“Truly unique in bridging disciplines…This is a book for the 21st century that will open and enlarge our minds,hearts, and spirits.”- Miriam Greenspan, therapist and author “Highly readable, informative, provocative, profound.”- Joseph Chilton Pearce, author and educator “Important findings… they could open up a whole new field of research.”- Carlos Alvarado, Ph.D., University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies“A landmark book that presents a picture of consciousness that is far more majestic than anything conceived inconventional neuroscience. Based in solid science, this bold effort will challenge anyone who reads it with an openmind.”- Larry Dossey, M.D., author and former co-chair, panel on Mind/Body Interventions, Office of AlternativeMedicine, National Institutes of Health“This book brings Antonio Damasio’s ‘feeling brain’ into full embodiment. It is a monumental contribution tounderstanding ourselves as human beings.”- Allan Combs, Ph.D., author and faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies
Excerpt 1 – Introduction
Emotions are first and foremost experienced in relation to the body, and it is via the body that they are expressed.- Rhawn Joseph, The Naked NeuronSeems self-evident, no? When you feel love for someone, you have a warm, open feeling in your chest -- perhapsover your entire body. But when you feel fear, your breath becomes short, your stomach constricts, your arms andlegs may tremble. When you're angry, you feel the steam rising through your gut, neck and shoulders until you'reclose to bursting. In contrast, when exuberantly happy, your smile beams a mile wide, your eyes sparkle and youmay even find yourself jumping for joy. And when you get sorrowful news, your face becomes downcast, your throattightens, and tears pour from your eyes.This is called being human.Feelings -- the perception of them, the decisions of what to do about them, their roots, their consequences and,above all, their unparalleled reality -- are the stuff of our lives. They're also, undeniably, the stuff of our bodies.Contemporary neuroscience is making leaps and bounds in understanding feelings. Brain scan technology revealsflickering images showing which circuits in your head are processing the electrochemical messages that are theneural substrate of emotion. The more we learn, the greater the promise for controlling -- or at least mitigating --longstanding demons that have plagued the human condition such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder,schizophrenia, and epilepsy. And, taking a broad view, our ability to peer into the brain is spawning a remarkablenew discipline, neurophilosophy, which is concerned with answering the Big Questions that have long been thehallmark of Western philosophy. Questions like "What does it mean to be conscious?" "What are the roots of theself?" and "How are human beings different from the other animals?" Patricia Churchland, a professor at theUniversity of California - San Diego, puts it this way: "What's so exciting is that the philosophical questions raised bythe Greeks are coming within the province of science." (Lemonick, Michael, "Glimpses of the Mind," Time, July 17,1995)Exciting indeed. But, be careful what we wish for.Emotions -- that phenomenon of the body -- are increasingly being seen through the lens of the brain. And the bodyis being given short shrift. That in itself is not surprising, since neuroscientists are doing the looking and, by dint of their profession, are concerned first and foremost with the brain. But the palpable truth of what happens in our bodies when we're upset, when we're joyful, when we're lustful, enraged, lonely, guilt-ridden, surprised or terrified, isbeing relegated to an afterthought. Literally. So fascinated are neuroscientists with the functioning of the brain, they
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