What is Consciousness?: Three Sages Look Behind the Veil (A New Paradigm Book)

For those who ponder the deeper questions of life: 'why am I here?' ' what is life for?,' 'does anything survive after death?' there has been a kind of deadening push back from the scientific community since the time of Newton. Back then the world became dazzled by the explanations of the physical world that could be had through the hard sciences and 'beliefs' became a term of derision that were relegated to the world of religion. For the 'thinking man' there was no ultimate meaning because neurons cease to function at death and therefore, awareness or consciousness must evaporate at well. But for just about the past 100 years there have been glimmers of a kind of scientific revelation that maybe the so-called physicalists got somethings wrong. As one of the contributors to this collection, Dr Larry Dossey, wrote in his essay, Carl Jung stated, "The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not." and George Orwell noted, "The major problem of our time is the decay of belief in personal immortality." Starting with some of the founders of quantum mechanics there have been murmurs about this 'thing' called consciousness and how it not a product of busy neurons but is a fundamental principle of all that exists. This book of three essays brings to the fore much of the current thinking within that small part of the scientific community that has embraced this view. Because we are, culturally, such a science based society, there must be this weighing-in on the part of respected scientists in order to move these eternal questions back to where they belong. This book is an excellent addition to the growing body of work that aims to do just that. In particular, Dr Dossey's essay lays out the arguments of the current, mainstream scientific community and counters their arguments with the only things that might convince them--hard science.

Two of the three authors are excellent. Brings a very different perspective to an interesting topic.

It looks good and is in great shape for a used book! Pretty deep. Will take a while to read!

You either know or you don't know and you get it here. What a fabulous, mind-blowing book. I loved it! None of it was new to me, having been on the path for many years and following the exploration of consciousness since the late 80s early 90s, the validation of all the work I have personally done in this life and the truth of the matter is so eloquently shared here by Jean, Larry and Ervin. I would highly recommend this book to any seeker of the new Quantum Physics and its flow and integrating it along the way...

An explication of consciousness in the language of new physics. Fascinating and enlightening.Up there with Charles Tart’s STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The answer to the question of the nature of consciousness is discussed by three eminent scholars in the attempt to ascertain its true nature. In fact, the general consensus of these scholars is that there is no precise definition of consciousness and one can only garner its meaning in terms of its manifestation in our every day lives and in certain experiments that point to its true nature. The authors adeptly discuss the brain vs. mind paradigms, "physicalism"/materialism in contrast to non locality theory. On balance, this book provides the reader with a general overview of the nature of consciousness and the conflicting views of several philosophers, scientists, mystics and other eminent thinkers. Also, the author includes extensive notes and bibliography that can aid the reader in a broader understanding of consciousness. I would highly recommend this book.

Disapointed

Really did not enjoy sorry to say.....Started getting into NDE's and all that, but when the realization happens that there is NO DOER----EVER....Then ''who'' is having these NDE's???? Its all in the brain......I think Life and Reality are far more interesting than an afterlife which is a projection of the Ego...That's just my view.....If you like the book----Enjoy!