetic and Hindu philosophies); that consciousness is the only absolute and underlying reality in this and any other universe(s) and not only that, but it brings about said reality itself. In other words, "life creates reality,...The “universe” is simply the complete spatiotemporal logic of the self."
A great read, most especially to those not very well read in the scientific concepts the author's discussed in order to arrive at their conclusion. Highly recommended for the curious and open minded.
The universe is the externalization of the soul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance around it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
2022 Read
December 22, 2020
What a mind-boggling book is Robert Lanza's 2020 book with physicist Matej Pavsic.! Called The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality, it follows the publication of two bestselling books about biocentrism, the centuries-long culmination, it would seem, of the scientific theory of quantum physics. Critics accuse Lanza of merging, indeed contaminating, metaphysics or philosophy with real physics, but are they simply behind the times?
Not that there is in reality time, except what is created by our minds to help us navigate the world of senses we live in.
Before we delve into this most provocative book, I think we must make sure that you understand what a theory refers to. It is not misinformation, fake news, or a story to amuse or confuse you. It is not proposed for your entertainment. Here is a definition found online
“A theory is a set of accepted beliefs or organized principles that explain and guide analysis and one of the ways that theory is defined is that it is different from practice, when certain principles are tested. ... This word is a noun and comes from the Greek theoria, which means "contemplation or speculation."
In other words, scientific theories like quantum physics and biocentrism are serious, constructive ideas tested numerously for validity or invalidity by dozens, if not hundreds, of serious scientists.
I was trying to explain the premise of the book with a devout Christian and she was not buying it at all, but laughed at he idea that we collectively as conscious beings created our universe through our contemplation of and participation in it. Not only are we not mere passive observers, but active designers who allowed the 500 forces of nature, the foundational laws of physics, to be set in exactly the right way for life to flourish.
This is so not about thinking of ourselves as a god. It's about understanding the power of our minds, which are more than our physical brains. You could consider it as soul, but not the religious kind.
Quantum particles and waves have been found repeatedly and consistently for over a century by acclaimed scientists to be unformed probabilities until they are observed by scientists. Upon observation, a wave collapse function occurs that permanently transform it into form or matter.
Lanza and Pavsic explain at length the twelve principles of biocentrism throughout the book (and more in depth of the first seven in their previous books) to help us understand why this theory makes perfect sense. It addresses the big questions humans have pondered throughout history without dismissing us as separate from nature and inactive observers or the universe as coming incredibly from nothing.
Though a heavy read that challenged my patience, plus my brain cells, I loved the book.
I've long been an atheist after a mystical religious perspective lost any meaning for me. Biocentrism is not solipsism or navel-gazing or about the need for redemption and a white, male savior. It respects you as a free agent who chooses to do good and not fear death because consciousness as energy never dies but creates another world where we continue to live, although I'm doubting this is physical life.
Please, though, don't just take my word for how much biocentrism, and quantum physics (quantum mechanics, quantum gravity etc) make sense. I only broadly outlined the science revealed in the book, including the appendix.
I hope you'll take a chance on this book!
December 31, 2020
Wow! I LOVED this book. It will change the lives of everyone who reads it! Warning: If you do not have an open mind, this book is not for you. It makes you think and will challenge everything you think you know about time, space, consciousness, and the nature of the universe. It provides some of the most exciting and optimistic ideas ever. It just makes sense. Fascinating! Mind blowing!! If you haven’t read this book yet, read it and share it.
November 27, 2020
Arguably, the best scientific theory of everything
Combines the old and new, written in easily understandable launguage, provides one a clear understanding of who, why, when. Well worth reading.....
Combines the old and new, written in easily understandable launguage, provides one a clear understanding of who, why, when. Well worth reading.....
June 27, 2022
I'm in my second re-read of this book, and it continues to confound and blow my mind.
I'll have more to say when I'm finished. For now, I would just encourage anyone with an interest in quantum theory or the science of consciousness to read this book.
I'll have more to say when I'm finished. For now, I would just encourage anyone with an interest in quantum theory or the science of consciousness to read this book.
April 7, 2021
Als ich dieses Buch zum ersten Mal betrachtete, bemerkte ich einige Ähnlichkeiten zwischen Lanza und Dr. Salk. Oft werden wir dazu gebracht, uns als Ameisen auf einem Planeten zu betrachten, die den Launen der Lebensformen auf diesem Planeten unterliegen. Dennoch postuliert Lanza eine veränderte Realität, dass der Beobachter die materielle und vielleicht eine sakrosankte Komponente des Universums ist. Stellen Sie sich vor, das Bewusstsein ist ein Gehirn und einige haben mehr
Fähigkeiten, das Universum und die Welten von der Vorstellungskraft des Betrachters abhängig zu machen (Einstein). Biozentrismus, indem wir hören, was die wissenschaft uns sagt. Wir betrachten das Leben als einen Unfall der Physik. Es wird deutlich, warum Raum und Zeit vom Betrachter abhängig sind. Die Zeit existiert relativ zu jedem Beobachter (Einstein). Lanza geht noch weiter. Alles, was sie sehen, ist ein wirbel von informationen, die in ihrem kopf vorkommen.
"Der Tod ist einfach eine Unterbrechung unseres linearen Bewusstseinsstroms."
--- Robert Lanza, MD
Der zeitpfeil wird direkt mit dem beobachter zusammengeführt. Die zeit vergeht nicht. Die quantengravitation, die welt der relativitätstheorie und die quantenmechanik (bizarre Zustände) sind nicht miteinander kompatibel. Quantenzustände bleiben verbunden. Die messung des einen beeinflusst den anderen und bezieht sich auf Einsteins gruselige aktion in der Ferne. Sogar katzen und menschen sollten in einem verwickelten zustand existieren.
Dekohärenz das licht wird ein- oder ausgeschaltet, wenn wir seinen Zustand messen. Es ist notwendig, den Beobachter einzubeziehen. Leben und bewusstsein verschmelzen miteinander. Alles erscheint zufällig. Giraffen entwickeln lange hälse, um lange Äste und evolutionäre vorteile zu ergreifen. Berühmteste illustration einer million affen. Dies trifft nicht zu, da forscher und makaken die schreibmaschinen als toiletten benutzten.
Also vergiss das blöde universum als seinen schwindel. Unser universum ist ein fein abgestimmter kosmos. Wenn die schwerkraft 2% anders wäre, hätten wir niemals die sonne oder das leben. Benötigen sie elektromagnetismus und die starke kraft (perfekt abgestimmt). Wenn wir ockhams rasiermesser anwenden, bietet biozentrismus die wahrscheinlichste erklärung. Das gesetz erlaubt es dem beobachter und der beobachter erzeugt sie. Kaufen für das ist wert.
Fähigkeiten, das Universum und die Welten von der Vorstellungskraft des Betrachters abhängig zu machen (Einstein). Biozentrismus, indem wir hören, was die wissenschaft uns sagt. Wir betrachten das Leben als einen Unfall der Physik. Es wird deutlich, warum Raum und Zeit vom Betrachter abhängig sind. Die Zeit existiert relativ zu jedem Beobachter (Einstein). Lanza geht noch weiter. Alles, was sie sehen, ist ein wirbel von informationen, die in ihrem kopf vorkommen.
"Der Tod ist einfach eine Unterbrechung unseres linearen Bewusstseinsstroms."
