Soul Dust
Soul Dust

Author: Nicholas Humphrey

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-11-11

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0691156379

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A radically new view of the nature and purpose of consciousness How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? And why do we value it so highly? In Soul Dust, the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us and makes us feel special and transcendent. Thus consciousness paves the way for spirituality, and allows us, as human beings, to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what Humphrey calls the "soul niche." Tightly argued, intellectually gripping, and a joy to read, Soul Dust provides answers to the deepest questions. It shows how the problem of consciousness merges with questions that obsess us all—how life should be lived and the fear of death. Resting firmly on neuroscience and evolutionary theory, and drawing a wealth of insights from philosophy and literature, Soul Dust is an uncompromising yet life-affirming work—one that never loses sight of the majesty and wonder of consciousness.

Soul, Mind and Brain from Descartes to Cognitive Science
Soul, Mind and Brain from Descartes to Cognitive Science

Author: Paolo Pecere

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 3030514633

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This interdisciplinary book ties the historical work of Descartes to his successors through current research and critical overviews on the neuroscience of consciousness, the brain, and cognition. This text is the first historical survey to focus on the cohesions and discontinuities between historical and contemporary thinkers working in philosophy, physiology, psychology, and neuroscience. The book introduces and analyzes early discussions of consciousness, such as: metaphysical alternatives to scientific explanations of consciousness and its connection to brain activity; claims about the possibilities and limits of neuroscientific accounts of consciousness and cognition; and the proposition of a “non-reductive naturalism” concerning phenomenal consciousness and rationality. The author assesses the contributions of early philosophers and scientists on brain, consciousness and cognition, among them: Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Newton, Haller, Kant, Fechner, Helmholtz and du Bois-Reymond. The work of these pioneers is related to that of modern researchers in physiology, psychology, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, including: Freud, Hilary Putnam, Herbert Feigl, Gerald Edelman, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Daniel Dennett and David Chalmers, amongst others. This text appeals to researchers and advanced students in the field.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Author: Julian Jaynes

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000-08-15

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 0547527543

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National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Kingdom Triangle
Kingdom Triangle

Author: J. P. Moreland

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2009-07-22

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 031015331X

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J.P. Moreland—Christian philosopher, theologian, and apologist—issues a call to recapture the drama and power of kingdom living—to cultivate a revolution of Evangelical life, spirituality, thought, and Spirit-led power. Drawing insights from the early church, he unpacks three essential ingredients of this revolution: Recovery of the Christian mind. Renovation of Christian spirituality. Restoration of the power of the Holy Spirit. Western society is in crisis: the result of our culture's embrace of naturalism and postmodernism, and a biblical worldview has been pushed to the margins. Christians have been strongly influenced by these trends, with the result that their personal lives often reflect the surrounding culture more than the way of Christ, and the church's transforming influence on society has waned as a result. Kingdom Triangle is divided into two major sections: The first examines and provides a critique of secular worldviews and shows how they have ushered in the current societal crisis. The second lays out a strategy for the Christian community to regain the potency of kingdom life and influence in the world. Moreland believes that evangelical Christianity can mature and lead the surrounding society out of the meaningless morass it finds itself in with humility and vision. With clear insight, he puts the thoughtful Christian in a position to understand our current cultural struggle and to return to a responsible presentation of "the way of Christ" as not just a way of right living, but also a way of knowledge and meaningful life.

The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul
The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul

Author: Paul M. Churchland

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780262531429

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This work summarizes results from neuroscience and recent work with artificial neural networks that together suggest a unified set of answers to questions about how the brain actually works; how it sustains a thinking, feeling, dreaming self; and how it sustains a self-conscious person.

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul
The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul

Author: Simona Ginsburg

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 665

ISBN-13: 0262039303

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A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition from organisms that lacked consciousness to those with consciousness—to minimal subjective experiencing, or, as Aristotle described it, “the sensitive soul”? In this book, Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka propose a new theory about the origin of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the transition to basic consciousness. Using a methodology similar to that used by scientists when they identified the transition from non-life to life, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest a set of criteria, identify a marker for the transition to minimal consciousness, and explore the far-reaching biological, psychological, and philosophical implications. After presenting the historical, neurobiological, and philosophical foundations of their analysis, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose that the evolutionary marker of basic or minimal consciousness is a complex form of associative learning, which they term unlimited associative learning (UAL). UAL enables an organism to ascribe motivational value to a novel, compound, non-reflex-inducing stimulus or action, and use it as the basis for future learning. Associative learning, Ginsburg and Jablonka argue, drove the Cambrian explosion and its massive diversification of organisms. Finally, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose symbolic language as a similar type of marker for the evolutionary transition to human rationality—to Aristotle's “rational soul.”

Where Does Mind End?
Where Does Mind End?

