Get Free Ebook The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd
From now, finding the completed site that offers the finished books will certainly be lots of, but we are the relied on site to check out. The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd with easy web link, easy download, and also completed book collections become our great solutions to get. You could discover as well as use the benefits of picking this The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd as every little thing you do. Life is consistently creating and you need some brand-new book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd to be reference constantly.
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd
Get Free Ebook The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd
The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd. The developed modern technology, nowadays assist every little thing the human demands. It includes the day-to-day tasks, tasks, workplace, amusement, as well as much more. Among them is the wonderful web link and computer system. This problem will relieve you to sustain one of your leisure activities, checking out habit. So, do you have going to review this book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd now?
Reading habit will consistently lead people not to completely satisfied reading The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd, a book, 10 e-book, hundreds books, and also much more. One that will make them really feel completely satisfied is completing reviewing this publication The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd as well as getting the message of the e-books, after that locating the various other next book to review. It proceeds even more as well as a lot more. The time to finish reviewing a book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd will certainly be consistently numerous depending on spar time to spend; one instance is this The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd
Now, just how do you understand where to get this book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd Don't bother, now you may not visit the book store under the bright sun or evening to look the book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd We right here always assist you to locate hundreds kinds of publication. One of them is this book qualified The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd You may visit the link page supplied in this collection and then choose downloading and install. It will certainly not take even more times. Merely hook up to your website access and also you can access the book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd on the internet. Certainly, after downloading and install The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd, you might not print it.
You can save the soft documents of this publication The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd It will certainly depend on your leisure and also activities to open and also review this book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd soft documents. So, you may not be afraid to bring this e-book The Neurotic's Guide To Avoiding Enlightenment: How The Left-Brain Plays Unending Games Of Self-Improvement, By Chris Niebauer Phd everywhere you go. Merely add this sot data to your gizmo or computer disk to let you review whenever as well as almost everywhere you have time.
Are you�ready to give up on self-improvement?�
More than ever people are on a quest for self-improvement and enlightenment. People are "watching" their egos or losing their egos in order to find peace of mind or to get along better with others. And yet, the more we try to lose our ego, the more of it there is to lose. The more we try to make peace, the more we find conflict. It is exactly what happens when we try not to think of the number 3 and that is all we can think about. Our efforts seem to have the opposite effect and this is due to the way the left side of the brain processes information. Neuroscience discovered that the left brain makes up elaborate stories and convincing explanations. It is the left brain that makes up the most elaborate and convincing story of all, the story of who you think you are. And the more we try to get out of this story, the deeper we find ourselves in it because it is the function of the left brain to work on the law of opposition. Try not to be anxious and that's exactly what happens. Try not to worry and you will be flooded with anxious thoughts. And the same is true for self-improvement. The more we try to improve our story, the more the story needs to be improved. The left brain excels at these games even when it plays by pretending not to play. If I said that all attempts at self-improvement are futile, how would you respond? Would you reflexively think I'm wrong? Is there any way not to play these games of the left brain? Which part of your brain do you think is asking this question?
This book was written for the ordinary person who has an extraordinary curiosity for who they are, how thoughts work and why they cannot control their thoughts. It is a practical guide that uses examples from my kids, favorite movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s along with simple exercises so you can see for yourself if any of this is on track. While no special knowledge of the neurosciences is required, you may understand many of the examples if you've seen an episode or two of Star Trek or Seinfeld. While this work is based on the teachings of Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle it integrates the findings of modern neuroscience which surprisingly reveals a similar message. It is the desire for enlightenment that is the biggest block to happiness and peace, in fact, it is the only block. It is not until one gives up the quest to find oneself, improve oneself or be more spiritual, that one can ever find the peace they are looking for. And it is�not your ego that gives up this quest, it is you.
