Meditation and Modern Psychology examines meditation from two perspectives: first, from the perspective of religions and philosophies such as Zen, Yoga and those of the Sufis and Christian mystics; and then from the modern psychologist's point of view: what is happening neurophysiologically during and after meditation? By looking at meditation from both points of view, Ornstein produces a modern scientific synthesis - one sympathetic to the practice of meditation, enabling the re...

Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich explain that we are causing our own problems because we have created a world where our basic mental functions are no longer suitable. We evolved over a period of millions of years to survive in small tribal families on the wild grassy plains of East Africa. Now the way we live has nothing to do with that time and place, but the mental tools that were developed to survive on the savanna have remained unchanged. These instincts were wonderfully adapted to the...

What does it mean to go beyond our ordinary perception of reality? Why has almost all of humanity, throughout our history, had the concept of transcendence and connection to “the other” – to “the spirit world,” to “God,” or to “the One behind it all?”This remarkable work coalesces findings from the shamans of the Ice Age (God 1.0), to the first temples, priests and gods of the Neolithic era and Mesopotamia (God 2.0), to the Axial Age prophets and the three major monotheistic religi...

A new revised edition of the classic study takes a fresh look at human consciousness and an exciting new view of the untapped potential of the human mind.What is consciousness and why do we need to know?In this new fourth edition of his revolutionary study, Robert Ornstein reexamines what is known about consciousness and why this understanding is so important at this time of enormous challenge, change and potential.He begins with an exploration of how the human brai...