The Bubble Universe: Psychological Perspectives on Reality

This book examines the role that human subjective experience plays in the creation of reality and introduces a new concept, the Bubble Universe, to describe the universe as it looks from the subjective viewpoint of an individual. Drawing on a range of research, the author questions the extent to which the scientific study of the origins of life, consciousness and subjective experience is itself influenced by scientists’ subjective worlds.
The author argues that in many respects the Bubble Universe differs from the universe as described by science and religion, and analyzes these differences. The fabric and structure of subjective reality is described, and various aspects of the Bubble Universe are examined, including science, religion, life, morality and history. The differences between the views from inside the subjective universe and from scientific, religious and sociocultural versions of the universe are outlined, and their significance for practical and theoretical problems are highlighted and illustrated with psychological experiments. This book will be of value to all scholars interested in how subjectivity influences research and appeal in particular to those working in developmental and theoretical psychology, consciousness, epistemology, phenomenology, and the philosophy of science and of the mind.
Eugene Subbotsky is Reader Emeritus of Psychology at Lancaster University, UK, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS), and a BPS Charted Psychologist. His research focuses on moral development, children’s metaphysical reasoning, magical thinking and behavior over life span, human consciousness and cognition and he has conducted cross-cultural research in Russia, Germany, UK, USA and Mexico. He is the author of 14 books including, Science and Magic in the Modern World (2018), The Child as a Cartesian Thinker (2015), Magic and the Mind (2010),The Birth of Personality (1993) and Foundations of the Mind (1993).