- Sales Rank: #55938 in Books
- Published on: 2014-03-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x .37" w x 5.98" l, .52 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 172 pages
Review
Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite
The author's link to spirituality is evident - the teachings of Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle back his viewpoints and these thoughts make the book profound and powerful. The author's fresh take on how the human brain works is indeed very informative and interesting.
Reviewed by D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, MBR
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment succeeds in its goal of providing a reasoned assessment of reality, illusion, ego and self; probing the process behind the psyche's development and perceptions and offering readers much food for thought and illumination.
Reviewed by Ed Bennett for IndieReader
The central premise to this book is that no matter how hard we try to improve ourselves we will not be able to do so, despite what the self-improvement books tell us. Essentially, one needs to stop trying to improve, relax and try to live in the moment without the left-brain trying to make sense out of our surroundings.
Despite technical language, THE NEUROTIC'S GUIDE TO AVOIDING ENLIGHTENMENT presents a creative method for self-improvement as well as a deeper understanding of our phobias.
.
About the Author
The author received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuropsychology from the University of Toledo where he specialized in left-right brain differences. He has conducted research on consciousness, handedness, beliefs and the sense of self and is currently an associate professor of cognitive psychology at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.
Most helpful customer reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Listening to Doctor Spock but Following Captain Kirk
By mcfin din
This book is about many things and was, at first, difficult for me to find a single cohesive theme. My liberal arts background was primed for a beginning, middle and end, but in dealing with this material, there is no way to deliver information in a neatly wrapped package. Professor Chris Niebauer states at one point in the book, "Perhaps the lack of consistency is something you noticed while reading this. What is the book about? Psychology? Science? Spirituality?"
It was, in fact, about all of those, with quite a bit of "the new consciousness movement" mixed in.
Niebauer, a college professor of Neuropsychology, presents what ultimately turns out to be a stimulating examination dealing with left- brain, right brain responses. I learned that we are a product of an evolutionary left-brain "interpreter" which has (probably) saved us from extinction by providing a modicum of paranoia, caution and dare I say - good sense early in our evolution, so that instead of running towards our early predators, we ran from them, thus avoiding being eaten.
This isn't meant to be facetious, though it is, perhaps, a bit satirical, as the cover of the book boasts a Buddha with a sardonically lifted left eyebrow which turns out to be a feisty clue to the tone of the book.
A significant portion of the book discusses the work of Michael Gazzaniga, whose research. along with Roger Sperry, on the "split-brain" and free will is frequently cited. "Free will is an illusion," says Gazzaniga. This is augmented, according to Niebauer, by the teachings of Eckhardt Tolle and Alan Watts. I was not familiar with Watts, but I've read Tolle who is not a scientist, but a popular spokesman for the "new consciousness," professing that the "illusory sense of self" or the "egoic self" interferes with our desire to reach consciousness. This is also part of the Buddhist tradition, however, Buddhism, as I recall, attempts to go beyond the personal "self" in order to reach a "higher" self.
I enjoyed the author's lively style of writing including an abundance of references to his children and their innate right-brain tendencies to answer a question with a non-interpretive "verb" answer (also termed the "how") as opposed to our adult, more cautious approach to stimuli called the "noun" or the "what" response. (I interpreted this to be relevant because verbs are action-oriented; nouns are static). Children have not fully developed their "pattern perceivers" and therefore can speak "Zenfully;" ie, without placing things in categories (a left-brain trait).
It was the Zen-fullness that I missed most about the book - a more in depth discussion of the relationship of Eastern philosophies to the ever so subtle change in the scientific community discussed by the author, which allows for the possibility that who we are is not contained in the (physical) brain that dies, but in our consciousness (which might not die at all).
My question, then, is, what is consciousness? Is it that deep sense of awareness encountered by Edgar Mitchell as he rode back to earth from outer space having experienced the utter "connectedness" of the universe? Is consciousness a part of the brain? Or simply that quiet place we all seek through meditation? Is consciousness the "mind?" The "soul?" Is it a void waiting to be filled? According to Niebauer, matter makes up only 5% or .000000000000000000042% in the universe. Then, of what is the rest of the universe made?
