Review: Regaining Paradise by Paul Corson

Author Paul Corson boldly outlines a path toward enlightenment and spiritual liberation in Regaining Paradise: Forming a New Worldview, Knowing God, and Journeying into Eternity. Part theoretical textbook, part spiritual manifesto, and part scientific storytelling, this is a mind-bending book by a clearly passionate thinker.

Proposing the presence of a causative force in the universe – one whose influence doesn’t upset modern evolutionary models – the author begins to explore our individual consciousness, ways to attain different energetic levels, and the underlying doubts and fears that define human nature. At times, the narrative veers into the realm of self-help, but it also contains the wisdom of therapists, scientists, researchers, religious figures, and thinkers of the past and present.

Once most of foundational ideas are established, the tone shifts in the second half of the book to more active means by which individuals can change their mindset and worldview, and attempt to achieve mental clarity and peace. With musings on anxiety, love, grief, doubt, mortality, and the nature of heaven, the spectrum of content is wide and far-reaching.

While the book is multidisciplinary, and attempts to link philosophy and science to spirituality and concepts of eternity, it is also difficult to get past some of the more dogmatic aspects of the prose, particularly in relation to God, heaven, and the Judeo-Christian constructs that have solidified over the past two millennia. As Corson reveals early on, he had an unforgettable otherworldly experience as a young child, and his journey forward has been indelibly informed by that. Bridging a personal conviction to a broader audience’s entrenched beliefs can be difficult, especially if you wish to do so without sounding overzealous.

Many of the concepts alluded to or explained do have some link or scientific connection, but it is unclear whether the correlations have any closeness to causation, and there are numerous issues with these proffered ideas that are intentionally smoothed over and avoided. It would be unfair to expect an author to have all the answers, but the confidence with which Corson reports his ideas demands a high level of scrutiny. The conflation of spiritual insight with scientific phenomena is frequent, and may turn off some readers looking for a more validated and tangibly robust line of reasoning/proof. The references to beliefs and unproven theorems in the same breath as laws of physics and chemistry make for an unbalanced read that will hopefully inspire more research and exploration.

The book is well-edited overall, and the storytelling elements, which are common, are recounted very well, providing readers with a more complete picture of the author. The balance of formal scientific writing and gentle, suggestive anecdotes makes the book accessible to a wide range of readers, and regardless of the veracity of the claims, people will inevitably learn a fair deal about astrophysics, brain chemistry, evolution, the scientific method in modern times and much more. For these reasons, along with the potential for personal improvement and spiritual clarity, Regaining Paradise is a fascinating, in-depth, and thought-provoking dive into spiritual truth.