Consciousness Books - Page 6

The Dreamer's Dictionary: Translations in the Universal Language of Mind

Barbara Condron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

okay, but a lot missing 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

There is too much left unsaid in this book for a novice...for instance, it will list a symbol such as "run" but not really give you clues as to what it means if someone is chasing you in your dream or you are just running...maybe i'm just a novice, but i need a little more information to understand the symbolism.

The BEST dream dictionary 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is THE BEST dream interpretation dictionary ever. I have given ten as gifts since I discovered it several years ago -- and everyone who's received it has raaaaaaved about it.

The foreward is a must-read, as it builds the credibility for this amazing book. In it, author Barbara Condron describes her passion for defining dream images as something that began in childhood.

In Section I, Condron describes that this "will serve as a reference book giving for words of one language, English, equivalents in another, the language of mind. ... For instance, an apple in your dream signifies knowledge, a baby represents a new idea, and a house represents your mind."

Not only does Condron define the image "in the language of mind" and give a dictionary definition, but she has a section called "thoughts to consider" that is so right on, it is unbelievable.

If you love looking at dream time for guidance in your waking time, this is a must for your library.

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness

Roger Penrose

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Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A New York Times bestseller when it appeared in 1989, Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind was universally hailed as a marvelous survey of modern physics as well as a brilliant reflection on the human mind, offering a new perspective on the scientific landscape and a visionary glimpse of the possible future of science. Now, in Shadows of the Mind, Penrose offers another exhilarating look at modern science as he mounts an even more powerful attack on artificial intelligence. But perhaps more important, in this volume he points the way to a new science, one that may eventually explain the physical basis of the human mind.
Penrose contends that some aspects of the human mind lie beyond computation. This is not a religious argument (that the mind is something other than physical) nor is it based on the brain's vast complexity (the weather is immensely complex, says Penrose, but it is still a computable thing, at least in theory). Instead, he provides powerful arguments to support his conclusion that there is something in the conscious activity of the brain that transcends computation--and will find no explanation in terms of present-day science. To illuminate what he believes this "something" might be, and to suggest where a new physics must proceed so that we may understand it, Penrose cuts a wide swathe through modern science, providing penetrating looks at everything from Turing computability and Godel's incompleteness, via Schrodinger's Cat and the Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-testing problem, to detailed microbiology. Of particular interest is Penrose's extensive examination of quantum mechanics, which introduces some new ideas that differ markedly from those advanced in The Emperor's New Mind, especially concerning the mysterious interface where classical and quantum physics meet. But perhaps the most interesting wrinkle in Shadows of the Mind is Penrose's excursion into microbiology, where he examines cytoskeletons and microtubules, minute substructures lying deep within the brain's neurons. (He argues that microtubules--not neurons--may indeed be the basic units of the brain, which, if nothing else, would dramatically increase the brain's computational power.) Furthermore, he contends that in consciousness some kind of global quantum state must take place across large areas of the brain, and that it within microtubules that these collective quantum effects are most likely to reside.
For physics to accommodate something that is as foreign to our current physical picture as is the phenomenon of consciousness, we must expect a profound change--one that alters the very underpinnings of our philosophical viewpoint as to the nature of reality. Shadows of the Mind provides an illuminating look at where these profound changes may take place and what our future understanding of the world may be.

The Origins and History of Consciousness (Mythos Books)

Erich Neumann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A profound linking of ego psychology and world mythology 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 22 people found this review helpful.

A prominent psychologist, knitting together the elements of Jung's psychological theory and some new elements of his own, shows how the great cycles of world myth depict the hard-won development of ego-consciousness in humanity, and how this development is recapitulated in each individual's life.

Twenty-six years ago, when I first read this book, Jung's ideas were much more popular than they are now. In this era of cognitive science and its focus on the physiological underpinnings of psychology, there doesn't seem to be room for Jung's collective unconscious, its archetypes, and their polymorphous manifestations in myth and symbol. But this, I think, is more a matter of fashion than any reflection on the quality of Jung's thinking, which was vast, deep, and bold.