--- Robert Lanza, MD
Der zeitpfeil wird direkt mit dem beobachter zusammengeführt. Die zeit vergeht nicht. Die quantengravitation, die welt der relativitätstheorie und die quantenmechanik (bizarre Zustände) sind nicht miteinander kompatibel. Quantenzustände bleiben verbunden. Die messung des einen beeinflusst den anderen und bezieht sich auf Einsteins gruselige aktion in der Ferne. Sogar katzen und menschen sollten in einem verwickelten zustand existieren.
Dekohärenz das licht wird ein- oder ausgeschaltet, wenn wir seinen Zustand messen. Es ist notwendig, den Beobachter einzubeziehen. Leben und bewusstsein verschmelzen miteinander. Alles erscheint zufällig. Giraffen entwickeln lange hälse, um lange Äste und evolutionäre vorteile zu ergreifen. Berühmteste illustration einer million affen. Dies trifft nicht zu, da forscher und makaken die schreibmaschinen als toiletten benutzten.
Also vergiss das blöde universum als seinen schwindel. Unser universum ist ein fein abgestimmter kosmos. Wenn die schwerkraft 2% anders wäre, hätten wir niemals die sonne oder das leben. Benötigen sie elektromagnetismus und die starke kraft (perfekt abgestimmt). Wenn wir ockhams rasiermesser anwenden, bietet biozentrismus die wahrscheinlichste erklärung. Das gesetz erlaubt es dem beobachter und der beobachter erzeugt sie. Kaufen für das ist wert.
January 3, 2021
Amazing! I LOVED this book. It will change the lives of every individual who understands it! Cautioning: If you don't have a receptive outlook, this book isn't for you. It makes you think and will challenge all that you contemplate time, space, cognizance, and the idea of the universe. It gives probably the most energizing and idealistic thoughts ever. It just bodes well. Intriguing! Awesome!! In the event that you haven't read this book yet, read it and offer it.
December 28, 2020
What a mind-boggling book is Robert Lanza's 2020 book with physicist Matej Pavsic.! Called The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality, it follows the publication of two bestselling books about biocentrism, the centuries-long culmination, it would seem, of the scientific theory of quantum physics.
December 11, 2020
.Enjoyable
This is an enjoyable read for the layman interested in life. All three books in this series tie together nicely.
This is an enjoyable read for the layman interested in life. All three books in this series tie together nicely.
December 3, 2020
Consciousness and the cosmic self
This is the third book by author Robert Lanza about Biocentrism, an idea that life and consciousness create physical reality. This book propose that our observations and knowledge affect how physical objects behave and appear. Hence the principal argument here is that life isn't just a part of the universe, but life determines the structure of the cosmos including spacetime, matter energy, forces, and fields. The authors propose 11 principals of biocentrism, which states that matter and spacetime are not independent realities but rather tools of our mind. The ideas presented in this book is somewhat farfetched and may be outlandish. Simple considerations of the concepts of physics and biology illustrates the veracity of authors contention.
The 4-dimensional spacetime is assumed to be the fabric of reality on which matter, and energy behave according to the laws of physics. Space behaves differently from matter, it can expand faster than speed of light, as it happened during the inflationary epoch. And spacetime apparently does not require energy for existence. But it also falls apart at the black hole implying that it is not fundamental, but an emergent structure from something deeper. General relativity treats gravity as the geometry of spacetime, but it also entails its dissolution which may explain why information escapes from a black hole. When black hole evaporates fully, the information also escapes completely because there is no black hole and no space. Dark energy is probably the intrinsic energy of space. At the cosmic level, the dark energy is overpowering gravity and pushing spacetime apart. When the universe was 380,000-year-old, the universe had 63% dark matter and no dark energy. But after 13.8 billion years, the dark matter is reduced to 23% and dark energy rose to 72% with only 5% visible matter.
The universe consists of information; every elementary particle carries information about their physical properties that characterizes them. Fundamental particles like quarks and Higgs Bosons are not directly observed since they are extremely unstable, and generally characterized by the information associated with them. Hence, matter becomes the secondary concept. In addition, space is not smooth and continuous as we see and perceive. At quantum scales space is grid like and exists in discrete bits (like information). It is possible that our universe could be a simulation running on a cosmic computer using these information as codes. Information as a fundamental component of physical reality emerges from the fact that the universe may be like a hologram or an illusion, as illustrated by analyzing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang.
A black hole also contains information about matter and energy that fell into it. This information is stored on a two-dimensional surface but contains information that came from three-dimensional space. Spacetime may also exist in a knot into doughnut- or pretzel-like shapes. The extra connectivity creates tunnels or wormholes between otherwise far-flung places in the universe and permits quantum entanglement and information exchange that is otherwise forbidden by special relativity. Wormholes, the holographic principle, emergent space-time, quantum entanglement, and quantum computation are some of the concepts in physics that makes understanding physical reality captivating and confounding. At best, the laws as we understand, explains many puzzling things in cosmos, but not all! We know all there is to know about the genome a laboratory mouse, but we don’t know what it feels like to be a mouse.
Living systems are defined by the concept of "organization. Cells are autopoietic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. Life’s emergence might rest on the foundations of physics, but it is not derivable from them. Living systems achieve a local reduction in their entropy as they grow and develop; they create structures of greater internal energy (lower entropy), higher order, and higher information out of the nutrients they absorb. Central to this philosophy is life is not an objective property of the cosmos, but a collection of special cases that links of non-equilibrium processes and boundary condition constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. In reproducing systems such as cells, a closure is achieved linking these processes and constraint construction into an organization that closes on itself. Such a system is a self-controlled machine that is independent. Experiments on self-assembly and self-organization in large molecules such as metal oxides are attempting to take an ensemble approach to provide new paths for developing general theories on the universal principles bridging matter and life.
Is quantum reality (of subatomic particles) linked to classical reality (of larger molecules/structures) in everyday life? It should be because all objects are made of subatomic particles. It appears that deep down spacetime and matter-energy, the underlying realities may also include consciousness that appears in the interpretations of quantum reality. The nature of dark matter and dark energy and their relationship to each other and their impact on spacetime is also unclear. In metaphysical terms, the book contains ideas of Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism which proposes that the Pure Consciousness (Brahman) is the Ultimate Reality, and the phenomenal transient world is an illusion (Maya). Brahman is the material cause of all that exists in the cosmos. it is the primordial reality that creates, maintains, and withdraws from the universe. Brahman's qualities are called Sat-Cit-Ananda (Eternal Being-Consciousness-Bliss.)
This is the third book by author Robert Lanza about Biocentrism, an idea that life and consciousness create physical reality. This book propose that our observations and knowledge affect how physical objects behave and appear. Hence the principal argument here is that life isn't just a part of the universe, but life determines the structure of the cosmos including spacetime, matter energy, forces, and fields. The authors propose 11 principals of biocentrism, which states that matter and spacetime are not independent realities but rather tools of our mind. The ideas presented in this book is somewhat farfetched and may be outlandish. Simple considerations of the concepts of physics and biology illustrates the veracity of authors contention.
The 4-dimensional spacetime is assumed to be the fabric of reality on which matter, and energy behave according to the laws of physics. Space behaves differently from matter, it can expand faster than speed of light, as it happened during the inflationary epoch. And spacetime apparently does not require energy for existence. But it also falls apart at the black hole implying that it is not fundamental, but an emergent structure from something deeper. General relativity treats gravity as the geometry of spacetime, but it also entails its dissolution which may explain why information escapes from a black hole. When black hole evaporates fully, the information also escapes completely because there is no black hole and no space. Dark energy is probably the intrinsic energy of space. At the cosmic level, the dark energy is overpowering gravity and pushing spacetime apart. When the universe was 380,000-year-old, the universe had 63% dark matter and no dark energy. But after 13.8 billion years, the dark matter is reduced to 23% and dark energy rose to 72% with only 5% visible matter.
The universe consists of information; every elementary particle carries information about their physical properties that characterizes them. Fundamental particles like quarks and Higgs Bosons are not directly observed since they are extremely unstable, and generally characterized by the information associated with them. Hence, matter becomes the secondary concept. In addition, space is not smooth and continuous as we see and perceive. At quantum scales space is grid like and exists in discrete bits (like information). It is possible that our universe could be a simulation running on a cosmic computer using these information as codes. Information as a fundamental component of physical reality emerges from the fact that the universe may be like a hologram or an illusion, as illustrated by analyzing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang.
A black hole also contains information about matter and energy that fell into it. This information is stored on a two-dimensional surface but contains information that came from three-dimensional space. Spacetime may also exist in a knot into doughnut- or pretzel-like shapes. The extra connectivity creates tunnels or wormholes between otherwise far-flung places in the universe and permits quantum entanglement and information exchange that is otherwise forbidden by special relativity. Wormholes, the holographic principle, emergent space-time, quantum entanglement, and quantum computation are some of the concepts in physics that makes understanding physical reality captivating and confounding. At best, the laws as we understand, explains many puzzling things in cosmos, but not all! We know all there is to know about the genome a laboratory mouse, but we don’t know what it feels like to be a mouse.
Living systems are defined by the concept of "organization. Cells are autopoietic systems that build themselves: they literally construct their own constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. Life’s emergence might rest on the foundations of physics, but it is not derivable from them. Living systems achieve a local reduction in their entropy as they grow and develop; they create structures of greater internal energy (lower entropy), higher order, and higher information out of the nutrients they absorb. Central to this philosophy is life is not an objective property of the cosmos, but a collection of special cases that links of non-equilibrium processes and boundary condition constraints on the release of energy into a few degrees of freedom. In reproducing systems such as cells, a closure is achieved linking these processes and constraint construction into an organization that closes on itself. Such a system is a self-controlled machine that is independent. Experiments on self-assembly and self-organization in large molecules such as metal oxides are attempting to take an ensemble approach to provide new paths for developing general theories on the universal principles bridging matter and life.
Is quantum reality (of subatomic particles) linked to classical reality (of larger molecules/structures) in everyday life? It should be because all objects are made of subatomic particles. It appears that deep down spacetime and matter-energy, the underlying realities may also include consciousness that appears in the interpretations of quantum reality. The nature of dark matter and dark energy and their relationship to each other and their impact on spacetime is also unclear. In metaphysical terms, the book contains ideas of Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism which proposes that the Pure Consciousness (Brahman) is the Ultimate Reality, and the phenomenal transient world is an illusion (Maya). Brahman is the material cause of all that exists in the cosmos. it is the primordial reality that creates, maintains, and withdraws from the universe. Brahman's qualities are called Sat-Cit-Ananda (Eternal Being-Consciousness-Bliss.)
December 28, 2020
I must say that I am far from the scientific approach that this type of book provides. But even to me, who is only an amateur, the book has provided exceptional facts and theories that I think will still be of interest to more and more people. Our place in the universe, the creation of realities, consciousness, time, and the evidence that our knowledge in our minds can affect how physical objects behave... The authors are exceptional.
April 18, 2023
This book was gifted to me by a very good friend, so I started reading this book thinking, even if I don’t like it very much, I’ll go easy on it.
Unfortunately, after finishing the book - I can’t do that. As a person with a background in quantum physics, reading this book made me break out in hives. Page after page generated overwhelming feelings of cringe. Phrases like “criminally misleading” and “stunningly incorrect” kept jumping into my head. I am actually sympathetic towards people with “fringe” views in physics - I think it is unfair when reasonably intelligent people without formal training in physics present unconventional theories that are immediately dismissed by “professional physicists” without any examination of the ideas in question - but I am not sympathetic to those promoting incorrect information, especially when it’s aimed at laypeople who may not know any better.
So, with that said, let’s get into the review. The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality, a book written in 16-point font size, presents an argument for biocentricism: the idea that consciousness creates the world, the universe, all of reality. As opposed to realism, the idea that the physical world that we imperfectly probe through our senses existed before we were born and will exist after we die, biocentricism posits that the only thing that is real _is_ our conscious experience. If this sounds a lot like solipsism, that’s because it is. I’m not going to argue against solipsism in general in this review - I think presented more generally it is certainly a valid philosophy, though not one I personally subscribe to. The problem is that the author Robert Lanza is not content with mere philosophizing, and in his book he tries to argue that quantum physics _proves_ biocentricism is true. But in his arguments, he makes many errors which anyone who has had even a single class in quantum mechanics would be able to spot.
Before this book was written, Robert Lanza had written two other books about biocentricism, in which, according to him, biocentricism is “ineluctably derived, as presented in nontechnical language” (22) Derived in nontechnical language is a bit of an oxymoron, but okay. This book though promises to only use the “hard sciences” to derive biocentricism. But despite claiming to contain a technical explanation for biocentricism, The Grand Biocentric Design reads like a 7th grade general sciences textbook (Light is electromagnetic radiation! Baby quantum! The four fundamental forces! Bats use echolocation!) mashed with the rantings of a schizophrenic (delusions of grandeur, disorganized thinking).
Let’s start with the main thing Lanza gets wrong. Lanza claims that the collapse of a superposition in quantum mechanics during a measurement or observation requires a conscious observer. In fact, he states as his third principle of biocentricism: “The behavior of subatomic particles - indeed all particles and objects - is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Absent a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.” Lanza’s statement is almost right, except for the word “conscious.” The observer which collapses a quantum superposition does not need to be conscious. I feel like I need to say this one more time. The observer does not need to be conscious! There is a piece of experimental hardware called a photodetector which can collapse a superposition. Photodetectors are not (as far as we know…) conscious. Therefore, the observer does not need to be conscious.
Let’s look at some of the experiments that Lanza says prove that conscious observers are required for collapsing wave functions and creating reality. On page 54 we get a mention of the double slit experiment. The double slit experiment (as well as other experiments mentioned in later pages) involve photodetectors which collapse the wave function of photons. Recap: photodetectors are machines, and not conscious observers. Either out of ignorance or a desire to mislead the reader, Lanza does not mention anything about photodetectors, instead claiming the experiment proves his theory correct. The double slit experiment proves _quantum mechanics_ is true. It doesn’t prove biocentricism is true.
