Blackmore Books

Introduction and Overall Thoughts:

Susan Blackmore is a writer who holds an enthusiastic obsession over what consciousness means and how current research is attempting to define conscious in terms of scientific principles. Her book, "Conversations on Consciousness" is a collection of 20 interviews, with 21 of the leading thinkers on consciousness. Blackmore interviewees represent a variety of backgrounds, and showcase the purpose of the book: researchers cannot come close to agreeing on much of anything involving defining consciousness. The book contains a wealth of knowledge, each presented in a least `textbook' manner as possible. However, the arbitrary alphabetical organization (based on the interviewees last name) of the book favors readers well aware of the theories and experiments in defining consciousness. This may be the only drawback the book holds, as the questions and responses are very detailed and conjure up images of watching the interview transpire.

Format of Book:

The introduction explains the book came about through a failed BBC project. The project fell through, but Blackmore decided the conversations were so vivid they would suffice as a book. She then lays down the framework for each interview, as the same general questions would be asked to each interviewee to give some continuity and of course for comparison. The questions:
-Why consciousness is treated so differently?
-What brought the interviewee to study consciousness?
-Questions about the interviewee's theory, and opinions to reactions of it.
-Does a philosophical zombie exist?
-Is there such thing as free will?
-What happens to us after death, in specific the conscious?
-How has studying consciousness affected your life?

Opinion of Book:

Content:
Blackmore offers an interesting collection of varied opinions on consciousness. Prior to reading this book, I had little to no understanding of what consciousness was or how we currently interpret it. What I came to understand was I held the now `primitive' belief established by Descartes, dualism, or the separation of mind and body. The book immediately throws you into the current affairs of consciousness research, which is both good and bad. The good aspect of this comes from seeing the wonderfully detailed and vivid opinions, which these scientists and philosophers hold. Unfortunately, neophytes to current affairs are thrown to a level beyond what the introduction mentions. In a sense, I felt the introduction needed an introduction, or some detailed preface section outlining the very basic concepts in the glossary.
For example, after reading the book I noticed two very important common threads in many of the interviews. First, nearly every interviewee had an opinion on David Chalmers `hard problem'. In the introduction, Blackmore mentions the hard problem, but not in enough detail or emphasis. Due to the alphabetical arrangement of the interviewees, Chalmers does not come up until the third interview. I know one may choose to read ahead in a nonlinear fashion, but I think it makes much more sense for Blackmore to explain how Chalmers' landmark speech at the Tuscon conference put a name on a problem which all researchers were troubled with, and revitalized consciousness research. Until the Chalmers' interview, I actually went to the Internet to read up on the phrase, which in my opinion is ludicrous. Secondly, the field of consciousness research is essentially divided into two groups: as Daniel Wegner puts it "the robo-geeks and the bad scientists". Because of his last name, this recurring theme is not explained until the final interview and an easily understood concept is left unmentioned for basically the entire book. After reading the final interview, it became much easier to categorize the views held by many of the interviewees and this frustrated me that the realization was forced to the very, very end.

Writing Style:
The writing style was essentially dictated by dialogue, which in my opinion helped move the complicated subject matter down easier paths. It also allowed many of the personalities of the interviewees to come out, especially in reactions to some of Blackmore's own opinions!

Organization:
My primary gripe with the book comes with the organization or lack thereof. I sincerely believe a format in which Blackmore separated the interviewees into the varying degrees of "robo-geeks and bad scientists" would have helped make the opinions more cohesive and readily understood.

Highlights and Recommendations:

Of all the interviewees, my favorite was Stephen LeBerge whose primary research is lucid dreams, and how this can apply to the consciousness. While his research methods alone were interesting, I enjoyed his quote regarding Blackmore's questions of `lucid living' and `lucid dreaming':
"Suppose we take ourselves to be individual snowflakes with a particular crystalline form...one snowflake is falling into the ocean; what does it fear? `I'm about to be annihilated, I'll disappear...but perhaps what happens instead is an infinite expansion. You are not one drop in the water, but you are the water...the substance is unity"
I found it astonishing and fascinating the new age of scientist no longer rejects Eastern philosophical principles, but instead embraces such opinions.
I also found the interview of Roger Penrose fascinating, as he collaborated with the ideas of Stuart Hameroff to develop the theory explaining consciousness with quatum mechanical oscillations in microtubules of neurons.
Of course some of the interviews let the bizarre personalities shine through, as Kevin O'Regan openly claimed he, and everyone, is a robot due to the total lack of free will.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the philosophical and scientific nature of defining consciousness, with one caution: the material is not introductory level. I might suggest reading Blackmore's earlier effort, "Consciousness: A Very Brief Introduction" to get a proper background.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, a very interesting and thought provoking book that could have used better organization but pulls through because of the undeniable genius of the interviewees.

The main problem I had with CONVERSATIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS was that the interviewer was also a scientist. I think a journalist would have forced these scientists to articulate their ideas more coherently. Susan Blackmore, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of the West of England, seemed to ignore the reader at times and use scientific jargon. I wasn't aware of the glossary in the back of the book until I was half finished.

There are twenty interviews. I was familiar with Francis Crick, who along with James D. Watson, discovered the structure of DNA, but I was unfamiliar with the others. They discussed such issues as blind sight, binocular rivalry, free will, whether there's an afterlife, split brains, lucid dreaming, and qualia (subjective qualities of any sensory experience, such as the smell of coffee or the blueness of the sky). Color is a qualia and does not exist in the physical realm.

Many of these scientists, Blackmore included, have experience with eastern religion and meditation. Blackmore, herself, believes the self is an illusion. She is able to repress the self while meditating. One of the other scientists, Francisco Varela, used people who have trained for 20 or 25 years in the Buddhist tradition of meditation as research subjects since you can ask them to perform tasks normally impossible for regular people, such as to keep a steady attention over a 30 minute span. Most college students have an attention span of only two and a half minutes.

Another interviewee I found especially interesting was Stuart Hameroff, a working anaesthesiologist. He believes proto-consciousness is fundamental to the universe, a force such as electro-magnetism. He theorizes that the self is found on the quantum level: "In our unconscious minds we have superimpositions of multiple possible choices or perceptions which reduce or collapse to one particular choice or perception, say 40 times a second. Each reduction chooses a set of qualia." Hameroff is studying the computational capabilities of protein structures called microtubules, which make up the internal scaffolding within nerve cells. He believes microtubules might be quantum computers. One uplifting result, if Hameroff is right, is that quantum information doesn't completely dissipate when we die; it exists holographically, indefinitely.

Blackmore, herself, is author of a book entitled, THE MEME MACHINE. I had never heard the term before, but it means "skills, stories, songs, theories, or artefacts, that are copied from person to person. According to the theory of memetics, memes are replicators and culture evolves by the process of variation and selection among memes." In other words, we don't have a whole lot of free will and creativity is pretty much an illusion.

This book is a collection of "conversations" with scientists working on the problem of consciousness, and I was hoping that it would provide a readable and interesting introduction to these scientists and their various hypotheses. However, I found this book unsuitable for this purpose. The author does not try to organize the material--the "conversations" are presented in alphabetical order of the interviewees' last names because the author could not conceive of a meaningful order. There is virtually no editing of the material--the author wanted to "let the people speak for themselves" and "make the editing very light". There is only a minimal introduction to the book, and only biographical introductions to the scientists. While there may be some merit in the approach of "light editing," overall I had to wonder what value was added by the author. Additionally, in the book introduction the author generally refers to her interviewees by their first name. Perhaps she is trying to show that she is on a first-name basis with all these scientists, but since scientists are more typically known by their last names, this was distracting at best and made it even more difficult to follow the minimal introduction (who is "Dave"? ... presumably Chalmers). Overall, this book seems intended for somebody who is already familiar with the study of consciousness, not for a reader relatively new to the subject. I had previously read the author's book "Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction," and I didn't feel that prepared me for "Conversations on Consciousness." So what value does this book provide? If you are already familiar with the subject of consciousness, you may find the interviews with your favorite researchers to be of interest.

That was a brilliant idea of Sue Blackmore, and the results are quite impressive. This book does what it was designed to do - it involves anyone (I believe) who reads it in the "hard problem of consciousness", that is in reflection on explanations of the fact of subjective experience arising from neural structures (there are a few other themes debated here like the problem of free will, but they are marginal - with an exeption of zombie-problem, which, however, is closely connected with "hard problem"). We see different approaches to the "hard problem" and a clash of philosophers, like Dennett, with scientists, like Crick or Koch. It became clear, however, that scientists are in need of philosophers these days. By the way, most elaborate responses in these conversations came from philosophers - Chalmers, Dennett, Velmans etc. So far - OK. Why only 4 stars then? Because the book is imbalanced, and Sue knows that. First of all, among her 20 "best minds" there are no Chomskian philosophers - Chomsky would probably refuse to respond - Fodor, McGinn, Pinker. Then where are Identity theorists - Armstrong or Smart? Why Edelman is not included in the list? Where is Kim? And so on. Of course, it is not easy to achieve balance in such projects. But still it is possible - I myself did something like that, collecting more than 100 opinions of Kant scholars in 2004 - so called "International Kant Interview". So Sue Blackmore did not do her best - but she did much. Her book helps to feel the progress in consciousness studies.

What is the problem of consciousness?

Are zombies (creatures that look and act like humans but who have no consciousness) theoretically possible?

Does consciousness survive death?

Is there such a thing as free will?

These are the types of questions Susan Blackmore poses to twenty-one experts, who come from neuroscience, philosophy and psychology, and who are all involved in the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies. Each interview also includes specific questions about the subject's work and theories. The cumulative effect of reading them is that you walk away with a good sense of the frequently conflicting perspectives within the field and an idea of which ones you might want to explore further. As other reviewers have pointed out, the sequence of the interviews is alphabetical - an arbitrary choice but not one your reading of the book has to be restricted by. My preference was to dip into different sections till I'd read the whole book. As I'd read one interview, the subject would make reference to other interviewees and their ideas and if something struck me as being particularly interesting, I'd read the interview with that person next, sort of the way you might surf the net. In some ways it was a very liberating experience and I almost felt like I was creating the book that suited my level of understanding.

Some of the material presented here is undoubtedly very challenging but I didn't feel overwhelmed even if I didn't "get" everything. The only other book I'd read on the subject was V.S. Ramachandran's "A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness," which I found interesting but too brief. I also found that the conversation format in Blackmore's book made the topic more engaging and easier to penetrate. The fact that she is a scientist herself is actually a strength because she uses her intimate knowledge of the field to not only reflect back complex ideas in easy to understand language but also asks the right questions to lead the subjects to deepen their explanations of their work. She clearly has her biases but rather than detracting from the discussions I thought her disagreements with the interviewees brought more life to the material. I had to keep asking myself what I think and had an idea of what I need to learn more about to help make up my mind.

The back of the book has a helpful glossary to assist with learning some of the key terms that are used and also links to a couple of great websites that I'm sure I'll be spending time browsing through.

If you're willing to actively engage with it, this is a great book to start your explorations into a fascinating field.

is this about the band COUNTING CROWS? because then i would like it. But scince they don't tell you anything about the book It STINKS

after reading this great book at a local library i instantly knew that i must buy it for my at home collection. its a true treasure that every home should own.

In 1997, Jenni Blackmore releases Counting Crows, her collection of poetry and short fiction. The book launch and reading occur at Frog Hollow Books in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Ms. Blackmore treats those in attendance to readings of three complete poems and excerpts from two stories. As she reads, her English accent rolls like verdant hillsides and leads the audience on a stroll through her creative mind.

The first poem read (also the first in the collection) is about "Princess Rose," a jealous Labrador forced to share her owner's affection with a parrot. The tone is light and humorous through most of the poem. The audience reacts accordingly; we laugh in all the right places, such as when Ms. Blackmore lilts:

And when I parrot, Beauty-beauty, beauty-beauty,
you squirm and wriggle, paws skyward
and when I say, So sweety-tweety-tweety,
you jump erect and say, Yes me! Yes me!