Neumann, a student of Jung, with erudition comparable to that of his teacher, synthesizes Jung's ideas into a unified theory of psychology around his own new concept of "centroversion", his name for the integrative force of the organism--its survival instinct in the widest sense. He shows how ego-consciousness--the self-aware "I" of the modern human being--is the preeminent organ of centroversion, and that, like other, physical, organs, it has had its own evolutionary history.

This history, reflected in the structure and behavior of the modern ego, forms the deep story underlying world mythology. In Part I of the book, Neumann shows how the birth and emancipation of the ego is reflected in three great cycles of myth: the creation myth, the hero myth, and what he calls the transformation myth, which is the apotheosis of the hero. The primordial mythological image is that of the "uroboros"--the serpent biting its own tail, symbolizing the womblike plenum of the unconscious, in which consciousness exists only as a potential. It flickers in and out of existence, almost like the virtual particles of modern nuclear physics. As the germ of consciousness gains strength, it comes to see the nurturing womb of the unconscious in the symbol of the Great Mother. The moment of the ego's realization of its own autonomous existence is mythologized as the Separation of the World Parents--a universal motif, in which the hero creates the manifest world by pushing his parents apart to form Heaven and Earth.

Next come the hero myths: the birth of the hero and his struggle with the dragon, which represents the negative aspects of both Mother and Father. Neumann shows how the great myth of the dragon, hoarding its treasure and holding a princess captive, has a deep and precise meaning for the development of consciousness.

Then, as though all that were not enough, he moves on to Part II: a discussion of the developmental stages of the inidividual ego in light of its symbolic development in human culture. Each of us, man and woman, undergoes these mythological dramas in our quest for consciousness and identity, with the climaxes of the struggle representing the familiar crises of development at characteristic ages.

Neumann concludes with a shorter examination of the crisis of modern Western man, which he sees as a symptom of the overemphasis of ego-consciousness at the expense of its relationship with the life-giving unconscious, resulting in a split between them. The results, he thinks, can only be disastrous, and we have seen some of them in the world calamities of the 20th century.

It's hard to give a sense of the tremendous reach of this book. In this respect it has few peers. As I read it this time I thought it would make an admirable companion-volume to Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", published in the same year, 1949.

I have no real criticisms of this book. Some contemporary readers might take exception to Neumann's approach to the masculine and the feminine in psychology, since these terms have become so charged. But the function and role, indeed the very definition and origin of masculine and feminine--which are aspects of everyone's psyche--are not taken for granted here; on the contrary, they are among the phenomena he examines and explains. In a real sense, he is saying that consciousness was born of the great polarity of masculine and feminine, and I find it exciting to imagine what the next turns in that great drama might be.

Neumann also takes some trouble, here and there, to point out what he regards as the errors of Freudian psychology, and shows many Freudian concepts, such as the Oedipus complex, to be special cases of more general principles that he explains. In general he is dismissive of Freudian psychology.

Perhaps the highest praise for Neumann's work comes in Jung's foreword to the book, in which the great psychologist expresses what amounts to envy for Neumann's achievement. For Neumann has taken the ideas developed by Jung over decades of observation and research, and fashioned a single, synthetic whole that illuminates the very core of our inmost being, both as individuals and as a race. He has brought together psychology and mythology more completely and more convincingly than any other writer I've encountered.

Editorial Review:

The first of Erich Neumann's works to be translated into English, this eloquent book draws on a full range of world mythology to show that individual consciousness undergoes the same archetypal stages of development as has human consciousness as a whole. Neumann, one of Jung's most creative students and a renowned practitioner of analytical psychology in his own right, shows how the stages begin and end with the symbol of the Uroboros, or tail-eating serpent. The intermediate stages are projected in the universal myths of the World Creation, Great Mother, Separation of the World Parents, Birth of the Hero, Slaying of the Dragon, Rescue of the Captive, and Transformation and Deification of the Hero. Throughout the sequence the Hero is the evolving ego consciousness.

The Adventure of Self-Discovery: I, Dimensions of Consciousness : Ii, New Perspectives in Psychotherapy (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic)

Stanislav Grof

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hyperventilation as a Therapy Towards Wholeness and Healing 4 out of 5 stars.
41 of 43 people found this review helpful.

In THE ADVENTURE OF SELF-DISCOVERY, Stanislav Grof, M.D., tells how group hyperventilation is a "powerful and effective method of stress reduction and leads to emotional and psychosomatic healing" (p. 176).

The typical hyperventilation session begins with physical and emotional tensions surfacing. Continued fast, deep breathing brings intensification of physical and emotional pain until the suffering reaches a climax, followed by sudden release, with subsequent deep relaxation and even bliss. During the termination phase, any residual tensions can be released by massage of the painful area. In addition, when a breather seems helpless and vulnerable, and is clearly regressed to early childhood--perhaps even curled into a fetal position--then supportive mother-like physical contact such as rocking and cuddling can have "truly remarkable" (p. 226) therapeutic results, especially in persons with an emotionally deprived childhood.

In early breathing sessions, most people dramatically relive their birth. Later sessions bring transpersonal experiences such as reliving fetal traumas, and feeling healing streams of Kundalini-like energy flowing through one's body; in everyday life, synchronicities often become more common. There is a definite trend over many breathing sessions from difficult, negative episodes to more positive, healing experiences.

Besides describing the technique of group hyperventilation therapy in detail, the book outlines the healing mechanisms involved. The therapeutic value of reliving childhood traumas, of the death-rebirth process, and of transpersonal experiences, are all explained.

The excerpts from breathwork sessions bring the text to life. For example, one woman's experience: "I stayed with my fear and my tantrum....I resumed the deep breathing....I pushed and strained and yelled. Images of struggling to get out of the womb, out of the crib, out of my confining life situation came to me. After maybe twenty minutes, I was quiet again....I...thanked them for helping me find God again....I had never felt so connected, after feeling so alone in my life" (p. 215).

The two dozen or so illustrations from breathing sessions also round out the picture of what this form of therapy is actually like. For example, one painting is of a person lying staked to the ground while overhead a beautiful swanlike bird takes flight, with the sun shining on the horizon in the background; the caption reads, " a powerful death-rebirth eperience".

For those who wish to try hyperventilation on their own, I recommend patience and persistence; I succeeded only after a couple of dozen tries over a period of several weeks (I simply had not been breathing fast and deep enough). One way I can tell when it's working is I get a buzzing/vibrating sensation in my head after I've been hyperventilating for a couple of minutes. Pursing one's lips into a tiny opening, as if whistling, may be more effective at moving a large volume of air in and out of the lungs more quickly (rather than holding one's mouth wide open). Also, alternating a period of hyperventilation with a period of holding one's breath works well for me (Grof mentions this technique).

I have used hyperventilating alone by myself to reduce stress, as well as to resolve several severe panic attacks over a period of several months about two years ago.

It is worth noting that while hyperventilating alone by oneself does have some therapeutic effects, hyperventilating with a group is "much more powerful" due to the "catalytic energy field" (p. 199) that develops. I tried hyperventilating in a group only once (transportation and cost limited my access to the nearest group), and it was with a non-certified facilitator. While it definitely was more powerful than alone, my experience was a mixed one, and I recommend a Grof-certified "holotropic breathwork" facilitator for best results.

Two other books I recommend: Stanislav Grof's masterpeice BEYOND THE BRAIN; BIRTH, DEATH, AND TRANSCENDENCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, presenting the author's radical new view of the human psyche, its disorders, and its potential for growth, based on his seventeen years as a pioneering LSD psychotherapist; and Sandra Ingerman's SOUL RETRIEVAL: MENDING THE FRAGMENTED SELF, a modern shamanic view of finding one's lost "inner child" soul parts, which has helped me understand my own returning-inner-child dreams, and begin to welcome my lost sub-personalities (which split off due to childhood traumas) home again.

The mystery of being (Gateway ed. 6054-55)

Gabriel Marcel

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Intersubjectivity is the answer 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 25 people found this review helpful.

There was a time in my life when I read and reread this work. This does not mean that I understood it fully. But the idea of 'intersubjectivity' and that it is through being with and understanding others that we become most truly human is one which had great influence on me. It took me away as I was looking to be taken away from a kind of philosophical solipsism a kind of sense that all should rest only in 'I' and 'I' that would prove upon reflection 'unstable as water'. Marcel is a humane thinker, one who tries to take us from the celebration of Nothingness and Death to the celebration of life in community with others. I doubt that he is read much today in the English- language world, but to my mind he is a very valuable and helpful thinker . A mensch of philosophy.

