Jonathan Bricklin |
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"Advances James on Consciousness farther than anyone" --Eugene Taylor, author of William James on Consciousness Beyond the Margin
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A mystical experience in 1989 on a 9 day Vipassana meditation retreat undermined my common-sense understanding of reality, and sent me on a quest to explore the nature of consciousness. I began with William James's classic text, The Principles of Psychology. Reading this text and other works of James's for the past 3 decades has been like falling down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole. I believe I have landed where James persistently suggested the descent was leading--consciousness is "already there, waiting to be uncovered"--even as he tried to steer himself elsewhere. In addition to my 2 books, I have published a dozen articles on James in various academic journals, and am a Founding Board Member of the Society for Consciousness Studies. In the anthology The Volitional Brain: Toward a Neuroscience of Free Will, I am the dissenting voice.
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