Internal Voices versus "The Analogue I" and ability to lie
919287
This book is an attempt to see human history and psychology in a context that would seem to explain much.  Jaynes suggests that in early ancient times (i.e. Biblical times) man actually heard voices--and perhaps saw things as well--that is, hallucinations were much more common than in modern times.  Therefore experiences that were interpreted as direct communications with God actually occurred in those days and became the basis for religious belief.  Man lost this ability, however, due to strife resulting from wars between different groups.  You can see how this would come about.  Suppose that Chaldeans who hear one voice collide with Assyrians who hear another--the result would be mayhem as one group would have no idea of how to come to terms with the other.  If some of the Chaldeans, however, were "freaks" with a genetic mutation that shut them off from these voices, such Chaldeans would have the mental space to distance themselves from the world of their upbringing and take on the identity of an individual who could assume whatever identity seemed advantageous--that is, to lie.  "Don't strike me brother Assyrian!" an adaptable Chaldean might say to a sword-wielding Assyrian.

Over the centuries these adaptable beings with independent identities would be expected to better survive the rise and fall of each empire until they were the dominant genetic type and those hearing voices were considered the freaks.  Of course we still suffer the effects of the world described by Jaynes (assuming that things played out as he thought).  Religious extremists (the late Osama bin Laden being, sadly, only the most recent incarnation of such fanaticism) still behave as if they are responding to irrational voices.  Perhaps Nietzsche's superman is nothing more than the authentic individual who is able to completely distance himself from the insane hallucinations of past "sages".

I am left to wonder, however, whether peoples outside of the Middle East suffered from these religious hallucinations.  What of the Greeks, Romans, and Germanic and Celtic tribes--or the Native Americans who first encountered the Europeans in their exploration and conquest of the New World?
2339687
I have never written a review before, but I feel compelled to write one for _Pretending to be Normal_ by Dr. Liane Holliday Willey. I am writing to correct some misinformation other reviewers have suggested as fact. Contrary to what another reviewer said, Dr. Willey did not write that her daughter was diagnosed in infancy. She was in the first grade when she received her AS diagnaosis from Kansas University's Child Development Lab. Further, while it is true most people with an AS diagnosis are male, the top researchers feel this is so because females fly under the wire. Read Tony Attwood's article called, "Discovering Aspie" for more info. on the male/female debate. Lastly, it is true that most people with AS perform better in math when compared to language, but this is not true of everyone. In fact, females with AS are often quite good in language skills and many researchers suggest some of our best actors and writers are indeed, people with AS. I find it terribly disheartning to read so much misinformation. I hope my words set the record somewhat straighter. Sue, PhD in cognitive psychology
157195
As the subtitle of The Conscious Mind suggests, "Programming the Brain-Computer", the underlying analogy of this short, pithy book is that the mind acts much like a computer. Just like a computer, it is possible to modify or change the brain's "software", and by this live a more meaningful and positive life.  Although this concept is not a new one, the authors feel that with awareness and work, the individual has within him/her self, the ability to modify not just thoughts and ideas, but entire life styles.  There is emphasis on the idea of our SELF as a combination of "Body - Mind - Spirit", and that a good portion of this comes from the Ego.  The Ego is influenced by the 5P's, Power, Profit, Prestige, Possessions, Privilege and Pleasure.  When any of these P's begin to dominate, negative energies are produced that can adversely affect the Ego.  It is through the individual's free will that personal modification can occur to correct or control these energies and thus our Ego.  Unfortunately there are a large number of "programs" over which we have little or no control e.g. the autonomic nervous system (hunger, breathing, fear), however, there are still a large number of "programs" that we can modify for our well being.  By being aware of those "P's" that are adversely affecting us, we can obtain objectives leading to the modification of existing "programs".  It is through this reprogramming that we will be able to lead a life that has more a more positive outlook, energy and balance.

Although the ideas presented here are understandable, it may be that the actual "reprogramming" may be more difficult than suggested, and unfortunately the guidebook on the mechanisms of change is enthusiastically, but minimally instructive.  The book seems to good place to start in what possibly should be called "Reprogramming the Brain-Computer".
1275417
The inner voice is the right title for it, since it is so ambivalent just as the search of one's voice is: it is the inner "you" that one searches in this quest and Ren Fleming, with great modesty and simplicity and honesty writes a beautiful account of her own quest giving us a very good example of what it is all about. Much more than simply singing, it reaches far deeper into the depths of our selves. Bravo and thank you for such a precious guide!

