Feeding My Ignorance -- Library

A new author for me, but it is clear from the recent books on this list that there is a bit of a theme going on.

Haven't got far enough into this book as I write this to pass judgement, however in as much as it is - once again - espousing the idea that consciousness is a big subject that we would do well to understand better then it is likely that I will find much that I like. It is pretty much certain that we can currently say that NO ONE actually knows what consciousness is or how it works - so anyone expressing any ideas on the subject runs the risk of ridicule or worse. I suspect that - for many - the idea that there is something "out there" that in some way connects us and that our own consciousness is more than simply "what goes on inside our heads" will be a bit much to handle.

I know that "younger me" would have been tempted to simply dismiss all psi as mumbo jumbo. Now I am not so sure - no, I would go further than that - I am sure that some of the so called "extra sensory perception" that has long been the preserve of the "bizarre" does have a real basis in fact.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Anyone who has trawled through this large list of "books I have read" will notice that there are some authors who appear frequently - Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett, Robert Harris - and others - and amongst the 'serious" books are many by Rupert Sheldrake. There is a lot of repetition and cross-over within his books - but that is not surprising as what he is really outlining in all of them is his journey towards a very original worldview - and one that I, for one, can take on board as being not too far from my own.

Of course. there is a significant risk of bias here - specifically confirmation bias - in that I enjoy reading his books - and get a lot from them simply because they help reinforce my own ideas of "how the world works". Fortunately, he has the education and the science to back up his ideas - something which to a large extent I rely on others for.

This book explores seven spiritual practices and shows how they are relevant - whether or not you count yourself as a religious person. It can be difficult in today's society to espouse the idea that you are a spiritual person - many would ridicule that idea. What Sheldrake tries to show is that many actions and behaviours which are practiced by people on all parts of the religious spectrum from the most devout to the most sceptical are driven by "spiritual" needs. To combine some of the practices in a 'worldly' example - many people make 'pilgrimages' each week to support their football team where the take part in the set of 'rituals' which form part of the event and they 'sing and chant'as part of the crowd and are 'grateful' for every win that their team delivers - some may well off some form of 'prayer' when one their players steps up to take a penalty.

I could probably have worked in the other two - 'connecting with nature' and 'relating to plants' but I decided that I had probably pushed the envelope far enough.

A book to be recommended though.

Another complete change - this is more of an "academic" book reporting on research - but, at the same time, exploring a topic that for most people is undoubtedly not "normal". I'm interested to learn how the writing here meshes with, for example, the ideas of morphic fields. What is - to me - certain - is that this is a subject that is currently undecidable - I don't know how "real" the reports in this book is and - to a certain extent - no one can. One must trust that the authors are correctly describing their own experiences - experiences that are, by definition, subjective and not really measurable in any scientific sense.

Of course, that is to a certain extent the whole point - these experiences are extending into the unknown - examining phenomena that most people have not themselves had any direct experience of and therefore have nothing in their own personal worldview to compare them with. This is always a difficulty - it is so with relatively banal and common things - if you do not have your own personal experience of it then how do you 'understand' it - and it is even more so when dealing with a "mystery" like consciousness - whether simply the fact that we are "conscious" or, as in this set of essays, exploring how our consciousness if - perhaps - separate from our "physical" body.

Certainly food for thought.

After a Rebus binge it is time for a 'serious' book - a return to non-fiction and the excellent Dan Goleman. Looking forward to exploring the "realities" of meditation and popular branches of that like mindfulness.

The next (and last) step (so to speak) in this rambling exploration of parallel worlds. Plenty of food for thought in the whole series - as long as you don't require 'answers'. Not that the reading date of this is approximate as I can't remember precisely when I read it.

Another 'serious book' - and one that was interesting for quite different reasons. I still don't know what consciousness is - how it comes about, but this book gives an interesting - if perhaps slightly biased - view which attacks the mainstream physics view

A short book - only 105 pages. An old book - written in 1906. A fascinating book - in a time when these sort of ideas are being resurrected by the likes of Rupert Sheldrake and his morphic fields this is a real insight into a way of thinking that was seemingly abandoned - at least by mainstream thought - for much of the 20th Century. Proves once again that it is often wrong to assume that "no one has thought of this before" about ANY subject.

This book is described as 'comical' and full of 'belly laughs' - hmmm... - I have to admit that although there were many quite funny descriptions, the overall feeling I got from the tales that was told was one of concern about the "state of mind" of many of those written about - on both sides of the "psychopath" wall. The very Catch-22 situation that "Tony" found himself in I think typified the whole book's message.

For me, it highlighted the danger of sticking labels on people on the basis of so-called "objective" and "quantifiable" checklists. No matter how thorough a job is done on capturing as many of the different aspects as possible it is still going to fall short of a holistic view of anyone's personality. It doesn't matter what trait you are measuring, no one is going to come out as completely "X" or completely "not-X" - rather we will have a certain amount of X.

How that affects our character cannot be determined simply by looking at the level of "X" - it is necessary to also factor in the level of "A", "G", "K", "Z" and countless others things that we are unable to 'measure'. So - a thought provoking book - that did little to re-assure me that we are any good at identifying those who are really a "danger to society"!!

I started to read this book several years ago - and ever since Monty Python's "Summarising Proust" sketch I guess the novels have been on my "ought to read" list.

The reason for starting now is - surprisingly - Radio 3. The new playlist is "Music that Transports" and was described as a sort of 'musical madeleine' - which confused me somewhat until I searched and discovered that the madeleine was a trigger for memories in Proust's writing. If you have read any of my blog entries (for example A New Musical Memory) then you will have realised that this is, in fact, a rather topical subject - I therefore feel the need to finally persevere with this book.

A collection of short stories on the subject of memory by an assortment of authors. The book has been created in memory of Terry Pratchett and most of the stories contain themes that he would be familiar with. All of them relate to the importance of memories. An enjoyable read - but in bits rather than trying to read it like a novel - each story being self contained and quite different in character from the others.