“Almost everything around us is determined by thought – all the buildings, factories, farms, roads, schools, nations, science, technology, religion – whatever you care to mention.  The whole ecological problem is due to thought, because we have thought that the world is there for us to exploit, that it is infinite, and so no matter what we did, the pollution would all get dissolved away.”

     On Dialog, David Bohm

     All things being possible, and everything being mysterious and unknown, life would be a constant horror.  Each step could bring a crashing fall into a bottomless pit, and the most grotesque monster might lurk in any shadow.  An integral part of being human, or any mammal for that matter, is the making of distinctions, comparison to memory, and numerous assumptions about our surroundings and environment.  Our brains cannot stand the strain of constant thinking and evaluating and patterns must be established and recognition factors in place.  We must focus only on what is necessary in the moment keeping minimal awareness on the thousands of common daily details such as the sidewalk, a tree, or the sky.

    This natural process of pattern judgment and object recognition also relates to modern thought process, philosophy and myth.  Humans also make assumptions related to the larger questions in life, such as where life came from and what the universe looks like, partly in the same way the more basic and primitive assumptions are made.  This way of freeing the brain from constant wondering and attention has evolved to become something not only unnecessary for our survival, but actually at the root cause of our demise.  Beliefs that humans are extraterrestrial (not connected to the Earth), that human bodies have supernatural, immortal incorporeal entities within them, and that life and the universe were created by a supreme humanoid deity, do not contribute to the healthy process of evolution of life on Earth.

    These sets of assumptions, though related to the more basic process of survival and normal life function, are not required for healthy and normal living.  Humans are quite capable of living in a very creative, open, and curious manner with many of the big questions left mysterious and unanswered, such as where we come from and where we are going.

    The drastic pattern of mass disconnection from the natural environment and essential elements of human life are responsible for the great ills of modern times.  Air, water and soil pollution, toxic and nuclear waste, mass extinctions, devastation of forests and the oceans, and the destructions of the natural environment are all related to humans believing that they are not a part of the natural process of Earth. 

    Though, in a free society, people should have a right to freedom of belief and philosophy, people do not have the right to destroy the environment of Earth, and with it the chance for future people to live, because they believe they are eternal spirits from, and returning to, a better place in their myth of an eternal realm of the divine. It is the greatest crime ever perpetrated upon life on Earth, believe it or not.

    The pages of this book contain food for thought for those interested in thinking about the major questions related to life, consciousness, and the universe.  It is not a new bible of truth and light and it is not an encyclopedia of new laws of science.

    This book is also the culmination of 23 years of passionate pursuit for something better than what I was taught in school.  And it is a personal log of a stand-up cosmologist (not all serious stuff here folks) and a tale of dreams and art and a very profound love of a great mystery.