Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World

This easy read of a book describes well not only the unique nature flow states or 'peak experience' but how to propel yourself into such flow states at any time in daily life and what that means for crafting your own successful and desirable future. It also delves into how futures of different people may converge or collide depending on the nature of such flow states and how that might alter your perception of yourself and others in the grand scheme of culture and nature. Not to mention how it intrinsically involves chaos theory but demystifies it without even explicitly naming it! I devoured this book, and so will you.

The Law of Attraction says that our thoughts and consciousness create 100 percent of our reality. It is a belief system that began rooted in the mechanistic science of more than a century ago. Most writers updating the Law of Attraction using quantum physics cheery pick the science to prop up the same conclusions reached long ago. You think your way into illness and tragedy. Sky Nelson-Isaacs does something radically different with his new book Living in Flow. With an advanced degree in physics he starts with the science to see what it will support in terms of the role of human consciousness in the universe. His conclusions are fresh and inspiring. We don’t, he writes, create everything in our lives but our passionate belief and action can shift probabilities in our favor. It doesn’t work all the time, but it is remarkable that it can work. Sky is also humble enough to admit he doesn’t have all the answers, is open to changing his views and continuing to explore. That in itself is a treasure in this field all too often dominated by those who endlessly recycle old truisms. Allow your mind to be opened by this remarkable book, that teaches you how to align with synchronicities, or flow, as Sky calls it, to live a more harmonious and fulfilling life.

Honestly, though this book is pretty well written and easy to follow, it's scientific rigor leaves a lot to be desired. That wouldn't normally bother me in a spiritual book, but the author specifically touts himself as a scientist and his work as scientifically based. It's not. Many of his premises are unfounded and his logic is often lacking. That being said, his lack of scientific rigor doesn't take away from the validity of his theories or the testability of his proposed experiments. Many of his assertions are falsifiable if you test them within the laboratory of your own mind.

Every once in a while a book comes along that is able to skillfully bridge two typically separate fields. I can’t think of a book that has bridged science and spirituality as beautifully as Living in Flow since Fritjof Capra’s Tao of Physics, which was publish in 1975. What sets this work apart is how carefully Nelson-Isaacs lays out his reasoning and explanations about idea that can so easily be exaggerate, on the one hand, or quickly dismissed, on the other. From the start, he is clear about what his theory of flow encompasses and what it doesn’t. And from there he begins to incorporate the often ignored aspect of subjective experience into his argument. This is necessary because the one of the differences between synchronicity and mere coincidence, as anyone who has experienced both knows, is that true synchronicities feel meaningful. Meaningfulness alone is not sufficient to consider an event a synchronicity, but it is a necessary component. After a thorough discussion of how the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics plays out in the realm of everyday experience, Nelson-Isaacs goes beyond the theoretical to talk about how we can put these insights into practice in our own lives. This is not just intellectual gymnastics. It is a carefully reasoned manifesto on living in alignment with the universe and why, when we act boldly in the direction of our dreams, events tend to conspire to help us in unexpected and wonderful ways.

I ordered this book in very good condition, and it arrived almost like new with only a few small markings. Shipping was fast, and the book itself is excellent. I’m very satisfied with both the condition and the overall experience.

Building Symbolic Momentum; "The beliefs we act upon influence the types of experiences that flow into our lives." There are people I REALLY want to share this book with. I've got people in my extended network that seem to prefer the "woo woo" interpretation of synchronicity. You know, the people who think the "law of attraction' merely means thinking about or meditating on a particular outcome and then the universe magically brings it to you. I'm glad the book has diagrams illustrating the parallel outcomes to any event. Most people can make similar associations with their actions, but I don't think many people think of them as paths of systemic choices. The greatest tragedy of a book like this is that it does straddle the line of "Self Help" while being a little inaccessible to certain audience groups. Most people who are looking for frameworks to help explain fairly subjective phenomena are reading books like "The Secret". He brings up a mix of cultural worldviews, including Buddist and Taoist traditions as well as Christian, and Muslim while still being a rational physicist with a deep appreciation of Richard Feynman. I like the author's personal accounts of the different variable phenomena. This novel feels just as intellectual as it does emotional which alone is a challenging feat considering his scientific approach. The fact he was able to tie all of this into a compelling emotional narrative with tidbits from his life helps make it a real gem.

