Recommended Books

[romsoccer12]

Anyone reccomend any good books?

If you have ever read design of dying by timothy leary, a complicated book for me to read due to all the scientific words i could not understand.

loved DMT spirit molecule due to the recorded information


mainly looking for books with exciting theories or studies done that have pro founding information, or things proven now chaning the world in science, philosophy, how we became in existence, etc..

 

[snafu]

Illusions- Richard Bach

 

[alasdairm]

Anyone reccomend any good books?
...
science, philosophy...

in that case, i highly recommend:

Gentle Bridges

"Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind

What is the essence of the mind? Could computers ever have consciousness? Can compassion be learned? When does consciousness enter the human embryo? These are just some of the many questions that were discussed during a historic meeting that took place between several prominent Western scientists and the Dalai Lama. Gentle Bridges is a chronicle of this extraordinary exchange of ideas."

alasdair

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

That book looks fascinating, alasdair. I read The Universe in a Single Atom, and while I'm aware it was ghost written, the fact remains that the Dalai Lama's respect for and interest in science, especially mind science, came through strongly. One thing I find very refreshing about many non-Western approaches to spirituality and metaphysics is the lack of tension or uncomfortability with science. I really think this tension, which seems to be distinctly Western IME, points to some sort of critical problem in Westerners' view of either the spiritual or the scientific or both, which could someday prove to be damning when it comes to technological progress and material wellbeing.

I like mind science. Or rather, I want to like and keep abreast of mind science. But I will steer clear so long as stomaching that scene requires being comfortably materialist. And seeing as how I'm hardly the brave pioneer to be the first to try and break that status quo, I'm glad somebody, like the Dalai Lama, is.

 

[I NUK3D U]

The Acid House - Irvine Welsh

 

[L2R]

my last recommendation in the previous thread still applies.

david j chalmers' collection of readings called simply "philosophy of mind" has been my favourite uni text book by far. i plan to go over it cover to cover when i get a chance, but it's a hard slog. everything from substance dualism through to "can a computer think?". MDOA, it isn't exclusively materialist. It isn't even predominantly materialist!

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

L2R, that's good to hear. That wasn't the impression that I had, but I'll take your word for it.

 

[L2R]

i think the materialist/non-materialist argument has taken somewhat of a backseat in order to examine what, exactly is a "mind". until this can be found the above argument is futile. what is mind content? what is consciousness? what's it like to be a bat? from my understanding the phenomenal nature of the mind has been coming back into philosophical fashion over the last twenty years. prior to this, it was ignored as untestable and behaviouralism was the only study considered.

right now i'm having a particularly hard time wrapping my head around the arguments as to whether or not there is any content of the mind which is not representational. i'm finding the case presented by peacocke who tries to illustrate that there is something to sensation which is non-representational as being mostly nonsense, but some parts i agree with. hopefully the tye response is easier to read, i've gotta write on this stuff shortly.

 

[RobotRipping]

Illusions- Richard Bach

i love this book, read it when i was younger and i still think about it.

For philosophy:
The Critique of Pure Reason - Kant, it's a difficult (mostly painful) read but it blew my mind while tripping lol.
Leibniz - monadology, cool as shit, still think about this one a lot and it's not too much of a pain in the ass to read.

i'd wiki them first to see if you are interested as they can be boring if you're not into it.

psychedelic:

acid dreams is a cool book about the history of LSD.
ishmael - daniel quinn - just an interesting book about human nature and psychedelic for the way it is written.
doors of perception although you've probably already heard of it, still a fun read.

 

[Bricheta_albastra]

Tao Te Ching - Laozi

The only book on taoism I've read but it was great, I recommend the Stephen Mitchell translation.

 

[kaiba]

later

 

[swilow]

For weird tinfoil hat stuff, try Graham Hancock- Supernatural Meetings With The Ancient Teachers of Mankind. Its has some interesting ideas involving hallucinogens, anciet cave paintings, the human brain and extinct cultures.

I'd also suggest Albert Hoffman- LSD: My Problem Child.
For something not related to psychedelics, Israel Regardie- The Tree of Life. Israel Regardie worked with Aleister Crowley, and was himself a very knowledgable person in regards to occult and mysticism. This particular book is concerned with kaballah more then anything, and its a hefty tome- not one for reading cover to cover, but something you might take 10 years to complete...

 

[zzx]

An intriguing book is The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Haven't read it completely yet but I like it. It explores randomness and the limitations of knowledge. There is so much more than the basic "you don't know shit" 8)