Next, Lanza mentions a supposed variation on the double slit experiment where “the only thing that changed from one version of the experiment to the other was the information in the observer’s mind!” implying the observer’s mind collapsed the wave function. He goes on to describe this a bit more but does not cite any sources. This supposed experiment was news to me, an experimental quantum physicist. Because Lanza didn’t cite any sources here, I can only guess what he specific variation he might be referring to, but I think he’s talking about the delayed-choice quantum eraser variation, which most definitely does not show any of the things he claims. Here’s a blog post on it which should be understandable to lay people: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
Lanza doesn’t stop there, though, in his quest to misrepresent every quantum physics experiment ever performed. Lanza mentions an experiment which creates ‘two alternate realities’ (81). This experiment was published in Science Advances and you can look up the actual paper and read it. When you read the actual paper, you can see he again misrepresents what the experiment actually showed (not to mention the paper itself literally refers to its own use of ‘nonconscious observers’”. And later, Lanza grossly misrepresents yet another experiment, with Lanza claiming that it “show[s] that events that already occurred can be altered by actions and observations made in the future” (93), when it actually just shows that superposition states are real and can exist. In Appendix 1, Lanza claims to address the criticism that decoherence and wave function collapse don’t require a conscious observer. He addresses it by making more wrong statements and also by ignoring the existence of photodetectors.
Moving on from the conscious observer critique, I was also just baffled at Lanza’s excuse for logic throughout his book. Let’s try to follow a bit of it, starting with one passage about quantum entanglement. “…quantum theory casts serious doubt about whether even far-apart bodies are truly and fully separated. Objects cross space in zero time via 'tunneling,' and can convey instantaneous 'information' thanks to the phenomenon of entanglement.” (22) I just got high blood pressure and an ulcer in addition to my hives from reading that sentence. There are multiple inaccuracies here. Entanglement is spooky action at a distance because we accept that it is at a distance - meaning yes, even entangled objects are “truly and fully separated”. And entangled objects cannot “convey instantaneous ‘information’” because information cannot travel faster than the speed of light - if you are unfamiliar with quantum you won’t realize that there is a subtlety here but if you read the wikipedia page about quantum teleportation you can see that when a measurement is done on one of two entangled particles, information about the measurement outcome must also be sent through a classical channel in order to complete the transmission of information. But to be fair this is a bit nitpicky — Lanza may be using the word “information” in a colloquial sense rather than the actual scientific sense. And colloquially speaking, information does appear to instantaneously travel from one particle to another when a measurement is done on one of two entangled particles. But what is Lanza even trying to say here? When I try to map out his logic I get: 1. Quantum entanglement means even things that are far apart are actually close together 2. Good thing it’s true that objects that are far apart are actually close together, because objects need to be close together in order to convey information instantaneously. Wut? Later we find, yes, this is more or less what Lanza was arguing: “Neither space nor time actually exist. Because surely if space has any kind of reality, then traversing it would take time, even if just a little bit.” (47) This is a fundamentally stupid statement. Scientists came up with quantum mechanics, a beautiful, experimentally verified theory which explains why entanglement and superpositions happen, so that we wouldn’t have to just throw up our hands and say, wow, what a weird experimental result, I guess space and time don’t exist.
But there’s more. After we prove space and time don’t exist, this very logically and straightforwardly leads to the conclusion THERE IS ONLY ONE CONSCIOUSNESS, WE ARE ALL ONE sorry, Lanza’s hand reached out through my computer screen and pressed the caps lock. But let me explain a bit better, in Lanza’s words: “Our individual separateness is an illusion. After all, if space and time do not exist in any absolute sense, then in what way can we think of things as being separate? There is one single consciousness.” (71) Very logical. Yes. Not only that, but … energy. “When we analyze the objects around us, we find nothing at last but energy — energy impressed upon our organs of sense, or energy resisting our organs of action.” (158) “Energy is but a representation of the mind, a rule of its understanding.” (157) Energy has a very specific meaning in physics and it’s definitely not that. Worst of all: “…electromagnetism is just one of several basic relationships — commonly called ‘forces’ or ‘interactions’ — that the mind uses to construct reality from all the possibilities implied by quantum mechanics.” (159) The brain does have electrical activity going on in it. But wait, where is the mind, if it’s separate from the brain? And how can it interact with the brain via electromagnetic forces if it exists metaphysically rather than physically?
…There’s more. I learned something new from this book: that the subconscious is the brain when its wavefunction is not collapsed by consciousness “…activities at a subconscious level are in a quantum superposition” (88) That’s why the brains of coma patients are the leading candidate for decoherence-free qubits. Lanza continues his pontification about subconscious states in his chapter about dreams, claiming that Dreams Can Be a Portal To Another Parallel Universe, and again that “during a non-REM period, the wave packet is so widely spread that most of its branches are decoupled from each other, with no interactions or entanglement between them.” (181) This is completely false and literally no one thinks this.
Lanza’s brand of biocentricism has the benefit of solving the Top 10 List of Existential Crises!, which Lanza isn’t shy about hammering home: worried about the existence of free will? Not a problem, our conscious self steers the action of neurons in the brain! Dreading your own death? No worries, after you die your consciousness will just pop over into another parallel universe where you _didn’t_ die! Feeling like a tiny speck of dust in the vast cosmos? Actually, the universe begins and ends with _you_! Lanza really lays on the pathos in a couple different passages throughout the book, here’s one: “I remember attending my thirty-fifth high school reunion with Vicki, one of my oldest friends. Memories of her long-dead mother flashed across my mind as though they had occurred yesterday… When I picked Vicki up, I knew her mom would have been thrilled to know that we were going to our thirty-fifth high school reunion together… It’s sad she didn’t live to see the future. But I like to think that, in some other universe, she did — that as we left for our reunion that night, somewhere Vicki’s mom leaned back on the sofa and watched the rest of the wrestling match with a smile on her face.” (33) No mention of the branches of universes where Lanza was forced to torture and kill Vicki by a man in a mask trying to recreate the movie Saw, though LOL.
Another of Lanza’s arguments in favor of biocentricism is that Heisenberg and Wigner, two very famous quantum physicists, believed in the importance of consciousness in the collapse of the wavefunction. But Heisenberg and Wigner definitely didn’t believe space and time aren’t real. They also would have taken issue with the incorrect physics in Lanza’s arguments. Also, these days, most physicists don’t believe consciousness is necessary for the collapse of the wavefunction. Also, photodetectors.
I did not carefully read the papers on quantum gravity included at the end because quantum gravity isn’t my specialty but they can’t prove consciousness is necessary for collapsing wavefunctions because photodetectors exist and have already proved that is not true. I guess the co-author and supposed theoretical physicist Matej Pavsic was just along for the royalty checks because it doesn’t look like he proofread anything.
Unfortunately, after finishing the book - I can’t do that. As a person with a background in quantum physics, reading this book made me break out in hives. Page after page generated overwhelming feelings of cringe. Phrases like “criminally misleading” and “stunningly incorrect” kept jumping into my head. I am actually sympathetic towards people with “fringe” views in physics - I think it is unfair when reasonably intelligent people without formal training in physics present unconventional theories that are immediately dismissed by “professional physicists” without any examination of the ideas in question - but I am not sympathetic to those promoting incorrect information, especially when it’s aimed at laypeople who may not know any better.
So, with that said, let’s get into the review. The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality, a book written in 16-point font size, presents an argument for biocentricism: the idea that consciousness creates the world, the universe, all of reality. As opposed to realism, the idea that the physical world that we imperfectly probe through our senses existed before we were born and will exist after we die, biocentricism posits that the only thing that is real _is_ our conscious experience. If this sounds a lot like solipsism, that’s because it is. I’m not going to argue against solipsism in general in this review - I think presented more generally it is certainly a valid philosophy, though not one I personally subscribe to. The problem is that the author Robert Lanza is not content with mere philosophizing, and in his book he tries to argue that quantum physics _proves_ biocentricism is true. But in his arguments, he makes many errors which anyone who has had even a single class in quantum mechanics would be able to spot.
