How Things Come Together is a collection, in three parts, of essays and occasional writings by Hanna Newcombe.

This introduction appears in the print edition as the first section of Volume 1, and is followed by Volume 1’s table of contents. There are also tables of contents for Volume 2 and Volume 3.

In these chapters, which started out as separate essays written at different times, sometimes prompted by something I read, I try to express my view of the world. It is gathered from science, religion, and mythology, sometimes deliberately mixing elements which many consider immiscible. I believe that science and religion should not merely coexist coolly and distantly as two solitudes, but come to share a warm embrace.

Linking passages were written to make transitions between chapter themes a little smoother. Also, cross-references are frequently made from one essay to another. This helps to make the whole into a “hypertext” (as on the Internet), and helps overcome the difficulty of deciding where to place each essay. To some extent this collection is “non-decomposable” into sections and chapters. The whole now fits together somewhat better, although contradictions may still be detected. This is unavoidable and real, since I am still forming my view of the world, and my conclusions have not yet jelled into a consistent whole. Perhaps they never will; I am a seeker, not a finder. Remember: these are essays, which means trial balloons floated in the knowledge-seekers’ skies — i.e. the noosphere.

This is not a philosophical system, because the various assertions are not always proved or substantiated (unless the authors I am quoting have done so), either from empirical data or from a systematic survey of philosophical writings. As well, much of it is based on metaphor or analogy, essentially poetic devices, rather than on hard facts or close reasoning. Poetry, too, has its place in the marriage of science and religion/mythology. Nevertheless, it is plausible as a scheme of how things might come together, whether it corresponds to reality (Truth) in all respects or not.

The scheme is highly personal. I have selected what is meaningful to me from what I have read or heard or thought. It is an attempted synthesis of wide-ranging thinkers’ conclusions, but the assembling of “how things come together” is mine alone.

The sequence of chapters may be somewhat jumbled, but I try to provide cross-references for readers who may wish to read the chapters in a different order.

I should explain the logic of the sequence. The essays begin with speculation about the nature of time and space, the basic framework of our universe. In these chapters, it is made clear that time is not what it seems to be, and especially that its nature changes radically in the state which is called “eternity”, to which we normally have no access while we are alive. But there may be occasional insights, both into the future and into a past we did not perceive.

There follows speculation about the contents of this space-time framework. It is certainly confusing that I have entitled the whole section “The Four Essences” and the first chapter under this heading The Three Essences. The reason is this: I am still vacillating between the three (matter, energy, information) and the four (matter, energy, information, and meaning). In fact, even the “Three Essences” essay enlarges on “meaning” to a considerable extent, without calling it a fourth essence. I am even wondering about the four; are they sufficient, or should. one also add “Mind” and “Spirit” as separate essences? It is all a matter of classification, for all these “essences” are ultimately inter-related, and it is only a question where one draws the dividing line between them. If we choose too few, the categories are too comprehensive and the distinctions grow unclear. If we choose too many, we lose the holistic feel of the universe as a seamless unity.

In any case, the sequence of sections (see the table of contents for Volume 1) follow the logic of Six Essences: Matter, Energy, (here discussed together as representing the physical side of the universe), Information (as the first of the non-conserved essences), Meaning and its corollary Knowledge (logic, linguistic, and mathematics), Mind, and Spirit. There follows then a large section on Life, seen poetically as a “Love Union” of Matter, Mind, and Spirit. I am fascinated by the phenomena of Life, which is why I devote so much attention to it here.

The section on “Levels of Being” still belongs conceptually under the phenomena of Life, but it is separated out because of its length. I try to flesh out in more detail the levels that I see in the continuously intensifying Mind content of Living Matter. I also deal with the mysteries of sex and reproduction.

From a description of the “Essences”, however many there might be, I proceed to the dynamic time dimensions of Change. Here I see a definite pattern of Rise and Run, a series of alternating rapid changes and quiet plateaus, already discussed in the essay Religion for the Coming Age in the section on Spirit. There is also a pattern of cycles, appearing in a series of phenomena. The essay called The Key may not appeal to some readers, being based on a mathematical equation not fully explained here; but it is very meaningful to my way of thinking. The role of symmetry-breaking (bifurcation), contingency, and pruning is also explored.

The section on “Passages” is another view of time stages, put allegorically and symbolically in terms of astrology and other esoteric systems, without fully accepting their truth. claim (but keeping an open mind). This is perhaps an instance of applying poetic insights to the merger of science and religion. Amazingly, some of the symbolic systems fit together rather well, which may strengthen their claim to truth. However, sometimes I have a feeling of forcing them into a Bed of Procrustes. One essay, Pilgrim’s Progress, is put into a form of a story — again, applying poetic licence. A poetic form is also used to explain the Angel’s Staircase.

Fittingly, the attempt of perceiving How Things Come Together is reserved for the conclusion. However, I do not yet have a sense of closure, of a complete system or a finished edifice. In one of my old school texts, the introduction stated that some scientific accounts of a field have the feel of a growing structure still hidden by scaffolding, while in other fields we can describe a completed cathedral. My conclusion still has many elements of scaffolding in view.

If asked to pick out the main points in this whole book, I would choose the following:

1. Time as a dimension of Space.
2. A limited number of interrelated Essences.
3. The importance of only some being conserved.
4. The “windmill” model of the road to truth.
5. The Mind as a room with many doors.
6. The new science-based religion.
7. The origin and nature of Life.
8. Patterns: levels, rhythms, cycles, passages, bifurcations, mandalas.
9. The Great Wrap-around: God as Created and Creator.

Some minor points might also be noted:

1. Spectra, e.g. from the very small to the very large (in Macro-Micro Convergence); from the very hot to the very cold (in The Temperature Zoom).
2. Degrees and gradations in reality and in consciousness, e.g. Degrees of Reality, The Mirror World, Levels of Consciousness.
3. Alternative conceptions: e.g. of God (Between Deism and Taoism), of life after death (Thanatology), and of quantum theory.
4. Metaphoric representations, e.g. Psyche, the Kabbala Emanations, and Passages.

The total emerges as much more of a point of view than an integrated philosophical system. It is nevertheless an attempt at synthesis, from the viewpoint of a generalist rather than a specialist. It might therefore be very wide and comprehensive, but not very deep and penetrating.

Continue to Volume 1’s table of contents and reading notes >