Behind Every Illusion

Behind Every Illusion PDF Author: Christina Harner
Publisher: Christina Harner
ISBN: 097954324X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description

Behind Every Illusion

Behind Every Illusion PDF Author: Christina Harner
Publisher: Christina Harner
ISBN: 097954324X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 503

Get Book Here

Book Description


Champions of Illusion

Champions of Illusion PDF Author: Susana Martinez-Conde
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374120404
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
A collection of visual illusions with explanations of the science behind them, gathered from the Best Illusions of the Year contest. --

The Illusion of God's Presence

The Illusion of God's Presence PDF Author: John C. Wathey
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1633880745
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
An essential feature of religious experience across many cultures is the intuitive feeling of God's presence. More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion.Starting with a vivid narrative account of the life-threatening hike that triggered his own mystical experience, biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy. These insights shed new light on some of the most vexing puzzles of religion, like the popular belief in a god who is judgmental and punishing, yet also unconditionally loving; the extraordinary tenacity of faith; the greater religiosity of women relative to men; religious obsessions with sex; the mysterious compulsion to pray; the seemingly irrepressible feminine attributes of God, even in traditionally patriarchal religions; and the strange allure of cults. Finally, Dr. Wathey considers the hypothesis that religion evolved to foster reproductive success, arguing that, in an age of potentially ruinous overpopulation, magical thinking has become a luxury we can no longer afford, one that distracts us from urgent threats to our planet.Deeply researched yet elegantly written in a jargon-free and accessible style, this book presents a compelling interpretation of the evolutionary origins of spirituality and religion.

The Self Illusion

The Self Illusion PDF Author: Bruce Hood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199969892
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.

Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility

Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility PDF Author: Gregg D. Caruso
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 073917732X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility investigates the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications. Skepticism about free will and moral responsibility has been on the rise in recent years. In fact, a significant number of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists now either doubt or outright deny the existence of free will and/or moral responsibility—and the list of prominent skeptics appears to grow by the day. Given the profound importance that the concepts of free will and moral responsibility hold in our lives—in understanding ourselves, society, and the law—it is important that we explore what is behind this new wave of skepticism. It is also important that we explore the potential consequences of skepticism for ourselves and society. Edited by Gregg D. Caruso, this collection of new essays brings together an internationally recognized line-up of contributors, most of whom hold skeptical positions of some sort, to display and explore the leading arguments for free will skepticism and to debate their implications.

Living Without Free Will

Living Without Free Will PDF Author: Derk Pereboom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521029961
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Argues that morality, meaning and value remain intact even if we are not morally responsible for our actions.

The Conquest of Illusion

The Conquest of Illusion PDF Author: Jacobus Johannes Leeuw
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Illusion (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description


Listen to the Music Around

Listen to the Music Around PDF Author: Subha Thangaraj
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 164587561X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
“Nature has music to those who listen,” says Shakespeare. How true this is! Have you ever felt the music in the swaying trees, the blossoming flowers, the cry of a baby, the gush of the storm? Have you seen those little ants energetically running in unity? Have you seen the birds that step up and down, up and down? Have you seen the tiny toddlers falling and relentlessly rising up? Have you watched them closely to understand the motivation they carry? Listen to the Music Around is a collection of experiences of how nature and my surroundings imparted in me powerful lessons to bring back my motivation at every step in life. Do you feel down? Do you feel lost? Do you feel isolated? Traverse with me and let’s learn from every little thing around us together! Listen to the Music Around.

Consciousness

Consciousness PDF Author: Susan Blackmore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198794738
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Consciousness, the last great mystery for science, remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, whilst also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. Covering areas such as the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, the neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states of consciousness, Susan Blackmore highlights our latest findings. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION … A KARMIC ONE

IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION … A KARMIC ONE PDF Author: Adrian Gabriel Dumitru
Publisher: Adrian Gabriel Dumitru
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Telling that the life itself it’s an illusion, might sound so damn … weird … and most probably … even like a depressive thought. But … you see … there are so, so many moments in life when the life itself just… sucks … and we ask ourselves … what the hell have i done that i deserve that?! And that was the moment when the karmic idea came into my mind … starting to believe that all the lessons of life, sometimes very difficult to handle … could be defined as karmic. All those abstract situations … which totally annoy us … and make our lives miserable… are repeating on and on and on. Believing we are the victims of circumstances … everything it’s never the way we want to be … or even worst. The funny thing that i tried all the time when i was in those weird abstract stories, having the impression that it was the end of the world … i was repeating to myself “It’s all an illusion … and it’s not what it looks like”. My karmic stories … being in fact my stories … and feeling them in such a powerful way … were … Well … don’t even know how to define them, but all i wanted was to get out of those situations and also get rid of the karmic people that i hated so much. And i tried everything … and nothing worked expect smiling … or even laughing in front of those illusions. Deciding to call them … simple … illusions … was probably the best idea i could come with. But the karmic illusions … were powerful messages i had to understand … and i was pretending i could not see behind the abstract. I actually love the abstract, but not when it was part of my life. It was all related with the concept of understanding the meaning of life … and even if i spent lots of time meditating over the subject … when i was on the scene of the real life, i was acting like a football player that studied all the strategies had been ever written about this sport … but … never practiced and in fact never tried to practice it in a good way. So … even if i knew theory … i acted like someone that never heard about spirituality … or about the forces behind reality. In fact …. in the real life, in so, so many karmic moments … i acted like an … idiot. I knew that all i had to do was just to smile in front of those illusory situations … cause there is no other way of fighting. But guess what?! Each time … i was failing. The only progress i made over the years … was that after a while … meditating over what happened … i somehow understood what … illusory … meant. …. that i had to react in a different way. … that was not what it looked like and the lesson of life had to be seen, understood deeper and deeper. But again … theory was so easy and i was failing tests all the time. On and on and on … I was such an idiot not applying all what i knew about life … on the scene of my own life. … and i was paying the price … of living a … miserable life … Everyday something happened and i was fucking my vibe … not realizing there were tests given to me by the Universe. Life was beautiful … and i thought it’s so … ugly. Hahaha … such a silly perspective. Well … it was all a decision of … changing my perceptions … and realizing that anything it could happen it was all a decision of the Divine Intelligence … God … Allah … or however we could name that entity that is everything it exists …. and it was all for our good. The fact that the karmic situations were repeated … was because i was not passing the tests … and i really had to pass those tests. It was all about … my awakening … and i had to start the … process.