The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head (Extract)

2011-12-26
The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head (Extract)

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  • Author: Bruce Hood
  • Publisher: Hachette UK
  • ISBN: 1780335881
  • Category : Psychology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 320

This is an extended extract from The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head. Most of us believe that we possess a self - an internal individual who resides inside our bodies, making decisions, authoring actions and possessing free will. The feeling that a single, unified, enduring self inhabits the body - the 'me' inside me - is compelling and inescapable. This is how we interact as a social animal and judge each other's actions and deeds. But that sovereignty of the self is increasingly under threat from science as our understanding of the brain advances. Rather than a single entity, the self is really a constellation of mechanisms and experiences that create the illusion of the internal you. We only emerge as a product of those around us as part of the different storylines we inhabit from the cot to the grave. It is an every changing character, created by the brain to provide a coherent interface between the multitude of internal processes and the external world demands that require different selves.

The Self Illusion

2013
The Self Illusion

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  • Author: Bruce Hood
  • Publisher: Constable & Robinson
  • ISBN: 9781780338729
  • Category : Mind and body
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 258

Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supersedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it?

The Self Illusion

2012-06-15
The Self Illusion

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  • Author: Bruce Hood
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 0199969892
  • Category : Psychology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 368

Most of us believe that we are unique and coherent individuals, but are we? The idea of a "self" has existed ever since humans began to live in groups and become sociable. Those who embrace the self as an individual in the West, or a member of the group in the East, feel fulfilled and purposeful. This experience seems incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that this notion of the independent, coherent self is an illusion - it is not what it seems. Reality as we perceive it is not something that objectively exists, but something that our brains construct from moment to moment, interpreting, summarizing, and substituting information along the way. Like a science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. In The Self Illusion, Dr. Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. He explains that self is the product of our relationships and interactions with others, and it exists only in our brains. The author argues, however, that though the self is an illusion, it is one that humans cannot live without. But things are changing as our technology develops and shapes society. The social bonds and relationships that used to take time and effort to form are now undergoing a revolution as we start to put our self online. Social networking activities such as blogging, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter threaten to change the way we behave. Social networking is fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships is outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. This book ventures into unchartered territory to explain how the idea of the self will never be the same again in the online social world.

The Self Illusion

2012-05-23
The Self Illusion

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  • Author: Bruce Hood
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 019989759X
  • Category : Psychology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 368

Most of us believe that we are an independent, coherent self--an individual inside our head who thinks, watches, wonders, dreams, and makes plans for the future. This sense of our self may seem incredibly real but a wealth of recent scientific evidence reveals that it is not what it seems--it is all an illusion.In The Self Illusion, Bruce Hood reveals how the self emerges during childhood and how the architecture of the developing brain enables us to become social animals dependent on each other. Humans spend proportionally the greatest amount of time in childhood compared to any other animal. It's not only to learn from others, Hood notes, but also to learn to become like others. We learn to become our self. Even as adults we are continually developing and elaborating this story, learning to become different selves in different situations--the work self, the home self, the parent self. Moreover, Hood shows that this already fluid process--the construction of self--has dramatically changed in recent years. Social networking activities--such as blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter--are fast becoming socialization on steroids. The speed and ease at which we can form alliances and relationships are outstripping the same selection processes that shaped our self prior to the internet era. Things will never be the same again in the online social world. Hood offers our first glimpse into this unchartered territory.Who we are is, in short, a story of our self--a narrative that our brain creates. Like the science fiction movie, we are living in a matrix that is our mind. But Hood concludes that though the self is an illusion, it is an illusion we must continue to embrace to live happily in human society.

The Self Illusion

2013-05-06
The Self Illusion

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  • Author: Bruce MacFarlane Hood
  • Publisher: HarperPerennial
  • ISBN: 9781443405232
  • Category : Brain
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 368

Wonderful. Illuminating. Full of insight, beauty and-humor. —David Eagleman, author of Incognito and Sum The Self Illusion is about the science of self—the truth behind the illusion that we all share, that we exist as individuals inside our bodies and are in control of our own thoughts and behaviours. Recent developments in neuroscience tell us that we consist of a multitude of unconscious mechanisms interpreting the world, yet we are largely under the influence of those around us. We are not the individuals we think we are. The truth—that our self is a narrative our brain creates—may startle those of us who fervently believe that we are in full control of who we are and what we do. Bruce Hood, a world-renowned expert on the brain, reaches deep into our evolutionary past to find out what makes us tick. He reveals fascinating original research about child development and ultimately takes us inside our own heads to explain how and why we act the way we do, even in the new frontier of Twitter and Facebook. The Self Illusion is a highly accessible, often entertaining and ultimately provocative book about the nature of you, yourself and I.