Before this book was written, Robert Lanza had written two other books about biocentricism, in which, according to him, biocentricism is “ineluctably derived, as presented in nontechnical language” (22) Derived in nontechnical language is a bit of an oxymoron, but okay. This book though promises to only use the “hard sciences” to derive biocentricism. But despite claiming to contain a technical explanation for biocentricism, The Grand Biocentric Design reads like a 7th grade general sciences textbook (Light is electromagnetic radiation! Baby quantum! The four fundamental forces! Bats use echolocation!) mashed with the rantings of a schizophrenic (delusions of grandeur, disorganized thinking).
Let’s start with the main thing Lanza gets wrong. Lanza claims that the collapse of a superposition in quantum mechanics during a measurement or observation requires a conscious observer. In fact, he states as his third principle of biocentricism: “The behavior of subatomic particles - indeed all particles and objects - is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Absent a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.” Lanza’s statement is almost right, except for the word “conscious.” The observer which collapses a quantum superposition does not need to be conscious. I feel like I need to say this one more time. The observer does not need to be conscious! There is a piece of experimental hardware called a photodetector which can collapse a superposition. Photodetectors are not (as far as we know…) conscious. Therefore, the observer does not need to be conscious.
Let’s look at some of the experiments that Lanza says prove that conscious observers are required for collapsing wave functions and creating reality. On page 54 we get a mention of the double slit experiment. The double slit experiment (as well as other experiments mentioned in later pages) involve photodetectors which collapse the wave function of photons. Recap: photodetectors are machines, and not conscious observers. Either out of ignorance or a desire to mislead the reader, Lanza does not mention anything about photodetectors, instead claiming the experiment proves his theory correct. The double slit experiment proves _quantum mechanics_ is true. It doesn’t prove biocentricism is true.
Next, Lanza mentions a supposed variation on the double slit experiment where “the only thing that changed from one version of the experiment to the other was the information in the observer’s mind!” implying the observer’s mind collapsed the wave function. He goes on to describe this a bit more but does not cite any sources. This supposed experiment was news to me, an experimental quantum physicist. Because Lanza didn’t cite any sources here, I can only guess what he specific variation he might be referring to, but I think he’s talking about the delayed-choice quantum eraser variation, which most definitely does not show any of the things he claims. Here’s a blog post on it which should be understandable to lay people: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/...
Lanza doesn’t stop there, though, in his quest to misrepresent every quantum physics experiment ever performed. Lanza mentions an experiment which creates ‘two alternate realities’ (81). This experiment was published in Science Advances and you can look up the actual paper and read it. When you read the actual paper, you can see he again misrepresents what the experiment actually showed (not to mention the paper itself literally refers to its own use of ‘nonconscious observers’”. And later, Lanza grossly misrepresents yet another experiment, with Lanza claiming that it “show[s] that events that already occurred can be altered by actions and observations made in the future” (93), when it actually just shows that superposition states are real and can exist. In Appendix 1, Lanza claims to address the criticism that decoherence and wave function collapse don’t require a conscious observer. He addresses it by making more wrong statements and also by ignoring the existence of photodetectors.
Moving on from the conscious observer critique, I was also just baffled at Lanza’s excuse for logic throughout his book. Let’s try to follow a bit of it, starting with one passage about quantum entanglement. “…quantum theory casts serious doubt about whether even far-apart bodies are truly and fully separated. Objects cross space in zero time via 'tunneling,' and can convey instantaneous 'information' thanks to the phenomenon of entanglement.” (22) I just got high blood pressure and an ulcer in addition to my hives from reading that sentence. There are multiple inaccuracies here. Entanglement is spooky action at a distance because we accept that it is at a distance - meaning yes, even entangled objects are “truly and fully separated”. And entangled objects cannot “convey instantaneous ‘information’” because information cannot travel faster than the speed of light - if you are unfamiliar with quantum you won’t realize that there is a subtlety here but if you read the wikipedia page about quantum teleportation you can see that when a measurement is done on one of two entangled particles, information about the measurement outcome must also be sent through a classical channel in order to complete the transmission of information. But to be fair this is a bit nitpicky — Lanza may be using the word “information” in a colloquial sense rather than the actual scientific sense. And colloquially speaking, information does appear to instantaneously travel from one particle to another when a measurement is done on one of two entangled particles. But what is Lanza even trying to say here? When I try to map out his logic I get: 1. Quantum entanglement means even things that are far apart are actually close together 2. Good thing it’s true that objects that are far apart are actually close together, because objects need to be close together in order to convey information instantaneously. Wut? Later we find, yes, this is more or less what Lanza was arguing: “Neither space nor time actually exist. Because surely if space has any kind of reality, then traversing it would take time, even if just a little bit.” (47) This is a fundamentally stupid statement. Scientists came up with quantum mechanics, a beautiful, experimentally verified theory which explains why entanglement and superpositions happen, so that we wouldn’t have to just throw up our hands and say, wow, what a weird experimental result, I guess space and time don’t exist.
But there’s more. After we prove space and time don’t exist, this very logically and straightforwardly leads to the conclusion THERE IS ONLY ONE CONSCIOUSNESS, WE ARE ALL ONE sorry, Lanza’s hand reached out through my computer screen and pressed the caps lock. But let me explain a bit better, in Lanza’s words: “Our individual separateness is an illusion. After all, if space and time do not exist in any absolute sense, then in what way can we think of things as being separate? There is one single consciousness.” (71) Very logical. Yes. Not only that, but … energy. “When we analyze the objects around us, we find nothing at last but energy — energy impressed upon our organs of sense, or energy resisting our organs of action.” (158) “Energy is but a representation of the mind, a rule of its understanding.” (157) Energy has a very specific meaning in physics and it’s definitely not that. Worst of all: “…electromagnetism is just one of several basic relationships — commonly called ‘forces’ or ‘interactions’ — that the mind uses to construct reality from all the possibilities implied by quantum mechanics.” (159) The brain does have electrical activity going on in it. But wait, where is the mind, if it’s separate from the brain? And how can it interact with the brain via electromagnetic forces if it exists metaphysically rather than physically?
…There’s more. I learned something new from this book: that the subconscious is the brain when its wavefunction is not collapsed by consciousness “…activities at a subconscious level are in a quantum superposition” (88) That’s why the brains of coma patients are the leading candidate for decoherence-free qubits. Lanza continues his pontification about subconscious states in his chapter about dreams, claiming that Dreams Can Be a Portal To Another Parallel Universe, and again that “during a non-REM period, the wave packet is so widely spread that most of its branches are decoupled from each other, with no interactions or entanglement between them.” (181) This is completely false and literally no one thinks this.
Lanza’s brand of biocentricism has the benefit of solving the Top 10 List of Existential Crises!, which Lanza isn’t shy about hammering home: worried about the existence of free will? Not a problem, our conscious self steers the action of neurons in the brain! Dreading your own death? No worries, after you die your consciousness will just pop over into another parallel universe where you _didn’t_ die! Feeling like a tiny speck of dust in the vast cosmos? Actually, the universe begins and ends with _you_! Lanza really lays on the pathos in a couple different passages throughout the book, here’s one: “I remember attending my thirty-fifth high school reunion with Vicki, one of my oldest friends. Memories of her long-dead mother flashed across my mind as though they had occurred yesterday… When I picked Vicki up, I knew her mom would have been thrilled to know that we were going to our thirty-fifth high school reunion together… It’s sad she didn’t live to see the future. But I like to think that, in some other universe, she did — that as we left for our reunion that night, somewhere Vicki’s mom leaned back on the sofa and watched the rest of the wrestling match with a smile on her face.” (33) No mention of the branches of universes where Lanza was forced to torture and kill Vicki by a man in a mask trying to recreate the movie Saw, though LOL.
