Elemental Mind: Human Consciousness and the New Physics

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Look at Mind/Body
Review: Nick Herbert's Elemental Mind makes an interesting supposition -- that the mind, or consciousness, is a force that interacts with the world, like gravity or electromagnetism. He makes a pretty good argument that ESP and Telekinesis would prove that this is so; unfortunately, his examples (the typewriter open to the quantum void and the branching photon experiment) don't seem to show any evidence that the greater supposition is correct. The book is very interesting, though, and leads one into all manner of speculation about how peculiar the quantum universe and though actually are. A well written, entertaining, and informative book.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Look at Mind/Body
Review: Nick Herbert's Elemental Mind makes an interesting supposition -- that the mind, or consciousness, is a force that interacts with the world, like gravity or electromagnetism. He makes a pretty good argument that ESP and Telekinesis would prove that this is so; unfortunately, his examples (the typewriter open to the quantum void and the branching photon experiment) don't seem to show any evidence that the greater supposition is correct. The book is very interesting, though, and leads one into all manner of speculation about how peculiar the quantum universe and though actually are. A well written, entertaining, and informative book.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting view of quantum theory and mind
Review: When read along with Herbert's previous book, Quantum Reality, this text makes a good case for invoking quantum physics to explain the relation of mind and matter and also in explaining some of the more convincing experiments in parapsychology (effects of consciousness on random number generators) which suggest a non-locality of mind. If more people took such ideas seriously and devoted time and research to them, understanding of the mind and a true theory of consciousness might be forthcoming.