About book The Field: The Quest For The Secret Force Of The Universe (2003)
This book was an interesting read and a great summary of all the research in these related fields of thought. It is extensively referenced and to label all the contents as pseudoscience is unfair. The main fault is that the author gives equal weight to good sources and dodgy ones (though just because the establishment considers something dodgy, it ain't necessarily so!) Lacking a science background, she also misses the meaning of some of her conclusions. To be fair, it would be very difficult to keep your mind straight while you researched this sort of stuff unless you had a rigorous education with some science or philosophy background. OTOH, her sceptical critics do not do much better on this score, assuming that McTaggart is claiming things that she never actually states. I've only rated 'The Field' as 3 stars because while it starts out well, it drifts into weirdness as it goes on. A lot of pages are devoted to the results of alleged 'remote viewing' experiments, which is all unverifiable given the source (even the lab logs could be faked, the real agenda might be a sociological experiment to test people's gullibility). I would like to see a fresh assessment of the fields of study in this book, a decade on, using a wider range of results and giving due weight to studies with transparent and reprducible results. In this case I suspect that much of the second half of the book would shrink to a few pages. The first half was fascinating, describing how discoveries about the zero point field might explain various natural phenomena ranging from inertia to how memories are retrieved. The stuff about the uses of coherence in cells for communication is revolutionary and explains a great deal that the purely chemical way of looking at cell biology cannot explain. This is where my background is and I can vouch that there is nothing psuedo about the science in this section, although it may be now outdated. I am quite willing to entertain the idea that the zero point field, being timeless, holds an echo of every event and that through some kind of resonance we can access our memories through it. It seems far-fetched but stranger things have turned out to be true, especially in quantum theory. Luca Turin is investigating whether our most basic sense, smell, occurs at the quantum level. I also have no problem with quantum nonlocality affecting the macro world at times. After all, if the energy of the universe is linked, then tugging on one corner of the universe may well simultaneously move anything linked to it, however far away it may be. In my old age I'm even becoming sufficiently open-minded to accept that the observer really might be important as quantum physics indicates.However, if you accept all of the assertions in this book at face value, you quickly find yourself in 'Men Who Stare At Goats' territory. It all sounds nice but the problem is that it doesn't actually work. James Randi's $100k reward still remains unclaimed for a good reason: levitation, psychokinesis etc don't really work, not for most of us anyway. Wishing to win the Lotto doesn't either. Even the study showing the healing effect of prayer has been counterbalanced by many more studies showing it to have no effect at all. And Bernie Siegel, who writes a blurb on the back, has since conceded that his visualisation experiments for cancer patients were unsuccessful. (Although I'm sure his care and dedication relieved a lot of his patients' distress.) To be fair to the author, nowhere does she imply anything like what 'The Secret' claims, that you can have what you want by wishing for it. All the studes she cites only say that events can be skewed by a small amount. If the observer is in tune with the universe and can sway it a little, this doesn't mean it creates the universe exactly how he wishes it. Presumably his wants are counterbalanced by those of all the other observers! And yet... most of us have had had moments of intuition, insight and telepathy with others close to us, whether we like to admit it or not.Positive synergy in the social setting has been proven to be the major contributor to happiness, health and longevity. Tragically we have seen many times that evil and negative groupthink can take hold of a cult or society with frightening ease. Synergy produces magical effects in the biological sphere, perhaps even sparking dead molecules into life. Could synergy, in this case 'coherence', do the same in physics to bring the universe alive? Why not? There is a lot here that bears further examination.
