< previous page page_xiii next page >

Page xiii
Foreword
Although we seem to be different individuals inhabiting separate bodies, we are intimately connected with each other at some level of the mind. This image has surfaced consistently throughout human history. It permeates the language of poets, artists, and mystics, and has been repeatedly understood by spiritual adepts of all the great religious traditions.
The view that human consciousness is unified and connected, however, has largely been considered heresy since science began its ascendancy three centuries ago. The predominant belief holds that the mind is a product of the brain, and is therefore confined to the body and to the here and now. This means we are limited by our senses, that we cannot possibly perceive or convey information at great distances or outside the present moment. This point of view has become dogma in our century, and those scientists who have questioned this perspective have often been shouted down as softheaded, unthinking renegades. In fact, until recently, one of the most insulting, pejorative comments one scientist could make about a colleague is that "he believes in mental action at a distance!"
But, as Aldous Huxley once said, facts do not stop being facts simply because they are ignored. And the evidence has never been greater that

 
< previous page page_xiii next page >