Mind Wide Open

Author : Steven Johnson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743258797
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mind Wide Open written by Steven Johnson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-02-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.

Author : Dawna Markova
Publisher : Conari Press
ISBN 13 : 1573243647
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wide Open written by Dawna Markova and published by Conari Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To put it very simply, Dawna Markova is a teacher. A Ph.D. educator, she travels the world working with schools, Fortune 500 companies, and individuals. While coaching people on systems thinking and how to revolutionize the way children are taught, she also teaches people the most important lesson anyone can ever learn -- how to listen to one's own heart and how to live with heart and mind wide open to all life's possibilities. Wide Open is the gift of Dawna's wisdom, wrapped up in gorgeous photos. In thirty luminous lessons and passages, Markova encourages us to learn from our wounds, find our gifts, celebrate our values, and live our dreams -- to live on purpose and with passion. Twenty years ago, Dawna Markova discovered these eternal truths when she faced a life-threatening illness and began a journey of rediscovery. This book follows her path to finding deeper meaning in life. "In a similar way to A Gift from the Sea, the readers of this book are invited to accompany me on a journey to come to know more intimately the value and purpose of their lives."

Author : Ronald Alexander
Publisher : New Harbinger Publications
ISBN 13 : 9781608824700
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wise Mind, Open Mind written by Ronald Alexander and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though it's nearly impossible to imagine, times of personal crisis and upheaval are opportunities for self-reinvention and heightened artistic expression. Whether you are healing from a severed relationship, experiencing a job loss, or coping with another traumatic life transition, you can renew your strength and find new passion and purpose after things fall apart. Wise Mind, Open Mind offers a powerful three-step mindfulness approach to help you navigate times of unwanted change, rediscover your inner well of creativity, and move forward with passion and purpose. This book combines techniques drawn from contemporary mind-body approaches, Buddhist psychology, mindfulness, creative thinking, and positive psychology to show you how to tap into your gifts and create a practical plan for personal transformation that will help you move through the challenges you face. You'll learn to overcome the five common hindrances that may be keeping you from true fulfillment and happiness. Finally, you'll be able to embrace your circumstances, utilizing them to create a renewed personal vision and welcome new possibilities and greater creativity into your life.

Author : Michael Chorost
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 9781439141205
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book World Wide Mind written by Michael Chorost and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if digital communication felt as real as being touched? This question led Michael Chorost to explore profound new ideas triggered by lab research around the world, and the result is the book you now hold. Marvelous and momentous, World Wide Mind takes mind-to-mind communication out of the realm of science fiction and reveals how we are on the verge of a radical new understanding of human interaction. Chorost himself has computers in his head that enable him to hear: two cochlear implants. Drawing on that experience, he proposes that our Paleolithic bodies and our Pentium chips could be physically merged, and he explores the technologies that could do it. He visits engineers building wearable computers that allow people to be online every waking moment, and scientists working on implanted chips that would let paralysis victims communicate. Entirely new neural interfaces are being developed that let computers read and alter neural activity in unprecedented detail. But we all know how addictive the Internet is. Chorost explains the addiction: he details the biochemistry of what makes you hunger to touch your iPhone and check your email. He proposes how we could design a mind-to-mind technology that would let us reconnect with our bodies and enhance our relationships. With such technologies, we could achieve a collective consciousness—a World Wide Mind. And it would be humankind’s next evolutionary step. With daring and sensitivity, Chorost writes about how he learned how to enhance his own relationships by attending workshops teaching the power of touch. He learned how to bring technology and communication together to find true love, and his story shows how we can master technology to make ourselves more human rather than less. World Wide Mind offers a new understanding of how we communicate, what we need to connect fully with one another, and how our addiction to email and texting can be countered with technologies that put us—literally—in each other’s minds.

Author : Toyin Adekale
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1664152903
Total Pages : 70 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Mind Wide Open written by Toyin Adekale and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our mind is constantly in conversation, or observation. It never stops functioning, which can be overwhelming. Oftentimes your mind is just vacant and waiting to be fed. If you don't do this on purpose it can run wild. You can pick a topic, pick a page and go straight to it. No need to read from the beginning. "My Mind Wide Open" is an interruption to some of our everyday thoughts and challenges you to re-think and change your focus. Is your mind wide open? Then feed it everyday. Direct it. Control it or it will control you. Here is some food for thought. Let the eating begin with some nutrition for your “Mind Wide Open”. Change the way you look at things and things you look at change. This is an easy read. Try a subject a day. Keep negativity at bay. Written by: Toyin Adekale Insert Illustrations: Kelis Dawn Editor: Patrick Walsh

