Seven Life Lessons of Chaos

Briggs and Peats accomplish something truly extraordinary. They make clear to us, with the help of Chaos theory, to what extent our Western worldview dominates and distorts our take on or sense of reality. They trace the history of Western thought from the Renaissance to the present and demonstrate how this mechanistic worldview has led to a severe distortion not only of our own sense of self, but of the true nature of our planet and the all life forms it supports.Without attempting to replace one belief system with another and without telling us what to do, they leave us with a clear sense that the relativism of the post post-modern world is nothing but a misunderstanding of the nature all worldviews: They are basically theories, and as such, they are provisional in nature and self-destruct eventually because they get stuck and cannot be updated anymore, no matter how hard we try. We have reached that point - a point that does not signal the end of history but rather the beginning of a new chapter.

This book will not change your life - but it will enlighten you to the possibilities of how to view life in the future. This is not eastern mysticism by scientists, but rather a clear statement of how uncertainty is the most certain of all things - we live in a world of opposites and that alone provides limitless opportunity.You should read this book - just once will be enough to 'get it'.

Seven Life Lessons of Chaos is the only book I have ever finished and begun again. This is not a "how to" book, but a piece of literature -- one that does not end, but continues to begin again. I began this book expecting "lessons" in the ordinary sense. Thinking I would be "shown how to do something," I braced myself for the pointer and the lectern and the maps. A non-scientist (to say the least), my only understanding of chaos was "messy and disordered." But like any good student, I waited for Briggs and Peat to teach me, in an orderly, structured way, their "lessons." What happened, though, was something else entirely. Instead, by using chaos theory as a metaphor, Briggs and Peat offered a series of overlapping and merging lenses through which I began to see the world in new ways. Like a great piece of literature, the words began to fall away and as I glanced to watch them tumble, the world appeared in sometimes fleeting, sometimes sustained glimpses -- a world that is at once more chaotic and more possible to be with. This is not a book that "tells you" how to give up control, but one that offers shifting glances into the relieving realization that you didn't have it in the first place. In the end (which is also the beginning), what remains is an oddity so beautiful you will want to touch it. And when you do, you will realize it is your life.

Briggs & Peat have done what needed to be done; write a book which connects a powerful scientific theory to reality which does not require mathematics to "get it". That's not to say that the math is not important, but, rather that a physical theory can be significantly grasped and experienced in a relativly non abstract manner. Fractal time, especially, was a tour de force in moving away from linear time perceptions. I didn't think it could ever be done. Well done, John and David! Lawrence Hudetz

I read this book in one day, and I keep going back to it. It changes the way you look at everything: your relationships, your job, your community... It's like a cross between The Artist's Way, Flow, and the Tao Te Ching. It is truly amazing!