Another of Lanza’s arguments in favor of biocentricism is that Heisenberg and Wigner, two very famous quantum physicists, believed in the importance of consciousness in the collapse of the wavefunction. But Heisenberg and Wigner definitely didn’t believe space and time aren’t real. They also would have taken issue with the incorrect physics in Lanza’s arguments. Also, these days, most physicists don’t believe consciousness is necessary for the collapse of the wavefunction. Also, photodetectors.
I did not carefully read the papers on quantum gravity included at the end because quantum gravity isn’t my specialty but they can’t prove consciousness is necessary for collapsing wavefunctions because photodetectors exist and have already proved that is not true. I guess the co-author and supposed theoretical physicist Matej Pavsic was just along for the royalty checks because it doesn’t look like he proofread anything.
December 30, 2020
Great book has several points where it can be identified.♥️👏🏾
February 16, 2021
I'm torn on my opinion of this book and the concept of biocentrism. On one hand, the concepts do feel pretty revolutionary as a way to explain scientific findings in the field of quantum physics. On the other hand, I didn't really understand the author's conclusions (which is fine, it is a challenging topic) but more importantly I don't really care. I read this book immediately following Hawking's Brief Answers to Big Questions which I found to be fascinating as he applied scientific reasoning to questions that matter. Lanza's conclusions, for me, don't make sense of life or the world. I know some feel that biocentrism is life-affirming but I feel exactly the opposite. Lastly, it should be noted that many scientists challenge Lanza's biocentrism theories. I gave the book three stars as it was fairly well-written and researched but I would not recommend to others as a book to read.
December 28, 2020
I won a copy of this book.
What is consciousness? This book attempts to answer that question. I didn't read the first 2 books that led up to this one, but I gather if you're interested in a more simplistic view of this theory this is a good place to start (then, go back and buy the first 2 books to get a in-depth with your curiosity).
What is consciousness? This book attempts to answer that question. I didn't read the first 2 books that led up to this one, but I gather if you're interested in a more simplistic view of this theory this is a good place to start (then, go back and buy the first 2 books to get a in-depth with your curiosity).
December 29, 2020
Nice book 😊
August 3, 2022
This is the third "Biocentrism" book by Lanza, and the most difficult to assimilate, considering I do not have a degree in physics. Thus the four stars instead of five; a personal statement. Still, I was compelled to finish the book and accept whatever nuggets will remain buried in my brain AND consciousness. The difference is well-defined in this and the other two books. Quantum Theory is now a real force to be reckoned with. We've come a long way in the past 100 years.
And it's still an uncomfortable puzzle as to how an electron makes a "decision" to travel thru one slit or the other. How can that cat be both dead AND alive? And am I alive, conscious and observing the Universe ONLY BECAUSE I am being observed by "another." Who/what is that "other?" I hope to live long enough to understand all of this AND learn some answers! Carry on. N
And it's still an uncomfortable puzzle as to how an electron makes a "decision" to travel thru one slit or the other. How can that cat be both dead AND alive? And am I alive, conscious and observing the Universe ONLY BECAUSE I am being observed by "another." Who/what is that "other?" I hope to live long enough to understand all of this AND learn some answers! Carry on. N
January 17, 2021
For Christmas, I was given a hard-back copy of “The Grand Biocentric Design” by Robert Lanza. I read it straight through once, and then again, stopping to study and try to figure out passages that weren’t clear. I have a college degree in a science (chemistry) and spent many years as a science writer, reading scientific publications and interpreting them for laypeople. Even so, although I think I got the drift of the book, I couldn’t follow Lanza’s explanations of the details. There were too many leaps and gaps between facts. And right now, most of the explanations are in terms of quantum physics. That’s a necessary frst step, but we need something more.
I believe Lanza is on to something, but we don’t know enough yet about biocentrism to fully grasp how it works. Let me give an analogy. It’s as if, in the early days of astronomy, someone had written a book about the great mysteries of the skies such as the nature of the earth, moon, sun, fixed stars, and moving “stars” (planets), and how they moved in repeated, inexplicable patterns. The book might present mathematical descriptions of the motions and show how they could be explained by assuming revolutions of the sun around the earth or the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth as well as rotations of the earth and moon—but without saying anything about the physical nature of the earth, heavenly bodies, or outer space or the existence and influence of gravity.
People might see these ideas as interesting mathematical exercises that bear no relation to reality. Others, more astute, might see that the theorists were on to something but could only offer partial explanations that would await greater clarity. That would come when astronomers discovered that the earth, moon, sun, and planets were spheres in space, that the earth revolved around the sun and the moon revolved around the earth, and gravity governed the revolutions. In fact, this is pretty much how astronomy developed historically. When all the facts were in, no one had to know the mathematics to understand the solar system and everyone could grasp what became known as the Copernican theory. Biocentrism is in the first or early stage and full understanding awaits a good deal of clarification.
Probably because so much information is lacking, Lanza fills in the book by such devices as going off on tangents and telling personal stories that contribute little to understanding biocentrism. Readers can learn as much about biocentrism at this point by reading articles on line as by reading this book.
I believe Lanza is on to something, but we don’t know enough yet about biocentrism to fully grasp how it works. Let me give an analogy. It’s as if, in the early days of astronomy, someone had written a book about the great mysteries of the skies such as the nature of the earth, moon, sun, fixed stars, and moving “stars” (planets), and how they moved in repeated, inexplicable patterns. The book might present mathematical descriptions of the motions and show how they could be explained by assuming revolutions of the sun around the earth or the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth as well as rotations of the earth and moon—but without saying anything about the physical nature of the earth, heavenly bodies, or outer space or the existence and influence of gravity.
People might see these ideas as interesting mathematical exercises that bear no relation to reality. Others, more astute, might see that the theorists were on to something but could only offer partial explanations that would await greater clarity. That would come when astronomers discovered that the earth, moon, sun, and planets were spheres in space, that the earth revolved around the sun and the moon revolved around the earth, and gravity governed the revolutions. In fact, this is pretty much how astronomy developed historically. When all the facts were in, no one had to know the mathematics to understand the solar system and everyone could grasp what became known as the Copernican theory. Biocentrism is in the first or early stage and full understanding awaits a good deal of clarification.
Probably because so much information is lacking, Lanza fills in the book by such devices as going off on tangents and telling personal stories that contribute little to understanding biocentrism. Readers can learn as much about biocentrism at this point by reading articles on line as by reading this book.
February 17, 2021
Very, very enlightening
I was mostly educated to read literature and write sentences. For a lot of reasons, I was scared off from science and math when I wandered through K-12 in the 50's and 60's. But I've always thought that science and math might give me a peak behind the curtain.
At the point when I read the original Biocentrism book, I must admit there was a lot that I couldn't wrap my head around. I had a sense there was something there, but it wasn't sinking in.
