The Labyrinth of Time: The Illusion of Past, Present and Future [Paperback]

Shortly after seeing Anthony Peake's lecture at the Alternatives event (held at St James' Church, Piccadilly), I decided, after having read all of Peake's books up until that point, to pre-order his new release, The Labyrinth of Time. I had been following his work after seeing him guest on Theo Chalmers' `On The Edge' programme on Sky, and I was curious to see how he would expand on his theories of time that were expounded in his previous books. He does mention that The Labyrinth of Time is a sort of solution to many of the mysteries brought about by his `Cheating the Ferryman' hypothesis. This mystery was about time itself: how time functions, how it flows (if indeed it does flow at all). The mechanisms of time - the most mysterious conundrums, in religious and philosophical thought through to modern-day Quantum Physics - are all ambitiously tackled by Peake in his most intellectually riveting of books. Indeed, it is dedicated to one subject, time, but that is not to narrow its breadth at all. As I was reading I was reminded somewhat of Beyond the Occult by Colin Wilson. This, I believe, is because of its sheer intellectual density and the manifest passions on both authors' part. I was moved by the sheer intensity and scope of some of the arguments - I was placed out of my comfort zone, out of my time zone. And what makes it more wholesome is that the prose is very smooth and easily digestible. The ideas in this book are labyrinthine, yet you are guided around all of the corners and shown the dead ends all with good, amiable company. You get the impression that he is as much on an intellectual journey as the reader, and that is what makes this book an entertaining as well as an educational read.

Not only does he shift from P. D. Ouspensky to David Bohm and Einstein, he also synthesizes great philosophers such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (I was very curious about Schopenhauer's experience with the inkwell as I hadn't come across it before). This is beautifully argued in the chapter `The Philosophy of Time', which, along with `The Eternal Return' and `Time in Disarray' makes for truly satisfying reading. Yet it is in the chapters `The Physics of Time' and `The Neurology of Time' are we truly given a scientific angle on its nature - and what a wonderful and rigorous compilation of disparate thought we treated to as a reader. This, for me, was somewhat revelatory. For previously I had been quite firmly entrenched in philosophic, religious and - although I don't like to use the term - `spiritual' aspects of the nature of reality; and it is in these chapters that gave me the key to a richer understanding. Previously I had read about the nature of time, or even that `time is an illusion', but if asked I could never have given anyone a straight, educated answer. It is almost as if I knew, or wanted to believe on a basic level that it is a `given' - i.e. I had heard it before in fields of `alternative thought' - but here, in Peake's book, we are offered an insight into the scientific, tried-and-tested observations of many eminent thinkers. This book, unlike many in its field, is a marriage between philosophy and science - and this will be a bridge for people to appreciate both aspects of the arguments posited in this most stimulating work.

As this is review, I will not go into or analyse the ideas in-depth. I will simply leave that up to you as a reader. If you're interested in the nature of time (or even reality), I would highly recommend this along with his other books: Is There Life After Death?: The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die, The Daemon: A Guide to Your Extraordinary Secret Self and The Out of Body Experience: The History and Science of Astral Travel. Each of them is a fantastic synthesis is disparate thought. Indeed, I'd personally recommend The Holographic Universe along with Ubik (S.F. MASTERWORKS) as companion pieces. Also, I'd highly recommend you seek out some films to give you some great analogies and useful metaphors for tackling these difficult themes, such as: K-Pax [DVD] [2002], Inception [DVD] [2010] or even Quantum Leap - Series 1 [DVD]!

It is not easy to be hard on an author because there is always commitment involved even in a mistaken view. However, a review is undertaken for other readers and this book is a construct of Wikipaedia abstracts fashioned into sentences without a fundamental base for the reasoning presented as a reality.

John Burnett