Book Description
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." - Albert Einstein In a series of remarkable developments in the 20th century and continuing into the 21st, elementary particle physicists, astronomers, and cosmologists have removed much of the mystery that surrounds our understanding of the physical universe. We now have mathematical models that are consistent with all observational data, including measurements of incredible precision, and we have a good understanding of why those models take the form they do. Although current theories will probably be superseded by better, more detailed theories as science continues to advance, the great success of contemporary models makes it likely that scientists are on the right track. In short, the cosmos is undoubtedly comprehensible.
But the question arises: Where do the "laws" revealed by the mathematical models come from? Some conjecture that they represent a set of restraints on the behavior of matter that are built into the structure of the universe, either by God or some other ubiquitous governing principle. In this challenging, stimulating discussion of physics and its implications, physicist Victor Stenger disputes this notion. Instead, he argues that physical laws are simply restrictions on the ways physicists may draw the models they use to represent the behavior of matter if they wish to do so objectively. Since mathematical descriptions of data must be independent of any specific point of view, that is, they must possess "point-of-view invariance" (maximum objectivity), they naturally conform to certain fundamental laws that insure that objectivity, such as the great conservation principles of energy and momentum. The laws of physics, however, are not simply an arbitrary set of rules since the observed data beautifully demonstrate their accuracy.
For those fascinated by how physics explains the universe and affects philosophy, Stenger's in-depth presentation, complete with an appendix of mathematical formulas, makes accessible to lay readers findings normally available only to professional scientists.
Customer Reviews:
Succinct overview but title is misleading........2007-04-02
This is quite a nifty, compendium like summary of laws pertaining to cosmology/particle physics (I refer here to author's clear and mellifluous writing). However if you read his previous books ("Timeless Reality" and "Has Science Found God" in particular) be aware of repetitions. Be alerted as well: this book is neither a typical popular science nor text book. Mathematical supplements take 130 pages out of the total 320 pages!! These math offals/short-cuts are often indigestible even for people familiar with vector calculus. I always have a problem with such books (Penrose's "The Road to Reality" being even more apparent example); whom these books are targeted for - students, scientists or average (though educated) laymen? Another problem with this book - author states with respect to the title: "..the laws of physics are the way they are because they have been defined to be that way (?!).....The viewpoint I present will be that of a strict empiricist who knows of no way to obtain knowledge of the world other than by OBSERVATION and experimentation". This is an honest statement but does not answer a bit the title's question "Where.. from?". Do not hope to become clear on that after reading "The Comprehensible Cosmos". Observing a stray dog on a street does not solve the enigma of "where does he come from" (IMO).
Many a professor will wish to use it as a foundation for classroom discussion.......2007-03-05
Professor Victor J. Stenger provides a fine survey of the status and science of physics in THE COMPREHENSIBLE COSMOS: WHERE DO THE LAWS OF PHYSICS COME FROM? Where exactly do the 'laws' revealed by math come from, and do they represent religious constraints on behavior built in by God or a governing body? These and other intriguing questions provide students of physics with challenging food for thought in a survey essential to college-level collections. Many a professor will wish to use it as a foundation for classroom discussion and debate extending the realm of scientific observation and discovery into the world of philosophical meaning.
Comprehensible Cosmos, Stenger.......2007-02-06
Two parts. The first two thirds of the book is in general terms, and very interesting. The remaining third is mathematical appendices, accounts of the maths behind the first part. It seemed to me that the details of this mathematical presentation were flakey ( though of course the results are well established ).
The Power of P.O.V.I........2007-01-25
Review of Victor Stenger's Comprehensible Cosmos
January 24, 2007
Where do the laws of physics come from? The Power of P.O.V.I.
In this admirable new book, physics professor Victor Stenger once again exhibits his notable ability to convey complex ideas of physics with simplicity and elegance, while not sacrificing mathematical rigor and detail. Moreover, the book offers a "big-picture" perspective that will appeal to both physicists and non-physicists. However, although not required, a basic familiarity with physics and a mathematical background will greatly enhance readers' appreciation and comprehension of the book, particularly concerning the helpful mathematical supplements provided at the end.