Author : Steven Johnson
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141980095
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mind Wide Open written by Steven Johnson and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Emergence and The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open: Why You Are What You Think takes us on a journey to the frontiers of brain science and reveals exactly how we're hardwired to think and feel. 'You are part reptile, part mammal, part primate. You are a dopamine fiend. You are a walking assembly of patterns and waves, clusters of neurons firing in sync with one another...' Experimenting with the latest technology, Stephen Johnson discovers (among other things) that everything we do - from falling in love to forming a sentence - is caused by neurons firing and chemicals swirling around our heads; that there are gadgets which can enable us to control our own brainwaves; that everyone's mind, like their fingerprint, is unique; and this can help us understand our own mental foibles - and see ourselves in a totally new way. 'As Steven Johnson explores his inner world . . . we have a new sense of what it means to be human' The New York Times 'Refreshingly personal . . . endlessly fascinating' Guardian 'Steven Johnson has an eye for the most interesting new ideas in this exploding field, and he explains them with insight and gusto' Stephen Pinker Steven Johnson is the author of the acclaimed books Everything Bad is Good for You, The Ghost Map, Where Good Ideas Come From, Emergence and Interface Culture. His writing appeared in the Guardian, the New Yorker, Nation and Harper's, as well as the op-ed pages of The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is a Distinguished Writer In Residence at NYU's School Of Journalism, and a Contributing Editor to Wired.

Author : Sextus Empiricus
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069120604X
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How to Keep an Open Mind written by Sextus Empiricus and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How ancient skepticism can help you attain tranquility by learning to suspend judgment Along with Stoicism and Epicureanism, Skepticism is one of the three major schools of ancient Greek philosophy that claim to offer a way of living as well as thinking. How to Keep an Open Mind provides an unmatched introduction to skepticism by presenting a fresh, modern translation of key passages from the writings of Sextus Empiricus, the only Greek skeptic whose works have survived. While content in daily life to go along with things as they appear to be, Sextus advocated—and provided a set of techniques to achieve—a radical suspension of judgment about the way things really are, believing that such nonjudging can be useful for challenging the unfounded dogmatism of others and may help one achieve a state of calm and tranquility. In an introduction, Richard Bett makes the case that the most important lesson we can draw from Sextus’s brand of skepticism today may be an ability to see what can be said on the other side of any issue, leading to a greater open-mindedness. Complete with the original Greek on facing pages, How to Keep an Open Mind offers a compelling antidote to the closed-minded dogmatism of today’s polarized world.

Author : Sharon Begley
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0307492087
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain written by Sharon Begley and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2008-11-12 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to reveal that, contrary to popular belief, we have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. Recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to change in response to experience—reveal that the brain is capable of altering its structure and function, and even of generating new neurons, a power we retain well into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, compensate for disabilities, rewire itself to overcome dyslexia, and break cycles of depression and OCD. And as scientists are learning from studies performed on Buddhist monks, it is not only the outside world that can change the brain, so can the mind and, in particular, focused attention through the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness. With her gift for making science accessible, meaningful, and compelling, science writer Sharon Begley illuminates a profound shift in our understanding of how the brain and the mind interact and takes us to the leading edge of a revolution in what it means to be human. Praise for Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain “There are two great things about this book. One is that it shows us how nothing about our brains is set in stone. The other is that it is written by Sharon Begley, one of the best science writers around. Begley is superb at framing the latest facts within the larger context of the field. This is a terrific book.”—Robert M. Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers “Excellent . . . elegant and lucid prose . . . an open mind here will be rewarded.”—Discover “A strong dose of hope along with a strong does of science and Buddhist thought.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune

Author : E. Bruce Goldstein
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262358778
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mind written by E. Bruce Goldstein and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible and engaging account of the mind and its connection to the brain. The mind encompasses everything we experience, and these experiences are created by the brain--often without our awareness. Experience is private; we can't know the minds of others. But we also don't know what is happening in our own minds. In this book, E. Bruce Goldstein offers an accessible and engaging account of the mind and its connection to the brain. He takes as his starting point two central questions--what is the mind? and what is consciousness?--and leads readers through topics that range from conceptions of the mind in popular culture to the wiring system of the brain. Throughout, he draws on the latest research, explaining its significance and relevance.

Author : Shankar Vedantam
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0385525222
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Hidden Brain written by Shankar Vedantam and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hidden brain is the voice in our ear when we make the most important decisions in our lives—but we’re never aware of it. The hidden brain decides whom we fall in love with and whom we hate. It tells us to vote for the white candidate and convict the dark-skinned defendant, to hire the thin woman but pay her less than the man doing the same job. It can direct us to safety when disaster strikes and move us to extraordinary acts of altruism. But it can also be manipulated to turn an ordinary person into a suicide terrorist or a group of bystanders into a mob. In a series of compulsively readable narratives, Shankar Vedantam journeys through the latest discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science to uncover the darkest corner of our minds and its decisive impact on the choices we make as individuals and as a society. Filled with fascinating characters, dramatic storytelling, and cutting-edge science, this is an engrossing exploration of the secrets our brains keep from us—and how they are revealed.