Quantum Change: When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives

Taking up a subject usually shunned by serious psychologist, the authors succeed to deal with mysterious spiritual phenomena without crossing the border between a broadly scientific discourse and what many might regard as “magic”.The result is a fascinating text on a very important subject, without presuming to explain what may well beyond the capacities of the human brain.Indeed, the subject may be even broader than indicated by the authors, if applied to collectives. Can Hitler and his impact on the majority of Germans who enthusiastically accepted his evil quantum-leaping world view be better understood by the ideas and concepts presented in the book, or are social quantum-leaps family related to individual quantum leaps but basically different?In any case I will include the book in the reading list of my tutorials for reset political leaders, while pondering how to improve the tutorials in light of what Iearned from the book.Professor Yehezkel Dror

This is one of the most important books I have ever read. I wouldn't have said this even a decade ago, but the older I get, the more I value and invite the seemingly inexplicable changes that can and do happen as a result of being open to experiences that defy our rational minds. Since this book was first published I have had my own extremely positive "quantum change" - an experience so out of the norm and unexpected, which was more "real" than reality. This experience became the foundation for the rest of my life. Read this book with an open mind, and with an awareness, as the authors state, that "there are many ways to know truth."

Nowhere did it say that this was a religious based book. Slowly (about 2/3 of the way in) I realized it was not as it was advertised. Really "God" based and almost none of the interviews or excerpts were by people who didn't believe in God. Quantum change happens to people who don't believe in God and who have this experience in a non-religious way. I'm disappointed that they chose not to write about any of those accounts.

About a year and a half ago, I was asked by author Cynthia Larson to read and review her book titled “Quantum Jumps”, which I did (Amazon, November 10, 2013). The basic premise of this earlier “Quantum” study by Miller and C’ de Baca is that the sort of unprecedented and unexpected experience which often leads to a radical shift in the consciousness and therefore in the behavior of certain individuals also parallels the unpredictable behavior of subatomic particles.“Quantum Change”, written in 2001, may or may not have influenced Larson in her 2013 discussion. As it happens, I passed “Quantum Jumps” on to a friend in Atlanta, where it remains, so I have no immediate access to check on references or acknowledgements in that book. However, in another example of the type of synchronicity which Larson describes so vividly, very shortly after my move here, I heard a mention of “Quantum Change” that so intrigued me, I felt I had to read it. It is thoroughly rewarding.The authors detail numerous case studies describing two particular types of experience that fit their category of “quantum change” – an experience that is “vivid, surprising, benevolent, and (producing) enduring personal transformation”. These are “Insightful” and “Mystical”. They also make an important point that not all enduring change is “quantum”, especially in the “insightful” category; just because it doesn’t happen in a sudden burst does not negate the importance of insight. Likewise, not all “mystical” experiences produce the sort of major transformation of life direction they are describing. However, I found this book totally delightful because it reinforces for me a strong and growing conviction in the validity of “Cosmic Consciousness” or “Noosphere” (a concept I’ve long cherished from the writing of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin), by which, as Cynthia Larson and others have discussed, we can become “plugged in” to the deepest reality of our universe for enduring blessing and enlightenment.

This isn't a book which will guide you step-by-step to achieving an epiphany or mystical experience all your own, which some may find disappointing. But then, such intense insights only seem to come when we link into the great vastness of the One (by whatever Name you want to call it) ... and there is no guide book that can lead us directly to the spot where that will happen because it's personal for each person. This randomness has led to these transformations being mostly dismissed by the Western World as either delusions (science) or presumption (religion), so it's a nice (quantum!) change to see a straightforward discussion on the topic. The most any guide can do is help us achieve a position where we're open to the experience, and that is the true benefit of this book. The examples in Quantum Change help you see that the potential of a link does exist, and that others have found their way to it. Opening yourself up to that possibility can be a changing point for you, too!

Thank you

Much overlooked area of human experience. So glad author published this memorable book.

A great read for someone who is interested in the psychology of personal change and/or spirituality. Thanks to the author! I hope more research will be done in the area of quantum change.

"Quantum" has become one of those cute words that seem to be used by an ever growing number of people for no other reason than it makes the user sound clever, so I approached this book with gritted teeth. It repayed me tenfold. The authors are both clinical psychologists with a particular interest and experience in addiction cases. Over the years they had generally found that for any treatment to be of lasting benefit to the client, great patience was required; any progress was slow and incremental. However, occasionally they came across cases where, for whatever reason, a sufferer would suddenly make a dramatic leap forward, what the authors call a "quantum change". Moreover, contrary to expectations, such dramatic changes usually proved to be permanent: hence, as clinicians, their desire to study such cases to see what if any clues they could offer for more effective treatment procedures. Could such quantum changes be induced, or are they something that just happen at randon with no obvious reasons?The authors suggest that there are two broad categories of quantum change, although with a somewhat fuzzy distinguishing line between them. The first they call the intuitive category, where the experient suddenly realises/discovers/understands something that they had never grasped before - a "Eureka moment", we might say. Characteristic of these experiences is that generally the experients believe that they are generated from within, even though they may use language that suggests otherwise: "it suddenly came to me," or "then completely out of the blue, it dawned on me". Although such experiences may be profoundly exciting and enlightening, they do not seem to be personally transforming: the experient is the same person as before, albeit with new-found knowledge, wisdom, or understanding.The other category of quantum change the authors call the mystical type. "Something happens" to the experient that is immediate, undeniable, inexplicable, and life-changing, and is experienced as coming to them from outside of them. Such experiences are very personal and extremely difficult to relate or explain to others - they are "ineffable", to use the time-honoured phrase. They may or may not be described as religious or spiritual by the experient: with that caveat in mind, I would still want to call them "Road to Damascus" experiences, in that they effect a complete transformation in the experient. Within the authors' own field of expertise, there have been cases where someone suffering years of addiction to alcohol has instantly lost the craving for alcohol and never regained it.Although not primarily concerned with religious or spiritual experience (my own field of interest) this book has much in common with the great pioneering works of Edwin Starbuck and William James in the USA and Sir Alister Hardy and his colleagues in the U.K. As with their work the great value of this present work is the inclusion of many case studies, written by the experients themselves. Some of these are very raw and painful to read: readers who have had similar traumas in their own lives may find some of them too upsetting to read.Whether or not this book offers any insights that may assist in the treatment of clients is outside my field of competence to answer. Personally I doubt it. While some reasonable "explanations" can be offered in respect of the intuitive -type experience, the mysytical type seems as wrapped in mystery as ever. But that in no way detracts from the value of this book.My only quibble lies in the complete separation of the case studies from the authors' commentaries on them, requiring quite a bit of page-turning back and forth to follow their comments. But that aside, I found the book very helpful, moving, intelligent, and very well written. I have already read it through twice, and have lent it to a friend who is thoroughly enjoying it.A quantum delight, I'm tempted to say, but of course I must resist that temptation.

A good study of extraordinary moments of epiphany