Essential reading – Integral Consciousness Studies

Essential reading in the areas of understanding integral paradigm, the science of cognition,
the question of consciousness and free will, humanistic and transpersonal psychology, and other related subjects.

The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience 4th Edition

Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this thoroughly updated fourth edition of this bestselling textbook provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience. Jamie Ward provides an easy-to-follow introduction to neural structure and function, as well as all the key methods and procedures of cognitive neuroscience, with a view to helping students understand how they can be used to shed light on the neural basis of cognition

Principles of Neurobiology

Principles of Neurobiology presents the major concepts of neuroscience with an emphasis on how we know what we know. The text is organized around a series of key experiments to illustrate how scientific progress is made and helps upper-level undergraduate and graduate students discover the relevant primary literature. Written by a single author in a clear and consistent writing style, each topic builds in complexity from electrophysiology to molecular genetics to systems level in a highly integrative approach. Students can fully engage with the content via thematically linked chapters and will be able to read the book in its entirety in a semester-long course. Principles of Neurobiology is accompanied by a rich package of online student and instructor resources including animations, journal club suggestions, figures in PowerPoint, and a Question Bank for adopting instructors.

Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness

When we are first born, before we can speak or use language to express ourselves, we use our physical sensations, our “body sense,” to guide us toward what makes us feel safe and fulfilled and away from what makes us feel bad. As we develop into adults, it becomes easy to lose touch with these crucial mind-body communication channels, but they are essential to our ability to navigate social interactions and deal with psychological stress, physical injury, and trauma. Combining a ground-up explanation of the anatomical and neurological sources of embodied self-awareness with practical exercises in touch and movement, Body Sense provides therapists and their clients with the tools to attain mind-body equilibrium and cultivate healthy body sense throughout their lives.

Oxford Handbook of Developmental Behavioral Neuroscience

The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Behavioral Neuroscience is a seminal reference work in the burgeoning field of developmental behavioral neuroscience, which has emerged in recent years as an important sister discipline to developmental psychobiology. This handbook, part of the Oxford Library of Neuroscience, provides an introduction to recent advances in research at the intersection of developmental science and behavioral neuroscience, while emphasizing the central research perspectives of developmental psychobiology.

Is Science Compatible with Free Will?: Exploring Free Will and Consciousness in the Light of Quantum Physics and Neuroscience

Anyone who claims the right ‘to choose how to live their life’ excludes any purely deterministic description of their brain in terms of genes, chemicals or environmental influences. For example, when an author of a text expresses his thoughts, he assumes that, in typing the text, he governs the firing of the neurons in his brain and the movement of his fingers through the exercise of his own free will: what he writes is not completely pre-determined at the beginning of the universe. Yet in the field of neuroscience today, determinism dominates. There is a conflict between the daily life conviction that a human being has free will, and deterministic neuroscience. When faced with this conflict two alternative positions are possible: Either human freedom is an illusion, or deterministic neuroscience is not the last word on the brain and will eventually be superseded by a neuroscience that admits processes not completely determined by the past. This book investigates whether it is possible to have a science in which there is room for human freedom. The book generally concludes that the world and the brain are governed to some extent by non-material agencies, and limited consciousness does not abolish free will and responsibility.

Neurophysiology of Consciousness: selected papers and new essays (Contemporary Neuroscientists)

Meaningful investigations of the issue in question requires simultaneous study of brain events and introspective reports of experiences in an awake, cooperative human subject. Analysis by neuropsychologists of pathological lesions in the brain and the related disturbances of conscious functions have contributed much to mapping the pos sible representations of these functions. The non-invasive recording of electrical activity with electrodes on the scalp, starting from Berger's initial EEG record ings in 1929, has contributed much to the problems of states of consciousness and to various cognitive features associated with sensory inputs, but not as much to the specific issue of conscious experience.

Biology of Freedom: Neural Plasticity, Experience, and the Unconscious

This groundbreaking book delivers a much-needed bridge between neurosciences and psychoanalysis. Freud hoped that the neurosciences would offer support for his psychoanalysis theories at some point in the future: both disciplines, after all, agree that experience leaves traces in the mind. But even today, as we enter the twenty-first century, all too many scientists and analysts maintain that each side has wholly different models of the origin and nature of those traces. What constitutes human experience, how does this experience shape us, and how, if at all, do we change our lives?

