Book excerpt: Peter Dodd Cooper’s book, The New Road and the Paradigm, is both a spiritual memoir and a series of scientific articles on his own exploration of the nature of consciousness and of reality itself. As a scientist, he brings credibility to this book with his credentials from a long and productive scientific career. From this vantage point, he then explores topics that don’t fit into our current materialist paradigm, looking deeper to see if he can find more satisfying answers. After exploring the mysteries of quantum physics, the, he concludes his exploration by saying, “Experiencers tell us that reality is that realm outside Plato’s cave, where colours are brighter and Oneness with everything is self-evident.