Here Stenger takes on "ultimate" questions, such as, Where do the laws of physics come from? and Why is there something rather than nothing?- answers to which are commonly believed to be found exclusively within the province of theological and philosophical discourse and to be inherently beyond the reach of empirical and theoretical science. Stenger argues that the extraordinary empirical success of our current models of physics, though still incomplete and provisional, gives us good grounds to assume that they are on the right track: the cosmos is indeed comprehensible, and our current physical models provide a description of nature that is likely to faithfully reflect aspects of a reality that exists independently of our thoughts and particular physical models.
Stenger argues that, contrary to some popular views, the so-called "laws of physics", such as the great conservations laws, are not restrictions on the behavior of matter imposed by an external agent or by a world of abstract Platonic mathematical forms. Rather they arise from the self-imposed requirement that physicists' descriptions of nature be independent of the particular point-of-view of observers- that they be point-of-view invariant. In order to ensure universal applicability and to describe reality as objectively as possible, physicists aim to construct mathematical models that describe nature in such a way that these descriptions do not depend on the particular point of view or reference frame of observers. For instance, the law of conservation of energy is a manifestation of time-translation invariance. A description of nature that does not depend upon the absolute time at which observations are made will automatically entail the conservation of a quantity called `energy'. Similarly, the law of conservation of momentum naturally arises from the requirement that physicists' descriptions of nature are space-translation invariant- that they do not depend upon any particular point in space.
Stenger's account builds upon the work of mathematician Emmy Noether, who proved that certain mathematical quantities called the generators of continuous space-time transformations are conserved when those transformations leave the system unchanged. Hence, the great conservation laws are consequences of point-of-view invariance and thus are reflections of the symmetries of space and time. As Stenger puts it: "If you wish to build a model using space and time as a framework, and you formulate that model so as to be space-time symmetric, then that model will automatically contain what are usually regarded as the three most important "laws" of physics, the three conservation principles". Stenger further demonstrates how Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, and special and general relativity also arise naturally from the point-of-view invariance and symmetries of our physical models.
In addition to showing the intimate connection between the laws of physics and the symmetries of space and time, Stenger argues that features of our complex lower energy universe may be accounted for by the spontaneous breaking of symmetries that were present during the higher energy state of the big bang. Our universe is akin to a less symmetric snowflake that froze out of a more symmetric sphere of water vapor. Stenger discusses the possibility that our universe arose via a well-understood process of quantum tunneling from a highly symmetric void, empty of energy, particles, space, and time- a featureless state essentially equivalent to `nothing' . Since the void also exhibits space-time symmetries, the laws of physics are ultimately derived from the symmetries of the void. Indeed, Stenger argues that the laws of physics are not really laws at all, in the usual sense of the term. On the contrary, they are reflections of the absence of laws- they are what Stenger refers to as "lawless laws". Other aspects of nature, such as the apparent indeterminism of quantum mechanics can be accounted for by an element of randomness in the universe (which, Stenger notes, is itself a manifestation of invariance). Ultimately then, symmetry and randomness lie at the bedrock of reality. Hence, the universe is not only comprehensible, but may have arisen in the simplest way possible: randomly and spontaneously from a highly symmetric void, that is, from a state essentially indistinguishable from `nothing'. But then why is there something rather than nothing? Indeed, if the universe came from a void, then why did it not remain as a void? The answer Stenger offers, and which gains support from the work of other physicists, is that a symmetric void is unstable- hence there had to be something. Our universe is simply a different phase of `nothing', just as ice and steam are different phases of water.
