Book Review: Stalking the wild pendulum by Itzhak Bentov

First published in 1977, this book is at the intersection of Modern Physics and Yoga. Of late, I have been reading books separately on Astro Physics and on Yoga. I was getting a notion that both are connected somehow but after putting my hands on this book, things seem much clearer now.

 

The majority of modern astrophysicists (or at least of those I have read) don’t explain what was in place before Big Bang. They all start with Big Bang creating the Universe, its galaxies, stars, and the planetary system thereof. And they all agree with Einstein that nothing can travel faster than light. But this book proposes a model (not the ultimate theory) that describes the continuous process of recreation of the Universe, all physical objects being sucked by a black hole into nothingness, and they are being recreated from the other end of a black hole – a white hole, through the big bang. This book describes it as a continuous process and not a one-time phenomenon.

 

How does this author know that this is the case? He says by expanding one’s consciousness anyone can become aware of this. Then, how can one expand his/her consciousness? He says that is possible through meditation. From unknown times, sages who meditated have been telling the same although not in scientific terms.

 

Modern physics is getting beyond quantum physics and exploring the string theory which says sub-atomic particles (Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons) are nothing but vibrating energy strings. In his famous equation, Einstein said energy and mass can be converted into each other. This author too shows that is the process happening at the source of creation (Black hole sucking mass converting into energy and White hole converting energy into mass). He further explains how the Universe expands and shows where our Galaxy is placed in that scheme. Well, all of it seems to be convincing though I could not digest it fully.

 

There are particles that can travel at a higher speed than light (which modern science is exploring now, though no firm explanations are available), and our souls too can travel to other parts of the Universe (beyond Earth and other Galaxies in no time) and exchange information and energy. Well, that is possible when one is at the highest level of consciousness. All of us are not born with that level of consciousness. Most human beings have their consciousness closer to that of animals and plants. But with the training (through mediation) our level of consciousness can be raised. Kundalini Yoga too teaches the same that through the activation of various chakras our awareness levels raise.

Our physiology and neurological systems enable higher consciousness when they are healed and prepared for it. They have a higher potential to do higher tasks than what an ordinary human being uses them for. As health issues and emotional disturbances reduce in a person, his/her brain will get tuned to vibrate with Earth's frequency. When mediation practitioners are put into vibration resonance with that of Earth, energy and information exchange is possible with it. Though we call it intuition, it is the information we downloaded from the space and its members. It also enables one to get back into time (or forward) and get to know the past and the possibilities of what the future holds. Our yogis have been doing the same but without scientific explanation. But this book discusses the scientific models to enable a discussion of how this is made possible.

 

What we think of as superhuman skills, yogis seem to do them with ease. They are the siddhis one acquires with the expansion of consciousness. It is not that they become superhuman or those capabilities were not in existence before, only that we were not in tune to access them. But the process of yoga expands one’s consciousness and in the journey, many of the siddhis become possible. This is very similar to what Sage Patanjali had described in his Yoga sutras.

 

Thus, this book bridges the gap between the ancient system of Yoga and modern physics. The meaning of Yoga – becoming one with a higher self and what is proposed in this book, the purpose of raising consciousness – merging with the Universe are one and the same. I know I will have to visit this book again.

 

For those who practice meditation and aspire to understand the mechanics of consciousness, this book is a great read.