Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything

from Chapter 4\ The Crucial Science Fable—In-formation in Nature\ Our review of the puzzles encountered at the frontiers of science has set the stage for the quest to which Part One of this book is dedicated: to discover the basis for a scientifically founded Integral Theory of Everything (I-TOE). We have gained an important insight. We have found that in order to account for a growing number of things and processes that are undoubtedly real and are likely to be fundamental, a new factor needs to be added to the repertory of laws and concepts of contemporary science. What is this new factor? Let us look at the principal findings:\ • Astonishingly close connections exist on the level of the quantum: every particle that has ever occupied the same quantum state as another particle remains correlated with it in a mysterious, non-energetic way.\ • The universe as a whole manifests fine-tuned connections that defy commonsense explanation.\ • Post-Darwinian evolutionary theory and quantum biology discover similarly puzzling connections within the organism, as well as between the organism and its milieu.\ • The connections that come to light in the farther reaches of consciousness research are just as strange: they are connections between the consciousness of one person and the mind and body of another.\ These connections indicate links between the particles that make up the material substance of the universe, as well as between the parts or elements of the integrated systems constituted of the particles. The links fine-tune the particles and the elements of the systems, creating space- and time-transcending coherence among them.\ The surprising “nonlocal” forms of coherence crop up in fields as diverse as quantum physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, and consciousness research. Some physicists—John Bell and Chris Clarke among them—suggest that nonlocality may be in fact the deeper reality; ordinary, so-called “classical” or “decoherent” states (states where things have a unique location and a unique set of physical characteristics) may appear merely as a consequence of the way we interact with medium-sized things—things that are neither as small as quanta nor as large as the cosmos.\ Independent of the truth of such speculations, it is clear that nonlocal coherence has important implications. It signals that there is not only matter and energy in the universe, but also a more subtle yet real element: an element that connects and produces the observed quasi-instant forms of coherence.\ ENTER THE AKASHIC FIELD\ The idea that information is present throughout nature is a recurrent theme in cultural history, but it is new to Western science. It calls for the recognition that information is not an abstract concept: as “in-formation” it has a reality of its own. It is a part of the physical universe. And since it is present throughout nature, it is best conceptualized as an extended field.\ Rationale for an In-formation Field\ The evidence for a field that would conserve and convey information is not direct; it must be reconstructed in reference to more immediately available evidence. Like other fields known to modern physics, such as the gravitational field, the electromagnetic field, the quantum fields, and the Higgs field, the in-formation field cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled. However, this field produces effects, and these can be perceived. This is the same in regard to all the fields known to science. For example, the gravitational or G-field cannot be perceived: when we drop an object to the ground, we see the object falling but not the field that makes it fall—we see the effect of the G-field but not the G-field itself.\ In the case of the field that could account for the presence of in-formation in nature, the evidence is the puzzling, quasi-instant form of coherence that comes to light in the physical, cosmological, and biological sciences, as well as in consciousness research. These phenomena call for an explanation, and the simplest and most logical explanation is a field that links the entities that prove to be nonlocally coherent.\ Although fields, like other entities, are not to be multiplied beyond the scope of necessity, it seems evident that a further field is required to account for the special kind of coherence revealed at all scales and domains of nature, from the microdomain of quanta, through the meso-domain of life, to the macrodomain of the cosmos. We need to recognize that just as electric and magnetic effects are conveyed by the EM-field, attraction among massive objects by the G-field, and attraction and repulsion among the particles of the nucleus by quantum fields, so nonlocal coherence is conveyed by a field: the universal in-formation field.\ The Akashic Field\ In my previous books I named the universal in-formation field the Akashic Field, or A-field for short. What is the reason for this name?\ In the Sanskrit and Indian cultures, Akasha is an all-encompassing medium that underlies all things and becomes all things. It is real, but so subtle that it cannot be perceived until it becomes the many things that populate the manifest world. Our bodily senses do not register Akasha, but we can reach it through spiritual practice. The ancient Rishis reached it through a disciplined, spiritual way of life, and through yoga. They described their experience, and made Akasha an essential element of the philosophy and mythology of India.\ The Akashic vision of a cyclic universe—of a Metaverse that creates universe after universe—is essentially the vision we now get from cosmology. In the new physics the unified, physically real vacuum is the equivalent of Akasha. It is the original field out of which emerged particles and atoms, stars and planets, human and animal bodies, and all the things that can be seen and touched. It is a dynamic, energy-filled medium in ceaseless fluctuation. The vacuum is Akasha and Prana rolled into one—the womb of all the “matter” and all the “force” in the universe.

1A meaningful worldview for our time122On puzzles and fables : the next paradigm shift in science163A concise catalog of contemporary puzzles264Searching for the memory of the universe455Enter the Akashic field566The "a-field effect"1067The origins and destiny of life and the universe1218Consciousness : human and cosmic1439The poetry of cosmic vision164

\ Christian De Quincey". . . Laszlo's new book is a provocative overview and a masterful synthesis of knowledge at the frontiers of cosmology, physics, neurobiology, and consciousness studies. . . . provides strong support for the idea that finally we have a common unifying concept for science and spirituality."\ \ \ \ \ Stanley Krippner“Ervin Laszlo presents readers with a tour de force, nothing less than a theory of everything. This book introduces such provocative concepts as the 'A-field' and the 'informed universe,' making the case that a complete understanding of reality is woefully lacking without them. Readers of this book will never view the universe in quite the same way again.”\ \ \ Alfonso Montuori“Over the last 30 years, Ervin Laszlo has consistently been at the forefront of scientific inquiry, exploring the frontiers of knowledge with insight, wisdom and integrity. With Science and the Akashic Field he takes another quantum leap forward in our understanding of the universe and ourselves. This enthralling vision of mind, science, and universe is essential reading for the 21st century.”\ \ \ \ \ Allan Combs“It is rare indeed that a revolution in thought can open our eyes to a new universe that transforms our inner experience as well as our relationships with others and even with the cosmos. Martin Buber did it with I and Thou. Now, Ervin Laszlo, one of the most profound minds of our generation, has given us a great gift in this readable book that explores how we are connected to each other in fields of resonance that penetrate to the deepest levels of being.”\ \ \ \ \ Ashok Gangadean“In this impressive and transformative work Laszlo brings the reader into an integral worldview for our time. The reader who encounters this book will be irrevocably transformed and will henceforth experience the world through a global lens.”\ \ \ \ \ Fritz-Albert Popp“In a visionary way based on profound knowledge of modern science, Laszlo creates a genuine architecture of human and cosmic evolution. He provides the bridge between all the different puzzle-stones of science and unifies them in a most remarkable and bold ‘integral theory of everything.’”\ \ \ \ \ Peter Russell“A seminal book from one of the best thinkers of our time. Ervin Laszlo charts the ­frontiers to which science is inexorably headed. In years to come people will look back at the amazing foresight of this work.”\ \ \ \ \ The Beacon". . . will be of aid to those students interested in utilising modern science to explain the subtle and unseen."\ \ \ \ \ New Age Retailer". . . highly empirical and impressive . . . manages to reveal the connectivity of a wide range of established principles . . . . expands the mind to the point that readers will exit this changed."\ \ \ \ \ Ignazio Masulli“This is one of the most important books to be published in the last decades. Ervin Laszlo’s Science and the Akashic Field has the power and coherence to explain the major phenomena of cosmos, life, and mind as they occur at the various levels of nature and society. In demonstrating that an information field is a fundamental factor in the universe, Ervin Laszlo catalyzes a radical paradigm-shift in the contemporary sciences.”\ \