A discussion of the means of communicating with the invisible world, the development of mediumship and the difficulties encountered inthe practice of spiritualism.

Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems 2008 (June 24-27, 2008; Sao Luis, Brazil) brought together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic, syntactic and computational methods both to understand the prodigious processing properties of biological systems and, specifically, of the brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance computational methods towards ever higher levels of cognitive competence.

This book includes the papers presented at four major symposia:

Part I - Cognitive Neuroscience

Part II - Biologically Inspired Systems

Part III - Neural Computation

Part IV - Models of Consciousness."

Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems 2008 (June 24-27, 2008; S o Lu s, Brazil) brought together leading scientists and engineers who use analytic, syntactic and computational methods both to understand the prodigious processing properties of biological systems and, specifically, of the brain, and to exploit such knowledge to advance computational methods towards ever higher levels of cognitive competence.

This book includes the papers presented at four major symposia:

Part I - Cognitive Neuroscience

Part II - Biologically Inspired Systems

Part III - Neural Computation

Part IV - Models of Consciousness.

1898. Containing The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine on the Immortality of the Soul; The Nature of Spirits and their Relations with Men; The Moral Law; The Present Life, the Future life and The Destiny of the Human Races.

'The Spirits Book' (1857), written by Allan Kardec, is widely regarded as the most important piece of writing in the 'Spiritist' canon. It is the first in a series of five books that Kardec wrote that are collectively known as the 'Spiritist Codification'. Although the other four books; 'The Medium's Book', 'The Gospel According to Spiritism', 'Heaven and Hell' and 'The Genesis According to Spiritism' are of great importance to the Spiritist movement it is 'The Spirits Book' that lays out the doctrine of the belief system. The Spiritist movement was founded by Allen Kardec and although its roots lay in Spiritualism there are differences in belief. The most important of these differences is the Spiritist belief in reincarnation. Although some Spiritualists believe in reincarnation and some do not, all Spiritists consider it as a basic truth of their ideology. In the 1850's, whilst investigating the afterlife, Kardec communicated in seances with a collection of spirits named 'The Spirit of Truth' who discussed many important topics such as life after death, good and evil, the universe and the origin of spirits, amongst others. 'The Spirit of Truth' counted many of history's great thinkers amongst its number such as Thomas of Aquino, Voltaire and Augustine of Hippo. Over time and after several sessions with the group Kardec had gathered enough information to convince him of life after death and he was compelled to spread the teachings of 'The Spirit of Truth'. He 'codified' their comments and listed them as answers to questions and this is the content of 'The Spirits Book'. The subjects that Kardec discusses, via 'The Spirit of Truth', laid down the foundations for the Spiritist philosophy and all of the concepts that would become, and still are, key to the movement's thinking have their genesis in the book. The belief that there is one Supreme Being, God, who created everything in the universe, is postulated. According to the text the Devil does not exist and Jesus is a messenger of God. Although the book does not refer to Jesus as the son of God and no mention is made of the 'immaculate conception' he is considered God's perfect messenger and his teachings are to be adhered to. Reincarnation and the survival of the soul after death are vital beliefs and it is stated that it is through reincarnation that lessons are learnt that can be taken into the next life and that every life moves the soul closer to perfection. According to the book man is made up of three separate elements; the body, the spirit and the spiritual body. One's spirit also predates the matter of the universe and will outlast it. After the publication of 'The Spirits Book' Kardec's Spiritist doctrine began to take root, firstly in France from where it spread throughout Europe and found its way to North America. Most significant, however, was the reaction to Spiritism in South America. In Brazil the Spiritist movement swept across the nation and it is still one of the country's main religions to this day with millions of Kardec's followers from Brazil visiting his tombstone in Paris every year.

When two "grave and serious" spirits began speaking to a French academic through two young mediums and "completely revolutionized his] ideas and convictions," Allan Kardec decided to set down these spiritualistic revelations. The result electrified the high society of the mid 19th century, which was already fascinated by "spirit tapping" and other paranormalities, and earned Kardec-a pseudonym his spirits commanded him to use-a place in this history of the paranormal as the father of spiritism.Kardec "interviews" the spirits, asking more than 1000 questions about morality, the nature of the soul, the history of humanity, and more, including: . "Is the soul reincarnated immediately after its separation from the body?." "Does the spirit remember his corporeal existence?." "Could two beings, who have already known and loved each other, meet again and recognise one another, in another corporeal existence?." "What is to be thought of the signification attributed to dreams?." "Are good and evil absolute for all men?." "What is the aim of God in visiting mankind with destructive calamities?." "Is it possible for man to enjoy perfect happiness upon the earth?"Promising nothing less than the secret of the destiny of the human race, this extraordinary book, first published in 1856, is as curious today as it was a century and a half ago.French scholar HIPPOLYTE LEON DENIZARD RIVAIL (1804-1869), aka Allan Kardec, was a longtime teacher of mathematics, astronomy, and other scientific disciplines before turning to the paranormal. He founded the Parisian Society of Psychologic Studies, and founded and edited the monthly magazine La Revue Spirite, Journal of Psychologic Studies. He is also the author of The Gospel as Explained by Spirits (1864).

This volume contains the papers presented at the 8th International Conf- ence on Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Source Separation held in Paraty, Brazil, March 15-18, 2009. This year's event resulted from scienti?c collaborations between a team of researchers from ?ve di?erent Brazilian u- versities and received the support of the Brazilian Telecommunications Society (SBrT) as well as the ?nancial sponsorship of CNPq, CAPES and FAPERJ. Independent component analysis and signal separation is one of the most - citing current areas of research in statistical signal processing and unsupervised machine learning. The area has received attention from severalresearchcom- nities including machine learning, neural networks, statistical signal processing and Bayesian modeling. Independent component analysis and signal separation has applications at the intersection of many science and engineering disciplines concerned with understanding and extracting useful information from data as diverse as neuronal activity and brain images, bioinformatics, communications, the World Wide Web, audio, video, sensor signals, and time series.