Customer Reviews

Global Mind Change: The New Age Revolution in the Way We Think

5 star:		(4)
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The slow opening uses Copernicus to introduce paradigm shifts for advancing society and science. It also points out we make unconscious choices (hypnotism, specifically fire walking's pain experience) and that our unconscious reality has as big effect on our lives as normal reality. Our society 'hypnotizes' us with a constant bombardment of social norms, forming our unconscious, parochial world. "The Western neglect of the realm of subjective experience has had serious consequence with regard to our values (p29)."

According to the author, Western society's fundamental mistakes are that empiricism is the only acceptable evidence (vs. subjective and spiritual), and that objective and subjective are separate. Essentially, no consciousness, only chemistry. (The author has never heard of Zadeh, who pioneered fuzzy logic in 1959.) His point is the way a society experiences the world determines which type of science is valued and developed by that society.

The first chapters are spent wrestling against and defining the false dichotomies of subjective and objective, mind and consciousness, reality and possibility. Metaphysics are discussed, specifically M3, the question 'Can mind give rise to matter?'

In exploring this, more hypnotism cases are examined (hypnotism used an analgesic in major surgeries in the 1850's), along with the placebo effect, morphogenic fields, psychic phenomena, multiple personality disorder, and scientific heresy (1790 meteorites contrasted with today's UFOs). Harman concludes "objectivity is a function of the prevailing (partially unconscious) assumptions about the nature of reality (p65)." He recommends the Buddhist idea of 'non-attachment' in place of objectivity, because objectivity contains emotional investments and/or unconscious biases.

Harman moves on to asking, 'Are there questions beyond science, but not beyond ultimate human understanding?' Biofeedback, creativity, prayer, perennial wisdom, and ineluctable truth are all analyzed from a contemporary vs. M3 worldview stance. Science is broken down into four complementary levels of abstraction: reductionist, life, psychological, and spiritual, with the caveat that explanations often require a set level of abstraction. Then, "If science... were to adopt a different approach... to assume the validity of any type of human experience or extraordinary ability consistency reported throughout the ages, across cultures, and adapt to incorporate these (p90)..."

That question is dangled, and conclusions include "It is impossible to create a [sustainable] working society upon a knowledge base which is fundamentally inadequate, seriously incomplete, and mistaken in basic assumptions (p101)." Also, that a mature science and a mature religion are complementary without conflict; as long as they are in opposition, society has an incomplete knowledge basis. Around this area is when I began believing this book had something to teach me.

The passage that shot the book up to five stars for me happened on page 110, as follows: "As planetary limits to further material growth are approached, and as economic rationality pushes further automation and efficiencies in production, the number of jobs will fall... Does society ask itself what other meaningful and productive activities can be engaged in, now that economic production does not require the efforts of all? No, it engages in frenzied activities to increase consumption."

You can't really call our current global society a success, and this book is excellent because it opens the way for a higher level of thinking, a better world. This review is long enough now, I'll simply recommend this book highly to those who have a mind open enough to grasp it.

Five stars, made me think.

Although written in 1988, this work is as contemporary as any and is a good guide to what should be occurring.

I had read the book in its initial version and re-reading it showed me how much did not know I knew!!

Very valuable guide to our behavior.

Carlos Nagel

A great read for anyone interested in gaining a peek into the emerging worldview of the global village. Very informative and challenging on multiple fronts

quote...
"...Nuclear weapons made for national security,
Economic logic used to made social decisions,
Knowledge based on a science which ignores courage and virture, ...
now creates problems faster than we can solve them...."