THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND 'It's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering' New Statesman 'Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide ... curious, careful, open minded' The Guardian Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs - opium, caffeine and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos. In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds and our entanglement with the natural world.

JP Morgan's Best Summer Read 2018 We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, and this has profound consequences - on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. In this book, Arianna Huffington boldly asserts that what is needed is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives. Through a sweeping, scientifically rigorous and deeply personal exploration of sleep from all angles, Arianna delves into the new golden age of sleep science that reveals the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health - from weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer's. In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna shows how our cultural dismissal of sleep as time wasted not only compromises our health and our decision-making but also undermines our work lives, our personal lives and even our sex lives. She explores all the latest science on what exactly is going on while we sleep and dream. She takes on the dangerous sleeping pill industry and confronts all the ways our addiction to technology disrupts our sleep. She also offers a range of recommendations and tips from leading scientists on how we can achieve better and more restorative sleep, and harness its incredible power. In today's fast-paced, always-connected, perpetually harried and sleep-deprived world, our need for a good night's sleep is more important - and elusive - than ever. The Sleep Revolution both sounds the alarm on our worldwide sleep crisis and provides a detailed road map to the great sleep awakening that can help transform our lives, our communities and our world.

"The groundbreaking masterwork that launched psychoanalysis." -- "Time." Why do we dream? And what do our dreams signify? The monumental treatise that transformed the Viennese neurologist into a "cause celebre, " this exploration of the dream world features dozens of fascinating case studies and Freud's engrossing analyses of actual dreams.

Albert Hofmann, who died in 2008 aged 102, first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1938, but the results of animal tests were so unremarkable that the chemical was abandoned. Driven by intuition, he synthesized it again in 1943, and serendipitously noticed its profound effects on himself. Although his work produced other important drugs, including methergine, hydergine and dihydroergotamine, it was LSD that shaped his career. After his discovery of LSD's properties, Hofmann spent years researching sacred plants. He succeeded in isolating and synthesizing the active compounds in the Psilocybe mexicana mushroom, which he named psilocybin and psilocin. During the 60s, Hofmann struck up friendships with personalities such as Aldous Huxley, Gordon Wasson, and Timothy Leary. He continued to work at Sandoz until 1971 when he retired as Director of Research for the Department of Natural Products. He subsequently served as a member of the Nobel Prize Committee, and was nominated by Time magazine as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. In 2007, Albert Hofmann asked Amanda Feilding if she could publish his Problem Child, and shortly before his death he approved a new and updated translation of his autobiography (first published by McGraw Hill in 1979). It appears here for the first time in print.

Modern audiovisual media have spawned a 'plague of fantasies', electronically inspired phantasms that cloud the ability to reason and prevent a true understanding of a world increasingly dominated by abstractions--whether those of digital technology or the speculative market.
Into this arena, enters Žižek: equipped with an agile wit and the skills of a prodigious scholar, he confidently ranges among a dazzling array of cultural references--explicating Robert Schumann as deftly as he does John Carpenter--to demonstrate how the modern condition blinds us to the ideological basis of our lives.

With the casual grace of an entrancing storyteller and the dry humor of an experienced therapist and teacher, he recasts the theory of hypnosis within a relational understanding of language, self, and mind. He then transports his ideas to the worlds of hypno-and brief therapies, offering fresh insights about how to connect with clients and help them change.

The Psychedelic Experience, created by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzer and Richard Alpert, is a foundational text that serves as a model and a guide for all subsequent mind-expanding inquiries. In this wholly unique book, the authors provide an interpretation of an ancient sacred manuscript, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, from a psychedelic perspective. The Psychedelic Experience describes their discoveries in broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan mediation techniques and psychotropic substances.

Our subjective inner life is what really matters to us as human beings--and yet we know relatively little about how it arises. Over a long and distinguished career Benjamin Libet has conducted experiments that have helped us see, in clear and concrete ways, how the brain produces conscious awareness. For the first time, Libet gives his own account of these experiments and their importance for our understanding of consciousness.

Most notably, Libet's experiments reveal a substantial delay--the "mind time" of the title--before any awareness affects how we view our mental activities. If all conscious awarenesses are preceded by unconscious processes, as Libet observes, we are forced to conclude that unconscious processes initiate our conscious experiences. Freely voluntary acts are found to be initiated unconsciously before an awareness of wanting to act--a discovery with profound ramifications for our understanding of free will.

How do the physical activities of billions of cerebral nerve cells give rise to an integrated conscious subjective awareness? How can the subjective mind affect or control voluntary actions? Libet considers these questions, as well as the implications of his discoveries for the nature of the soul, the identity of the person, and the relation of the non-physical subjective mind to the physical brain that produces it. Rendered in clear, accessible language, Libet's experiments and theories will allow interested amateurs and experts alike to share the experience of the extraordinary discoveries made in the practical study of consciousness.

