The Forbidden Universe

Incredible book. Giordano Bruno wrote that the sun was the center of the solar system, and that stars were other suns with planets and other beings... and was summarily burned at the stake. In an era where it was heresy to suggest that the Earth orbited the sun, or that the stars were anything other than lamps of God hanging in the heavens, it took great courage to speak otherwise. The Hermetica—a collection of ancient Egyptian metaphysical texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus—informed many of the pioneers of science, including Kepler and Galileo, but the influence of those texts is scrubbed from most histories. Why? Good question—and this book answers it.

But the second half is where it becomes exceedingly provocative, challenging the currently fashionable atheist/materialist scientism (epitomized by Dawkins, Gould, and the like) and positing that the universe has a built-in direction towards the evolution of consciousness and we aren't simply the lucky results of blind chance. Far from a Creationist manifesto, Picknett and Prince the findings of leading physicists, biologists, and cosmologists to show the evidence for something other than randomness in the creation of the known universe—a propensity for life to follow a path towards self-realization. And while metaphors used to explain quantum physics and other mind-boggling developments in science are frequently drawn from Eastern spiritual traditions, the authors point out that Western esoteric traditions also have much to offer in helping understand cosmic mysteries and the evolution of consciousness. Highly recommended.