Introduction

Summary

Until quite recently physicists rarely speculated about relations between the laws of fundamental physics, the physics of elementary particles and the Universe, and our existence on earth as conscious beings. They admitted that no physical reason for our existence was known, and that man was an alien in the physical world, but they did not perceive any conflict between our existence and the basic laws of physics.

A first attempt to connect humankind and elementary particle physics was Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics (1975). In this book Capra tried to relate the so-called ‘bootstrap’ theory of elementary particles to Eastern mysticism by pointing to similarities between the picture that bootstrap physics gives of the behaviour of elementary particles and the utterances of certain Eastern mystics. To Capra these similarities suggested a deep analogy between the world at the level of elementary particles and the world of personal experience. Such a relation would lessen the deplorable alienation of advanced abstract physics from what can be directly and personally experienced.

The Tao of Physics was a great success. The book was welcomed by supporters of holism and of the New Age Movement. It has been translated into many languages and has been followed by related books by Capra and others, but it was conspicuously ignored by the physicists, who found it at best wishful thinking and a lot of nonsense and at worst pure deception.