Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness [Hardcover]

Nicholas Humphrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2011

How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? And why do we value it so highly? In Soul Dust, the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us and makes us feel special and transcendent. Thus consciousness paves the way for spirituality, and allows us, as human beings, to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what Humphrey calls the "soul niche."

Tightly argued, intellectually gripping, and a joy to read, Soul Dust provides answers to the deepest questions. It shows how the problem of consciousness merges with questions that obsess us all--how life should be lived and the fear of death. Resting firmly on neuroscience and evolutionary theory, and drawing a wealth of insights from philosophy and literature, Soul Dust is an uncompromising yet life-affirming work--one that never loses sight of the majesty and wonder of consciousness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Humphrey (Seeing Red), the psychologist who discovered blind sight, combines the latest research on neurology and psychology with age-old philosophical questions about the nature of perception and sensation. In answer to the quandary of how human consciousness evolved, since much of our mental activity occurs unconsciously (fight or flight; intuition; biases), he suggests that sensual pleasure and the perception of beauty add value to our lives and enhance our desire to survive. Because we externalize our perceptions ("projecting sensations onto objects") we believe that our lives have meaning. He argues that the "magical interiority of human minds" is not merely a pleasurable bonus to the business of survival but creates the foundation for human existence and our ability to "acknowledge and honor the personhood of others." Though he rejects the existence of the supernatural, Humphrey sees a "soul niche," made possible by the development of complex neurological feedback loops, as the evolutionary home of the human species. This is a fascinating affirmation of the existence of the human soul and a difficult read, but well worth the effort.
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Review

Humphrey's writing is as elegant and hypnotic as that cool jazz stacked on the record player. His argument feels as crystalline and bracing as that double martini going down. --Alison Gopnik, New York Times

[W]hat, on the face of it, looks like an attempt to validate spirituality using the language of science turns out to be a way to expand the domain of science by accounting for spirituality --Caspar Melville, New Humanist

Humphrey begins where Crick and others have left off. He audaciously aims to provide a theoretical basis for understanding the level of consciousness that corresponds with one's personal qualitative experience. --Michael Proulx, Science

Humphrey is absolutely right to reintroduce the concept of the soul to contemporary discussion of consciousness. This elusive entity still haunts the science -  and scientists -  of the mind. --Adam Zeman, Standpoint

Soul Dust, Nicholas Humphrey's new book about consciousness, is seductive--early 1960s, 'Mad Men' seductive. His writing is as elegant, and hypnotic, as that cool jazz stacked on the record player. His argument feels as crystalline and bracing as that double martini going down, though you might find yourself a little woozy afterward. And his tone is as warm and inviting as that big, crackling fire, even if the dim flicker does leave things a bit obscure in the corners. . . . [Soul Dust] is not only thoroughly enjoyable but genuinely instructive too. (Alison Gopnik New York Times Book Review )

[E]loquent. . . . Scientists are often accused these days of overlooking the awe and wonder of the world, so it's exciting when a philosopher puts that magic at the very heart of a scientific hypothesis. (Matt Ridley Wall Street Journal )

Humphrey, the psychologist who discovered blind sight, combines the latest research on neurology and psychology with age-old philosophical questions about the nature of perception and sensation. (PublishersWeekly.com )

Humphrey begins where Crick and others have left off. . . .[He] has laid out a new agenda for consciousness research. (Michael Proulx Science )

How is consciousness possible? In Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness, psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is merely a magic show we stage inside our heads. This show has allowed humans to become aware of themselves and their surroundings. (Victoria Stern Scientific American Mind )

[Nicholas Humphrey's] new book is a beautifully written and highly original essay. . . . He is right to focus on the notion of the soul, and to emphasize the degree to which we humans are 'connoisseurs of consciousness'. . . . [F]ew consciousness enthusiasts have succeeded so well. (Adam Zeman Standpoint )

It was a pleasure to engage with the book Soul Dust. . . . (Ben Ehrlich Beautiful Brain blog )

