Universal Awareness

The starting point for Universal Awareness: A Theory of the Soul is a contemplation of profound questions that we all ask ourselves, such as 'Why was I born the person I am?' 'If the person I am had never been born, would I have been born as someone else?' 'What happens to me when I die?' and 'Could I have lived before?' In this easy-to-read book, psychologist Dr Michael Heap takes the reader on a quest in search of answers to these and other such questions about human existence. This journey of exploration stays well clear of any reference to religious, supernatural or paranormal ideas or entities, mysterious forces or energies, and the like. Nevertheless, it acknowledges that the way our brain represents the world is not a mirror of reality itself but is more akin to a map of that reality and that by studying science and by thinking logically and rationally, we may arrive at a more accurate map.
It is from this standpoint that Universal Awareness challenges our most fundamental ways of experiencing and understanding our world with respect to such matters as our sense of self or personal identity; our being the same person over time; the nature of time itself; and our perceiving the world as comprising innumerable separate objects or things. Having done this, we arrive at ways of thinking and communicating about our world and ourselves that are radically different from how we normally do so. Importantly, we may represent conscious awareness not merely as something we are capable of as humans on planet Earth, but as a natural property of the universe that emerges at rare and minute locations where its composition and structure enable it to be aware of itself and its activities. Hence the term 'universal awareness'. And from this, new and astonishing answers to those profound existential questions emerge, answers that have extraordinary consequences for how we understand ourselves and our place in the universe.
This is an extensively revised edition of the author's 2011 book of the same title. This book is still available from Amazon along with readers' reviews.