The Field
Review by Cate Montana
By Lynne McTaggart
|
Very much like the scientists she interviews, The Field author Lynne McTaggart finds herself in unexpected territory when, as an investigative reporter, she begins studying the science behind such alternative healing disciplines as homeopathy and acupuncture. Intrigued with the disciplines’ consistent use of such terms as “energy fields,” “energy healing,” “energy meridians,” and “subtle energies,” she wonders if there really is any “hard science” behind these references.
Thus begins an eight year, international journey into the lives and laboratories of some of the world’s foremost physicists, biologists, biochemists and psychologists to discover the properties and potentials of the mysterious, invisible ‘something’ which seems to permeate physical and non-physical reality, effecting - unifying - everything.
McTaggart’s straightforward, yet entertaining journalistic style makes the potentially intimidating subject matter – leading edge theories in quantum physics, electromagnetism, biology and neurochemistry – approachable. In fact, by setting the science details within the personal story of each experimenter’s life, she makes the scientists and their work seem downright understandable.
Whether writing about astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s personal, holistic transformation while hurtling through space during the Apollo 14 mission, the quantum biology of Karl Pribum, or the remote viewing studies of Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, McTaggart weaves between the magical and the mundane. “Everyone working on [their individual] experiments had the sense that they were on the verge of something that was going to transform everything we understood about reality and human beings, but at the time they were simply frontier scientists operating without a compass.”
Bottom line, this is a book about all our lives and the outrageous proof of how we are intertwined. Indeed, that is the main drive behind the work of all the remarkable men and women she writes about: showing that “the self” of every individual has “a field of influence on the world and vice versa,” and that we are all connected.
By the end, it is clear there is good, hard-nosed science to support that consciousness is a global phenomenon, which, at its most basic, is coherent light. She writes, “When you get down far enough into the quantum world, there may be no distinction between the mental and the physical…. There might not be two intangible worlds. There might be only one – The Field and the ability of matter to organize itself coherently.”
Heady stuff – and it comes with an equally good payoff: The Field ultimately leads us to a vision of a potential future for humanity without dualism and fragmentation; where God and science hold hands, and where tradition, truth and discovery unite.
Pavel's Movie Pick
By Pavel Mikolowski
Kingdom Of Heaven
Ridley Scott’s Dark Age epic adventure, Kingdom of Heaven, is not just another cinematic fantasy, but a courageous, coherent vision relevant to the current world situation, most particularly the issue of the control of Jerusalem, a city which three of the world’s major religions consider their own.
The movie stars Orlando Bloom in his first real lead role as Balian of Ibelin, a common blacksmith and bastard son of a great knight, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson). Balian discovers his father’s identity in time to be thrust into a decades-long war during the Second and Third Crusades of the 12th century. He follows his father to Jerusalem where he serves a doomed king, falls in love with his queen, and rises to knighthood. Ultimately, he vows to protect the people of Jerusalem from overwhelming Muslim forces led by the legendary leader, Saladin.
Despite the film’s flaws, Scott’s attempt to tell both sides of this epic struggle is courageous. Individuals on the Christian and Muslim sides are varied and there is no easy “bad guy.” In fact, it could be argued that he actually slants the film in a way to depict some of the Christians in a less favorable light (weak, cowardly, villainous) but is careful not to show the Muslims as anything less than heroic. Saladin (Ghassan Massoud) has got to be the single most noble Hollywood depiction of a Muslim sultan and general ever.
Unfortunately, the story of Balian is not the reason to see this film. Bloom is miscast as a blacksmith who, with the most minimal of training, becomes a fierce fighting machine. Although an appealing presence, his frame is on the slight side to carry the role of a mythic warrior. His relationship with the queen (Eva Green) is also problematic. Although he flirts with the future king’s wife and then jumps into the sack with her the first midnight she drops by his oasis, he later takes the moral high road refusing, as the queen puts it, “To do a little bad to create a greater good.” The old argument of the ends justifying the means he will hear none of.
The movie is, however, visually stunning, with an epic sweep of vast battlescapes and cityscapes, thankfully looking ever more realistic as Hollywood CG effects improve. But story line and panoply aside – the reason to see Kingdom of Heaven is to witness Scott’s vision of the insanity of different religions vying for the position to dominate the real estate called the Holy Land . To his credit, this vision comes through powerfully. This movie is also one of the most visually stunning historical epics ever made in Hollywood .
|
