To say that quantum physics is the greatest scientific discovery of all time is not an exaggeration. In their discovery of the quantum realm, the physics community stumbled upon a genuine multifaceted revelation which can be likened to a profound spiritual treasure - a heretofore undreamed of creative power - hidden within our own mind. Quantum physics unequivocally points out that the study of the universe and the study of consciousness are inseparably linked, which is to say that ultimate progress in the one will be impossible without progress in the other. Einstein declared that what it reveals is so immensely important that "it should be everyone's concern." Yet few of us in the general public truly understand how the game-changing discoveries of the past century not only relate to our day-to-day lives, but also give us insights into the nature of reality and our place within it.
Written for readers with no physics background, Paul Levy's latest book, The Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality is for those who have heard that quantum physics is a fascinating subject but don't quite understand how or why. Levy contemplates the deeper philosophical underpinnings of quantum physics, exploring the fundamental questions it provokes: What does it mean that quantum theory has discovered that there is no such thing as "objective reality?" How are we participating - via our consciousness - in creating our experience of a reality that quantum theory itself describes as "dreamlike?" What are the implications for us in our day-to-day lives that - as quantum theory reveals - what we call reality is more like a dream than we had previously imagined?
The Quantum Revelation is unique in how it synthesizes science and spirituality so as to reveal and explore the dreamlike nature of reality. It is a book not just for people interested in quantum theory, but for anyone who is interested in waking up and dreaming lucidly, be it in our night dreams or our waking life.
This book says one thing: quantum physics changes everything. It says it over and over again, with slight variation, quotes a lot of people saying it, and could have been edited down from 300 pages to one single page. How frustrating!
I will write more later, but as far as I am concerned, it is already the best book I have read. It is as if someone else who I have never met understands the content of my mind, and is able to explain it in precise terms. The book is giving me a feeling of healing, because now I know that there are others out there that see things the same way as me.
If anyone has read T Colin Campbell's book "The China Study", they will know how mainstream science misleads the public on nutrition. Science now is not as honest and open as it was back in the times of the Solvay conference of 1927, but Paul Levy has picked up on this, and explains quantum physics better than any current physicist can, because of their "elephant in the living room", namely, they refuse to recognise the metaphysical nature of what they have discovered.
This book puts science back where it belongs, back in the hands of the individual, the amateur. What he's written in this book is going to be as devastating for mainstream physicists as the simple declaration by the child who says "The Emperor has no clothes".
Prepare yourself before you read it. If the message hits home, it will be as shocking and disorientating as Jodie Foster's journey in the movie "Contact".
He warns: "Quantum physics, when contemplated deeply enough, can completely unravel our illusory sense of self in a way that, to the ego, can feel like the most frightening thing of all, like some sort of death experience."
But equally. it is healing: "In discovering that there is no objective world out there and no objective subject in here, quantum physics is discovering the medicine or fundamental cure for the psychospiritual illness that ails our species. In so doing, quantum physics is promoting itself to the ranks of a spiritual wisdom tradition."
Read it. This stuff needs to get out there, and fast.
This is the greatest book I have ever read. Paul Levy is uniquely qualified to explain Quantum Physics to the average reader. He has a background in Buddhism, Jungian Psychology and the works of Philip K. Dick. I’ve been waiting a Lifetime for someone to describe Quantum Physics in terms I can understand And write about what it all means to how we live our life.
When I was reading this book I had the strange feeling that I was reading my own work. I have written 8 books on topics within the subject area, and Paul Levy has read, and reviewed, my work. He has also communicated with me asking which books of mine I thought to be best for him. At a certain point in reading Levy's book I became aware that I was actually reading my own sentences but they were plagiarized and not given proper reference. This book is basically a badly carried out, because Levy gets important things wrong, rip-off of my work. This book is based on, and plagiarizes, my book - 'Quantum Buddhism: Dancing in Emptiness'. For clear proof of the copying and plagiarizing you can read this in depth article linked below. I am about to publish a book on the absurdities of New-Age fantasies, which over-inflate the evidence beyond the evidence. This book will also clearly analyze and demonstrate the egregious plagiarism of my work by Levy . Go here to read my article - http://quantumbuddhism.org/QProphetsN...
