This is a book that shows, in simple detail, one of the most startling findings of modern science: We don't experience the world as it is, but as virtual reality. And while much of the latest scientific work demonstrates this, as do many of the classical psychological illusions, it is an important meeting point for students of the mind, brain, philosophy and religion because, as we can now see in light of this book, all these disciplines begin at the same place. This is not an abstruse treatise, but part graphic novel and part direct address. It allows the reader a breakthrough understanding of the mind which is not available anywhere else. It is, in part, a summa of Dr. Ornstein's research and writing of the past 35 years (with pieces and references to many of his works) as well as a seminal introduction to new readers.

A quarterly review of philosophy.

Something is going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and afraid to speak honestly. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, The Atlantic, Electric Lit, Thrillist, LitHub, Kirkus Reviews • A witty, intelligent novel of an American woman on the edge, by a brilliant new voice in fiction—“the glorious love child of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sally Rooney” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) “[A] jewel of a debut . . . abundantly satisfying.”—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker As an adjunct professor of English in New York City with little hope of finding a permanent position, Dorothy feels “like a janitor in the temple who continued to sweep because she had nowhere else to be but who had lost her belief in the essential sanctity of the enterprise.” No one but her boyfriend knows that she’s just had a miscarriage—not her mother, her best friend, or her therapists (Dorothy has two of them). She wasn’t even sure she wanted to be a mother. So why does Dorothy feel like a failure? The Life of the Mind is a book about endings—of youth, of ambition, of possibility, but also of the meaning that an inquiring mind can find in the mess of daily experience. Mordant and remorselessly wise, this jewel of a debut cuts incisively into life as we live it, and how we think of it.

Degrees of Freedom Uncertainty This is the degrees of freedom uncertainty rule [which actually allows us freedom]. We can never be sure which individual went this way and which went the other way [that is what entropy and Carnot’s ‘jinks’ on Maxwell’s demons is all about]. This is a statistical population; there are enough members to apply the statistical rule [the rule of large numbers]. That is the same rule [just inverted] as the degrees of freedom uncertainty principle [which says that you cannot specify Newtonian activity on populations that provide excellent statistical results because of the same theory of large numbers. - You can’t have your cake and eat it too [precisely what Carnoy meant]. Also, the difficulties with this rule could be resolved easily; by applying the viewpoint of harmonics. So, under the degrees of freedom uncertainty [when that applies {strongly enough}] you have harmonics. This is the fact that systems under the rule of degrees of freedom uncertainty and that are constrained [in certain natural or “harmonics” ways.] can form “natural” patterns. Harmonics [the name] refers to the patterns since they form in harmonic kine [a set of eigenfunctions]. The pattern does not specify where any part [molecule] is at or how fast it is going. The pattern is an envelope of probability distribution for the randomly distributed contents. This does not allow Maxwell's Demons to sneak some particles into a special place to violate equilibrium rules. Demythologizing Jung Demythologizing and deconstruction is the territory of the post-structuralist. But reconstruction should be the goal of such endeavors. Here the deconstruction of Jung's archetypes is reconstructed into a meaningful, workable, and useful concept of how the mind works. This effort is about the mind and the algorithms that the mind uses to process information. In the brain, pictures are a very important part of the information processing; but computer processing is approaching that state now as well. Here the mind is the program. That mind can use different algorithms in its programming to solve its “problems”. Recognizing these algorithms is our desire for this study. I start with Jung’s Archetype algorithms and proceed to expand that into a more complete recognition of mental algorithms. The process of understanding conversation is to compare the text of a sentence with contextual information we have. The question is: “How do we store and retrieve the context in our grammar?” It is not stored using relational algebra, which is the method we use to store computer database data for efficient computer store and retrieve mechanisms. Relational data storage is not fast enough and it is not broad enough in its combinatorial strength to explain the minds process. The mind has a way of producing mental objects out of the interpretation of external information. A fresh encounter with the outer world is analyzed by a neural network. The information is carried by nerves from the sensing point. These nerve signals are then filtered through neural networks. The archetype [Jung] for that area of mental processing is the link with the conscious. From this link, a memory object can be extended from the archetype (as base class). Then the extended archetype layer becomes the output layer of the neural network. Note the archetype layer serves both as the interpretation function determining layer (how the input is interpreted) and, in the instantiation of the object from the base class extended to a memory object from (based on the neural interpretation). This is a probabilistic process that is under constraints. The process is probabilistic but the constraints provide limitations so the result that is controlled by these limitations produces a meaningful pattern. Thus the constraints prevent dissipation, and encourage meaningful results. The constraints in the young child are the archetypes. As we grow older our minds develop aggregate (abstract) classes that are useful as though they were archetypes. These archetypes and aggregates constrain the mental process so that meaningful patterns result from the interpretation process. The features of the archetypal classes, relating to the attributes and methods of a class, are then the similar to the neural network activation functions. With input (our nerves send these signals about our present context) these features are used to interpret the signals (our internal program adapts them to interpretation of the input signals). When applied to a memory object in our conscious mind, the features (activation functions) are used in a way that they make the memory object useful and meaningful in our thought process. Remember the class here is a (hidden) layer of the neural network not a single node. Also an abstract class can be extended into a memory object (as a real [visible] class). (Also see books by Dr. Jerome Heath: https://sites.google.com/site/jbhcontextcalculus/)

A perennial self-help favorite, updated to speak powerfully to contemporary readers and with a foreword by Eckhart Tolle Before there was The Law of Attraction or The Secret, there was The Magic in Your Mind by U. S. Andersen. Eckhart Tolle recognized the brilliance of this self-empowerment classic and here presents it anew as the latest volume in his imprint. In clear, crisp, invigorating language, Andersen offers a liberating message for anyone seeking to improve and understand their life. He shows how to: • free your “Secret Self” and experience self-mastery • use mental visualization • understand the concept of “mind over matter” • fully employ your power of choice • overcome opposition with tools such as the innate sixth sense Andersen outlines a “mental magic” that makes it possible to attain goals in any field — one made evident by his own many successes in a variety of enterprises. “Here,” he promises, “you will learn the secret way in which your mind is tied to the source of all power; you will learn how you are capable of becoming anything and doing anything you can visualize.” An essential addition to any spirituality/self-help bookshelf or night table, The Magic in Your Mindinvites you to experience your innate creative mental power that’s just waiting to be unleashed. “Open randomly to any page, start reading, and you most likely won’t want to put it down. As with all spiritual classics, this will be the case even if you have already read the book several times.” — from the foreword by Eckhart Tolle, bestselling author of The Power of Now

In this new and updated edition, Patrice Baldwin brings together key findings from brain research and best practice to highlight the benefits that drama and imagined experience can have on learning, creativity, motivation and self-esteem, and explains why and how drama supports learning. The book offers sound advice on planning and managing drama across the curriculum from ages 5-14, and provides carefully annotated schemes of work complete with photocopiable resource sheets and online templates. Both experienced teachers of drama and non-specialists will appreciate the up-to-date research, new pedagogic examples, multisensory drama techniques and links to contemporary developments in education, such as play-based learning, learning outside the classroom and Philosophy for Children (P4C). With Drama in Mind is an invaluable source of inspiration for revitalising your teaching and stimulating pupils' imaginations.