Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind and the Proof That Will Change the Way We Live Our Lives [Hardcover]

Mario Beauregard (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0062071564 | ISBN-13: 978-0062071569 | Edition: 1st Edition, 1st Printing

In Brain Wars, acclaimed neuroscientist Mario Beauregard reveals compelling new evidence set to provoke a major shift in our understanding of the mind-body debate: research showing that the mind and consciousness are transmitted and filtered through the brain—but are not generated by it.

Following his boundary-breaking neuroscience book The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, coauthored with Denyse O’Leary, Brain Wars makes a powerful and provocative case against the widely held view equating human beings to complex biological computers.

Like Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Beauregard believes that consciousness is more than simply a physical process that takes place in the brain. And here, he presents the evidence to prove it. Brain Wars will revolutionize the way we think about thinking forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Brain Wars explains why the prevailing brain-mind paradigm is falling apart and why we are increasingly being forced to reconsider the nature of consciousness. The consequences of this paradigm shift are profound, and Mario Beauregard does a magnificent job in explaining why.” (Dean Radin PhDCo-Editor-in-Chief, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing Senior Scientist Institute of Noetic Sciences )

“Mario Beauregard shows convincingly that the materialistic philosophy of the 19th century is an impoverished framework incompatible with contemporary science, from physics to psychology. The concepts he develops in Brain Wars are required reading for scientific literacy in today’s world.” (Bruce Greyson, M.D. Research psychiatrist, University of Virginia. Co-author of Irreducible Mind )

“In this ground-breaking work, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard cites a range of scientific studies challenging many widely held materialistic assumptions about the relation between the mind and brain.” (B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.President, Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies )

“The assumption that the brain makes consciousness, like the liver makes bile, and that human consciousness is confined to the brain and body, will not endure because it is unscientific, and cannot account for how consciousness manifests in the world. In this important book, Dr. Mario Beauregard shows why.” (Larry Dossey, MDAuthor of Reinventing Medicine and The Power of Premonitions )

“Dr. Beauregard describes that our mind/consciousness has a fundamental and irreducible nature, and that it sometimes can be experienced independently from the body because it is not limited to our brain. Brain Wars clearly announces the end of physicalism, reductionism, materialism and objectivism in science.” (Pim van Lommel, cardiologist, author of Consciousness beyond Life )

Provocative and accessible, this book is ultimately less about hard science and more about the mind-body problem and philosophy of materialistic science. (Library Journal )

From the Back Cover

The brain can be weighed, measured, scanned, dissected, and studied. The mind that we conceive to be generated by the brain, however, remains a mystery. It has no mass, no volume, and no shape, and it cannot be measured in space and time. Yet it is as real as neurons, neurotransmitters, and synaptic junctions. It is also very powerful.
—from Brain Wars

Is the brain "a computer made of meat," and human consciousness a simple product of electrical impulses? The idea that matter is all that exists has dominated science since the late nineteenth century and led to the long-standing scientific and popular understanding of the brain as simply a collection of neurons and neural activity. But for acclaimed neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, Ph.D., along with a rising number of colleagues and others, this materialist-based view clashes with what we feel and experience every day.

In Brain Wars, Dr. Beauregard delivers a paradigm-shifting examination of the role of the brain and mind. Filled with engaging, surprising, and cutting-edge scientific accounts, this eye-opening book makes the increasingly indisputable case that our immaterial minds influence what happens in our brains, our bodies, and even beyond our bodies. Examining the hard science behind "unexplained" phenomena such as the placebo effect, self-healing, brain control, meditation, hypnosis, and near-death and mystical experiences, Dr. Beauregard reveals the mind's capabilities and explores new answers to age-old mind-body questions.

