Book Review:
The New Paradigm: A Confrontation Between Physics and the Paranormal Phenomena
(by John O'M. Bockris, ISBN 0-9767444-0-6, $34.95 Paperback, 504 pp., D&M Enterprises Publisher, 2005)
Review by William Zebuhr

It has long been realized that some of the old spiritual wisdom contained concepts that science could not reconcile, but lately it has been recognized that some of the theories of modern physics seem to point in the same direction. The old wisdom was gained by intuition, visions, trances, and various psychic means that are totally unexplained by science as we know it today. There have been many attempts in the last fifteen years or so by scientists and others to tie together the concepts of advanced physics and these ancient ideas put forth by spiritual leaders. Most of these authors attempted to reconcile a few of these concepts, usually revolving around the particular field of study they were engaged in. This limits the scope and biases what is considered to be the real truth. John Bockris, in his new book The New Paradigm: A Confrontation Between Physics and the Paranormal Phenomena, has transcended these limitations and written a book that covers far more scope without preconceived notions of what really is going on in this amazing and still very mysterious universe. This is a presumptuous and powerful title, but it lives up to it; the subtitle is a good description of what the book addresses.

The beginning of the book presents an excellent overview of current paradigm and how it came to be. It concludes that science has become the religion of the West. This has given us an unprecedented standard of material living, but left a lot of problems and unanswered questions. The problems and some projected consequences are discussed and then the problems with the current paradigm are addressed comprehensively. This is where Bockris does a far better job than others, because he is willing and able to attack the current science from all angles. Readers of IE will recognize a lot of this and both IE and Gene Mallove are sited as references.

A chapter is devoted to phenomena that are difficult or impossible to explain with current science. Some of these phenomena are things like homeopathy and crop circles, which most scientists reject out of hand, but this is a well-researched book with many references and it is hard to simply say that these things are the figment of overactive imaginations or hoaxes, etc. In any case, there are plenty of things out there that current science is clueless about.

Bockris also explains from personal experience what it is like to work outside of the current paradigm. When he was a Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University he did some pioneering work in cold fusion and fought the establishment hard.

After making a solid argument that there are some serious holes in current science—the religion of the West—Bockris devotes over one-third of the book to detailed descriptions of a wide variety of psychic phenomena. This is to further show that current science leaves many things unexplained, but also to show that ideas that have historically fallen into the category of religion should now be included in any study that tries to describe the real universe. These are not ideas that describe what is taught in any particular religion, but are ideas that fall under a more encompassing idea of a spiritual existence. It could be said that these phenomena are considered spiritual simply because they can't now be explained by science. Advanced technology can look magical and science that is not understood can look spiritual. That doesn't mean that what are thought of as spiritual beings don't exist; it means that science and our normal five senses don't perceive them. There is plenty of evidence that they do exist and plenty of people that can sense them, but not in ways that satisfy conventional science.

The last chapter sums the conclusions from the previous chapters and describes the new paradigm. Bockris concludes that, "Present science is incomplete, and able to retain its position largely by suppressing by ridicule fields of knowledge which are inconsistent with its fundamental concepts, often presented as though they were final, certain, and ubiquitous." He concludes that other concepts such as the paranormal, theories about consciousness, and interconnectedness must be integrated into science to give us a much better understanding of the true nature of reality.

I completely agree with Bockris' overall conclusions, though not with some of the political solutions to particular issues. This is a very valuable book that could only have been written by a person with excellent credentials and a lot of real world experience. There is a lot of information here that has been chosen and assembled with a mature judgment and interjected with strong personal experiences that give the material a credibility that is missing in other attempts to make the same kind of arguments. In spite of some faults (namely, small editorial errors, some poor layout, and repetition which could have been removed to shorten the book a bit), this is by far the best book I have read on this general subject and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning more about the principles that guide this mysterious universe.