Francoise Tibika

In many traditions and throughout the ages, the wise men of our world have affirmed that self-knowledge is the key to transforming our world. This book was born from the desire to explore this truth. Yet, while the question "Who am I?" plunges us into a bottomless well, the question "What am I?" seems much easy and deserves our attention. What I call modern alchemy is chemistry directed toward self-knowledge, the kind of inquiry that inevitably leads to a transformation of oneself and of the world. I describe here a singular journey from atoms to humankind that passes through the laws of thermodynamics, information theory, and the quantum revolution, the very revolution that dissolved our former image of matter, at the beginning of last century. In parallel, another revolution, the spiritual revolution, the one that advocates the dissolution of the ego, is gaining momentum. I want to show here that these two revolutions reflect each other and intersect when it comes to the power of emotions, to free will, consciousness, and time. This is not an academic treatise: it is not based on any laboratory experiments or measuring devicess, and it concludes neither with equations nor graphs. Nor is it the product of a clinical study. Rather, it is a synthesis of scientific understanding and the teachings of a spiritual master. It seems that we are on the threshold of a great transformation of humankind and the world — a transformation in which each of us has the capacity, and even the responsibility, to take part.

I was born in Algiers and emigrated to Israel with my family in 1968, after having lived in Paris from early childhood through adolescence. At a young age, I entered the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where I earned my degrees, with several interruptions along the way. My research initially focused on biomineralization and crystallization. In 1986, after completing my studies, I met Colette Aboulker-Muscat, whose student I became for nearly fifteen years. At the same time, after spending several years in the computer industry, I returned to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a researcher in the field of energy. The knowledge acquired in these two schools—one academic, the other metaphysical, apparently opposed—led me to develop a synthesis that I elaborate in my books. I also serve as the Jerusalem delegate of the interfaith association Artisans de Paix, within whose framework I give lectures on a scientific approach to peace and continue to publish my writings.