Conscious Seeing

If the eyes are indeed the “windows to the soul,” then there might be a deeper significance to the emergence of an eye problem like nearsightedness than one might think. In Conscious Seeing, Dr. Roberto Kaplan explains that how we see is the largest determining factor in what we see. When we look at our eyes beyond the diagnosis of a problem, we can come to understand that visual symptoms are valuable messages through which we can be more aware of our true nature. An insightful, practical, and holistic approach to eye care, Conscious Seeing gives you the tools to reprogram your consciousness and gain skills for modifying your perception.

Too often caregivers of children with challenging behaviours feel that the solution to the problem lies outside of them. Yet we all bring past wounding into our relationships. Drawing on the latest research from both scientific fields and healing modalities, Seeing the Unseen encourages caregivers to recognise how adverse experiences and trauma in childhood lives with them, resulting in whole body dysfunction—activating harmful stress responses that keep them stuck engaging in patterns of behaviour. Unless addressed, these self-sabotaging behaviours can significantly impact vulnerable children in their care. In extreme cases, this can lead to burnout or ‘blocked care’. In Seeing the Unseen, caregivers are invited to journey through ten steps that will forever change the lens with which they view themselves (and their loved ones), resulting in a more balanced and joyful home environment. While this workbook is written for caregivers of adopted or fostered children, it may appeal to broader audiences such as kinship providers, stepparents, life coaches, family therapists, and social workers.

How does your mind work? How does your brain give rise to your mind? These are questions that all of us have wondered about at some point in our lives, if only because everything that we know is experienced in our minds. They are also very hard questions to answer. After all, how can a mind understand itself? How can you understand something as complex as the tool that is being used to understand it? This book provides an introductory and self-contained description of some of the exciting answers to these questions that modern theories of mind and brain have recently proposed. Stephen Grossberg is broadly acknowledged to be the most important pioneer and current research leader who has, for the past 50 years, modelled how brains give rise to minds, notably how neural circuits in multiple brain regions interact together to generate psychological functions. This research has led to a unified understanding of how, where, and why our brains can consciously see, hear, feel, and know about the world, and effectively plan and act within it. The work embodies revolutionary Principia of Mind that clarify how autonomous adaptive intelligence is achieved. It provides mechanistic explanations of multiple mental disorders, including symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, autism, amnesia, and sleep disorders; biological bases of morality and religion, including why our brains are biased towards the good so that values are not purely relative; perplexing aspects of the human condition, including why many decisions are irrational and self-defeating despite evolution's selection of adaptive behaviors; and solutions to large-scale problems in machine learning, technology, and Artificial Intelligence that provide a blueprint for autonomously intelligent algorithms and robots. Because brains embody a universal developmental code, unifying insights also emerge about shared laws that are found in all living cellular tissues, from the most primitive to the most advanced, notably how the laws governing networks of interacting cells support developmental and learning processes in all species. The fundamental brain design principles of complementarity, uncertainty, and resonance that Grossberg has discovered also reflect laws of the physical world with which our brains ceaselessly interact, and which enable our brains to incrementally learn to understand those laws, thereby enabling humans to understand the world scientifically. Accessibly written, and lavishly illustrated, Conscious Mind/Resonant Brain is the magnum opus of one of the most influential scientists of the past 50 years, and will appeal to a broad readership across the sciences and humanities.

Vision is about insight, and visual perception is about cognition - and they form the foundation of how we see the world. Duco A. Schreuder, a physicist and psychologist, explores the finer details of each in this groundbreaking book that explores human consciousness and perception. Sharing virtually everything he's learned over a varied career spanning more than sixty years, he examines a wide array of topics, including how we understand what we visually process, how we store and retrieve information, the role that neurons play in how what we see, and much more. While Schreuder isn't afraid to disagree with other leading thinkers, he relies on science and focuses on the facts behind it so you can understand lighting, visual perception, engineering design, and applied and experimental physics. Looking is about insight, whereas seeing is about knowledge, and you need to know how each one works to truly understand how humanity views the world. Whether you're an illuminating engineer considering the fundamentals of the trade or a student or professional in an allied discipline, you'll be well served by taking a closer look at Vision and Visual Perception.

“A brilliantly inventive account of the evolution of consciousness, the best yet” (Paul Broks, Prospect). “Consciousness matters. Arguably it matters more than anything. The purpose of this book is to build towards an explanation of just what the matter is.” Nicholas Humphrey begins this compelling exploration of the biggest of big questions with a challenge to the reader, and himself. What’s involved in “seeing red”? What is it like for us to see someone else seeing something red? Seeing a red screen tells us a fact about something in the world. But it also creates a new fact—a sensation in each of our minds, the feeling of redness. And that’s the mystery. Conventional science so far hasn’t told us what conscious sensations are made of, or how we get access to them, or why we have them at all. From an evolutionary perspective, what’s the point of consciousness? Humphrey offers a daring and novel solution, arguing that sensations are not things that happen to us, they are things we do—originating in our primordial ancestors’ expressions of liking or disgust. Tracing the evolutionary trajectory through to human beings, he shows how this has led to sensations playing the key role in the human sense of Self. The Self, as we now know it from within, seems to have fascinating other-worldly properties. It leads us to believe in mind-body duality and the existence of a soul. And such beliefs—even if mistaken—can be highly adaptive, because they increase the value we place on our own and others’ lives. “Consciousness matters,” Humphrey concludes with striking paradox, “because it is its function to matter. It has been designed to create in human beings a Self whose life is worth pursuing.” Praise for Seeing Red “A wonderful amalgam of science, philosophy, and art. [Seeing Red] is based on deep knowledge of visual processing by the brain and poetic understanding of human experience. This is a remarkable achievement.” —Richard Gregory, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology, University of Bristol, and editor of The Oxford Companion to the Mind “A brief, brilliant, and wonderfully lucid contribution to consciousness studies. By combining empirical scientific method, evolutionary theory, and a sensitive appreciation of the arts, Nicholas Humphrey argues plausibly that the “hard problem” of consciousness—the difficulty of explaining the connection between the material brain and the phenomenon of individual selfhood—may itself be the answer to a bigger question: what makes us human?”—David Lodge, author of Consciousness and the Novel: Connected Essays “Illustrating his argument with the musings of poets and painters, Humphrey stylishly inspires curiosity about consciousness.” —Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

Hypnosis provides a rich paradigm for those seeking to understand the processes that underlie consciousness. This book describes the latest advances in understanding hypnosis and similar trance states by researchers within the neuroscience of consciousness.

In this collection of essays, experts in the field of consciousness research shed light on the intricate relationship between conscious and unconscious states of mind. Advancing the debate on consciousness research, this book puts centre stage the topic of commonalities and differences between conscious and unconscious contents of the mind. The collection of cutting-edge chapters offers a breadth of research perspectives, with some arguing that unconscious states have been unjustly overlooked and deserve recognition for their richness and wide scope. Others contend that significant differences between conscious and unconscious states persist, highlighting the importance of their distinct characteristics. Explorations into the nature of the transition from unconscious to conscious mind further complicate the picture, with some authors questioning whether a sharp divide between unconscious and conscious states truly exists. Delving into ontological, epistemological, and methodological issues, this thought-provoking text challenges established paradigms and paves the way for a reimagining of consciousness research. It does so in an understandable and accessible way, making this a perfect companion for both experts and students of philosophy, psychology, and related fields. Chapters 2, 4, 9, 10, 14 and 16 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Build conscious leadership into your business. You subscribe to the basic idea that business can do more than make money, but you're not sure how to act on that conviction or how to share it with the rest of your organization. The Conscious Capitalism Field Guide--the authoritative follow-up to the bestselling book Conscious Capitalism, by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, and leadership expert Raj Sisodia--gives you the tools for sharing and implementing the principles of higher purpose and conscious business throughout your organization. This practical guide provides hands-on materials--the same tools used in companies such as Whole Foods Market, Southwest Airlines, Life is Good, The Container Store, Barry-Wehmiller, Zappos, and many others--that you can use on your own, with your team, or with others throughout your organization to build conscious leadership and practices into your business. Organized according to the four core principles (higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious leadership, and conscious culture) of Conscious Capitalism, the book provides exercises, worksheets, checklists, and instructions--for use both individually and with teams--as well as advice, examples, and real-life stories to help you apply these ideas and make them come alive in your organization. You and your team will: write a purpose statement learn how to create win-win-win relationships with all your stakeholders create a "culture playbook" for your company develop a leadership checklist for your organization build a personal leadership development plan set priorities for the coming year and beyond