Years later this book came out and I added to my queue, but it sat there for quite a while. I finally started in a month or so ago and read no more than a chapter a day. I wanted to give myself time to think about what I was reading. That process included writing myself notes and making diagrams.
Worth every minute! As the ideas from this book fell into place for me, so many other religious and philosophical readings just seemed to clarify themselves.
My conclusions are personal, but I'd like to thank all of the authors for believing enough in these ideas to make them public. Both the author's and I will likely have passed before this book's central understandings become a part of how "Main St." thinks, but I believe that's how things are going to end up for these ideas.
I was mostly educated to read literature and write sentences. For a lot of reasons, I was scared off from science and math when I wandered through K-12 in the 50's and 60's. But I've always thought that science and math might give me a peak behind the curtain.
At the point when I read the original Biocentrism book, I must admit there was a lot that I couldn't wrap my head around. I had a sense there was something there, but it wasn't sinking in.
Years later this book came out and I added to my queue, but it sat there for quite a while. I finally started in a month or so ago and read no more than a chapter a day. I wanted to give myself time to think about what I was reading. That process included writing myself notes and making diagrams.
Worth every minute! As the ideas from this book fell into place for me, so many other religious and philosophical readings just seemed to clarify themselves.
My conclusions are personal, but I'd like to thank all of the authors for believing enough in these ideas to make them public. Both the author's and I will likely have passed before this book's central understandings become a part of how "Main St." thinks, but I believe that's how things are going to end up for these ideas.
October 11, 2021
Panhandling in book form.
I really wanted for there to be something in this book and there is not. Reading it made me feel like I was being polite to a junkie in downtown Hartford telling me he needed 45 more cents to take the bus up to Manchester to visit his son in jail -- you know one of those over long, over complicated stories that makes no sense and is designed to get you to give them the money just to make them shut up. Yeah. That's this book.
I was intrigued by the idea of consciousness being the whole point of existence. But this author makes too many assumptions and calls them principles. He also has a too frequent habit of saying it's all explained in an earlier book. So, I've already spent too much of my time writing about this rip-off. If the author reads this, well, don't do this again.
I really wanted for there to be something in this book and there is not. Reading it made me feel like I was being polite to a junkie in downtown Hartford telling me he needed 45 more cents to take the bus up to Manchester to visit his son in jail -- you know one of those over long, over complicated stories that makes no sense and is designed to get you to give them the money just to make them shut up. Yeah. That's this book.
I was intrigued by the idea of consciousness being the whole point of existence. But this author makes too many assumptions and calls them principles. He also has a too frequent habit of saying it's all explained in an earlier book. So, I've already spent too much of my time writing about this rip-off. If the author reads this, well, don't do this again.
January 3, 2023
I'm fascinated by the science of physics, although I can barely comprehend much of it. Add in quantum mechanics and the theory of biocentric design and my brain really reels. So much of quantum theory and biocentric design seems like magical thinking or a sort of secular replacement for religion and so much of what's theorized seems so incredible as to be unthinkable. If theorists are correct, it changes everything we know about, well, everything. I probably need to re-read Lanza's The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality another half dozen time and I'm still not sure I will fully comprehend all that he's saying. That's not to suggest that Lanza presents this material in an inaccessible way. To the contrary, it's an eminently readable and coherent work. The problem is that my understanding of the material is limited. Lanza presents an intriguing theory that I definitely want to learn more about, even if I know I won't understand a lot of it. I recommend this book for anyone interested in science, especially theoretical physics.
December 12, 2021
It will bend your mind, reframe your life, and inspire you to think hard about your place in this crazy universe. Written by a stem cell biologist and theoretical physicist with a firm grasp of the science behind their words, it brings into question some of our most basic assumptions about ourselves and our world. This book is a continuation of Lanza and Berman’s two prior books on Biocentrism—the idea that biology is fundamental to the universe.
”You are actually creating space and time, not just operating within it like a character in a video game.”
Ironically, the worldview that emerges from this book reminds me very much of one video game in particular: Minecraft. Players wander around collapsing the quantum wave function of infinite possibilities and bringing entire chunks of the landscape into reality by the mere act of observation. In Lanza’s world, just as in Minecraft, death is merely a gateway to an alternate version of yourself, where you wake up in bed with different memories.
”When we die, we do so within a matrix of inescapable life.”
Personally, I couldn’t buy into the multiverse-afterlife bit. But the book also presents a wealth of incredible ideas that complement my hard-won, mystical worldview.
Space and time are emergent properties arising within the mind
Not just space and time, but “reality” too, is relative to the observer
Matter, like the past, exists as a blurred quantum foam until observed in the present
The universe seems fine-tuned for life, possibly because it has to be for us to be here
Ion dynamics in the brain might be the key to understanding the quantum properties of consciousness
Individual separation is an illusion. Everything and everyone is connected.
The universe is “a web of information floating above the void of nonbeing”
”We are not separate from the things we see, hear, and contemplate. Rather, we—nature and the observer—are some sort of inseparable entity.”
It’s a feast of the sort of quantum mysticism I have heard physicists cringe at, yet it’s presented reasonably and convincingly, with surprising support drawn from most of the original founders of quantum theory (like Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and others). Along the way, we are treated to bite-sized history reviews and comprehensible summaries of the key experiments in quantum mechanics.
”Solipsism and the belief in universal oneness—”only self” and “no self”—aren’t as easy to separate as you might think. After all, in a way, one leads to another. They’re like the twisted strands of a single piece of thread.”
The authors present our world as a product of our individual consciousness. That’s a problem for me. Returning to the Minecraft analogy: each player indeed contributes to the world, but the whole thing is running on transistors and code that are completely inaccessible to even the cleverest players. The hardware, for us, is whatever this universe is built on—and I agree with the authors that mind is ontologically primary (matter is just our working model)—but it can’t all be generated by the individual brains of living creatures, as I think is claimed here.
The authors flirt with the concept of interconnectedness and oneness (as in the beautiful excerpt above), but they stop short of exploring its implications. If All is One, as the ancient mystics claim, and consciousness is ontologically primary, then the One is an unimaginably vast and powerful conscious Being. The yogis and Buddhists and mystics of all religions who have studied this One describe it with words like fundamental awareness, world soul, and great spirit. To me, it seems more fulfilling (and feels more true) that we rejoin this One when we die and our ego’s dream is over, rather than to live the same life endlessly through the multiverse (doomed to be ignorant of our cosmic prison). No. As part of the Mind-At-Large, what would I think of my human life? Probably nothing. I’d be too wrapped in the bliss of Simply Being.
To me, it makes more sense to view the brain as an island of consciousness dissociated from the Whole. Yes, it creates its own reality, but not from scratch. It is subconsciously shaped by evolution and environment and history and culture to define a unique but constrained reality that will largely match the reality experienced by its human neighbor. What most of these brains cannot fathom is that they are merely transient alters of the Mind-at-Large—they are momentary whirlpools in the river of the One which allow self to dance with Self.
Instead, the authors focus exclusively on our individual consciousness as originators of the cosmos. Humble mammalian brain ascends to god-like heights, plants are ignored, and all of nature bows to the centrality of the sensing, remembering, self-reflective organism. It’s biocentrism as advertised. It left me feeling—wrong—until I could write it all out like this.
I’d recommend this book to my fellow seekers, but only with the disclaimer above.
”You are actually creating space and time, not just operating within it like a character in a video game.”
Ironically, the worldview that emerges from this book reminds me very much of one video game in particular: Minecraft. Players wander around collapsing the quantum wave function of infinite possibilities and bringing entire chunks of the landscape into reality by the mere act of observation. In Lanza’s world, just as in Minecraft, death is merely a gateway to an alternate version of yourself, where you wake up in bed with different memories.
”When we die, we do so within a matrix of inescapable life.”
Personally, I couldn’t buy into the multiverse-afterlife bit. But the book also presents a wealth of incredible ideas that complement my hard-won, mystical worldview.
Space and time are emergent properties arising within the mind
Not just space and time, but “reality” too, is relative to the observer
Matter, like the past, exists as a blurred quantum foam until observed in the present
The universe seems fine-tuned for life, possibly because it has to be for us to be here
Ion dynamics in the brain might be the key to understanding the quantum properties of consciousness
Individual separation is an illusion. Everything and everyone is connected.
The universe is “a web of information floating above the void of nonbeing”
”We are not separate from the things we see, hear, and contemplate. Rather, we—nature and the observer—are some sort of inseparable entity.”
It’s a feast of the sort of quantum mysticism I have heard physicists cringe at, yet it’s presented reasonably and convincingly, with surprising support drawn from most of the original founders of quantum theory (like Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and others). Along the way, we are treated to bite-sized history reviews and comprehensible summaries of the key experiments in quantum mechanics.
”Solipsism and the belief in universal oneness—”only self” and “no self”—aren’t as easy to separate as you might think. After all, in a way, one leads to another. They’re like the twisted strands of a single piece of thread.”
The authors present our world as a product of our individual consciousness. That’s a problem for me. Returning to the Minecraft analogy: each player indeed contributes to the world, but the whole thing is running on transistors and code that are completely inaccessible to even the cleverest players. The hardware, for us, is whatever this universe is built on—and I agree with the authors that mind is ontologically primary (matter is just our working model)—but it can’t all be generated by the individual brains of living creatures, as I think is claimed here.
The authors flirt with the concept of interconnectedness and oneness (as in the beautiful excerpt above), but they stop short of exploring its implications. If All is One, as the ancient mystics claim, and consciousness is ontologically primary, then the One is an unimaginably vast and powerful conscious Being. The yogis and Buddhists and mystics of all religions who have studied this One describe it with words like fundamental awareness, world soul, and great spirit. To me, it seems more fulfilling (and feels more true) that we rejoin this One when we die and our ego’s dream is over, rather than to live the same life endlessly through the multiverse (doomed to be ignorant of our cosmic prison). No. As part of the Mind-At-Large, what would I think of my human life? Probably nothing. I’d be too wrapped in the bliss of Simply Being.
To me, it makes more sense to view the brain as an island of consciousness dissociated from the Whole. Yes, it creates its own reality, but not from scratch. It is subconsciously shaped by evolution and environment and history and culture to define a unique but constrained reality that will largely match the reality experienced by its human neighbor. What most of these brains cannot fathom is that they are merely transient alters of the Mind-at-Large—they are momentary whirlpools in the river of the One which allow self to dance with Self.
Instead, the authors focus exclusively on our individual consciousness as originators of the cosmos. Humble mammalian brain ascends to god-like heights, plants are ignored, and all of nature bows to the centrality of the sensing, remembering, self-reflective organism. It’s biocentrism as advertised. It left me feeling—wrong—until I could write it all out like this.
I’d recommend this book to my fellow seekers, but only with the disclaimer above.
December 29, 2020
This book are very good
November 29, 2020
The author states that everything we see as external actually exists only in your brain, your mind (two different things). Effectively, nothing is real in the sense as we currently understand it.
I'm not sure I'm sold on the idea completely - but it raises questions that I would like to know more about. In other words it opens my thinking - but I'm not sold on all of their conclusions
I'm not sure I'm sold on the idea completely - but it raises questions that I would like to know more about. In other words it opens my thinking - but I'm not sold on all of their conclusions
January 11, 2021
Book is awesome 📓📓❤️❤️
January 25, 2021
An excellent successor with in-depth analysis of the latest cutting edge scientific theories.
Well worth the investment
Well worth the investment
March 26, 2021
Way back in college I wrote my final paper in Eastern Civilization and titled it reality is absolute mind.
And there it is...
And there it is...
January 13, 2023
Well-written, clear, funny, and mind-blowing.
This book presents the scientific evidence for biocentricism, the view that life is central to the universe, that perception creates reality. This view is not new, but the book shows how modern science supports it. Lanza and co-authors develop the ideas of twentieth-century physicists such as E. Schrodinger who regarded consciousness as "absolutely fundamental" to reality. Those holding the antithetical view - that matter is central and life inessential - must ignore or else endure the discomfort of quantum physical discoveries such as nonlocality, entanglement, and superposition (which the authors explain very clearly). Physiocentrism (i.e. materialism) is thus weaker because it can only remained baffled by such phenomena. The biocentric view, by contrast, embraces those phenomena with love and tenderness because they, with the rest of the reality, harmonize smoothly with its all-encompassing view of the universe.
One of the key distinctions of biocentrism is that life, not just humans, is central to reality. This includes animals and even plants that "store memories and respond to their spatial environment." Thus it disarms criticisms of anthropocentrism, so common an attack-strategy of the materialist camp. More importantly, however, it does justice to the perception of the world as larger and more mysterious than any one species can hope to comprehend, including humans.
The authors tackle the questions of free will, life after death, and time-travel. They also affirm the idea of a multiverse, which in my view remains speculative and unconvincing, though inessential to the main point of the book. The volume includes appendices addressing counter-arguments of critics, and a technical paper showing that the observer creates the “arrow of time," which quantum gravity will never be able to explain.
This challenging book is intended for "all of society," not just the scientific community. To fully absorb the important information it presents, us lay-men should read it more than once. Doing so will affirm a generous and benevolent worldview of wonder and interconnectedness.
This book presents the scientific evidence for biocentricism, the view that life is central to the universe, that perception creates reality. This view is not new, but the book shows how modern science supports it. Lanza and co-authors develop the ideas of twentieth-century physicists such as E. Schrodinger who regarded consciousness as "absolutely fundamental" to reality. Those holding the antithetical view - that matter is central and life inessential - must ignore or else endure the discomfort of quantum physical discoveries such as nonlocality, entanglement, and superposition (which the authors explain very clearly). Physiocentrism (i.e. materialism) is thus weaker because it can only remained baffled by such phenomena. The biocentric view, by contrast, embraces those phenomena with love and tenderness because they, with the rest of the reality, harmonize smoothly with its all-encompassing view of the universe.
One of the key distinctions of biocentrism is that life, not just humans, is central to reality. This includes animals and even plants that "store memories and respond to their spatial environment." Thus it disarms criticisms of anthropocentrism, so common an attack-strategy of the materialist camp. More importantly, however, it does justice to the perception of the world as larger and more mysterious than any one species can hope to comprehend, including humans.
The authors tackle the questions of free will, life after death, and time-travel. They also affirm the idea of a multiverse, which in my view remains speculative and unconvincing, though inessential to the main point of the book. The volume includes appendices addressing counter-arguments of critics, and a technical paper showing that the observer creates the “arrow of time," which quantum gravity will never be able to explain.
This challenging book is intended for "all of society," not just the scientific community. To fully absorb the important information it presents, us lay-men should read it more than once. Doing so will affirm a generous and benevolent worldview of wonder and interconnectedness.
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