THE FIELD

Lynn McTaggart (2008). The Field: 

                                        The Quest for the Secret Force 

                                        of the Universe.

McTaggart earned a BA in 1973 before becoming a well-known journalist.

The book is based on interviews and the books/manuscripts of 75 credible scientists...McTaggart interprets their research as supporting a universal "field of consciousness" that connects everyone and everything...some of the claims are backed by well-accepted science, some are more speculative (e.g., implications of quantum physics for human biological processes).

i wish she had an update of the book...as of this writing in 2026, the book is 18 years old, almost 2 decades...i wonder which hypotheses have been supported, which need to be refined, and which should be jettisoned.

each chapter follows the life story of a particular scientist and their research in great detail, especially about their personal motivation/lives...i found it difficult to apply most of the ideas to my everyday life, e.g., waves have a virtual infinite capacity for storage (p. 26), how can i apply this information to my life? or, the claim that homeopathy's diluted water treatments contain the memory of the original substance (electromagnetic signals) before diluting--how can i test that for myself? (52) or, we can extend our consciousness via intention outside of our body to effect things in the physical world like random number generators, ok, so what, what can i DO with this (i don't know how to build a random number generator).

practice: try sending positive intent into a glass of water and the drink it, do you feel the intent that you sent into the water? there are many rival hypotheses here...you'd have to compare the treated water with drinking plain water, you need to account for an expectancy effect (the placebo), need to make the experiment double blind, the validity and reliability of subjective opinion after drinking is difficult to quantify, drinking one glass first will effect perceptions of the 2nd glass consumed (e.g., when parched, the first sip will feel different than the 6th sip), separating the drinking of both glasses in time, to avoid the effect of drinking one after another, creates another issue, the body will be in a different thirst state, mood, physiology, etc)...anyone have ideas on how to create a test for this?