Only at the end does the listener get a sense of something more serious beneath the surface. In this case, the listener is reminded that love takes many forms and need not benefit one at the expense of another.

The next two selections put aside all illusions of levity and jump right into a darker world. "Old Bones" reveals the tortured thoughts of a despondent--perhaps suicidal--woman. Most poignant is the scene where the narrator's dog comes upon a "saw, abandoned and already wooed / by moss, which dulls the bite of rusted teeth / with stifling caress." The narrator's sorrow is a part of her past that won't stay far enough behind her. Sorrow is personified as an entity that "tricked me, caught me unawares / and clings now to my back."

Sorrow out of the past also surfaces in "Search for the Second Crow." This final reading is also the last poem in the collection and refers back to the collection's epigram, the anonymous poem "One crow sorrow / Two crows joy".

Appropriately, the tone by now has shifted to one of hope. The narrator has "grown tired of counting crows" and allows herself to let go of the past. She has taken control of her perceptions. A single crow is no longer seen as the One of sorrow; it "dangles on a stick above some corn." Crow Two is free to travel alone, spreading joy.

Counting Crows spreads its own form of joy through stories and poems crafted with loving care. Even after several years, this book still merits considerable attention.

What this publication seeks to do is inform the reader of the Typical arms and armour of the period, how they were used, who made them, what they look like and what are their distintive features. the text is supported by a wide variety of photographs ,many black and white and 8 color,Buff coats patterns, Firearms Lock Types, Leather Guns, Cuirassier Armour, Harquebus Armour, Swords, Cavalry Firearms, Pikeman's Armour, for the Scottish Weapon Fans I have to say that they were omitted.

This is the first book I bought from the Royal Armouries, fascinating to anyone interested in weapons and equipment of the 17th century Arms and Armour of the ECW armies. the book is only 99 pages but very concise, a very worthwhile volume to add to your library, an absolute must for all English Civil War enthusiasts, armour fans or weapons of the period.

If you like short stories, especially short stories about shipwrecks and the sea, then this might be the book for you. Containing a collection of sea-going catastrophes, the book commences with tales from 1176 BC and brings the reader right up to date with more modern disasters. The book is divided into 8 parts which are headed; Antiquity and the Classical Epoch, Medieval and the Renaissance Ages, Early Modern Times, Late Nineteenth Century, Recent Times (which covers the period 1904- 1923), Second World War (Axis), Second World War (Allies) and finally the Current Period.

This is a hard-back book which the author also describes as an anthology. I don't quite understand the use of that word because the content does not match the description of "anthology" found in my dictionary - that said, the word is irrelevant. Altogether, I did find the book to be quite good. In several cases the detail was far too little for such a tragic event and this left me wanting to know more. Unfortunately the absence of any bibliography did not show me where I might look to find those further details.

The reader who knows his subject will find a few elementary errors (for example; the Birkenhead did not have the "HMS" prefix because she was a troopship and not a warship! Furthermore, she is described in the book as "a brigantine rigged sailing ship" when, in fact, she was a "brigantine rigged steamship." It is because she was a steamship that the author is able to describe how her captain put her "auxiliary paddle wheels full astern."

My final problem was the way in which the author uses explanatory notes. Every so often a small number appears against the text. In order to discover the additional information associated with each number, the reader must turn to pages 232-235 in order to look up that number and read what is says. There are 57 such numbers throughout the book and (for me at least) that was 57 interruptions to the flow of my reading. Far better to place each note at the bottom of the relevant page where I can glance at what it says - and carry.

Nevertheless, this is a good read and a few minor errors should not spoil any reader's enjoyment.

