Foreword

Every now and then, one comes across a book so wild in its ambition that one does not know quite what to think of it. At times, the thought might cross one’s mind that it is a ludic work, more a result of play than of labor. And as one continues, one begins to realize that because of its scope and ambition, there are real insights here—that the author, ranging across centuries and continents, is developing a map that we have never seen before, that here is a new combination of the modern and the ancient. Such a book is The Physics of Transfigured Light.

It is no doubt true that we live in a time when virtually the whole of the human inheritance is available to us in ways that never before have been possible. Ours is a kind of sunset era, when all manner of colors are spread across the sky. In The Physics of Transfigured Light, Leon Marvell takes full advantage of this characteristic of our time, moving freely from contemporary physics and computer science to film and to ancient modes of thought, notably Platonism and Hermetism, in order to show how patterns inhere in human culture and help to explain not only the remote past, but our present and future as well. This is a book about patterns, about what Ioan Couliano termed the “building blocks” of religion and culture; it is a book not only of ideas, but of Ideas.

By “Ideas,” of course, I refer to Platonic Ideas, and to Platonic metaphysics. While Platonism may be out of favor in much of the contemporary academy, in fact Platonic metaphysics may well provide the antidote for much of what ails our beleaguered, disoriented, even lost world of the academic humanities. Here, our author only hints at the importance of Platonic metaphysics, focusing primarily on the Hermetic tradition, but it has become increasingly clear that Hermetic and Gnostic currents in antiquity are part of the larger Platonic family, or at least, that they overlap much more than we once might have thought. By bringing a Platonic-Hermetic perspective to bear on modern technology, we see the world in which we live in very different and illuminating ways.

How are we to understand the modern relevance of Hermetic or Platonic perspectives? What relationships might they bear to such disparate topics as Tibetan Buddhism, contemporary theories of physics, film, biology, cultural theories? Are there links between ancient thought and the modern world that we haven’t seen before? These are the kinds of questions that Leon Marvell explores and to which he begins to propose answers in The Physics of Transfigured Light.

To say this is an unusual book—as you by now must be aware—is an understatement. A simile might help to understand it: it is as if the author repeatedly is striking a stone of ancient wisdom against a very modern piece of finely wrought steel, producing copious sparks. Some sparks may fall on rock, some may fall on cold earth, but some fall on tinder and may even begin to light a fire or two. This simile echoes, of course, the famous observation of Plato in his seventh letter that insight is conveyed like a spark from one to another. Sometimes dense, sometimes wild, this is a book that is going to surprise, engage, and provoke you. Enjoy!

ARTHUR VERSLUIS, PH.D.

Arthur Versluis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Religious Studies and professor in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University, is the editor in chief of Esoterica and the founding president of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. He is the author of numerous books, including Sacred Earth, Restoring Paradise, The New Inquisitions, Magic and Mysticism, and Religion of Light.