consciousness

Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
$11.95
This book is a fantastic overview of what we call consciousness, the many ways it's been looked at in the past, studied in the present, and how we can challenge our assumptions and beliefs.

This is a must read for everyone! Susan has an easy-to-read style with plenty of detail and examples. I really like the comparisons of theories and expert opinions in the study of consciousness. This book is really hard to put down, and says so much in few pages.

Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human
$16.95
This is less an overture of current research into the symphony of the self than an amuse-bouche for the neocortex. It is an interesting and incomplete primer of some the current neurological and philosophical theories of self, mind, and brain straight from those at the forefront. Through a series of structured interviews conducted over several years at various conferences, Susan Blackmore prompts about 20 researchers and luminaries in consciousness related areas to discuss their theories (and those of their colleagues). The unflagging interview structure includes their ideas about the nature of the brain, mind, consciousness and self and whether we will be able to solve 'the problem'--or even if there is one. Also, she asks each to relate any personal influence their work has had on their perspectives and lives.

Susan Blackmore maintains the accessible spirit of the various dialogues by inserting explanations and asides. These keep the debates and considerations within the reach of an informed and interested public. Overall, even with the repetitive interview format, the book mostly moves along while informing us about the some of the issues, debates and personalities in this interesting and growing field. As one might expect from a well-crafted amuse-bouche--I enjoyed it, and it left me wanting more.

Spirit Space; A Journey Into Your Consciousness
$24.95
If you are planning to purchase this DvD to find answers to the questions about why we are here or where we're coming from and so on... stop and do not
buy the DVD. It has bad editing, the computer graphics look like they were made by me!, the order of the ideas are all over the place, it's not
well written or organized. At the beginning it looks like a cheap commercial for the Moore Institute. I thought that by paying $25 for this DVD
I was taking home another "What the Bleep Do We Know?" but I ended up taking home a "glorified brochure" safe your money and time and do not
purchase this one.
The past life and out of body experience sections were introduced without deep explanation, just as a fact that happened to one of the speakers (waking up
in somebody else's body and going to pee, really tasteless...they didn't do more interviews about this subject so maybe they could get another interviewee with a better story than that awkward experience or at least someone with a more philosophical approach.
The only speaker that had important information was given by Fred Alan Wolf.

This movie is a poorly directed, poorly edited conglomeration, or cluster, of disjointed ideas portrayed by over edited interviews. There were a lot of ideas that sounded like they could be interesting, but none of them ever really went into any depth and the transitions between ideas were almost non-existent.

Consciousness: An Introduction
$59.95
I am not a student and wanted to read a somewhat in-depth overview of consciousness. I am very disappointed by this book, despite liking the author's book The Meme Machine.

The book contains large sections on ESP, out-of-body experiences, etc. This shows the book's target audience; undergraduate students presumably like this cool stuff. The book is full of boxes and pictures that are there presumably to make the text easier to read. This is in itself a signal (not proof) that the text itself has been dumbed down as well.

Many classic experiements are described (this is good), but not in a very satisfactory way. For instance Libet on arm flexing and free will. However, there are no conclusions. I would for instance like to know what the majority of researcher think about the issues today. If they fall into two camps, fine, just describe the current status. Instead the author describes some follow-up experiments but she gets too hooked on describing them rather than mention their theoretical significance for advance our theory of consciousness. And then she ends and moves on to another topic.

In a way the book is easy to read, but it is harder to feel that one has understood anything after reading. It is like reading Nietzsche; easy to read, but to understand is another matter. But I suppose the similarities end there.