A cogent argument offering many striking examples of the power and potential of the unconscious.
Neuroscientist Powell claims that psychic abilities can be validated by modern physics.
Human history is rich with mythology about extrasensory perception, most famously employed by the seers at the ancient oracle of Delphi, but its relationship to the brain remains unexplained. Is consciousness a surrounding force that we are capable of tapping into, or is it a result of the billions of synapse connections occurring in our brains? Can mere coincidence explain the vast number of Jung’s “synchronicities,” or is consciousness a virtual medium for universal interconnectivity? Powell’s theory of consciousness seeks to resolve some of these mysteries. Einstein and Hawking, she reminds us, wrote about time being malleable, existing totally and simultaneously. This would explain prescient visions and telepathic instinct shared by loved ones during crises even when they’re located far from each other. In easy-to-understand language, the author describes carefully controlled studies involving telekinesis, clairvoyance and precognition, presenting the results as evidence of the brain’s latent psychic tendency. She also theorizes that dreams, near-death experiences and out-of-body sensations may be manifestations of our inherent ability to relax the constructs of three-dimensional perception. Perhaps even memory is an instance of our minds accessing outside psychic information from “all of space and time.” Powell dubs this intertwined, inextricable relationship between the individual’s internal world and the external world “the Mobius mind,” named for its cyclical and symbiotic nature. This concept persists in Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism; meditation is one technique to reach a state of collective enlightenment. Particle physics, too, relies on underlying theories of resonance and symmetry, notes the author. She makes a persuasive argument that with the spectacular advances in particle physics will come a scientific revolution of thought, and with it a deeper understanding of the brain. Phenomenal brain abnormalities, such as the unexplained expertise of the savant, demonstrate incredible feats of brainpower that can’t be described or explained.
A cogent argument offering many striking examples of the power and potential of the unconscious.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8027-1606-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
The role of fantasy in personal and cultural evolution, explored in depth by an erudite psychiatrist (Columbia Univ. Medical School) who draws not only on her own patients' histories and the psychoanalytic literature, but from world history and literature. Person's interest in fantasy arose from her work on romantic love (Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters, 1988) and deepened as she began to see how fantasy influences all human relationships. In her words, ``We enact aspects of our fantasies not only in our personal relationships but in the choices we makethe goals we aspire to, the paths we follow, the overall tone and content of the voyage we make from birth to death.'' Person examines various kinds of fantasies: repeating fantasies, which persist from childhood into adulthood; generative fantasies, which unfold over time; fantasies shared by two people; and borrowed fantasies, that is, ones drawn from the culture at large, often from fiction, but also from real life. Her discussion of borrowed fantasies, which focuses on two themes, suicide and violence, includes a timely look at the role of paramilitary fantasies in the formation of fanatic sects. Person concludes with an examination of how shared and borrowed fantasies influence the way a whole culture is shaped. The examples she chooses range from the establishment of a Jewish homeland to the French Revolution to the topic that triggered her initial interest in fantasy: the rise of romantic love in Western culture. The book ends on a somber note, for Person, citing as example the Aryan fantasy of the Superman that pervaded Nazism, warns that ``fantasy is to cultural evolution as mutation is to biological evolution, and cultural mutations, like biological mutations, may benefit us, but they may also kill us.'' A mind-stretching inquiry into the hidden but decidedly powerful world of daydreams.
Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-465-02359-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
A vivid account of one woman's pilgrimage to the shrines and sacred sites of the New Age quickly degenerates into pop psychology and pseudo-profundities. Bolen (Goddess in Everywoman, 1984), a Jungian psychoanalyst and a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, begins this spiritual memoir at a low point in her life. Nearing 50 and recently separated from her husband, she is searching for a new direction. Just at this midlife crossroads, an invitation arrives from a Netherlands foundation to undertake a journey. She is to visit many of the supposed holy places of Europe. Readily accepting this apparent godsend, she begins her quest for fulfillment with an arranged audience with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism seems, by the author's own account, more bemused than captivated by her question about possible connections among Tibetans, the Hopi Indians, and the Oracle at Delphi. Her next stop is the great cathedral at Chartres, where she meditates on its relation to the Earth Goddess. A lengthy discussion of the legend of the Holy Grail and its psychological meaning precedes and follows her visit to Glastonbury, where the Grail was supposedly brought by Joseph of Arimathea. The book's title derives from the mystical island other world to which King Arthur sailed in death. Two places in Scotland- -Findhorn, a well-known New Age commune, and the Isle of Iona, an ancient Christian community—round out her personal quest. As she journeys, she picks up other spiritual vagabonds in the manner of Chaucer's travelers to Canterbury. Jungian psychological concepts form an overlay. Although the trip chronicled was undoubtedly meaningful for the author and will appeal to New Age seekers, it will leave others cold. ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-250112-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
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