Myriam Andronescu
3626298
Imagine yourself at a crowded conference table in a dark room.  There are many present, but no role call.  Each person is known only when he or she speaks, but you cannot speak.  In fact, you sometimes cannot even hear.  On  the rare occassion that a light briefly shines, your eyes are usually  closed.  Every decision, reaction, thought and feeling in your life is  determined by the voices at this conference.  Usually the loudest and  shrillest voice dominates.  To the authors, this is a picture of your inner  life.
The authors attempt to enlighten the reader so that he begins to  bring the shadow people into the light.  In essence the book is a call for  conscious, intentional life. Instead of a mute observer and victim, the  authors hope to strengthen the innermost Self so that the voices can be  heard, not denied; heeded without dominating.
Like much written from a  Jungian perspective, I found this book both frustrating and helpful.  References to Greek myths multiply at an alarming rate, but I found that  prior knowledge of the pregnant meaning of each myth name was not essential  to benefit from this book.
The authors explore family of origin shadows,  relationship shadows, shadows in the workplace and the midlife experience  of shadow.  Four primary defenses against self-awareness of the shadow  occur as running themes: money, power, sex and addiction.
It is  interesting that there is little or no reference to mortality, aging and  legacy shadow issues.  Perhaps the ages of the authors (at most 51 years?)  has resulted in a less comprehensive view of shadow work.  If so, I hope  they will update this work in 20 years.
I recommend this work to others,  like myself, who are consciously working through midlife questions.  This  book may open new vistas for these seekers.  For those looking for a  "how to" prspective, this book will be a disappointment, only  nine pages provide practical advice.
657053
Author and speak Phil Callaway took an oath of honesty for one year, and wrote about what he discovered.

"To Be Perfectly Honest" is formatted as a year-long diary, with 365 entries chronicling the author's year of trying to tell the truth.

I found "To Be Perfectly Honest" to be very good at exposing weaknesses in our lives; in MY life.

Though I was taught better, I grew up an insecure liar.  As an adult I am committed to telling the truth, but I am amazed how often "little white lies" creep out unexpectedly when talking to a stranger in the phone who is not giving me the customer service I think I want and deserve.

Reading this book gave me a greater appreciation of honesty and the challenges of choosing to be honest.

Phil's story is one that I think you will enjoy reading, relate to, and learn a lot about honesty along the way. You may not like this book if you do not have a sense of humor (and seriousness) when looking at how people in the church act.

Summary:

This book will challenge most readers morally and leave others uncomfortably asking questions about their integrity and character.

Some readers will easily be able to sit down and read this book in one sitting, but others might find the day-by-day diary format tedious.

The book has a study guide which in my opinion offers the greatest value thus making the book useful for personal reflection or group conversation and confession.

I enjoyed this book.  "To Be Perfectly Honest" I'd give this book a 3 1/2 out of 5.

Here are my favorite insights:

"The truth is, being right is nice - but it's all a little pointless without good relationships."

"I'm good at compassion...(but) when "someone enjoys tremendous success...I know I should celebrate.  But envy is always around the corner."

"I am so often a phony...I've been too full of myself to allow God to fill me."

Quoting George Verwer, "I am a sinner, who's growing stronger through the years, who crawls back to the cross when he sins and finds God still loves him and will still use him...That's grace, isn't it."

"The Bible teaches that through Jesus' life and death, we are forgiven...It has nothing to do with our performance...I am not accepted because I'm so wonderful, but because he is."

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
3375424
It's been a long time since I've been introduced to a character as original as Linda - a woman who suffers from auditory-gustatory synesthesia.  Or, in simpler terms, she has the rare ability to "taste" words as a result of a "neurological condition that caused the involuntary mixing of the senses."

Monique Truong represents her condition by marrying tastes with words;  for example, "I thought youcannedgreenbeans knewpeanut butter."  Or "Lindamint. Stopcannedcorn it!"  While the narrative can become a little cloying with this consistent device, it does serve to show the reader how estranged Linda is from her family...and indeed, just about everyone else in her life.

Except for her colorful great-uncle, Baby Harper.  Baby Harper harbors his own secrets - he, too, is not in sync with their rural North Carolina hometown - and he has a particularly strong bond with his grand-niece, whom he accepts wholeheartedly.

There are several twists and turns in this sometimes elegiac book, and I would not want to provide unnecessary spoilers.  The book is well worth reading for many reasons;  the first is that it provides the only in-depth look of synesthesia I recall in my many years of reading.  For example, Linda says, "I sometimes would crave a word. For me, there was, and still is, an appreciable distinction between hearing the word said and saying it for myself, though both would produce the same incomings. It was the difference between being served a good meal and having to cook one for myself."

Another reason:  Bitter In The Mouth is a wonderful examination of loneliness and yearning for love, as in this differentiation between the missing and the void:  "The void was the person, place or thing that was never there in the first place. The missing existed but was no longer present.  One was theoretical loss.  The other was actual.  Which was worse?"  Both the missing and the void are explored in their various manifestations.

At times, the intrusions of North Carolina history halt the forward progression of the novel.  And the ending is a little too wrapped up. Yet it is still a fascinating look at the experience of being an outsider within a dysfunctional family:  an acerbic and infantilizing grandmother, a "respectable" father, a distant mother in the honeyed south.
4131117
Excellent book.  This is among the best books written defending the absolute view on lying:  lying is always wrong.  It is intrinsically evil.  Tollefsen does a good job presenting the arguments for and against the absolute view.  He does well in showing how the arguments trying to justify lying just do not work.
Especially enlightening were his words on how the Catholic tradition and magisterial statements on lying are quite clear:  lying is always wrong, "full-stop," no qualifiers added.

I do have some disagreement with his basic goods arguments though, as I'm from the classical natural law tradition and don't hold to the new natural law account that Tollefsen comes from.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book.
4299503
Emotional Intelligence  (EQ) has two components: a) Intrapersonal Intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage one's own emotions, and b) Interpersonal or Social Intelligence is the ability to recognize emotions in others and use that information as a guide for behavior, and for building and maintaining relationships.
This book combines the principles of Emotional Intelligence and Neuro-Linguistic Programming to promote an  understanding of how emotions work and how we can manage them effectively for optimum living.  7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence is a structured guide; a workbook packed with individual exercises and self-assessments---an intensive course in EQ excellence that addresses emotional conflict, motivation, beliefs, goal-setting, communication, wisdom, creativity and personal success.
I found this book engaging, clear, and easy to understand. Is it wrong to think that we could choose our emotions, instead of being at their mercy?  Does getting control over run-away emotions make us any less authentic?  As far as I know, the human dilemma has never been too much happiness, peace, contentment, or satisfaction.  Rather, the problem has always been how to cope with and overcome the painful emotions that make us wish we could crawl out of our own skins, or slaughter one another. After eons of biological evolution, and decades of astonishing technological advancement, are our emotions much more developed than those of our ancient ancestors?  Perhaps Emotional Intelligence is something we could use more of, as individuals, and as a species.
1623980
The author believes that anger is mainly about boundary violations to a person's sense of self.  "What must be protected and what must be restored" are the questions she suggests asking yourself when triggered.

Fear, as a helpful instinct, can offer a person a lot of benefits including clarity and vigor when it is accepted.  The question here is, "What action needs to be taken?"

When the feeling of fear is denied or negated, unnecessary worry and/or anxiety may develop.

Confusion usually conceals fear.  To uncover the instincts/intuition underneath, the question here is, "What's my intention?"

If one denies/represses healthy/clean anger, boredom and/or apathy may develop.  "What must be made conscious or what am I avoiding?"

What anger is in response to an external event, guilt and/or shame is to an internal one (ie: one's internal sentry didn't protect one's inner integrity).

Hatred is related to shadow work.  List the traits of someone you most dislike and then look in the mirror.

With sadness, the question is, "What must be released?"  Tears release toxins from the body and rituals can help one to mourn.

"Where has my energy gone and why was it sent away" are to be asked when depression is involved.

Gratitude can lead to merriment, hope, delight, wonder, playfulness and invigoration.

Joy says, "Thank you for this radiant moment!"

When a person says that they don't know what they are feeling, it might be because they have ignored their feelings for too long.  "Emotions are messages from our instinctive selves. ... If we ignore and repress an emotion, we won't erase its message - we'll just shoot the messenger and interfere with an important natural process.  The unconscious then has two choices:  to increase the intensity of the emotion and present it to us one more time ... or to stuff the emotional energy deep into our psyches.  Now, that instinct will no longer be readable as itself - as fear or anger or despair ..." pg 31

The balance that took place with the Beatles and within Star Trek can serve as a reminder of the importance of welcoming emotions:

Ringo/Grounding - Mr Scott/Mechanics - Earth
George/thinker - Dr Spock/Intelligence - Air
John/Emotions - Dr McCoy/Feeling - Water
Paul/Leader - Capt Kirk/Vision - Fire

The popular poem, The Guest House, featured in the book, also offers an image of accepting one's inner waters:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thoughts, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The book also includes a section on the symptoms of trauma and a few thoughts on how to create a safe village within in order to welcome yourself home.

A significant contribution in promoting the idea that it's ok to feel.
2193990
Claims to Fame.

What is at stake in the contemporary society of spectacle is the struggle for controlling the impact of the "signs of the real" (p. 7) over the mass of consumers and their possible resistance. The question of authenticity and realness has been present since the early celebrity consumer culture. Once a text is recognized as public and drowned into the flow of the social circulation, its ambivalence of being readable either in logical or mythological ways  shapes it with an `inconvenient' edge; but in contemporary culture this problem is framed by the omnipresence and awareness of a third agent: the machine (p. 34) which is un-detachable from the celebrity-text. The industrial machinery increasingly is drawn into the narrative it produces, making the industrial process less a vehicle for the product and more a part of it, in a similar way as brands do to the commodities they label.

The still broadly accepted assumption in media studies  stating that emancipation from authoritarian media depends on "demystifying" processes, achieving awareness by unveiling the machinery of production is challenged by Gamson when he demonstrates that alienation (production/consumer) is not overcome with information because information is immediately reconverted in entertainment. This finding invites further analyses to understand why and how Celebrity-watching audiences "bracket" evidence for the sake of maintaining their consumption not as endings but as instrumental mediations for their everyday ritualizations.

Audiences simultaneously play voyeuristic and performing roles (p. 139) making the axis of the watcher and the watched a superficial layer (a pre-text) "serving" underlying and ongoing conversations (both private and public).
A commonality in all sorts of interpretive communities is their joyful engagement in the decoding and reading of texts. Hermeneutic pleasures attired with playful attitudes are fully consonant with other meaning-making experiences where media consumption is used as a pre-textual resource, even in practices deemed as "serious" as religious practices . As seen with the "game players", there is an ability of decreeing at will the realness of an event, in spite of being acknowledged its fictitiousness. This contempt to what is real or fictional makes the former an irrelevant factor, as long as the story is kept as a sufficient resource for maintaining the social conversation. Hence, belief is self-consciously perceived as a matter of choice based on how much a belief suits ones' needs, since the text itself has no particular authority (p. 179).

Skepticism (truth and reality as undeterminable) is not a belligerent statement but a strategy to keep the conversation ongoing. In doing so, the text's original intention of being consumed as reliable information is subverted and reconverted into an ironic tool of resistance. The original alienation (the gap between the production and the consumer) and the implicit one-way communication model are not overcome, but this condition starts playing in favor of the consumers. In other words: consuming texts and playing games of truth with them reverse the dominating and objectifying relationship that traditionally texts exert upon readers, instead it is the reader the one who subjects the text in a way that what really matters is that the text doesn't really matter (p. 184). A social cognition implication of this is that open-coded consumption evidence a degree of distrust of the public and institutional selves (institutions of truth and social hypostasis, as Peter Berger likes to refer).
Juan Carlos Henriquez
PhD Program in Sociology
Boston College
1160170
Think that citizens are rational in their political decision-making? According to this book, "think again." Early, the authors state their thesis (Page xiii): "This is a book about unconscious political thinking and the subterranean forces that determine how citizens evaluate political leaders, groups, and issues. . . .It is about rationalizing, rather than rational, citizens."

The book's first chapter itself begins with a quick summary of the essence of rational decision-making, emerging from the Enlightenment. Lodge and Taber disagree with this perspective. They note the extent of unconscious thinking, the use of heuristics and biases. A diagram on page 13 illustrates. Here, we see the effect of physical attractiveness and babyfacedness appearance on people's vote choice--and neither factor is "rational" in terms of the ideal. Affect is another factor that the authors focus on, Affect is triggered very early in the information processing system, coloring much of any response to follow.

This is an important work for those interested in scholarly treatments of political thinking and its bases.
3778968
The author seems too eloquent and well-adjusted to be autistic, but seems to understand autistic minds well enough that he must have some ability to think autistically. He was clearly autistic as a child, but seems harder to classify now (he mentions people who think he's no longer autistic, and helps us understand why his personality doesn't fit into a standard stereotype).

He provides clear descriptions of how several minds that he studies differ from average minds and from each other. For examples, he describes how perceptual differences prevent one person from understanding ordinary instructions for how to identify a bus stop. Yet that person was quite capable of finding an alternate way to identify it after studying the problem enough. And his realization that people treat conversation as performance, with the entertainment value being more important than the information being exchanged.
4286439
The problem with introverts is extroverts.  And vice versa.  But Susan Cain lends both parties an empathetic - and for introverts, an especially sympathetic - ear and hand.  Perhaps the deeper problem is that introverts feel and are made to feel like they have to change to become more extroverted in order to be genuine leadership material.  Her book Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking demonstrates that extroverts are not predestined to succeed or lead any more than anyone else.  It is also a disservice to label introverts as shy, hermit-like, sheepish, home-bodies, over-sensitive, or neurotic with an inferiority complex.

What matters most is relationships and connectedness, and the two personality types are equally yet uniquely capable of achieving both.  Using some old terminology stripped from the plethora of personality tests (Snyder's Self-Monitoring, the Jungian Myers-Briggs, Elaine Aron's Highly Sensitive Person , Allport's Ascendance/Submission) and embellishing with a newer nomenclature ("restorative niches", "free trait agreement"), Cain succeeds at proving that introverts are not antisocial or non-verbal.  They are otherwise-social and alternatively-verbal.  And since the world is not yet ready to accommodate them in the calmer, quieter ways they need, introverts must occasionally and temporarily alter their own styles without completely foresaking their own sanity and identity.

This is the handbook for those individuals who whisper, rather than proclaim, their directives and suggest, rather than shout, their plan of action.
3150688
Years ago -- when I was in middle school (I'm 28 now) -- the sleep issues that seem to plague my family in a hereditary fashion caught up with me. Too young to begin taking Rx pills for sleep and desperate for some way to spend more time in the REM stage of sleep, my mother found a hypnotherapist who taught me various techniques I could use on my own, in addition to taking me through several guided sessions. I was a pretty skeptical kid, but they worked surprisingly well.

This year I decided to go back to trying this method of regulating my sleeping patterns, but I wasn't necessarily interested in starting live sessions again. I tried several audio options and found them all useful but not ideal. I found numerous recordings in which the voice of the speaker was too sharp and rousing, or the volume changed at some point and pulled me out of that relaxed, receptive state with an unpleasant start, or the amount of time spent on the guided imagery wasn't sufficient and felt rushed, so I was unable to relax as quickly as the speaker seemed to assume that I was, leading to a lot of replaying or solo relaxation exercises before starting the audio at all.

This is the first series of sessions that had everything that I was looking for. Dr. Gurgevich's voice is...well, unusual...and it takes a little bit of getting used to, but I think that it's actually very well-suited to achieving what he's setting out to achieve -- he has great control over his intonation and I've never once been startled out of that trance-like state by a pop of consonants or increase in volume or pitch (these things don't sound like a big deal, but they really can be!). The repetition of phrases and ideas allows for time to really internalize what he's talking about, so I never feel rushed. I have yet to make it all the way through the first hour-long segment.

Which brings me to my one complaint thus far: I really wish that the audio mp3 was divided more appropriately than into two hour-long segments. There are actually five sessions spread across the two segments, and they can be listened to sequentially, which is nice...but the lack of different tracks makes it VERY difficult to locate a specific session. Last night I was curious about some of the others I haven't heard, but trying to locate them -- especially on my iphone, which is where I have the audio loaded to listen to in bed -- is virtually impossible. I'll have to sit down and figure out the timestamps for each of the two tracks that mark the start of new sessions.
4518959
You can tell a lot about a person by their actions. This book is a great introductory book on how to people communicate through their actions. You can decipher what people are thinking and feeling based on their behavior. Want to know if people are lying? This book will teach you what most people do with their bodies when they are lying. It even has a bonus chapter join sign language. A great book that can give you a great advantage in every aspect of your life. Highly recommended.
2070901
2 1/2

This excessively sustained study in subtle flux is an acquired taste if there ever was one, especially considering the perseverance needed to take it in all at once as suggested. Anyone not admitting audio fatigue after one complete sitting is either lying, a highly trained monk, or on some serious mind-altering substance. It is apparent that what started out as an enjoyable experiment became a heavily indulged egotistical challenge for the composer. After an initial immersion wears down and the majority of shallow, methodical, experimental repetition takes hold, it seems obvious Glass was imposing his will on traditional structure mainly for superficial reasons. It is a pleasure to get lost down audio pockets created all over this thing, but almost always the momentum is derailed when overlong mechanical manipulations produce an oppressive apathy.