A New Model of the Universe (Dover Occult)
by P. D. Ouspensky
List Price:
Our Price: $10.76
You Save: $8.19 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: P. D. OuspenskyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-07-14
ISBN: 0486297012
Number of pages: 554
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of A New Model of the Universe (Dover Occult)
Book Review: A step closer to immortality
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the advantages of broadband Internet access is the opportunity to purchase books and to read reviews by other people who have read them. I have recently done this with Ouspensky's `A New Model of the Universe', a book I originally read over 30 years ago, and which I lent to someone but never had returned.
It's 554 pages long. There are 12 chapters, one of which bears the title of the book - New Model of the Universe I and II.
Would it surprise you to know that not one of the reviewers actually read the book? Oh to be sure, their eyes all looked at the pages and they saw all the words.
But did any of them actually absorb what Ouspensky has written, and did the wisdom, genius and knowledge contained in his writing actually sink into any of their brains?
Sadly not! Or if it did, they are keeping it very much to themselves.
The first paragraph of page 1 of the Introduction begins:
There exist moments in life, separated by long intervals of time, but linked together by their inner content and by a certain singular sensation peculiar to them. Several such moments always recur to my mind together, and I feel then that it is these that have determined the chief trend of my life.
Some 20 years later, I wrote an essay `Moments of Truth' which begins:
Moments of truth, or periodic lapses into bouts of ever-greater self delusion? Such is the complexity and mystery surrounding the phenomenon of life, existence and death, that often we are confronted with extreme paradox and dichotomy, especially when our most dearly held convictions and beliefs can seem empty and without substance in the face of hard, stark reality.
We can remind ourselves of these moments. We can remember what we were doing, how we were feeling, and the circumstances. We can remember whom we were with, perhaps we were alone. We can remember the events leading up to the moment, and how these moments of truth were revealed to us.
Did we see something unique and out of this world? Did we absorb an experience that forever changed our view of the world? Were we persuaded by the thoughts and words of others - ideas that acted as a catalyst, and which crystallised what we may already have believed, but never realised - until now?
Perhaps I'd forgotten what Ouspensky wrote; however, the significance of what he said clearly was not lost on me. I just needed to rephrase the idea.
The central theme of the book is an exploration of possible answers to three questions:
1. What form has the world (universe)?
2. Is the world a chaos or a system?
3. Did the world come into being accidentally, or was it created according to plan?
And strange though it may appear at the first glance, one or another solution of the first question actually determines the possible solutions of both the second and third questions. (Ouspensky's words).
Until yesterday, I did not remember that there was a 3rd question. At least I did, but I did not acknowledge its significance.
As a non-believer (in God) the very idea that the Universe could have come into being according to a plan is preposterous, and does not even bear consideration.
On page 4 of his introduction, Ouspensky puts the question - does death exist?
Logically speaking, of course death exists. It exists all around us. My grandparents were once alive, now they are dead. Simple as that.
But what about my death? At some time in the future (whatever that means) I will presumably die. But then I ask myself, what does it mean to be alive?
The state of being alive is something that suddenly hits us sometime during our childhood. We suddenly become aware of being alive after having in fact been alive for many years.
Our consciousness gradually introduces us to the awareness that we are actually alive. Why?
Why do we become aware that we are alive, and why does it happen when it does? Why not a year before, or a year later?
At some later stage in our life, we become aware that we are not immortal, and is the point at which, for the first time in our lives perhaps, death assumes some kind of future reality, even if it is only tenuous and still far away.
There is death from natural causes - old age, and there is premature death - death that occurs earlier than it might otherwise occur were it not for accidents or irresponsible acts of overeating and/or conspicuous consumption of alcohol and cigarettes perhaps.
The death of a child is considered to be a far more tragic loss than the death of a grandparent. We might say - `what a terrible loss, s/he had her whole life before her', for is it not so, that at the back of our minds, we can't help thinking that there are objectives to being alive.
Objectives can exist on different levels. On the one hand, survival of the species dictates that some of us at least will bear progeny, so one objective would be to get married and have children.
However, when those children are grown up and we are in our 60s, life then appears to provide us with other objectives, objectives that are not so clearly defined, but they would appear to be objectives nonetheless, goals to reach, though what they might be are as yet undetermined.
One of the characteristics of being human is that we accumulate a vast storehouse of knowledge, insight and wisdom in our brains.
Why?
When our responsibilities as parents are done with, we continue to read, to write, to absorb information, to continue to learn about the world we live in, to look for specific information to help us better understand, perhaps to discover some secrets about life that we weren't aware of.
Why do we do this?
There are two ways of looking at this - in my view.
(i) we are dissatisfied with our present way of life and wish to change it in some way. However, this is unsatisfactory for in our hearts we know that nothing we do or say can change anything, except perhaps our own perceptions and opinions.
(ii) Perhaps we need to look at life, death and existence from a new perspective
Since we don't know what death is, or indeed if it does exist as a total finality, can we ask the question, does everything about us die? For example, does all the knowledge that we have accumulated during our life also die?
Two things we do know about information from our knowledge of computers. Sophisticated compression techniques means that enormous quantities of information can be packed into databases. Secondly, retrieval of that information is often performed using indirect addressing, i.e. we get the information indirectly via a known location. Suppose the information in our brains is actually located somewhere else outside of us. After all, the source of a radio program is definitely not in the radio, but the radio might be mistaken for thinking that it is (were radios to have a brain)
The last 2 chapters in Ouspensky's book are `Eternal Recurrence' - 48 pages, and `Sex and Evolution' - in 36 pages.
