Biocentrism is a popular science book by the American stem-cell biologist Robert Lanza, co-written with the astronomer Bob Berman and published by BenBella Books in 2009. Lanza argues — drawing on Wigner, Wheeler, and the observer-dependent features of quantum experiments — that life and consciousness are not late incidental products of a physical universe but a precondition for the universe's appearance.
Space and time, on this view, are constructs of the conscious observer rather than self-subsistent containers. The book is the first of a series followed by Beyond Biocentrism (2016), The Grand Biocentric Design (2020), and Observer (2023). Each volume develops Lanza's case that the standard assumption — inert matter preceding and producing mind — has the order of explanation backwards.
Contents
Introduction: Muddy Universe
In the Beginning There Was ... What?
The Sound of a Falling Tree
Lights and Action!
Where Is the Universe?
Bubbles in Time
When Tomorrow Comes before Yesterday
The Most Amazing Experiment
Goldilocks's Universe
No Time to Lose
Space Out
The Man Behind the Curtain
Windmills of the Mind
A Fall in Paradise
Building Blocks of Creation
What Is this Place?
Religion, Science, and Biocentrism Look at Reality
Sci-Fi Gets Real
Mystery of Consciousness
Death and Eternity
Where Do We Go from Here?
Reception
Biocentrism became a commercial hit on first release and is one of the most-discussed books at the seam between consciousness studies and contemporary physics; Deepak Chopra has been a public booster and the physicist Bernard Haisch wrote a sympathetic foreword. Physicists writing for general audiences (Sean Carroll, Lawrence Krauss) have been sharply critical, arguing that Lanza overreads the observer features of quantum mechanics, conflates "observation" with "consciousness", and provides no testable mechanism for the priority of mind. The book has nonetheless remained continuously in print and is widely cited — often alongside Hoffman's interface theory and Kastrup's idealism — in the post-physicalist literature regardless of its mainstream-physics reception.
Frequently asked
What is the central claim of Biocentrism?
Lanza and Berman argue that life and consciousness are preconditions for the universe's existence, not products of it. Drawing on quantum mechanics — in particular the observer-dependent features of the double-slit experiment and entanglement — they propose that space and time are constructs of the observing mind rather than self-subsistent containers.
How does Biocentrism use quantum mechanics?
The book uses the observer effect in quantum physics — the fact that measurement influences outcomes — as central evidence. Lanza argues that "observer" in this context implies conscious awareness, and that this makes consciousness foundational to physical reality rather than an emergent by-product of it.
How has Biocentrism been received by physicists?
Critically. Physicists including Sean Carroll and Lawrence Krauss have argued that Lanza conflates the technical term "observer" (any measurement device) with conscious observation, and that the book provides no testable physical mechanism. The book remains widely read outside mainstream physics, particularly in consciousness-studies and post-physicalist discussions.