description: The Tao of An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism is a book by physicist Fritjof Capra, published in 1975 by Shambhala Publications of Berkeley, California. It was a bestseller in the United States, and has been published in 43 editions in 23 languages. The fourth edition in English was published in 2000. The following excerpt from The Tao of Physics summarizes Capra's motivation for writing this book. Physicists do not need mysticism, and mystics do not need physics, but humanity needs both. – According to the preface of the first edition, reprinted in subsequent editions, Capra struggled to reconcile theoretical physics and Eastern mysticism and was at first "helped on my way by 'power plants'" or psychedelics, with the first experience "so overwhelming that I burst into tears, at the same time, not unlike Castaneda, pouring out my impressions to a piece of paper." Capra later discussed his ideas with Werner Heisenberg in 1972, as he mentioned in the following interview I had several discussions with Heisenberg. I lived in England then, and I visited him several times in Munich and showed him the whole manuscript chapter by chapter. He was very interested and very open, and he told me something that I think is not known publicly because he never published it. He said that he was well aware of these parallels. While he was working on quantum theory he went to India to lecture and was a guest of Tagore. He talked a lot with Tagore about Indian philosophy Heisenberg told me that these talks had helped him a lot with his work in physics, because they showed him that all these new ideas in quantum physics were in fact not all that crazy. He realized there was, in fact, a whole culture that subscribed to very similar ideas. Heisenberg said that this was a great help for him. Niels Bohr had a similar experience when he went to China. – Fritjof Capra, interviewed by in the book The Holographic Paradigm
language: English
title: The Tao of Physics
titlecomplete: The Tao of Physics
genres: Popular Science, Spirituality, Science, Philosophy, Religion, Taoism, Mysticism, Metaphysics, Physics, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 18472
publisher: Shambhala