Neuroplasticity (MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

Fifty years ago, neuroscientists thought that a mature brain was fixed like a fly in amber, unable to change. Today, we know that our brains and nervous systems change throughout our lifetimes. This concept of neuroplasticity has captured the imagination of a public eager for self-improvement―and has inspired countless Internet entrepreneurs who peddle dubious “brain training” games and apps. In this book, Moheb Costandi offers a concise and engaging overview of neuroplasticity for the general reader, describing how our brains change continuously in response to our actions and experiences.

Consciousness in Action

In this important book, Susan Hurley sheds new light on consciousness by examining its relationships to action from various angles. She assesses the role of agency in the unity of a conscious perspective, and argues that perception and action are more deeply interdependent than we usually assume. A standard view conceives perception as input from world to mind and action as output from mind to world, with the serious business of thought in between. Hurley criticizes this picture, and considers how the interdependence of perceptual experience and agency at the personal level (of mental contents and norms) may emerge from the subpersonal level (of underlying causal processes and complex dynamic feedback systems).

Active Perception in the History of Philosophy: From Plato to Modern Philosophy

The aim of the present work is to show the roots of the conception of perception as an active process, tracing the history of its development from Plato to modern philosophy. The contributors inquire into what activity is taken to mean in different theories, challenging traditional historical accounts of perception that stress the passivity of percipients in coming to know the external world. Special attention is paid to the psychological and physiological mechanisms of perception, rational and non-rational perception and the role of awareness in the perceptual process.

The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention

Your genes respond to your thoughts, emotions and beliefs. The way you use your mind shapes your brain, turning genes on and off in ways that can dramatically affect your health and wellbeing. In this best-selling, award-winning book, researcher Dawson Church reveals the exciting applications of the new science of Epigenetics (epi=above, i.e. control above the level of the gene) to healing. Citing hundreds of scientific studies, and telling the stories of dozens of people who have used his ideas for their own healing, he shows how you can apply these discoveries in your own life. He explains how electromagnetic energy flows in your body and affects your cells, and how the new fields of energy medicine and energy psychology can help cases that are beyond the reach of conventional medicine. He shows how your hormonal, neurological, connective tissue, and neutrotransmitter systems all work in harmony to conduct a coordinated flow of information throughout your body. As you take conscious control of the process, you produce a positive effect on your health, becoming an "epigenetic engineer" of your own wellbeing. Practical and scientific, this book has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people. This new edition is updated with the latest research and clinical breakthroughs.

The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance

Epigenetics can potentially revolutionize our understanding of the structure and behavior of biological life on Earth. It explains why mapping an organism's genetic code is not enough to determine how it develops or acts and shows how nurture combines with nature to engineer biological diversity. Surveying the twenty-year history of the field while also highlighting its latest findings and innovations, this volume provides a readily understandable introduction to the foundations of epigenetics. Nessa Carey, a leading epigenetics researcher, connects the field's arguments to such diverse phenomena as how ants and queen bees control their colonies; why tortoiseshell cats are always female; why some plants need cold weather before they can flower; and how our bodies age and develop disease. Reaching beyond biology, epigenetics now informs work on drug addiction, the long-term effects of famine, and the physical and psychological consequences of childhood trauma. Carey concludes with a discussion of the future directions for this research and its ability to improve human health and well-being.

• Why Do I Do That?: Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives

Why Do I Do That? adapts the basic strategies of psychodynamic psychotherapy to a guided course in self-exploration, highlighting the universal role of defense mechanisms in warding off emotional pain. With easy-to-understand explanations, the first part teaches you about the unconscious mind and the role of psychological defenses in excluding difficult feelings from awareness. Individual chapters in the longer middle section explore the primary defense mechanisms one by one, with exercises to help you identify your own defenses at work.

Protecting the Self: Defense Mechanisms in Action

Integrating theory, research, and practical applications, this timely book provides a comprehensive examination of defense mechanisms and their role in both normal development and psychopathology. The author describes how children and adults mobilize specific kinds of defenses to maintain their psychological equilibrium and preserve self-esteem, particularly in situations of trauma or stress. Many lucid examples illustrate what these mechanisms look like in everyday life; the impact of age, gender, and personality differences; what happens when defenses are used maladaptively; and how they are affected by psychotherapy. Challenges in assessment are considered, and empirically supported instruments and approaches are discussed in depth.

