I can't even dignify this book with an inclusion on my 'science' bookshelf. Surely, the most dangerous rhetoric is that which sounds plausible. 'Dancing Wu Li Masters' does the whole "Ancient Chinese Secret" treatment of particle physics that was so popular during the 1970s. Unfortunately, I worry that too many who read this bestseller were irrevocably taken with an esoteric, transcendental, and ultimately fallacious interpretation of contemporary science. ( )

This book was designed to help curious people with no scientific background to understand the new discoveries in physics that were affecting how we view our universe. From the review: “The Wu Li Master does not teach; he ‘dances’ with his student as he knows the universe dances with itself.... Still more amazingly, we find that we are able to dance too—that we have always been part of the dance….” I wonder if Martha Grimes read this book before she wrote The Old Wine Shades. The debate between Jury and Harry about Schrödinger’s Cat could come from Zukav. I love Zukav’s comment “quantum physics is stranger than science fiction.” I also loved this book when I read it in the early '80s. ( )

Zukav rushes in where (most) physicists fear to tread. The philosophical implications of quantum theory are heady stuff. Strict empiricists concern themselves with tracking down the latest particle - nowadays, the Higgs boson. Zukav respects that endeavor. But his quest leads in a different direction. While giving a superb introduction to quantum physics as of 1979, he draws comparisons to Buddhist and Hindu metaphysics, sweeping away time and space to reveal a world of "a pure, undifferentiated reality." ( )

Silly Drivel; Welcome to the world of pseudo scientists claiming that quantum physics can prove any theory. Deepak Chopra would be proud.
If this book were what it claimed to be, a sort of physics for the layperson, I could get behind that. But its not- it's more about Zukav trying to use physics to prove his favorite flavor of eastern philosophy.
Anyone who thinks by reading this book they can hold their own in an actual scientific conversation will be sorely embarrassed. You will be pegged as a new age nut job in the first 5 minutes.

There is a joke exam question: "Do you understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity? Yes/No". After reading this book, I could answer "Yes". At least, temporarily. If I needed to, I would be confident that if I went back to this book, I could understand it again. ( )

I don't think I ever managed to actually get all the way through this book - but he gets it and he grounds it in quantum physics ( )

Still working through this... fascinating ( )

Gary Zukav has written "the Bible" for those who are curious about the mind-expanding discoveries of advanced physics, but who have no scientific background. Like a Wu Li Master who would teach us wonder for the falling petal before speaking of gravity, Zukav writes in beautifully clear language -- with no mathematical equations -- opening our minds for the exciting new theories that are beginning to embrace the ultimate nature of our universe.. Quantum mechanics, relativity, and beyond to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen effect and Bell's theorem.

I've finally finished The Dancing Wu Li Masters after years of it sitting on my shelf and weeks of reflecting on what it is saying. It's an old book when considering present developments in the observation of quantum mechanics, but quantum theory itself is twice as old and since its inception has hardly changed. This book however is the first I've read that was capable of viscerally explaining the non-locality and non-linearity of space-time. Limited by "symbols" it acknowledges this limit and it dances with you within these confines so as to allow you, the reader, to experience the reality that the ambiguity of language prohibits. I've read books that describe the world in terms of eastern philosophy, relativity, string theory, quantum electrodynamics, probability functions, and from the historical perspective of the human perception of time itself, and yet none of them were able to convey what was on the tip of their brains, and the tip of mine as well. They all touch upon the fact that at the plank level no further observations are possible, or that energy and matter, waves and particles, are merely two different manifestations of the underlying fabric of space-time. That the linear passage of time is only a construct resulting from the methods with which the relativistic mind collects the information, while space-time itself is only motion, with no preference towards forward or backward. They all extol the words of Bohm, Bell and Schrödinger, but none of them ever try to conceptualize these precepts beyond the application of their useless symbolism, or then take so many angles in driving home the truth of the matter.

Here's a mantra saved like a jewel in one of the very last pages.

Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.

As far as information is concerned, this book pales in comparison to the likes of In Search of Schrödinger's Kittens or The Elegant Universe, but it's what this book leaves open to interpretation that brought me the most pleasure. ( )

A classic that helped me understand some basic principles of quantum mechanics. ( )

I'm still struggling to read this book. There is SO much information to be had in it. I have been reading through it slowly but surely over the past three-four years. But it's a book I don't want to let go of and that I want to re-read as I grow older and my perspectives also change and mature. Gary Zukav is an amazing writer and the other book I have of his is one of my all-time favorites. ( )

Physics and philosophy; cultural crossover. Well worth reading. ( )

Amazon.com
At an Esalen Institute meeting in 1976, tai chi master Al Huang said that the Chinese word for physics is Wu Li, "patterns of organic energy." Journalist Gary Zukav and the others present developed the idea of physics as the dance of the Wu Li Masters--the teachers of physical essence. Zukav explains the concept further:

The Wu Li Master dances with his student. The Wu Li Master does not teach, but the student learns. The Wu Li Master always begins at the center, the heart of the matter.... This book deals not with knowledge, which is always past tense anyway, but with imagination, which is physics come alive, which is Wu Li.... Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li Masters know that they are only dancing with it.
The "new physics" of Zukav's 1979 book comprises quantum theory, particle physics, and relativity. Even as these theories age they haven't percolated all that far into the collective consciousness; they're too far removed from mundane human experience not to need introduction ( )

I read this book when it first came out, back around '79, and though I've moved house many times since, this is one book I've never left behind.

A great non-mathematical guide to sub-atomic physics, if you take the eastern mysticism connection with a grain of salt.

One of the earlier attempts to make modern physics comprehensible to the lay person. A very good read. ( )

http://benfulton.net/arsindiana/2006/... ( )