The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story

I wish everyone would read this book. This is a small and easy to read book that is very potent. It gives many ideas and the how to, to see each one of us in a larger perspective. It talks about our connection to the cosmos and galaxies and that helps us redefine ourselves in a larger realm of reality. I love the reminders of nature and sky and star gazing to bring people back to what is real and grounding. He talks about worshipping advertisements as the most zealous religion nowadays, and it is true. Children can whistle ad jingles easily but can't distinguish bird sounds. He challenges the world view and I think that is great.

This is a scarey honest book about our society and it's values. But Dr. Swimme also offers an alternative. If you are absolutely certain of your beliefs and have all the answers you need about life, you will not like this book. It is for people who may not yet know everything.

Brian Swimme is a very passionate man who is well-versed in science and cosmology. At the same time, he is a deeply intuitive man and deep feeler. This book is an introduction to his point of view on man's nature to the cosmos and the necessity for not becoming disconnected to nature and the wonder and awe of the universe. It stresses the interdependence of everything and focuses on the mystery and awe of the universe and the world of nature. This is something most of us have been taken for granted at least at times. In short, it is an invitation to step of the treadmill of the daily grind to look at the big picture and be inspired by feeling our way into the improbability of it and the heart that is ultimately at the center of the universe. Brian believes every child should be introduced to the story of the cosmos and his unique place in it as the culmination of billions of years of evolution. He espouses a return to feeling part of the creation rather than acting on it as an object. If more people did this kind of reflection, I'm sure the world would be a better and safer place.

Brian Schwimme has an archaic nostalgia. For thousands, even millions, of years, people have united together to marvel at the mystery of the cosmos and contemplate the essence of it all. It was the same macrocosm that each and everyone of the primitive cave dwellers to modern man have directly experienced. But nowadays, we don't do that. We disenchant the world by scientific explanations that view the universe as a machine, to the point where the mathematical explanations of phenomena are more significant than phenomena itself. You might be thinking, no way, the majority of the world is religious, and contemplate such things regularly. He points out that the problem with modern day religious thought is that when we ponder the deep questions of meaning in the universe, we do so in a context fixed in the time when the classical scriptures achieved their written form, rather than worshiping in the context of the universe as we have come to know it over the recent centuries. Such knowledge is restricted to "science" which is at odds with religion. It shouldn't be like this. The Scientific Revolution was an age of this separation. The current cosmology calls for an age of integration. I am all for this goal of striving for a new consciousness. Within our Newtonian minds, we've built such tiny worlds like this, which resulting from the machine view of a dead universe, we apotheosize and deify consumerism. This book doesn't bicker about God or anything that people don't want to hear, it's just saying, "Wake up from this man made world, cast back the veil from your eyes, be at one with this LIVING fecund universe!" You will truly be LIVING in the world once you appreciate the heart of the cosmos, which all though is around 15 billion light years away, is also every where at once. There is no restriction to science. The new cosmology is what has mystified the men of all ages, what they spoke of as the Tao, or the Logos - the emanating source of all creation.

I personally found this book both extremely inspiring and enjoyable to read. Swimme's method of unveiling the truth about advertisments and consumerism and how they shape our veiw of reality is ingenious. At the same time, the book takes you on a scientific journey of the universe that incorporates feelings of mystical awe and wonder that many books fail to acomplish. I have read everything from Fred Wolfe to Brian Greene. However, Swimme envokes a deeper feeling of appreciation for science, the workings of our universe, and humanity in general. All his books, especially this one, have something new to say and add a human touch to science that is long overdue. This is definitely not your run-of-the-mill new age book and I recommend it to anyone who is passionate about preservation of the environment or just plain curious about new ideas concerning reality and the world we live in.