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Dr. Strömberg regards mind and matter as two aspects of cosmic unity, but the subjective sensations of the mind are beyond the grasp of physical science. In physics, red light is an electromagnetic vibration having a wave length of about .000065 centimetre. Somewhere in the eyes, optic nerves and brain of a man, that vibration is translated into a sensation of redness, something that science cannot describe or explain. A blind scientist could be an absolute master of optics and spectroscopy, and never know what redness is. But since the sensation is common to all normal people, it must have reality, it must have a source. This source Dr. Strömberg also adds to his collection of unknowables under the heading of World Soul—the wellspring of all sensations, ideas, thoughts, aspirations.
Onward to immortality is an easy step. The immaterial mind structure called memory is a sort of genie of the brain. But the brain atoms are completely replaced every few years, while the memory may survive intact for 80 years or longer. Thus he argues that memory is independent of matter. If it can survive a replacement of matter during life, why should it not survive the dissolution of the brain cells after death? "The memory of an individual," says Thinker Strömberg in italics, "is written in indelible script in space and time—it has become an eternal part of a Cosmos in development."
Strömberg defines the soul as "the ego of a human being . . . something which gives unity to the mental complex of a man." Though immaterial, he considers it a real structure, like a field of force. Therefore it cannot be annihilated without violating a law analogous to the purely physical law of conservation of mass and energy. Exactly what experiences the human soul may have after death, the author does not presume to say. He thinks the transmigration of souls entirely possible.
On the problem of life on earth: "As the matter in the earth is part of the original matter in the universe, so the life on the earth is part of the original life in the universe."
A man, even a scientist, has a right to his own opinion. But for publishing The Soul of the Universe, Astronomer Strömberg is likely to be criticized, as other soul-minded scientist-writers have been, on two grounds: 1) for uttering pronouncements in fields of science not his own (in this case, biology); 2) for cramming scientific findings, some of them dubious, into the mold of his personal metaphysics. But Strömberg is defiantly serene: "In a boyish spirit and with flying colors we set out on a new kind of adventurous exploration, caring little about the jeers from the people playing on the shore or the polite smiles of learned men." The Soul of the Universe is a provocative and outstanding attempt of a modern scientist to take his science to the unknown, rather than whistle to the unknown to come and make itself known.
*McKay ($2).