Whenever I speak on the topic of dreams, I mention a very unusual of dream the lucid dream in which the dreamer knows he is dreaming and feels fully conscious difficulties in defining states of consciousness, I always ask weather anyone has the slightest doubt that he is awake that is in a normal state of consciouness at the moment; I have never found anyone who had difficulty in making this destinction.

This treatise on aesthetics begins by showing that the word "art" is used as a name not only for "art proper" but also for certain things which are "art falsely so called." These are craft or skill, magic, and amusement, each of which, by confusion with art proper, generates a false aesthetic theory. In the course of attacking these theories the author criticizes various psychological theories of art, offers a new theory of magic, and reinterprets Plato's so-called "attack on art," (...) showing that it has been entirely misunderstood. Finally, he draws important inferences concerning the position of art in human society. (shrink)

But there is considerable consensus, even among writers who disagree radically about the ultimate significance of time so understood, that time as ...

The world's foremost systems philosopher presents a new scientific theory to explain how the universe defies our current understanding of fundamental physical laws.

Reprint of the ed. published by Viking Press, New York.

Elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, (...) you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us.". (shrink)

This book offers an original hypothesis capable of unifying evolution in the physical universe with evolution in biology; herewith it lays the conceptual foundations of ?transdisciplinary unified theory?. The rationale for the hypothesis is presented first; then the theoretical framework is outlined, and thereafter it is explored in regard to quantum physics, physical cosmology, micro- and macro-biology, and the cognitive sciences (neurophysiology, psychology, with attention to anomalous phenomena as well). The book closes with a variety of studies, both by the (...) author and his collaborators, sketching out the implications of the hypothesis in regard to brain dynamics, cosmology, the concept of space, phenomena of creativity, and the prospects for the elaboration of a mature transdisciplinary unified theory. The Foreword is written by philosopher of science Arne Naess, and the Afterword is contributed by neuroscientist Karl Pribram. (shrink)

[opening paragraph] -- Clark: The `astonishing hypothesis' which you put forward in your book, and which you obviously feel is very controversial, is that `You, your joys and sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will are, in fact, no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells. As Lewis Carroll's Alice might have phrased it: `You're nothing but a pack of neurons'.' But it seems to me that this is not so (...) astonishing a statement for a scientist to make. Isn't this what reductionist science has always believed? (shrink)

In this book the author has collected a number of his important works and added an extensive commentary relating his ideas to those of other prominentnames in the consciousness debate. The view presented here is that of a convinced dualist who challenges in a lively and humorous way the prevailing materialist "doctrines" of many recent works. Also included is a new attempt to explain mind-brain interaction via a quantum process affecting the release of neurotransmitters. John Eccles received a knighthood in (...) 1958 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology in 1963. He has numerous other awards honouring his major contributions to neurophysiology. (shrink)

Among the most exciting experiences in our lives are the ones that arouse a magical rapture within us. This may happen when we become engrossed in a musical piece, when dancing becomes ecstatic, when we are passionately in love (or making love) or when we experience an intuitive perception or an altered state of consciousness, get caught by the spell of the infinity of the Universe or the splendor of nature; it can also happen during telepathic contact or in lucid (...) dreams. What I shall try to outline here is a systematic world-view that gives a basis for the interpretation of the special character of those magical actions. A model for the structure of the Universe is shown in which different levels of existence are sequentially telescoped into each other. This model suggests that the different levels of the material and the inner worlds can be in direct connection, thus offering us a new perspective for participating in the process of Creation. (shrink)