The Nature Of Human Consciousness

Essays exploring humanity’s connection with the environment. Although the physical relationship between the natural world and individuals is quantifiable, the psychosocial effect of the former on the latter is often less tangible. What, for instance, is the connection between the environment in which we live and our creativity? How is our consciousness bounded and delimited by our materiality? And from whence does our idea of self and our belief in free will derive and when do our surroundings challenge these basic assumptions? Eco-critic Harold Fromm’s challenging exploration of these and related questions twines his own physical experiences and observations with insights gathered from both the humanities and the sciences. Writing broadly and personally, Fromm explores our views of nature and how we write about it. He ties together ecology, evolutionary psychology, and consciousness studies to show that our perceived separation from our surroundings is an illusory construct. He argues for a naturalistic vision of creativity, free will, and the literary arts unimpeded by common academic and professional restraints. At each point of this intellectual journey, Fromm is honest, engaging, and unsparing. Philosophical, critical, often personal, Fromm’s sweeping, interdisciplinary, and sometimes combative essays will change the way you think about your place in the environment. “How rare it is that a work of philosophical inquiry is written with the passion of a cri de coeur, but Harold Fromm’s brilliantly conceived The Nature of Being Human resonates with such uncanny depths. Here is an utterly engrossing first-person account of a harrowing pilgrimage into the 21st century and its disturbing revelations about humankind’s truest nature, in contrast to the comforting solicitudes of a “humanist” past. If the role of the philosopher is to force us to think, Harold Fromm is a born philosopher.” —Joyce Carol Oates “Fromm, an erudite, prolific author of numerous works ranging from ecocritical commentary to self-reflective discourses, presents a compilation of essays that illuminate his views regarding why most Americans seem oblivious to the destruction of their environment.” —Choice “Fromm’s journey from victim, to campaigner, to pioneer of eco-criticism (that is, the study of literature from an ecological viewpoint) is documented here, alongside challenging analyses of man’s place in nature, free will, our relationship with technology and more. Scholarly but engaging, Fromm is an environmentalist, but also a realist.” —Organic Gardener

Book Description: Few books about consciousness get to the nitty gritty as quickly as this one. By the end of the preface, the essence of the novel hypothesis that is at the heart of the book is clear. The reader is then taken on a stimulating intellectual journey that ranges from ancient Hindu religious texts to the most up-to-the minute papers in the neuroscience literature as the author supports and defends the hypothesis. If you have any interest at all in the academic field of consciousness studies, don't miss this book!

In this groundbreaking work, Leonard Hall offers readers a profound exploration of the nature of consciousness and its evolution over time. Drawing on a wide range of scientific and philosophical sources, Hall offers a compelling vision of conscious evolution that sees humans as a unique and transformative force in the universe. A must-read for anyone interested in the cutting-edge of consciousness research and the mysteries of the human mind. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Scholars from many different disciplines examine consciousness through the lens of intellectual approaches and cultures ranging from cosmology research and cell biophysics laboratories to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in a volume that extends consciousness studies beyond the limits of current neuroscience research. The "hard problem" of today's consciousness studies is subjective experience: understanding why some brain processing is accompanied by an experienced inner life. Recent scientific advances offer insights for understanding the physiological and chemical phenomenology of consciousness. But by leaving aside the internal experiential nature of consciousness in favor of mapping neural activity, such science leaves many questions unanswered. In Ontology of Consciousness, scholars from a range of disciplines—from neurophysiology to parapsychology, from mathematics to anthropology and indigenous non-Western modes of thought—go beyond these limits of current neuroscience research to explore insights offered by other intellectual approaches to consciousness. These scholars focus their attention on such philosophical approaches to consciousness as Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, North American Indian insights, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization, and the Byzantine Empire. Some draw on artifacts and ethnographic data to make their point. Others translate cultural concepts of consciousness into modern scientific language using models and mathematical mappings. Many consider individual experiences of sentience and existence, as seen in African communalism, Hindi psychology, Zen Buddhism, Indian vibhuti phenomena, existentialism, philosophical realism, and modern psychiatry. Some reveal current views and conundrums in neurobiology to comprehend sentient intellection. Contributors Karim Akerma, Matthijs Cornelissen, Antoine Courban, Mario Crocco, Christian de Quincey, Thomas B. Fowler, Erlendur Haraldsson, David. J. Hufford, Pavel B. Ivanov, Heinz Kimmerle, Stanley Krippner, Armand J. Labbé, James Maffie, Hubert Markl, Graham Parkes, Michael Polemis, E Richard Sorenson, Mircea Steriade, Thomas Szasz, Mariela Szirko, Robert A.F. Thurman, Edith L.B. Turner, Julia Watkin, Helmut Wautischer

A direct line into our consciousness and an index of linguistic histories demonstrated. Is our language the activity of history demonstrated? Moreover, what happens when our consciousness is born of symbolic translation referencing those who have created wording specifically superficial and angleless? Even the most admirable pronunciation of wording grips some form of deception over another person without the merit required understandingly so as most people then invite vituperation as their defensive utteranceness. These semiotic inferences support a person's instinctive adaptation orienting uploaded language-traps which cause contextualizing our written attitude subjectively debilitating any relational medium when language uses us as its conduit for the ultimate experiment in a technological jungle of demonstration through suffering, pain and egocentric ramifications. That with each wording our linguistic history examples where we must authority its specific level of experience in the course, having existed subconsciously by a strategist conceptual semantic mentality of that particular reason for word materialization; meaning assigned what recourse in that exact history of human understanding. If there is meaning in truth fundamentally, why do we have to interpret it then? Language has procured superstition in its usage from person to person while its instinctive abstraction formed its reason in contrast to the linguistic history that each generation was taught and therefore forfeited any attempt at establishing language without annexation to underdevelopment. This book approaches linguistic philosophy epistemologically recognized including quotes, epigrams and poetic prose detailing my own level of experience and personal deconstruction of superstition in language usage.

An evidenced-based compilation of findings across disciplines supported by direct observations and the formal experiments of peer review research. What does it mean to know? Are plants conscious? Is the waggle dance of the honeybee a language? Do fish dream? Can squirrel monkeys learn to perceive the color red? Do chimpanzees lie? In charting the development of consciousness across species the nature of human consciousness is revealed and healthy life choices become clear. In the process, we discover some surprising implications for the ideas of self-concept and free-will. The information compiled here allows for nothing less than an awakening as to who we are in the universe. Though the evidence comes from naturalistic observations and the methods are based on the principles of science, the destination is ultimately spiritual.