The Field: The Quest For The Secret Force Of The Universe is a well-researched and well written book that is promoting The Zero Point Field which is defined as ‘a repository of all fields and all ground energy states and all virtual particles - a field of fields.’ I think this is similar to a universal Morphic Field as provided by Sheldrake or a ground state of which the Implicate and Explicate order arise out of as described by Bohm. This is definitely a thought provoking and paradigm expanding read. McTaggert put a lot of research into this product and does a nice job of highlighting the stories and findings of various researchers as she builds her case through their narratives. Some of the pioneers in parapsychology are also profiled in this book as are quantum theorists. She is able to explain complex scientific information in an understandable way that is attainable for most readers. This is a book of possibilities similar to The Holographic Universe however; it is not saying the exact same thing. When reading a book of this nature it is important to remember that materialism is not science, it is a world view. Science is a method of inquiry, nothing more. To allege that all science that goes beyond materialism is pseudo-science is fallacious. The emergence of post materialist science will force those adhering to material monism to reexamine their worldview. McTaggart’s approach here seems almost qualitative. I mean that in the sense that she is compiling information and piecing it together and forming a theory of sorts. Out of that a hypothesis could be generated to test specific theories about the Zero Point field and its application here. Part one of the book is about The Resonating Universe. I particularly liked the chapter ‘Beings of Light’ and the explanation of the Biophotons. Part 2 is entitled “The Extended Mind’. Here things like an observer created universe are examined. Part 3 is about tapping into the field.Over all this was a highly enjoyable book and I’d certainly recommend reading it. Joseph Sansone is the author of Bioplasticity: Hypnosis Mind Body Healing
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This is by far one of the most important books I have read, and I think anyone should read.As a yoga practitioner, and one who has gone through reiki training, my rational mind seeks more scientific substantiation of what the yogis, healers and spiritualists have known for thousands of years. The field refers to the zero point field (ZPF), which is made up of the spaces between sub-atomic particles. At absolute zero, this field still emits energy. It is not a vacuum but a field that is constantly exchanging energy and information.The author pulls together research done over the past 40-50 years showing that all discoveries together point towards a common direction:-since an electron can either be a wave or a particle, everything exists in a field of possibility and potential until consciousness changes it either way-that consciousness and intention can impact the physical world, which in turn also support the positive action of prayer and spiritual healing eg healing hands on the health of others-due to the ZPF even ordinary humans can see from a distance, into the past and into the future-the inter-connectedness of all thingsSome of the experiments also show that the most effect influences happen when: -we are in a relaxed state (meditation, biofeedback)-there is reduced sensory input or physical activity-when the right brain in functioning well-if you believe-and if you believe that everything is inter-connectedResearch also shows that all living cells have photon emissions, so in fact we are really beings of light. The ZPF allows instant communication through resonance, not just to other cells in our body but to the rest of the world. In world and the universe, is in fact one big consciousness.All these lend support to yoga, reiki, meditation, the Vedas, Christian prayer and laying of hands as well as the law of attraction.In short, science is beginning to explain miracles. I feel so exonerated about what I have believed to be possible and possibly true. I am so excited to see what will unfold in years to come.
—Monica
I have mixed feelings about this book: on one hand I found it really interesting; it tells about Quantum Mechanics, and the frontier of physics and the unlimited possibilities lying beneath the Zero Point Field (which gives the book its title).On the other hand, the book uses the (still unknown and rather hypothetical) Zero Point Field to explain almost any "paranormal" or "alternative" phenomena, some of them already explained by our current and well established scientific paradigm.Despite that I found the book entertaining and easy to read, and with some interesting ideas from the philosophical point of view.
—Jose
Note: This is a review of the audiobook narrated by the author. I do not know if the audiobook is exactly the same as the book.This is perhaps the most disappointing (audio) book I have ever read.As a trained systems scientist and bio-engineer with a wide variety of experiences in body-mind and energy disciplines, I am very very interested in the subject matter. To be honest, I went in without too much skepticism. Based on my experience, Qi or Life Force is real, and existing scientific paradigm cannot explain it at all. So I was looking for a real good read that might be thought provoking. Pro:In the book, Lynne presented a lot of researches that she claims to prove that this "life force" is zero-point energy. She actually have interviewed a very impressive number of scientists/"pseudo"-scientists and collected a very comprehensive of out of ordinary observations that cannot be explained by existing paradigm. To me, perhaps the most interesting of these are the remote viewing studies. So in a sense, this book is worth a read just for the references McTaggart compiled. Very good journalism in the amount of work she has done... but good journalism ends here.Con:HOWEVER, it is clear that Lynne does not truly understand the scientific method in that she did not even attempt to establish her theory that "zero-point energy = life force" as an hypothesis. All she did was collect the references, and then say, "hey, it sounds to me that zero-point energy can explain this". This is fine as a popular book, but she is implying that her work is scientific because she got her references from scientists, which is a fallacy. Also, she kept saying "I can't really understand the science and the scientists had to speak to me in metaphors". Hmm... so she doesn't really understand what's going on, but after learning of some metaphors that loosely approximate the physics, she has enough understanding to construct a brand new paradigm of the universe. This is probably the most arrogant and ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I understand that she is a journalist and she is supposed to form an opinion. However, making her opinion sounding like scientific truth is bad journalism (of course, this is my opinion :))In summary: this book completely failed to convince me that zero-point energy = life force. the author comes off as arrogant when she takes half-digested information and formulate a grand theory of the universe out of it. this is unfortunate because she had a lot of good references/research. so... perhaps the truth is still out there?
—Kai Zhuang