NM

I was a little bit disappointed when I received this book, because I was expecting a more comprehensive historical-survey of the Iberia peninsula---from Celtiberians and Carthaginians to the Castilian & Aragon kingdoms---, especially Islamic male/male(boy) loves' documenta. However, in the book we could find only several examples of "paiderastia" about the caliphs , sultans et poets of Cordova, Granada et Sevilla in the Middle Ages. And most of the contents are on the Christendom of Iberia in which the absurd idea that same-sex loves were unnatural and sinful was rampant. I prefer to read more positive & uplifting histories of the Hispania et Lusitania ; e.g. many interesting stories of the ancient Romans and of the Muslim peoples.

At least a portion of the book's title lives up to its name in that it is the best source yet for information on the LIFE of Richard Doddridge Blackmore. As a very distant relative (fifth cousin four times removed) it provided me with a wealth of information about his family history.

I have not read this second edition, but I read the first edition in college back in 1991 or so. It changed my outlook on psychic abilities completely. It's pretty engagingly written, and profound too. I'd heard so much about the existance of psychic abilities but had never seen any scientific studies of it. This book is not only a great introduction to psychic phenomena, but a great introduction to the power of the scientific method. This book may be part of the reason I'm a scientist today. Thanks, Susan!

Blackmore's autobiography provides a great deal of insight into the motivations of psi researchers. Inspired by a drug induced OBE at Oxford, and encouraged by the occult interpretations given to such phenomenon by an earlier generation of parapsychologists and spiritualists, it becomes understandable that she began a search for the Holy Grail of psi, even earning a doctorate on the subject. Personal experience, however explicable by reference to the material world, still carries a strong emotive weight, engendering hopes for transcendent explanations. Despite a continuing stream of negative results, using a wide variety of methods, Blackmore continued for several years to research psi, until the dishonesty of some researchers, and the flaws in psi's definition caused her faith to erode. Thankfully, she takes with her an insider's understanding of the parapsychology movement that helps explain how a pseudo-science can perpetuate itself after a hundred or more years with undetectable progress.

This is an intriguing book, and I was impressed by the sincerity of the author. She began her academic career determined to scientifically prove the paranormal, but over time became disenchanted when her experiments repeatedly failed to find "psi", and she found flaws in the experimental methods used by researchers who reported success. The book was originally published in 1986 or so, and has been updated with a few chapters added to the end. The book is valuable because the author is not a traditional debunker. I get the feeling she thinks there is something valuable to be discovered in studying "altered states", but she believes they are a construct of your mind, and doesn't think that psi is involved in them. I would have greatly appreciated a chapter trying to summarize all her ideas--There are a number of intriguing thoughts scattered through the book.

Unlike other reviewers, I find her scientific technique distinctly flawed and lacking in any creative lateral analysis. The presentation of her book shows a deeply personal and emotive approach to the material that she is handling.

But what I found particularly disappointing in this book was the philosophically materialistic arguments which seemed to be exacerbated by her overwhelming inability to see the whole picture and by her being totally lost in the minutiae of the mundane. Some of her arguments reminded me of a story told concerning an early Soviet cosmonaut who proclaimed that he now knew for sure that there was no God because he had looked out the window of his spacecraft and had seen that there was no 'god' outside - only empty space.

There is no doubt, indeed as Dr Blackmore eloquently points out in the book, that much PSI research is flawed and unscientific but this, in itself, proves nothing except that the research methods need to re-evaluated. Many traditional medical practices and treatments in the past have been equally unscientific and arbitrary (e.g. electric shock therapy), that does not mean that certain diseases don't exist (as many have claimed hitherto regarding ME and depression) or that proper methods of diagnosis and treatment cannot be procured.

Certainly, stylistically the arguments are written well and Dr Blackmore has the ability to hold the reader's attention. However, the book is, in my opinion, as fatally flawed as are the PSI researchers whom Dr Blackmore so rigorously denounces in her book.

Susan Blackmore provides us with a very personal and emotive recounting of her career as a scientist investigating the paranormal. She started out from a belief that ESP/psi is an important physical force that can be measured scientifically. This book explains how her rigorous approach took her through paranormal investigations and into the new science of consciousness. It is not a dry academic analysis of the evidence, so both believers and skeptics may be disappointed. It is, in fact, a very human story about what to do when your beliefs no longer match your experience, and the courage it takes to face up to that and more forward.

