THE GRAND BIOCENTRIC DESIGN: HOW LIFE CREATES REALITY

This is another brilliant book written by American biologist and geneticist Dr. Robert Lanza, now joined by Slovenian theoretical physicist Dr. Matej Pavšič and American astronomer Bob Berman. Robert Lanza, MD is one of the most respected scientists in the world. He is head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine, Chief Scientific Officer of the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and adjunct professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine. He is credited with several hundred publications and inventions, and more than 30 scientific books, including Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (BenBella, 2010) and Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death (Ben Bella, 2016). Pavšič is a physicist interested in foundations of theoretical physics. During his more than 40 years of research at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia (European Union), he often investigated subjects that were not currently of wide interest, but later became hot topics. He authored more than 100 scientific papers and the books The Landscape of Theoretical Physics (Kluwer, 2001) and Stumbling Blocks Against Unification (World Scientific, 2020). Berman is the longtime science editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac and contributing editor of Astronomy magazine, formerly with Discover from 1989 to 2006. He taught physics and astronomy at New York's Marymount Manhattan College in the 1990s and is the author of eight popular books, including Zoom: How Everything Moves (Little Brown, 2014).

Does matter exist separately from consciousness? What is consciousness? Could we choose a different reality? Do we have free will? Is there an ultimate reality? Does consciousness end with death? Why are we here? Where did it all come from, what are the laws of nature, the stars, the universe? Humans have been asking these questions forever, but the predominantly materialist science has not succeeded in providing sufficiently convincing answers. This book is adding another provocative question with bold postmaterialist answers, namely what if life is not just a part of the universe, what if it determines the very structure of the universe itself, what if life creates reality? It provides a ground-breaking explanation of how the universe works, and an exploration of the science behind the astounding fact that time, space, and reality itself, all ultimately depend upon us. As Lanza bluntly declares in the book's introduction, "Life is not a product of the universe but the other way around."

The book comprises of 16 chapters, 3 appendixes, list of further reading, acknowledgments, short biographies of the authors and index. The gist is explained by 11 principles of biocentrism, which are worth mentioning almost verbatim:

1. What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. 2. Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another. 3. The behaviour of subatomic particles – indeed all particles and objects – is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves. 4. Without consciousness, "matter" dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state. 5. The structure of the universe is explainable only through biocentrism. The universe is fine-tuned for life, which makes perfect sense as life creates the universe, not the other way around. The "universe" is simply the complete spatiotemporal logic of the self. 6. Time does not have a real existence outside of animal-sense perception. It is the process by which we perceive changes in the universe. 7. Space, like time, is not an object or a thing. Space is another form of our animal understanding and does not have an independent reality. We carry space and time around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there is no absolute self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independently of life. 8. Biocentrism offers the only explanation of how the mind is unified with matter and the world by showing how modulation of ion dynamics in the brain at the quantum level allows all parts of the information system that we associate with consciousness to be simultaneously interconnected. 9. There are several basic relationships ("forces") that the mind uses to construct reality. They have their roots in the logic of how the various components of the information system interact with each other to create the 3-D experience we call consciousness or reality. 10. The two pillars of physics - quantum mechanics and general relativity – can only be reconciled by taking observers (us) into account. 11. Observers ultimately define the structure of physical reality – of states of matter and spacetime – even if there is a "real world out there" beyond us, whether one of fields, quantum foam, or some other entity.

The authors explain, inter alia, what consciousness is (the state of being aware, of perceiving things, of having feelings, of wakefulness, of possessing experience) and also how it works (modulation of ion dynamics in the brain at the quantum level). However, they admit that its ultimate origin is "largely a nonstarter", because consciousness encompasses all of reality (the two are essentially synonyms), so the question amounts to wanting to know the origin of everything which remains to be the key "unsolved mystery."

I fully agree with Deepak Chopra, MD (see his review at https://www.deepakchopra.com, November 8, 2020), that this book offers "a wealth of evidence in support of the notion that everything in existence is consciousness modifying itself", and its "two-pronged approach, calling upon both biology and physics, is one of its strengths and also one of its most unique points", because if these two branches of science "can't be unified in a single theory, biocentrism won't satisfy either biologists or physicists." As a lawyer by profession and a passionate nonmaterialist I can agree without hesitation that despite of its difficult substance, the book is accessible, engaging, and an excellent read, thus it is not difficult to concur with Chopra's concluding statement which needs no further comment:

"No one has gone further, or more convincingly, than Lanza and Pavšič do here. If it ever becomes accepted wisdom that 'the universe as mind' is true, The Grand Biocentric Design will be looked upon as a significant milestone along the way."