This book has been prepared from dialogues between a great religious teacher and a leading physicist ask the question: 'Has humanity taken a wrong turn which has brought about endless division, conflict and destruction?' J. Krishnamurti suggests that the wrong turn lies in our inability to face what we actually are and our need to impose instead an illusory goal of what we must become.

Krishnamurti sees the nature of man's thought as self-centred, confused and ultimately destructive, and maintains that the only way to free ourselves is through insight that goes beyond normal perceptions. This insight is achieved only by a mind that is silent, empty of thought and capable of moment-by-moment awareness.