Radically shifting our comprehension of the role of consciousness in the universe, Brain Wars forces us to consider the immense untapped power of the mind and explore the profound social, moral, and spiritual implications that this new understanding holds for our future.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1st Edition, 1st Printing edition (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062071564
• ISBN-13: 978-0062071569
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Mario Beauregard, PhD., is Associate Research Professor at the Departments of Psychology and Radiology, and the Neuroscience Research Center, Université de Montréal. He is the co-author of The Spiritual Brain and more than 100 publications in neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Important, timely, easy to access June 3, 2012

By Bones

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Personally I've really been on the fence about consciousness and if / how it is separate from the material body. My skeptical and materialist side had its doubts-- consciousness and everything that I am *has* to be exclusively generated by my material body (primarily my brain). However, this "feels" wrong to me. As a side note.. I am completely agnostic, and my personal beliefs are that when your body dies, "you" most likely completely die. I like to think I have little to nothing at stake for what viewpoint I take on the matter (although it fascinates me to no end), so I should be as close to "objective" about this topic as is possible.

Yet, I cannot rid myself of the feeling (or intuition) that the materialistic perspective of consciousness is wrong. It's hard to explain, but it simply does not feel right to me. I thought maybe this was a relic of my childhood beliefs, or some other culturally programmed meme (after reading Radical Knowing by Christian de Quincey, I now know that this is an important sign that shouldn't be dismissed).

So I was really excited to receive and read this book as it appeared to address the very issue I'd been struggling with.

The book itself is very easy to read. The author and editor(s) did a fantastic job of presenting scientific information in a very understandable and easy-to-digest manner. I might go so far as to say this is the most pleasant-reading book on consciousness I've come across. It is absolutely not "dumbed down", but is simply presented in a way that reads effortlessly.

The first half of the book delves into the different abilities the mind or self has to influence the physical body. This ranges from neurofeedback (something I knew little about) to hypnosis. There were some studies I was already aware of, but I learned a lot. I was also slightly confused at first-- simply because the mind can alter the body does not imply whether it is separate. The second half of the book, though, delves into the more controversial aspects of the mind and consciousness that imply something separate. Namely "psi" and OBE/NDE phenomena. There was some rehash of material I was already familiar with, but it was refreshing to see the author's take on it (and again presented in excellent fashion). I still have my doubts of course, but I'm starting to drift towards one side of the fence now.

The real eye opener though were the highlights of how scientific materialism reacts to (because it cannot account for) some of the phenomena presented in the book. In some cases, fairly hard evidence is flat out ignored because it is "impossible" or exists seemingly and entirely in the "subjective" realm. It is somewhat understandable; a hard materialist's world view would be shaken to the core by some of the results of the studies highlighted if they were accepted as reality. It is disheartening though that dismissiveness and hostility abound when instead these results should be welcomed with lots of excitement, skepticism, and enthusiasm. Hopefully as the author points out.. the tide is turning.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Exciting Brain stuff! May 12, 2012

By Giordany Orellana

Format:Hardcover

Healing yourself with only your thoughts, placebos more effective than big pharma, and influencing matter at the quantum level.

This book covers all of these fascinating subjects, and then some. The book is easy to read and paced very well. It never gets bogged down with heavy explanation, and it's always just enough to keep reading to learn more.

He covers out-of-body experiences, Near-death-experiences, experiments with placebos, the debate of conciousness and the mind, and several other unexplained phenomena that has something to do with the brain.

All of his examples are scientifically backed, and he holds his judgement until the very end. For most of the book, he presents you the facts, and lets you decide for yourself.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as Advertised, Paradigm Shifting Book. May 31, 2012

By MN

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Excellent book, well written and chalk full of evidence demonstrating the inadequacies of our current mind-brain relationship theory. I highly recommend this book to anyone in psychology.

The reason this book does not get a 5-star from me is two-fold. First, Dr Mario Beauregard has done much research of his own on the subject of NDEs and has published a paper in the journal Resuscitation regarding a retrospective study that contained an NDE very similar to that of Pam Reynolds. Unfortunately, it was not mentioned in this book which is disappointing to say the least. Second, the book is essentially "Irreducible Minds, Towards a Psychology for the 21st Century" for dummies. The two are quite similar, and as I had already read "Irreducible Minds", I found this book to be quite repetitive which was also a little disappointing.

With all this in mind, the 4 star rating is a mix of how much I enjoyed the book (a 3) and the book itself (a 5) and I certainly highly recommend it!