Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

This book is an invitation to delve into buddhist philosophies and history and their points of contact with the Western science of the mind to inquire about the usefulness of meditation. The author, a brain scientist who is also a practicing buddhist, minutely discusses a challenging problem: can we still "exist" after our body stops living? Is there consciousness beyond death? The book also attends to the many paradoxes and perplexities that remain unanswered, though the author wisely engages the reader in an eventful dialogue. The book is wealthy in information, ingenious in elaborating arguments and exploring the subject matter from diverse and often oppositional points of view. It treats the reader as an adult capable of following a complex line of thought as the author is always willing to go the extra mile giving good examples and explaining the meaning and drift of every unfamiliar or technical term. The similarity between the title of Heidegger's essay "Building Dwelling Thinking" and the title of this book --"Waking Dreaming Being"--should not go unnoticed, as "Waking" gives us the opportunity to gather and build upon the elements of material reality, "Dreaming" is the place where we dwell in other to transform that material into knowledge, and "Being" is what we become through the activity of thinking and meditating. It is fun to read and never morose even in its most obscure passages. It took me a week to reach the last page, but when I finished I felt my week had been well spent.

I would like to give this five stars, but the author limits himself to a narrow subject that mostly concerns whether or not consciousness exists apart from the physical body, the brain in particular. This may be fascinating stuff for some, even for many, but is of little interest to me. The waking and dreaming chapters hold moderate interest for me, and the being chapter was disappointing especially, as I read it. Still, if you like the Dali Lama and his thinking, then you may enjoy reading this book. The Dali Lama is a thoughtful man. Unfortunately, I believe that thought is the booby prize in this pursuit.

This book covers a wide-ranging gamut of topics around consciousness, including various aspects of perception, awareness, dreaming/lucid dreaming, sleeping, dying, and a theory of the "enacted self" ("I" as a process). The chapters are chock-full of references to neuroscience studies that are quite relevant, presented neatly in context, and highly thought-provoking. The philosophical discussion (mostly Buddhist and some Vedanta) is well integrated and logically presented. The tone is simulanteously openminded and sober, striking an intriguing balance somewhere between the skepticism of Sam Harris and the idealism of Deepak Chopra. One challenge for me was wading through some of the verbose logical explanations and repetition of some concepts. In places, the book seemed to be written to anticipate the arguments of adversarial philosophers; those parts were less interesting to me. I didn't care how well the book could defend some esoteric models or refute others. What interested me was how well it could bring together philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives, in a way that suggested promising avenues for both experiential and research investigation. It did a fine job at this. The book concludes with an "enacted self" theory on the nature of the ego's construction, which brings together various threads explored in earlier chapters. As far as theories of enlightenment go, it's fairly restrained. It successfully resists (as does the book as a whole) the temptation to claim knowledge beyond one's own experience. It serves to close out the book on its own terms. For me, the book's conclusion was secondary. What's more compelling is the wide-ranging look at the current state and thoughtful recommendations for future work at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and phenomenology.

Waking, Dreaming, Being By Evan Thompson Waking, Dreaming, Being by Evan Thompson masterfully and comparatively interprets Tibetan Buddhist and Indian Yoga philosophies in light of modern neuroscience. The structure and organization of the book incorporates considerable redundancy that permits readers unfamiliar with Buddhist and Yogic philosophy to easily grasp essential elements of these philosophical schools and sub-schools. Thompson tackles the hard problems of both philosophy and neuroscience with unusual clarity. Forms of consciousness and self (ego) are dissected with the same clarity and interpretive simplification as are the Buddhist and Yogic traditions. There are numerous gathering voices in the West calling for a reintegration of science and the humanities; for example, E. O. Wilson’s The Meaning of Human Existence (2014). Thompson demonstrates the synergistic value of integrating Eastern phenomenology with Western science. The serious student of self and consciousness, as well as the more casual reader, will be lead to a fuller understanding of how the mind can change the brain. Thompson does not co-sign any of the mystic traditions of Yogic and Buddhist philosophy such as reincarnation. He addresses these issues head-on using contemporary research from the neurosciences, and in my opinion, wins. I finished the book’s last chapter with a fuller appreciation of how much the phenomenology of subjectivity can add to the interpretation and understanding of hard science research. Thompson’s last Chapter (10) “Knowing: Is the Self an Illusion?” is masterful. I won’t take the essence of “is self and illusion” apart. To be fully appreciated, this chapter must be read in the original. Chapter 10 will make the materialists of neuroscience— who believe self is an illusion—cringe. Glen Just, PhD, Minnesota U. System, Retired

