Hello, Earthlings!
This blog is going to be about introducing interesting books, in different categories at a time. For my first blog post, I would like to introduce 3 nonfiction books that have changed how I view reality. All of which had made me feel like a crazy person while reading it, but have overall made me a far more intelligent, well-rounded, and diverse person. I’ve entertained the idea of writing a press release for each of these; if I do, I’ll let you know! Also, I’ve gotten all the descriptions from Goodreads.com.
Programming the Human Biocomputer, by John Lilly- “In this pioneering study, renowned scientist Dr. John C. Lilly explodes our sense of the boundaries of the human brain, as he details his controversial experiments with exploring the mind's vast potential.
Starting from the position that man is essentially a biological computer, Lilly explains we are all born with some "programs"--such as eating, sleeping, and feeling pain--ingrained in our genetic code. Our ability to take in new information and to develop ideas beyond these innate programs depends on our capacity for "metaprogramming," or learning to learn. Here Lilly documents both the methods and results of his famous experiments with expanding the mind's metaprogramming power with LSD and sensory deprivation. By altering the brain's normal operations with psychotropic substances or freeing it of the need to create a safe environment, the range of human thought, Lilly contends, can be increased beyond any previous expectations.
Combining intellectual creativity and scientific rigor, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer provides intriguing insights into the workings of the brain and the process of thought.”
Lucid Dreamer: A Waking Guide For the Traveler Between Worlds- “An unorthodox exploration of the phenomenon of lucid dreaming surveys the nature of the dream world over the last five thousand years. Using recent research, detailed techniques and exercises from each tradition, the author provides an analysis of the nature of dreaming versus waking.”
A Separate Reality (The Teachings of don Juan), by Carlos Castenada- "A man of knowledge is free...he has no honor, no dignity, no family, no home, no country, but only life to be lived." --don Juan
In 1961 a young anthropologist subjected himself to an extraordinary apprenticeship to bring back a fascinating glimpse of a Yaqui Indian's world of "non-ordinary reality" and the difficult and dangerous road a man must travel to become "a man of knowledge." Yet on the bring of that world, challenging to all that we believe, he drew back.
Then in 1968, Carlos Castaneda returned to Mexico, to don Juan and his hallucinogenic drugs, and to a world of experience no man from our Western civilization had ever entered before.
In 1961 a young anthropologist subjected himself to an extraordinary apprenticeship to bring back a fascinating glimpse of a Yaqui Indian's world of "non-ordinary reality" and the difficult and dangerous road a man must travel to become "a man of knowledge." Yet on the bring of that world, challenging to all that we believe, he drew back.
Then in 1968, Carlos Castaneda returned to Mexico, to don Juan and his hallucinogenic drugs, and to a world of experience no man from our Western civilization had ever entered before.
