Abstract
The enormity of the question of “consciousness” was unexpectedly dropped into my lap when flying home to Washington, DC, from a trip to Korea. My row companion was a Korean man who left a life of financial success to become a Baptist pastor in the DC Area. I told him who I was, and almost immediately he looked directly into my eyes and asked “Are you saved?” “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior?” He persisted in devoutly explaining “the path to salvation,” but later we were able to exchange views a bit, and I think he came to agree there are many paths to salvation.
The author acknowledges gratefully the constructive guidance of Thomas Lombardo, Professor of Psychology at Rio Salado College, for helping with technical issues in this chapter.
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Notes
The basic function of living creatures is to organize the brain into a coherent system for focused understanding. Bruno von Swindereren at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, says, “Attention is a whole brain phenomenon, a binding together of different regions.” And Simon Conway, professor of paleobiology at Cambridge, called it “An antenna.” Adam Zeman says, “Consciousness bridges perception and action, the events we perceive and the ones we bring about.” Adam Zeman, Consciousness: A Users Guide (New Haven: Yale Press, 2003 );
Douglas Fox, “Consciousness in… a Cockroach?,” Discover (Top Ten Stories of 2006); “Do Fruit Flies Dream of Bananas?,” New Scientist (February 14, 2006 ).
Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics Paul Glincher (MIT Press, 2003).
David Myers, Intuition: Its Powers and Perils (Yale, 2003);
Antonio Damasio, Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling ( NY. Harcourt, 2003 );
Edward O. Wilson, Socio- biology: The New Synthesis (Belknap Press, 2000 );
Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (NY. Viking, 2002); Carey Goldberg, “A Question of Will,” Boston Globe (10/15/02); “In Search of the Buy Button,” Forbes.com (September 1, 2003); John Horgan, “The God Experiments,” Discover (January 2006).
Shankar Vedantam, “Tracing the Synapses of Spirituality,” Washington Post (June 17, 2001 ).
See Willis Harman, Global Mind Change ( Indianapolis, IN: Knowledge Systems, 1988 ).
“The New Science of Mind,” NewsWeek (September 27, 2004); Rob Stein, “Researchers Look at Prayer and Healing,” Washington Post (March 24, 2006); “Saul Bellow,” The Week (April 22, 2005);
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Jeff Levin God, Faith, and Health (NY. Wiley, 2001). U.S. and Russia devoted two decades to “remotely viewing” enemy activities, often with great success. Warrant Officer Joe McMoneagle, one of the best psychics in the U.S. program, was first to identify the existence of Russia’s Typhoon submarines.
Shankar Vedantam, “A New Thinking Emerges About Consciousness,” Washington Post (May 20, 2002 ).
A good example of serious attempts to define the laws of spirituality is represented by the work of Joseph Campbell, who found common themes in spiritual experience. See Campbell, Myths to Live By (NY: Viking Press, 1972 ).
Kevin Sullivan, “Novel Faiths Find Followers in Russia,” Washington Post (July 17, 2007).
The near universal need for faith of some type is well explained by Mark Lilla, The Stillborn God ( NY: Knopf, 2007 ).
Sam Harris, End of Faith (NY: W.W. Norton, 2004 )
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion ( U.K.: Bantam, 2006 ).
Reported in www.Edge.com (November 20, 2006) and Marc Kaufman, “A Meeting of Minds,” Washington Post (September 21, 2003).
Halal, “The Life Cycle of Evolution,” Futures Research Quarterly (2004) 9: 1.
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Sharon Begley, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain ( NY: Ballantine Books, 2007 )
Norman Doidge, The Brain that Changes Itself ( NY: Viking, 2007 ).
Ilchi Lee, Human Technology ( Sedona Arizona: Healing Society Press, 2005 ).
Ronald Bailey, “Would you give up your immortality to ensure the success of a post-human world?” www.reason.com (July 27, 2007).
Michelle Conlin, “Meditation,” Business Week (August 30, 2004 ).
Peter Pruzan and Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen, Leading with Wisdom: Spiritual-Based Leadership in Business ( Sheffield, U.K.: Greenleaf Publishing, 2007 );
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Robin Bew, Chief Economist, Focusing on the Horizon (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2005), and Long-Term Forecasts, www.Economist.com.
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Halal, W.E. (2008). An Age of Consciousness: The Next Place in Technology’s Promise?. In: Technology’s Promise. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582538_9
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