Editorial Review:

Faith and Reality, the second volume of The Mystery of Being, expands Marcel's philosophical quest for the means of transcending our "broken world" to the questions, "What is Being?" and "What is the relation of existence to religious consciousness?" Reissued by arrangement with Regnery Gateway, Inc.

Up from Eden

Ken Wilber

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Painful History of Mankind- and a way Beyond... 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 20 people found this review helpful.

After the success of his initial works (The Spectrum of Consciousness and No Boundary), Ken Wilber gave his "spectrum" model a serious reappraisal and found it woefully lacking. It seemed that he had made a mistake that he goes on to chide others for in his later books- he confused prerational myths with transcendental truths, and confused the spiritual fall with the scientific fall. He makes up for his previous errors with "Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution".

In UFE, Wilber covers the historical development of consciousness, from the animalistic/uroboric level to the typhonic, and then to the development of the Solar ego, the disassociation of the mind from the body, and the development of the rational mind. But he takes it a step further as well, discussing the development of transrational consciousness throughout history, and discussing the differences between magical fetishism and psychic Nirmanakaya and between mythic religion and subtle archetype. Drawing upon Freud, Jung, Campbell, and a ream of Anthropoligical and Archaeological data, Wilber paints us a fascinating picture of society, it's history, and it's discontents. Lastly, he finishes the book by discussing his ideas for a politics of the transrational, in a fascinating chapter titled "Republicans, Democrats, and Mystics".

As far as Wilber's older books go, this is one not to be missed. Although some concepts are better elucidated in Wilber's later "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality", nowhere does he draw on more anthropological support for his theories than in "Up From Eden".

Editorial Review:

Wilber traces humanity's cultural and spiritual evolution. New Foreword by the author.

The Hidden Meaning of Dreams

Craig Hamilton-Parker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In just a few hours, you will be able to interpret the hidden messages revealed to you in your sleep. Begin by mastering techniques to remember your dreams and learn to keep and use a dream diary. See how to use dreams to solve problems, explore past lives, and look into the future. Extraordinary color illustrations conjure up the mystical images of your dreams. The bulk of this intriguing volume is an alphabetical directory of the psychological and mystical meanings of various dream symbols, from angels to zoos. For example, if you dream of being chased, it reflects feelings of insecurity. A dream that takes place on an island may indicate a need for personal space. A dream of rabbits running in green grass is a good omen. A ship in dock or on a calm sea may promise happiness in love. By deciphering the language of your dreams, you can achieve greater spiritual awareness and lasting happiness. Includes the meanings of such common dreams as: * Appearing naked in a public place * Falling * Flying through the air * Being back in school * Having your teeth fall out 144 pages (all in color), 7 1/2 x 9 1/8.

The Natural Mind: A Revolutionary Approach to the Drug Problem

Andrew T. Weil

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent reading 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book presents both pros and cons of drugs and drug use, and goes in depth into altered states of consciousness and why people seek them. It is not just a book about drugs, or a journal of the author's own drug experience. It is, rather, a compelling look at human nature. Dr. Weil provides many clear examples to support the magnitude of information this book contains. This book answered a lot of questions I had, and the author simply and clearly explains that a different way of thinking, an altered state of consciousness, is not a bad thing.

Editorial Review:

A bestseller in its original edition, The Natural Mind was Dr. Andrew Weil's first book and the philosophical basis for all of his resulting beliefs and tenets on health, healing, and the mind. Now completely revised and updated for the twenty-first century, The Natural Mind suggests that the desire to alter consciousness periodically is an innate, normal human drive. A landmark in his career, and in America's approach to the drug problem in general, The Natural Mind is essential reading for anyone interested in Andrew Weil's philosophy of integrative medicine and optimum health.

Cosmic consciousness

Richard Maurice Bucke

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Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Let There Be Light 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 22 people found this review helpful.

About 12-14 years back I was at the beach with a friend of mine and it was a grey, drizzly day to say the least. But because I love the beach, I was going to make the best of it no matter what. So I dug a body length trench in the sand, draped my towel over the trench I had just dug, laid down and closed my eyes and just began repeating quietly to myself, "Let there be Light...let there be Light..." I really wasn't going for anything in particular I was just repeating this line from scripture because I was in a good place, but I wanted to feel an even deeper connection to life.

And as I settled into a deep meditative state, I let go of the mantra I had been repeating to myself and just let myself feel Life within me and all around me. Ahhhhhh...I can still feel those wonderful, alive feelings. It was like my body was buzzing from head to toe.

I came out of my meditative state and sat up. During those 30 minutes of meditating, the grey, overcast day seemed to give way to beautiful, golden light. I had never seen it so bright. Everything seemed to be lit up from the inside. I turned to my friend and I said, "Wow...it sure did get incredibly bright out here all of a sudden..."

He looked at me like I had just flipped my lid and said, "What are you talking about?"

"The sun...it's so bright. Everything looks as though it is awash in golden light..."

Again with the look, "John...it is very overcast out. In fact, I was going to ask you if you just wanted to go home..."

And then slowly the golden light began to slowly fade from my sight and everything began to dingy gray. So where did that light come from? Was I just imagining it? It all seemed so real...

I had, what Maurice Bucke calls, a "cosmic consciousness experience". You see, the Light I saw was not coming from the outside, but from the inside and I believe that we have all had one at one time or another and if we haven't, we will...but please, do not dismiss the experience. Like I said, I had one over fourteen years ago and it changed my life forever. I am so glad that I just didn't toss it aside. I'm glad that I was given just a little glimpse to how things really are.

I believe that the whole universe is alive with Light...that in Truth, the only thing that is real, is the Light. Everything and everyone proceeds from this Light. But we forget. Oh, man do we forget. This Light remains deep in our subconscious minds. At a deep, deep level we know that we came from it, but we fall into a sleep...a trance...and we begin to think that everything is dull and leaden, mundane and ordinary...

This book will excite you in a very deep way...but again, you have to be open to it. I used to try so hard to get my friends' and family to share my passion for these things, but they weren't ready...and now I know that it's okay...now I know that they will have their own experiences of the Light. Maybe in this life...maybe in the next...I don't know when, but I don't need to know when...

This book fueled my passion to become more and more acquainted with Higher Laws. Not so I could escape this world but so I could be in the world but still know in the back of my mind and in the front of my heart that I am not of it.

If you are into metaphysics and spirituality, you must add this classic to your collection. It's amazing...but then again, so are you...


Peace & Blessings

Editorial Review:

A classic modern study of the mystical experience, this pioneering work remains as valuable today as it was upon its 1901 publication. Prompted by his firsthand experience, the author explores the phenomenon of transcendent realization, or illumination. Numerous case studies offer intriguing, real-life particulars of individuals who experienced personal epiphanies.

Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine

J. Storrs Hall

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now advancing at such a rapid clip that it has the potential to transform our world in ways both exciting and disturbing. Computers have already been designed that are capable of driving cars, playing soccer, and finding and organizing information on the Web in ways that no human could. With each new gain in processing power, will scientists soon be able to create supercomputers that can read a newspaper with understanding, or write a news story, or create novels, or even formulate laws? And if machine intelligence advances beyond human intelligence, will we need to start talking about a computer's intentions?

These are some of the questions discussed by computer scientist J. Storrs Hall in this fascinating layperson's guide to the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Drawing on a thirty-year career in artificial intelligence and computer science, Hall reviews the history of AI, discussing some of the major roadblocks that the field has recently overcome, and predicting the probable achievements in the near future. There is new excitement in the field over the amazing capabilities of the latest robots and renewed optimism that achieving human-level intelligence is a reachable goal.

But what will this mean for society and the relations between technology and human beings? Soon ethical concerns will arise and programmers will need to begin thinking about the computer counterparts of moral codes and how ethical interactions between humans and their machines will eventually affect society as a whole. Weaving disparate threads together in an enlightening manner from cybernetics, computer science, psychology, philosophy of mind, neurophysiology, game theory, and economics, Hall provides an intriguing glimpse into the astonishing possibilities and dilemmas on the horizon.