by Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.

As a scientist and writer I am often concerned with how to offer new, speculative, and exciting concepts to my readers while staying true to my profession as a scientist. Apparently scientists who write books are expected to stay within certain limits of respectability; they should not stray too far from what their peers accept as established dogma. If they do, they are likely to be dismissed as cranks or just plain kooky.

But today we are entering a whole new way of existing in the world. The modern computer, the advent of quantum computers, breakthroughs in biology, high-speed global traveling, and near-instantaneous communication have opened up wide ranges of human knowledge. People from the various scientific, religious, and philosophical disciplines have begun building bridges between science, spirituality, shamanism, ancient magical practices, metaphysics, and the functioning of the human body, among other areas. So many bridges are being constructed, in fact, that it is difficult to determine just what we should believe. Should we only read and accept what card-carrying scientists tell us? Perhaps we should accept only the words of Nobel, Pulitzer, and other prestigious-prize winners. Good sense tells us that if we do, however, we are in deep trouble, for often these writers are no better than the average person when it comes to imaginative or speculative venturing. Worse yet, sometimes even the best minds become far too conservative or far too prejudiced.

While I am not saying we should dismiss so-called "great minds", I do say there is much room for good inspired speculation by scientist-writers who, in explaining the workings of science, also offer their unabashed vision of what’s to come—even if that vision takes us far beyond the borders of acceptance, and particularly if this vision offers some basis for hope and inspiration.

In Mind Into Matter, I offer new ideas based on some ancient visions. The old alchemists, in their attempts to make sense of the world, and discover its magical secrets, first brought forward the seeds of these ideas. Today, the modern form of these same ideas arises from quantum physics, neurobiology, and information theory. Such concepts deal with human beings, their minds and bodies, and their attempts to control, alter, and cope with their environments, whether those environments extend as far out as a distant galaxy or are as close as their own hearts and brains. The goal of modern scientists echoes that of the ancient alchemists.

ANCIENT ALCHEMY

Old legends preserved by authoritative teachers of Judaism assert that the angel at the gate of Eden instructed Adam in the mysteries of both Qabala and alchemy. In fact, the tenets of alchemy, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry are all inextricably interwoven with the theories of Qabalism. And, they all had one common goal the transformation of the base or common into the pure or rare. Or, to put it simply, transforming mind into matter.