This is a summary of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg by Joseph Pearce. Each of us has a cosmic egg, a paradigm of the world, which most guard with fearful rigidity. The cracking of the cosmic egg is found in moments that challenge the current paradigm such as what he calls "eureka" moments, moments of deep understanding beyond pure logic and time or events that defy logic. The book really emphasizes the impact of altered states of mind, or trance states, on what we would typically perceive as inhuman abilities.
Here is a list of the events he's seen or heard of that break the cosmic egg:
The author claims to have put out cigarettes on himself with no injury while in the midst of a shift in his state of consciousness that he only experienced the one time. He had witnesses who saw it.
The author's wife was healed of cancer after doctors said she had only weeks to live. He states the healing was due to concentrating his consciousness on her healing.
The author once passed out, saw his love interest at the time writing a letter for him, and got the letter a couple days later. He read off the contents from memory without ever seeing the letter to a friend who confirmed it was what was written.
A study showed that people's dreams could be influenced by outside consciousness. An awake participant concentrated on something while the other participant was dreaming (verified by machines that measure dream states) and then the dreams of the asleep participant were compared with the conscious thought of the other person. They were consistently correlated.
Miners who were in a mining shaft collapse shared the same visual hallucinations while in the overwhelming dark at the same time.
Carl Jung had a patient in psychosis that described the sun with a phallus that swung back and forth creating the wind, a similar vision to other disparate sources from the ancient Greeks and medieval times. The patient having any kind of awareness of this sort of knowledge was ruled out.
Eureka moments of deep and instantaneous insight that changed the world when sudden knowledge was bestowed upon the recipient. This has happened many times throughout history independent of profession or field.
In 1959 an article was published on 80 fire walkers in India who were able to calmly walk on hot coals which were so hot that the author had a hard time breathing within 10 feet of them. 12 people of the 80 failed and were badly injured or died but 68 of them had no injury whatsoever. The author did walk the burning coals at some point and was badly burnt to the point of doctors barely saving his life.
In 1966 National Geographic published an article about this same ceremony noting a person who's skin was pierced repeatedly with sharp objects but there was no blood present at the piercing and no mark or wound when the object was fully removed. The coals were registered at 1,328 degrees and some people walked over it multiple times with no signs of burns or blisters. One of the witnesses also participated in walking across the coals without any damage.
In 1966 a study where hypnotized patients fasted for three days and were then given imaginary meals "showed a several hundred percent increase in the basic food nutrients." They received biological nutrients without any physical vehicle. Extra strength during hypnosis has also been scientifically validated.
Another important point the books makes is our dedication and devotion to the current priesthood of the scientific method despite the fact that the scientific method is all about doubting facts and testing possible alternatives. He wisely states that "every scientific statement must remain tentative forever" as scientific "facts" throughout time have been consistently proven incorrect. Much of scientific knowledge has been a process of theorizing a concept and then finding it years, decades, or millennia later such as the atom proposed by Democritus who died in 370 BC. He points out that similar to quantum physics, expectations and theory preceded reality. Quantum physics is a perfect example of our scientific paradigms invalidating themselves as it defies all understanding of our physical world and how it operates. Similar to what the author said, quantum physics is somehow influenced by consciousness. Moreover, adhering rigidly to any belief system, even the priesthood of the scientific method, only prevents people from gaining any further understanding. Any system in which we believe to know truth shuts the door of further understanding that may alter our perception of what we "know."
From the mystics who are able to perform superhuman feats to Jesus and the miracles he performed, all point to a crack in our current paradigm of what is possible.
"Religion and science too often prove blood brothers beneath their different vestments, and man proves the victim of their civil war."
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