Spiral Dynamics Integral: Learn to Master the Memetic Codes of Human Behavior

Book Description

From the boardrooms of big business to the streets of the inner city, from the south side of Chicago to apartheid South Africa, Dr. Don Beck has taught people at all levels how to stop clashing and start communicating. His method is called Spiral Dynamics Integral—a revolutionary new way of perceiving human nature that lets us understand, predict, and resolve even the most difficult conflicts. In his effort to "map the genome" of the mind, Dr. Beck has created a tool he calls the Spiral, which charts the underlying reasons for virtually everything that human beings think, believe, and do. "Breaking down the 'complexity codes' that lie at the heart of a problem," he explains, "is the first step toward coming up with a real, lasting solution."

Customer Reviews:

Most accessible exploration of Spiral Dynamics.......2006-08-02

This is the most accessible exploration of this profoundly important developmental theory. If you've always wondered what Spiral Dynamics is or how to use it, get this 6 CD set.

The Continuing Development of Spiral Dynamics.......2006-06-01

The speed of personal and societal change can seem bewildering, and there have been many attempts to try and make sense of what is going on in the world.

Spiral Dynamics is one very interesting model that was originally developed by the psychologist Clare W. Graves. He was a friend and colleague of Abraham Maslow, who had developed the well-known Hierarchy of Needs, ascending from basic biological needs to the more complex psychological motivations - belongingness, esteem, cognitive, esthetic and self-actualizing - once the basic needs have been satisfied. In Maslow's scheme, the needs at each level need to be at least partially satisfied before the needs of the next level start to determine action. But Graves' research lead him to believe that there were levels beyond self-actualization, and that different people achieved different kinds of development at different times in their lives. Over the last 30 years, Spiral Dynamics has been developing in a number of new directions. Ken Wilber has been working with Don Beck and has incorporated many of the ideas into his Integral Psychology, and I have recently shown how some of the ideas are immensely helpful in the field of health and wellness.

One of the important concepts of Spiral Dynamics is the meme. The word meme was first introduced by the Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who used the word to mean things that are transmitted or broadcast through culture. Good examples would be songs, ideas or fashions in clothes, which are quickly disseminated through a culture, rather like a virus spreads around a population. These are now called "little memes." Spiral Dynamics takes a broader view. Each level of development is represented on a spiral and is called a "Value Meme" (vMeme), which expresses itself through the "little memes." You will normally see "vMeme" abbreviated to Meme, with a capital "M" to distinguish it from the "little memes." Each Meme is a code, or a system of information. We are each composites of memetic levels.

I was very interested to hear what Don Beck - one of the most important figures in the development of Spiral Dynamics, and heir apparent to Clare Graves - had to say about the current state of the model. There is one thing that marks out Spiral Dynamics from many other models: it has been successfully applied in some very difficult situations around the world, most famously in the post-Apartheid era in South Africa.

On the first CD, which Don has entitled The Dance of the Double Helix: How Humans Emerge, he begins with a broad overview, which includes a recoding of Clare Graves himself. For people not familiar with Spiral Dynamics, it might be necessary to go back and listen to the first CD again later: he uses a small number of terms without defining them.

On the second CD - The Codes by Which We Live -Don Beck provides a lucid description of the first six developmental levels. This is the clearest description that I've ever heard or read.

The third CD - The Leap into Second Tier - discusses a quantum jump in consciousness and the emergence of new moral codes and ways of thinking and behaving that promise t revolutionize the world around us.

On CD Four - The Dynamics of Leadership - Don gets very practical, in applying the model to leadership, natural organizations and the importance of understanding that people and organizations often have multiple bottom lines.

The Fifth CD - The Many Dimensions of Change - is the most dense of all of them in terms of concepts: Don discusses the phenomena of human emergence, the eight change variations, and the three components of change. His discussion of alpha fit, beta condition, gamma trap and delta surge is terrific for anyone who has ever tried to negotiate changes in relationships or in organizations.

Finally, CD Six - Stitching Together Our Wounded World - is a series of very practical lessons in how Spiral Dynamics can and has been used, and some pointers for the future.

These CDs are well produced and come with a small booklet and color chart. All the materials are of the same high quality that we have come to associate with Sounds True who produced and published the CDs.

If you are a complete beginner in the field of Spiral Dynamics, these CDs are sure to get you oriented very quickly, and you should be able to see how the theory applies in your life. The booklet contains some precise questions for helping you map your vMemes. It can be immensely helpful to do this exercise with people with whom you are in relationship. If you are already familiar with some of the concepts of Spiral Dynamics, you will likely still find some interesting material and a stimulating discussion. You may want to use the CDs to flesh out you understanding, before going on to the book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.

Whichever group you are in - beginner or more advanced student, you may well need to listen to some parts of the CDs more than once.

Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

From the Oxford University Press Editor
clear and interesting, but...
The Meme Machine
An aid to understanding thought contagion
Really Fun!

The Meme Machine
Susan Blackmore
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Metaphysics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author
Virus of the Mind:: The New Science of the Meme
The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think
The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

ASIN: 019286212X

Amazon.com

In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins proposed the concept of the meme as a unit of culture, spread by imitation. Now Dawkins himself says of Susan Blackmore:

Showing greater courage and intellectual chutzpah than I have ever aspired to, she deploys her memetic forces in a brave--do not think foolhardy until you have read it--assault on the deepest questions of all: What is a self? What am I? Where am I? ... Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme.

