In Sun of gOd (Weiser Books, May 2009), cultural pioneer and bootstrap philosopher Gregory Sams takes a fresh look at our solar benefactor. As Sams sees it, the Sun is a living, conscious being, fully aware of itself and its place in the universe. Simply put, the Sun communicates with other conscious beings on all levels with an intelligence that dwarfs our own. Sun of gOd explores exciting new ground, adding a crucial piece to the jigsaw-puzzle picture we have of our cosmos. Sams considers God, gods, notions of divinity, our place in the firmament, the intelligence of light, feedback, free will, electro-magnetism, crystals, fractals, the four elements, and the self-organizing force that seems to crop up everywhere, perhaps powering everything. "Could it really be that the universe waited 13.7 billion years - until we came along - to manifest the phenomenon of consciousness and made ours the only type of vessel able to experience it?" Sams thinks not. Citing David Bohm's discovery that even on the subatomic level of electrons there appears to be intention and choice, Sams goes on to suggest that creative intelligence may be a bottom-up system in which "everything, from a molecule of water to a neuron in our brain to the Sun itself, is a part of the bottom that is subtly steering a greater whole." The implications are startling and in harmony with science, logic, and common sense. They smoothly join the microcosm to the macrocosm, revealing a universe incorporating both intelligence and design, without an Intelligent Designer. - www.redwheelweiser.com