H. Chris Ransford Ordre des livres

"Most studies of consciousness proceed from a standpoint where external reality already pre-exists. As such, these studies would be inherently unable to recognize it if consciousness in fact arose at the same level where reality itself takes its source—at the level where wave functions collapse and thereby generate the fabric of material reality. At the same time, a number of compelling contemporary interpretations of physics strongly hint that consciousness must most likely be a fundamental constituent of reality, that it cannot be emergent, and that the role of the brain is limited to the harnessing, optimization, and deployment of consciousness within material reality—aka the realm of collapsed wave functions. This view seems to be also supported by a range of credible observations made by a number of credible professionals who operate at the margins of studies of consciousness, such as psychiatrists, who occasionally observe puzzling cases involving unusual phenomena related to consciousness. If we back-engineer the inevitable macroscopic consequences of a consciousness born at the same level as the building blocks of physical reality itself, we discover that such marginal phenomena become then fully explainable."--Publisher description

Is there such a thing as a fundamental reality, something which was around before our universe came into existence and which will still remain when all matter, time, and space itself ultimately disappear? Something fundamental which, in turn, can make space and time and matter arise from seemingly nothing? Under most cosmological and physical models, the last known remnants of reality are the disembodied laws of mathematics—beyond which it is extremely difficult to probe further. Using contemporary physics, narrated at popular science level, Chris Ransford shows why full nothingness—a nothingness within which even the disembodied laws of mathematics would not exist—cannot possibly exist, and what most likely underpins and enables reality. This leads the author to a few thoughts as to how such knowledge may be verified, and then deployed to achieve a better alignment with reality.

Drawing on incontrovertible results from the science and mathematics of Infinity, H. Chris Ransford analyzes the traditional concept of Godhood and reaches astonishing conclusions. He addresses humankind's abiding core debate on the meaning of spirituality and God. Using mathematics to explore key questions within this debate, the author is led to counter-intuitive conclusions, including some that had long baffled humanity: For instance, why does evil exist if there is a God? The book fastidiously does not take sides nor proffers opinions, it only follows allowable mathematics wherever it leads. By doing so, it makes a major contribution to an understanding of the nature of reality.

The book raises and resolves specific questions in the physics of time, such as how and why someone can be simultaneous with events that are in fact days apart. It examines further abiding issues in the physics of time, and suggests that such phenomena can only exist because they ultimately obey applicable mathematics. This leads to a new vision of what time is, seen as a side effect from a deeper reality.