From philosophy to feelings
LC Singh’s debut work, The Collapse of Illusions, enters the literary landscape as an unusual, deeply reflective inquiry into what it means to be human in an age saturated with information but starved of inner clarity. The book was launched at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, attracting a diverse audience-academics, creative professionals, corporate thinkers, and seekers of all kinds. This wide appeal is hardly surprising, given Singh’s own multifaceted journey as a technologist, CEO, filmmaker, and lifelong student of philosophy. Each of these identities threads itself into the book’s fabric, giving it an intellectual range that is both surprising and engrossing.
The central pursuit of the book is bold: Singh attempts to map the emotional architecture that silently shapes human behaviour, relationships, and our sense of reality. Instead of beginning with contemporary psychology, he travels to the origins of life itself. From the earliest stirrings of consciousness, he traces how human beings became meaning-making organisms-creatures who built ideas such as God, Time, Identity, the Afterlife, or even Morality to give coherence to an otherwise bewildering existence. These constructs, Singh suggests, are not mere concepts but scaffolding that holds up our emotional world.
It is from this vantage point that the book’s most original idea, EchoTime, emerges. EchoTime is the author’s attempt to explain why emotions do not abide by the linear ticking of the clock. A year of grief can feel like a lifetime, while a moment of affection can expand into an eternity. Singh draws an evocative contrast between chronological time-measured in hours and calendars-and emotional time, which stretches, compresses, and sometimes loops back on itself. He brings this to life through elegant anecdotes and gentle philosophical reflections, showing how stress ages the body, how kindness rejuvenates it, and how unresolved illusions become emotional burdens we carry for decades.
The prose is simple yet layered. Singh is not interested in giving readers prescriptive answers or offering the kind of formulaic self-help advice that floods bookstores today. Instead, he invites readers to dwell in the space between questions-to pause, observe, and gently untangle the illusions that govern their fears, joys, and decisions. The book becomes, in this sense, a mirror rather than a manual.
What distinguishes The Collapse of Illusions is its breadth of intellectual reference. Singh draws upon five decades of immersion in existentialist thought, systems theory, neuroscience, mythology, physics, and Indian spiritual traditions.
The result is an unusual synthesis: the clarity of scientific reasoning meets the lyrical cadence of spiritual inquiry. His worldview carries the imprint of Harvard’s analytical rigour and the contemplative depth one might encounter on the ghats of Banaras. This combination lends the book both precision and poetry.
The endorsements it has received highlight the breadth of its resonance. Academics such as Dr Satish K Tripathi praise its conceptual originality, while creative and corporate leaders like KV Sridhar and Chris Chapman commend its ability to illuminate the invisible emotional mechanisms that guide human life. Their responses are not mere blurbs but acknowledgements of the book’s capacity to provoke deep reflection. Thoughtful, provocative, and accessible, this work is a rewarding companion for readers interested in introspection, philosophy, and the mysteries embedded in everyday emotions. It is not a book to rush through but one to return to repeatedly — as its ideas, much like EchoTime itself, expand with every reading.
This work invites reflection, dissolving myths and labels, tracing life, perception, and emotion, offering presence, pause, and insight without preaching, guiding readers toward quiet inner clarity. It lingers in the mind long after the final page, encouraging contemplation of the unseen forces that shape our choices. Each reading reveals new layers, offering fresh perspectives on human experience. Above all, it reminds us that understanding is less about answers and more about mindful presence.