Blackmore is a parapsychologist who rejects the paranormal, a skeptical investigator of near-death experiences, and a practitioner of Zen. Her explanation of the science of the meme (memetics) is rigorously Darwinian. Because she is a careful thinker (though by no means dull or conventional), the reader ends up with a good idea of what memetics explains well and what it doesn't, and with many ideas about how it can be tested--the very hallmark of an excellent science book. Blackmore's discussion of the "memeplexes" of religion and of the self are sure to be controversial, but she is (as Dawkins says) enormously honest and brave to make a connection between scientific ideas and how one should live one's life. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

'Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme I am delighted to recommend her book.' Richard Dawkins Humans are extraordinary creatures, with the unique ability among animals to imitate and so copy from one another ideas, habits, skills, behaviours, inventions, songs, and stories. These are all memes, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Memes, like genes, are replicators, and this enthralling book is an investigation of whether this link between genes and memes can lead to important discoveries about the nature of the inner self. Confronting the deepest questions about our inner selves, with all our emotions, memories, beliefs, and decisions, Susan Blackmore makes a compelling case for the theory that the inner self is merely an illusion created by the memes for the sake of replication. 'Anyone who hopesDSor fearsDS that memetics will become a science of culture will find this surefooted exploration of the prospects a major eye-opener.' Daniel Dennett

Customer Reviews:

From the Oxford University Press Editor.......2007-05-18

The following elucidation of her text, copied from the back cover- does much to reveal the content of Dr. Blackmore's insightful and often controversial insights into the perspective of life from the view of memes. What it fails to portray are Dr. Blackmore's total reversal of every aspect of human life, viewed not from the everyday perspective, but from that of the self-replicating selfish "mental" gene, the Meme.

Humans are extraordinary creatures, with the uniques ability to imitate, and so to copy from one another ideas, habitats, skills, behaviours, inventions, songs, and stories. These are all memes, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene." Memes, like genes, are replicators, competing to find space in our minds and cultures, and this enthralling book investigates the consequences. Confronting the deepest questions, from why humans have such a big brains and language, to altruism, sex and the Internet. Susan Blackmore makes a compelling case for the theory that even our inner conscious self and our sense of free will are illusions created by the memes for the sake of their own replication.

Copied from the text by: Bryan McGilly

clear and interesting, but... .......2007-05-16

I just finished the book and think it is a clear and interesting introduction on the subject. On the other hand I felt it was rushing into too many generalizations and the arguments on science vs. religion sounded quite empty.

The Meme Machine.......2007-05-08

This book was just plain fun to read and has given me new insights into why people push there points of view even when you wish they would not bother you with them. Reading this book has brought an increased sense of humor to my experience in relationships with people where discussion about religion are concerned. My tolerance for meme campaingns has increased, and I feel better able to accept my own "meme" infections. While this is a relatively serious topic, it is also a fun one. After reading the book, I am aware that I too am pushing my own meme preferences in sublties, and am able to laugh about it when I catch me doing it. better, I am doing it less and less. My daughter is a mom with a little daughter, and we laugh and play with the memes we are passing along to her. Some "memeing" is useful enough, and supports having a quality life experience. Reading this book has opened my eyes to why I got caught up in certain beliefs that were without practical applicatons in my life. It explained to me why belief agenda's get promoted and why I bought into some of them unwittingly. I jokingly refer to replicators, and meme fountains in causual converstaions now with others who have read the material. I feel better able to choose my loyalty to certain meme complexes now. I can stop the insanity of participating with the subtle control that can happen in a society where people don't ask why. And, I am having a lot more fun dealing with the meme fountains in life experience now~ including dealing with those who push their invasive and distructive memes unmercifully onto others who are innocent and unaware of the affects it will have on them to remain passive. If you want to wake up and smell the roses on purpose, read this book~

An aid to understanding thought contagion.......2007-01-13

Blakemore's book endeavors towards two goals:

1) A recapping of the origins of meme theory...which she does exceedingly well and

2) Humble suggestions on the place of memes in consciousness...where she seems to stumble.

In relation to her first goal, Blakemore admirably retraces the work of the likes of Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett. For his part, Dawkins coined the term "meme" in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene" wherein he described meme as a process or idea subject to replication. The song "Happy Birthday" for example would be a meme. Dennett built on Dawkins work by saying in his 1991 book "Consciousness Explained" that consciousness is a combination of in built human cognitive systems (like our innate understanding of physics or our ability to acquire language) along with memes.

Blakemore also recapped Dennett's later book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" for his tower of states of consciousness, viz. a first level occupied by Darwinian creatures who have to produce a new generation in order to acquire new abilities, a second and higher level occupied by Skinnerian creatures that can acquire new abilities inter vivos but only through operant conditioning, a third and still higher level occupied by Popperian creatures -- for Karl Popper -- capable of abstract reasoning to acquire new abilities and a final highest level occupied by Gregorian creatures that can pick up additional abilities by means of culture or memes.

Building on these earlier thinkers Blakemore asserts that meme theory in and of itself can explain everything from temporary fads like the tulip craze bemoaned by Charles Mackey in his 1841 book on the Madness of Crowds to religion itself.

The mechanism by which Blakemore posits the transmission of memes is one of virture wherein superiorly altruistic memes will oust those previously occupied by more selfish memes. Her thinking is that the vehicles of meme transmission, us, will be more favorably disposed to ideas disseminated by people who have been nice to us than by those who haven't.

To the extent Blakemore ventures out on her own, I would part company with her.

Understanding any aspect, let alone persuasion of others, of human behavior is tricky business. And while Blakemore would posit a subtle arithematic to human behavior the truth probably lies closer to a delicate calculus.

