Head and Heart: A Personal Exploration of Science and the Sacred
As a university-based astrophysicist, Mansfield risks much in this attempt to bridge the centuries-old chasm separating the science of quantified reality from the intuition of sacred meaning. As he ranges through Christianity, Buddhism, and beyond, he risks incurring the wrath the devout often pour upon curious interlopers. As he unfolds his extended analogy between modern cosmology and Jungian psychology, he risks exciting the scorn his academic colleagues usually heap upon cranks. He even risks losing sympathetic readers by analyzing astrology as a potentially valid way to reach synchronicity. Even the bizarre forays into astrology and parapsychology, however, cannot obscure Mansfield's courage in exposing the sterility of a strictly scientific perspective that entirely divorces intellect from emotion. As Mansfield probes his own waking and dream-world experiences, he is sure to mystify some readers, but his utterly candid narrative compellingly illustrates the fundamental but oft-neglected need to search for truth through personal introspection, not merely objective science. Even readers who reject Mansfield's often-quirky answers will find themselves haunted by his questions.Bryce ChristensenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved