The Bond
How to Fix Your Falling-Down World
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
For centuries, Western science and many Western cultures have taught us to think of ourselves as individuals. But today, a revolutionary new understanding is emerging from the laboratories of the most cutting-edge physicists, biologists, and psychologists:
What matters is not the isolated entity, but the space between things, the relationship of things. The Bond.
By international bestselling author Lynne McTaggart, The Bond is the culmination of her groundbreaking work. It offers a completely new, scientific story of life and the human experience, one that challenges the very way we conceive of ourselves and our world. The Bond shows that the essential impulse of all life is a will to connect rather than a drive to compete.
In fact, we are inescapably connected, hardwired to each other at our most elemental level—from cells to whole societies. The desire to help others is so necessary that we experience it as one of our chief pleasures, as essential as eating and having sex, and we succeed and prosper only when we see ourselves as part of a greater whole. Every conflict that occurs—whether between husband and wife, social or racial groups, or nations—is resolved only when we can fully see and embrace the space—the bond—between us.
McTaggart offers detailed recommendations to help foster more holistic thinking, more cooperative relationships, and more unified social groups. Blending interviews and human stories into an absorbing narrative, she shows how:
• A simple daily practice conditions the brain to enable you to become more empathetic toward others
• A new way of speaking and listening can overcome polarization, helping the staunchest of enemies to become close friends
• People who fire together wire together: Whenever a group works together for a common goal, the brains of all parties begin to get on the same wavelength, strengthening the bond within the group
• Fairness is more powerful than unfairness: A small group of individuals committed to strong reciprocity can “invade” a population of self-interested individuals and create a fairer society
The Bond offers a breathtaking, visionary plan for a new way to live, in harmony with our true nature and with each other, and a new way to heal our relationships, our neighborhoods, and our world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McTaggart (The Intention Experiment) straddles the line between science and pseudoscience, intending to help readers live fuller lives by understanding something she terms "The Bond." "In every way individual things live life attached and bonded to another,' " she argues. "The idea of the individual," McTaggart says, "is a fallacy." Her discussion of the Bond encompasses quantum physics, genetics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, astronomy, sociology, psychology, and a host of other disciplines. While she provides ample and fascinating examples of "holistic," altruistic, and uplifting behaviors, her work fails to build a coherent theory from the hugely diverse body of anecdotes she provides. Second, she misapplies much of the science she discusses. Regarding quantum physics, for example, she implies incorrectly that quantum forces operate similarly on all levels, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. She makes the not fully supported claim that most disease results from the lack of a sense of belonging. It may well be better individually and collectively to cooperate rather than compete, as McTaggart says, but her explanations lack substance.