Become your own dream analyst and begin a powerful journey of self discovery with bestselling author, psychologist and dream expert Ian Wallace. Dreams are no longer some largely indecipherable code. They are authored by our own subconscious. When you create a dream,you are encoding a meaningful story about how to fulfil your emotional needs, intentions and purpose in waking life. So who better to decode your dreams than you? Decode Your Dreams empowers you with all you need to know, from unlocking your unconscious and learning how it influences your experiences, to creating positive life changes in light of these insights. This easy-to-use guide offers an original, two-step method that nurtures the connection between the ever-evolving unconscious and conscious mind for transformational results. Wallace explains how to decipher dream meanings before answering each diagnosis with suggested waking-life actions. Reflect on the best solutions to recurring daily dilemmas, identify and heal anxieties that are holding you back, and confront and seize new opportunities to pursue your passions. Begin by unlocking the Power of Dreams - understanding what dreams are and gaining the necessary tools for decoding, remembering, finding wisdom in and taking inspiration from your dreams. Explore key life themes including Love & Sex, Relationships & Family, Birth & Death, Work & Play, Wealth & Health, Travel & Discovery, and Purpose & Potential with each chapter. Decode Over 90 Dreams summarized one-by-one, complete with Dream Meanings, Dream Interpretation Tips, Personal Insight Questions and Dream Actions to take your analysis further and start working towards your waking-life goals. Discover Other Connected Dreams within each scenario to find surprising insights and help on subjects close to your heart. Make Your Dreams Come True in the concluding chapter, featuring simple ways to turn dreams into reality through action. Complete with ethereal illustrations by Sophie We dream to continually update our sense of self. So learn something new with every dream and develop your own human superpowers of self- and situational awareness with this book.

** AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK IN DECEMBER 2022 ** 'Curious, lively, humble, utterly genuine ... a remarkable debut.' SUNDAY TIMES Alice Vernon often wakes up to find strangers in her bedroom. Ever since she was a child, her nights have been haunted by nightmares of a figure from her adolescence, sinister hallucinations and episodes of sleepwalking. These are known as 'parasomnias' - and they're surprisingly common. Now a lecturer in Creative Writing, Vernon set out to understand the history, science and culture of these strange and haunting experiences. Night Terrors, her startling and vivid debut, examines the history of our relationship with bad dreams: how we've tried to make sense of and treat them, from some decidedly odd 'cures' like magical 'mare-stones', to research on how video games might help people rewrite their dreams. Along the way she explores the Salem Witch Trials and sleep paralysis, Victorian ghost stories, and soldiers' experiences of PTSD. By directly confronting her own strange and frightening nights for the first time, Vernon encourages us to think about the way troubled sleep has impacted our imaginations. Night Terrors aims to shine a light on the darkest parts of our sleeping lives, and to reassure sufferers from bad dreams that they are not alone.

Ever dream that you were flying? Or being chased? Do you wake up and wonder 'what did that mean'? Dream Decoder presents 60 of the most common dreams, explaining what your unconscious mind is telling you, and what events or situations in your waking life might inspire certain dreams. This improved self-awareness can be used as a tool to deal with challenging emotional situations or life choices. Each card shows an atmospheric illustration of an archetypal dream on one side and common interpretations on the other. Includes tips on how to use the cards and optional games for one or more people.

The Art of Hypnosis is a highly-informative and scientific text about hypnotherapy which is gaining increased recognition daily, and is of personal value to everyone. This well-written, easy to read and understand volume, even for the novice gives in-depth and practical information on how to achieve maximum results in a hypnotic session by properly phrasing the suggestions and by using various techniques to determine which approach is best for each individual client.

Topics include:

What is hypnosis?

How to induce hypnosis

How to use the unique state of mind in hypnosis to benefit clients in countless ways

-A complete glossary of hypnosis terms

Includes a new updated chapter on self-hypnosis along with the 'Peaceful Place Meditation', a stress relief exercise, including instructions and a script for successfully mastering this exercise.

Previously published by Kendall-Hunt under ISBN 9780757511011.

