Robert Lanza - Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death

Praise for Beyond Biocentrism

Lanza and Berman employ cutting edge science to rediscover ancient truths about life and death and reconceptualize our very notions of reality and consciousness. Beyond Biocentrism is an enlightening and fascinating journey that will forever alter your understanding of your own existence.

Deepak Chopra

Robert Lanza and Bob Berman present an audacious program to restore meaning to scienceto provide explanations that go deeper than todays physical theories. Beyond Biocentrism is a joyride through the history of science and cutting-edge physics, all with a very serious purpose: to find the long-overlooked connection between the conscious self and the universe around us.

Corey S. Powell, editor at large and
former editor-in-chief,Discovermagazine

This intriguing and provocative book will challenge some of what you know and push you into rethinking your view of scienceall the while entertaining you with a fast-paced, exhilarating narrative journey.

David J. Eicher, editor-in-chief,Astronomymagazine

In Beyond Biocentrism, stem cell pioneer Robert Lanza, writing with astronomer Bob Berman, presents a lucid tour de force of his thrilling but controversial theory that consciousness creates reality and the cosmos itself. Will machines ever achieve consciousness? Are plants aware? Is death an illusion? These are some of the big questions tackled in Beyond Biocentrism, which serves up a new, biology-based theory of everything that is as delightful to read as it is fascinating. Tremendously clear and lovely writinga huge achievement.

Pamela Weintraub, psychology and health editor,Aeonmagazine,
and former executive editor ofDiscovermagazine and
editor-in-chief ofOMNI(internet/magazine)

Lanza and Bermans latest statement of their theory of biocentrism changes the way we think about age-old religious questions such as the origin of the universe and human immortality. Based on cutting edge work in physics and biology and explained with exceptional clarity, Beyond Biocentrism is must reading for anyone interested in science and religion.

Ronald M Green, professor emeritus for the
study of ethics and human values, and former chairman
of the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College

Beyond Biocentrism delves further into the role of the observer and consciousness. It offers a neurobiological point of view to help answer questions about the world around us. Lanza and Berman make the journey towards a better understanding of the role of consciousness and perception. I liked the book quite a lot! It was a fun read.

Kwang-Soo Kim, professor of psychiatry and
neuroscience, Harvard Medical School, and director,
Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, McLean Hospital

Lanza and Berman take the reader on a remarkable journey, setting out to prove that there is more to life and existence than we have assumed. They present scientific evidence that makes us re-consider everything weve thought to be true about the nature of reality. Beyond Biocentrism is a fascinating and thought-provoking must-read book that shows us a new way of looking at the universe and ourselves.

Anthony Atala, W. H. Boyce Professor, chairman,
and director of the Wake Forest Institute for
Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University

There are few intellectual endeavors more thrilling than contemplating the role of human consciousness in creating reality and the universe, and Lanza and Berman bring to life the quest for understanding how that can possibly be so. If you know just enough physics to wonder whether the moon is still there when no one is looking at it, and even if youve never thought about anything so seemingly preposterous, youll have a great time reading Beyond Biocentrism.

Sharon Begley, senior science writer atStat,
and former science editor and correspondent for
Newsweek, theWall Street Journal, andReuters

Beyond Biocentrism is a must read for anyone who has ever wondered where modern science (and the weirdness of relativity and quantum mechanics) is going. What does it all mean? Brilliant and insightful. Few books come along in our lives that change the way we see the world. Beyond Biocentrism is such a book.

Ralph D Levinson, health sciences professor, UCLA

Copyright 2016 by Robert Lanza, MD, and Bob Berman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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First E-Book Edition: May 2016.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

LCCN: 2015043363

ISBN-13:978-1-942952-21-3 (print) / 978-1-942952-22-0 (electronic)

Editing by Heather Butterfield

Copyediting by James Fraleigh

Proofreading by Michael Fedison, Brittney Martinez, and Rachel Phares

Indexing by Jigsaw Information

Text design and composition by Aaron Edmiston

Cover design by Brad Foltz

Illustrations on pages by Jacqueline Rogers

Illustration on page by Wim R. Euverman

Image on : plant (John Sims), octopus (A. Pollock), mouse (George Shuklin), sparrow (W. Wright), tadpole (rainforest_harley on Flickr)

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INTRODUCTION

Why do you insist the universe is not a conscious intelligence,
when it gives birth to conscious intelligences?
Cicero, c. 44 BCE

The deepest, most vexing issues have not changed much since the beginning of civilization. People eight thousand years ago worried about death. Those in ancient Babylonia shared with us an obsession with the passage of time. Thinkers in every culture have pondered Earth and the heavens and generally have seen them as existing in a space-based matrix. The nature of life and consciousness started to obsess us as soon as we came down from the forest roof and grew brains large enough to be tormented.

Tackling these big-ticket items has properly become a focus for science as well. Our first book, Biocentrism, offered a very different way of looking at the universe and reality itself. Because this perspective is so unlike the descriptions we are accustomed to, it takes some time and thought to comprehend. Thats what this book is about.