I guess that if the author is an American, he would have gotten a better accolade here in the American market. The author was the leader of the expedition team formed by the Great Britain, China, Autonomous Region of Xinjiang and camels. Whilst the author praised the adventurer Sven Hedin for doing the unthinkable in Central Asia a century ago and using much information jotted down by Sven (or a ransacker depending which sides you are on), he attempted to live his dream of conquering the desert. Taklamakan desert meant roughly "you go in and you can't get out" and Blackmore wanted to prove otherwise. This book was a testimony of how the gigantic feat got done. We read of how the expedition team came to fruition, clashes of personalities, struggles that they went through such as physical and mental hardships, conflicts such as potential mutiny, tender moments shared among the team members et cetera. Naturally, the book was quite readable and there were black and white, and even colour photographs to justify important moments of their journey. There were interesting chapters that touched upon the gulag of China, the nuclear testing site at the edge of the desert, and a bit of history catch up. It is good to note that Blackmore wrote with fairness of giving credits to credible team members rather than stating "I" all the way. Ultimately, the author specified that there would always be a special bond between the expedition members, them and the desert and their reverence of the Great Universe. Commendable reading.

Blackmore, an adventurer and former British Army officer and adventurer, rose to the challenge when he learned that there had been no recorded successful crossing of China's Taklamakan Desert except by airplane. In 1993, he led a British-Chinese-Uighur expedition on foot and camelback from west to east. This colorful account describes the hardships of crossing a seemingly endless expanse of mountainous sand dunes. As day followed exhausting day, the strengths and weaknesses of expedition personalities emerged to test Blackmore's leadership. His writing is lively, and some of the black and white photographs reach the level of art.

Heavy reading. Not a fun or easy read. Not very user friendly. No pictures of the sites. Informative, but wouldn't recommend this for those traveling to Paris for the first time.

Wow, after reading the previous review, I had to write in. I travel frequently, have used nearly every popular guide out there (Fodors, Frommers, Time Out, Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, and my least favorite - Eyewitness Travel), and The Rough Guides are the best and by far the most comprehensive out there. They are chock-full of information. The colored photos are limited to several pages in the front of the book, but if you want to be a traveler (as opposed to being a 'tourist'), you shouldn't need pages of glossy information that just shows you what you will be seeing once you're there anyways! The Rough Guides gives you history, gives you insight into various neighborhoods and areas and people. They go far, far beyond just the 'landmarks' that an area is known for. If you read them before traveling, you'll feel like one of the locals and the more knowledge you have about an area, the more you can enjoy it. I'm sorry if some travelers are sadly uninterested in learning about the cultures of the areas in which they are visiting. Rough Guides are now the only guides that I will use. And if you're bored by the reading, then maybe you should question why you are traveling there! I will say that Rough Guides does not supply you with a very detailed street map stuck to the back cover like some other books offer and so sometimes an additional purchase (or a visit to a tourism office) is warranted. This personally does not bother me.

The fact that this book has been published at all is bewildering. The author has created a theory that purports to explain the NDE phenomenon through debunking; the difficulty is that she does not provide any evidence at all! The entire book consists of her observations and comments, and this simpy does not suffice. She dismisses the evidence that DOES exist without addressing it.

For example: the most challenging and interesting book on the subject is Michael Sabom's "Recollections at Death". He presents numerous well-documented cases that suggest that the NDE is real - and he also provides a thoughtful, articulate and fair-minded discussion of the possible answers.

Blackmore does not actually deal with any of the evidence, with one exception: she refers to the ONE detailed case where he does not provide the original records. He includes it because of its uniqueness - in ALL other cases, he includes the original medical records. She makes a joke about it and disregards it; she never makes the point that his book is filled with evidence based on origical records and personnel. Any reader who is not familiar with Sabom might think that this one case is typical of the entire book!

Reading this book has made me much more aware and sceptical of authors who claim to be experts. If I was not familiar with the work done on this subject, I would not know how misleading and simply inaccurate Blackmore's book is. Why didn't the publishers check for accuracy? Why was a book about a theory published without evidence?

