This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Confer- ence on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS V), held at the Capitol Holiday Inn, Washington, DC, USA, from September 30 to October 4, 1985. The conference was the fifth in a series of conferences held bienni- ally. Previous conferences were held in Miinster (1977), Stanford (1979), Budapest (1981), and Osaka (1983). SIMS V was organized by Dr. R. J. Colton of the Nayal Research Lab- oratory and Dr. D. S. Simons of the National Bureau of Standards un- der the auspices of the International Organizing Committee chaired by Prof. A. Benninghoven of the Universitat Miinster. Dr. Richard F. K. Herzog served as the honorary chairman of SIMS V. While Dr. Herzog is best known to the mass spectrometry community for his theoretical development of a mass spectrometer design, known as the Mattauch-Herzog geometry, he also made several early and impor- tant contributions to SIMS. In 1949, Herzog and Viehbock published a description of the first instrument designed to study secondary ions pro- duced by bombardment from a beam of ions generated in a source that was separated from the sample by a narrow tube. Later at the GCA Cor- poration, he brought together a team of researchers including H. J. Liebl, F. G. Riidenauer, W. P. Poschenrieder and F. G. Satkiewicz, who designed and built, and carried out applied research with the first commercial ion microprobe.

In his book, the author, a physicist with more than 30 years experience in an International Research Centre, describes and analyses his "travels" in another reality, i.e. experiences in a not-everyday plane of consciousness. They are called "holotropic" i.e. aiming towards the "Whole" and are in part comparable with near-death experiences and spontaneously occurred again and again (without the use of drugs ). The struggle between the author's "physics conscience" and the recollections of that other reality is the theme that recurs throughout the book. Topics that are discussed include: *Creation, the Big Bang and the Higgs field *The position of women in the Bible and in contemporary society * Trinity, a concept common to all religions *Is God male or female, or...? A new view of God *Religion, Spirituality and Science *Space, Time and Matter. Physics and Mysticism. What is real? *Polarity, the driving force for all events on earth *Archetypes: Fertility, the Great Mother, Gaia and the New Energy *The global crisis: Imbalance between nature and technology; Egoism versus Altruism. By reading this book with the heart, the overwhelming beauty of the "higher worlds" will open step by step and the reader will behold the infinite splendour of eternal BEING.