This is essentially a self-help book based on a more scientific version of the Law of Attraction. The basic idea is that the universe responds to our actions by giving us more of the same but in this model, the very act of making choices, anticipating future experiences and building symbolic momentum in the direction of our goals can shifts the probabilities of future results in the direction of our goal. However, it can also work in reverse since the universe responds to our dominant emotional state and if this is subconscious fear we may achieve a result which bring us more fear. The answer to this predicament, according to the author is to "proactively unearth our hidden feelings" so we will be free to shape the events we want. He suggests that the results we get, often mirror our internal state so we can become conscious about what we need to change. The central premise of the book reflects the author's (Nelson-Isaacs Sky) optimism that we can we can align with life, producing a state of flow which brings us meaningful coincidences drawing us towards our goals. Flow is an optimal state where our abilities are met by appropriate challenges. While flow may be familiar to athletes, jazz musicians and those in creative jobs but I suggest that for the rest of humanity doing dull monotonous jobs it is a rare experience Sky recommends gratitude as an effective way of getting into flow. Another way is a playful attitude which utilizes our enthusiasms and the author heartily recommends the Lorrax process (Listen for unexpected opportunities, Open our minds to new facts and Release our attachments to what we want to do). He says that we can do can do this in our spare time without any need for persistent meditation to achieve flow or understand our karma (cause and effect). The author states that when we are guided by flow, synchronicities help improve our relationships, our worklife and the balance of interests in our communities for the greater good. Sky calls the mechanism for our belief systems to become a blueprint for the experiences we have, "meaningful history selection". He believes that "meaningful history selection" is a completely rational yet unseen process that spans the gap between religious faith and scientific faith." I really wanted to like this book because of its unbridled optimism. There are plenty of tips to make your life better but unfortunately they will likely prove insufficient for most readers unless they invest a great deal of time and other work on achieving self-awareness, such as meditation, psychological advice, NLP or coaching. Sky cites the psychologist Wiseman who found that self-described 'lucky people" were very good at seeing unforeseen opportunities , which the self—described "unlucky people" completely missed. Sky believes that we can change our belief systems by letting go of entrenched beliefs and becoming bolder but pessimists can't change into optimists overnight. A great deal of work is needed to change our belief systems. Moreover boldness may stem from anger and lead us in the wrong direction. He makes a statement I found ridiculous " If your choices shape your world, then it is pretty difficult to feel insecure about your importance in the world. After all, if the cosmos is responding to you, then you are important!". There are so many people in this world who feel insecure and are caught in a self-reinforcing loop of despair. Sky admits that we can't just look at our experiences and assume we are sabotaging them because we are not the cause of all of life's challenging circumstances. But the understanding of cause and effect is much more complex than this because there can be an unknown time delay of weeks, months or even years between our anticipated future experiences and their manifestation. We won't be able to do this in our commute or at the kid's sports practice as Sky suggests. Moreover, in order to live in flow, he says we need to rediscover our authentic self "who we should be if there were no other factors persuading us to be different". I think that this also requires a great deal of work to attain. Even then we will need to distinguish our cravings from what our authentic self wants, and I think for most of us this is a day-to-day battle. Otherwise, we will keep making the wrong choices and we will attract the wrong circumstances. This book is interesting reading but ultimately disappoints because there are so many ifs and buts on the road to useful synchronicity. It fails to give us a consistent self-help system to enable our choices to shape the world .

Among the best aspects of Living in Flow, is that it takes you 'there' fast. I initially thought that a book by a theoretical physicist would be or could be too academic to keep me engaged. It's not. It is thoughtful and human. And the book gets you to understand quickly what and how our synchronicities are...and knowing the difference between finding our purpose and finding our 'sense' of purpose. Finding the presence of our Flow(s) gives us power, added consciousness and a deepened connectedness to this human journey. Living in Flow can help you relax your mind, and be open to receive more from our inner-connected connections. Living in Flow and synchronicity is like a type of conjecture that people like Drucker and Reimann discuss; those curious things and patterns that hold true even though science cannot prove OR refute...but still exist. I am glad I read this book.