The original edition of The Silent Pulse appeared around the time of Capra's "The Tao of Physics", Zukav's "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and a host of similar groovy titles under the "Bantam New Age" moniker. As a music major at the time with a lifelong interest in science, books such as these made quantum physics accessible and interesting for me - someone who had never set foot in a calculus or college-level physics class.
Years later, the connection between musical rhythm, pitch frequency and other vibrating systems remains an interest of mine and I picked up a used copy of The Silent Pulse on a recommendation hoping for some fresh insights.
Unfortunately, the book has very little to do with music, except for Leonard's allusions to being a composer of show tunes and a jazz pianist. Nothing wrong with either, mind you, but he's so focused on making universal, cosmological connections that he fails to adequately illustrate or enforce his positions in practical ways the reader can latch onto. Towards the end it all begins to blur into some 70's Marin County mush about being one, holographically, with the universe.
Leonard's "Tao angle" is his advanced experience with marital arts that provides some interesting context on human potential and overcoming perceived limits. The most captivating parts of the book for me occurred early on where Leonard describes research on the micro-movements that occur during human interaction and then wanders into paranormal studies of remote sensing, telekinesis, and the ability to predict future events.
Depending on your personal view of such phenomenon and Leonard's attempts at explanation, you'll either keep reading or press the bus buzzer to let yourself off at the next stop.
Leonard's biggest sin, utimately, is his writing style which, surprisingly for a former Look magazine editor (as he describes in a far too long afterword chapter), is anything but crisp and attention-grabbing. The prose is airy, filled with colorless phrasing and, I have to say it, just plain boring.
The most interesting part of the book however, has very little to