For many years he was associated with physicist and philosopher David Bohm; the two wrote the book Science, Order, and Creativity together, and Peat later wrote Bohm's biography, Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm. In the context of this biography, Peat emphasized how Bohm had worked intensely on finding a mathematical expression for his vision of an interconnected, enfolded implicate order, from which an explicate order, the world of classical physics unfolds. Bohm also aimed at re-introducing time as a dynamic entity. According to Peat, the use of the term Bohmian mechanics for his theory "would have shocked Dave [Bohm] somewhat": what was happening with the ideas of Bohm's and Hiley's theory, similarly as what had occurred with those of Grassman, Hamilton and Clifford before, was that physicists left the fundamental ideas aside and merely made use of them as an easy manner of performing calculations.[3]
While living in Canada, Peat organized discussion circles between Western scientists and Native American elders, together with Leroy Little Bear[4] who later obtained the 2003 National Aboriginal Achievement Award, now the Indspire Awards, for Education. While living in London, Peat organized a conference between artists and scientists. In 1996 he moved from Canada to Pari, Italy.[5]
In 2000, he founded the Pari Center for New Learning, a center dedicated to education, learning and research, together with writer and researcher Maureen Doolan.[6] The activities of the Pari Center comprise residential courses and conferences and possibilities for scholars and researchers to spend extended periods as residents in Pari.[7]
Peat wrote on the subjects of science, art, and spirituality and proposed the notions of creative suspension and gentle action. He authored or co-authored many books including Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind, Seven Life Lessons of Chaos, Turbulent Mirror, Gentle Action, and Pathways of Chance. His most recent book was A Flickering Reality: Cinema and the Nature of Reality.[citation needed]
Gentle Action
A focus of Peat's recent work was the concept of gentle action. This approach, as envisaged by Peat, emphasizes a certain manner of action that is aimed at creating change in an effective manner. The approach calls for tolerating uncertainty yet suspending action at its onset in order to allow an overall view to emerge. It emphasizes the value of small-scale, iterative actions compared to large, single-step interventions.[8] In his book of the same name, published 2008, Peat points out connections of his approach to earlier concepts, emphasizing the importance of active listening and a similarity to the concept of Wu wei.
Peat's gentle action has been cited together with Otto Scharmer's Theory U and Arnold Mindell's worldwork as approaches by which individuals, groups, organisations and communities can deal with complex issues.[9]
Lighting the Seventh Fire: The Spiritual Ways, Healing, and Science of the Native American, 1994, Carol Publishing, ISBN1-55972-249-5
The Philosopher's Stone: Chaos, Synchronicity, and the Hidden Order of the World, 1991, ISBN0-553-35329-2
Einstein's Moon: Bell's Theorem and the Curious Quest for Quantum Reality, 1990, Contemporary Books, ISBN0-8092-4512-4
Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness, 1989, with John Briggs, Harper & Row, 1990 Harper Perennial paperback ISBN0-06-091696-6
Cold Fusion: The Making of a Scientific Controversy, 1989, Contemporary Books, ISBN0-8092-4243-5
Quantum Implications: Essays in Honour of David Bohm, by F. David Peat (Editor) and Basil Hiley (Editor), Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London & New York, 1987
Science, Order and Creativity, 1987 with David Bohm, Routledge, 2nd ed. 2000: ISBN0-415-17182-2
Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind, 1987, Bantam, ISBN0-553-34676-8
^Look for Truth - No Matter Where It Takes You, Interview of F. David Peat by Simeon Alev (from Internet Archive, 18 October 2016). Originally published in: What is Enlightenment? Spring/Summer 1997, Volume 6, Number 1.
F. David Peat, California Institute of Integral Studies
Look for Truth - No Matter Where It Takes You, Interview of F. David Peat by Simeon Alev (from Internet Archive, 18 October 2016). Originally published in: What is Enlightenment? Spring/Summer 1997, Volume 6, Number 1