This, the last of Raynor Johnson's books, is based upon more than eighty years of life experience during half of which his thinking bridged both science and philosophy. No mere theoretician, this eminent scientist writes with the authority of one who knows. He sees reincarnation and karma as 'great key truths to be reckoned with ... Their truth illumines human life, death and destiny, and without these keys it seems to me there can be no comprehensive and satisfactory philosophy of human life.' In the penultimate chapter - 'The Nature and Problem of Time' - he writes lucidly of this very complex subject. He reminds us of time's subjective impression, so dependent upon the individual and current mood. He seeks, in dealing with precognition and retrocognition, to widen our perspective to embrace the immediacy of past and future into the present moment. This in turn raises the question of freedom and he postulates that, 'It is largely in the quality of response to events that our freedom lies'.
About the author
Raynor Johnson, born in Leeds 1901, graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a First in Arts. He then took a First in Science at London before becoming a Doctor of Science specialising in spectroscopy. For eleven years until 1934 he lectured first at Queen's University, Belfast and then Kings College, London before becoming Master of Queen's College, University of Melbourne. There he remained for thirty years until his retirement in 1964. When Raynor Johnson died in 1987 at the age of 86 much was written about this remarkable physicist, mystic, and former Master of Queen's College Melbourne University. Perhaps the most telling obituary comment was the portrayal by an ex-student of a gentle, humorous and modest man of the utmost integrity and sincerity whose thinking, although most profound, was always subjected to a rigorous appraisal. He had a gift for making his students feel on equal terms and was possessed of 'a humility and openness that left a lasting impression on those fortunate enough to have known him'.
