On July 16, 1945, in the desert north of Alamogordo, New Mexico the first nuclear bomb was detonated, marking the official beginning of the nuclear age we now live in. Less than one month after that, the U.S. dropped "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and three days later, "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, which combined killed 100,000 people.
On July 9, 1955, Bertrand Russell called a press conference to present a manifesto that he had been working on. Both Albert Einstein and Joseph Rotblat, the only scientists to leave the Manhattan Project on morals grounds, had been advising Russell on this document denouncing nuclear weapons and urging governments to resolve their conflict peacefully.
The Russell Einstein Manifesto was presented in London and signed by eight other prominent scientists of the day. A few days after the release, philanthropist Cyrus Eaton offered to sponsor a peace conference, called for in the manifesto, in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, held in July 1957.
The entire Manifesto can be read here:
http://www.pugwash.org/about/manifesto.htm
Before the press conference, Russell thought that only a few of the press would turn up, so he booked a small room at Caxton Hall. Soon, as interest in the manifesto increased, they moved to a larger room. In the end they had to use the largest room available, and it was filled to capacity with media representatives from all over the world, many who gave the paper front-page coverage.
Today Einstein, Russell and Rotblat seem more like psychics than scientists. The world is poised literally on the edge of annihilation. There are about 40,000 nuclear warheads around the globe, 12,000 of which are the United States. One wrong move on the part of a government or terrorist group, and life as we know it is over.
These confounding truths are what led me to write “Imagining Einstein: Essays on M-Theory, World Peace and the Science of Compassion.” Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Einstein himself said we cannot solve the problems of the world at the same level in which we created them. Imagination is indeed more important than knowledge, as we struggle with not knowing how to bring peace to a world that’s rigged for explosion like a mad suicide bomber.
“Imagining Einstein” is a series of twelve essays based on a premise of “what ifs”: What if there really is an Afterlife, and what if, in that Afterlife, Einstein discovered the answers to the questions that so plagued him in life? What if we could somehow communicate with him? What would he say? What could he tell us to advance science, but more importantly, bring peace to our world before it’s too late?
This book is the product of my imagination. I closed my eyes and believed I was really talking to Einstein from beyond the grave. I saw him sitting in front of me, looking much like he did in 1904, before his miracle year: young, wide eyed, without pretense, just an ordinary man imagining extraordinary things. From his unique position reporting directly from the space between the molecules, Einstein’s speculations about the nature of Afterlife, the manifestation of matter, a unified field theory, and world peace present a quantum view of consciousness from 10-100 and provide answers on how to attain global peace that begins within each individual.
Was I really talking to Einstein? That is perhaps a discussion for another day. It is my hope that, more than prove the existence of Afterlife, this work can create an awareness and dialogue around both science and peace, and inspire individuals to look at their lives in a new way. Let “Imagining Einstein” spark your own imagination to ponder these issues. Allow it inspire you to find new solutions to old problems by looking deeply into your own life. Use it to expand your awareness to include the infinite possibilities that exist that you might not be able to see just yet.
I believe that we as a species will find a path to peace, and I believe that path starts within each individual. If we wish to see our beautiful Earth live on, we must find creative solutions that will ensure a place for our children’s children to live in the truth of unity. We cannot find these solutions from the same mindset as we created the problems. Our minds must expand to survive. If this book can spark even a glimmer of movement towards that expansion within you, then its purpose will be served.
Barbara With