There are plenty more topics discussed in this original and insightful book, including particle physics, cosmology, and thermodynamics, which are beyond the scope of this review. Perhaps some readers might complain that Stenger is too cautious in his lack of commitment to particular physical models of reality. At times he suggests that "scientific criteria cannot distinguish between viable metaphysical schemes" and that space and time are useful inventions that cannot be proven to exist. While this may be the case, this suggestion may be seen to weaken his thesis that the cosmos is comprehensible and that physics is not just another cultural narrative. On the other hand, Stenger emphasizes throughout that our physical models ultimately must be constrained by and consistent with empirical observations. Indeed, the relentless testing of the observational consequences of our physical models is what distinguishes physics from fiction. Thus, our physical models, while human inventions, are not just arbitrary cultural constructs. To the extent that they succeed in describing nature and surviving risky empirical tests, they likely represent aspects of an underlying reality independent of our specific models. Moreover, Stenger comments on how a particulate model of reality characterized by "atoms and void", which he explicitly favors, displays some virtues over a model characterized by waves, fields, and other "Platonic" mathematical constructs. If indeed physics does have implications for metaphysics, then physics might someday provide compelling empirical or theoretical reasons to prefer one hitherto observationally equivalent metaphysical model over another. In any case, readers will appreciate the elegance and simplicity of Stenger's expository style, which are paralleled by the elegant simplicity of the scenario he has described for the origin of the universe and of the laws of physics.
Yonatan Fishman, PhD
Department of Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Physics Demystified .......2006-12-23
Professor Stenger's book draws a map for the non-scientist through the otherwise intimidating terrain of physics. His survey bypasses the winding streets and cul-de-sacs that bewilder strangers, thus emphasizing the major avenues and boulevards that carry visitors from Democritus past Galilei, Newton, Einstein, Feynman, Hawking, and other physics landmarks. These luminaries light Professor Stenger's path from the nothing that preceded everything to the universes on each side of the first moment. "Nothing" includes neither matter nor energy. He walks us from that nothing void to the everything that includes us, everything from the tiniest strange quark to the greatest discernable distance. He does this by introducing the idea of point of view invariance, the idea that the laws of physics should apply in all reference frames. That simplest of keys opens the way for comprehending the cosmos, even for us who once knew but no longer remember much of calculus and trigonometry. He writes simply and clearly, without requiring the reader to re-read sentences over and over to glean an arcane point. Finally, for those who want meatier explanations in the language of mathematics, he includes several addenda in which he derives with undergraduate mathematics the points he makes earlier in simpler English.
Book Description
This bold and original work of philosophy presents an exciting new picture of concrete reality. Peter Unger provocatively breaks with what he terms the conservatism of present-day philosophy, and returns to central themes from Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Russell. Wiping the slate clean, Unger works, from the ground up, to formulate a new metaphysic capable of accommodating our distinctly human perspective. He proposes a world with inherently powerful particulars of two basic sorts: one mental but not physical, the other physical but not mental. Whether of one sort or the other, each individual possesses powers for determining his or her own course, as well as powers for interaction with other individuals. It is only a purely mental particular--an immaterial soul, like yourself--that is ever fit for real choosing, or for conscious experiencing. Rigorously reasoning that the only satisfactory metaphysic is one that situates the physical alongside the non-physical, Unger carefully explains the genesis of, and continual interaction of, the two sides of our deeply dualistic world. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, while advancing philosophical scholarship, All the Power in the World takes readers on a philosophical journey into the nature of reality. In this riveting intellectual adventure, Unger reveals the need for an entirely novel approach to the nature of physical reality--and shows how this approach can lead to wholly unexpected possibilities, including disembodied human existence for billions of years. All the Power in the World returns philosophy to its most ambitious roots in its fearless attempt to answer profoundly difficult human questions about ourselves and our world.
Product Description
The fourth century Neoplatonist Iamblichus, interpreting Plotinus on the topic of time, incorporates a diagram of time that bears comparison to the figure of double continuity drawn by Husserl in his studies of time. Using that comparison as a bridge, this book seeks a phenomenological recovery of Greek thought about time. It argues that the feature of motion that the word time designates in Greek differs from what most modern scholarship has assumed, that the very phenomenon of time has been misidentified for centuries. This leads to corrective readings of Plotinus, Aristotle, Parmenides, and Heraclitus, all looking back to the final phrase of the fragment of Anaximander, from which this volume takes its title: according to the syntax of time.