As she herself indicated in her book, understanding consciousness is probably best begun with an understanding of first principles, namely that that subset of evolution relating to human behavior is but a special case for the general rules bearing on behvaioral evolution generally.

In other words, human consciousness is not different in kind but rather merely in degree from animal consciousness generally.

As shown by evolution, animals with motility will have to have both the ability to differentiate between themselves and their environment as well as discriminate the ingredients of their environment between potential areas of sustance and potential areas of threat. And so, the seemingly nettlesome questions of consciousness kind of answer themselves.

A sense of "I" exists because it evolutionary has to and the likes and dislikes of "I" (the so called "qualia" question) really amount to a running tally of emotionally encoded learned experiences.

To be sure, that sense of "I" is different for a person than a pidgeon but again, the differences of degree (albeit, in some cases a great degree, rather than kind).

So, to take religion as an example:

1) From pidgeons to humans, it's an aspect of cognitive perception to allow for false connections or superstitions to arise. And so, the difference between a pidgeon dancing around a machine to obtain randomly produced pellets is not that different from a person performing an elablorate ritual prior to gambling.

2) In the case of humans, theory of mind works powerfully to over ascribe personality. And so, the gambler makes his petitions not to chance but to Lady Luck personified.

3) Because, as noted by Dennett, we have in built cognitive systems, those systems can be decieved from time to time in remembering certain types of knowledge in preference to others. And so, while most English verbs use "ed" as past tense, the special case, commonly used verbs have irregular endings to promote their specialized recognition and recall. In the same way, we remember novel creatures over others. And so, Lady Luck is just like any woman but if pleased can grant you unlimited fortune.

4) Humans also respect strategic knowledge. From evolution in an environment where an extended knowledge of strategic relationships was helpful, we are capable of understanding metarepresentational interactions up to the sixth level. What I think that you may know about what someone else believes that somone else said is not a meaningless sentence. This quality fires our mythologies just as certainly as our soap operas. If we could experience an alligator religion or soap opera, I think we'd be bored.

5) Again, as noted by Blakemore, game theory gives us a sense of the outer contours of religious belief. In this regard, the recent Jeffrey Moses book "Oneness" which is a verbatim repetition of religious principles from around the world shows that the similarities in the main statements of religions around the world (e.g. all of them have a "golden rule," advice to respect elders, educate children and the like) shows that all human religions have made basically the same types of prescriptions and prohibitions.

6) And powerfully, finally a sense of group membership. Are you or are you not one of us?

As can be seen, though the exchange of ideas operates in each of the six domains (and there are certainly others in some cases) the interplay of those ideas varies in individual cases. In this way, while why humans religiously ideate is certainly a question of history and society it's also a question of individual psychology.

Like choas theory operates to produce no two snowflakes that look alike so again no two personal histories are the same respecting their religious ideation.

In other words, while Blakemore's provides some helpful aid in understanding memes and their place in thought contagion, the ultimate answer is certainly much more complicated than her impressions would suggest not only on religious ideation but as to the other examples of meme transmission she discussed.

Before closing, it's noteworth that there's a definate Daoist feel to her last chapter wherein she renders her advice for taking the "I" out of your consciousness. Though she didn't intend it, it certainly does provide some interesting food for thought as to why attempts at Daoist living have such a...well...Daoist feel to them.

Really Fun!.......2006-12-13

I won't try to describe the book's content as several excellent reviews below have done. I just want to add that this book is one hell of a read. It's great fun and will stretch your mind (if there's really a "you" in there - see the book for more on this). I could barely put it down. Memes were definitely transferred!

Average customer rating:

Memetic Magic
Kirk Packwood
Manufacturer: Jaguar Temple Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Magic | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Book of Results
Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation
Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic
Space/time Magic
The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick for Illumination and Power

ASIN: 0974945005

Book Description

This phenomenal work possesses the very real possibility of being hailed as one of the most profound underground books on the magical arts ever written.

Never before has the occult nature of society, the Root Social Matrix, been discussed. In addition, the paradigm-shattering claim is made that this book contains the foundational framework underlying a thorough comprehension of the means by which the very fabric of reality can be manipulated through simple artistic techniques based on memetic symbology.

Customer Reviews:

Makes sense out of things that didn't make sense.......2007-10-01

The model presented about how the paradigms of thinking and how value memes develop over time in a person, organization, or society are brilliantly insightful. This book should be required reading for anyone running a company or organization of any size. The insights that can be gleaned are significant (at least in the lines of development in which one if far enough along oneself).

This is not at all an "easy" book to read. It takes time and thinking, and is probably best read in parallel with a few other people and discussed regularly along the way. I read this book along with another CEO, and a PhD psychologist who specializes in working with family-owned businesses.

--Lee

A New Way of Understanding the World .......2007-07-13

It may not be the "answer to everything" but Spiral Dynamics helps to put a context around why people act in certain ways when presented with certain life conditions. Using the theory of memetics (idea viruses), spiral describes the evolution of humans as a progression from one value system to another along a double helix spiral. Pitched to those in management or leadership, Spiral Dynamics offers insights as to why some people need traditional or hierarchical or ordered or opportunistic or caring or project based workplaces depending on their value meme. The text can be stilted and academic at times and the introduction is confusing, however there are some great insights and well worth reading if you are interested in finding the answers to everything! Pity the colour plates from the hardcover were not replicated in the paperback seeing how Spiral Dynamics relies on the use of colour descriptors.

