Science and spirituality:
an alliance starting from the Big Bang.
A life Journey
In this amazing book, answers are sought through the most recent sciences: quantum mechanics, evolution and relativity.
How did life originate? What is the future of humanity and our planet? Is there a purpose? Does our life have a meaning? Is there life after death?
The sublime story of the universe and life unfolds six laws of evolution, which will also guide the future of humanity, opening a revolutionary, hopeful approach for the climate crisis.
Many recent experiments show that biological evolution cannot be explained without looking at the evolution of the “inside”: an ascent from consciousness to self-consciousness. From the big bang until now. The major world religions and modern spirituality thus get a scientific backbone. This book is a story of connection. Between cultures, sciences, humanism and the major world religions.
Scientific knowledge is not required to read this book.
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Paperback or Digital edition (PDF, EPUB or MOBI)
“Written in an investigating style. For spiritual set readers.”
NPD Biblion, coordinating organisation of Dutch libraries
Enjoyed your book very much – it is truly Teilhardian – “only connect” about sums it up, perhaps. Particularly grateful for the sections on quantum physics, and I thought interweaving the main text with your personal experiences and suggestions was a good notion.
Paul Bentley, editor of the British Teihard Network:
Preview
Click here to view the first 28 pages (pdf version) – including the table of contents.
Photos
The book refers to a number of photos that you can view here. Photos of the artworks can be found on this page.
– click or tick on the photos to enlarge –
1
August 6, 2006, Pechawar, Pakistan
We take a motor rickshaw to the old city centre. It’s impressive. A man shows us around in a beautiful mosque with caravanserai, where we talk to students. He tells us about the ancient Silk Road, and takes us into some small alleys. Another man tells us how he builds musical instruments,… In a bazaar like this, you keep coming across real craftsmanship. It’s nice how people tell this with love, even though they know you don’t need a bicycle or a musical instrument.
Until… we end up in a mosque where only I am allowed in. I am harassed by a student who asks me:
– Do you notice the difference here between people who strictly observe the Quran like us, and the others?
– No, I wouldn’t know, but I do notice a lot of difference in the treatment of men and women: my wife is not allowed in here!
– That’s so not to distract the men.
– Why? Allah didn’t create women?
2
A persistent illusion about time
Time is not a constant, linear event: at high speed, time slows down. We call this time dilation or ‘stretching’. There is no such thing as one singular time, except in our mind…
April 2007, Wadi Halfa, Sudan
Our seat on the bus was normally reserved yesterday, but we don’t know what time the bus leaves exactly. The owner says at 2pm. The police at 4pm and the people at 5pm.
3
We start again and take a hitchhiker with us. A very old Pakistani. A really sweet man. With gestures, he explains the way. Yes, we know the road has been closed for 3 days due to landslides. A small path is free now. How can you get annoyed when you see the efforts the whole village is making in the blazing sun to keep the road open? (Or knowing how some Pakistanis sleep outside in our big European cities? Even our worst sleeping place was better than that in winter…).
4
12 May 2007, Ethiopia-Kenya border region
Around noon we arrive in Woito. We go to the local market. We move as inconspicuously as possible among the people and try to chat while buying something. Of course, as the only white people, you do stand out a lot, but after a bit of wondering, we are absorbed into the scene. Two tribes are present at the market: the Tsamai and the Buana, in their traditional clothing. Although there is often little real clothing here, apart from a beautifully decorated loincloth. Young men and women have beautifully adorned their slender black bodies. A feast for the eyes, and also very sexually charged. Yes, we are far away from all kinds of rules and regulations: sexuality, fertility, are so natural here. Part of everyday life, part of being human. People come to us and say hello very spontaneously, shake our hands. Some come to touch us. Especially the golden blonde hair on my arms intrigues them. I also feel their black arms.
5
We sit down and taste the local sorghum drink. Now we are completely absorbed in that graceful mass… Christine has a way of taking pictures very discretely of this, for us, miraculous event. When we walk away in the evening, we are once again surrounded by children. What a life they have here compared to most European citychildren… Their eyes are two carbuncles of joie de vivre. We stroll further into the savannah and enjoy the sunset over this superb African landscape. Two boys are walking hand in hand with us while I look into their jet-black eyes. Their hand burns in my hand, I feel unified with the whole planet.