It is a great book. It can at times get too dense into medical and technical jargon but the depth of eastern philosophies is commendable. It is also not sycophantic, merely echoing the points of Buddhism and Hinduism but also adds neuroscience on top of it and sometimes leaves things unanswered where there are no easy conclusions to be found. I would recommend it as a practitioner of Advaita Vedanta and an admirer of Madhyamaka Buddhism. I came to this book through Swami Sarvapriyaananda's talks, who is an amazing orator.

Consiousness is being experienced by everyone. This is exactly same as being discussed in Mandukya Upnishad. Our ancient scholars were just amazing. There wisdom still shining on us. Consiousness plus object equals experience. Every single line of book is worth reading and experiencing. Magnificently describing in details. Must read for everyone अहं ब्रह्म अस्ति

A deeply experiential, academic, philosophical work for all serious students of the subject, An outstanding choice of title From Mandukya Upanishad. I recommend it to all serious yoga students and teachers. Evan, thank you for shining a light on this topic and removing the fog of misunderstanding for scientists and contemplative. I loved your insight on death and dying and sharing your experience at the retreat guided by Joan Halifax.

More cutting edge thought from Evan Thompson. Important perspective on spirit and mind.

Mind in Life’ (2007), livre du même auteur, est une excellente introduction à la neurophénoménologie (F.Varela), l’intégration de l’approche phénoménologique de l’expérience et de l’approche neuroscientifique de la conscience. Une telle introduction facilite la lecture du présent ouvrage ‘Weaking, dreaming, being’ qui introduit l’acquis des cultures orientales, surtout la pensée des Indes, et le confronte avec les neurosciences qui sont invitées à concevoir et accepter les limites de l’approche objective. La perspective subjective et la perspective objective sont deux aspects indivisibles et complémentaires de la conscience de soi, ce qui motive l’auteur à combiner des témoignages personnels et des données neuroscientifiques. La clarté de l’exposé en souffre et demande de fréquentes reprises de la lecture. Finalement cela donne une lecture réfléchie à condition d’avoir l’esprit libre. Les modifications du moi, de la conscience de soi, dans l’intervalle entre l’éveil et le sommeil ( l’analyse sans pareil de Marcel Proust est cité par l’auteur), dans le rêve, dans le rêve lucide, et peut-être dans le sommeil profond (qui classiquement est considéré comme absence de conscience) démontrent que le moi est un processus. : ‘we enact a self in the process of awareness, and this self comes and goes depending on how we are aware’. Néanmoins le moi n’est pas une illusion, tout comme l’image dans le miroir n’est pas une illusion. L’image n’existe pas en l’absence du miroir, mais n’est pas le miroir. L’image n’existe pas sans spectateur. L’image n’est pas une illusion ; l’illusion c’est accepter qu’il existe une image dans le miroir. Le moi n’a pas d’existence indépendante et est un processus. ‘La conscience a-t-elle une origine ?’ de Michel Bitbol (2015), traite le même sujet d’une manière plus approfondie. La langue française se prête plus facilement à une analyse de la subjectivité dans le style de Merleau-Ponty qui peut être considéré comme le père de la neurophénoménologie. Il n’est pas improbable que des esprits anglo-saxons soient irrités par ces phrases élaborées, cherchant la nuance et les limites discursives. Comme le souligne Bitbol une approche neurophénoménologique demande un engagement de la part du lecteur qui sortira changé de la lecture. Il est fort probable que la méthode scientifique objective empêchera une telle ouverture aussi longtemps que les limites de cette objectivité sont effacés par l’attente de nouvelles découvertes scientifiques qui combleront tout les lacunes.