Gary E. Schwartz - The G.O.D. Experiments: How Science Is Discovering God in Everything, Including Us

THE G.O.D. EXPERIMENTS

ALSO BY GARY E. SCHWARTZ

The Truth About Medium

The Afterlife Experiments

The Living Energy Universe

ALSO BY OR COAUTHORED BY WILLIAM L. SIMON

The Truth About Medium

The Art of Intrusion

In Search of Business Value

The Art of Deception

The Afterlife Experiments

Driving Digital

High Velocity Leadership

On the Firing Line

Lasting Change

Beyond the Numbers

Profit from Experience

ATRIA BOOKS
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2006 by Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First ATRIA BOOKS hardcover edition April 2006

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ATRIA BOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Manufactured in the United States of America

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales: 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schwartz, Gary E.

The G.O.D. experiments : how science is discovering God in everything, including us / Gary E. Schwartz with William L. Simon1st Atria Books hardcover ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

1. Intelligent design (Teleology) I. Title: G.O.D. experiments. II. Simon, William L. III. Title.

BL262.S37 2006

212.1dc22

ISBN-10: 0-7434-7740-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-7740-6
eISBN-13: 978-1-416-52296-6

To our parents and to Susy, Willie, and Sam Arynne, Victoria, and Sheldon and Vincent and Elena

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Prologue
Can Science Take Us to God?

1. Foreseeing God in the Laboratory
How Evidence for Design Shows Up in Prophetic Dreams

2. Discovering Intelligent Design in Our Lives
A Stunning Conclusion to an Extraordinary Psychic Experiment

3. K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple Science
Sand Paintings Never Occur by Chance

4. G.O.D in the Computer
How Your Personal Computer Can Teach You About God

5. Talking to an Intelligent Black Box
How Science Fiction Sometimes Provides a Key to Reality

6. I Asked the Universe a Question
G.O.D. Is Revealed in the Hidden Details

7. I Asked the Universe More Questions
The Answer Sparkles Like a Diamond

8. Interesting and Amusing Theories
A Physicist Concludes, Its Absolutely Worth Thinking About.

9. Chance Versus Intelligent DesignWhich Is It?
What Is the Great G.O.D. Debate, and How Can It Be Resolved?

10. Can G.O.D. Play Dice with the Universe?
Einstein Was Right: The Answer Is No

Interlude: The Divine Proportion
Why G.O.D. Is a Mathematician

11. Why Science Shaves with Ockhams Razor
Simple Predictions That Radically Transform Our Minds

12. Who Are We and Why Are We Here?
Your Mind Is Bigger Than the Entire Universe

13. Evidence-Based Faith
A New Way of Marrying Science and Spirit

14. Implications of Intelligent Evolution for Society
Bringing G.O.D. to Science, Education, Medicine, Business, Law, Politics, and Religion

15. The Organizing Mind
New Discoveries Show How the Mind Organizes Matter

16. Wisdom in the Stars
Is the Universe Not Only Intelligent But Wise?

17. The Genius Within Everyone
Why Universal Organizing Consciousness Exists in Everything

18. Summing up the G.O.D. ExperimentsThe Emerging Case for Intelligent Evolution
Seeing the Big Picture, and Never Forgetting It

Epilogue
Infinite Love: The Ultimate Gift from G.O.D.?

PROLOGUE

Can Science Take Us to God?

Imagine that there had been no Abraham, no Moses, no Jesus, no Muhammad. Imagine a world without mystics, prophets, shamans, or medicine men. And what if there were no Old Testament, no New Testament, no Koranjust contemporary, twenty-first-century science? In such a world, would scientists feel the need to come up with a theory that some kind of invisible organizing processthat is, a Godexists in the universe and in our daily lives? A rumor would leak to the media, stirring a high level of skeptical coverage, on the offbeat notion that science had proposed the existence of a universal intelligence, a source of cosmic energy, that explained the origin and evolution of order in the universe.

Lets face it: not in that fictional world but in todays real world, where some version of the God concept is accepted by a majority of the planets 6 billion people, God is a subject traditionally shunned by scientists. And for good reason: a sure way for federally funded scientists to lose their government support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, or NASA is for them to start conducting experiments documenting the existence of God.

But is the belief in Goda universal intelligence, source and energy of all that issomething we must accept only on faith? Or is there compelling scientific reasoning, supported by incontrovertible experimental evidence? If this essence is actually at work in the scientists lab as well as in our daily lives, its time for us to take notice. My experiences in the laboratory and in life demonstrate convincingly, I believe, that science can lead us to the God who is now making himself/ herself/itself known in physics, statistics, computer science, and even in, of all places, parapsychology experiments. We no longer need to accept God on faith alone. This news wont rock the boat of people for whom faith has been and always will be sufficient. But even the committed will, I think, find the support for their beliefs persuasive. And for everyone else, the results of the experiments and research presented in these pages open a world of new possibilities and new understanding.

GOD AND G.O.D.

The everyday word God, and associated terms like Lord, King of the Universe, the Ultimate, the Source, the Great Spirit, and Allah, have different meanings for different religions as well as for different people within a given religion.

For some, God is a demanding older white male who sports a Santa-like beard and leans upon a gnarled and weathered staff. For others, a nurturing female deity who plays a sitarlike instrument or a spirit that animates everything from elementary particles to galaxies or a cosmic consciousness that exists beyond space and time. These widely diverse images of Godfrom the highly specific to the extraordinarily broadhave through the ages created confusion and antagonism, suspicion, hatred, and bloodshed. Little wonder that most scientists avoid discussing God in the context of their work. Little wonder that any social discussion of God, except among fellow-believers, is considered as unacceptable as bragging about the accomplishments of ones favorite sports team.