The Unfolding Universe: Karel Hujer's Reflections on Cosmic Consciousness

By Harold McAlister

Karel Hujer was an astronomer, humanist, world traveler, historian of science, political essayist, lecturer, and a deeply spiritual man who urged his students over four decades to probe the universe with an emphasis on searching for their place in it. Prevented from returning to his home country of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Pact was signed in late 1938, Karel stayed in the US at age 36 while on a long trip to the Americas. After the War, he settled in Chattanooga where he retired as Guerry Professor Emeritus of Astronomy from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1976. His dear wife Harriet survived him by less than two years. Over the decades during which I knew the Hujers, there was occasional mention of his book, a work that seemed always in progress. After finding essentially complete manuscripts for all but one of the mysterious book's chapters among Karel's papers in 2015, I was determined to bring his long-delayed book to light. Here it is - the lost book of Karel Hujer.The Unfolding Universe describes how humans used their senses over many centuries to create an understanding of the world surrounding them, including all they could see with their eyes on the canopy of the sky. Arguing that the history of astronomy is a story of one delusion by the senses after another, Karel takes the reader on the journey of achieving true cosmic consciousness through the spiritual practices of Hinduism.Although mostly written in the 1940s and 50s, this is the timeless story of the human attempt to resolve the mystery of our existence. --- Hal McAlister (Harold A. McAlister is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and founder & Director Emeritus of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy at Georgia State University, which operates the world's highest resolution telescope - the CHARA Array - on Mount Wilson, CA. From 2002 to 2014 he also served as Director of the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. He first met Karel & Harriet Hujer nearly 60 years ago, and they would have an enormous impact on his life and his career in astronomy. He would inherit Dr. Hujer's books, papers, and photographs from which this this book results.)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1798628481
• ISBN13: 9781798628485
• Release Date: April 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.6" x 5.3"