Professor Neibauer was able to suggest to me, at least, a conclusion: what I gleaned from the book was that the right brain may ultimately lead us to a state of consciousness to which, I, as a Yoga practitioner and meditation enthusiast, am eager to find. The right-brain (person) is intrepid, a risk taker, a doer; he is action-oriented: he/she is Captain Kirk, while the left-brain may be Dr. Spock, a logical voice of caution; This is the perfect metaphor for me, as the most memorable and revealing moments in my life have been those unthinking explorations into the unknown--a voyage to an undisclosed destination, to "boldly go" where I have never gone before.
4-1/2 stars (a bibliography might have been nice). A provocative read, nonetheless.
Sue McGhee, author of "When the Eagle Flies with the Condor"
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Entertaining and--yes--enlightening!
By Dennis Littrell
The title of this book is something of a joke. On one level the book is an elaboration on Michael Gazzaniga's discovery in the 1970s that the verbal left brain "interprets" what the right brain experiences as well as rationalizes or denies any cognitive dissidence that might occur. The left brain tells the story; sometimes the story is true, sometimes it isn't. I am reminded of the title of another popular psychology book recently published entitled, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)" by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. The subtitle of that book is "Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts." Here Slippery Rock University psychology Professor Chris Niebauer is concerned with the flip side of their thesis, namely the "mistakes" of self-improvement and enlightenment or rather the impossibility of self-improvement and enlightenment.
On another level this book is a kind of tongue-in-cheek dissertation on the Buddhist idea of no-self, although Niebauer uses the term "ego" instead of self. We get a clear hint about Niebauer's satirical intent from the drawing on the cover of a not exactly serene Buddha with his left eye comically popped open as he sits in meditation. The subtitle of the book, "How the Left-brain Plays Unending Games of Self-improvement," highlights the fact that you can't be something or somebody you aren't. If you practice some form of self-improvement and you improve, well you were that person anyway and couldn't have done otherwise. Niebauer's real thesis is there is no such thing as free-will. There is no self; instead we are a collection of neurons and brain modules and flesh, blood and bone that act like swarm intelligence. We think we make decisions but in fact the brain modules come to a swarm consensus and act. We imagine that "we," whoever we might be, made a decision and acted.
Another way to express the subtitle is to realize that what we do most of the time in our lives is rationalize, deny and pretend while imagining that we are acting. Another way of saying this is "We don't do; we are done."
The point about avoiding enlightenment and any kind of self-improvement is part of the joke. To repeat: how can you improve yourself in any way if you do not have free will? Indeed how can you improve yourself when there is no self to improve? And furthermore how can you improve yourself when brain modules are initiating the action, and improvement and enlightenment are illusions. This, by the way, is a very Zen kind of position. No philosophizing, no intellectualizing, no sutras to study and glean. Instead drank water, light fire, cook rice.
In reading the book there is a bit of jargon and some technical vocabulary to get used to such as "law of opposition," "pattern perceiver," "left-brain interpreter," "neural representation," etc. But Niebauer writes well and concretely for the most part (although he needs to work on the typos, missing words and missing apostrophes). I come from part of the tradition that he presents, that of Zen Buddhism, yoga and Taoism, and I'm familiar with the kind of terminology used there but not with that of contemporary psychology which is what Niebauer uses extensively. Instead of his "egoic" self, in Buddhism there is just self, or actually no-self. In yoga there is atman and anatman.
I wonder if part of the reason for some of the obscurity and cuteness of Niebauer's expression is due to the disagreeable fact that few people including the institutions of society want to believe that there is no responsible self and that we do not have free will. It's the kind of awkward truth that is socially and political incorrect since society demands that people be held responsible for their actions.
