According to Eliade, the shamanic ladder is the earliest version of the idea of an axis of the world, which connects the different levels of the cosmos, and is found in numerous creation myths in the form of a tree.

This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.

Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.

If one stretches out the DNA contained in the nucleus of a human cell, one obtains a two-yard-long thread that is only ten atoms wide. This thread is a billion times longer than its own width. Relatively speaking, it is as if your little finger stretched from Paris to Los Angeles.

The global network of DNA-based life emits ultra-weak radio waves, which are currently at the limit of measurement, but which we can nonetheless perceive...in hallucinations and dreams.