----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 3:31 PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] new book
This review looks good. Seems to lend credence
to the analysts (vs. the "everything is hard wired"
school)
A landmark work that offers new answers to one of the
oldest mysteries in human thought: the connection between mind and
brain.
Conventional science has long held the position that "the mind" is merely
an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain.
Now comes a major work, grounded in two decades of research, that argues
exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life of its own.
In The Mind and the Brain, Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, a leading
researcher in brain dysfunctions, and Wall Street Journal science
columnist Sharon Begley demonstrate that the human mind is an independent
entity that can shape and control the functioning of the physical brain. Their
work has its basis in our emerging understanding of adult plasticity -- the
brain's ability to be rewired not just in childhood, but throughout life, a
trait only recently established by scientists. But in this paradigm-shifting
work, Schwartz and Begley take neuroplasticity one critical step further.
Through decades of work treating patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder
(OCD), Schwartz made an extraordinary finding: while following the therapy he
developed, his patients were effecting significant and lasting changes in
their own neural pathways. It was a scientific first: by actively focusing
their attention away from negative behaviors and toward more positive ones,
Schwartz's patients were using their minds to reshape their brains.
The Mind and the Brain follows Schwartz as he investigates this
newly discovered power, which he calls self-directed neuroplosticity or, more
simply, mental force. It describes his work with noted physicist Henry Stapp
to establish the basic mechanics of self-directed neuroplasticity in quantum
physics, and reveals its connections with the ancient practice of mindfulness
in Buddhist tradition. And it points to potential new applications that could
transform the treatment of almost every variety of neurological dysfunction,
from dyslexia to stroke -- and could lead to new strategies to help us harness
our mental powers.
Yet as wondrous as these implications are, perhaps even more important is
the philosophical dimension of Schwartz's work. For the existence of mental
force offers convincing scientific evidence of human free will, and thus of
man's inherent capacity for moral choice. Challenging the scientific
mainstream, Schwartz and Begley suggest boldly that we human beings are more
than mere automatons -- that with the ability to shape our brains comes the
power to shape our destiny. The conclusions they draw, and the questions they
raise, should provoke debate among not only scientists but philosophers, legal
scholars, and anyone who cares about the role of man in the
universe.
I have just ordered the book *The Mind and The
Brain* by Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley.
Has anyone read this? I found the reviews
particularly interesting in that he argues that we can use our minds to
change the wiring of our brains. Apparently he has considerable evidence
from his work with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Apparently he brings in all kinds of
interesting stuff about free will in regard to this newly discovered
information from his studies.
Selma
