Customer Reviews

Changes of Mind: A Holonomic Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness (S U N Y Series in the Philosophy of Psychology) (Suny Series, Philosophy of Psychology)

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Jenny Wade has made a most valuable contribution to the literature on human psychospiritual development with this substantive, well-researched work. She begins by placing overall consciousness research in the context of the new physics, specifically the post-Newtonian paradigm of physicist David Bohm, describing how the implications of such paradigms change not only earlier undestandings of human development but our understanding of what it fundamentally means to be a human being. Then she has opened up "stage theory" of development to explore research on the pre- and peri-natal stages of consciousness and the research on near-death experiences. She highlights a quality of "transcendent" consciouness revealed in this research that is similar in both the pre-birth and after-death "stages" of life, and explores the implications of this in understanding both the other stages between birth and death and the nature of human existence itself. She then draws on Eastern and Western mystical writings, showing how her conclusions correlate with the experiences of practicing mystics through the ages.

My only quarrel with Ms. Wade is that as she explores mystical literature she tends to privilege Eastern over Western mysticism. This reflects the general pattern in Transpersonal writings, and points to what I feel is a need in the Judeo-Christian world to affirm and bring forward more vigorously its own particular and very valuable strain of mystical literature.

I welcome this work for opening up regions not yet covered by other Transpersonalists, Wilber, Washburn, et al, and feel the perspective Ms. Wade offers will add invaluable depth and breadth to the developmental and Transpersonal dialogue.

To say this monumental book changed my life would be to use the most overused term in today's New Age pop-psychological world (I know because I've used it myself a few times describing other books!). But there is no other way to describe the power of what Dr. Jenny Wade has to say and the intellectual argument she makes- with the erudition of a scientist, and the humility of a mystic.

CHANGES OF MIND is the thinking man and woman's CELESTINE PROPHECY. She not only avoids backing down from the challenge of embracing previously accepted conventional psychoanalytical theory, religious philosophy and the scientific method. She embraces and redeems them all, as well as the myth and mysticism of practically every age and religion, by puttting them in what can only seem to be their proper intellectual/spiritual perspective. The model for charting and understanding the levels of consciousness of the human being- animal and spirit/mind- that she proposes becomes so immediately all encompassing that it can be considered a unified field theory for the human experience unlike anything that has been rendered before in Western Society.

Many writers, with their amazing intellect and insight, can give honor to their disciplines as they encompass enough of human endeavor and history into their perspective to make you become a intellectual roomate in the apartment of their minds whenever you look at the world afterwards. Camille Paglia and Nancy Friday, with their Freudian/Nietzschean, Anthropological/Psychological perspectives; Giorgio de Santillana (HAMLET'S MILL), with his profound and innovative (though not new) look at ancient myth in the context of astronomical science, immediately come to mind. Some, like the genius astrophyiscist Stephen Hawking, open you up to a world you otherwise would not have ever known.

CHANGES OF MIND has managed, for me, to create a paradigm of thought that encompasses every other, as if the intellectual house of every other thinker over the past three or four millenia around the world has been layed out to be easily visited and understood in the Urban Planning City-structure of Dr. Jenny Wade's mind. Gnostic Christianity, Freud, Piaget, Tibetan Mysticism, Sociology, Possibility thinkers, Success-oriented philosophies, New-age Spiritualism, Newtonian Physics, Quantum mechanics, psychic powers, dysfunctional families and codependency, Jung, history, the nature of time and space, reincarnation, pre-natal memories, English literature, sex, Buddhism, Christian Fundamentalism, Jesus Christ... there is little if anything in the human world that cannot be better understood and completely encapsulized by her vision of Transpersonal Psychology and the actual full stages of human development she clearly, lucidly and powerfully describes.

There are an extraordinarily few number of books that I have read that have touched me so profoundly, creating a paradigm shift in my view of people, myself and the world,while simultaneously reaffirming my most treasured pre-verbal intuitions- with science, not poetry. She does, however, make the poetry of all the world, from John Donne ("Death too, shall die") to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, to the New Testament, come alive in ways I never expected, and never would have guessed.

I cannot recommend this book to the fascinated and the skeptical alike enough.

In "Changes of Mind", Jenny Wade provides the reader with an excellent survey of research regarding stages of consciousness, from prenatal to after-death. Perhaps because she is working principally with academic research, her writing style is likewise very academic. Those not accustomed to the jargon of the field intially may find the writing style somewhat dry and less accessible; however, the content is very directly and lucidly presented. Wade presents differing opinions developed from research done in the field and carefully brings together her theory regarding the evolution of consciousness. I found the chapter regarding pre- and perinatal consciousness to be particularly fascinating. Also very useful are the charts that Wade developed listing the characteristics of each level of consciousness. For anyone who wishes to understand research regarding transpersonal psychology and holonomic theories, this book is invaluable.

This work brings together advances in the new sciences with studies in psychology, philosophy, and the history of mysticism, to challenge readers beyond linear and dualistic thinking. It outlines a new field for developmental psychology which would include the study of consciousness prior to birth and after death, as well as the transpersonal nature of consciousness. This development would have to be understood not so much as a progress toward something, but rather an access to our whole consciousness. The implications are profound for understanding psychic pain, the self, and our connections with each other, among other topics. The book is suprisingly modest in its claims, and thorough in its research. I cannot think of consciousness in the same way as I did before reading Changes of Mind.

Forget Piaget! This is the real lifespan development. Absolutely LOVED the 9 stages of life based on core assumptions. Everyone I have shared this with is fascinated by the truth of it. If you can decipher chapter 1 with all of David Bohm's paradigms shift philospohy - congrats! It's a very difficult read. When Wade explains prenatal and after death in stages, she goes waaay beyond all the masters in her field: Assagioli, Stan Grof, Maslow, Keegan, Kohlberg, Loevinger, Graves, Cook-Greuter, Washburn, and Ken Wilber.
Skipping Chapter 1? - The remaining book is SO MUCH EASIER to identify with. Juicey! It's on my gift list for the next decade.

Extremely intelligent, cogent, insightful, well researched, beautifully articulated work. Her preface provides an excellent historical survey of the development of thought in consciousness studies from the past, and allows her to introduce her own ground-breaking work in a very contemporary light. I am grateful for this fine resource and unhesitatingly recommend it to students, colleagues and the learning community at large.

as we experience life we get pieces of the puzzle. Some times we are luck enough to get the edges so we have an outline and can begin to fill in the real informational and exeriential middle. With Jenny Wade you get the whole puzzle. A gift

I bought this book based upon the reviews and Dr. Wade's later book Transcendent Sex. I was looking for more good content from this writer, albeit this being an earlier book. Upon reading the book I found an academic book that had to, in the pendantic style required by American academia, slog through this and that research to get to a point that I did not find revolutionary at all. Just another psychological theory that I didn't see much usefulness or relevance to the real world where we need less academic theories and more practical techniques and paths. I don't even remember exactly what the "revolutionary" part of her theory is supposed to be. I sold the book and hopefully someone will get more out of it than I did. I don't think that this book lives up to the reviews at all. Just in case I'm wrong, how about someone posting a review and getting to the point of this "revolutionary theory" and telling us what it is and how it's supposed to help us all in life?