The first non-fiction book from Firefinch Publishing is out now. From the bestselling author of The Secret History of the World comes an epic new history of the relationship between spiritual belief and cutting-edge science.

In The Secret History of the Universe Jonathan Black shows that from Marie Curie to today’s architects of AI, many of our greatest scientists have been guided by secret, mystical and ‘higher’ teachings towards an understanding of the universe familiar to the builders of the pyramids of Giza or the Temple at Jerusalem. He explores how these discoveries, foreshadowed and paralleled by geniuses including Carl Gustav Jung and Hilma af Klint, raise deep and urgent questions about our understanding of the universe.

Is the material universe we perceive with our senses an illusion?
Is a higher intelligence directing it?
Are events in the future already fixed?
How does modern physics show we are all connected in ways old science said were impossible?
Are different kinds of intelligence – divine and less benevolent – emerging around us?

This is a thought-provoking and incredibly well-researched book from one of the leading voices in the esoteric space, perfect for fans of Graham Hancock, Ajaz Ahmed, Whitley Streiber, Lorna Byrne and their contemporaries. Exploring the history of our universe and analysing its future, from Quantum Physics to the new High Strangeness, UAPs and UFOs to consciousness as a computer simulation, it perfectly straddles science, mystic beliefs, organised religion and humanity while being an engaging read.

Reviews

‘Mythology and ancient esoteric beliefs are now finally found in cutting edge science.’ Rick Rubin, record producer and author of The Creative Act

‘Jonathan Black’s understanding of the universe is very close to the way I see it. The Secret History of the Universe has an important message for the world’. Lorna Byrne, author of Angels in My Hair and Stairways to Heaven

‘What we have been taught to define as ‘reality’ will never look quite the same again once the implications of this breakthrough book are taken on board. Black shows that surrounding us everywhere, in all directions, from the unimaginably large to the infinitesimally small, is MYSTERY.’ Graham Hancock

‘This history carries you along on a wild ride through discoveries in science, all the while entertaining you with stories of often troubled and flamboyant geniuses. Miraculously easy to understand – even for the most scientifically illiterate people, like me’. Philip Carr-Gomm, a leader and former Chosen Chief of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Author of Druid Mysteries: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century and co-author with Richard Heygate of The Book of English Magic.

‘Jonathan Black here makes the complex clear and magnetic. He connects strands of consciousness to make a wholeness. He has a warmth and loving presence which unites head and heart on the quest for self discovery.’ Pam Young, author of Hope Street

‘Every now and then some independent thinking is needed to draw together the strands of multiple disciplines, and set up the foundations for the next round of thinking. Jonathan Black’s synthesis of advancements at the boundaries science to those of consciousness and our view of our relationship with the universe brings focus on what could arguably be a post enlightenment doctrine. The Dancing Wu Li Masters of the 21st Century!’ Professor Jordan Giddings, University College, London

‘Jonathan Black’s head-spinning The Secret History of the Universe reveals the influence – sometimes very direct – of the work of great occultists and seers on the scientists who have shaped the world we live in today. After you finish the book, you will see the world of scientific discovery and the universe in a new light, both strange and glorious.’  Conner Habib, author of Hawk Mountain, host of Against Everyone with Conner Habib

‘You have written the most brilliant book I have read for a long, long time.’ Jeffrey Mishlove, New Thinking Allowed

‘Weaving a tapestry between physics, art, literature, philosophy, mysticism and our immediate world, Jonathan Black beautifully articulates the mythic dimension in historical events.’ Daniel Kramer, theatre and opera director, former Artistic Director of English National Opera and faculty member at Harvard, Brown and NYU

‘I’ve been reviewing science fiction and fantasy books for twenty years. The reality, as shown in this book, is as exciting and strange and compelling as anything I’ve ever read’. James Buxton, author of The Wishing Tree, Pity, and I am the Blade.

‘Amusing, popular but still profound, and above all much needed in an age that has lost its way – a remarkable achievement’. James Hanning, author of Love and Deception: Philby in Beruit and The Bookseller of Hay.

‘Black’s book captures the creative interior of scientific discovery, the part that happens before the mathematics, before the experiment, before the Nobel Prize. It reminds us that the hidden mysteries are not uncovered by logic alone. They are first glimpsed in the intuitive flash, the symbolic image, the imaginative’. Robert Lomas, co-author with Christopher Knight of The Hiram Key and Uriel’s Machine and author of The Man who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, the forgotten genius of electricity.

You can find out more about Jonathan Black and The Secret History of the Universe at his Substack here.