You Are the Universe

Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters

By: Menas C. Kafatos PhD, Deepak Chopra

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Deepak Chopra joins forces with leading physicist Menas Kafatos to explore some of the most important and baffling questions about our place in the world.

"A riveting and absolutely fascinating adventure that will blow your mind wide open!" (Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi)

What happens when modern science reaches a crucial turning point that challenges everything we know about reality? In this brilliant, timely, and practical work, Chopra and Kafatos tell us that we've reached just such a point. In the coming era, the universe will be completely redefined as a "human universe" radically unlike the cold, empty void where human life is barely a speck in the cosmos.

You Are the Universe literally means what it says: Each of us is a cocreator of reality extending to the vastest reaches of time and space. This seemingly impossible proposition follows from the current state of science, where outside the public eye, some key mysteries cannot be solved, even though they are the very issues that define reality itself:

• What came before the Big Bang?
• Why does the universe fit together so perfectly?
• Where did time come from?
• What is the universe made of?
• Is the quantum world linked to everyday life?
• Do we live in a conscious universe?
• How did life first begin?

"The shift into a new paradigm is happening," the authors write. "The answers offered in this book are not our invention or eccentric flights of fancy. All of us live in a participatory universe. Once you decide that you want to participate fully with mind, body, and soul, the paradigm shift becomes personal. The reality you inhabit will be yours either to embrace or to change." What these two great minds offer is a bold new understanding of who we are and how we can transform the world for the better while reaching our greatest potential.

©2017 Deepak Chopra (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Almost 100 years ago the sage Tagore and the scientist Einstein had a brief encounter to discuss the nature of reality. Revisiting their fascinating discourse on how science and spirituality inform each other is long overdue and this new book finally does it! Even if you - like me, prefer Einstein's world, this book will make you marvel at Tagore's beautiful human universe as masterfully uncovered by the authors." (Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy, Harvard University; author of The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet)

"This is not just another popular science book asking who am I? and why am I here?. This important new book addresses today's most important scientific questions regarding our very existence. In the end, we can't help but to be convinced that we live in a participatory universe that we define and synthesize according to the nervous system we enjoy as a species. The result is a riveting and absolutely fascinating literary adventure that will blow your mind wide open!" (Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi, Joseph. P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology; Harvard Medical School vice chair, neurology; director, Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital)

"An inspiring and insightful work that points out the sterility and inadequacy of the materialist paradigm that unnecessarily pervades modern science." (Ruth E. Kastner, PhD, author of Understanding Our Unseen Reality: Solving Quantum Riddles)

Can't get through the narrator

The narrator is so dry it is hard to get through the book. His voice doesn't contain any of the beauty or mystery of the book; he sounds clinical, very formal. He could be narrating a washing machine commercial.

Complicated, but explained well!

This book explains cosmic conciousness , reality, and qualia explicitly. Explained in a way for the layman to understand. The writer used story examples to explain complicated concepts. It followed many of my own thought patterns and confirmed other beliefs.

Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters

Any additional comments?

his new book by Dr Chopra and the esteemed physicist Menas Kafatos is a very timely description of the foundations of quantum physics and it investigates much of the
incredible scientific data on what appears to be a human centered Universe .

It sets straight the record on much of the hype of "so called" objective science which offers many more "future promises" of a theory of everything than it can actually deliver.

If you enjoy discovering how the real universe is even more personal and creative than you imagined then you will appreciate the premises in this book.

Many assertions without evidence or provability

This is a really interesting book that attempts to explain the "subjective experience" aspect of reality as a connected all-pervading field of consciousness. I liked a lot of the ideas it puts forward, but the reasoning borders on solipsism, and most of it seems inherently unprovable. According to the book, there is nothing "real" out there, only your perceptions, and things come into "existence" as you perceive them. I put quotes around those words because the book throws around words like real, mind, consciousness, life, purpose, meaning, etc. without any concrete definitions of those words. What does it mean to say something is alive if it has purpose? Does that mean my Roomba is alive because it has a purpose to clean the floor? Does the moon have the purpose of going around the Earth? What does "consciousness" mean without "mind?" The book waves its hands at these things a little bit, but in general does a poor job of defining them.

Many fuzzy concepts like these are woven together with assertions by the authors that things are "just so" although they don't give a chain of physical or logical evidence for how they've reached those conclusions. They talk about how in the future we will be pursuing "qualia science" but they don't state how that is different from "non-qualia science." The book DOES define qualia at length (in an appendix), but makes the important point that all reality to us consists only of qualia, and qualia are the only things that exist. So, what other kind of science could there even be, other than qualia science?

In the end I'd put this book in the category of thought provoking suggestions regarding a very important topic (existence), but it definitely falls short of a revelation, a new theory, or anything concrete. It borders much more on mysticism or religion, something the book even mentions the authors were accused of by "real" scientists. If you are interested in this topic but have a more analytical bent, I would suggest something like "The Grand Biocentric Design: How Life Creates Reality." That book is not perfect, but it definitely puts more effort into explaining the details of its theory.

i loved it

i loved this this book so much.. a lot of things were covered no filler.. then i forgot now i have to listen again.im excited...unfortunately my memory is not good as most people

Consciousness writes a book

This audio book is for those who seek an explanation for our relationship to consciousness and the universe. Will likely appeal to those who have an understanding of some of the scientific theories that seek to describe reality. This audio book covers most of the popular theories and offers its own conclusions. Overall it's very intriguing but somewhat technical and involved for the evening commute.

No chapters

Arguments seem cogent and interesting but the story/arguments make zero sense as they move from one to another without rhyme or reason. Great book for insomniacs.

Eloquent, informative - phenomenonal story telling

This audiobook was outstanding on every level! Phenomenonal ability to make complex concepts understandable and compelling. Many authors struggle to make this subject matter palatable for the masses however Chopra and Kafatos manage to relate quantum physics with every day life through brilliant annalogies. Superb narration as well!

I like this a lot

This was really good. Can't wait to listen to it again. I'll also recommend it to people who aren't really religious or spiritual, since this tries to stick to scientific explanations of things wo getting into a bunch of religio-mumbo.

I expected more

Honestly I kinda expected more from this ok book, it’s not a total waste of time but almost :)