Author: David Jay Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554909
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Book Description
A detailed guide to mastering lucid dreaming for physical and emotional healing, enhanced creativity, and spiritual awakening • Offers methods to improve lucid dreaming abilities and techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm • Explains how to enhance dreaming with supplements, herbs, and psychedelics • Explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with the waking realm and the potential for shared lucid dreaming and access to our unconscious minds In a lucid dream, you “awaken” within your dream and realize you are dreaming. With this extraordinary sense of awakening comes a clear perception of the continuity of self between waking and sleeping and the ability to significantly influence what happens within the dream, giving you the opportunity to genuinely experience anything without physical or social consequences. In this way, lucid dreaming offers therapeutic opportunities for fantasy fulfillment, fear confrontation, and releasing the trauma of past experiences. With development and practice, lucid dreaming can provide a powerful path to greater awareness, heightened creativity, spiritual awakening, and communication with the vast interconnected web of cosmic consciousness. In this detailed guide to mastering the practice of lucid dreaming, David Jay Brown draws from his more than 20 years’ experience using these techniques and his interactions with dozens of experts on consciousness, physics, dreaming, and entheogens, such as Stanley Krippner, Rupert Sheldrake, Stephen LaBerge, Robert Waggoner, Dean Radin, Terence McKenna, and many others. He explores the intimate relationship between lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying, visionary plants, and psychedelic drugs and how they are used for healing and spiritual development. Offering methods for improving both lucid dreaming and shamanic journeying abilities, he explains how to enhance dreaming with oneirogens, supplements, herbs, and psychedelics and offers techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm. Summarizing the scientific research on lucid dreaming, Brown explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with people in the waking realm and the potential for dream telepathy, shared lucid dreaming, and access to the vast unconscious regions of our minds, opening up a path that takes us beyond dreaming and waking to dreaming wide awake.
Dreaming Wide Awake
Author: David Jay Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554909
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Book Description
A detailed guide to mastering lucid dreaming for physical and emotional healing, enhanced creativity, and spiritual awakening • Offers methods to improve lucid dreaming abilities and techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm • Explains how to enhance dreaming with supplements, herbs, and psychedelics • Explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with the waking realm and the potential for shared lucid dreaming and access to our unconscious minds In a lucid dream, you “awaken” within your dream and realize you are dreaming. With this extraordinary sense of awakening comes a clear perception of the continuity of self between waking and sleeping and the ability to significantly influence what happens within the dream, giving you the opportunity to genuinely experience anything without physical or social consequences. In this way, lucid dreaming offers therapeutic opportunities for fantasy fulfillment, fear confrontation, and releasing the trauma of past experiences. With development and practice, lucid dreaming can provide a powerful path to greater awareness, heightened creativity, spiritual awakening, and communication with the vast interconnected web of cosmic consciousness. In this detailed guide to mastering the practice of lucid dreaming, David Jay Brown draws from his more than 20 years’ experience using these techniques and his interactions with dozens of experts on consciousness, physics, dreaming, and entheogens, such as Stanley Krippner, Rupert Sheldrake, Stephen LaBerge, Robert Waggoner, Dean Radin, Terence McKenna, and many others. He explores the intimate relationship between lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying, visionary plants, and psychedelic drugs and how they are used for healing and spiritual development. Offering methods for improving both lucid dreaming and shamanic journeying abilities, he explains how to enhance dreaming with oneirogens, supplements, herbs, and psychedelics and offers techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm. Summarizing the scientific research on lucid dreaming, Brown explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with people in the waking realm and the potential for dream telepathy, shared lucid dreaming, and access to the vast unconscious regions of our minds, opening up a path that takes us beyond dreaming and waking to dreaming wide awake.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620554909
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 541
Book Description
A detailed guide to mastering lucid dreaming for physical and emotional healing, enhanced creativity, and spiritual awakening • Offers methods to improve lucid dreaming abilities and techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm • Explains how to enhance dreaming with supplements, herbs, and psychedelics • Explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with the waking realm and the potential for shared lucid dreaming and access to our unconscious minds In a lucid dream, you “awaken” within your dream and realize you are dreaming. With this extraordinary sense of awakening comes a clear perception of the continuity of self between waking and sleeping and the ability to significantly influence what happens within the dream, giving you the opportunity to genuinely experience anything without physical or social consequences. In this way, lucid dreaming offers therapeutic opportunities for fantasy fulfillment, fear confrontation, and releasing the trauma of past experiences. With development and practice, lucid dreaming can provide a powerful path to greater awareness, heightened creativity, spiritual awakening, and communication with the vast interconnected web of cosmic consciousness. In this detailed guide to mastering the practice of lucid dreaming, David Jay Brown draws from his more than 20 years’ experience using these techniques and his interactions with dozens of experts on consciousness, physics, dreaming, and entheogens, such as Stanley Krippner, Rupert Sheldrake, Stephen LaBerge, Robert Waggoner, Dean Radin, Terence McKenna, and many others. He explores the intimate relationship between lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying, visionary plants, and psychedelic drugs and how they are used for healing and spiritual development. Offering methods for improving both lucid dreaming and shamanic journeying abilities, he explains how to enhance dreaming with oneirogens, supplements, herbs, and psychedelics and offers techniques for developing superpowers in the dream realm. Summarizing the scientific research on lucid dreaming, Brown explores the ability of lucid dreamers to communicate with people in the waking realm and the potential for dream telepathy, shared lucid dreaming, and access to the vast unconscious regions of our minds, opening up a path that takes us beyond dreaming and waking to dreaming wide awake.
Wide Awake and Dreaming
Author: Julie Flygare
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780988314900
Category : Narcolepsy
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
Julie Flygare was on an ambitious path to success, entering law school at age 22, when narcolepsy destroyed the neurological boundaries between dreaming and reality in her brain. She faced terrifying hallucinations, paralysis and excruciating sleepiness - aspects of dream sleep taking place while wide awake. Yet, narcolepsy was a wake-up call for Julie. Her illness propelled her onto a journey she never imagined - from lying paralyzed on her apartment floor to dancing euphorically at a nightclub; from the classrooms of Harvard Medical School to the start line of the Boston Marathon. Wide Awake and Dreaming is a revealing first-hand account of dreams gone wrong with narcolepsy. It's the brave story of one woman trampling over barriers and finding light in the darkest of circumstances.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780988314900
Category : Narcolepsy
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
Julie Flygare was on an ambitious path to success, entering law school at age 22, when narcolepsy destroyed the neurological boundaries between dreaming and reality in her brain. She faced terrifying hallucinations, paralysis and excruciating sleepiness - aspects of dream sleep taking place while wide awake. Yet, narcolepsy was a wake-up call for Julie. Her illness propelled her onto a journey she never imagined - from lying paralyzed on her apartment floor to dancing euphorically at a nightclub; from the classrooms of Harvard Medical School to the start line of the Boston Marathon. Wide Awake and Dreaming is a revealing first-hand account of dreams gone wrong with narcolepsy. It's the brave story of one woman trampling over barriers and finding light in the darkest of circumstances.
Dreaming Wide Awake
Author: Charles R Hinckley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
Wide Awake
Author: Erwin Raphael McManus
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 1418566489
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The alarm sounds. Your feet hit the floor and carry you into another day. But what does that day hold for you? Will you be punching your card at work, catching up on TV at home, and crashing into bed before you rinse and repeat the next day? Or will you dare to dig deep and discover the incredible potential lying dormant within us all? In Wide Awake, renowned speaker and church visionary Erwin Raphael McManus challenges us to put an end to all the sleepwalking and settling, for each of us was created by God for a reason. He has called you to live as Jesus did—a heroic life, void of monotony, teeming with danger, adventure, and the unknown. Living wide awake is about realizing that the world desperately needs you to live up to your potential. There is a future that needs to be created, and it is waiting for us all to wake up and get out of bed. The alarm has sounded, and it is time to shake off the slumber. It’s time to live, to create, to imagine, to dream . . . Wide Awake.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 1418566489
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The alarm sounds. Your feet hit the floor and carry you into another day. But what does that day hold for you? Will you be punching your card at work, catching up on TV at home, and crashing into bed before you rinse and repeat the next day? Or will you dare to dig deep and discover the incredible potential lying dormant within us all? In Wide Awake, renowned speaker and church visionary Erwin Raphael McManus challenges us to put an end to all the sleepwalking and settling, for each of us was created by God for a reason. He has called you to live as Jesus did—a heroic life, void of monotony, teeming with danger, adventure, and the unknown. Living wide awake is about realizing that the world desperately needs you to live up to your potential. There is a future that needs to be created, and it is waiting for us all to wake up and get out of bed. The alarm has sounded, and it is time to shake off the slumber. It’s time to live, to create, to imagine, to dream . . . Wide Awake.
Dreaming While Awake
Author: Arnold Mindell
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
ISBN: 1612831087
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
“Mindell examines addictions & relationships, time travel, lucid healing & preventive medicine, and Dreaming as world work.” —The Dream Network Journal What if you could dream twenty-four hours a day, even while awake? According to innovative psychotherapist Arnold Mindell, Ph.D., we already do. The seeds of dreaming arise in every moment of the day, in body symptoms, problems, relationships, subtle feelings, interactions, random thoughts, and fantasies. We’re getting countless little cues from the unconscious every minute. All are signs from the world of dreaming. And, according to Mindell, we can be in this state of lucid dreaming all day long. In Dreaming While Awake, Mindell shows how to become aware of these “flirts” from the dreamworld and how to interpret their message. The goal, he says, is to be wide awake and lucid 24 hours a day in the midst of this unending dreamfield of information. Practicing twenty-four-hour lucid dreaming: Helps you solve personal, physical, and emotional problems Serves as a preventive medicine for relationships and health, helping you catch the earliest warning signs before they turn into problems Helps resolve conflicts in relationships, families, large groups, corporations, even politics Dreaming is the mystical source of reality, says Mindell. “My goal is to make the Dreaming roots of reality so accessible, so visceral, that your conscious mind will give you back your right to dream.”
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
ISBN: 1612831087
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
“Mindell examines addictions & relationships, time travel, lucid healing & preventive medicine, and Dreaming as world work.” —The Dream Network Journal What if you could dream twenty-four hours a day, even while awake? According to innovative psychotherapist Arnold Mindell, Ph.D., we already do. The seeds of dreaming arise in every moment of the day, in body symptoms, problems, relationships, subtle feelings, interactions, random thoughts, and fantasies. We’re getting countless little cues from the unconscious every minute. All are signs from the world of dreaming. And, according to Mindell, we can be in this state of lucid dreaming all day long. In Dreaming While Awake, Mindell shows how to become aware of these “flirts” from the dreamworld and how to interpret their message. The goal, he says, is to be wide awake and lucid 24 hours a day in the midst of this unending dreamfield of information. Practicing twenty-four-hour lucid dreaming: Helps you solve personal, physical, and emotional problems Serves as a preventive medicine for relationships and health, helping you catch the earliest warning signs before they turn into problems Helps resolve conflicts in relationships, families, large groups, corporations, even politics Dreaming is the mystical source of reality, says Mindell. “My goal is to make the Dreaming roots of reality so accessible, so visceral, that your conscious mind will give you back your right to dream.”
Dreaming Yourself Awake
Author: B. Alan Wallace
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 083482793X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 197
Book Description
An “accessible look at the ways we can access the hidden adventures within our dreams and stretch our imaginations into the realm of enlightenment” through lucid dreaming and dream yoga (San Francisco Book Review) Some of the greatest of life’s adventures can happen while you’re sound asleep. That’s the promise of lucid dreaming, which is the ability to alter your own dream reality any way you like simply by being aware of the fact that you’re dreaming while you’re in the midst of a dream. There is a range of techniques anyone can learn to become a lucid dreamer—and this book provides all the instruction you need to get started. But B. Alan Wallace also shows how to take the experience of lucid dreaming beyond entertainment to use it to heighten creativity, to solve problems, and to increase self-knowledge. He then goes a step further: moving on to the methods of Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga for using your lucid dreams to attain the profoundest kind of insight.
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 083482793X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 197
Book Description
An “accessible look at the ways we can access the hidden adventures within our dreams and stretch our imaginations into the realm of enlightenment” through lucid dreaming and dream yoga (San Francisco Book Review) Some of the greatest of life’s adventures can happen while you’re sound asleep. That’s the promise of lucid dreaming, which is the ability to alter your own dream reality any way you like simply by being aware of the fact that you’re dreaming while you’re in the midst of a dream. There is a range of techniques anyone can learn to become a lucid dreamer—and this book provides all the instruction you need to get started. But B. Alan Wallace also shows how to take the experience of lucid dreaming beyond entertainment to use it to heighten creativity, to solve problems, and to increase self-knowledge. He then goes a step further: moving on to the methods of Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga for using your lucid dreams to attain the profoundest kind of insight.
Breathe, Mama, Breathe
Author: Shonda Moralis
Publisher: The Experiment
ISBN: 1615193561
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A “Mom Must-Read”—Parents A National Parenting Product Award (NAPPA) Winner Easy-to-follow practices that will help moms find quick, daily opportunities to reset and refocus with mindfulness Moms can feel as if they are sprinting through life, crashing onto the pillow at day’s end only to start again the next morning. In Breathe, Mama, Breathe, psychotherapist Shonda Moralis outlines the benefits of daily meditation and shows moms how to do it—in just five minutes! Plus, she shares over 60 “mindful breaks” that will help moms tune into their own well-being (along with everyone else’s): Eat a mindful breakfast—with no phone, TV, or newspaper! Cuddle your child and take three deep breaths together. Give yourself a mindful-mommy high five—because moms can use positive reinforcement, too. Every mom—whether caring for a new baby, an overscheduled grade-schooler, or an angsty teen—can become a mindful mama!
Publisher: The Experiment
ISBN: 1615193561
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A “Mom Must-Read”—Parents A National Parenting Product Award (NAPPA) Winner Easy-to-follow practices that will help moms find quick, daily opportunities to reset and refocus with mindfulness Moms can feel as if they are sprinting through life, crashing onto the pillow at day’s end only to start again the next morning. In Breathe, Mama, Breathe, psychotherapist Shonda Moralis outlines the benefits of daily meditation and shows moms how to do it—in just five minutes! Plus, she shares over 60 “mindful breaks” that will help moms tune into their own well-being (along with everyone else’s): Eat a mindful breakfast—with no phone, TV, or newspaper! Cuddle your child and take three deep breaths together. Give yourself a mindful-mommy high five—because moms can use positive reinforcement, too. Every mom—whether caring for a new baby, an overscheduled grade-schooler, or an angsty teen—can become a mindful mama!
Wide Awake in Dreamland
Author: John Duel
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781512129250
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
Nine-year-old Eddie has such a wonderful imagination that late one night he catches a Sandman who escorts him to Dreamland. Once there, he learns Mortimer has cast an evil spell on the Sandman's sand with one diabolical aim: to steal Eddie's imagination. Eddie's only hope to break the spell and get back home safely is to find the last good wizard in Dreamland. During that journey, he encounters many perils in his desperate race against time. All of this happens because Eddie is not asleep as he should be. Eddie is Wide Awake in Dreamland. Conjuring memories of such classics as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, John Duel's Wide Awake in Dreamland celebrates its 20th anniversary as a treasured favorite in the library of children's literature. From the whimsy of the clueless but well-meaning Sandmen to the terrifying Trogs, Wide Awake in Dreamland packs its page-turning story full of adventure. Booklist said "this rollicking fantasy has it all" and those words are as true today as they were when the book was first published in 1992. March 1, 1992 Booklist review: This rollicking fantasy has it all: an exciting plot, a likable hero, an evil warlock, a powerful wizard who's "just a girl," tiny sandmen who sound suspiciously like leprechauns, hordes of awful creatures, and a kindly giant who isn't tall. Nine-year-old Eddie has a terrific imagination. That's why he's able to catch Sandy, the sandman. Though initially shocked that Eddie can see him, Sandy recovers quickly and invites Eddie to Dreamland, assuring him that nothing can harm him as long as he's really asleep. Eddie accepts the invitation, but when the pair reach Dreamland, they learn that Mortimer, the evil warlock, has tainted the sleep sand so he can steal Eddie's imagination. The only one who can help Eddie now is the wizard Beni, and the expedition to find Beni results in one adventure after another. Middle-school fantasy lovers won't be able to put this book down, and older readers will also enjoy the puns and silly situations-even though Eddie is only nine. A wonderful read-aloud. -Chris Sherman "bright, original...swift and involving." -Children's Bookwatch "a spell binder... This is a fairy tale for children of all ages." -Abilene Reporter-News
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781512129250
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
Nine-year-old Eddie has such a wonderful imagination that late one night he catches a Sandman who escorts him to Dreamland. Once there, he learns Mortimer has cast an evil spell on the Sandman's sand with one diabolical aim: to steal Eddie's imagination. Eddie's only hope to break the spell and get back home safely is to find the last good wizard in Dreamland. During that journey, he encounters many perils in his desperate race against time. All of this happens because Eddie is not asleep as he should be. Eddie is Wide Awake in Dreamland. Conjuring memories of such classics as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, John Duel's Wide Awake in Dreamland celebrates its 20th anniversary as a treasured favorite in the library of children's literature. From the whimsy of the clueless but well-meaning Sandmen to the terrifying Trogs, Wide Awake in Dreamland packs its page-turning story full of adventure. Booklist said "this rollicking fantasy has it all" and those words are as true today as they were when the book was first published in 1992. March 1, 1992 Booklist review: This rollicking fantasy has it all: an exciting plot, a likable hero, an evil warlock, a powerful wizard who's "just a girl," tiny sandmen who sound suspiciously like leprechauns, hordes of awful creatures, and a kindly giant who isn't tall. Nine-year-old Eddie has a terrific imagination. That's why he's able to catch Sandy, the sandman. Though initially shocked that Eddie can see him, Sandy recovers quickly and invites Eddie to Dreamland, assuring him that nothing can harm him as long as he's really asleep. Eddie accepts the invitation, but when the pair reach Dreamland, they learn that Mortimer, the evil warlock, has tainted the sleep sand so he can steal Eddie's imagination. The only one who can help Eddie now is the wizard Beni, and the expedition to find Beni results in one adventure after another. Middle-school fantasy lovers won't be able to put this book down, and older readers will also enjoy the puns and silly situations-even though Eddie is only nine. A wonderful read-aloud. -Chris Sherman "bright, original...swift and involving." -Children's Bookwatch "a spell binder... This is a fairy tale for children of all ages." -Abilene Reporter-News
A Visionary Guide to Lucid Dreaming
Author: Lee Adams
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644112388
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
• Provides an extensive inventory of beginning, intermediate, and advanced tools and practices for meaningful lucid dreamwork and shows how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them into waking life • Offers guidance to help you overcome mental or physical obstacles, including ways to stop sleep paralysis • Examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice and increase the vividness and recall of dreams Dreams offer a gateway into our psyche. Through lucid dreaming--when you have conscious awareness during sleep--you can access and interact with the subconscious mind for greater self-awareness, personal development, and transformation. In this step-by-step guide to dreamwork, Lee Adams provides tools and techniques for encouraging, remembering, and using lucid dreams for personal growth as well as how to have big dreams that leave a lasting impact. Beginning with an overview of the history of lucid dreaming, he shares tried-and-true foundational practices to get you started--practices for before sleep, during sleep, and after dreaming. Drawing upon Jungian depth psychology, recent research in neuroscience, and years of personal dream practice, Adams then offers an extensive inventory of intermediate and advanced methods to support meaningful dreamwork, such as the Wake Induced Lucid Dreams technique (WILD), where you fall asleep while conscious and transport your active awareness into a dream state. He also explores dream companions, symbols of the unconscious mind, dream interpretation, and working with the shadow side of the self. He examines how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them or their symbols into waking life. He offers guidance to help you overcome any mental or physical obstacles you may encounter, including ways to stop sleep paralysis. He also examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice, improve dream recall, and increase the vividness of dreams, such as Alpha-GPC, 5-HTP, Silene undulata, Mugwort, the mushroom Lion’s Mane, and Galantamine. With this practical guide, you can ignite your mind’s capacity to wake up to your own dreams and restructure your world to be more attuned to your deeper self.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644112388
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
• Provides an extensive inventory of beginning, intermediate, and advanced tools and practices for meaningful lucid dreamwork and shows how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them into waking life • Offers guidance to help you overcome mental or physical obstacles, including ways to stop sleep paralysis • Examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice and increase the vividness and recall of dreams Dreams offer a gateway into our psyche. Through lucid dreaming--when you have conscious awareness during sleep--you can access and interact with the subconscious mind for greater self-awareness, personal development, and transformation. In this step-by-step guide to dreamwork, Lee Adams provides tools and techniques for encouraging, remembering, and using lucid dreams for personal growth as well as how to have big dreams that leave a lasting impact. Beginning with an overview of the history of lucid dreaming, he shares tried-and-true foundational practices to get you started--practices for before sleep, during sleep, and after dreaming. Drawing upon Jungian depth psychology, recent research in neuroscience, and years of personal dream practice, Adams then offers an extensive inventory of intermediate and advanced methods to support meaningful dreamwork, such as the Wake Induced Lucid Dreams technique (WILD), where you fall asleep while conscious and transport your active awareness into a dream state. He also explores dream companions, symbols of the unconscious mind, dream interpretation, and working with the shadow side of the self. He examines how dreams can shape our conscious reality if we incorporate them or their symbols into waking life. He offers guidance to help you overcome any mental or physical obstacles you may encounter, including ways to stop sleep paralysis. He also examines supplements to aid lucid dreaming practice, improve dream recall, and increase the vividness of dreams, such as Alpha-GPC, 5-HTP, Silene undulata, Mugwort, the mushroom Lion’s Mane, and Galantamine. With this practical guide, you can ignite your mind’s capacity to wake up to your own dreams and restructure your world to be more attuned to your deeper self.
Waking, Dreaming, Being
Author: Evan Thompson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538316
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
A renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep, dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain. Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static thing. When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep, the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as dreamer. Finally, as we meditate—either in the waking state or in a lucid dream—we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that make up our image of the self. Contemplative traditions say that we can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge acquired by contemplatives.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231538316
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
A renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep, dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain. Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static thing. When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep, the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as dreamer. Finally, as we meditate—either in the waking state or in a lucid dream—we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that make up our image of the self. Contemplative traditions say that we can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge acquired by contemplatives.