Now I happened to agree with most of what Niebauer has to say although I express these ideas in a different and more straight-forward way in my book, "The World Is Not as We Think It Is," which naturally I recommend. I also write more tersely than Niebauer although perhaps not as cleverly. Niebauer is writing a symphony on a theme while I'm just interested in the theme.
A strange thing is that I almost didn't read this book. I'm glad I did because it is paradoxically enlightening (despite Professor Niebauer's best efforts!). He reinforced something that I learned some years ago that has given me comfort with, and insight into, the human condition. His "no improvement" mantra strongly suggests that we accept ourselves and reality as they are and live as much as possible in the here and now.
His sometimes inexact expression (at least to my mind) is what at first put me off. Here are four examples of what I mean:
On page one he asserts that the "me" that we are all familiar with doesn't exist in "the way we were taught it does." He adds, "Rather, there is only the thought that it exists."
But I don't think this is correct. Something more than the thought does exist. What doesn't exist is our mistaken idea of the self; however something does exist that we see as the self, and that entity is made of atoms of various elements configured into something we call a human being which of course is part of a larger community and so on.
On page two he writes, "...nothing is really scary or problematic if you are in the now." This makes sense only if we could actually exist in the now, that is in no time. Of course nothing could be scary or problematic since nothing could be discerned at all! In the eternal now there is no movement, no neurons firing, not even the movement of photons of light.
What really threw me off was his "law of invincible opposition." He doesn't define it but he gives many examples of the law at work. When you try not to worry, you worry more; nice people turn out to be nasty, and vice-versa; "if you are a jerk the world loves you. Love the world and one way or another, it will crucify you." (p. 7) I think this "law" is far from universal and is indeed false for most people.
In another example he asks on page 49 "whether the images in a movie are in the film or rather on the screen..." and answers ..."neither, they only exist when an awareness is watching..." However the images actually do exist independent of an observer. Their patterns of light and darkness can affect molecules in the air however minutely. What he should be saying I believe is that the interpretation of the light patterns toward some kind of recognizable meaning such as people walking on a beach or trains being blown up, etc. is in the mind of the observer.
This way of writing is probably just hurried or perhaps Niebauer is being cute. I can remind him that the left- brain interpreter is just an artificial abstraction, but that would not mean that it doesn't refer to something real. What is real is the behavior of the neurons and modules in the left brain that direct us toward certain behaviors while avoiding others. Call it what you will. I call it left-brain module swarm intelligence (or sometimes lack thereof).
Some other issues and insights:
"Categorized" means in the context of this book and in Niebauer's thought the opposite of a continuously, inter-connected reality. Realizing that everything is "one" is the opposite of seeing "categories" or differentiations. Categories are parts. They are things. They are nouns. Reality, which we can never experience directly, is infinitely connected. Reality is an event. Reality is a verb. We only experience a representation of reality as presented by our senses processed by our brains and nervous system.
In the chapter entitled "Myths as Grand Patterns across Time," Niebauer talks about living in the moment without thinking about the past or the future. He notes, "Unless you are in physical pain, it is likely that your response will be nothing is wrong...There is nothing to fix, nothing to work on nothing to attain, no grail to search for and no place to go." He adds, "In this practice we can experience the stillness of things being fine as they are." (p. 59)
This is true, although not so easy to attain; in fact, what I find especially interesting is the fact that earlier in the book Niebauer writes that he failed at meditation or "didn't get anything out of it" (p. 2) not realizing that the stillness of living in the moment is what meditation is all about, and in experiencing the pure moment without fear or pain or any kind of urgency, one experiences the bliss. The trick is to actually be aware of what you are experiencing and to stay in the moment.
Here's a nice one: Niebauer mentions a "jerk" in front of you "going too slow." (Precursor to road rage?) Then he asks, "Can you see it is just the universe dancing?" Ah, yes, we all need to just see the pure perception without any complaining, which brings me to this thought: Reading the chapter entitled "A Day Without Complaints" might lead to some good personal psychology, no complaining--maybe even self-improvement and enlightenment!