Brilliant Idea.......2007-07-11

I first heard of Spiral Dynamics when I went to hear Don Beck speak at the Dallas Philosopher's Forum. He was one of the worst speakers I ever heard -- but his ideas were so incredible, so brilliant, that they shined through the poverty of his delivery. When I then went out to buy the book, I encountered the same problem: brilliant ideas, poor delivery. But the ideas are so good, it is work struggling your way through this book just to get the ideas.

The idea is this: thinking and societies exist at different levels of complexity, with new forms of psychoosocial complexity emerging as lower levels become oppressive. It fits well the latest complex systems paradigm in science that takes into account emergence, information, time and process, and fractal geometry. More, it maps extremely well on to the emergentist theory of time developed by J.T. Fraser in books such as "Time, the Familiar Stranger" and "Time, Conflict, and Human Values" and in Frederick Turner's latest book "Natural Religion". The nested hierarchy. evolutionary, emergentist view of nature is THE new paradigm. This and Fraser's works are excellent introductions to these ideas.

The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2007-05-21

A very interesting developmental theory taken WAY to far. The ideas expressed here could have been presented as a helpful extension of the work of psychologist Abraham Maslow and others. Instead, they are framed as comprehensive theory of morality itself, marketed to managers (!) and consultants (!!), as 'leadership lit' no less. It's as if Nietzsche wrote "how-to" books for his developmentally superior ubermensch.

However, the authors have an ace up their sleeve. Spiral Dynamics defines two tiers of human development and pretty much anyone who agrees with the theory is automatically classified as a 'tier two spiral wizard.' Pretty cool- but those who read The Emperors New Clothes as a child might feel a bit uneasy about all of this. It turns out, however, that they feel this because they are still "first tier." Similarly, fans of the work of Karl Popper could see this internal dismissal of external criticisms as the surest sign of non-falsifiable oogy-boogy flim-flam, but again we are assured that that is not the case here. We are not actually bad for thinking this way- just developmentally limited. We are destined to live in the clutches of the 'mean green meme' in the hope of someday bowing to the superior functionality of the philosopher kings and their consulting affiliates.

And kings they are! It turns out there is a heck of a political agenda here. "Wizards," it seems, are instantly able to see solutions to systemic problems- and they need not take seriously the niggling and limited opinions of the lesser-tiered, except to figure out how to win them over. They are "big-picture" sorts, again like Nietzsche's supermen, busy moving the universe forward. They have a duty to run things in this chaotic world. Call it the "Turquoise Man's Burden." You see, these "Wizards" inherently tend to know best and to question their judgment is to betray an almost endearing naiveté. To point out that this is essentially what Plato had in mind when he wrote The Republic 2300 years ago, would, I suspect, be a faux pas. While the idea has yet to really work -and has led to more than a few revolutions- apparently its time has yet again come. From this standpoint, it is interesting that about half of this "developmental theory" is devoted to techniques for shilling ideas to the lesser-tiered.

As someone who grew up in Boulder, Colorado all I can think is that this functional superiority must surely account for the absolutely stunning moral, institutional and financial successes of the city's Integral Institute, which set out to be a sort of "Mensa" for all the lonely "spiral wizards". That it all snowballed into lawsuits and acrimony is only a sign of the sheer incomprehensibility of their greatness.

The bottom line: Much of the developmental theory is actually really good but absolutely ruined by the decision to conflate it with self-help pabulum for the self-righteous and cultish. Two-star stuff.

Finally, something that begins to put things together.......2007-05-13

Spiral Dynamics will give you an edge in assessing people and situations. I am a professional legal mediator. I have found the theories in this book to be of immense help to me in understanding how to approach people and problems in the legal world. I have not read a great deal about the application of Spiral Dynamics in the legal world. I frankly don't think there's a lot out there, and their web site is frankly short on guidance concerning the application of Spiral Dynamics theory in legal mediation and negotiations. I have nevertheless considered approaches to many mediation problems against the background of information I gleaned from this text. I am rather amazed how simply adjusting the language of the mediation to the particular meme-level (or color) of the client suddenly opens the door to progress in communications and the chance to ultimately find common-ground between warring parties. Someone definitely needs to write a follow-up text with practical suggestions as to the application of this theory to mediation and negotiations in the legal world. Lawyers are increasingly turning to mediation as a way of resolving disputes. Someone could make a small fortune teaching lawyers how to utilize these theories not only in negotiations and mediation but also in jury selection in courtroom trials. Oh man, the possibilities are staggering, and lawyers will pay for this kind of knowledge.

Anyway, the writing is interesting, anectodal and fun to read. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in figuring out why no matter how hard you try, the guy next door just doesn't seem to "get it." It also explains why the political vision and understanding of some politicians seems to go right over some people's heads and that of other politicians just leaves you shaking your head.

Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

Average customer rating:

Culture Clash in Cambridge: Meme's doubters unconvinced
A Wonderful Introduction to Meme Theory.
A serious book on memes

Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

Cognitive Psychology | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think
The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment
The Meme Machine
Thought Contagion: When Ideas ACT Like Viruses (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering & Computer Science)
Virus of the Mind:: The New Science of the Meme

ASIN: 0192632442

Book Description

The publication in 1998 of Susan Blackmore's bestselling 'The meme machine' re-awakened the debate over the highly controverial field of memetics. In the past couple of years, there has been an explosion of interest in 'memes'. The one thing noticably missing though, has been any kind of proper debate over the validity of a concept regarded by many as scientifically suspect. Darwinizing culture: the status of memetics as a science pits leading intellectuals, (both supporters and opponents of meme theory), against eachother to battle it out, and state their case. With a foreword by Daniel Dennett, and contributions from Dan Sperber, David Hull, Robert Boyd, Susan Blackmore, Henry Plotkin, and others, the result is a thrilling and challenging debate that will perhaps mark a turning point for the field, and for future research. Superbly edited by Robert Aunger, Darwinizing culture is a thought provoking book, that will fascinate, stimulate, (and occasionally perhaps infuriate) a broad range of readers including, psychologists, biologists, philosophers, linguists, and anthropologists.