[I] highly recommend Soul Dust for anyone looking to get a better understanding of consciousness. (Gary Williams Minds and Brains blog )

Nicholas Humphrey's Soul Dust tells its story from the beginning. Humphrey, an eminent English psychologist, aims to explain what a soul is, and to show, from an evolutionary perspective, why it's useful to have one. His conclusion, explained in readable prose, and illustrated with easily-comprehended evidence and examples from science, philosophy, and literature, is that the soul is 'not so much a physical object as a mathematical object,' and that its evolutionary usefulness lies in making 'life more worth living.' Its relaxed prose disguises the book's boldness: Soul Dust is ambitious, and just about as zany, as Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. (h Rothman, BostonGlobe.com's Brainiac blog )

Humphrey takes us on a journey that stimulates and educates, leaving our ipsundrum all the richer, if more lonely. (Douglas K. Candland PsycCritiques )

Humphrey offers an ingenious and crucial account of how it is that each of us experiences solely our own sensations, however much or little these echo what others report. (San Francisco Chronicle )

Once again, Humphrey gives readers a provoking look at the mystery of consciousness. A follow-up to his Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness, this volume focuses on the 'hard problem' of consciousness. . . . Often poetic, Humphrey draws not only on the philosophers and neuroscientists who are central in the debates about consciousness but also cites the work of theologians, literary figures, and, yes, poets to illustrate how central the motive of transcendence is to the consciousness of the human being. Even those who disagree with Humphrey's premise or conclusions will want to read this book. (Choice )

[E]legant . . . (Montreal Mirror )

Consciousness is an immensely complex and, yes, evolved characteristic of life that should be studied from the ground up rather than the top down. This is precisely why Nicholas Humphrey's book . . . is so important. . . . [T]he general outlook to consciousness on which he bases the book is definitely one that should not have taken this long to get noticed. Cognitive science as we know it today would be very different if the views presented in this book had been adopted sooner. (Frank Saunders Dialogue )

Humphrey has read widely not just in philosophy and the sciences, but in the arts and humanities as well. In presenting the fullness of human life made possible by human consciousness, he quotes incisively from artists and poets ranging from Elizabeth Barrett Browning and A. A. Milne to Wassily Kandinsky and Woody Allen. By drawing on sources outside the usual purview of scientific or even philosophical discussions of consciousness, Humphrey presents a richer understanding of what it means to be human than do most writers in the field, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for that. (Paul Johnston Commonweal )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691138621
• ISBN-13: 978-0691138626
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nicholas Humphrey is a theoretical psychologist, based in Cambridge, who is known for his work on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness. His interests are wide ranging. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of "blindsight" after brain damage in monkeys, he proposed the celebrated theory of the "social function of intellect, and he is the only scientist ever to edit the literary journal Granta.

His books include Consciousness Regained, The Inner Eye, A History of the Mind, Leaps of Faith, The Mind Made Flesh, Seeing Red, and Soul Dust. He has been the recipient of several honours, including the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, and the British Psychological Society's book award.

He has been Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford, Assistant Director of the Subdepartment of Animal Behaviour at Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow in Parapsychology at Cambridge, Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research, New York, and School Professor at the London School of Economics.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind-expanding, life-affirming work April 15, 2011

By Brian Felsen

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Why do people have qualitative phenomenal experiences, and why is it "like something" to have sensations? And why do we feel special and spiritual, as if we existed in a "soul niche?" In his marvelous book Soul Dust, Nicholas Humphrey provides perhaps the most sensible solutions to these fundamental but seemingly-intractable questions, and he offers some credible possibilities how and why consciousness likely evolved with these features.

The first half of Soul Dust is a whirlwind tour through Humphrey's thoughts on sensation and why first-person experience feels like it does. As the author favors brevity, this part of the book is dense and requires some mental lifting on the part of the reader. Humphrey explains how natural selection could "adjust the properties of existing sensory feedback loops so as to steer the activity toward a special class of attractor states... [which] would seem, from the subject's point of view, to give sensations their phenomenal properties." Then, he illustrates multiple lines of evidence on what consciousness is for - why it may not enable you to *do* something but still has the crucial function of *encouraging* you to do something - and that primary individualism, by helping us develop a theory of mind, is beneficial for the individual *and* for the social group. Finally, he surveys the important work of scientists and convincingly argues why philosophers are still necessary, arguing that "the probability is that brain scientists would not recognize the NCC [neural correlates of consciousness] for what it is even if it were right in front of them."

