The more accidental, the more true.

I was fooling around on the Internet, which I don’t do often, when I stumbled on something interesting. (I find the Internet is great for finding specific information, but I’ve never enjoyed “surfing” aimlessly).

Rob Brezskny, the author of Free Will Astrology has a new book out: Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. Frances Lefkowitz reviewed the book and had this to say: "This irreverent manifesto puts the 'pro' in 'protest' ... insightful and puzzling as a Zen koan ... I Ching on Ecstasy...."

I have a very dear friend who is obsessed with—no, adores—the sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson. He is very interested in genetics and evolution, and often teases me about my interest in metaphysics. Personally, I don’t think the two camps have to be in opposition.

In a discussion of his new book, Rob Brezskny cites Edward O.Wilson. It was great for me to see these two things overlapping—hard core science and an appreciation of things that can not be measured or necessarily even seen. The following is an introduction to Rob Brezskny’s book.

The Science of the Invisible
"Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?" Biologist E.O. Wilson says that philosophers long ago stopped addressing these questions, believing them to be unanswerable. Scientists stepped forward to fill the vacuum, and now act as supreme arbiters of the mysteries that were once the province of philosophers.

I'm saddened by the loss. The scientific method is a tremendous tool for understanding the world, but most scientists refuse to use it to study phenomena that can't be repeated under controlled conditions and that can't be explained by current models of reality. I think it's impossible to explore the Big Three Questions without taking into account all that elusive, enigmatic, unrepeatable stuff. The more accidental, the more true.

I can at least hope the scientists won't object if the Beauty and Truth Laboratory borrows their disciplined objectivity and incisive reasoning to explore areas they regard as off-limits.

Two groups that may not mind are the astronomers and astrophysicists. More than other scientists, they've been compelled to develop an intimate relationship with invisible realms. In fact, they've come to a conclusion that's eerily similar to the assessment of shamans and mystics from virtually every culture throughout history: Most of reality is hidden from our five senses.

"Ninety-six percent of the universe is stuff we've never seen," cosmologist Michael Turner told Geoff Brumfiel in the March 13, 2003 issue of the journal *Nature.* To be exact, the cosmos is 23 percent dark matter and 73 percent dark energy, both of which are missing. All the stars and planets and moons and asteroids and comets and nebulas and gas clouds together comprise the visible four percent.

So where is the other 96 percent? No one knows. It's not only concealed from humans, it's imperceptible to the instruments humans have devised, and its whereabouts can't be predicted by any existing theories.