--Dennis Littrell, author of "Yoga: Sacred and Profane (Beyond Hatha Yoga)"
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
A Nondual Exploration of Consciousness
By Cynthia Sue Larson
If you've noticed how your favorite experiences are filled with more "how-ness" of sensory experience and being-ness than "what-ness" of checking things off your to-do list, and wondered what's up with that, this book helps explain why. You can savor looking out the windows of a car or train at the scenery outside much better if you're not asking or being asked every couple of minutes, "Are we there yet?" and essentially this is the premise behind the seemingly contradictory title of this book. Cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Neibauer explores consciousness without categorical thinking in "The Neurotic's Guide to Enlightenment," blending science and mysticism, as he integrates the works of Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle into current findings from recent discoveries in neuroscience.
The key to the magic in this book comes experiencing the sense of exhilarating playfulness that naturally arises from thinking beyond dualities, completely free from categories of any kind. If you're wondering how a book on consciousness can sidestep categories, think of the Zen koan in which a Zen master asks a student to imagine the sound of one hand clapping. There is a long tradition in Eastern philosophy of recognizing the complementary role of nothingness to somethingness, which appears in the Yin/Yang symbols and is part of most every aspect of eastern art, literature, philosophy and thought.
There is a common assumption in the West that to be conscious (literally to "know with") implies a self, and that being conscious is to be a self that knows... yet what we can learn from such a narrowly constrained viewpoint is restricted from the start. I absolutely LOVE the way this book points out right from the start that "psychology is dead" in the sense that psychology has overlooked the role of the interpreter, as it presumes that all that need be examined in order to understand consciousness is that part of the mind and brain that reasons, analyzes, and makes sequential choices. There is a "category error" of epic proportion however, when presuming that by studying that which reasons and categorizes, we are seeing all of consciousness there is. You can think of this as a kind of mapping error, in which we look for our lost keys under the streetlight, since that is the only place bright enough to look. Even when most western scientists know that the map is not the territory, and that the brain is not the mind... they do not, for the most part, embody the Kirk-ness of recognizing that the "what-ness" brain makes a far better servant to the "how-ness" mind than master.
"The Neurotic's Guide to Enlightenment" contains many exercises that explore consciousness beyond dualistic categories, which are designed to present ambiguities that may slow or frustrate the categorical "what-ness" interpretive mind, in order to experience the "how-ness" holistic mind. Readers not already familiar with Eastern meditation may feel frustrated by this approach, but those open-minded enough to trust the process can be richly rewarded by experiencing a much greater sense of present moment satisfaction.
I experience a dream-like sense of living a waking dream while reading this book that I greatly treasure. I love the concept presented in this book that some individuals, such as Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, live their lives from a "how-ness" frame of mind, in which they naturally engage with the world experientially in the present moment, free from most of the (unnecessarily restrictive) constraints that most others impose based on categorizations and expectations. Those who live so freely can seem to enjoy lives of amazing good fortune, constantly enjoying "beginner's luck" because they constantly enjoy "beginner mind."
I love the journey this book takes me on, as I trust the author to guide me to a place of knowingness beyond assumptions and beliefs about how things "should be" or "really are." There is an exquisite beauty in recognizing that right here, right now, everything is fine... and that we can see past the distortions of the interpretive mind. When we identify with a sense of self beyond that which we previously thought we were, we can enjoy life with less struggle and greater happiness, naturally. And sometimes, we can reach this state of blissful awareness when we stop trying so hard to determine if we're there yet.
-- Author of "Quantum Jumps: An Extraordinary Science of Happiness and Prosperity" and "Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World"
See all 25 customer reviews...
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd PDF
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd EPub
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd Doc
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd iBooks
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd rtf
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd Mobipocket
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd Kindle
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd PDF
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd PDF
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd PDF
The Neurotic's Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-Brain Plays Unending Games of Self-Improvement, by Chris Niebauer Phd PDF
