Excellent book on Consciousness for lay people
587209
This is an excellent book for anyone interested in human consciousness study. Well written and only required a little bit of scientific background.
695735
PHI is a wonderful book by Giulio Tononi that explores our consciousness.  Told as a story with Galileo as the main character, PHI reveals the secrets behind our consciousness, as if exploring unknown worlds.  Along the way, Galileo meets many wise people who explain to him the origin of consciousness, how our conscious mind works, what happens to our consciousness while we sleep, and even explores the question of whether animals have conscious minds like humans.

The biggest surprise in this book is the multitude of gorgeous painting, photos, and images spread throughout.  These images really make the book stand out from anything I've read recently.  As a physician, the anatomy lessons brought me back to my neuroscience course in medical school, and the many paintings harkened back to my art history classes back in college.  This book was an education and an absolute gem.  I highly recommend it for anyone interested in how our brain works and the origin of our consciousness.
1963412
This is one of the most enlightening books on mystical, or spiritual, experiences and their meanings I have read.  The approach Dr. Morse takes is extremely humane, sensitive, and honest.  He manages in an interesting and meaningful way to examine near-death experiences, healings, apparitions, and other unexplained phenomenon in terms of the human brain.  It seems our brains may at times function in a particular way to connect us with realities we normally are not aware of.
I had enjoyed reading Dr. Morse's previous books, where he related the stories of children's near-death experiences, and described the evidence of the transforming nature of these experiences.  In this book, Dr. Morse goes much further in developing his theory of the importance of the right temporal lobe in allowing us to experience the external reality of these experiences.
As a speech-language pathologist, I know a little something about the brain and how it works.  The right hemisphere of the brain processes information very differently from the left.  We have generally known a great deal more about the left hemisphere, which is where our language center is in most people.  However, what Dr. Morse has to say about the right hemisphere and its possible role in NDEs and other experiences connecting us to a "universal memory", or mind, makes a great deal of sense, especially to anyone who has ever had even a minor extra-sensory type of experience.
I especially enjoyed Dr. Morse's personal stories in this book.  It was brave and honest, and made the book real to me.  After all, one of the big questions raised to him has been, "What is the good in having a near-death experience, anyway?"  I appreciated that Dr. Morse attempted to apply some of the lessons he learned to his own life.  It made a poignant story.
1554653
If you have ever wondered about the nature of reality and the role the human mind plays in shaping it,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Evolution-of-Mind/dp/9079731099/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Evolution of Mind</a>&nbsp;is definitely a book you won't want to miss. Authors, philosophers and teachers have long endeavored to articulate the essence and process of mind in one accessible teaching or text. Few, however, have managed to compile a survey of the full range of the human experience of mind in as comprehensive and digestible a treatise as Dr. Vijai S. Shankar has in his book&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Evolution-of-Mind/dp/9079731099/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Evolution of Mind</a>.

Structured in an easy to follow 10 chapter format, the book walks readers through all the questions one might have about where mind originated and how language, thought, perception, feelings and memory impact our experience of life.  Dr. Shankar leads the way through the morass of these age-old conundrums by meticulously revealing the layers of optical and auditory illusion we heap on each waking moment of the "timeless and thoughtless `now', which is life." By reflecting back the futility of basing our reality on the false constructs of past, present or future, he helps us understand that to let go of these mental concepts is to be free.

 Dr. Shankar unmasks our predilection for grasping at duality as the core obstacle to wisdom and enlightenment, and offers hope that through observation and courage we can stretch beyond perception into the light of what life truly is.
2654715
It is fascinating  and valuable book about activation of the third eye, If your pineal gland is open, you are connected to higher states of consciousness and awareness. Here are many practical exercises  concerning activation  of your third eye and also  broadening  your self - consciousness.
If you do not have time to read this book,  just Take your  time and be here now.
3592783
If you've ever thought, "how is it possible that I'm capable of awareness, and what does it mean?" this is an EXCELLENT book that highlights a lot of the implications and questions that arise from the existence of a subjective experience. In the future, when BCI companies like Neuralink successfully interface computers to the brain, this subject will be of massive importance to the human race.
4605147
I have read more than 20 books on this topic, and this is the best.
It is the best analysis of consciousness I have encountered.
A must read.
1741487
I really enjoyed this book, the ground breaker for Near Death Experiences by Raymond Moody. It definitely is more in depth than most of the televisions shows I've seen on this subject over the years.

The book naturally goes into the phenomenon and  experiences themselves with its various similarities. The out of body, bright light, the review, the noise, the dark tunnel, meeting others, the being of light and its affect on them.

What I really enjoyed was the parallels of the Bible, Plato, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Emanuel Swedenborg, so he enters into some of the spiritual and philosophical models that have profound teachings. All four, the Bible more the exception, relay life after death. Plato believed as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, in that the death of the body would release the consciousness or higher mind into a clearer more lucid understanding without the bodies or ego's conceptual grid and conceptions.

A short comparison is given with NDE's with the various explanations; the supernatural, the scientific (physiological and neurological, the psychological of isolation, dreams hallucinations and delusions) explanations, neurological. It was found that no drug used has achieved the same common affects and attributes of the NDE, but that only near death or at death do this occur.

A great sequel with much more information that continues here is Melvin Morse's Book, "Closer to the Light,"  written around 10 years later where Morse attempts to achieve by experiments what Moody has set forth.
614223
Lanzas work is an easy-to-understand look at issues in contemporary understandings of consciousness and reality. In it, he creates a post-quantum mechanics narrative that is heavily influenced by the ideas of Immanuel Kant (whom I don't think he ever mentions). He strings together ideas in a cogent series of seven principles that read a bit like a proof. It is a great introduction to complex matters that come from the pen of someone who seems pretty good at simplifying items for the sake of readability.

For brevity Ill compress his 7 principles. In short, our notion of reality always requires an observer and is created by how we have translated the input from our senses. What we view as red is actually just waves out there until they hit our optic nerve and are converted in our brains to the specific color. Waves exist outside of us but colors only exist in the human mind. This is very straightforward and non-controversial. The same is true of space and time - these categories of perception are not things in themselves but are overlays of the human mind on stimuli from the outside. When we look at the world of quantum mechanics, our brains and categories are faced with findings that are counter-intuitive so are very strange. As a side note, Max Tegmark discusses this point brilliantly in his interview on the Sam Harris podcast at http://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/the-multiverse-you-you-you-you. Faced with the issue that we co-create reality based on stimuli from the outside world, Lanza leads to the reasonable conclusion that consciousness  and awareness are the center of our view of the galaxy.

For those with a background in philosophy and consciousness studies, Im not sure there will be anything real new here however it is a clear and concise read on the issues of the day.
4742197
Oliver Sacks gives the reader a glimpse into the caverns of perception in this easy to read and understand exploration of the challenge to comprehend the sights and sounds which often befuddle the conscious mind. And he suggests that there is a level of reality worthy of attention and understanding. Hallucinations are not the sole province of the LSD tripper or alcoholic, we learn.

Jim Whiting
4397978
I'm lacking in math and so have trouble understanding the models and relationships that can only be seen properly if one is skilled with these tools. This book is a text inspired by and I think actually used in the authors in their course in the subject which they developed for folks like me and which they offer at UC Santa Cruz. They present the material in a very easy to understand way and with no math required. I especially liked how they talked about consciousness and it's place in quantum theory as the required "observer" even though many physicists seem to link consciousness with BS mostly because they don't want to deal with it. There is some discussion of machines possibly ever having consciousness (strong AI), which being a computer type I say not a chance. Try making eye contact with another sentient being and then with absolutely anything man-made or programmed by humans. Good book that includes what appears to be an essential part of the puzzle which the authors pretty candidly admit may be inexplicable. Well done.
3524468
How can it be possible that ideas come to people fully formed, seemingly out of the blue... out of thin air? Why do people consistently react to pictures physiologically BEFORE seeing the images? How do blind people see without use of their eyes? How have some people been able to speak and write in languages they did not previously know?

Dr. Craig Hogan takes us on an astonishing tour through these questions and much, much more in his extraordinary book, "Your Eternal Self." The shocking truth of the matter is that our minds are much more than our brains, and through our minds, we have access to and influence over physical things and people which are distant from us both space and time. Packed with excellent cutting-edge references to the most current scientific discoveries in the field of consciousness, "Your Eternal Self" gracefully opens a door to a completely new understanding of who and what we are.

I love the elegant simplicity of layout and organization of this book, as it so artfully guides us through a series of fascinating topics, experiments, questions, and ideas. When describing how we know what we know about the afterlife, "Your Eternal Self" explains that we are learning about the afterlife through: near death experiences, after death communication, induced after death communication, mental medium communication, and direct voice and physical medium communications.

I especially adore Chapter 10, "Recent Indications the Mind Forms the Brain," for its tour de force assessment of scientific research describing how the brain is reflecting what the mind has already seen. I give this book my highest recommendation, and hope that every serious seeker, researcher and student of consciousness reads it!
2435561
This book is written for the layperson.  It is highly informative and yet easy to read.  The arrangement of scientific discussion interspersed with historical or biographical anecdotes gives the brain time to rest between the bouts of heavy science, so that you can read straight through and still retain a good bit of the learning that is offered.  It's a very good read.
1469350
Finally! A lucid, comprehensive, and interesting book on higher states of consciousness! Who knew that all of these people had glimpses of enlightenment? And such a wide range of individuals! Although I am not usually a big fan of scientific research, I found myself completely fascinated by the science behind these Transcendental experiences. The author does a great job of integrating research on the brain and consciousness, which is currently a fast-growing field of study. The research on Transcendental Meditation goes back over 40 years. So it's about time that somebody wrote a book that connects enlightenment to human physiology in an interesting way. This book is ultimately very inspiring because it shows how anybody can cultivate their brain and nervous system and thereby enjoy growth in higher states of consciousness, higher states of creativity, intelligence, and bliss.
2194335
"A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle is a best selling book which focuses on the subject of "the New Consciousness", The Present, or The Now".  The book is very analogous to Advaita Vedenta and other Eastern Philosophy.  Eckhart Tolle suffered from depression most of his life and, at the age of 29, experienced a total transformation of consciousness.  Eckhart Tolle was left with a deep sense of "Presence" or "Beingness" with and indescribable feeling of "Peace".  His agitation and depression were completely dissolved.
  The central theme of this book is that most people do not live in the "Now" or the "Present" which Eckhart Tolle defines as intelligence itself and the underlying consciousness of which every form is born.  Instead most people live with their thoughts of the past and their reflections of the future.  According to Eckhart Tolle, this is the source of all pain and suffering and that the only thing that is "Real" is the "Now".  The main culprit is what Tolle describes as "thinking without awareness" which is the dilemma and bane of human existence.  Tolle believes that thought and emotion are ephemeral, fleeting and finite whereas our awareness is eternal and forever peaceful.  The author presents a compelling argument for his philosophy.  The question is to whether or not the "non-mystic" can achieve any where near the same degree of self realization.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, this is an excellent book that I would highly recommend.
3818923
I read this book during New Year holiday weekend.  Authors are experts in medical field and spirituality.  Both have written similar books in the past, but this one represents "a medical proof" that enlightened brain is the permanently changed organ in a human body.  Dr. Newberg took MRI pictures of people during their brains normal function, during meditation and he also took brain scans of people who are spiritually enlightened.  For any skeptics on the subject, this book can serve as a proof that enlightenment exists and it causes permanent change in enlightened person's brain as well as permanent change on their overall outlook on life.

Book details seven stages of reaching enlightenment and goes over various scientific experiments that were undertaken that led to conclusions presented in the book.  The beauty of the book is that it is easy and quick to read.  It will be appealing to general public regardless of their age or religious/spiritual background.  I loved systematic presentations of the seven stages of reaching enlightenment.  I also liked the conclusion that every human being has a capacity to be enlightened.

There are different paths person can take to become enlightened and they can all lead to the desired result.  But the result cannot be achieved if the person does not wish to be enlightened and puts no effort towards it.  As I already practice yoga, I was delighted to see examples from yogic traditions that I plan to invoke in my daily practice and meditations and considering that quiz in the book indicates I am highly susceptible towards experiencing enlightenment, I will do my share and just wait and see until it happens.  After all, it is the pursuit of possibility of enlightenment that got me into practicing yoga in the first place.
3143261
This is the best book on consciousness, and while readers quickly learn it is not a full explanation, they also learn it is in fact about the proper path that WILL lead to a full explanation.  More importantly, readers will understand just exactly what is not (and never has been) the proper way of thinking about the concept of consciousness--namely the phony idea of homunculus, or "little man" in the head viewing a Cartesian theater.  This is an idea based in dualism, and it not only leads to the failure of thought of the infinite regress (the little man in the head would have to have another little man in HIS head, ad infinitum), it is also ridiculously wrong in the way it is totally destroyed by neuroscientific research.  There are constant overlapping waves of competing elements of thought, many of which do not rise to conscious awareness, and multiple drafts as Dennett explains it, and not any one steady stream.  This research is just what makes Dennett's book superior to everything else in philosophy of mind: that he extensively--quite often very dramatically--makes full use of this research to inform his ideas about the right path to an explanation of consciousness.

But this path to an explanation upsets and even infuriates many people, and this brings us to the cause of the one star reviews below.  Many people have a strong emotional and ideological attachment what are called "folk psychology" views of what consciousness is. In fact many if not most of these people giving one stars below are so emotionally upset about the idea that there is no one "little man" in their head that they cling to dualism, and mysterianism to such an extent that they cannot even understand the facts from research that Dennett is bringing to them in this book.  Instead they love and cherish mysterian ideas of philosophy of mind like those of Searle and Chalmers, and they do so not even caring that such mysterians do not and cannot make use of actual research in cognitive science and neuroscience to support their claims.

So all of the conundrums and greatest difficulties in past attempts to explain consciousness based in mysterianism are what we are set free from in Dennett's ideas of a proper path to an explanation, as informed by research. All of the people who are emotionally attached to false notions, ones that deny and are at odds with what science has discovered, have only their anger to offer us, an anger borne out of embarrassed recognition of the failure and the final meaningless nature of ideas of dualism and infinite regress.