The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World

by Amit Goswami

Overview

In this stimulating and timely book, Amit Goswami, PhD, shatters the widely popular belief held by Western science that matter is the primary "stuff" of creation and proposes instead that consciousness is the true foundation of all we know and perceive.
 
His explanation of quantum physics for lay readers, called "a model of clarity" by Kirkus Reviews, sets the stage for a voyage of discovery through the common ground of science and religion, the entwined nature of mind and body, and our interconnectedness with all of creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874777987
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/21/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Amit Goswami, PhD, is a theoretical quantum physicist and a retired professor from the University of Oregon’s Department of Physics, where he served from 1968 to 1997. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness,” an idea he explicates in his seminal book, The Self-Aware Universe, in which he also solves the quantum measurement problem elucidating the famous observer effect. Dr. Goswami has written several popular books based on his research on quantum physics and consciousness, including Physics of the Soul and Quantum Economics: Unleashing the Power of an Economics of Consciousness.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Preface
Foreword

Part I: The Integration of Science and Spirituality
Introduction to Part I
1. The Chasm and the Bridge
2. The Old Physics and Its Philosophical Legacy
3. Quantum Physics and the Demise of Material Realism
4. The Philosophy of Monastic Idealism

Part 2: Idealism and the Resolution of the Quantum Paradoxes
Introduction to Part 2
5. Objects in Two Places at Once and Effects That Precede Their Causes
6. The Nine Lives of Schrödinger's Cat
7. I Choose, Therefore I Am
8. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox
9. The Reconciliation of Realism and Idealism

Part 3: Self-Reference: How the One Becomes Many
Introduction to Part 3
10. Exploring the Mind-Body Problem
11. In Search of the Quantum Mind
12. Paradoxes and Tangled Hierarchies
13. The "I" of Consciousness
14. Integrating the Psychologies

Part 4: The Re-enchantment of the Person
Introduction to Part 4
15. War and Peace
16. Outer and Inner Creativity
17. The Awakening of Buddhi
18. An Idealist Theory of Ethics
19. Spiritual Joy

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all existence, declares University of Oregon physicist Goswami, echoing the mystic sages of his native India. He holds that the universe is self-aware, and that consciousness creates the physical world. Calling this theory ``monistic idealism,'' he claims it is not only ``the basis of all religions worldwide'' but also the correct philosophy for modern science. Once people give up the assumption that there is an objective reality independent of consciousness, the paradoxes of quantum physics are explainable, contends Goswami, writing with his wife and Reed ( Building the Future from Our Past ). He also applies his hypothesis to the so-called mind-body schism, which he attempts to heal. Sketching a model of the self, this demanding but rewarding treatise uses analogies from the ``new physics'' to throw light on choice, free will, creativity, the unconscious and paths to spiritual growth. Illustrated. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly