THE WHISPERING POND - A Book Review
By Hal Fox
THE WHISPERING POND - A Book Review
By Hal Fox
The Whispering Pond, A Personal Guide to the Emerging Vision of Science, Ervin Laszlo, c1996 (text) by Ervin Laszlo, and by Element Books; indexed, bibliog, 250 pages. Published in USA 1999 by Element Books, Inc. 160 North Washington Street, Boston, MA 02114. ISBN 1 86204 362 0. $18.95.
If you read this book your concept of the role and progress of science may be demolished, or more likely expanded. The author (with over 50 books proceeding from pen and word processor) takes us on a journey of amalgamation. The author presents his thesis in four parts: The Established Vision; A Blurring Image; In Quest of a New Understanding; and The Emerging Vision. In each part Laszlo takes the reader on an excursion through the cosmos, matter, life, and mind (in separate chapters). The reader should be amazed at the depths of understanding shown by the author as he reports, explores, and reformulates these diverse and yet interwoven fields of scientific explorations. Not only does Laszlo convince the reader that the author understands these diverse concepts, but also Laszlo presents these complex ideas so that the reader can understand them. A daunting task, nobly performed.
Beginning with the basic current explanations, theories, and hypotheses of cosmos, matter, life, and mind, Laszlo then tackles the problems that scientists are struggling to improve, replace, or abandon. Next in this foray into problems, the author lays the groundwork for the need of a really grand universal theory that in one great swoop of intellect can amalgamate all of our cosmos, matter, life, and mind into one great basic concept of interrelated understanding. A Noble Challenge.
The author meets the challenge with a combination of concepts coming from both Western and Russian scientists. The grand basic concept is a quantum aether coupled with torsion fields and the exchange of information at a billion times the speed of light. The author cites the work of Akimov (among others) with the comment that these writings have not (at the time of the author's writing - 1996) been published in the West. [We are pleased to tell Laszlo that Akimov's review of torsion fields has been published in the Journal of New Energy.] Prior to getting to the part of his book where torsion fields are first mentioned, this reviewer was marking up the margins with notes indicating that the torsion fields should be used by the author.
This reviewer has only one nit-picking criticism. If the author is so well schooled on some of the advanced concepts of science (especially, torsion fields) why are his explanations laced with Big Bang concepts? We trust that this review will be forwarded to the author and he will read the following article: P. Anastasovski, et al., "A New Approach to the Cosmic Red-Shift and to the Cosmic Microwave Sources," J. New Energy, vol 1, no 2, Summer 1996, pp 79-87.
The following is a quote from the author's book concerning a fifth unifying concept. "The interconnection holofield is not likely to be a gravitational, electromagnetic, or nuclear field: it is more likely to be a fifth field in the universe. ... The discovery of this field and its inclusion in the repertory of physically real events will make for a fundamental shift in the world picture projected by science. We shall trace the contours of this shift in the next and last chapter, as we contemplate the cosmic dance of matter, life, and mind in the whispering pond: in our subtly interconnected universe."
Finally, in the last chapter, the author begins with this: "What shall we call the field that makes us, and all things in nature, organic parts in a subtly interlinked cosmos -- in a cosmic whispering pond? If that field is a major, indeed a paramount, element in the universe, it deserves a name of its own. Describing it as the vacuum-based zero-point holofield is accurate but cumbersome; and the names with which other fields have been christened previously do not correspond to the insights now surfacing about the nature of this cosmic field." This reviewer will leave the discovery of the suggested name to be provided to the reader by the author.
Recommendation: If a walk through various fields of science, their successes, their problems, and their possible unification is an appealing journey, this is an excellent guide. It is recommended that those interested in any of the facets of cosmos, matter, life, and mind; buy, read, and reread this book.
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Sept., 1999.