Seeing Is Not Believing

"From 1992 through 1995, I taught several seminars on reality and consciousness according to quantum theory for humanities undergraduates at the University of Virginia. These seminars attempted to outline in an understandable way to the nonscientist the reasons why consciousness is a necessary part of the most widely accepted interpretations of quantum theory. For these seminars, I wrote concise but complete notes which I handed out to my students, and which summarized the salient points in order to make as clear as possible the scientific basis for the seminar. A revised and refined version of these notes comprises Part 1 of this work. . . .

Because this course makes many statements, the reader might think that it comprises a new belief system, either to be adopted or rejected. However, that is not my intention nor is it the intention of the sages of nonduality who are quoted and discussed. Beliefs are not understanding in themselves--they can actually be obstructions to understanding. Because Reality cannot be described in words, the words are meant to be used as pointers to Reality rather than as descriptors of Reality. Hence, this is a course in seeing, not in believing." More