This book was written by a group of scientists in Canada trying to understand what conditions lead to spiritual experiences. They studied Bhuddist monThis book was written by a group of scientists in Canada trying to understand what conditions lead to spiritual experiences. They studied Bhuddist monks and Franciscan nuns with MRI machines, and learned that there are 4 states of over/understimulation that lead to profound spiritual experiences and feelings of unity.
I loved this book, and thought it was so profound that I actually caused me to have a bit of a spiritual experience while reading it. To some degree.
Holy cow. There have been only a few books that have caused my brain to start shorting out and cause me to go into a weird spiritual state where I actHoly cow. There have been only a few books that have caused my brain to start shorting out and cause me to go into a weird spiritual state where I actual feel some connection to some university unity.
They are:
Zero: understanding how our understanding of math helped us understand our place in the universe
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: Trying to keep up with the word games around quality and duality in this book was astounding.
Why God Won't go away: a book that explains the four states of over/understimulation that causes spiritual experiences.
And this book.
Believe it or not, after hitting the point where Egan reveals his big idea, that not only is there a special role in the universe for the observer, but that a special Observer actually instantiates the universe, creating a history and future from that moment in time was... Wow. That's a big idea.
Later that night, I woke up convinced that the puppy my then girlfriend/now wife just got was The One, and that she instantiated the universe. I swear that I actually thought the puppy was glowing, and my wife tells me that I was babbling nonsense about how our puppy Ginger was "the One" and that "she sees and knows all."
Although I know Ginger in unlikely to be really The One, it doesn't detract from the fact that I had a genuine spiritual experience. All from reading a novel and getting my brain overstimulated.
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