Customer Reviews:

Culture Clash in Cambridge: Meme's doubters unconvinced.......2001-12-24

Unlike most edited volumes based on conferences, which typically read like random collections of papers glued between two covers, Aunger's edited volume displays a remarkable coherence. Against all odds, he enticed a highly diverse group of academics to Cambridge who then constructively debated the status of memetics as a science. Susan Blackmore, after Richard Dawkins probably the most well-known proponent of memetics, and David Hull, a sympathetic critic, open the book with strong arguments for taking memetics seriously. Henry Plotkin and Rosaria Conte then offer critiques of what they perceive as the somewhat faulty psychological assumptions underlying the meme concept. Plotkin argues against making "imitation" the centerpiece of mimetic mechanisms, and Conte argues for a much more sophisticated and complex social cognitive perspective on memetics. She presents a complex model of humans as limited autonomous agents, focusing on their active role in the perpetuation of cultural knowledge.

Kevin Laland and John Odling-Smee are sympathetic to the general notion of memes, but ask for more consideration of the multiple processes involved in evolution. Their own contribution is the concept of niche construction, based on the idea that species have effects on their environments that subsequently constrain future generations. Reprising ideas from their 1985 book, Culture and the Evolutionary Process, Boyd and Richerson argue for population level thinking in evolutionary models of cultural change. I should note that the renewed interest in evolutionary thinking stirred up by Blackmore and others has resulted in the University of Chicago Press's re-issuing their book!

The last three chapters of the book are much more negative toward the whole enterprise. Dan Sperber uses creative examples and logical proofs to conclude that Dawkin's conception of memes is misguided. He argues that recent thinking in memetics goes against recent work in developmental and evolutionary psychology. Adam Kuper notes that there already are well-established techniques for the study of cultural diffusion, especially in anthropology. He concludes that the "memetics industry" has yet to deliver on its claims. Finally, another anthropologist, Maurice Bloch, argues that memeticists have merely rediscovered what anthropology has known for decades, and in fact, is making all the same mistakes. He has harsh words for scientists who jump into an area without paying more attention to what has already been done by others working in that area.

Aunger provides excellent introductory and concluding chapters, which constitute valuable contributions in themselves. Chapter 1 beautifully lays out the issues and provides a constructive guide to the issues over which the contributors struggled. Chapter 11 concludes the book with an assessment of the contributors' arguments and a frank admission of his own skepticism.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the concept of memes, cultural and social evolution, and the cultural divide between the natural and the social sciences. You will not only learn something about memes, but you will also see how serious academic debate can be pulled off in a civilized and constructive manner. My hat is off to Robert Aunger!

A Wonderful Introduction to Meme Theory........2001-12-12

For those unfamiliar with the notion of "memes," they are, quite simply, the theoretical smallest cultural commodity - an idea - that replicates itself through its symbiotic relationship with its human host. The idea is either entirely absurd or the solution to the mystery of culture that has been the providence of anthropologists for the past century and a half. But, the notion was birth by a scientist (Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene [1977]), and this alone is enough to distance some potentially interested parties from the humanities and social sciences. Darwinizing Culture is at once the reiteration and clarification of the memetic theory (although most of the authors only work to obscure the idea in their work, pulling it in one direction or another - for their very particular use) and a series of arguments against memetic theory as it stands, as well as an argument against those theorists, isolated in the sciences, who so often find the idea attractive, and distanced from previous theories of culture and cultural development.

The collection brings together pieces from Susan Blackmore (author of The Meme Machine [Oxford, 1999]), Henry Plotkin, David Hull, and Dan Sperber, as well as many other younger theorists, all succeeding a rather terse foreword by Daniel Dennet - one of memetic theories greatest proponents. Aunger's introduction and conclusion to the collection are both wonderful contributions, and help to establish the debate, both contemporaneously and historically, for both memes enthusiasts and those new to the field. Blackmore's piece is an afterword to her earlier study, in part working to refute critics who found fault with her prior book-length examination, and as such, while it helps to provide a continuity for the debate, sets the tone of the collection, and that is one of distress. The collection effectively critiques itself by including both sides of the debate, which is admirable, but rather than clearing the slate, as Aunger hopes the collection will, it surely asks the reader to choose a side, and those ideologies are clearly demarcated by academic alignments. But that is not to say that the collection fails to be useful - in fact, quite the contrary: there are a number of essays (and I'm inclined to include them all in this), that help the conceptual understanding of the field on one level or another, but as they are in constant dialogue with one another, this utility is constantly compromised.

But, like every anthology, there is a single essay that stands out from the rest for its sheer insight and applicability, and in this case it is Kevin Laland and John Odling-Smee's innocuously titled "The Evolution of the Meme." Laland and Odling-Smee expand on Richard Dawkins' notion of the "extended phenotype" (from The Extended Phenotype [1982]), positing that the cultural artifacts that are created by civilization influence (and possible cause) both cultural and biological evolution. It sounds deceptively simple, but the premise is that by creating artifacts that alter the environment, simply by their sheer presence, the evolution of that culture is irreparable altered, always needing to incorporate the presence and utility of that artifact. With the explosion of artifacts endemic of consumer capitalism, our cultural evolution has been dramatically influenced, and Laland and Odling-Smee provide an interesting hypothesis to explain this sort of transformation in culture (and consciousness - surely Marshall McLuhan would agree with their suppositions).