Book Description
For over two decades Wesley Salmon has helped to shape the course of debate in philosophy of science. He is a major contributor to the philosophical discussion of problems associated with causality and the author of two influential books on scientific explanation. This long-awaited volume collects twenty- six of Salmon's essays, including seven that have never before been published and others difficult to find. Part I comprises five introductory essays that presuppose no formal training in philosophy of science and form a background for subsequent essays. Parts II and III contain Salmon's seminal work on scientific explanation and causality. Part IV offers survey articles that feature advanced material but remain accessible to those outside philosophy of science. Essays in Part V address specific issues in particular scientific disciplines, namely, archaeology and anthropology, astrophysics and cosmology, and physics. Clear, compelling, and essential, this volume offers a superb introduction to philosophy of science for nonspecialists and belongs on the bookshelf of all who carry out work in this exciting field. Wesley Salmon is renowned for his seminal contributions to the philosophy of science. He has powerfully and permanently shaped discussion of such issues as lawlike and probabilistic explanation and the interrelation of explanatory notions to causal notions. This unique volume brings together twenty-six of his essays on subjects related to causality and explanation, written over the period 1971-1995. Six of the essays have never been published before and many others have only appeared in obscure venues. The volume includes a section of accessible introductory pieces, as well as more advanced and technical pieces, and will make essential work in the philosophy of science readily available to both scholars and students.
Customer Reviews:
state of the art -- understanding an indeterministic world.......2002-03-07
If you were forced to rely on only one book on the philosophy of science today (2002), this would be the one. A collection of 26 essays, CAUSALITY AND EXPLANATION represents the state of the art. Salmon dedicates the book to Carl G. Hempel, who developed the deductive-nomological, or covering law model of scientific explanation. Clearly, then, Salmon is no post-Kuhnian epistemological radical. There is progress beyond Hempel, but it is not in the social constructionist direction. Not for Salmon, anyway, and not for me either. Rather, it points in the direction of probabilistic, stochastic, explanation replacing the vestiges of Laplacian determinism. Many of the essays are quite dense, but the book contains a Key of sorts, in the form of three essays that are grouped as "Concise Overviews." Read these first and the rest makes much more sense. Salmon is an analytical philosopher, and analytical philosophy is a tradition that values clarity of expression.
This book is a marvelous accomplishment. It has proved quite useful in clarifying my thinking as I try to teach sociology undergraduates the scientific method, particularly on the distinction between deterministic and probabilistic causation. It is truly sad that it is not read by everyone who ever runs into Thomas Kuhn and the postmodern vector that he inspired.
Book Description
The separateness and connection of individuals is perhaps the central question of human life: What, exactly, is my individuality? To what degree is it unique? To what degree can it be shared, and how? To the many philosophical and literary speculations about these topics over time, modern science has added the curious twist of quantum theory, which requires that the elementary particles of which everything consists have no individuality at all. All aspects of chemistry depend on this lack of individuality, as do many branches of physics. From where, then, does our individuality come?
In Seeing Double, Peter Pesic invites readers to explore this intriguing set of questions. He draws on literary and historical examples that open the mind (from Homer to Martin Guerre to Kafka), philosophical analyses that have helped to make our thinking and speech more precise, and scientific work that has enabled us to characterize the phenomena of nature. Though he does not try to be all-inclusive, Pesic presents a broad range of ideas, building toward a specific point of view: that the crux of modern quantum theory is its clash with our ordinary concept of individuality. This represents a departure from the usual understanding of quantum theory. Pesic argues that what is bizarre about quantum theory becomes more intelligible as we reconsider what we mean by individuality and identity in ordinary experience. In turn, quantum identity opens a new perspective on us.
Customer Reviews:
A wedding of two regretfully estranged worlds.......2002-07-12
For those new to science, or for those who have little experience with quantum physics, "Seeing Double," by Dr. Pesic, will serve as a wonderful introduction to quantum physics, a field that was the most spectacular and influential to the 20th century. The book provides a historical overview that is elucidated by references and parallels to examples from the classics and humanities.
For the seasoned physicist, "Seeing Double" will be a refreshing departure from rigorous scientific reading, which aims at being specialized, focused, and forensically convincing. Instead of choosing one very specialized point and thoroughly pursuing its depth, Pesic's writing courses broadly, like lightening across water, discovering a multitude of connections to the classics and humanities. Like Goethe's biological poetry and Schrödinger's "What is Life?" Pesic does a wonderful job of wedding his work to broader academic disciplines. One of the great misfortunes of the rise of science in the 20th century has been its separation from other academic disciplines, such as the humanities. This separation runs contrary to the nature of human thought. This work is an encouraging victory in the reunification between the sciences and humanities.
Pesic's writing is conversational. The reader feels as if he is in an arm-chair, an arm's length away, in a tea-infused discussion. One feels in reading Pesic that he has put the responsibility of being understood on the writer, and not the reader.
Although less broad than "Labyrinth," which explained modern scientific method by tracing its ancestors in law and code-breaking, nonetheless "Seeing Double" makes a wide variety of far-reaching yet just connections to other fields that are usually regretfully kept apart from science. The overall effect is quite exciting. Like Aladdin's carpet, or swift-footed Hermes, Pesic will take you on an exhilarating journey across the vista of the history of human achievement.
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From Physics to Metaphysics (Tarner Lectures)
Michael Redhead
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Gravity
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ASIN: 0521589665 |
Book Description
Considers the ultimate nature of reality, and how it is revealed by modern physical theories such as relativity and quantum theory.
Book Description
An exploration of mankind's fascination with worlds beyond our own—by the bestselling author of The Physics of Star Trek
Lawrence Krauss —an international leader in physics and cosmology—examines our long and ardent romance with parallel universes, veiled dimensions, and regions of being that may extend tantalizingly beyond the limits of our perception. Krauss examines popular culture's current embrace (and frequent misunderstanding) of such topics as black holes, life in other dimensions, strings, and some of the more extraordinary new theories that propose the existence of vast extra dimensions alongside our own. BACKCOVER: “An astonishing and brilliantly written work of popular science.”
—Science a GoGo
“A brilliant, thrilling book . . . You'll have so much fun reading that you'll hardly notice you're getting a primer on contemporary physics and cosmology.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Customer Reviews:
The prehistory of and rise -- and perhaps fall -- of string theory.......2007-04-23
According to Ed Witten of Princeton's Advanced Institute (former home to BOTH Albert Einstein AND Kurt Godel), modern string theory is a piece of 21st century science that fell early into the 20th century.
According to string apologist Brian Greene, sring theory succeeds where Einstein himself failed...in uniting nature's fundamental forces to form a complete explanation of reality itself...our "Elegant Universe."
According, however, to a growing cadre of notable physicists however string theory is not even wrong by virtue of its untestability but fails to explain some astrological phenomenon and in fact retards the actions of those who would.
Krauss has been rightly praised for this book which attempts to put the modern fascination with string theory into a proper historical context. The idea that explanation of scientific phenomenon can made by recourse to higher dimensions is not new. Perched at the beginning of western thought in the Greek philosophy of Socrates/Plato, Krauss recounts "Socrates" story of the cave.
In the story of the cave, "Socrates" as related by Plato wonders what would happen to prisoners in a cave, illuminated from behind, whose only contact with each other was through their shadows. The speculation was that they would come to regard their shadows as their essences. The further speculation was that maybe we -- in looking at our manifestations of each other -- perhaps do much the same thing.
More contemporarily, Krauss talks about the nineteenth century fascination with the 4th dimension. As explained in the H.G. Wells book "Time Machine" the fouth dimension would be a means by which individuals could enter and exit seemingly locked rooms.
As recounted by Krauss, the religous considered it the purview of God. And some scientists considered it the purview of a possible explanation of reality. As fads come and go in popular culture, however, Krauss tells how this science fad fell under the excitement of new discovery.
In discussing the spectre of contemporary string theory, Krauss suggests that we may see yet the same phenomenon occur yet again. In so doing, Krauss' point is well taken.
It is perhaps the most characterizing element of science that its theories rely upon testably provable phenomenon.
Masterful Explanation of a Complex Subject to General Readers.......2007-02-20
Lawrence M. Krauss has steered a course perfectly between the Scylla of scaring the general reader off with massive amounts of math and the Charybdis of dumbing down his subject. It's not an easy book to read, but then it's not exactly an easy subject. He has a good time, but not to excess, with some of the sillier New Age and PoMo attempts at appropriating physics for one or another version of the newer superstition, but the main thrust of the book is his attempt to convey to us general readers what's going on in particle physics, insofar as this is accessible to those of us who stopped struggling somewhere in the neighborhood of differential equations.
