The Bigger Picture on the Origin of Everything

This is a highly readable and stimulating exploration of the big metaphysical questions, reflecting on the concepts of deity, the nature of consciousness, and the puzzles raised by modern physics. The author is trained in science, although he is not a scientist by profession, and the theory he advances – Potentiality based Panpsychism (PBP) – is a fruitful approach transcending traditional scientific and philosophical boundaries. The book is well structured, and the discussions clear, including scientific, philosophical and ethical perspectives. Each chapter has a summary of key takeaways and a concluding section – so what? The chapter on consciousness explores the various views and shortcomings of existing approaches. It includes a more detailed consideration of Integrated Information Theory, with information as the bedrock of consciousness; in this respect, my feeling – like Federico Faggin – is that for us, meaning is more fundamental than information. A further fundamental feature is interconnectedness, also in physics. The next few chapters discuss classical, relativistic, and quantum physics along with cosmology. A separate chapter is devoted to the power and limitations of the scientific method, with a historical timeline, with a good itemisation of the present-day scientific method. Its limits and challenges arise when addressing questions or propositions that lie outside space/time and therefore open to accusations of speculation. The author could also have mentioned in this respect the metaphysical foundations of science in materialism and reductionism, characterised as scientism. In presenting his own theory, he states his main assumptions of an origin beyond the universe, the existence of a fundamental and interconnected consciousness, the centrality of conscious experience, and the role of information and quantum mechanics.

He goes on to describe, with diagrams, his own model where there are two intertwined realms: spacetime, and non-space time. (p. 179) He then explains how his model is related to the concept of a deity, and how consciousness is understood through the lens of the PBP model as well as how it is understood in relation to quantum physics and cosmology. Space is regarded as the stage for existence, while the necessity of time arises from the essence of change and experience – also in the context of contrast. The final chapter considers more general implications leading to a more expansive view of human capabilities and consciousness as well as a re-evaluation of scientific paradigms and postulation of an ethic of interconnectedness similar to what I put forward in 1990 in my book Whole in One. It also suggests a broader sense of self beyond the individual ego within the context of a non-embodied fundamental consciousness as the primordial essence underlying all existence. Overall, this is a very worthwhile study and line of enquiry.