If there is a fault with the collection, it is simply that the debate over memetics is a rather closed sphere - the majority of the essays cite the author's previous contribution to the field, or one or another of the other included authors. If nothing else, the contributions by Sperber and Adam Kuper should influence this, and hopefully encourage the steady incorporation of more anthropologically minded sources.

While the collection is at times rather tiresome for a meme enthusiast, and especially so for students of culture, who must deal with various reiterations of basic tenants of anthropology, it would seem to provide a comprehensive introduction to both the idea and the debates surrounding the idea for those new to the field. And for the meme enthusiast, especially for those schooled in the sciences, the arguments of Sperber and Kuper are especially important, bringing in more anthropological basis for this understanding.

A serious book on memes.......2001-07-31

From the book cover: "In the past couple of years, there has been an explosion of interest in 'memes'. However, the one thing noticeably missing has been any kind of proper debate over the validity of a concept many regard as scientifically suspect. Darwinizing Culture pits leading intellectuals (both supporters and opponents of meme theory) against each other to battle it out, and state their case. With a Foreword by Daniel Dennett, and contributions from Dan Sperber, David Hull, Robert Boyd, Susan Blackmore, Henry Plotkin, and others, the result is a thrilling and challenging debate that will perhaps mark a turning point for the field."

From the reviews: "This is a book to be read by anybody with a serious interest in the future of the subject . . .Darwinizing Culture is to my knowledge the first book to attempt a thorough critical appraisal of the potential of the subject. It is essential reading for anyone contemplating a first exploration of the area, and I hope it will be read and taken to heart by all those enthusiasts who gaily promulgate the internet discussions [of memes]. Nine content chapters by an eminent team of contributors are sandwiched between very able introductory and concluding editorial chapters, and although they run the full range from enthusiasm to condemnation, they give memetics a pretty rough ride overall. Indeed, it is a tribute to Robert Aunger that, for an editor who must have some leanings towards the charms of memetics, a selection of contributors has been chosen in such a way as to provide a rich, interdisciplinary set of critical analyses that pull no punches. Whatever headway memetics makes in future, it will not be for want of having both its strengths and weaknesses rigorously exposed and weighed at this juncture." -- Andrew Whiten, Times Higher Education Supplement for May 18, 2001

"It is hard to criticize a book that criticizes itself so fully; indeed, despite my disagreements with individual authors, Aunger's strength is to bring together a diversity of views so that most points are fully addressed . . .[The book ] is to be applauded for the refreshing, conservative approach to a field that lends itself to speculation and exaggeration." -- Simon Reader, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 5:8:365-366

The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
Average customer rating:

Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited"

True, but gimmicky

A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call

Challenge Consensus Reality!

A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us"

The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
Vincent Casspriano Jr.
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Buddha | Buddhism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World

Parallel Universe Of Self

How to Meet Yourself: ...and find true happiness

Life Without a Centre: Awakening from the Dream of Separation

One: Essential Writings on Nonduality

ASIN: 1847285783

Book Description

The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.

Customer Reviews:

Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22

After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.

I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."

The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.

"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.

As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."

I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.

This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.

True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09

Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.

All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.

And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.

A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15

This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.

Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10

This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.

While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.

If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.

A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13

I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.

I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:

From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":

"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"

Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.

If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."

And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.

One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.

Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.

From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":

"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."

And later in the same chapter:

"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."

For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":

"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."

Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.

The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.

Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.

This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":

"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:

· World oil supplies are running out.

· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.

· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.

· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.

· Time is running out..."

Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.

Now that's a meme worth feeding.

Average customer rating:

application of technological terms to the body, mind and human relationships, or, we become the tool
A wise and erudite analysis of cultural understanding
A profound and sophisticated theory

Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology
J. M. Balkin
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Jurisprudence | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment
Thought Contagion: When Ideas ACT Like Viruses (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering & Computer Science)
The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author

ASIN: 0300084501

Book Description

In this book J. M. Balkin offers a strikingly original theory of cultural evolution, a theory that explains shared understandings, disagreement, and diversity within cultures. Drawing on many fields of study - including anthropology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, political theory, philosophy, social psychology, and law - the author explores how cultures grow and spread, how shared understandings arise, and how people of different cultures can understand and evaluate each other's views. Cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how-"cultural software"-in human minds, Balkin says. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, the author contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and party inadequate to the pursuit of justice. Balkin presents numerous examples that illuminate the sources of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews. He argues that cultural understanding presupposes transcendent ideals and shows how both ideological analysis of others and ideological self-criticism are possible.

Customer Reviews:

application of technological terms to the body, mind and human relationships, or, we become the tool.......2005-10-21

The eastern churches, for example, banned musical instruments because they were believed to diminish the spirit. No one in the eastern church ever refers to him or her self as "an instrument of god."

When one picks up a tool, one both limits oneself while extending one's abilities.

People talk about interfacing with each other now. An interface is something between two computers.

As you have probably surmised, my argument is only with Belkin's terminology. I believe it dooms his book.

I could never call anything brilliant that suggests 'human software.' The conceit dissappoints.