He describes his `new model of the universe' in 73 pages. Thompson's discovery of the electron in 1894 marked the boundary between the old Euclidean and Newtonian physics, and the new physics of quantum mechanics and special relativity which pretty much destroyed the old physics.
Ouspensky sets about destroying the new physics, or as he puts it:
I will now try to make a brief survey of the fundamental ideas of old physics which led to the necessity for building `new physics', which has unexpectedly destroyed old physics; and then I will come to the ideas of new physics which lead us to the possibility of building a `new model of the universe', which destroys new physics just as new physics destroyed old physics.
At some point between 1980 and 2000, I hit upon the concept of `personal evolution'
To hell with evolution of the species or what might happen to the human race in 100 years time. The mystery of the depth of human emotion prompted me to ask the question - if we are capable of experiencing feelings that are so incredibly beautiful, yet we only get permitted to experience them the once, why?
The feelings that we undoubtedly must have experienced when we were held in our mother's arms just after we are born, must surely be one of the most profoundly beautiful experiences that humans are capable of feeling.
Some of us are perhaps lucky to experience similar feelings in adult life, though we might be hard pressed to connect them with the same feelings we experienced at birth.
Logically speaking, this is the one and only life we live, and all that we experience is down purely to luck, upbringing, and who we may or may not happen to come into contact with during our lives.
However, Ouspensky draws on what he calls the psychological method as opposed to the logical method, so when it comes to a subject as profound as the meaning of death, looking for the answers from the logical perspective does not help us to understand or to realise what else might or might not be going on.
In my writings, I have deduced that consciousness is not an innate property of human brain cells, but is an external phenomenon that humans are capable of connecting with, much like a radio is able to connect with radio waves that form part of the electromagnetic spectrum and extract the signal contained in those waves.
In this life, we become aware of the profound depths that human emotion is capable of experiencing. Those experiences may be fleeting and only last for a short time, but they are real nonetheless.
Suppose we would like to relive those experiences. In what circumstances could we relive those experiences, and how might we go about preparing the way such that we can make it a reality?
Hence, the idea of personal evolution. We hypothesise that, based on all that we have read and learnt and written about, life is a recurring cycle that has as its boundaries our moments of birth and death which are one and the same thing if you understand the true meaning of time. This is where Ouspensky enlightens us in a way that no other philosopher has succeeded in doing.
In this life, we get to understand what our objective is, which is to lengthen and to extend the moments of supreme bliss and paradise until ultimately, our lives are nothing but.
And the way it will work is this - with each life, the moment when we first become aware that we are alive will creep ever closer towards that moment at birth when we first begin suckling at our mother's breast. The state of awareness means that rather than being driven by unconscious feelings and desires, we can instead use our conscious intelligence to achieve those goals early on in life and thus avoid making so many of the mistakes that we unwittingly end up making (My words, not Ouspensky's).
Summary of A New Model of the Universe (Dover Occult)
Foremost occultist analyzes certain older schools of thought, of both East and West, connects them with modern ideas and explains them in the light of 20th-century discoveries and speculations in physics and philosophy. Fascinating discussions of relativity, the fourth dimension, Christian symbolism, the tarot, yoga, dreams and more. Stimulating and thought-provoking.
Occult Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Occult Books
Palmistry: The Diagram Group (Gem)Harpercollins Pub Ltd; Published: 2000-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.86
Jehovah's Witnesses Ttby Martin Walter Ralston
Gospel Light Publications; Published: 1982-10-01; Unbound; Book
Queen's Conjurorby Benjamin Woolley
Harper Collins; Published: 2001-04-02; Hardcover; Book
Tao of Motivation Hbby Max Landsberg
Harper Collins; Published: 1999-03-15; Hardcover; Book
Life on the Other Side: A Psychic's Tour of the Afterlifeby Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison
Dutton Adult; Published: 2000-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.65
Price in other shops:
Dark Side of the Light Chasersby Debbie Ford
Hodder Pb; Published: 2001-08-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in Americaby Margot Adler
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-10-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
Space Clearing Hbby Denise Linn
Ebury & Vermilion; Published: 2000-08-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $101.97
Return of the Bird Tribesby Ken Carey
HarperOne; Published: 1991-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aureliusby Mark Forstater
Harper Perennial; Published: 2001-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work (PARABOLA Anthology Series)by G. I. Gurdjieff
Morning Light Press; Published: 2008-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.97
Price in other shops:
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: All And Everything: 1st Series (Compass)by G. I. Gurdjieff
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.06
Price in other shops:
The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieffby Jeanne De Salzmann
Shambhala; Published: 2010-07-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.75
Price in other shops:
Tertium Organum: The Fourth Dimension as the Esoteric Nature of Reality (Forgotten Books)by Peter Demianovitch Ouspensky
Forgotten Books; Published: 2008-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Life Is Real Only Then, When I Am (Compass)by G. I. Gurdjieff
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops:
Conscience: The Search for Truthby P. D. Ouspensky
Morning Light Press; Published: 2008-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Meetings with Remarkable Menby G. GURDJIEFF
Martino Fine Books; Published: 2010-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.85
The Fourth Way: An Arrangement by Subject of Verbatim Extracts from the Records of Ouspensky's Meetings in London and New York, 1921-46by P. D. Ouspensky
Vintage; Published: 1971-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolutionby P. D. Ouspensky
Vintage; Published: 1973-11-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
In Search of the Miraculous (Harvest Book)by P. D. Ouspensky
Mariner Books; Published: 2001-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops: