100 Best Consciousness Books of All Time

We've ranked the best consciousness books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Man's Search for Meaning book cover1

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

5.0
Man's Search for Meaning has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, Frankl argues that we can
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom book cover2

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Don Miguel Ruiz, Janet Mills

4.9
In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally,
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment book cover3

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Eckhart Tolle

4.8
Eckhart Tolle is emerging as one of today's most inspiring teachers. In The
Power of Now, a #1 national bestseller, the author describes his transition
from despair to self-realization soon after his 29th birthday. Tolle took
another ten years to understand this transformation, during which time he
evolved a philosophy that has parallels in Buddhism, relaxation techniques,
and meditation theory but is
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind book cover4

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Julian Jaynes

4.8
At the heart of this seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that consciousness didn't begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only 3000 years ago & is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually all aspects of psychology, history & religion.
Preface
Introduction
The mind of man
The c
Thinking, Fast and Slow book cover5

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Kahneman

4.8
Major New York Times bestseller
Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011
A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient

In the internatio
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness book cover6

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

Peter Godfrey-Smith

4.7

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind book cover7

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

4.7
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence book cover8

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

Michael Pollan

4.6
Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness

When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid book cover9

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter

4.6
Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers at
Consciousness Explained book cover10

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett

4.6
In Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett reveals the secrets of one of the last remaining mysteries of the universe: the human brain.

Daniel C. Dennett's now-classic book blends philosophy, psychology and neuroscience - with the aid of numerous examples and thought-experiments - to explore how consciousness has evolved, and how a modern understanding of the human mind is radically different fr
When Breath Becomes Air book cover11

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi

4.5
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve me
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference book cover12

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell

4.5
An alternate cover edition exists here.

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller,
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness book cover13

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness

Sy Montgomery

4.5
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways
The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul book cover14

The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul

Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett

4.5
Brilliant, shattering, mind-jolting, The Mind's I is a searching, probing cosmic journey of the mind that goes deeply into the problem of self and self-consciousness as anything written in our time. From verbalizing chimpanzees to scientific speculations involving machines with souls, from the mesmerizing, maze-like fiction of Borges to the tantalizing, dreamlike fiction of Lem and Princess Ineffa
Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts book cover15

Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts

Stanislas Dehaene

4.5
A breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain

How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before.

In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and t
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales book cover16

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks

4.5
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent t
The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness book cover17

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

Antonio R. Damasio

4.5
The publication of this book is an event in the making. All over the world scientists, psychologists, and philosophers are waiting to read Antonio Damasio's new theory of the nature of consciousness and the construction of the self. A renowned and revered scientist and clinician, Damasio has spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and dev
The Origins and History of Consciousness book cover18

The Origins and History of Consciousness

Erich Neumann

4.5
The Origins and History of Consciousness draws on a full range of world mythology to show how individual consciousness undergoes the same archetypal stages of development as human consciousness as a whole. Erich Neumann was one of C. G. Jung's most creative students and a renowned practitioner of analytical psychology in his own right. In this influential book, Neumann shows how the stages begin a
The Doors of Perception: Heaven and Hell (Thinking Classics) book cover19

The Doors of Perception: Heaven and Hell (Thinking Classics)

Aldous Huxley

4.5
In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. Huxley described his experience in 'The Doors of Perception' and its sequel 'Heaven and Hell'.
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose book cover20

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Eckhart Tolle

4.4

Building on the astonishing success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: He implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity.

Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humani
I Am a Strange Loop book cover21

I Am a Strange Loop

Douglas R. Hofstadter

4.4
Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, “I” arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here?I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called “I.” The “I” is the nexus
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion book cover22

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris

4.4
For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.

From multiple New York Times bestselling author, neuroscientist, and “new atheist” Sam Harris, Waking Up is for the 30 percent of Americans who follow no religion, but who suspect that Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, R
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself book cover23

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Michael A. Singer

4.4
Who are you? When you start to explore this question, you find out how elusive it really is. Are you a physical body? A collection of experiences and memories? A partner in a relationship? Each time you consider these aspects of yourself, you realize that there is much more to you than any of these can define.

In The Untethered Soulnow a New York Times bestsellerspiritual teacher Michael Singer
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom book cover24

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan Haidt

4.3
In his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world’s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives.
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind book cover25

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee, et al.

4.3
Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandr
Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist book cover26

Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist

Christof Koch

4.3
In which a scientist searches for an empirical explanation for phenomenal experience, spurred by his instinctual belief that life is meaningful.

What links conscious experience of pain, joy, color, and smell to bioelectrical activity in the brain? How can anything physical give rise to nonphysical, subjective, conscious states? Christof Koch has devoted much of his career to bridging the seemingly
27

Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human

Susan Blackmore

4.3
In Conversations on Consciousness, Susan Blackmore interviews some of the great minds of our time, a who's who of eminent thinkers, all of whom have devoted much of their lives to understanding the concept of consciousness.

The interviewees, ranging from major philosophers to renowned scientists, talk candidly with Blackmore about some of the key philosophical issues confronting us in a series of
The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self book cover28

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

Thomas Metzinger

4.3
We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain—an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”

But if

Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain book cover29

Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain

Antonio Damasio

4.3
From one of the most significant neuroscientists at work today, a pathbreaking investigation of a question that has confounded philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists for centuries: how is consciousness created?

Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years studying and writing about how the brain operates, and his work has garnered acclaim for its singular melding of the scientific and
Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction book cover30

Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction

Susan Blackmore

4.3
Consciousness, "the last great mystery for science," remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion?

Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psycholog
DMT: The Spirit Molecule book cover31

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

Rick Strassman

4.3
A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death & Mystical Experiences.
A clinical psychiatrist explores the effects of DMT: A behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of psychedelic research.

From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted US DEA-approved clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected 60 volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psyched
The Biology Of Belief: Unleashing The Power Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles book cover32

The Biology Of Belief: Unleashing The Power Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles

Bruce H. Lipton

4.3
Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe book cover33

Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe

Robert Lanza and Bob Berman

4.3
Robert Lanza is one of the most respected scientists in the world—a US News & World Report cover story called him a “"genius” and a “"renegade thinker,” even likening him to Einstein. Lanza has teamed with Bob Berman, the most widely read astronomer in the world, to produce Biocentrism, a revolutionary new view of the universe.

Every now and then a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundation
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size book cover34

The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size

Tor Norretranders

4.3
As John Casti wrote, "Finally, a book that really does explain consciousness." This groundbreaking work by Denmark's leading science writer draws on psychology, evolutionary biology, information theory, and other disciplines to argue its revolutionary point: that consciousness represents only an infinitesimal fraction of our ability to process information. Although we are unaware of it, our brains
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory book cover35

The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory

David J. Chalmers

4.3
What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? These questions today are among the most hotly debated issues among scientists and philosophers, and we have seen in recent years superb volumes by such eminent figures as Francis Crick, Daniel C. Dennett, Ger
The River of Consciousness book cover36

The River of Consciousness

Oliver Sacks

4.3
From the bestselling author of Gratitude and Musicophilia, a collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks's passionate engagement with the most compelling ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience.

Oliver Sacks, scientist and storyteller, is beloved by readers for the extraordinary neurological case histories (Awakenings, An Anthropologist on Mar
Be Here Now book cover37

Be Here Now

Ram Dass

4.3
Describes one man's transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga & gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of human nature. Illustrated.
The book is divided into four sections:
Journey: The Transformation: Dr Richard Alpert, PhD into Baba Ram Dass
From Bindu to Ojas: The Core Book
Cookbook for a Sacred Life: A Manual for Conscious Being
Painted Cakes (Do Not S
Tao Te Ching: By Lao Tzu - Illustrated book cover38

Tao Te Ching: By Lao Tzu - Illustrated

Lao Tse

4.3
A lucid translation of the well-known Taoist classic by a leading scholar-now in a Shambhala Pocket Library edition.
Written more than two thousand years ago, the Tao Teh Ching, or -The Classic of the Way and Its Virtue, - is one of the true classics of the world of spiritual literature. Traditionally attributed to the legendary -Old Master, - Lao Tzu, the Tao Teh Ching teaches that the qualities o
The Selfish Gene book cover39

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

4.3
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and mainta
The Alchemist book cover40

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

4.3
Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treas
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking book cover41

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

4.3
Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you'll understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a bo
The Secret (The Secret, #1) book cover42

The Secret (The Secret, #1)

Rhonda Byrne

4.3
The Secret’s 10th Anniversary Edition includes a new foreword by Rhonda Byrne, and 10 of the most life-changing insights she’s had over the last 10 years of practicing and living The Secret every day. The 10 insights alone will accelerate your understanding and mastery of the law of attraction.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow book cover43

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari

4.2
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to acce
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain book cover44

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

Antonio Damasio

4.2
Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading
The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford Landmark Science) book cover45

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford Landmark Science)

Roger Penrose

4.2
For many decades, the proponents of `artificial intelligence' have maintained that computers will soon be able to do everything that a human can do. In his bestselling work of popular science, Sir Roger Penrose takes us on a fascinating tour through the basic principles of physics, cosmology, mathematics, and philosophy to show that human thinking can never be emulated by a machine.

Oxford Landmark
46

Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon

Joe Dispenza

4.2
What would it mean to become supernatural? What if you could train your brain to tune in to frequencies beyond our material world . . . change your brain circuitry and chemistry to access transcendent level of awareness . . . and transform your very biology to enable profound healing?

This one of the abilities Dr. Joe Dispenza offers in this revolutionary book: a set of tools that allow ordinary pe
The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship, A Toltec Wisdom Book book cover47

The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship, A Toltec Wisdom Book

Miguel Ruiz

4.2
In The Mastery of Love, don Miguel Ruiz illuminates the fear-based beliefs and assumptions that undermine love and lead to suffering and drama in our relationships. Using insightful stories to bring his message to life, Ruiz shows us how to heal our emotional wounds, recover the freedom and joy that are our birthright, and store the spirit of playfulness that is vital to loving relationships. The
The Prophet book cover48

The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran

4.2
Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chap
How the Mind Works book cover49

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

4.2
In this extraordinary bestseller, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, does for the rest of the mind what he did for language in his 1994 book, The Language Instinct. He explains what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life. And he does it with the wit that prompted Mark Ridl
Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment book cover50

Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment

David R. Hawkins M.D.Ph.D

4.2
The now widely known Map of calibrated levels of Consciousness was presented in Power vs. Force in 1995 and has been translated into all the world’s major languages. This was followed by The Eye of the I (2001), I: Reality and Subjectivity (2003), and Truth vs. Falsehood (2005), which explored the levels of Truth reflected throughout society.
Transcending the Levels of Consciousness returns to the
Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind book cover51

Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind

Annaka Harris

4.2
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"If you’ve ever wondered how you have the capacity to wonder, some fascinating insights await you in these pages.” --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals

As concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the se
The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are book cover52

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Alan Watts

4.2
Alan Watts asks what is the cause of the illusion that the self is a separate ego, housed in a bag of skin, and which confronts a universe of physical objects that are alien to it. Rather a person's identity (their ego) binds them to the physical universe, creating a relationship with their environment and other people. The separation of the self and the physical world leads to the misuse of techn
Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, author's Official Revised Edition book cover53

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, author's Official Revised Edition

David R. Hawkins

4.2
All human endeavors have the common goal of understanding or influencing human experience. To this end, man has developed numerous descriptive and analytical disciplines: Morality, Philosophy, Psychology, and so on. Regardless of what branch of inquiry one starts from-philosophy, political theory, theology-all avenues of investigation eventually converge at a common meeting point: the quest for an
The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality book cover54

The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality

Michael Talbot

4.2
"Awake-up call to wonder, an adventure in ideas." —Larry Dossey,M.D., author of Space, Time & Medicine

Now witha new foreword by Lynn McTaggart, author of TheField, Michael Talbot’s classic treatise on the latest frontiers of physicsreveals a revolutionary theory of reality, explaining the paranormal abilitiesof the mind, the unsolved riddles of brain and body, and the true nature of theuniverse. L
Meditations book cover55

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

4.1
One measure, perhaps, of a book's worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated and introduced by Gregory Hays, by that standard, is very worthwhile, indeed. Hays suggests that its most recent incarnation--as a self-help book--is not only valid, but may be close to the author's intent
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge book cover56

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

Terence McKenna

4.1
s/t: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution
For the first time in paperback, the critically acclaimed counterculture manifesto by the wildly popular McKenna. "Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs & hallucinogens."--The Washington Post. Photos & illustrations.
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind book cover57

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick

4.1
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to co
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence book cover58

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Max Tegmark

4.1
How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology--and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

How can we grow our prosperity th
The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach book cover59

The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach

Christof Koch

4.1
About the Author

Born in 1956 in the American Midwest, Christof Koch grew up in Holland, Germany, Canada, and Morocco, where he graduated from the Lycée Descartes in 1974. He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Tübingen in Germany and was awarded his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1982. He is now the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at the California In

Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness book cover60

Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness

Daniel C. Dennett

4.1
Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the reader on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone else's mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were m
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain book cover61

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

David Eagleman

4.1
If the conscious mind—the part you consider you—accounts for only a tiny fraction of the brain’s function, what is all the rest doing? This is the question that David Eagleman—renowned neuroscientist and acclaimed author of Sum—answers in a book as accessible and entertaining as it is deeply informed by startling, up-to-the-minute research.
The Spectrum of Consciousness book cover62

The Spectrum of Consciousness

Ken Wilber

4.1
Wilber's groundbreaking synthesis of religion, philosophy, physics, and psychology started a revolution in transpersonal psychology. He was the first to suggest in a systematic way that the great psychological systems of the West could be integrated with the noble contemplative traditions of the East. Spectrum of Consciousness, first released by Quest in 1977, has been the prominent reference poin
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge book cover63

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

Jeremy Narby

4.1
This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals
Autobiography of a Yogi book cover64

Autobiography of a Yogi

Yogananda Paramahansa

4.1
Autobiography of a Yogi is one of the best-selling spiritual biographies of all time. The book is not merely read it is treasured and cherished by millions of spiritual seekers throughout the world.
Free Will book cover65
Belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.

In this enlighten
Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality book cover66

Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality

Dean I. Radin

4.1
Is everything connected? Can we sense what's happening to loved ones thousands of miles away? Why are we sometimes certain of a caller's identity the instant the phone rings? Do intuitive hunches contain information about future events? Is it possible to perceive without the use of the ordinary senses?

Many people believe that such "psychic phenomena" are rare talents or divine gifts. Others don't
Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul book cover67

Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul

Giulio Tononi

4.1
This title is printed in full color throughout.

From one of the most original and influential neuroscientists at work today, here is an exploration of consciousness unlike any other—as told by Galileo, who opened the way for the objectivity of science and is now intent on making subjective experience a part of science as well.

Galileo’s journey has three parts, each with a different guide. In the fi
Consciousness and the Social Brain book cover68

Consciousness and the Social Brain

Michael S. A. Graziano

4.1
What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in deta
A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination book cover69

A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination

Gerald Edelman, Giulio Tononi

4.1
In A Universe of Consciousness, Gerald Edelman builds on the radical ideas he introduced in his monumental trilogy-Neural Darwinism, Topobiology, and The Remembered Present-to present for the first time an empirically supported full-scale theory of consciousness. He and the neurobiolgist Giulio Tononi show how they use ingenious technology to detect the most minute brain currents and to identify t
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed book cover70

How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

Ray Kurzweil

4.1
The bold futurist and bestselling author explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain

Ray Kurzweil is arguably today’s most influential—and often controversial—futurist. In How to Create a Mind, Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization—reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and usin
Memories, Dreams, Reflections book cover71

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

C.G. Jung

4.1
In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, C. G. Jung undertook the telling of his life story. At regular intervals he had conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, and collaborated with her in the preparation of the text based on these talks. On occasion, he was moved to write entire chapters of the book in his own hand, and he continued to work on the final stages o
The Society of Mind book cover72

The Society of Mind

Marvin Minsky

4.1
Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"
Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pi
The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World book cover73

The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World

Amit Goswami

4.1
Consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all existence, declares University of Oregon physicist Goswami, echoing the mystic sages of his native India. He holds that the universe is self-aware, and that consciousness creates the physical world.
74

Making Up The Mind: How The Brain Creates Our Mental World

Chris Frith

4.1
Written by one of the world's leading neuroscientists, Making Up the Mind is the first accessible account of experimental studies showing how the brain creates our mental world.

Uses evidence from brain imaging, psychological experiments and studies of patients to explore the relationship between the mind and the brain
Demonstrates that our knowledge of both the mental and physical comes to us thr
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind book cover75

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind

Richard Maurice Bucke

4.1
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 was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life book cover76

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Jon Kabat-Zinn

4.1
In this book, the author maps out a simple path for cultivating mindfulness in one's own life. It speaks both to those coming to meditation for the first time and to longtime practitioners, anyone who cares deeply about reclaiming the richness of his or her moments.
The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience book cover77

The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

Francisco J. Varela, Evan T. Thompson, Eleanor Rosch

4.1

The Embodied Mind provides a unique, sophisticated treatment of the spontaneous and reflective dimension of human experience. The authors argue that only by having a sense of common ground between mind in Science and mind in experience can our understanding of cognition be more complete. Toward that end, they develop a dialogue between cognitive science and Buddhist meditative psychology and situa

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience book cover78

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

4.0
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this posit
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds book cover79

From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds

Daniel C. Dennett

4.0
How did we come to have minds?

For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain how consciousness, language, and culture could have appeared through natural selection, blazing promising trails that tend,
Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness book cover80

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness

Roger Penrose

4.0
A New York Times bestseller when it appeared in 1989, Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind was universally hailed as a marvelous survey of modern physics as well as a brilliant reflection on the human mind, offering a new perspective on the scientific landscape and a visionary glimpse of the possible future of science. Now, in Shadows of the Mind, Penrose offers another exhilarating look at mode
Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story book cover81

Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story

Alexander Shulgin

4.0
phen-ethyl-amine \fen-'eth-al-a-,men\ n. [phenyl fr. F. phène, fr. Gk. phainein, to show (from its occurrence in illuminating gas)+ ethyl ( + yl) + amine fr. NL ammonia] 1: A naturally occurring compound found in both the animal and plant kingdoms. It is an endogenous component of the human brain. 2: Any of a series of compounds containing the phenethylamine skeleton, and modified by chemical cons
The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety book cover82

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

Alan Watts

4.0
In this fascinating book, Alan Watts explores man's quest for psychological security, examining our efforts to find spiritual and intellectual certainty in the realms of religion and philosophy. The Wisdom of Insecurity underlines the importance of our search for stability in an age where human life seems particularly vulnerable and uncertain. Watts argues our insecurity is the consequence of tryi
Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One book cover83

Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

Joe Dispenza

4.0
You are not doomed by your genes and hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of your life. A new science is emerging that empowers all human beings to create the reality they choose. In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, renowned author, speaker, researcher, and chiropractor Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to sho
A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers book cover84

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers

V.S. Ramachandran

4.0
How can some people come to believe that their poodle is an impostor? Or see colors in numbers? Internationally acclaimed neuroscientist, V.S. Ramachandran, now shares his unique insight into human consciousness in an entertaining, inspiring, and intellectually dazzling brief tour of the ultimate frontier—the thoughts in our heads.A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness is made up of five investigatio
Awareness book cover85

Awareness

Anthony de Mello, SJ, J. Francis Stroud

4.0

"This is your wake-up call! You may not have even realized you were sleep-walking. Most of us are most of the time. Awareness is an eye-opener. It's Anthony de Mello telling you gently but firmly, 'It's time to get up now.'" --Charles Osgood of "CBS Sunday Morning" and "The Osgood File"

"Awareness will be the critical test of American business in the next decade. I call it the 'business of awarenes

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology book cover86

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Ray Kurzweil

4.0
The great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is one of the best-known and controversial advocates for the role of machines in the future of humanity. In his latest, thrilling foray into the future, he envisions an event--thesingularity--in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines.

The Singularity Is Near portrays what life w
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind book cover87

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

Michio Kaku

4.0
The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has bec
The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness book cover88

The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness

Culadasa, Matthew Immergut, and Jeremy Graves

4.0
A revolutionary, science-based approach to meditation from a neuroscientist turned meditation master, The Mind Illuminated is an accessible, step-by-step toolkit for anyone looking to start—or improve—their daily meditation practice.

The book that bestselling meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg raves “brings the path of meditation to life,” The Mind Illuminated is the first how-to meditation guide f
Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy book cover89

Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

Evan Thompson, Stephen Batchelor

4.0
A renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep, dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain.

Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static thing. When we are awake we ide
Freedom from the Known book cover90

Freedom from the Known

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mary Lutyens

4.0
Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.
The Four Agreements Toltec Wisdom Collection: The Four Agreements/The Mastery of Love/The Voice of Knowledge book cover91

The Four Agreements Toltec Wisdom Collection: The Four Agreements/The Mastery of Love/The Voice of Knowledge

Don Miguel Ruiz

4.0
This three-book set by bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz offers his most widely acclaimed works: mainly about ourselves.
The Mystery Of Consciousness book cover92

The Mystery Of Consciousness

John R. Searle

4.0
It has long been one of the most fundamental problems of philosophy, and it is now, John Searle writes, "the most important problem in the biological sciences": What is consciousness? Is my inner awareness of myself something separate from my body?

In what began as a series of essays in The New York Review of Books, John Searle evaluates the positions on consciousness of such well-known scientists
Peace Is Every Step book cover93

Peace Is Every Step

Thich Nhat Hanh

4.0
Thich Nhat Hahn is a Vietnamese Zen master, poet and writer whose humane, benevolent presence and spiritual influence is comparable only to that of the Dalai Lama. His teachings show how to use Zen mindfulness in everyday aspects of life, live in the world peacefully, and weather daily mundane crises as well as larger spiritual trials.
Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind book cover94

Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind

Paul M. Churchland

4.0
In "Matter and Consciousness," Paul Churchland clearly presents the advantages and disadvantages of such difficult issues in philosophy of mind as behaviorism, reductive materialism, functionalism, and eliminative materialism. This new edition incorporates the striking developments that have taken place in neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence and notes their expanding relev
The Bhagavad Gita book cover95

The Bhagavad Gita

Eknath Easwaran

4.0
96

The Book of Stones: Who They Are and What They Teach

Robert Simmons, Naisha Ahsian, et al.

4.0
Often dubbed the "crystals bible," this comprehensive reference guide to the spiritual and healing qualities of 455 sacred stones has become the go-to book for looking up the properties of gems and minerals. Each entry includes vivid color photographs for each stone to aid identification and to showcase its beauty, as well as listing its scientific information, its element and chakra correspondenc
I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj book cover97

I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sudhaker S. Dikshit, Maurice Frydman

4.0

This collection of the timeless teachings of one of the greatest sages of India, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, is a testament to the uniqueness of the seer's life and work and is regarded by many as a "modern spiritual classic".

I Am That preserves Maharaj's dialogues with the followers who came from around the world seeking his guidance in destroying false identities. The sage's sole concern was with

Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness book cover98

Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness

Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner

4.0
The most successful theory in all of science - and the basis of one third of our economy - says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories. Trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and
Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy book cover99

Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Sadhguru

4.0
Achieve absolute well-being with the classical science of yoga

The practice of what is commonly known as hatha yoga is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. Yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner si
Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness book cover100

Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

Philip Goff

4.0
From a leading philosopher of the mind comes this lucid, provocative argument that offers a radically new picture of human consciousness--panpsychism.

Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is something "extra," beyond the physical workings of the brain. Others think that if we persist in our