Miracle in the Void: Free Energy, UFOs and Other Scientific Revelations

This impassioned plea to let go the old physicalistic, competition- and greed-based paradigm if Earth is to be saved is by a former astronaut, a physicist who has taught at many prestigious universities. What he has to say is essential reading. It is heartening that many people whose books we review here are pointing out the disastrous outcomes resulting from the physicalistic paradigm and the need to replace it with a secular spirituality (which also includes religious approaches as one choice). O’Leary has something new to offer on both the "soft" and "hard" sides of the situation. On the physical side he offers the promise of free energy, which would solve the world’s energy crisis and free us of our biggest self-justification for greed and make building a true global village possible. I am not able to evaluate it, but it appears to be worth looking into, preferably by someone who is more moved by the All-Self than the ego-self. He points out that although we recognized the oil crisis back in the 1970s, since then we have done little about it except to increase our use of petroleum-based products, and we are being joined by countries who until now had largely depended on other types of fuel. On the soft side, he has the wisdom and brilliance to see that we are obviously in denial and if we don’t change, this blind course leads to planetary destruction. His insight is that we will not be able to cope with this situation until we grieve properly, going through each of Kubler-Ross’s stages. "We need to grieve the old cultural paradigm before we can [italics added] embrace the new" (p. 28). These two insights come together in a third realization: that is this collective denial that has prevented free energy from getting off the ground, for if energy were available for the asking, think how many people would lose their jobs? But as O’Leary also shows, this would not just be the end but a beginning on a worldwide scale. I would say it would enable us to take up the truly human calling of honoring all forms of life, including our own species, and being Earth’s steward. People would work in order to give and grow not to compete and cheat.

O’Leary has a gift of defeating the entrenched physicalistic paradigm in its own terms. I lack space to spell it out here, but he is well worth reading. He is an ideal guide in the sense that he has had to undergo himself what he urges others to undertake. Because he was in a high place of power within the old paradigm, he personally had much to give up and grieve for. The first half of the book, "Death of the Old Paradigm," devotes separate chapters to the five stages of the grieving process and applies them to Western culture: Denial and suppression, Anger, Bargaining, Depression. O’Leary not only makes it clear that we are asleep: he shows us how to wake up. Part II, "Resurrection in the New Paradigm," outlines the promising cultural changes that could follow if we do our grief work properly. The 5 chapter titles are: Acceptance and Forgiveness, Creativity, Enlightenment, Empowerment, and Transcendence. Like most good books dealing with the way out of the old paradigm O’Leary does not simply write objectively, as the old paradigm taught, but where relevant he intersperses vignettes from his personal life throughout the book. To me, this helps to validate his insights. There is an excellent glossary and helpful pointers to relevant information sources.