I gave a star only because the amazon commenting program requires a star rating. It is intended to mean nothing. I am critiquing only the terminology here.

A wise and erudite analysis of cultural understanding.......1999-03-09

This is a wonderfully wise, erudite, and well-written book. Don't let the title fool you. The book is not about forms of software designed to promote culture. The book is about cultural understanding, and culture software is an apt metaphor, helping Balkin to explain his position. As Balkin demonstrates in a wide variety of contexts, our tools of cultural understanding are a double-edged sword leading us to progress on the one hand and substantial injustice on the other. The book features an enormously valuable guide to and critique of the literature on ideology, a persuasive account of the pragmatic necessity of making transcendent claims about truth and justice, and extremely rich discussions of the ways we think about the world, including, e.g., narration, metaphor, and paired oppositions. Particularly impressive is Balkin's ability to crisply, accessibly, and fairly treat a wide variety of important thinkers from many different disciples. This book should appeal to all who try to think broadly whether their primary intellectual allegiance is to Anthropology, History, Law, Philosophy (analytic or continental), Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology.

Steven Shiffrin, Cornell University

A profound and sophisticated theory.......1998-10-22

I highly recommend this book, especially for scholars in law, philosophy, and political theory. It is one of the most insightful and wide-ranging books I have read. Balkin develops a profound and sophisticated theory of cultural understanding - the ways in which individuals think, form their beliefs, values, and identities, and evaluate each other's ideas. Balkin explains cultural understanding by using the very appropriate metaphor of "cultural software." With this metaphor, he crafts a theory of cultural understanding that accounts for the effects of historical change on shared belief systems as well as variation and disagreement among individuals in the same culture. Balkin's topic is one that is both incredibly complex yet essential to many fields: conceptions of cultural understanding underpin much of the scholarly discourse in philosophy, sociology, political theory, and law. Although his project is quite ambitious, he engages it with remarkable clarity, depth, and sophistication. The book is unusual in that it masterfully synthesizes numerous diverse fields, including philosophy, law, psychology, biology, and sociology. Balkin is at home in each of these fields, displaying command over the thought of such diverse thinkers such as Plato, Geertz, Foucault, Levi-Strauss, Gadamer, Goffman, and Mannheim.

Balkin is a fantastic writer, able to explain his concepts very clearly without resorting to excessive jargon and without sacrificing complexity or nuance. The richness of his thought is manifested when he applies his theories to concrete issues in law and politics, such as his powerful analysis of racism toward the end of the book. The book is also worth reading for Balkin's absolutely superb discussion of narratives, one of the most illuminating I have read. In sum, this book is definitely worth reading; Balkin has set forth a serious and convincing theory to be reckoned with.

Space/time Magic
Average customer rating:

A fascinating and worthy addition to new age and modern-day magic shelves

Excellant!

Space Time Magic - and then some

Magickal applications of quantum mechanics

Space/Time, not for beginners

Space/time Magic
Taylor Ellwood
Manufacturer: Immanion Press/Megalithica Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Magic | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Alchemy | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Book of Results

Shaping Formless Fire: Distilling the Quintessence of Magick

Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation

Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body

Tactical Magick

ASIN: 1904853269

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating and worthy addition to new age and modern-day magic shelves.......2007-07-10

Space/Time Magic is a metaphysical studies guide to taking control of the complex probabilities of one's life. Chapters describe how to use sigils to manifest multiple probabilities; how to use the DNA spiral to explore space/time; writing as a divination practice; how to use technology to enhance space/time workings; and much more. Space/Time Magic literally lives up to its title in its study of mystical practices that affect the four dimensions, and its down-to-earth terminology makes in accessible to readers of all backgrounds. "In magic, particularly results magic, there is a tendency to expect that the result will occur now. This tendency is dangerous, showing as it does that you've fallen into the brainwashing of linear time. No result can be measured as occurring at a specific moment of time, and to try to limit magic in such a manner is ultimately to emasculate your workings. Everything, and this includes magic, happens in its own time." A fascinating and worthy addition to new age and modern-day magic shelves, featuring step-by-step exercises after each chapter.

Excellant!.......2007-04-18

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author provides theories from different points of view to explain how the magic works and lots and lots of practical exercises. He details what he has done and how it has turned out, but encourages the reader to take what he has done and build on it. He provided ideas that I would not have thought of; practices that can easily be added to anyone's daily routine. And he can write! I have purchased a few books from other authors in this genre and not all can.

Space Time Magic - and then some.......2007-02-20

(Before the review - a disclaimer. I do know the author.)

The book essentially has three themes to it:
1) Magic involving time and space/time such as retroactive magic, time manipulation, divination, and soforth.
2) Concepts and activities that involve our space, time, and space/time ideas, activites, and interpretations.
3) The direct, practacal application of #1 and #2 and how the author did them, often with detailed information.

Therefore Space/Time Magic is probably best thought of as "Space/Time Magic, Space/Time Concepts, and A Whole Lot of Other Stuff." The amount of useful ideas-per-page is extremely high and the repetition of common (or just plain over-repeated information) is extremely low. This is a book that takes difficult concepts, and shows how to apply them, often with direct author's testimony.

However, the book does suffer from times of loosing focus, or introducing techniques that may be useful for space/time work, but aren't as relevant as, say, other elements of the book. This doesn't reduce its usefullness, but it can be distracting.

Space/Time Magic is a book of experimental magic. There's no repetitive correspondence tables or things you've seen before. Though you can apply the work and ideas with surprising ease, its not Magic 101 despite its friendliness.

