From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams —“an elegant and moving paean to our spiritual quest for meaning in an age of science" ( The New York Times Book Review). • The basis for the public television series SEARCHING with Alan Lightman. As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a scientific view of the world. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself—an eternal unity, something absolute and immaterial. The result is an inspired, lyrical meditation from the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams that explores these seemingly contradictory impulses. Lightman draws on sources ranging from Saint Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's theory of relativity, and gives us a profound inquiry into the human desire for truth and meaning, and a journey along the different paths of religion and science that become part of that quest. This small but provocative book explores the tension between our yearning for certainty and permanence versus the modern scientific view that all things in the physical world are uncertain and impermanent. “An elegant and moving paean to our spiritual quest for meaning in an age of science.” — The New York Times Book Review “Delightful. . . [Lightman’s] elegant and evocative prose draws in the reader.” — The Wall Street Journal “Once again, this deft wordsmith has effortlessly straddled the divide between the hardest of the hard sciences and the nebulous world of existential doubts and longings.” — Nature   “A lyrical and illuminating inquiry. . . . [Emerges] with that rare miracle of insight at the meeting point of the lucid and the luminous.” — Brain Pickings “Contemplative, elegant and open-minded, [ Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine ] is an engaging companion to understanding our longing for connection with the infinite.” — Charleston Post and Courier   “This is a volume meant for savoring, for readerly ruminations, for thinking about and exploring one essay at a time. Lightman’s illuminating language and crisp imagery aim to ignite a sense of wonder in any reader who’s ever pondered the universe, our world, and the nature of human consciousness.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)   “An illuminating, deeply human book.” — Booklist   “Lightman’s artful and questioning narrative style easily conveys complex concepts from physics to philosophy. Both believers and nonbelievers will find much to ponder in this discussion of science and religion, which reads like a soothing meditation.” — Library Journal ALAN LIGHTMAN is the author of seven novels, including the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams and The Diagnosis , a finalist for the National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He is the host of the public television series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science . He is a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. For many years my wife and I have spent our summers on an island in Maine. It’s a small island, only about thirty acres in size, and there are no bridges or ferries connecting it to the mainland. Consequently, each of the six families who live on the island has their own boat. Some of us were not nautical people at first, but over the years we have all learned by necessity. Most challenging are trips to the island at night, when the land masses are only dim shapes in the distance and you must rely on compass headings or faint beacons to avoid crashing into rocks or losing your way. Nevertheless, some of us do attempt the crossing at night.         My story concerns a particular summer night, in the wee hours, when I had just rounded the south end of the island and was carefully motoring toward my dock. No one was out on the water but me. It was a moonless night, and quiet. The only sound I could hear was the soft churning of the engine of my boat. Far from the distracting lights of the mainland, the sky vibrated with stars. Taking a chance, I turned off my running lights, and it got even darker. Then I turned off my engine. I lay down in the boat and looked up. A very dark night sky seen from the ocean is a mystical experience. After a few minutes, my world had dissolved into that star-littered sky. The boat disappeared. My body disappeared. And I found myself falling into infinity. A feeling came over me I’d not experienced before. Perhaps a sensation experienced by the ancients at Font-de-Gaume. I felt an overwhelming connection to the stars, as if I were part of them. And the vast expanse of time—extending from the far distant past long before I was born and then into the far distant future long after I will die—seemed compressed to a dot. I felt connected not only to the stars but to all of nature, and to