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FROM THE FLAP

"There's a mind-bending place where the mysteries of the soul open to the frontiers of physics. Fred Alan Wolf takes you there in his latest book, The Spiritual Universe. From the ancient Egyptian ka to the futurist nanotech resurrection, wherever he looks he brings fresh perspectives and dazzling speculations. A new Thales for a new physics of the soul, Wolf's book will blow your mind and quicken your spirit."

-- Michael Grosso, Ph.D. author of The Millennium Myth and Frontiers of the Soul

Why do we believe in the soul? Does it actually exist? If so, what is it? Does it differ from the self? Is it part of the material world? Does it survive the body after death? What is its role in good and evil?

These questions have confounded humankind for millennia. Now, in The Spiritual Universe, American Book Award winner Fred Alan Wolf brings the most modern perspective of quantum physics to the most ancient questions of religion and philosophy. Taking the reader on a fascinating tour of both Western and Eastern thought, Wolf explains the differing views of the soul in the works of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas, the ancient Egyptians' belief in the nine forms of the soul, the Qabalastic idea of the soul acting in secret to bring spiritual order to a chaotic universe of matter and energy, and the Buddhist vision of a "non-soul." And Wolf mounts a defense of the soul against its modern critics who see the soul as nothing but the body or even as a computer.

Based on his sophisticated knowledge of contemporary physics as well as ancient philosophy and religion, Wolf uses his skill at popularizing scientific research to explain how the key to the soul can be found in the deep connection between observer and observed. This interaction, at the quantum level, helps explain how the soul connects to what we understand as matter. The soul, Wolf says, must be understood as a process, not as an entity opposed to matter.

Filled with provocative insights into the most profound questions of spirituality and the most difficult problems at the edge of science, The Spiritual Universe is a fascinating exploration of the realm where religion and philosophy, science and spirituality intersect.

"Fred Alan Wolf creates a brilliant New Physics of the Soul that updates the spiritual genius of all times and cultures to usher us into the third millennium with deepening faith, bold heart, and profound insight!"

-- Ernest Lawrence Rossi, Ph.D. author of The Symptom Path to Enlightenment, Editor of Psychological Perspectives


About the Author:

Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. is a consulting physicist, writer, and lecturer. He travels throughout the United States and the world lecturing on the new physics and consciousness and is the author of The Eagle's Quest, Parallel Universes, and The Dreaming Universe. Wolf won the American Book Award for Taking the Quantum Leap. He lives in San Francisco.

His first book SPACETIME AND BEYOND dealt with questions of science and mysticism in a cartoon format, and was described as one of the most important works ever published on cosmic unity, scientific theory, and the nature of consciousness. His second book, TAKING THE QUANTUM LEAP was the recipient of the American Book Award for Science softcovers in 1982 and one reviewer said, "The prose is every bit as exhilarating as Gamow's and exhibits the same passion to explain--humorously." His third book, STAR WAVE: MIND, CONSCIOUSNESS AND QUANTUM PHYSICS, was critically acclaimed on the front page of the New York Times book Review as "a brilliant original leap into the future." His fourth book, THE BODY QUANTUM was described as "introducing a new model into medicine that may allow us to re­envision the body." His fifth book, PARALLEL UNIVERSES: THE SEARCH FOR OTHER WORLDS, has been described by Publisher's Weekly as "A wild intellectual ride . . . An enthralling read." The San Francisco Chronicle­Examiner said that it had "Amazing speculations on time travel, the nature of reality and existence, and the role of consciousness." New Age Journal described it as "An outrageous ride along the frontiers of science." His sixth book, THE EAGLE'S QUEST: A PHYSICIST'S SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN THE HEART OF THE SHAMANIC WORLD describes in a visionary autobiography style, the author's interactions with shamans the world over and brings to bear the author's insights into the overlap of the modern physicist's view of reality with the shaman's. The author had actually participated with several new world shamans in sometimes painful and illuminating ceremonies with them. His seventh book, THE DREAMING UNIVERSE published in May 1994 has been described as "The most important book on the nature and significance of dreams since Freud's THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS." It describes a new vision of self in the universe arising from matter dreaming.


Advance Praise for The Spiritual Universe

"Entering Fred Alan Wolf's 'spiritual universe' is like stepping into a laboratory on a spaceship careening through the universe and manned by a philosopher-scientist. The speed is awesome, the questions exhilarating, and the conclusions properly mysterious and profoundly inconclusive. If you have a head for scientific reasoning, you'll enjoy the spirited journey. If you're a soft-head, romantic, earthbound poet-type like me, you're in for some mind expansion."

-- Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, and The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

"This magnificent exploration of the nature of the soul and its place in the universe leaps past conventions of religion and science to a new synthesis, and it is startling: the dichotomy between soul and body is false. What we call the soul is part of the physical world, but it is a very new definition of the physical. Drawing on traditions of thought as diverse as Aristotle, Chinese medicine, and quantum physics, Fred Alan Wolf paints a lucid, immensely engaging picture of a hitherto concealed world in which the physical does not end with what we see or even with what we can detect, but swoops on into a vast, profoundly conscious realm where the soul sings songs of God. This is Fred Alan Wolf's great work, a brilliant act of synthesis and insight, a triumph."

-- Whitley Strieber, author of Communion

"Fred Alan Wolf is one of the few pathfinders who have discovered the versatility and potency of the new quantum paradigm based on consciousness. Here he takes his ideas to an exploration of the soul and the question of survival after death. The Spiritual Universe is delightful and thought-provoking. I recommend it highly."

-- Amit Goswami, Professor of Physics, Oregon University, author of The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World

"The Spiritual Universe is a comprehensive and provocative examination of the place where religion and philosophy, science and spirituality intersect. Physicist Fred Alan Wolf clearly demonstrates how quantum physics proves the existence of the soul."

-- Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist, author of The Four-Fold Way and Signs of Life


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