With this foundation in place, it's the second half of Soul Dust which truly astonishes, for here, Humphrey shows why life can be beautiful in the face of death. Drawing on multiple lines of evidence (from types and degrees of consciousness and "presentism" in other animals; poetry; primitive art; psychological studies; and even the last meals of death row inmates), Humphrey describes how and why we take pleasure in existence in itself. If natural selection can arrange pleasure in the feeling of existing, existing can become a goal, and you can plan and go through pain or delayed gratifications to achieve or continue it. In a brilliant move, Humphrey shows how and why our experience and the structure of our minds guide the false intuitions that our "souls" could somehow live on after bodily death. This helps explain why reductionist theory is counterintuitive for so many people and how religion rides as a parasite on our natural predilection for spirituality (and not vice versa).

The beautiful final chapters provide strong evidence for how phenomenal consciousness is a "magic show" you stage in your head which lights up the world so you can feel special and transcendent, and why it's adaptive for you to feel that way (as well as even to have death anxiety). In so doing, Humphrey gives voice to the notion that there is actually beauty in being a creature which knows it's going to die. For thousands of years, people have told crazy stories to explain and to comfort each other in the face of death, tales which include positing earth-centered creation, the permanence of souls, and even consciousness as a separate fundamental element of the universe. But, to quote the film True Grit, "I do not entertain such hypotheticals, for the world as it is is vexing enough."

It can seem like a dark joke to have a subjective experience of consciousness for such a brief period of individual existence. But this book finds meaning and beauty in our brief skein not as a fairy tale or a "gallows-humor" consolation prize; it shows how this "magical mystery show" of consciousness and sensation over a limited timeframe is actually lovely, and in so doing, it gives the reader the feeling that everything is illuminated. "Sentio ergo sum" ("I feel, therefore I am") indeed!

Soul Dust is worth every minute of attention it demands, and it's a mind-expanding, life-affirming work.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Setting aside the brilliant IDEAS for a second, I wish to praise... April 25, 2011

By Greg TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

...very specifically the WRITING. This is an impossibly difficult topic. In a world full of hard problems, consciousness is actually called "the hard problem." So that's a damned hard problem.

I can't imagine an approach or tone better suited to taking intelligent, curious--but otherwise relatively clueless--readers by the hand and bringing them step by sensible, well-explained step, to a series of eureka points. Humphrey has a DELIGHTFUL style. It's hard to capture, but I thought a moment earlier in the book helped exemplify it, when he asked (paraphrasing), "Were you as surprised as I was just then that we'd already arrived at Plato's Cave? I hadn't thought we'd be getting there until much later!"

Much of the book is written in that style. He's not some superior intellect lecturing us on what he arrogantly wishes to convince us is true. He is the excited ring-leader of a gang of intrepid explorers, taking us by the hand and saying, "Did you just see that?! I wonder what THAT could have been!" And then patiently working through with us the various possibilities until we arrive--together--at a likely but provisional conclusion. It is astonishingly effective, and I only wish that other writers of philosophy and neuroscience could emulate the approach if not the exact features. (Humphrey's style strikes me as the type that if it were not genuine would be instantly insufferable.)

I don't know how else to describe my experience of having read "Soul Dust" than to say I'm grateful. It's a small window, and we see through the glass darkly; but for once the window is at least open.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic February 25, 2012

By dontbegrumpy

Format:Hardcover

This is an extraordinary book. Not the usual reductionist stuff we are all familiar with. Drawing from fields like archaeology and anthropology, Humphrey articulates a novel and original history of consciousness that will set the agenda for the next consciousness studies.