In the preface to the first edition of Masks of Universe I wrote: “At first I thought this book would take me only a few months to write. After all, the basic idea was simple, and only a few words should suffice to make it clear and convincing. But soon this illusion was shattered. A few months grew into three years, and now I realize that thirty years would not suffice. But enough! Other work presses, and life is too short.” Here I am, not thirty years but almost two decades later writing the preface to the second edition and struggling again to make clear the “simple idea.”

The idea rests on the distinction between Universe and universes. The Universe by definition is everything and includes us experiencing and thinking about it. The universes are the models of the Universe that we construct to explain our observations and experiences. Beneath the deceptive simplicity of this idea lies a little-explored realm of thought.

No person can live in a society of intelligent members unless equipped with grand ideas of the world around. These grand ideas – or cosmic formulations – establish the universe in which that society lives. The universes that human beings devise and in which they live, or believe they live, organize and give meaning to their experiences.