The Mindfulness Edge

2016-02-10
The Mindfulness Edge

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  • Author: Matt Tenney
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
  • ISBN: 1119183243
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 288

The one habit that can improve almost every leadership skill There is a simple practice that can improve nearly every component of leadership excellence and it doesn't require adding anything to your busy schedule. In The Mindfulness Edge, you'll discover how a subtle inner shift, called mindfulness, can transform things that you already do every day into opportunities to become a better leader. Author Matt Tenney has trained leaders around the world in the practice of mindfulness. In this book, he partners with neuroscientist Tim Gard, PhD, to offer step-by-step, practical guidance for quickly and seamlessly integrating mindfulness training into your daily life—rewiring your brain in ways that improve both the ‘hard' and ‘soft' skills of leadership. In this book, you'll learn how mindfulness training helps you: Quickly improve business acumen and your impact on the bottom line Become more innovative and attract/retain innovative team members Develop the emotional intelligence essential for creating and sustaining a winning culture Realize the extraordinary leadership presence that inspires greatness in others The authors make a compelling case for why mindfulness training may be the 'ultimate success habit.' In addition to helping you improve the most essential elements of highly effective leadership, mindfulness training can help you discover unconditional happiness and realize incredible meaning—professionally and personally.

Free Will

2012-03-06
Free Will

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  • Author: Sam Harris
  • Publisher: Simon and Schuster
  • ISBN: 1451683405
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 96

Sam Harris, bestselling author of THE END OF FAITH takes on one of today's liveliest issues: whether or not we actually have free will.

Spiritual Science

2018-09-18
Spiritual Science

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  • Author: Steve Taylor
  • Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
  • ISBN: 1786781921
  • Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 256

It is often assumed that there are two ways of interpreting the world: a rational scientific way, or an irrational religious way. Spiritual Science offers a third alternative: a spiritual view of reality that transcends both conventional science and religion, and answers many of the riddles that neither can explain. The standard model of science has had little success in explaining such areas as human consciousness, the connection between the mind and the body, altruism and ‘anomalous’ phenomena such as near-death experiences, psi phenomena (such as telepathy) and spiritual experiences. But from a ‘panspiritist’ point of view – which sees spirit or consciousness as a fundamental essence of reality – it is possible to make sense of all these things. Steve Taylor puts forward the evidence for a spiritual view of reality, drawing on the insights of philosophers, physicists, mystics, as well as spiritual traditions and indigenous cultures. He systematically shows how a ‘panspiritist’ view can explain many puzzling aspects of science and the world, including evolution and the origins of life, and a wide range of other phenomena such as quantum physics, the placebo effect, precognition and neuroplasticity. Spiritual Science offers a new vision of the world that is compatible with both modern science and ancient spiritual teachings. It provides a more accurate and holistic account of reality than conventional science or religion, integrating a wide range of phenomena that are excluded from both. After showing how the materialist worldview demeans the world and human life, Spiritual Science offers a brighter alternative – a vision of the world as sacred and interconnected, and of human life as meaningful and purposeful. Spiritual Science explains how the standard materialist model of reality developed, and turned into a belief system. This belief system can only function by denying (or explaining away) a whole range of phenomena that are part of human experience. It is possible to be scientific without adopting this belief system – in fact, it is much more rational to do so.

Mind Is Flat

2018-08-07
Mind Is Flat

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  • Author: Nick Chater
  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • ISBN: 0300240619
  • Category : Psychology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 320

In a radical reinterpretation of how the mind works, an eminent behavioral scientist reveals the illusion of mental depth Psychologists and neuroscientists struggle with how best to interpret human motivation and decision making. The assumption is that below a mental “surface” of conscious awareness lies a deep and complex set of inner beliefs, values, and desires that govern our thoughts, ideas, and actions, and that to know this depth is to know ourselves. In this profoundly original book, behavioral scientist Nick Chater contends just the opposite: rather than being the plaything of unconscious currents, the brain generates behaviors in the moment based entirely on our past experiences. Engaging the reader with eye-opening experiments and visual examples, the author first demolishes our intuitive sense of how our mind works, then argues for a positive interpretation of the brain as a ceaseless and creative improviser.

The Illusion of Conscious Will

2003-08-11
The Illusion of Conscious Will

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  • Author: Daniel M. Wegner
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • ISBN: 0262290553
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 725

A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.