Beyond Biocentrism

The first thing I must say about this book it that there are not enough stars to describe what a good read this book truly is. Robert Lanza, MD teamed up with Bob Berman (astrophysicist) to write this wonderful 200 page book that for me -- finally put it all together. I studied physics and can say for myself that I have a mind of scientist that is (over)loaded with logic. But I am also a yoga teacher and since my father's death nearly 10 years ago, I have been actively looking for answers about death, immortality and nature of space and time. I read so many books about the topic, I lost count. That was until I came across this book. Authors finally put it all together for me that both my scientific, logical mind and my spiritual mind could put it all together in a manner that it finally all made sense.One of the 'a-ha" moments was towards the end of the book when author Lanza acknowledges the fact that plants have consciousness. I was reading that part of the book on the train on my way form work and at one moment, I said out loud (without realizing it) - "Oh my God!" An older gentlemen, a professional man, sitting in a fine, tailored suit next to my seat, was startled and he replied: "Did you miss your train exit? Was I in a way?". I just looked at him and smiled and my response was simply:" Oh, no. It is just that I learned from this book that plants have consciousness! Can you believe it? And there is a proof!".. He was so kind, he looked at me and said after a longer pause replied: "Well, it does kind of make sense - the fact that plants have consciousness...." What can I say - I repeated the same story to my yoga students I was teaching that same night.The fact is that this book is so rich with references to ancient philosophical books, logic from ancient Greece and how all of that information is relevant today. Authors provide scientific insight on classical physics (Newton) to modern physics (quantum mechanics and relativity). For me personally, this book, every single page of it was food for my soul. Not to mention that I was delighted to learn (and accept) the premise that authors have that, after all, we are all immortal. Some of the very fortunate people on earth experience enlightenment, and this book will show every reader that there is a potential in each and every one of us to experience it. This book opened my eyes to possibilities that no one has ever presented in such a concise and beautiful way before.There is one portion of the book where authors discuss how human beings are used to observing and exploring universe by "looking" at the skies. This book missed it by a couple of months, since it's been announced a few months back that scientists in New Mexico, for the first time, "heard" creation of the black hole. This was just an idea that Einstein had nearly 50 years ago that the events in the universe can be heard and not just seen and it was only recently that scientists could prove that events in the universe can indeed be heard by human beings. Nevertheless, this book is priceless and I am keeping it as a reference in my library. It has underlining all over the place and I just cannot stop talking about it to everyone I know.Another wonderful thing that must be mentioned is that one author (Lanza) relies strictly on science and logic, while the other co-author (Berman) believes in a "gut" feeling in spite of the fact that he received a training as a scientist. Perhaps the part of the reason is the fact that for the period of three weeks, Mr. Berman experienced enlightenment himself. I must quote one part of the book, where Mr. Berman says: "We trust our instincts. We need no textbook to teach us to love, or to recognize danger, or to be swept into a joy by a beautiful garden. Yet when it comes to grasping the nature of existence, we fumble and stumble through insensate theories, our eyes glazed over as we hear about string theory's extra dimensions".My personal struggle my entire life has been to reconcile my scientific mind with my deep sense of intuition. For a long time I denied myself my intuition because my rational mind always felt that there has to be a rational "proof" first before I make up my mind and fully accept my gut feeling. This book has finally thought me a lesson that I will allow my intuition to lead me first, I will trust it unconditionally and rationality will follow in its own time and show itself when it is ready. For that lesson I am so thankful to both of these authors. They are my personal heroes.