Paul Levy smashes together a few scientists along with Jung and Philip K. Dick to create his own version of how reality "really is". Also, most of this work is just Levy parroting other thinkers, and I couldn't help but to think that I would rather just read those original authors than Levy playing telephone with their works and ideas.
Still, I'm a sucker for books like this (even if I don't always buy what they are selling) and so I got some enjoyment out of it.
This is a superb work. The author adroitly blends the findings in physics, the teachings of Zen and Buddhism, and perspectives of some of our worlds most accomplished scientists regarding the conundrums presented by physics. It challenges our beliefs regarding consciousness and spirituality. The author maintains a well-rounded disciplined approach in integrating to some extent spirituality, consciousness, and physics while acknowledging that we have only begun to understand the vast implications of our findings. This work surpasses all other books I have read regarding this mega-topic...so much so that I am starting to take these insights far more seriously than I have in days past.
Terrible book. How many times can you say the same dam thing over and over. Past redundant, past irritating, past dull to down right pissed off wondering who allowed this to keep going on and on. Was he paid per word, challenged to say the same dam thing over and over without coming up with any new and inventive way to express the same dam thing. AHHHHHHHHH
I found this book a compilation of a number of other books wriiten by different authors and scientists. Quotes are used heavily throughout the book. More like a review of what others have said or written, this books offers little originality.
Great book on the basics of Quantum physics but I don’t think the revelation part was covered very well. I guess no one knows what’s next and quantum is probably the closest we come so far. I’ve already re-read a few chapters.
Not an easy read, but very interesting. (It sort of reminds me of Weaver's Language is Sermonic and Burke's Language as Symbolic Action also hard to read and also how language helps and hinders us.) I found I could only read a few pages at a time, then I had to let that sink in before I could go on. I haven't worked this hard on a text since college. Worth it, however.
This book is OFF THE CHARTS amazing! It changed me. Paul Levy delivers a gift to all who read this book! The newer/updated version is due out in November 2024! Can't wait!
Read this book to converse with someone who has read it multiple times. I'm glad that I did because I was not aware of the degree to which ideas like the ones in this book had taken hold.
So here's the thing. This book is written by a non-physicist and purports to draw all sorts of implications from quantum physics. But his take early in the book is telling: he says something to the effect of (I listened to the audiobook) when experts disagree we are free to wildly speculate. Therefore he finds the physicist who agrees with things that he already wants to believe (John Wheeler, whose views are known to be radical) and sets him up literally as a new Moses looking into the promised land.
In this book, Levy argues that quantum mechanics shows that objective reality does not exist, subjective reality is dreamed up by humans, the universe has consciousness, that alchemists were on the right track, that we live in the Matrix and the mainstream media is holding us back from our true potential, and that this "truth" causes a trauma so severe that physicists are in denial and worried about speaking out and which causes schizophrenic symptoms.
The problem is that quantum physicist is not settled science and what science is there does not support his views. Lindgren and Liukkonen have demonstrated that the observer effect can be explained via classical stochastic physics. Sabine Hossenfelder has an excellent Youtube video debunking the notion that the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment re-writes the past. There are several other interpretations of quantum theory much less radical than Wheeler's which are viable. When navigating unsettled science, we need to be humble - not wildly speculative.
This book is a good example of what happens when one reads their existing conclusions into science, and then selectively chooses references to support that conclusion.
"A perfect illustration is when we are absorbed in a dream and have forgotten that we ourselves have something to do with creating it. Becoming conscious of a process that we have always been unconsciously involved in not only opens up the possibility of a radical transformation of the human experience but it could also open up previously unimagined frontiers of human freedom that could utterly remake our world."
