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The Science of Oneness: A Worldview for the Twenty-First Century
By Malcolm Hollick
New York: O Books, 2006
Review by Ron Miller
Starting in the 1970s, a “holistic” philosophical perspective began to emerge in the work of leading-edge scientists, psychologists, religious thinkers, educators, and researchers and practitioners in various fields. Malcolm Hollick’s new book, The Science of Oneness, is one of the clearest descriptions of this worldview that I have read in the 25 years that I have been working with these ideas.
Hollick, an interdisciplinary scholar who has taught for many years in Australia and the U.K., surveys the breakthrough discoveries and radical theories on the frontiers of postmodern science, explaining how each one points toward a meaningful cosmos, a universe that is interconnected, evolving, and guided by coherent patterns rather than dull randomness. Quantum mechanics, systems theory, chaos theory, the phenomenon of self-organization, ecology and cosmology are providing evidence for a holistic worldview, one which sees the universe as dynamic and unfolding, with consciousness playing an active and formative part.
Mainstream science continues to adhere to a mechanistic worldview, seeing the universe as a purposeless arena in which purely physical forces interact and, thanks to chance events, shape the formation of worlds. But the complexity and unity of the cosmos, as we are beginning to understand it, suggest that this interpretation is inadequate. Hollick points out, for example, that the odds against life emerging through a series of chance events “are astronomical” and that it seems more likely “that evolution has a definite direction towards complexity, life, and consciousness.” Where did this direction originate? We don’t know. The holistic worldview holds great respect for the ultimate mystery of it all.
Indeed, Hollick remarks that “we cannot know what wonders still lie in store,” and this open-ended attitude challenges the orthodoxies of our times. In the modern world, mechanistic science, technocratic politics, authoritarian institutions, economic materialism, and standardized education bolster an established worldview that resists transformation. Perhaps modest social progress is allowed, but radical, uncharted shifts of consciousness are incomprehensible. The science of oneness—the holistic worldview—recognizes that transformation is the vehicle of the mysterious process of cosmic evolution, and we just do not know what “wonders” are possible for humanity; perhaps even global unity and peace are on the horizon.
When we take mystery and transformation seriously, we will not be so dogmatic about our beliefs. The science of oneness, says Hollick, “takes nothing on trust, continually challenging and questioning what we think we know.” The only real way to grasp the complexity of the cosmos is to seek to know it through multiple channels, subjective as well as objective. Hollick emphasizes the need to balance and integrate what in modern thinking are seen as opposing polarities, such as intellect and intuition. Every particular view of the world gives only a partial truth, and so there is a need for cooperative inquiry, in which we compare our different perspectives and try to arrive, provisionally, at the most reasonable and widely relevant ways of understanding.
According to this holistic epistemology, the deepest knowledge comes through an experiential, give-and-take relationship with the world and with others’ experiences of it. This is wisdom, “a living response to that which is known that engages our bodies, emotions and spirit as well as our minds. It is a dynamic process that changes and develops with time.” Holism, then, does not encourage fixed ideological systems or standardized responses to the challenges of living and learning.
Hollick goes on to describe a way of understanding spirituality that transcends the limiting categories of religions, dogmas and rituals. Established traditions, he says, “are not definitive. They are products of their particular cultures and times…” Spirit itself, the ultimate essence or source to which spirituality aspires, “is not a dictatorial Creator, but the instigator and sustainer or an experimental creative process. . . Higher spiritual states are not predetermined but emerge through communion and cooperation with each other and Spirit.” This is, truly, a wonderful experiment, the outcomes of which we cannot entirely fathom in advance.
The Science of Oneness is coherent, comprehensive and straightforward, but it is not always easy to digest. The chapters on cosmology and breakthrough theories in physics are dense, because these conceptions are mind-blowing. Trying to grasp the possibility of multiple universes, the meaning of “dark matter,” or the “nothingness” that existed before the Big Bang is like trying to solve a Zen koan; ordinary logic and experience are inadequate. Although postmodern science is an integral element of the holistic worldview, I have always struggled to understand the specifics of it, and even Hollick’s presentation left me struggling. But he does get across, quite effectively, the dramatic implications of these new conceptions of the cosmos. He very clearly demonstrates that the mechanistic worldview is incapable of embracing the mysteries of Creation.
I hope this will be in time for some acknowledgement in the forthcoming issue of TGI. I just heard that The Science of Oneness was joint winner of the Scientific and Medical Network book prize for 2006 (with Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas)
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By Robert Scheinfeld
Book review by Cate Montana
, I thought, “Oh great. Another financial advice book about how to manage my income.” I couldn’t have been more disinterested or more wrong.Busting Loose From the Money Game is not a book about how to manage finances. It’s a book about managing your mind. It’s a book about exposing the social and neurological network humans have created around the whole concept of money. It’s about setting people free from the limiting thoughts that squeeze the life out of their money flow, their creativity, and their happiness.
The key point in the book is that consciousness creates everything you experience, including money. Scheinfeld points out that the Money Game, which is embedded in a larger game called The Human Game, is currently designed to make us believe just the opposite. It is designed to prove to us over and over that we are powerless in life; that we are constantly at the mercy of externals; and that our only role is to react to what life serves us.
Lucidly and logically Schiefeld demonstrates how The Money Game has been deliberately designed as a game that humans can only lose. To prove it all you have to do is take a look at the rules: there’s a limited supply of money available; money is somehow separate from us and we must go after it; we must work harder or smarter to increase our supply of money, and we can’t just have anything we want in life, everything is purchased at a price. There is no clear definition of what constitutes “winning” and no matter how much money you accrue or invest, it’s always still at risk.
The Monday Game is designed to get us to convince ourselves that our perceived limitations are real. Scheinfeld shows us how to bust loose from that belief system by focusing on the only thing that really is real: our thoughts and our beliefs … in other words, our consciousness … the tool that created The Money Game in the first place.
Writes Scheinfeld, “In Phase 1 (of The Money Game), you told yourself over and over, adinfinitum, ‘money is real, the checking account is real, the numbers are real, the money game is real.’ In phase 2, you reverse the process and repeat to yourself over and over, ‘It’s an illusion, it’s an illusion, and I’m creating it, I’m creating it,” as you reclaim your power from it.”
Not only does Schenifeld dissolve the illusions around money, he outlines a series of self-coaching steps to give readers real tools for empowering themselves as the creators of their own lives, as well as for changing their minds about money. A powerful and life-changing book, I can’t recommend Busting Loose From the Money Game highly enough. Read it – and get copies for your family and friends – because once you loan it out, you’ll never get it back.
