Zukav believes that pursuing external power has caused people to repress their feelings, which come from their hearts. In business, politics, and the military, people who repress emotions to achieve a certain end are often rewarded for their efforts, making emotional repression a key part of modern culture. Becoming aware of one’s emotions is an essential part of integrating one’s personality with one’s soul, becoming more compassionate, and building reverence for life. 

While science is a great achievement, Zukav feels that it cannot explain everything about life and that people must have an interest in meaning beyond what can be physically investigated. Nevertheless, he believes that scientific research can help people understand spiritual realities. For instance, he points to the rule of physics that says that an object in motion will stay in uniform motion until a force acts upon it. He points to his college friend Hank, who served in the Vietnam War and later died by suicide as a young man. He feels that though Hank was a kind person, he was mainly motivated by the desires of his personality, and that his death was a continuation of his lack of awareness and greater meaning. He writes, “Thus, Hank’s life was a ‘body in uniform motion’ that never encountered a ‘force’” (49). He contrasts this with the example of Gregory. After his girlfriend left him, Gregory, who had long been an angry person, used his pain to prompt personal change. He sought solitude to confront his pain and the pattern of his hurtful behavior. As a result, he became happier, more productive, and more compassionate. Zukav considers these examples evidence of how physical laws can reflect “non-physical domains.”

In another example, scientific research revealed that white is actually every color, while black is a complete absence of color. Western culture has long associated white with purity and goodness and black with evil. This dichotomy is reflected in literature, visual arts, and verbal expressions. Zukav claims that the science behind light proves people’s instinctive understanding that evil is the absence of light, or goodness. He builds on this explanation to argue that people cannot fix the absence of light with hatred; darkness can only be changed via the introduction of light. He explains, “If you strike without compassion against the darkness, you yourself enter the darkness” (55). He concludes by claiming that humans have evolved “as far as the intellect will take us” and arguing that people must now use their hearts to cultivate authentic power (56).

As in earlier discussions of karma, Zukav’s discussion of suicide risks victim-blaming. He suggests that it was Hank’s unwillingness to work through his pain and look deeper for life’s meaning that led to his eventual death. This explanation partly reflects the incomplete understanding of mental illness at the time of the book’s publication, although the Vietnam War, which Zukav references, itself played a major role in raising awareness regarding post-traumatic stress disorder specifically. The author’s discussion of how the science of colors represents deeper spiritual realities also reveals the limitations of the book’s perspective in that it assumes a Western perspective. For instance, in many Asian cultures, white represents death or mourning, undercutting Zukav’s claim that humanity instinctively understands black to signify absence, evil, loss, etc. 

Chapter Lessons

• Modern society encourages the repression of emotions and the pursuit of external power. 
• Integrating one’s personality and soul requires unearthing these emotions.
• Science cannot explain everything, but scientific principles sometimes align with spiritual truths.

Reflection Questions

• When do you find yourself suppressing or distancing yourself from your emotions? What would it look like to feel your emotions more fully?
• Is external power something you personally prioritize? Why or why not?
• What do you see as the relationship between science and religion or spirituality?