Pages 327-328:
"The need for updating new forms of language is not just a psychological maybe better social one as well. The power of a new way of looking at the world and the power of its effective dissemination into that very world are interconnected. A new type of language needs to be created that is qualitative rather than exclusively quantitative. Conventional scientific language is based on verifiable measurements and is hence descriptive. Based on the participatory nature of the new physics, the new form of language needs to be more “depictive,” Somehow evoking its qualitative character. We have to create a new language that calls forth and transmits novel images in and through the medium of the shared collective psyche. We have to create a new language that evokes and helps us see and understand the interconnectedness that underlines and in-forms of phenomena...A language composed of living words that disclose this reality can only develop and organically emerge from intimate, direct experience of the reality of the Logos, which is the ground of language itself."
Page 387:
"The revelations of quantum physics, once integrated, can't help but catalyze a Copernican-style revolution within our minds. Similar to how Copernicus placed the sun at the center of our solar system, quantum physics places the light of consciousness-operating through and beyond our minds-at the center of the creation of the universe."
Levy admits he is no physicist nor mathematician and leans heavily on the fringe Consciousness-Causes-Collapse interpretation. This is fine but he offers this interpretation as a matter of fact while excluding other alternatives that are more widely accepted by physicists. Additionally, this is fluff writing. Levy gives little history, little explanation, and inserts his spiritual interpretation seemingly randomly. This book lacks meat and structure. He writes as if he is trying to make a profound revelation with every sentence and does so in the most repetitive way.
If you are looking for a book on quantum mechanics, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a fringe interpretation where the universe is dependent on consciousness, then I guess this is your book.
Deeply frustrating book. The central premise of a micro physics world alongside a macro world is fascinating. However unfortunately the book appeared very padded in putting across these fundamental ideas and full of quotes from other authors and scientists. The links with contemporary psychology was weak, heavily reliant on Jung and completely ignoring recent advances in the field. Dan Siegal's work and his book "Interconnected" do a much better job .
Met the author, enjoyed the gathering space he hosted, and then had the opportunity to read the book. Very interesting and insightful perspective on the developing state of quantum research and spiritual enlightenment potentially converging to advance the experience of being.
Other than being too anthropocentric, I really like this book. Insightful in a way I’d never previously encountered. Suffice it to say I now count myself among those who embrace that we live in a quantum universe.
Thank you Paul. Your words and wisdom are perfectly timed in this era of wars and violence. Awareness of the nature of quantum mechanics is a light on our pathway to peace. We are in this dream as never before.
A lesson in how to explain something unexplainable!
Thought provoking and a view of a very complex topic explained in terms anyone can grasp. I enjoyed the book immensely and it gave me a new way of looking at the universe and myself.
I'll be honest - I internalized like half of this... still got the point tho. To boil it down, this guy has read a lot of other guys and he tells you about it.
Over the last couple of years I have been reading different books with intent of understanding how the world is perceived outside of the Christian lens. Some of the books have been challenging or fascinating in how they present a world devoid of a God. This book was not one of them.
This book is filled with basic logical fallacies and (I hope) is not an accurate representation of quantum theory. To give you the most pronounced fallacy the book says (paraphrased) “quantum physics shows us that can truly be no absolute truth” yet that statement in itself is an absolute truth. Science is not some sort of pliable construct that can fit whatever version of reality you choose to live in. It is a foundation of knowledge, of identifying facts that make themselves manifest for us. I would encourage you to read this book but with the caveat that you use the same critical thinking that the book asks you to take towards “old science” towards the “new science” that it is presenting.
Great summary of quantum physics and its implications
Quantum physics is something that's fascinated me for a pretty long time. I read Biocentrism but this didn't really explain the implications too well in my view. This book compiles all the different research and views from leading physicists in a way that demonstrates the practical implications of quantum physics and how it can change things.