Sometimes it feels like my whole life has been a quest for truth. My mother is a devout Methodist while my father is agnostic (not that he really admits as much to my mother). While there are aspects of Christianity that I admire, I grew up knowing that I didn’t buy the whole package. In my teens and young adult years I looked to Eastern religion (Buddhism and Taoism most notably) and science for answers, but, while I’ve often felt like I’m on the verge of a great understanding, I’ve never really found what I’ve been looking for. In my older adult years I have largely abandoned the process. Partially because I’m too busy taking care of kids and putting food on the table, but partially because I’ve started to get the feeling that the quest is pointless.So I was intrigued when I saw this book. Basically, we’re told, everything we “know” is wrong. I don’t find that much of a leap. At various points I found this book intriguing, exciting, challenging, fulfilling, baffling, irritating and exasperating. Any book that can do all that is probably well worth reading, even if you’re not fully on board with all of the conclusions.The first half of the book is devoted to deconstructing what we think we know about the world. We delve into quantum theory, relativity and other theories to show that time and space don’t exist, at least not as we commonly perceive them. Contrary to what we “know” with science (not to mention what we feel in our guts), “spooky action at a distance” is not only possible, it’s quite common. Science is so focused on “objectivity” that it leaves a gaping hole in our knowledge – a hole that can only be filled by losing “objectivity”. That is, to really understand and make sense of what science has been telling us, we have to look to the observer – our own subjective sense. The authors take us through experiments like the double slit experiment, as well as looking at entangled twin particles that seem to know and replicate what the other is doing even if the other is galaxies away.Next we delve into deconstructing the “dumb random universe” theory. Simply by looking at the chances that 10 books arranged randomly on a shelf would happen to end up in alphabetical order (a probability of about 1 in 3.5 million) we can see that it stretches credibility to believe that everything in our universe has ended up the way it is simply by random chance. The chances that a galaxy like ours would randomly have a solar system with a planet that is perfectly suited for life would simply happen because of particles randomly bumping into each other is so astronomical as to be impossible. The authors demolish the idea of string theory (the idea of multiple universes) as being a “theory of everything” and, hence, a theory of nothing. And in any case, even if this dumb random universe theory were correct, no one has yet given a satisfactory explanation as to how consciousness as arisen out of all of this randomness.The later part of the book develops the authors’ answer to these dilemmas. We have been, in fact, starting backward, trying to arrive at consciousness by studying physics and biology. We should, rather start with consciousness and then the universe makes sense. There is, according to the authors, no “out there” out there. Everything happens in our minds, so it is our minds that we need to start with. In other words, thousands of years of exploration, observation and science have led us back to where the ancient Hindus started thousands of years ago.I’ll have to admit first off that I am no scientific expert, so I did not follow all of the science in this book. A large part of science is being able to get your head around it – to be able to visualize, even roughly, what the theories and equations are pointing to. I admit I was often rather lost in this way. The authors develop their argument step-by-step, brick-by-brick in a seemingly incontrovertible way. But perhaps because I can’t get my head around it all, I remain skeptical. For one thing, I have to question their sources. Dr. Lanza is a medical doctor, and I have a hard time believing he also has a deep and thorough knowledge of theoretical physics – those are rather big fields for any one person to master. Berman seems to be more of a science generalist who came to the field because of his own “enlightenment” experience. Many of the references seem to come from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and other layman’s magazines. Not to disparage those publications but, being as they are written for the lay audience, they are of necessity rather simplified. My field is psychology and I have read both academic journals and popular publications like PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. I can tell you that the latter is wildly simplified, often to the point of error.But in any case, my real issue is that biocentrism doesn’t really solve or explain anything more than any other scientific or religious approach. It just raises more question – many of which are the same as any religion. If everything boils down to consciousness, whence did consciousness come from? Again, we’re back to an unexplainable first cause. Furthermore, whose consciousness? The authors frequently use the words “our mind”. Is this meant to imply a collective consciousness? I suppose so if we’re all part of some overarching consciousness and divisions and dualities are all illusions. (If not, we’re back to Descartes “I think, therefore I am” because I can only verify my own consciousness – perhaps I’m dreaming and making up everything else.)If there really are no dualities and all is illusion, how did these illusions come to be? Did we each split ourselves off from this overarching consciousness? Or did this consciousness split us off? And in either case, why? What are we “here” for? And what happens after “death” (which doesn’t really exist)? Do we rejoin the larger consciousness? Will we retain any individual sense of ourselves as separate, or will we just merge into the larger whole (which, for all practical purposes is annihilation)? Biocentrism doesn’t answer these fundamental questions any better than “God did it” or “turtles all the way down”.Moreover, if everything is consciousness and everything else is illusion, that renders life itself meaningless. If there is no death, then it doesn’t matter that people are dying of hunger or war or lack of medical care – they are just rejoining this larger consciousness sooner. In fact, we should all just lay down and die. What difference does suffering and evil and oppression make anyway? While I don’t buy into any of the Western religions, I do admire them for struggling with the meaning of life and death, good and evil, struggle and altruism.Nonetheless, I am very glad I read this book and I have passed it on to other people and look forward to discussion on the issues raised. I was, as noted, very challenged by this book and it has opened up new possibilities. The book is well written and intriguing, and, despite my skepticism, not easily brushed off or dismissed. Incidentally, I have not read the first book. I would like to go back and see if that book answers any of the questions raised here. Whether you agree, disagree, or simply remain skeptical, I recommend reading this book for some very satisfying food for thought.

Beyond Biocentrism provides strong support for consciousness being the fundamental originator for all that is, and this paradigm relies heavily on the principles of quantum mechanics (QM) as its underlying framework. It argues that space and time are nothing more than tools of the human mind used to make sense of a universe full of blurry QM probability waves.There is no "out there". All possibilities exist in superposition as probabilistic-wave functions until an observer collapses these wave functions. This phenomenon has been verified by many experiments over the last century by credible scientists across the globe This is not New Age stuff.This book also explains how and why everything is connected to everything else through a concept called entanglement (and non-locality), which allows for instant (faster than light) communications between two objects even if they are located on opposite sides of the galaxy. Once again consciousness mandates that "all is one" and there is no such thing as distance or space.This book discusses and connects consciousness with other phenomenon such as death (it's not real), quantum jumping, the two slit experiment and its variations, retrocausation, I-ness, the Quantum Zeno effect, and much more and they fit nicely with the biocentric thesis. There are other books with similar ideas, but Beyond Biocentrism goes much further; materialism is defunct.I am on my second reading; this book is fabulous and I cannot do justice in this review. If these ideas are correct, realism is far stranger than science fiction or fantasy.Rich

Rather disappointing after ground shaking first book. As if Lanza did not really believe that what he says is true ... he hesitates and plays very cautious and defensive. Why ?

This book gets right to the core of what reality probably is in a way I have never read before because it considers the undeniable truth that reality is created inside our brain by our consciousness. It grounds that assertion with enough quantum physics to prove the point.I find it rather strange that this book has come along when I was wondering about what consciousness means, spooky even.It is less successful when it considers what death really is. I get the bit about death being an experience created in the realities of those left behind but there is no real attempt to guess at what it means for the person who has died except vague comments that they don't.

So far one of the best books I’ve ever read!!! Super recommend. This book taught me a lot. If you like quantum physics, astronomy etc. this book is for you. This book is made for curious minds. It challenges you and everything around you.

Not an easy read, but of the genre of many, many highly qualified people writing about life, time, space - don’t want to be too specific, else I might be labelled a nutter. The subject is written about many seemingly many renowned American authors, and their works favourably reviewed in many prestigious American papers and publications. Yet I cannot any reference about these publications in British papers. I wonder why?

I think I need to read this again - it's interesting but hard to remember. Basically it's all in your mind.