The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder

n The Loss of Sadness, Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield argue that, while depressive disorder certainly exists and can be a devastating condition warranting medical attention, the apparent epidemic in fact reflects the way the psychiatric profession has understood and reclassified normal human sadness as largely an abnormal experience. With the 1980 publication of the landmark third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), mental health professionals began diagnosing depression based on symptoms--such as depressed mood, loss of appetite, and fatigue--that lasted for at least two weeks. This system is fundamentally flawed, the authors maintain, because it fails to take into account the context in which the symptoms occur. They stress the importance of distinguishing between abnormal reactions due to internal dysfunction and normal sadness brought on by external circumstances.

The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology

The Second Edition of the cutting edge work, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, by Kirk J. Schneider, represents the very latest scholarship in the field of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy. Set against trends inclined toward psychological standardization and medicalization, the handbook offers a rich tapestry of reflection by the leading person-centered scholars of our time. Their range in topics is far-reaching―from the historical, theoretical and methodological, to the spiritual, psychotherapeutic and multicultural.

Textbook Of Transpersonal Psychiatry And Psychology

This important new book brings together the work of top scholars and clinicians at leading universities and medical centers on the benefits and risks of transpersonal therapy. After comparing a variety of multicultural approaches -- Zen Buddhism, existential phenomenology, and Christian mysticism, among many others -- the book offers a wealth of information on specific disorders and the application of transpersonal psychology techniques such as visualization, breathwork, and "past lives" regression. With solid scholarship, wide scope, and accessible style, Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology will become the standard work for students, researchers, clinicians, and lay readers interested in extending psychiatry and psychology into sciences that describe the functioning of the human mind, thereby building bridges between those disciplines and spirituality.

When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities

Feelings of oneness with other people, nature, and the universe. Encounters with extraterrestrials, deities, and demons. Out-of-body experiences and past-life memories. Science casts a skeptical eye. But Dr. Stanislav Grof―the psychiatric researcher who cofounded transpersonal psychology―believes otherwise. When the Impossible Happens presents Dr. Grof 's mesmerizing firsthand account of over 50 years of inquiry into waters uncharted by classical psychology, one that will leave readers questioning the very fabric of our existence. From his first LSD session that gave him a glimpse of cosmic consciousness to his latest work with Holotropic Breathwork, When the Impossible Happens will amaze readers with vivid explorations of topics such as: Temptations of a Non-Local Universe―experiments in astral projection etc.

Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences

One of the foremost spokesmen for the Third Force movement in psychology, Abraham H. Maslow, here articulates one of his prominent theses: the "religious" experience is a rightful subject for scientific investigation and speculation and, conversely, the "scientific community" will see its work enhanced by acknowledging and studying enhanced by the species-wide need for spiritual expression which, in so many, forms, is at the heart of "peak-experiences" reached by healthy, fully functioning people.

Toward a Psychology of Being 3rd Edition

"If we wish to help humans to become more fully human, we must realize not only that they try to realize themselves, but that they are also reluctant or afraid or unable to do so. Only by fully appreciating this dialectic between sickness and health can we help to tip the balance in favor of health." -Abraham Maslow Abraham Maslow's theories of self-actualization and the hierarchy of human needs are the cornerstones of modern humanistic psychology, and no book so well epitomizes those ideas as his classic Toward a Psychology of Being.

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

The tenets of Nonviolent Communication are applied to a variety of settings, including the classroom and the home, in these booklets on how to resolve conflict peacefully. Illustrative exercises, sample stories, and role-playing activities offer the opportunity for self-evaluation, discovery, and application.The skills and perspectives of the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process are applied to parenting in this resource for parents and teachers. NVC stresses the importance of putting compassionate connection first to create a mutually respectful, enriching family dynamic filled with clear, heartfelt communication.

Nonviolent Communication: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values

What if you could defuse tension and create accord in even the most volatile situations - just by changing the way you spoke? Over the past 35 years, Marshall Rosenberg has done just that, peacefully resolving conflicts in families, schools, businesses, and governments in 30 countries all over the world. On Nonviolent Communication, this renowned peacemaker presents his complete system for speaking our deepest truths, addressing our unrecognized needs and emotions, and honoring those same concerns in others. With this adaptation of the best-selling book of the same title, Marshall Rosenberg teaches in his own words.

