Social Consciousness

stonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. Covid denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. Conspiracy thinking hijacks minds and incites mob violence. Toxic partisanship is cleaving nations, and climate denial has pushed our planet to the brink. Meanwhile, American Nazis march openly in the streets, and Flat Earth theory is back. What the heck is going on? Why is all this happening, and why now? More important, what can we do about it?

It originated in Asia, moved to Europe, and is now consumed worldwide — a slightly-fermented tea that is purported to cure everything from indigestion to cancer. We’re talking about kombucha, which has exploded in popularity in the last quarter century. While the exact health benefits of kombucha remain unproven, it’s quite certain that the effervescent elixir provides its worldwide fans with a spiritual lift unlike any other drink.

Our ability to find meaning in things is one of the most important aspects of human life. But it is also one of the most mysterious. Where does meaning come from? What sorts of things have meaning? And how do we grasp the meaning others want to convey? Meaning: A Very Short Introduction is shaped by exploring possible answers to these questions.

"Lorsque j'ai reçu votre première lettre, chère amie, je vous ai répondu immédiatement. Avoir de vos nouvelles plus de trente ans après m'a procuré une telle émotion que ma réaction ne pouvait être qu'un cri instantané. Votre deuxième lettre, que j'ai sous les yeux, je l'ai gardée longtemps avec moi, c'est seulement aujourd'hui que je tente de vous donner une réponse. La raison de ce retard, vous l'avez sans doute devinée, puisque votre missive contient une singulière requête : 'Parlez-moi de l'âme'..."

From ventilators to brain implants, medicine has been blurring what it means to die. In a lucid description of modern neuroscientific thinking, Zeleznikow-Johnston explains that death is not the loss of breath, but of personal identity – that the core of our identities is our minds, and that our minds are encoded in the structure of our brains. On this basis, he explores how recent discoveries now offer us all the chance of preserving our minds for future revival. Whether they discovered cures or fought for justice, we are grateful to those of our ancestors who helped craft a kinder world.

What makes us who we are? Many think that we are just complicated machines, or animals that are different from machines only by being conscious. Richard Swinburne comes to the defense of the soul and presents new philosophical arguments that are supported by modern neuroscience. When scientific advances enable neuroscientists to transplant a part of brain into a new body, he reasons, no matter how much we can find out about their brain activity or conscious experiences, we will never know whether the resulting person is the same as before or somebody entirely new.

This project roughly planned to be a kind of modern day normal person's non-stigmatized, non-religious, and no-beliefs affiliated Bhagavad Gita—a simple dialogue between Justin Allen (the prince Arjuna) and his guide Andreas Müller (Krishna). However, it turned out that Justin is not a prince and Andreas is not a guide. In that sense, this is just a collection of talks about so-called "non-duality" (No-Point Perspective) with no spiritual, religious, or scientific intentions. However, amazingly, it turned out to be an apparent "deep" exploration on this topic.

The Curious Case of the Pheromonophone is an audio story that takes you on an irreverent, true-life adventure with one of Silicon Valley’s successful failed inventors - Jonathon Keats. A philosopher, an inventor and an artist, Keats has been inventing janky contraptions for over two decades, like a factory you can control with your mind and an emotionally responsive car. In this story he debuts one of his new inventions, what he calls a“pheromonophone” - a kind of smell telephone that can send your personal scent over digital networks.

Imagination is a core aspect of being human. Our imagination allows us to fully experience ourselves in relation to the world and reality. Since the 17th century, however, imagination has been sidelined and dismissed as "make believe". Four centuries ago, a new way of knowing the world and ourselves emerged in the west and has gone on to dominate human life: science. Imagination has been marginalized - depicted as a way of escaping reality, rather than coming to grips with it - and its significance to our humanity has been downplayed.

Today's computers are composing music that sounds "more Bach than Bach", turning photographs into paintings in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and even writing screenplays. But are computers truly creative - or are they merely tools to be used by musicians, artists, and writers? Miller, an authority on creativity, identifies the key factors essential to the creative process, from "the need for introspection" to "the ability to discover the key problem." He talks to people on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence and explores the riches of computer-created art.