This is, of course, a quixotic project, rather like trying to explain serious music to the profoundly deaf. It can be done, to some extent, but it's not easy to do. It's not even easy to try. I can't imagine that the tangible rewards are at all commensurate with the effort required, and Viking Press didn't really hold up their end, in my opinion. The book appears to have been neither copy edited nor proofread. VP, like not a few other publishers, has figured out that few readers demand their money back just because the book is riddled with errors. Apparently their professional ethic is simply "They can't kiss us on the mouth."
Krauss deserves better with this book, but then so do all the writers who publish books intended to inform and even, in the best sense, educate the public. Krauss knows he can't make me understand the math, but he's done the best job I can imagine of getting the ideas across without it. At every stage of the exposition, his honesty and integrity shine through; he gets it across without ever kidding (or flattering) the reader.
I intend to look up everything else of his that might be accessible. If you are interested in what's going on in modern physics but aren't an expert, check out this book. You'll be glad you did.
a guide through the pitfalls of science careers..........2006-12-30
If you pay close attention, then you can hear Lawrence Krauss cautioning you to beware of taking science as a religion. Krauss explains his own immunity to falling victim to this affliction by way of having been caught in the crossfire between the two insititutions of science and religion.
I applaud his insistence on taking the physical evidence as evidence of itself only while resisting the allure of the reported enthrallling beauty of the equations and precision in physical theory.
If the lesson comes across that it is possible to be a scientist without out being a secular religionist, then that can be realistic encouragement to future potential scientists.
Well done, sir!
A superficial view of a multi-dimensional world.......2006-10-26
After reading Brian Green's "The Elegant Universe", I wanted to learn more on the possibility of a world made of more than 4 dimensions, time included. L. Krauss seemed to offer the opportunity not only to learn more about these extra dimensions based on scientific knowledge but also to melt it with an insightful adventure into the history of human creativity which has already imagined such world. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. Both the scientific and artistic parts are poor and shallow, a shame when the explanation of a multidimension world is at stake. The rhetoric has nothing of the passion and the doors-opening of Brian Green's book. Too bad.
Krauss is a physicist of many dimensions.......2006-09-01
Lawrence Krauss has a particular knack for taking the reader through a wonderful journey of discovery through science, and Hiding in the Mirror does just that. His scholarly approach is both witty and colloquial, profoundly informative without being preachy. The book begins with a lively introduction to modern-day cosmology, relativity and quantum physics, the quest for the grand unifying theory and a presentation and critique of a potential candidate: string theory. His critique is timely and well presented, and never without the humor and readability which marks Lawrence Krauss as one of the greatest science writers today. This is Krauss' best work, and an absolute joy to read.
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From Physics to Metaphysics
Francis Selman
Manufacturer: Saint Austin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1901157334 |
Book Description
This book presents an outline of classical metaphysics, built on an examination of the five basic concepts of form, substance, existance, cause, and nature, together with an answer to the question: What are nominalism, idealism, and realism? It draws on the whole tradition of philosophy, from the ancients to contemporary writers, giving considerable attention to the criticisms of Hume and Kant, also with reference to modern natural science, and showing how questions of physics lead to metaphysics. It provides a simple explanation of Kant's basic philosophy, which may be useful to students; concludes with a brief chapter on the relevance of metaphysics for ethics; and supplies an appendix on time. It is designed to be as informative as possible about what the great philosophers said on major themes of philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
Science and Metascience.......2005-11-14
The Bell Notes is a diary kept by the noted inventor and author of The Reflexive Universe, Author M. Young. During the period from 1945 to 1947 when his helicopter, Bell Model 47, was perfected and awarded the world's first commercial helicopter license, he was already engaged in a new quest. This was to be a spiritual rather then technological one, and would lead him through Eastern philosophy, Jungian dream analysis, parapsychology, and yoga. These explorations, as well as the day-to-day work on the helicopter, were recorded in a journal, from which the most significant and inspiring entries have been gathered into the present book.
Arthur Young is one of the principal pioneers of today's concciousness movement, and his quest for the "psycopter," or winged self, is one of the great spiritual journeys of our time. -- from book's back cover
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