Ervin László

László, circa 2005

Ervin László (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɛrvin ˈlaːsloː]; born 12 May 1932) is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness.^[1]

Biography

László was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a shoe manufacturer and a mother who played the piano; László himself started playing the piano when he was five years old, and gave his first piano concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. At the end of the war he came to the United States.^[2]

László is a Visiting Faculty member at The Graduate Institute Bethany. He has published about 75 books and over 400 papers, and is editor of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution.

In 2002, László received honorary doctorate^[3] from the University of Pécs. Ervin László participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2006. In 2010, Laszlo was elected an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In Hungary, the minister of environment appointed Laszlo as one of the leaders of the ministry's campaign concerning global warming.^[4]

László married Carita Jägerhorn af Spurila 16 November 1956. One of their two sons is Alexander Laszlo.

Work

Integral thought
Influences Aurobindo Ghose Jean Gebser Haridas Chaudhuri Ramchandra Gandhi Indra Sen George Leonard
Integral thinkers Don Beck Allan Combs Said E. Dawlabani Sean Esbjörn-Hargens Jennifer Gidley Marilyn Hamilton Franklin Jones Ervin László Elza Maalouf Donella Meadows Steve McIntosh Michael Murphy Joe Perez Michel Saloff Coste Charlene Spretnak Brian Swimme William Irwin Thompson Ken Wilber Yasuhiko Kimura Michael E. Zimmerman Sarah Nicholson
Themes Integral theory (Ken Wilber) Emergence Evolution, Involution Integral education Integral yoga Transdisciplinarity Value system
Organizations California Institute of Integral Studies Esalen Institute Integral Institute Antioch University Midwest John F. Kennedy University Institute of Transpersonal Psychology Fielding Graduate University

General Evolutionary Research Group

In 1984, László was co-founder with Béla H. Bánáthy, Riane Eisler, John Corliss, Francisco Varela, Vilmos Csanyi, Gyorgy Kampis, David Loye, Jonathan Schull and Eric Chaisson of the initially secret General Evolutionary Research Group.^[5][6] Meeting behind the Iron Curtain, the group of scientists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines met in secret. Their goal was to explore whether it might be possible to use the chaos theory to identify a new general theory of evolution that might serve as a path to a better world.

Club of Budapest

In 1993, in response to his experience with the Club of Rome, he founded the Club of Budapest to, in his words, "centre attention on the evolution of human values and consciousness as the crucial factors in changing course — from a race towards degradation, polarization and disaster to a rethinking of values and priorities so as to navigate today's transformation in the direction of humanism, ethics and global sustainability".^[7]

Akashic field theory

László's 2004 book, Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything posits a field of information as the substance of the cosmos. Using the Sanskrit and Vedic term for "space", Akasha, he calls this information field the "Akashic field" or "A-field". He posits that the "quantum vacuum" (see Vacuum state) is the fundamental energy and information-carrying field that informs not just the current universe, but all universes past and present (collectively, the "Metaverse").

László believes that such an informational field can explain why our universe appears to be fine-tuned so as to form galaxies and conscious lifeforms; and why evolution is an informed, not random, process. He believes that the hypothesis solves several problems that emerge from quantum physics, especially nonlocality and quantum entanglement.

Gidley states that by László's Akashic field theory reintroduced concepts from Steiner.^[8]

The Immortal Mind

László became interested in the consciousness theories of Anthony Peake, (who in turn was an admirer of László’s work on the Akashic Field). Peake, whose background was in the social sciences,^[9] had sought to explain the fact that altered states of consciousness (such as deja vu, dreams, psychedelic drug experiences, meditation, near death experience) sometimes seem to feature precognition and premonitions.^[10] Peake had produced a tentative synthesis of the ancient idea of the “Eternal Return” with modern ideas like the simulation argument, the holographic universe, and the many worlds interpretation. In Peake’s hypothesis, one lives variants of the same life repeatedly, and a premonition is in fact a memory of the past.^[11] Peake became a Consciousness Studies Department Member at Ervin László’s Center For Advanced Studies.^[12] László collaborated with Anthony Peake on the book The Immortal Mind: Science and the Continuity of Consciousness Beyond the Brain.^[13]

Macroshift theory

In his book You Can Change the World, László promotes a linking of non-government organizations promoting sustainable development, using the Internet.^[14]

Autobiography

László has written an autobiography entitled Simply Genius! And Other Tales from My Life, published by Hay House Publishers in June 2011.^[15]

Reception

In an essay, Stanislav Grof compared László's work to that of Ken Wilber, saying "Where Wilber outlined what an integral theory of everything should look like, Laszlo actually created one."^[16] Jennifer Gidley, President of the World Futures Studies Federation, stated:

A major distinction appears to be that László (2007)^[17] builds his general evolution theory in a more formal, systematic manner. He claims that he built significantly on the theoretical traditions of Whitehead’s process theory, Bertalanffy’s general system theory and Prigogine’s non-linearly bifurcating dissipative structures (p. 164). Wilber’s process appears to have been much broader and more diverse—but perhaps less systematic—gathering together as many theorists in as many fields of knowledge as he could imagine, then arranging them according to the system that he developed—which he calls an integral operating system (Wilber, 2004).^[18] Another difference is that although they both appear to use imagination and intuition in the construction of their theoretical approaches, Wilber does not make this explicit whereas László (2007, p. 162) does.^[19]

Selected publications

• The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time. Hampton Press, 1996.
• The Whispering Pond: A Personal Guide to the Emerging Vision of Science, Element Books, Ltd., 1996.
• Evolution: The General Theory, Hampton Press, 1996.
• Macroshift: Navigating the Transformation to a Sustainable World,. Berrett - Koehler, 2001
• The Connectivity Hypothesis: Foundations of an Integral Science of Quantum, Cosmos, Life, and Consciousness, State University of New York Press, 2003.
• You Can Change the World: The Global Citizen's Handbook for Living on Planet Earth: A Report of the Club of Budapest, Select Books, 2003.
• Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything, Inner Traditions International, 2004.
• Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos : The Rise of the Integral Vision of Reality, Inner Traditions, 2006.
• The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads, Hampton Roads, 2006.
• Quantum Shift in the Global Brain: How the New Scientific Reality Can Change Us and our World, Rochester VT: Inner Traditions, 2008.
• WorldShift 2012: Making Green Business New Politics & Higher Consciousness Work Together McArthur & Company, 2009.
• The Immortal Mind: Science and the Continuity of Consciousness Beyond the Brain, with Anthony Peake, Simon and Schuster, 2014.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Ervin László

• ervinlaszlo.com - The personal site of Ervin Laszlo
• The Life and Career of Dr. Ervin Laszlo interviewed by David William Gibbons December 2011 <http://www.davidgibbons.org/id499.html>