The author firmly believes that idealism is the philosophical standpoint that provides the correct philosophical and scientific understanding of the world. Nothing material exists; all are conceptions in a single, universal consciousness. Is it possible? Is it likely?
This book shows that it is, in fact, the most likely explanation of all. In a mental world, it is easy to connect the natural sciences with humanistic fields such as psychology, language, music, sociology, ethics, religion - and everything else.
Common laws govern them all. Poetry and weather can be explained by the fundamental mechanisms of emergence and complexity dynamics. Economy, trees, gossip, elementary particles and cosmological events all follow the same laws in their development.
What, then, is a human being? What are life and death? What is time? You get specific answers.
The author says that he has "known" things all his life, but it took many years before the knowledge entirely broke through. The first part of the book is about this awakening. You get to know precisely how it happened and what is required for it to occur.
In the book's second part, a complete theory of the world is presented. It is idealistic (Plato, Descartes), i.e. based on the fact that thought and consciousness are fundamental, while all the material things we see around us are mental conceptions which are also experienced as qualia; something tangible, felt, material, physical.
This is a book like no other, and it not only sets the mind spinning but presents what may well be an accurate description of the universe in which we live.
At the same time, it goes deep into being human; what it is in essence, and also why we experience life's pain, fear, longing, etc. - and how we can live more in harmony with our authentic self, which is something quite different from what most people think.
