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" . . . our understanding is limited by current knowledge, and that which is not believable today, may be believable in the future." I think this is an important idea that was explained really well in this book.

" . . .the idea of "survival of the strongest" whether due to disease, access to resources, or war". This is an interesting idea expressed in this book to explain the weeding out of the weak to make a population stronger.

"I found many of the ideas and themes to be fairly complex, but well explained." I agree with this statement.

: . . .changing the past to change the future". I like how this story included this idea.

" I found the theory of an alien "soul" living in us" a very interesting concept. " I agree with this statement.

The above are a number of statements that I found in prior posts that I agree with and find very interesting.

While I have not read this book yet, I came to this post to see the underlying religious themes in the book. From the reply, it looks as though it's not as big of a factor as I would have anticipated. This book is definitely going to be added to my "want to read" list.

I agree that some were easy and that some were difficult to understand. I thought some of the concepts were definitely thought-provoking, but others were completely unrealistic. I think the most interesting to me was the idea of the aliens being our consciousness.

I really liked the idea that we only understand what we can see. If someone were to describe to us something we had never experienced we wouldn't believe them. Mostly though I found a lot of the ideas rather confusing.

This book did make me wonder. I mean, just read the title, it's bound to make your head go places. And I think that's the best thing about reading, it opens you to new possibilities and ideas.

Sarah G wrote:The part with the Black Death having concious thoughts for me was a bit too much for me. I think this is because it's one of the concepts I actually know well.

However the section about changing the past was more agreeable because I didn't know as much about the subject to now of any arguments against it.

I did like that fact the book questioned old theories in a way. It made a lot more interesting compared to other similar books.

I think that questioning old theories can be a good thing because they should stand up to scrutiny if they are strong to begin with. I believe that we have way too many theories out there that are just taught and taken as fact when they have never really been proven. We as a species tend to fall into groupthink way too easy at times because of social pressures and the like. Truth is often difficult to find and admit to in our experiences in this day and age.

I definitely think this book is not a light-read and is a thinker. I loved the whole contemplation about reality and perception of reality. That actually reminds me a lot of Twilight Zone episodes where what we think is real may actually not be. And it really makes me question what actually is real or not. I do enjoy thinking about these themes. I definitely think the author did a great job getting the reader to think and question.

It was a mixed experience for me. Some of the themes were easy to understand but some were really difficult.