Is stress a deadly disease on the rise in modern society? Can mind-body practices from the East help us become well? When it comes to healing, we believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs; we must look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter. But why do we believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant cultural history describes mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories, allowing us to make new sense of our suffering and to rationalize new treatments and lifestyles.

Feeling stressed, anxious or burnt out? Sophrology is a transformative health-care philosophy that is designed to help people achieve a calm, alert mind in a relaxed body. Inspired by Eastern philosophies and classical relaxation techniques, sophrology will help you to become consciously, actively aware of yourself, how you feel, what you want and the environment around you.

Carl Jung was one of the 20th century’s most significant psychological theorists. He developed concepts we use every day - introverts and extroverts chief among them. Mark Vernon’s eight-part book explores some of Jung’s key ideas and also looks at his relationship with the other giant of the mind - Sigmund Freud.

Inspired by Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon), the Direct Path is a "pathless path". It simply articulates the being of you and the world as loving, open, clear awareness. If this truth is realized as your experience, then nothing need be done. The path disappears, and life is lived in sweetness and celebration! But if there are still questions or doubts, the Direct Path contains unique and powerful resources that stabilize this truth as your everyday reality.

The world’s most powerful and profound entheogen, 5-MeO-DMT, “The God Molecule,” is rapidly spreading around the globe, due to its unique ability to provide reliable access to nondual states of consciousness and embodied experience. Attracting the attention of philosophers, therapists, researchers, celebrities, and spiritual seekers the world over, this radical entheogen is quickly changing the landscape of humanity’s ability to experience itself as the divine without the need for religion or even spirituality.

La tesis vertebral de la obra de Jacobo Grinberg, que desarrolla en su libro La teoría sintérgica,sostiene que la realidad perceptible resulta de la interacción de la activación cerebral y el espacio-tiempo (la lattice). Asentadas sus bases teóricas, Grinberg exploró dicha relacióna lo largo de varios libros, entre ellos La construcción de la realidad. En sus páginas explica que tanto el mundo externo y tangible como el interno conformado por los pensamientos y sueños son una descripción que depende de los individuos y sus historias de vida.

No matter where we are in our spiritual development, we all have questions about our practice and what we are experiencing - both the challenges and opportunities. How can I overcome my struggles to meditate more deeply? Is there a need for a guru, or can I rely on myself? Can I trust my intuition? Is it possible to hear the “Inner Word”, the voice of the soul, and how can I be sure that’s what I’m hearing? Is the Higher Self in the heart?

Mindfulness has attracted ever‑growing interest and tens of thousands of practitioners, who have come to the discipline from both within and outside the Buddhist tradition. In Fully Present, leading mindfulness researchers and educators Dr. Sue Smalley and Diana Winston provide an all‑in‑one guide for anyone interested in bringing mindfulness to daily life as a means of enhancing well‑being. This new edition, how with a new afterword, provides both a scientific explanation for how mindfulness positively and powerfully affects the brain and the body.

How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? This audiobook version of a David Foster Wallace commencement speech, read by his sister, Amy Wallace-Havens, captures his electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

يعدُّ كتاب النبي أشهر كتب جبران بلا منازع فقد تمَّت ترجمته إلى أكثر من خمسين لغة وانتشر عالميًا بسبب مضمونه الاجتماعي ولغته العذبة. يحتوي الكتاب على تأملات جبران وخلاصته الفكرية في الحبّ والزواج والأطفال وفلسفة التكاثر والبيوت والثياب والبيع والشراء كما يتحدَّث بتأملٍ عميق عن الحرية والقانون والعقاب والدّين والأخلاق والحياة والموت.. يقول جبران عن كتابه هذا: "..لقد فكّرت في كتابته منذ ألف عام.." إذن فقد عاش معه عمرًا لذا اعتبر كتابته ولادته الجديدة، لذلك لن تشعر بالتوهان أثناء إبحارك في محيطه فقد جاءت كلماته بسيطة قريبة من القلب وعميقة في ذات الوقت كما لا تخلو من نفحةٍ شرقية لا يُداخلها ضعف...