6
7 May 2007, Omorate – Illeret border area Ethiopia – Kenya
Finally, the back of the light truck is packed full of goods and people. We sit and lie mixed up as best we can. There is no road; we drive straight through the vegetation. Branches scrape along your skin. I pull a long thorn out of the back of the boy in front of me. Regularly something falls out of the overloaded car. At the bend another boy flies out of the back of the van… There are also two babies with us in the loading box, clamped in their mother’s arms to absorb as many shocks as possible. Others, including us, take turns holding something over their heads for the burning sunlight. Everyone suffers. No one complains. This is Africa too.
For us, it’s a unique trip. The majestic nature in the world’s largest rift valley. But not only that. We will ride from village to village as ordinary passengers, bearing silent witness to tribal life as it may have existed in the Stone Age….
It cannot be described. So overwhelming. Children walk naked and are absorbed into that colourful nature. The graceful, also almost naked bodies of young men and women were created by the ‘Sculptor’, even greater than the most famous sculptor Rodin. The bodies of older men and women are also making me quiet. I look at an older woman and see a sculpture from the Musée Rodin in Paris (she who was the helmet-maker’s beautiful wife) before me. Very skinny. She has had many children. Her breasts and belly show this life’s work. In our western culture, we call this a sagging, worn-out body and you try to camouflage it a bit. Here, you can be proud of such a body, and the woman also radiates this. I think she’s very handsome. You could cherish her wrinkled face in your two hands, because this body also shows you how hard life is here. The young woman next to her has not yet had any children. She is a real beauty. The taut skin around the perfect body shape radiates youth and vitality. The ‘Master Sculptor’….
Then Lake Turkana looms, the cradle of humanity.
7
25 April 2007, Abri, northern Sudan
During one of the last bus stops, we witness a heart breaking scene. A dozen women take their seats on our bus. They may be leaving for a very long time. Heart breaking sobbing. Half the neighbourhood is gathered. As we drive away, the sobbing turns into heartrending crying of grief. The typical high-pitched guttural sound with rattling tongue is emitted. Panic! An inferno! How bad. With screeching tyres we dash away and we also sympathise a little. We almost dare not look up at all this human suffering…
8
We say goodbye to the family. Hira leads us around the Muslim quarter where many houses have looms for silk. Manual work is a Muslim speciality. The selling is done by Hindus. We end up also at the sales department as usual. And… Hira will also get his percentage. We are carried back and agree to meet again in three months. Hira wants us to join his family for dinner then. We gladly agree and promise to have a picture of his family printed in Belgium.
9
9 February 2007, Varanasi, India (3 months later)
We saw Hira briefly, yesterday. He doesn’t have the money. Actually, we’d like to give him the 4,500 rupees ($50), yet something is wringing. He is already waiting for us, and without thinking, it can’t resist saying:
– I don’t want you to take us around everywhere for several days for free. We’re happy to pay you for that, but you also have to keep your promise. Can you repay the borrowed 4,500 rupees?
Hira looks at me deeply unhappy.
10
February 10, 2019, Dhaka, Bangladesh
I have a persistent habit. Since I can find my way with a smartphone, I put a point on the map blindfolded. I drive there by public transport, and then I walk criss-cross back to encounter the unexpected. I am now in the small streets of Old Dhaka. A true maze.
11
Here, partly on the streets, all sorts of things are manufactured. I have always greatly admired crafts and keep my eyes open: welding bicycle frames, making furniture, weaving carpets and clothes… I arrive at a small mosque and want to take a look inside, but the mosque is closed. Four young men shout rather aggressively:
– Hey, what are you going to do in our mosque?
12
23 April 2007, ferry Aswan (Egypt) – Wadi Halfa (Sudan)
Christine gets to sit on the mat next to two Sudanese women. They are having fun and exude great independence. Christine:
– Why don’t you wear a hijab?
– Oh, this is just for pictures or official things. Not really mandatory in Sudan. Is this your husband?
13
11 January 2007, Jakarta, Indonesia
The old harbour district. There is no metro here, so we take the ‘economy-train’. Which is to say: almost free, overcrowded, dirty, but real. Don’t miss a ride like this. People want to sell you everything, beggars pass by, children crawl between your feet, the noise is unbearable. Doors are never closed. Too hot , and such an incredible ant nest. Perhaps someone regularly falls out of that train? Central Jakarta is… living with all of Belgium in Bruges together. I cannot possibly describe the chaos here. The many canals to the sea are open sewers. People live in hovels at the edge of this stinking water.
