Going Inside: A Tour Round a Single Moment of Consciousness

by John McCrone

Book Overview

What happens in our brain just before we act or speak? A look at a revolution in science. The mysteries of human consciousness -- the most unyielding of the enigmas of the human brain -- are at last... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880642629
• ISBN13: 9780880642620
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Fromm International
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Eye-opening read

Having just finished this engaging book, I thought I'd write a review...I'm not sure I'm 100 percent on board with McCrone's analysis but I've got one foot in the boat. It does seem that neuroscience is emerging from the dark ages. I hope the psychology establishment is paying attention. McCrone's assertion that language is the vehicle that the "engine of awareness" uses to turn itself inward to become "self aware" reminds me of Julian Jaynes' book, The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Maybe Jaynes was right after all. Whatever the case, McCrone's book is the best science writing I've come across in a long time. For example, his explanation of chaos and complexity theory is clearer than anything else I've read. I may actually have a rudimentary grip on it now. Throughout the book, on nearly every page, I found myself having the same reaction: "Wow, really?"

Best book yet on consciousness

So many books have been written about "how the brain works" and "consciousness." Most pile words together into impressive but wobbly edifices, John McCrone's is one the few I have read that makes sense, actually getting one closer to the holy grail of solving "the big question."John takes you on a tour of contemporary neurophysiology. He is a proponent of the theories of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, hardly ever cited in Western academic research, who proposed that human thought is built on semantics. This is overstated in my view but he is convincing in all his other arguments, for instance that human consciousness plays with time - it has to as it is always a fraction of a second slower than outside reality.This book uses some of the same intriguing themes as the works of Walter Freeman (How brains make up their minds). These fellas are on to something - they are pioneers! "Going inside" is clearly written and entertaining, Freeman is a little more technical ("gnomish" as McCrone describes him.)Read them both!

Readable exploration of the latest research in "mind science

Mind science is an exciting field, and John McCrone, who is the author of two books on related subjects, and a Brit science writer, having written for the New Scientist, the Guardian, etc., attempts to bring us up to date on the latest findings and speculations. Clearly he sees the brain as a dynamic organism that creates its reality through a combination of sensory input and a constantly readied state of arousal that continually interprets the world and guesses about what to expect next, and then amends accordingly, again and again. Thus his point of view for examining how the brain works is that of a "moment of consciousness."I particularly enjoyed the chapter on how complexity theory is being applied to brain research where McCrone makes the observation (p. 60) that "The idea of a bounded object [say, us] is really just a convenient fiction." McCrone recognizes that our brains and our minds are part and parcel of the world and cannot be understood alone. The brain is a dynamic entity, not only constantly changing, but constantly interacting with both the environment within and the environment without. Thus McCrone observes that "Given the real world is a continuous place, and so exact starting points can never be measured, this means that it is impossible--as a matter of principle--to predict the behavior of a feedback-dependent system [like the brain]" (pp. 64-65). Ergo, the fall of a strict reductionism in the study of the brain, and the realization that the brain must be understood in light of not only its composition, its components, and its developmental history, but its dynamic nature.I got less out of the chapters that reported on the current research, partially because of the fragmentary nature of the research, and partly because I am uncomfortable reading about experiments on the brains of monkeys, etc. McCrone recognizes how "animal experimentation" has "tainted the field," and he addresses these concerns to some extent. (See particularly page 112.) Fortunately the development of new high tech scanning devices is allowing researchers to study the brain without cutting it open or by relying on (in human subjects) neurological injuries to give them a glimpse of what is going on inside. I was fascinated with McCrone's report that the way tennis players are able to react to a 140 mph serve is that they anticipate where the serve is going in part by reading the body language of the server before the ball is actually hit (and they don't even know they're doing it)! In fact it is part of the brain's talent to predict. As it readies itself for the next moment, the brain makes a prediction of what that moment will be like. McCrone calls it "riding a wave of predictions" (p. 147).McCrone makes it clear that it is as much in the process of development that we become who we are as it is in the genetic code. He writes, "there is just not enough room on a DNA molecule" for all the information that the brain needs. The br

Start with McCrone

After struggling with Damasio, Edelman, Freeman et al. McCrone provided the perspective I needed to begin pulling it all together. All these authors are attempting to apply evolutionary processes to explain the workings of our human brain; not so much how the brain evolved but how it continues to use evolutionary process in its workings. Unlike the others McCrone is not a scientist but a science writer and a good one: he gives just enough background on the various discoveries and theories, and explains how the various brain components work individually and together. My only quibble is that his book has only a few drawings of the brain so I had to refer to others to better visualize the components he describes. Read McCrone before tackling the others.