In addition, Blackmore claims to have had a NDE herself. This is not true. She describes a hallucination following the use of drugs - then goes on to describe the related experience and associates it with the NDEs of people on the verge of death! A disgraceful book.

This book fails on several levels. Mainly, however, because it is not objective. It starts from a particular premise and then endeavours to prove the validity of that premise despite the facts that the author encounters during her journey of 'honest' investigation.

The book must have been written before the now celebrated and quite astonishing case of Pam Reynolds who in Phoenix Arizona underwent 'shut-down' surgery. In this pioneering operative technique all the blood is drained from the patient's brain and it was during one of these shut-down procedures that Pam experienced a NDE. During the operation, Pam could not only recall in some detail what was said and but also describe the equipment that was being used by Dr Speztler, the surgeon in charge, and his team although she was clinically (and verifiably so) brain-dead at the time.

Dr Blackmore apparently is a Zen Practitioner and so it seems incredibly bizarre that she should imagine that 'all' we are and experience can be simply explained away by the somewhat limited model of reality as understood by science today. Surely one should, at the very least, have the modesty to entertain the remote possibility that the mysteries of life, mind and matter may not yet fully be understood by humanity?

Susan Blackmore once believed in Tarot, ESP, and all things wild and wonderful. Alas, for those who yearn to believe in the Wonders of the Invisible World, she is a meticulous thinker who carefully gathers and investigates the evidence. This is by far the best book on NDEs. But if what you want is some reassurance of life after death, this book will disappoint. Beautifully thought out and wonderfully written.

This is an excellent, well written, thought-provoking book. Susan Blackmore started her research career hunting for evidence of the supernatural. When most people would have given up, she persisted, tracking down other people's experiences and doing her own experiments. One track of that journey took her into "Near Death Experiences", which is partly what this book is about. While we can never really know what happens during death, no one has tried harder or with greater honesty to find out. Her account of that journey and where it took her makes fascinating reading, and while her conclusions may take some digestion, at least they are reassuringly rational.

People want to think that there is something better. But thinking and wanting of something better doesn not mean it be true. Take the afterlife for example. I've talked at least a dozen times with two renown neuroscientists at NYU. I was planning on writing a script that featured this phenomena - the afterlife. After reading some basic neuroscience and philosophy books I concluded, as the neuroscientists had previously, that there in all actuality probably is no afterlife. Current advances in neurology in death hint at this and will probably once and for all prove its non-existance. It's slowly becoming fact whether you want to believe it or not. Here's what the neuroscientists pointed out. During the first 5-15 mins of death the brain is being asphyxiated (choked) due to lack of oxygen. It is during this time that the mind hallucinates (tripping - like on drugs) and sifts through images of the past (memories; life flashing before your eyes) accompanied by past figures and white. The mind is desparately trying to grasp onto the "self" that's slowly drowning in its own memories. This is where people who experienced NDE's (near death experiences) erronously claim proof of an afterlife. However, they did not really endure the entire trip TO death. Once you reach complete death there is just nothing. Your existence is complete. Nothing- not even that. I can't even lingustically put it into words. But this is nothing at all to fear because the plane of fear is non-existent at this stage. Most NDE's are experienced at hospitals. Because of this simple fact many are saved before they reach the 15-20 min mark that marks complete mental and physical death. There have been stories of people who experienced NDE's for hours. Mind you these stories surfaced from the 60's- 80's when our medical technology was inferior to todays and the true line of death was not completely defined. So many NDE claims have to be taken with a grain of salt. Today you'll never ever hear of an NDE lasting for mor that 15-20 mins - and even with those times there is usually some sort of brain damage. Mind you - the brain is a very complex part. Your consciousness will do anything to keep you alive - anything. But because people have had these experiences and come out of them does not in any way, shape or form suggest that an afterlife is even plausable. These Near Death Experiences are purely psychological and should be treated as such - not spiritual endeavours.

This book completely logically defends what those neuroscientists pointed out to me earlier -that an afterlife is just wishful thinking.