Author: Marc Seifer

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-11-28

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 1594778043

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A new comprehensive model of mind and its nearly infinite possibilities • Recasts psychology as a vehicle not for mental health but for higher consciousness • Shows that we have consciousness for a reason; it is humanity’s unique contribution to the cosmos • Integrates the work of Freud, Jung, Gurdjieff, Tony Robbins, Rudolf Steiner, the Dalai Lama as well as ESP, the Kabbalah, tarot, dreams, and kundalini yoga The culmination of 30 years of research, Where Does Mind End? takes you on an inward journey through the psyche­--exploring the highest states of consciousness; the insights and theories of ancient and modern philosophers, psychologists, and mystics; the power of dreams, chi energy, tarot, and kundalini yoga; and proof of telepathy and other facets of parapsychology--to explain the mystery of consciousness and construct a comprehensive model of mind and its nearly infinite possibilities. Starting with the ancients and early philosophers such as Zoroaster, Aristotle, Descartes, and Leibniz, the author examines models of mind that take into account divine and teleological components, the problem and goal of self-understanding, the mind/body conundrum, and holographic paradigms. Seifer then moves to modern times to explain the full range of Freud’s psychoanalytic model of mind, exploring such ideas as the ego, superego, and id; the unconscious; creativity; and self-actualization. Using Freud’s psychoanalytical model as framework, he reveals an overarching theory of mind and consciousness that incorporates such diverse concepts as Jung’s collective psyche; ESP; the Kabbalah; Gurdjieff’s ideas on behaviorism and the will; the philosophies of Wilhelm Reich, P. D. Ouspensky, and Nikola Tesla; the personality redevelopment strategies of Tony Robbins; and the Dalai Lama’s and Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on the highest states of consciousness. Recasting psychology as a vehicle not for mental health but for higher consciousness, he shows that by casting off the mechanical mental operation of day-to-day life, we naturally attain the self-integration to which traditional psychology has long aspired. By entering the true path to fulfillment of the soul’s will, we help the planet by transforming ourselves and raising our energy to a higher realm.

Mind Before Matter
Mind Before Matter

Author: Trish Pfeiffer

Publisher: Iff Books

Published: 2007-09

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 9781846940576

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Materialism is the dominant worldview in the West today. But it is only one worldview, and it doesn't completely work, even, ironically, being gradually undermined by the science that gave rise to it. Containing the last unpublished writing of Pulitzer prize-winning author and scholar, the late John Mack, this anthology of essays from significant figures in the world of science and consciousness studies sketches the framework for a new model of realit--one based on the primacy of consciousness rather than of matter. It is a model we will need for survival on this planet. Mind Before Matter represents the first concerted salvo in a debate that could affect the worldview held by the modern, dominant culture.

Spiritual Science, Higher Conscious Thinking, and How to Access the Universal Consciousness
Spiritual Science, Higher Conscious Thinking, and How to Access the Universal Consciousness

Author: Aage Nost

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Published: 2015-01-29

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9781478748632

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CONCEPTS WRITTEN ABOUT IN THIS BOOK How the universe downloaded all its knowledge into my mind - How to design your life experience the way you want it to be, before you have to live it - until now, mostly undiscovered Universal Success Principles - Creation - What was created at the "Big Bang" - Who was "Jesus," and what did he look like, according to the obscure Roman writings, and other non-biblical records? - Who / what is "God"? - - - Who really created the first Bible? - Who / what are you? - Who created you? - What is the Physical world made of? - What is Universal Consciousness? - How to use the right techniques to access the Universal Consciousness to manifest good things in your life - "Pearls of wisdom" and Success principles you can only learn by talking to Billionaires - How the Universal Consciousness speaks to you - What is the Universal Mind? - What is your "Mind"? - What is the "Power of the Mind" - How does the Subconscious Mind work? - Memory - Perfect recall of memory - How does the Super Conscious Mind work? - What is thought? - Is your life predetermined by Fate? - How does "Free Will" work for you? - What is Spiritual creation? - What is Physical creation? - Who are the "Guardians of the Soul"? - Quantum Physics explaining creation, made simple, without the equations - Can "God" be "good" and "evil" at the same time? - What really brings out "evil"? - Why do most prayers go unanswered? - How to pray - What is the language in the Spiritual world? - What is time? - Can we manipulate time? - Time travel is possible - Starting a new "Time line" - What is hidden in the future for mankind? - Telepathy - Thought Transference - Was the "Big Bang" 14 Billion years ago, an "accident"? - What is Love? - You can transfer Love to someone else - What is "Heaven"? - What is the "Great Sea of Light"? - What is the "Soul"? - Soul memory - Pre-birth memory - Where is our real "Home"? - Awakening - Illumination - Ascension - Immortality - What is Physical "death"? - Where is "Heaven"? - There is no Spiritual "death" - Reincarnation - KARMA - The importance of Forgiveness - Who was the "Teacher of Righteousness"? - The Essenes - How do you know when you are on the right Spiritual path? - The meaning of life - and more - much more.