Personification: Using the Dialogical Self in Psychotherapy and Counselling

Personification discusses the theory behind multiplicity of the person and considers the implications that the relationships between the different parts of the same person have in practice. Providing both historical and contemporary insights John Rowan reveals new thinking and research in the field, as well as offering guidelines for using this information in practice. The book also looks closely at the practice of personification – a technique involving the turning of a problem into a person and allowing a two-way dialogue through which the inner critic can be addressed and explored. This practical, straightforward book will be ideal reading for anyone using personification in their therapeutic work, including psychotherapists, counsellors and coaches.

A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy: Complexity, Integration, and Spirituality in Practice

This book provides a practical introduction to Integral Psychotherapy, which positions itself as the most comprehensive approach to psychotherapy yet offered. Grounded in the work of theoretical psychologist and philosopher Ken Wilber, it organizes the key insights and interventions of pharmacological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, existential, feminist, multicultural, somatic, and transpersonal approaches to psychotherapy. Integral Psychotherapy does not attempt to unify these diverse models, but rather takes a metatheoretical perspective, giving general guidelines for which is most appropriate in a wide range of clinical situations. It also strongly emphasizes the therapist’s own personal development, under the premise that the depth and complexity of the human psyche must be understood first within the self if it is to be understood fully in others. This essential text is for therapists and others drawn to holistic approaches to psychotherapy, and serves as a theoretical ground and precise guide for those interested in applying the Integral model in therapeutic practice.

A Brief History of Everything (20th Edition)

Join one of the greatest contemporary philosophers on a breathtaking tour of time and the Kosmos—from the Big Bang right up to the eve of the twenty-first century. This accessible and entertaining summary of Ken Wilber’s great ideas has been expanding minds now for two decades, providing a kind of unified field theory of the universe and, along the way, treating a host of issues related to that universe, from gender roles to multiculturalism, to environmentalism, and even the meaning of the Internet. A Brief History of Everything may well be the best introduction to the thought of this man who has been called the “Einstein of Consciousness” (John White).

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution

In this tour de force of scholarship and vision, Ken Wilber traces the course of evolution from matter to life to mind and describes the common patterns that evolution takes in all three of these domains. From the emergence of mind, he traces the evolution of human consciousness through its major stages of growth and development. He particularly focuses on modernity and postmodernity: what they mean; how they impact gender issues, psychotherapy, ecological concerns, and various liberation movements; and how the modern and postmodern world conceive of Spirit. This second edition features forty pages of new material, new diagrams, and extensively revised notes.

Fundamentals of Physics I: Mechanics, Relativity, and Thermodynamics

A beloved introductory physics textbook, now including exercises and an answer key, explains the concepts essential for thorough scientific understanding In this concise book, R. Shankar, a well‑known physicist and contagiously enthusiastic educator, explains the essential concepts of Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, waves, fluids, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Now in an expanded edition—complete with problem sets and answers for course use or self‑study—this work provides an ideal introduction for college‑level students of physics, chemistry, and engineering; for AP Physics students; and for general readers interested in advances in the sciences. The book begins at the simplest level, develops the basics, and reinforces fundamentals, ensuring a solid foundation in the principles and methods of physics.

In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality

Quantum theory is so shocking that Einstein could not bring himself to accept it. It is so important that it provides the fundamental underpinning of all modern sciences. Without it, we'd have no nuclear power or nuclear weapons, no TV, no computers, no science of molecular biology, no understanding of DNA, no genetic engineering. In Search of Schrodinger's Cat tells the complete story of quantum mechanics, a truth stranger than any fiction. John Gribbin takes us step by step into an ever more bizarre and fascinating place, requiring only that we approach it with an open mind. He introduces the scientists who developed quantum theory. He investigates the atom, radiation, time travel, the birth of the universe, superconductors and life itself. And in a world full of its own delights, mysteries and surprises, he searches for Schrodinger's Cat - a search for quantum reality - as he brings every reader to a clear understanding of the most important area of scientific study today - quantum physics. In Search of Schrodinger's Cat is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the strange world of the quantum - an essential element in understanding today's world.

Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer

The classical mechanistic idea of nature that prevailed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was essentially mindless: the physically described aspects of nature were asserted to be completely determined by prior physically described aspects alone, with conscious experiences entering only passively. In the last century, these classical concepts were found inadequate. In the new quantum mechanics theory, conscious experiences enter into the dynamics in specified ways not fixed by physically described aspects alone.

Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives

For the past forty years, doctors at the University of Virginia Medical Center have conducted research into young children’s reports of past-life memories. Dr. Ian Stevenson, the founder of this work, has always written for a scientific audience. Now, in this provocative and fascinating book, Dr. Jim B. Tucker, a child psychiatrist who currently directs the research, shares these studies with the general public. Life Before Life is a landmark work—one that has the potential to challenge and ultimately change our understandings about life and death. Researchers have studied more than 2500 such cases, and their careful investigations have produced an impressive body of work. JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, stated in a review of one of Dr. Stevenson’s scientific books that, “in regard to reincarnation he has painstakingly and unemotionally collected a detailed series of cases . . . in which the evidence is difficult to explain on any other grounds.”

European Cases of the Reincarnation Type

Many cultures accept that a person may die and then come back to life in another form, but Westerners have traditionally rejected the idea. Recently, however, surveys conducted in Europe indicate a substantial increase in the number of Europeans who believe in reincarnation, and numerous claims of reincarnation have been reported. This book examines particular cases in Europe that are suggestive of reincarnation. The first section provides a brief history of the belief in reincarnation among Europeans. The second section considers eight cases from the first third of the twentieth century that were not independently investigated, but were reported and sometimes published by the persons concerned. The third section covers 32 cases from the second half of the twentieth century that were investigated by the author. Many of these cases involved either children who exhibited unusual behavior attributed to a previous life, or adults who experienced recurrent or vivid dreams attributed to a previous life. In the fourth section, the author compares European cases suggestive of reincarnation with those of other countries and cultures.

Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect

Children who claim to remember a previous life have been found in many parts of the world, particularly in the Buddhist and Hindu countries of South Asia, among the Shiite peoples of Lebanon and Turkey, the tribes of West Africa, and the American northwest. Stevenson has collected over 2,600 reported cases of past-life memories of which 65 detailed reports have been published. Specific information from the children's memories has been collected and matched with the data of their claimed former identity, family, residence, and manner of death. Birthmarks or other physiological manifestations have been found to relate to experiences of the remembered past life, particularly violent death. Writing as a specialist in psychiatry and as a world-renowned scientific investigator of reported paranormal events, Stevenson asks us to suspend our Western tendencies to disbelieve in reincarnation and consider the reality of the burgeoning record of cases now available. This book summarizes Stevenson's findings

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming

Lucid Dreaming—conscious awareness during the dream state—is an exhilarating experience. Because the world you are experiencing is one of your own creation, you can do the impossible and consciously influence the outcome of your dreams. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming goes far beyond the confines of pop dream psychology, establishing a scientifically researched framework for using lucid dreaming. Based on Dr. Stephen LaBerge’s extensive laboratory work at Stanford University mapping mind/body relationships during the dream state, as well as the teachings of Tibetan dream yogis and the work of other scientists, including German psychologist Paul Tholey.

The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams (Cambridge Fundamentals of Neuroscience in Psychology)

This book provides a complete introduction to the neuroscience of sleep and dreams in plain language. In it, Patrick McNamara outlines new discoveries in the science of sleep and dreams, places them within an evolutionary context, and brings them together with existing scientific findings and implications for sleep medicine. Unlike other introductory texts, the important evolutionary background and social nature of sleep and dreams is emphasized. Major advances in sleep medicine, sleep and memory, dream content analyzes, brain correlates of sleep stages and lifespan development of sleep are covered in depth. While the text is geared towards students, the general reader and scientists studying other disciplines will find it accessible and informative.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between

The so-called “Tibetan Book of the Dead” has been renowned for centuries as a cornerstone of Buddhist wisdom and religious thought. More recently, it has become highly influential in the Western world for its psychological insights into the processes of death and dying—and what they can teach us about the ways we live our lives. It has also been found to be helpful in the grieving process by people who have recently lost their loved ones. This authoritative translation preserves the form and spirit of the original and was prepared especially for Western readers by Robert A. F. Thurman, one of the most prominent Tibetan scholars in America and a close associate of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s.

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