Oneironautics: from the Greek words oneira, meaning dream, and nautis, meaning sailor. An oneironaut is someone who has learned to travel consciously in the dream world. If you have ever, whilst sleeping, been aware that you were dreaming and, even for a moment, used that awareness to control the course of your dream, then you have experienced lucid dreaming. Until now, books on lucid dreaming have had a distinctly 'woo-woo' slant-emphasising spiritual or supernatural aspects, or concentrating on psychological self-discovery. The writers of A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming - three award winning writers and filmmakers, who began lucid dreaming in their teens - have searched for the best techniques out there, made some improvements and then boiled them down to their simplest, most practical forms to make this ability available to everyone. With dozens of real life dream accounts by lucid dreamers, and forty beautiful, dreamlike illustrations, this is the book on dreaming for a new generation.

Based on ancient traditions and wisdom from around the world, In Focus Dreams teaches you how to understand your dreams and tap into their power in order to conquer your fears and improve your life. This accessible and beautifully designed guide includes a frameable poster of the most common dream symbols and their meanings. Dreams can titillate or terrify, but most of the time they baffle or bewilder. This must-have handbook explains their scientific and personal importance and offers the keys to unlock their secrets. An easy-to-use directory of symbols points to the true meanings of dream objects and includes modern items such as smartphones, computers, and other technology. To help you access the transformative power of your dreams, you'll discover: the history of interpreting dreams essential sleep hygiene principles how to create a sleep sanctuary effective relaxation practices the benefits of essential oils and aromatherapy how to work with a dream journal tips for better dream recall the power of lucid dreaming All of which will help you achieve better sleep, physical health, and emotional well-being. If you love thinking about and sharing your dreams, this book will give you all the tools you need to talk meaningfully about them. Combining elegance and expertise, this is your essential modern guide to an ancient tradition. The In Focus series applies a modern approach to teaching the classic body, mind, and spirit subjects. Authored by experts in their respective fields, these beginner's guides feature smartly designed visual material that clearly illustrates key topics within each subject. As a bonus, each book includes reference cards or a poster, held in an envelope inside the back cover, that give you a quick, go-to guide containing the most important information on the subject.

How does your mind work? How does your brain give rise to your mind? These are questions that all of us have wondered about at some point in our lives, if only because everything that we know is experienced in our minds. They are also very hard questions to answer. After all, how can a mind understand itself? How can you understand something as complex as the tool that is being used to understand it? This book provides an introductory and self-contained description of some of the exciting answers to these questions that modern theories of mind and brain have recently proposed. Stephen Grossberg is broadly acknowledged to be the most important pioneer and current research leader who has, for the past 50 years, modelled how brains give rise to minds, notably how neural circuits in multiple brain regions interact together to generate psychological functions. This research has led to a unified understanding of how, where, and why our brains can consciously see, hear, feel, and know about the world, and effectively plan and act within it. The work embodies revolutionary Principia of Mind that clarify how autonomous adaptive intelligence is achieved. It provides mechanistic explanations of multiple mental disorders, including symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, autism, amnesia, and sleep disorders; biological bases of morality and religion, including why our brains are biased towards the good so that values are not purely relative; perplexing aspects of the human condition, including why many decisions are irrational and self-defeating despite evolution's selection of adaptive behaviors; and solutions to large-scale problems in machine learning, technology, and Artificial Intelligence that provide a blueprint for autonomously intelligent algorithms and robots. Because brains embody a universal developmental code, unifying insights also emerge about shared laws that are found in all living cellular tissues, from the most primitive to the most advanced, notably how the laws governing networks of interacting cells support developmental and learning processes in all species. The fundamental brain design principles of complementarity, uncertainty, and resonance that Grossberg has discovered also reflect laws of the physical world with which our brains ceaselessly interact, and which enable our brains to incrementally learn to understand those laws, thereby enabling humans to understand the world scientifically. Accessibly written, and lavishly illustrated, Conscious Mind/Resonant Brain is the magnum opus of one of the most influential scientists of the past 50 years, and will appeal to a broad readership across the sciences and humanities.

Dreams have been taken seriously in China for at least three millennia. Wandering Spirits is a translation and study of the most comprehensive work on dream culture in traditional China-Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation (Mengzhan yizhi), compiled in 1562 by Chen Shiyuan and periodically reprinted up to the modern era. The best introduction to the diversity of ideas held by the educated class about dreams, this unique treatise compiles various theories, Chen's own comments concerning the nature of dreams and their role in waking life, and almost seven hundred examples assembled from a wide range of literary sources. This annotated translation is accompanied by a full-length introduction that surveys the evolution of Chinese dream culture and the role of Chen Shiyuan and his encyclopedia.

In the late nineteenth century, dreams became the subject of scientific study for the first time, after thousands of years of being considered a primarily spiritual phenomenon. Before Freud and the rise of psychoanalytic interpretation as the dominant mode of studying dreams, an international group of physicians, physiologists, and psychiatrists pioneered scientific models of dreaming. Collecting data from interviews, structured observation, surveys, and their own dream diaries, these scholars produced a large body of early research on the sleeping brain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book uncovers an array of case studies from this overlooked period of dream scholarship. With contributors working across the disciplines of psychology, history, literature, and cultural studies, it highlights continuities and ruptures in the history of scientific inquiry into dreams.

To go beyond is to move into a higher state of consciousness, to a place of bliss, greater understanding, love, and deep connectedness, a realm where we finally find life's meaning - experiences for which all spiritual seekers seek. Dr Rupert Sheldrake, writing as both a scientist and a spiritual explorer, looks at seven spiritual practices that are personally transformative and have scientifically measurable effects. He combines the latest scientific research with his extensive knowledge of mystical traditions around the world to show how we may tune into more-than-human realms of consciousness through psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, and by taking cannabis. He also shows how everyday activities can have mystical dimensions, including sports and learning from animals. He discusses traditional religious practices such as fasting, prayer, and the celebration of festivals and holy days. Why do these practices work? Are their effects all inside brains and essentially illusory? Or can we really make contact with forms of consciousness greater than our own? We are in the midst of a spiritual revival. This book is an essential guide.

"Science as a Spiritual Practice" is in three parts. In the first part the author argues that there are problems with materialism and that self-transformation could lead individual scientists to more comprehensive ways of understanding reality. In the second part he takes on the contentious notion of inner knowledge and shows how access to inner knowledge could be possible in some altered states of consciousness. The third part is an analysis of the philosophy of Franklin Wolff, who claimed that the transcendent states of consciousness which occurred for him resulted from his mathematical approach to spirituality.

Did you know that dreams about houses symbolise exploration of the self. And that water symbolises fertility, creativity and potential. Dreams provide vital clues to hidden feelings, fears and desires; understanding your dreams can lead to greater self-awareness and self-healing. Each image that appears in a dream has a meaning and The Dream Dictionary is an invaluable, detailed guide to decoding these meanings. The book introduces the classic theories of Freud and Jung, to more recent ideas on dream analysis, it provides a wealth of background information on the study of dreams and on the images examined in the dictionary section. From abandonment to zodiacal signs, the comprehensive dictionary has more than 700 entries. Each entry gives a range of possible interpretations for a particular dream symbol, allowing you wide scope for deciphering your dream and for assessing its implications. Cross-referencing throughout, the dictionary allows you to examine all aspects of individual symbols.

New and enlarged edition. Transpersonal Psychology concerns the study of those states, processes, and events in which people experience a deeper sense of who they are, or a greater sense of connectedness to nature, other people, or the spiritual dimension. Michael Daniels PhD taught the subject to postgraduate level for more than 30 years and this book brings together the fruits of his research. It will be of special interest to students, teachers, and practitioners, while its accessible style will appeal to all seeking greater understanding of this fascinating and challenging field. This revised and enlarged edition incorporates new material from the author's later writings and presentations. It also addresses important developments in transpersonal theory and research that have occurred in recent years, bringing a fresh perspective on contemporary issues and debates.

In Radical Transformation, Imants Baruss leads the reader out of the receding materialist paradigm into an emerging post-materialist landscape in which new questions present themselves. If consciousness has nonlocal properties, then how are boundaries between events established? If consciousness directly modulates physical manifestation, then what is the scope of such modulation? If consciousness continues after physical death, then how much interference is there from non-physical entities? As we face the threat of extinction on this planet, is there anything in recent consciousness research that can help us? Are there effective means of self-transformation that can be used to enter persistent transcendent states of consciousness that could resolve existential and global crises? The author leads the reader through discussions of meaning, radical transformation, and subtle activism, revealing the unexpected interplay of consciousness and reality along the way.

An original, wide-ranging contribution to the study of French writing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book examines the ways in which the unconscious was understood in literature in the years before Freud. Exploring the influence of medical and psychological discourse over the existence and/or potential nature of the unconscious, Michael R. Finn discusses the resistance of feminists opposing medical diagnoses of the female brain as the seat of the unconscious, the hypnotism craze of the 1880s and the fascination, in fiction, with dual personality and posthypnotic crimes. The heart of the study explores how the unconscious inserts itself into the writing practice of Flaubert, Maupassant and Proust. Through the presentation of scientific evidence and quarrels about the psyche, Michael R. Finn is able to show the work of such writers in a completely new light.

Our body's clocks make the difference between happiness and depression, health and illness, and even life and death. The brilliant scientist Paul Kelley makes a compelling case for all organisations to allow people to work and study the hours that suit their personal circadian rhythms. That way, Paul argues, we would all be more productive, a great deal of ill health would be avoided and the world would be a better and happier place.