2021/07/27

Chief Seattle - Wikipedia Chief Seattle's Speech

Chief Seattle - Wikipedia

Chief Seattle

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For other uses, see Chief Seattle (disambiguation).
"Sealth" redirects here. For the ferry, see MV Sealth. For the camp, see Camp Sealth.
Mr. Chief Seattle
Chief seattle.jpg
The only known photograph of Chief Seattle, taken in 1864
Suquamish & Duwamish leader
Personal details
Bornc. 1786[1]
Blake Island, Washington, New Spain
DiedJune 7, 1866 (aged 79–80)
Port Madison, Territory of Washington, U.S.
Resting placePort Madison, Washington, U.S.
Spouse(s)Ladaila, Owiyahl[2]
RelationsDoc Maynard
Children8, including Princess Angeline
ParentsSholeetsa (mother), Shweabe (father)[2]
Known fornamesake of Seattle, Washington, and his speech on the land treaty
Nickname(s)his parents were known to call him “Se-Se”

Chief Seattle (c. 1786 – June 7, 1866) was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief.[2] A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with "Doc" Maynard. The city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington, was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect of Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him.

The name Seattle is an Anglicization of the modern Duwamish conventional spelling Si'ahl, equivalent to the modern Lushootseed spelling siʔaɫ IPA: [ˈsiʔaːɬ]. He is also known as Sealth, Seattle, Seathl, or See-ahth.

Biography[edit source]

Chief Seattle's bust in the city of Seattle

Seattle's mother Sholeetsa was Dkhw'Duw'Absh (Duwamish) and his father Shweabe was chief of the Dkhw'Suqw'Absh (the Suquamish tribe).[2] Seattle was born some time between 1780 and 1786 on the Black River near Kent, Washington. One source cites his mother's name as Wood-sho-lit-sa.[3] The Duwamish tradition is that Seattle was born at his mother's village of stukw on the Black River, in what is now the city of Kent, Washington, and that Seattle grew up speaking both the Duwamish and Suquamish dialects of Lushootseed. Because Native descent among the Salish peoples was not solely patrilineal, Seattle inherited his position as chief of the Duwamish Tribe from his maternal uncle.[2]

Seattle earned his reputation at a young age as a leader and a warrior, ambushing and defeating groups of tribal enemy raiders coming up the Green River from the Cascade foothills. In 1847, he helped lead a Suquamish attack upon the Chimakum people near Port Townsend, which effectively wiped out the Chimakum.[4][5]

Like many of his contemporaries, he owned slaves captured during his raids.[6][7] He was tall and broad, standing nearly six feet (1.8 m) tall; Hudson's Bay Company traders gave him the nickname Le Gros (The Big Guy). He was also known as an orator; and when he addressed an audience, his voice is said to have carried from his camp to the Stevens Hotel at First and Marion, a distance of 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km).[3]

Chief Seattle took wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). His first wife La-Dalia died after bearing a daughter. He had three sons and four daughters with his second wife, Olahl.[3] The most famous of his children was his first, Kikisoblu or Princess Angeline. Seattle was converted to Christianity by French missionaries, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, with the baptismal name Noah, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington.[4]

For all his skill, Seattle was gradually losing ground to the more powerful Patkanim of the Snohomish when white settlers started showing up in force around 1850. (In later years, Seattle claimed to have seen the ships of the Vancouver Expedition as they explored Puget Sound in 1792.) When his people were driven from their traditional clamming grounds, Seattle met Doc Maynard in Olympia; they formed a friendly relationship useful to both. Persuading the settlers at the white settlement of Duwamps to rename their town Seattle, Maynard established their support for Chief Seattle's people and negotiated relatively peaceful relations with the tribes.

Seattle kept his people out of the Battle of Seattle in 1856. Afterwards, he was unwilling to lead his tribe to the reservation established, since mixing Duwamish and Snohomish was likely to lead to bloodshed. Maynard persuaded the government of the necessity of allowing Seattle to remove to his father's longhouse on Agate Passage, 'Old Man House' or Tsu-suc-cub. Seattle frequented the town named after him, and had his photograph taken by E. M. Sammis in 1865.[3] He died June 7, 1866, on the Suquamish reservation at Port Madison, Washington.[8]

The speech or "letter"[edit source]

See Chief Seattle's letter.

The speech or "letter" attributed to Chief Seattle has been widely cited as a "powerful, bittersweet plea for respect of Native American rights and environmental values".[9] But this document, which has achieved widespread fame thanks to its promotion in the environmental movement, is of doubtful authenticity.

Angeline, daughter of Chief Seattle, ca. 1893
B-17 "Chief Seattle"

Legacy[edit source]

Statue of Chief Seattle, 1908 by James When, Tilikum Place, Seattle, Washington. The statue is on the National Register of Historic Places.
  • Seattle's grave site is at the Suquamish Tribal Cemetery.[10]
  • In 1890, a group of Seattle pioneers led by Arthur Armstrong Denny set up a monument over his grave, with the inscription "SEATTLE Chief of the Suqampsh and Allied Tribes, Died June 7, 1866. The Firm Friend of the Whites, and for Him the City of Seattle was Named by Its Founders" On the reverse is the inscription "Baptismal name, Noah Sealth, Age probably 80 years."[3] The site was restored and a native sculpture added in 1976 and again in 2011.
  • Soundgarden, a Seattle rock band, covered the Black Sabbath song, "Into the Void" replacing the lyrics with the words from Chief Seattle's speech.
  • The Suquamish Tribe honors Chief Seattle every year in the third week of August at "Chief Seattle Days".
  • The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commemorates the life of Seattle on June 7 in its Calendar of Saints. The liturgical color for the day is white.
  • The city of Seattle, and numerous related features, are named after Seattle.
  • A B-17E Flying Fortress, SN# 41-2656 named Chief Seattle, a so-called "presentation aircraft", was funded by bonds purchased by the citizens of Seattle. Flying with the 435th Bombardment Squadron out of Port Moresby, it was lost with its 10-man crew on August 14, 1942.[11][12]
  • The Chief Sealth Trail in southern Seattle is named after Chief Seattle.[13]

See also[edit source]

Chief Seattle's gravesite on the Port Madison Indian Reservation in Suquamish, Washington
Closeup of Chief Seattle's tombstone in Suquamish, Washington
Chief Seattle's grave updated photo after new landscaping

Notes[edit source]

  1. ^ "Chief Seattle | The Suquamish Tribe". Archived from the original on 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e "Chief Si'ahl and His Family". Culture and History. Duwamish Tribe. Archived from the original on 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e *Emily Inez Denny (1899). Blazing the Way(reprinted 1984 ed.). Seattle Historical Society.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b Buerge, David M. "Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph: From Indians to Icons". University of Washington. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  5. ^ "History". Quieute Nation. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  6. ^ Buerge, David M. "Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph: From Indians to Icons". University of Washington. Despite an attribution of slavery in his lineage, Seattle's noble status was affirmed by his reception of Thunderbird power from an important supernatural wealth-giver during a vision quest held sometime during his youth. He married well, taking wives from the important village of Tola'ltu on the western shore of Elliott Bay. His first wife died after bearing a daughter, but a second bore him sons and daughters, and he owned slaves, always a sign of wealth and status
  7. ^ David M. Buerge (2017) Chief Seattle and the Town That Took His Name: The Change of Worlds for the Native People and Settlers on Puget Sound page 55, 60-61 ISBN 978-1632171351
  8. ^ Gifford, Eli (2015). The Many Speeches of Chief Seattle (Seathl): The Manipulation of the Record on Behalf of Religious Political and Environmental Causes. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-1-5187-4949-0.
  9. ^ "Suquamish Culture". Suquamish Tribe. Retrieved July 1, 2007.
  10. ^ Salecker, Gene E.; Salecker, E. (9 October 2007). "Chief Seattle" and Crew. ISBN 9780306817151. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
  11. ^ *Gene Eric Salecker (2001). Fortress Against the Sun bob. Da Capo Press. 978-1580970495.
  12. ^ "Chief Sealth Trail". Retrieved February 12, 2012.

Additional references[edit source]

External links[edit source]



Chief Seattle's Speech


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Chief Seattle's Speech (1887)
by Chief Seattle, translated by Henry A. Smith

There is controversy about this speech by Sealth concerning the concession of native lands to the settlers.

Even the date and location of the speech has been disputed, but the most common version is that on March 11, 1854, Seattle gave a speech at a large outdoor gathering in Seattle. The meeting had been called by Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens to discuss the surrender or sale of native land to white settlers. Doc Maynard introduced Stevens, who then briefly explained his mission, which was already well understood by all present.

Seattle then rose to speak. He rested his hand upon the head of the much smaller Stevens, and declaimed with great dignity for an extended period. No one alive today knows what he said; he spoke in the Lushootseed language, and someone translated his words into Chinook Indian trade language, and a third person translated that into English.

Some years later, Dr. Henry A. Smith wrote down an English version of the speech, based on Smith's notes. It was a flowery text in which Sealth purportedly thanked the white people for their generosity, demanded that any treaty guarantee access to Native burial grounds, and made a contrast between the God of the white people and that of his own. Smith noted that he had recorded "...but a fragment of his [Sealth's] speech". Recent scholarship questions the authenticity of Smith's supposed translation — Excerpted from Chief Seattle on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This edition in English published as "Early Reminiscences. Number Ten. Scraps From a Diary. Chief Seattle – A Gentleman by Instinct – His Native Eloquence. Etc., Etc." Seattle Sunday Star, October 29, 1887, p. 3.




(Introduction of the original Seattle Sunday Star article)

Old Chief Seattle was the largest Indian I ever saw, and by far the noblest-looking. He stood 6 feet full in his moccasins, was broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and finely proportioned. His eyes were large, intelligent, expressive and friendly when in repose, and faithfully mirrored the varying moods of the great soul that looked through them. He was usually solemn, silent, and dignified, but on great occasions moved among assembled multitudes like a Titan among Lilliputians, and his lightest word was law.

When rising to speak in council or to tender advice, all eyes were turned upon him, and deep-toned, sonorous, and eloquent sentences rolled from his lips like the ceaseless thunders of cataracts flowing from exhaustless fountains, and his magnificent bearing was as noble as that of the most cultivated military chieftain in command of the forces of a continent. Neither his eloquence, his dignity, or his grace were acquired. They were as native to his manhood as leaves and blossoms are to a flowering almond.

His influence was marvelous. He might have been an emperor but all his instincts were democratic, and he ruled his loyal subjects with kindness and paternal benignity. He was always flattered by marked attention from white men, and never so much as when seated at their tables, and on such occasions he manifested more than anywhere else the genuine instincts of a gentleman.

When Governor Stevens first arrived in Seattle and told the natives he had been appointed commissioner of Indian affairs for Washington Territory, they gave him a demonstrative reception in front of Dr. Maynard's office, near the waterfront on Main Street. The bay swarmed with canoes and the shore was lined with a living mass of swaying, writhing, dusky humanity, until old Chief Seattle's trumpet-toned voice rolled over the immense multitude, like the startling reveille of a bass drum, when silence became as instantaneous and perfect as that which follows a clap of thunder from a clear sky.

The governor was then introduced to the native multitude by Dr. Maynard, and at once commenced, in a conversational, plain, and straightforward style, an explanation of his mission among them, which is too well understood to require recapitulation. When he sat down, Chief Seattle arose with all the dignity of a senator who carries the responsibilities of a great nation on his shoulders. Placing one hand on the governor's head, and slowly pointing heavenward with the index finger of the other, he commenced his memorable address in solemn and impressive tones.

(Chief Seattle's speech)

"Yonder sky has wept tears of compassion on our fathers for centuries untold, and which, to us, looks eternal, may change. Today it is fair, tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never set. What Seattle says, the great chief, Washington [1], can rely upon, with as much certainty as our pale-face brothers can rely upon the return of the seasons. The son of the white chief says his father sends us greetings of friendship and good will. This is kind, for we know he has little need of our friendship in return, because his people are many. They are like the grass that covers the vast prairies, while my people are few, and resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume also good, white chief sends us word that he wants to buy our lands but is willing to allow us to reserve enough to live on comfortably. This indeed appears generous, for the red man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, for we are no longer in need of a great country.

"There was a time when our people covered the whole land, as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor. But that time has long since passed away with the greatness of tribes now almost forgotten. I will not mourn over our untimely decay, nor reproach my pale-face brothers for hastening it, for we, too, may have been somewhat to blame.

"When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, their hearts, also, are disfigured and turn black, and then their cruelty is relentless and knows no bounds, and our old men are not able to restrain them. But let us hope that hostilities between the red-man and his pale-face brothers may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. True it is, that revenge, with our young braves, is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and old women, who have sons to lose, know better.

"Our great father Washington, for I presume he is now our father as well as yours, since George has moved his boundaries to the north; our great and good father, I say, sends us word by his son, who, no doubt, is a great chief among his people, that if we do as he desires, he will protect us. His brave armies will be to us a bristling wall of strength, and his great ships of war will fill our harbors so that our ancient enemies far to the northward, the Simsiams and Hydas, will no longer frighten our women and old men. Then will he be our father and we will be his children.

"But can this ever be? Your God loves your people and hates mine; he folds his strong arms lovingly around the white man and leads him as a father leads his infant son, but he has forsaken his red children; he makes your people wax strong every day, and soon they will fill all the land; while my people are ebbing away like a fast-receding tide, that will never flow again. The white man's God cannot love his red children or he would protect them. They seem to be orphans and can look nowhere for help. How then can we become brothers? How can your father become our father and bring us prosperity and awaken in us dreams of returning greatness? Your God seems to us to be partial. He came to the white man. We never saw Him; never even heard His voice. He gave the white man laws, but He had no word for His red children whose teeming millions filled this vast continent as the stars fill the firmament. No, we are two distinct races and must ever remain so. There is little in common between us.

"The ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their final resting place is hallowed ground, while you wander away from the tombs of your fathers seemingly without regret. Your religion was written on tablets of stone by the iron finger of an angry God, lest you might forget it. The red man could never remember nor comprehend it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors, the dreams of our old men, given them by the great Spirit, and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people. Your dead cease to love you and the homes of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb. They wander far off beyond the stars, are soon forgotten, and never return. Our dead never forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its winding rivers, its great mountains and its sequestered vales, and they ever yearn in tenderest affection over the lonely hearted living and often return to visit and comfort them. Day and night cannot dwell together. The red man has ever fled the approach of the white man, as the changing mists on the mountain side flee before the blazing morning sun. However, your proposition seems a just one, and I think that my folks will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them, and we will dwell apart in peace, for the words of the great white chief seem to be the voice of nature speaking to my people out of the thick darkness that is fast gathering around them like a dense fog floating inward from a midnight sea.

"It matters but little where we pass the remainder of our days. They are not many. The Indian's night promises to be dark. No bright star hovers about the horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Some grim Nemesis of our race is on the red man's trail, and wherever he goes he will still hear the sure approaching footsteps of the fell destroyer and prepare to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter.

"A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of all the mighty hosts that once filled this broad land or that now roam in fragmentary bands through these vast solitudes will remain to weep over the tombs of a people once as powerful and as hopeful as your own. But why should we repine? Why should I murmur at the fate of my people? Tribes are made up of individuals and are no better than they. Men come and go like the waves of the sea. A tear, a tamanamus, a dirge, and they are gone from our longing eyes forever. Even the white man, whose God walked and talked with him, as friend to friend, is not exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers, after all. We shall see.

"We will ponder your proposition, and when we have decided we will tell you. But should we accept it, I here and now make this the first condition: That we will not be denied the privilege, without molestation, of visiting at will the graves of our ancestors and friends. Every part of this country is sacred to my people. Every hill-side, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed by some fond memory or some sad experience of my tribe. Even the rocks that seem to lie dumb as they swelter in the sun along the silent seashore in solemn grandeur thrill with memories of past events connected with the fate of my people, and the very dust under your feet responds more lovingly to our footsteps than to yours, because it is the ashes of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch, for the soil is rich with the life of our kindred. The noble braves, and fond mothers, and glad-hearted maidens, and the little children who lived and rejoiced here, and whose very names are now forgotten, still love these solitudes, and their deep fastnesses at eventide grow shadowy with the presence of dusky spirits. And when the last red man shall have perished from the earth and his memory among white men shall have become a myth, these shores shall swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway or in the silence of the woods they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night, when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not altogether powerless."

(Conclusion of the original Seattle Sunday Star article)

Other speakers followed, but I took no notes. Governor Stevens' reply was brief. He merely promised to meet them in general council on some future occasion to discuss the proposed treaty. Chief Seattle's promise to adhere to the treaty, should one be ratified, was observed to the letter, for he was ever the unswerving and faithful friend of the white man. The above is but a fragment of his speech, and lacks all the charm lent by the grace and earnestness of the sable old orator, and the occasion.

H.A. Smith.

Notes

[1] The Indians in early times thought that Washington was still alive. They knew the name to be that of a president, and when they heard of the president at Washington they mistook the name of the city for the name of the reigning chief. They thought, too, that King George was still England's monarch, because the Hudson Bay traders called themselves "King George's Men." This innocent deception the company was shrewd enough not to explain away, for the Indians had more respect for them than they would have had, had they known England was ruled by a woman.




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You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters: Chopra M.D., Deepak, Kafatos Ph.D., Menas C.: 9780307889164: Amazon.com: Books

You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters: Chopra M.D., Deepak, Kafatos Ph.D., Menas C.: 9780307889164: Amazon.com: Books



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by Deepak Chopra M.D. (Author), Menas C. Kafatos Ph.D. (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars    1,129 ratings

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Editorial Reviews
Review
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“You are the Universe, brings the usual gracious clarity of all of Deepak Chopra's writings together with the insights of physicist Menas Kafatos to elucidate the most profound and pressing questions at the frontiers of contemporary science.  Weaving Dr. Chopra's expertise regarding biological systems with Prof. Kafatos' work in quantum physics, geophysics, and cosmology, they illuminate the realms where all the most successful contemporary sciences come to the edge of what can be explained with the vital lights from their own life times of deep spiritual practice.  The result is no clash of competing perspectives, but a rich, synergistic tapestry of great wisdom, beauty, and comfort for our culture.  As such, You Are The Universe is their great and generous gift to each of us.” —Neil Theise, MD, Professor of Pathology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai


About the Author
Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and Jiyo, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, Researcher, Neurology and Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. The World Post and The Huffington Post global internet survey ranked Chopra #17 influential thinker in the world and #1 in Medicine. Chopra is the author of more than 85 books translated into over 43 languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as "one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

Menas Kafatos is The Fletcher Jones Endowed Professor of Computational Physics at Chapman University, author of more than 320 refereed articles and fifteen books. He received his B.A. in Physics from Cornell University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. He is the Founding Dean of the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University, serving as dean in 2009-2012. He directs the Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations.
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chapter 1

What Came Before the Big Bang?

Though time and space had started to curve like a sagging clothesline, there wasn’t wholesale panic in physics, because the chance that the line might snap apart didn’t quite exist yet (black holes, which snap space and time, were brought into the picture later on). Brilliant equations are devised to keep reality intact, so the very fact that the mathematics was so arcane kept some very disturbing ideas away from the general public. But this all changed with the advent of the big bang theory. In one stroke, time snapped in two. There was time as we know it, which arrived on the scene with the big bang, and there was something else—­weird time, pre-­time, no time?—­that existed outside our universe.

Following Einstein’s lead, let’s see if we can visualize reality outside our universe. For the sake of convenience, we’ll put the riddle this way: “What came before the big bang?” There’s no better way to visualize the problem than stepping into an imaginary time machine that’s whisking us back some 13.7 billion years. As we get close to the unimaginable explosion that began this universe’s creation, our time machine is exposed to extreme danger. It took thousands of years for the infant universe, which was superheated, to cool down enough for the first atoms to coalesce. But since our time machine is imaginary to begin with, we can imagine it coasting through superheated space without melting or flying apart into subatomic particles.

Getting within a few seconds of the big bang, we feel we’re nearing the goal. “Seconds” means that time exists, and now the only challenge is to shave seconds down to millionths, billionths, and trillionths of a second. The human brain doesn’t operate at such fine scales, but let’s assume we have an onboard computer that can translate trillionths of a second into human terms. Eventually we arrive at the smallest unit of time (and space) that it is possible to imagine. William Blake’s famous lines of verse, “Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour,” is coming true, although an hour is much, much too long. At this point, when the scale of the cosmos was infinitesimally tiny, our onboard computer goes haywire and unexpectedly, nothing can compute.

Our whole frame of reference has dissolved. There is no matter or energy, just a swirling chaos, and within this chaos there are no rules of the kind we call the laws of nature. Without rules, time itself falls apart. The captain of our time machine turns to the passengers to tell them how bad the situation is, but unfortunately, he can’t, for several reasons. As time collapses, so do concepts like “before” and “after.” To the captain, we no longer left earth at a certain time and arrived later at the big bang. Events are all gummed together in an unimaginable way. The passengers can’t cry, “Let me out of here,” either, because space has also dissolved, rendering “in” and “out” useless concepts.

This breakdown at the very threshold of creation is real, even if our time machine isn’t. No matter how hard you work at it, regardless of how fine the slivers of time you shave, the threshold cannot be crossed—­not by ordinary means, because, you see, the big bang “occurred everywhere,” so it was not somewhere to where we could travel.

We are left with two options. Either “What came before the big bang?” is an impossible question to answer, or else extraordinary means must be discovered that could possibly reveal an answer. One thing is certain, however: the origin of time and space didn’t happen in time and space. It happened somewhere extraordinary, which, luckily for us, means that extraordinary answers aren’t out of place—­they are demanded. With that in mind, let the cosmic riddling begin.

Grasping the mystery

“Before” and “after” are concepts that make sense only within the framework of space-­time. You were born before you could walk; you will reach old age after middle age. The same isn’t true of the birth of the universe. It has been widely theorized that time and space emerged with the big bang. If that’s true—­and it’s only one possibility, not a fixed assumption—­then the real question is “What came before time began?” Is that any better than the first way of putting it?

No. “Before time began” is a self-­contradiction, like saying “when sugar wasn’t sweet.” We are squarely in the realm of impossible questions, but that’s no reason to give up in advance. Quantum physics took to heart a conversation between Alice and the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-­Glass. After Alice announces that she is seven and a half years old, the Queen retorts that she is a hundred and one, five months, and a day.

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Quantum behavior forces us to be even more tolerant of impossible things. There is nothing ordinary about the conditions at the time of the big bang. To grasp them, some cherished beliefs must be challenged and then cast aside. First, one must realize that the big bang wasn’t the beginning of the universe but of the current universe. Ignoring for now whether the current universe was created from another universe, physics can’t actually trace the cosmos back to the absolute beginning. Taking measurements only works when you have something to measure, and in the very beginning there was an infinitesimal sliver of something, without order of any kind: no objects, no space-­time continuum, no laws of nature. In other words, pure chaos. In this unimaginable state, all the matter and energy harnessed in hundreds of billions of galaxies was compressed. Within a fraction of a second, expansion accelerated with inconceivable speed. Inflation lasted between 10-­36 (1/1 followed by 36 zeros) to about 10-­32 seconds. By the time inflation ended, the universe had increased its size by a staggering factor of 1026, while it cooled down by a factor of 100,000 times or so. A commonly accepted (but by no means definitive) scenario maps the birthing process as follows:

•10-­43 seconds—­The big bang.

•10-­36 seconds—­The universe undergoes a rapid expansion (known as cosmic inflation), under superheated conditions, enlarging from the size of an atom to the size of a grapefruit. There are no atoms in existence, however, or any light. In a state of near chaos, the constants and the laws of nature are thought to be in flux.

•10-­32 seconds—­Still unimaginably hot, the universe boils with electrons, quarks, and other particles. The previous rapid inflation decreases, or takes a pause, for reasons not fully understood.

•10-­6 seconds—­Having cooled dramatically, the infant universe now gives rise to protons and neutrons that are formed from groups of quarks.

•3 minutes—­Charged particles exist but no atoms yet, and light cannot escape the dark fog that the universe has become.

•300,000 years—­The cooling process has reached a state where atoms of hydrogen and helium begin to form out of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Light can now escape, and how far it travels will determine from this point onward the outer edge (the event horizon) of the visible universe.

•1 billion years—­Through the attraction of gravity, hydrogen and helium coalesce into clouds that will give rise to stars and galaxies.

This time line follows the momentum produced by the big bang, which was sufficient, even when the universe was the size of a single atom, to produce the billions of galaxies visible today. They continue to be driven apart by the force of the initial unimaginable expansion. Many complex events have occurred since the beginning (whole books are devoted to describing just the first three minutes of creation), but for our purposes, it’s enough to view the rough outline.

Because we can all envision how a stick of dynamite or a volcano explodes, the big bang seems to fit our commonsense view of reality. But our grasp of what happened is fragile. In fact, the first seconds of creation call into question almost everything we perceive about time, space, matter, and energy. The great mystery about the emergence of our universe is how something was created out of nothing, and no one can truly comprehend how this occurred. On the one hand, “the nothing” is unreachable by any form of observation. On the other hand, the initial chaos of the infant universe is a totally alien state, being devoid of atoms, light, and perhaps even the four basic forces of nature.

This whole mystery can’t be avoided, because the same birthing process continues, right this minute and all the time, at the subatomic level. Genesis is now. The subatomic particles that the cosmos is built upon wink in and out of existence continually. Like a cosmic on/off switch, there is a mechanism that turns nothing (the so-­called vacuum state) into a teeming ocean of physical objects. Our commonsense view of reality sees the stars floating in a cold, empty void. In actuality, however, the void is rich with creative possibilities, which we see playing out all around us.

Already the argument feels like it’s getting abstract, ready to float away like a helium balloon. We don’t want that to happen. Every cosmic mystery has a human face. Imagine that you are sitting outside in a lawn chair on a summer day. A warm breeze makes you drowsy, and your mind is filled with half-­seen images and half-­realized thoughts. Suddenly someone asks, “What do you want for dinner?” You open your eyes and answer, ­“Lasagna.” In this little scenario the mystery of the big bang is encapsulated. Your mind is capable of being empty, a blank. Chaotic images and thoughts roam across it. But when you are asked a question and make a reply, this emptiness comes to life. Out of infinite possibilities, you pick a single thought, and it forms in your mind of its own accord.

This last part is crucial. When you say “lasagna”—­or any other word—­you don’t build it up from something smaller. You don’t construct it at all; it just comes to you. For example, words can be broken down into letters, the way matter can be broken down into atoms. But of course, this isn’t a true description of the creative process. All creation brings something out of nothing. It’s humbling to realize that even as we feel comfortable being creators, immersed in infinite words and thoughts, we have no idea where they come from. Do you know your next thought? Even Einstein looked upon his most brilliant thoughts as happy accidents. The point is that creating something out of nothing is a human process, not a faraway cosmic event.

The transition of nothing into something always achieves the same result: a possibility becomes actual. Physics dehumanizes the process and does so with incredible precision. In unimaginably small scales of time, vibrations of quanta come out of emptiness and quickly merge back into emptiness, but this quantum on/off cycle is totally invisible to us. The rules governing physical creation must be deduced. You can’t apply a stethoscope to the outside of the Superdome in order to discover the rules of football, and that’s essentially what cosmology is doing, in attempting to explain the origin of the universe. Logical deduction is a great tool, but this may be a case in which it creates as many problems as it solves.

A baffling beginning

There’s little doubt that the objects in space didn’t exist before the big bang. But did space and time (technically, the space-­time continuum) also emerge with them? The standard reply is yes. If there were once no objects, there was no space or time, either. So what was the pre-­created state like? It didn’t have an inside or outside, which are properties of space. As the infant universe expanded, it wasn’t expanding with anything around it, and now, while billions of galaxies operate in outer space, the universe isn’t like a balloon with a skin. Here again, the concepts of before and after, inside and outside simply don’t apply.

Are we left with anything to hold on to? Barely. “To exist” suggests the possibility that even without time and space, things might happen. Here’s a useful analogy. Imagine that you are sitting in a room where you notice that objects are moving slightly: the milk in your cereal bowl is jiggling, and you can feel a vibration coming up through the floor.

As it happens, you are deaf, so you have no way of knowing if something is pounding on the walls of the room from the outside. (Some people might be sensitive enough to feel a vibration in their bodies—­let’s leave this aside.) But you can measure the waves in your cereal bowl and the vibrations of other objects, including the floor, ceiling, and walls. This is roughly how cosmologists confront the big bang. The universe is full of vibrations and waves emitted billions of years ago. These can be measured and inferences drawn from them. But uneasiness appears if we ask a simple question: Can someone who is deaf from birth actually know what sound is? Though there are measurable vibrations associated with sound, feeling them is not the same experience as hearing a solo violin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, or a dynamite explosion.

In the same way, measuring the light from racing galaxies and the background microwave radiation in the current universe (this radiation is a residue of the big bang) doesn’t tell us what the beginning of the universe was like—­we are working from inferences, just like a deaf person observing waves in his cereal bowl, and this limitation could be a fatal flaw in any explanation of where the universe came from.

We can still try, from our standpoint here in our space-­time, to explore laws of nature that operate outside space and time. In particular, physics can resort to the language of mathematics in the hopes that its existence doesn’t depend on which universe you happen to live in. Most of the speculation that follows keeps faith with mathematics as something eternally valid. Even in an alien universe, where time goes backward and people walk on the ceiling, if you add one apple to another apple, the sum is two apples, right?

However, no one has ever proved that this faith is actually valid. The mathematics that’s applicable to black holes, for example, is locked in speculation, because a black hole is totally impenetrable. Mathematics could be the product of the human brain. Take the number zero. It hasn’t always been around. By 1747 BCE, the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians had a written symbol for zero as a concept, but it wasn’t used as a number for calculating purposes until around AD 800, in India, long past the heyday of Greek and Roman culture.


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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harmony; First Edition (February 7, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
Deepak Chopra
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Biography
DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Dr. Chopra is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. He serves as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and hosts the podcast Daily Breath.The World Post and The Huffington Post global internet survey ranked “Chopra #17 influential thinker in the world and #1 in Medicine.”

He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his book, Total Meditation (Harmony Book, September 22, 2020) will help to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

www.choprafoundation.org
www.deepakchopra.com
www.chopra.com
https://apple.co/Daily Breath
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Johnny
1.0 out of 5 stars Not convincing
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2019
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I found very little evidence in this book that would convince a skeptic that its claims are true. Nothing was said about experimental violations of Bell's inequality in the 1980s, proving local objectivity does not exist, or the more recent experiments based on the Wigner's friend paradox, which go even further by proving non-local objectivity doesn't exist either. Highlighting the consequences those experiments would have provided some very powerful evidence pointing to consciousness-based reality. (Hint: reality is either objective or subjective, so if those experiments proved reality isn't objective, then it must be subjective.) But Instead of using solid experimental evidence, the authors relied on a lot of hand waving and worn-out anthropic arguments; e.g., the universe seems tailor-made for humans, therefore humans must have tailored it.

There are numerous scientific errors scattered throughout the book. One glaring example concerns gravity. The first chapter correctly notes that the key to understanding general relativity is to realize that gravity is not a "force." (Gravity defines geodesic paths through space-time, and the only way a "force" arises from gravity is by preventing an object possessing mass from following a geodesic path defined by gravity.) And yet immediately after the statement that gravity isn't a force, gravity is described in the same chapter as "one of the four forces of nature" (a common refrain found in the popular-science literary genre). The book goes further down this rabbit hole by lamenting that theoretical physicists have failed thus far to unify gravity with the other three forces. (Hint: if gravity isn't a force, then how could anyone "unify" it with "other" forces?)

The list of scientific errors and false assumptions goes on and on. Concerning the big bang, the authors assume this was an event of utter chaos and maximum disorder. How do they know this? Where is their evidence? If there truly was a "Big Bang" event, it could not have been like a huge July Fourth fireworks explosion. Logic dictates the initial stages of universal expansion had to be incredibly smooth and orderly, which points to an initial state of zero or near-zero entropy. Because otherwise, how could entropy have continually increased over the past 14 billion years or so from an initial state that was already maximally disorganized and chaotic?

Other common fallacies found in popular-science literature were regurgitated throughout this book. As those fallacies mounted up and the resulting paradoxes became untenable, the authors immediately jumped to the conclusion that since the prevailing physicalist paradigm can't properly account for reality, then humans must account for it. In other words, if A can't explain it, then it must be B. The problem with that argument in this case is that A and B aren't collectively exhaustive, so it's possible neither of them are true.

Despite the fact that both Idealism and Non-Dualism may be legitimate, this book is not at all convincing, and it needs to go much further in order to prove its case.
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George
5.0 out of 5 stars Arguing for a "Human Universe"
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2017
Here's a science book that is of urgent interest to non-scientists, because it can change the way we live by helping us change the paradigm with which we see the world. Throughout Deepak Chopra's career, he has believed that many aspects of everyday life need to be re-examined. He was proved right when he argued for the mind-body connection thirty years ago, at a time when mainstream medicine either rejected or ridiculed the idea that our thoughts influence our bodies.

Mainstream physicists might reject or ridicule the concept that our thoughts influence the cosmos, which is the main theme of this book, but the book was written with physics professor Menas Kafatos, so the science is solid. You Are the Universe means what its title says. The reality we inhabit is shaped by our own experience, and if there is such a thing as another reality apart from our raw experience, we will never know it. And what would it even mean to say reality can be independent of experience? Such a radical thesis puts the physics establishment on notice, using its own methods. The book outlines the key mysteries that physics hasn't solved, such as what came before the big bang, which is like asking what happened before the beginning of time. Chopra and Kafatos are bold enough to broach forbidden and politically incorrect questions like whether there is design of the universe (while strictly distancing themselves from any religious view, especially Intelligent Design).

What surprised me is how deep the unsolved mysteries go and how credible a human universe actually is. In the tradition of quantum physics, as the authors point out, physical reality was radically revised, and some of the pioneers of quantum physics seriously doubted the things we take for granted about existence--matter, energy, space, and time--are even remotely like what our common-sense ideas of them are. Solid physical objects, for example, turn into clouds of energy at the quantum level before dissolving into probability waves and finally vanishing into the quantum void. The fact that the universe was born out of nothing--the quantum vacuum--opens the way for describing the pre-created state in many ways.

Chopra and Kafatos touch on some of the current theories in physics as well. They point out that modern physics theories provide descriptions that are based on arcane mathematics, such as superstring theory, and which have almost zero empirical evidence to prove the case one way or the other. The same holds true for the fashionable multiverse theory, which theorizes trillions of alternate universes that will never be seen or measured. The authors argue that the pre-created state of existence is consciousness, the source of not only everything physical but everything mental as well. While the idea of a conscious universe may not be new, even among some highly-respected cosmologists, but I don’t believe the case has been made anywhere else so thoroughly and so closely directed at personal transformation.

Despite the presence of Chopra's name, this isn't a spiritual book. It is highly readable pop science that exposes the hidden presumptions behind subject-object based knowledge, so that the role and presence of consciousness is recognized for what it is. The authors conclude with a plea for a new paradigm based on this reality that can save the planet and open the door to the next step in human evolution. Higher consciousness won't become widespread, they say, until we absorb a deep yet simple truth. Everything in creation is an activity in consciousness, and we humans sit at the center of a universe tailored to our awareness. We are thus co-creators of our own reality, at this very moment. It's an inspiring and an empowering message, that feels more relevant and urgent than ever.
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Cynthia Vero Beach
2.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Chopra hit his peak with Quantum Healing and ...
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2017
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Dr. Chopra hit his peak with Quantum Healing and How to Know God. You Are the Universe goes on and on about scientific nonsense while really saying absolutely nothing. The entire book can be summarized as "You are the universe because you have consciousness." Disappointing. And yet, I keep reading. I recognize that Chopra is attempting to add new ways of thinking about science and metaphysics; there are sound points to ponder about energy, time, and eternity if you can get past the unnecessary detail.
38 people found this helpful
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Expressed Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a masterpiece ~ A spiritual and scientific journey into the reality of our own existence
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2017
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Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos have written a masterpiece in 'You Are the Universe.' This highly readable and infinitely intriguing book, offers a roadmap to our very existence. It combines spirituality with hard science, and addresses the pertinent questions about our very reason for being. What is our purpose, why are we here, what role do we play in the cosmos; these are important questions that are thoughtfully explored in this book. The material presented here is perhaps the most important and enlightening that you'll ever read.
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Mr D S Perkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Of Quarks & Qualia
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2017
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A Wonderful Book from Deepak Chopra whose back catalogue I must admit a bias in enjoying.
Many of Deepak's works have gone into variations and versioning of the Idea of Oneness and how modern Science and indeed ancient and mystic or even perceived as La-Di-Da Spirituality are often bringing peoples to forms of awareness / enlightenment in coming to similar conclusions.
In this work a further outlining is laid out for those following in such footsteps of seeking to identify the common ground and threads and indeed disputes between traditional science and alternate disciplines.
Most interesting for myself was the area of Consciousness and indeed Qualia laying out firmer foundations of how anyone can learn to make Subjective Reality work for themselves in an age where Science is Now perceived as a Religion in and of itself.
I should state that I LOVE OBJECTIVE SCIENCE for all the inanimate gadgets & technologies that have been developed, though as I have grown older I have developed something of an allergy to Objectivity within the realm of Humans, and in this I am seemingly in alignment or agreement with Deepak because he pretty much states conclusions that I myself have come to and in a highly accessible fashion for newcomers and fans alike.
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Neogoonhead
5.0 out of 5 stars And the Materialistic science is shown, limiting, describing, hollow!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2020
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This books achievement is exposing the limiting and narrow scope of science and moreover it's role in limiting thought and awareness.
I read a medical study of transcendental meditation (TM) it proved convincingly that the practise was the most effective solution to hypertension, outperforming chemical based drugs.
I asked a clinician why the medical industry wasn't promoting TM, he replied that "there no revenue stream to free solutions" QED

So, we build another particle accelerator and find what?

Some more gobbledygook that 0.00000000001% of humanity thinks about it and I suspect pretends to understand.

All these atheists looking for the God particle!
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michael powell
1.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a physics textbook
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2018
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Really disappointed in this. I quite like Chopra's work but this read like a text book from my psychics lessons at school. Great if you're into science but hard going if you're looking for spiritual inspiration. I'm not sure what to do with this copy. I've read 3 chapters and can't stand anymore so will probably donate it to the local library or charity shop....
4 people found this helpful
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Nawid Jamaly
5.0 out of 5 stars Life changer!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2020
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This book is a life changer. Simple, comforting and enjoyable to read. I cannot express enough how useful this book is. The teachings of this book are not only amazing but absolutely genius. Get this book, if you want to be happy, this is for you.
2 people found this helpful
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Eva
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2017
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Amazing book, easy to read, very well written and has a lot of depth to it. Looks at science from different perspectives and makes your brain think further into the field of science and spirituality. Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. In fact, I would read it again.
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