Magickal applications of quantum mechanics.......2006-11-18

Quantum mechanics is well and truly in the public consciousness these days, largely due to the success of the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" This movie opened the eyes of viewers to the incredible possibilities available. The obvious question those viewers should have asked themselves is how they could go about taking full advantage of the possibilities.

Quantum mechanics provides an explanation for much of what is experienced while practicing magick, in particular that pertaining to the non-linearity of time. Many of the ancients viewed time as circular, while quantum mechanics assigns probabilities to various events.

Taylor takes the reader into a quantum world, where time is non-linear, and retroactive magick is possible. The concept of retroactive magick is fascinating. Taylor deals with the importance of perception defining our reality, and presents this as one of the keys to successful retroactive magick. This to me is probably the most exciting portion of the book as just about everyone has daydreamed about how they would have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. The possibility of revisiting the past is truly exciting.

As with "Pop Culture Magic," I certainly don't accept everything that Taylor writes in this book. His ideas however, are intriguing, and certainly merit further investigation. Readers will certainly be able to adapt Taylor's ideas into their own paradigms. Taylor's message is an exhortation to leave the confines of the mainstream and experiment, and it is a message well worth sharing.

Space/Time, not for beginners.......2006-05-06

I'm with Lupa, I know Taylor from our many conversations and his posts on his blog.

I've allways been interested in space/time magick since about 2001 and ever since reading Taylor Ellwood's Space/Time magick I think I've found someone who has come to very similar conclusions.

However, I would like to put a side warning that this book is definately not for people who are used to the pop-wicca books that are mostly just regurgitated from some source like Raymond buckland or even Aleister Crowley. These ideas are very advanced, assuming that the person already knows most of the fundimentals of magick, however for some though, these other ideas could be manipulated and 'simplified' for most people.

I think though, the most of what I got out of this was a refreshingin of my own (what I call) reality warping experiments, and made me remember to think nonlinearly when working magick and when working space/time magick.

Definately recomend for others.

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

Average customer rating:

Worthy of your time
Poorly written self help garbage
Memes for dummies (3 1/2 stars)
Los Memes existen
PARADIGM SHIFT

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme
Richard Brodie
Manufacturer: Integral Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

The Meme Machine
The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think
Getting Past Ok: A Straightforward Guide to Having a Fantastic Life
Thought Contagion: When Ideas ACT Like Viruses (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering & Computer Science)
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author

ASIN: 0963600117

Amazon.com

If you've ever wondered how and why people become robotically enslaved by advertising, religion, sexual fantasy, and cults, wonder no more. It's all because of "mind viruses," or "memes," and those who understand how to plant them into other's minds. This is the first truly accessible book about memes and how they make the world go 'round.

Of course, like all good memes, the ideas in Brodie's book are double-edged swords. They can vaccinate against the effects of cognitive viruses, but could also be used by those seeking power to gain it even more effectively. If you don't want to be left behind in the coevolutionary arms race between infection and protection, read about memes.

Customer Reviews:

Worthy of your time.......2007-03-14

I recently finished this book and would recommend it to others interested in how language influences behaviors. Sure, there are many themes the book addresses, but my main focus was examining the connections between language manipulation and control of behavior.

Poorly written self help garbage.......2006-07-03

Snakes on a plane: the book.

If you've just read Dawkins' books such as The Selfish Gene or The Blind Watchmaker and think this might be a good follow up please think twice!

This is not a science book and reads much more like a self help book. There is a very low content/noise ratio as it delivers very few ideas, and then expounds upon the same ideas over and over again using every new metaphor or anecdote the author can imagine. I couldn't even finish it as I was bored to tears and eventually just felt completely patronized and then annoyed by the author's sloppy understanding of the science involved.

He repeatedly refers to natural selection as a "kludge" which shows a complete lack of understanding of Dawkins' material.

If you want a good laugh at Brodie's incompetence with even basic statistics use Amazon's Inside This Book feature to read the paragraph on page 173 that begins "Now let's get a handle on what it really means..." (you can also search on the number 6500 to find this page). Either the author is clueless, or the people on this island have 1-year lifespans.

How did this guy get published?

Memes for dummies (3 1/2 stars).......2006-05-07

Please be advised that this book does not take a cold calculated scientific approach at explaining memetics. Richard Brodie explains memes by recounting his personal discovery of memes, futhermore elaborating a fairly modest 'scientific' conclusion. I recommended this book to those merely curious about memetics. If you like 'guru-type' self help books you'll find that this book will suffice is explaining memes while expanding your consciousness. If you are looking for a scientific approach to memetics I would recommend Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine.

Los Memes existen.......2005-12-21

¿Como explicar los cambios en las culturas organizacionales ? Este libro te enseña no solo eso, sino ademas, como esto afecta a nivel social y personal. En Mexico, un meme muy poderoso es "la crisis", el cual dice que "nadie puede progresar porque no hay dinero y no hay dinero porque estamos en crisis". Con la informacion de este libro puedes reconocer este meme y quitartelo de una vez por todas.

PARADIGM SHIFT.......2005-12-08

First of all I would like to point out that people like to attack the things they don't understand, especially when it threatens to change their world view. Second THIS WAS AN AMAZING BOOK. Reading it as some one not familiar with memes, it was a very good intro lesson. I agree he is not one of the literary masters but there is not use in denying the importance of the subject matter. I went for months without being able to see a TV commercial or radio ad without thinking about this concept. It will either open your eyes or you would condemn Richard Brodie to hell yourself. Very powerfull ideas, although most of the really good ones weren't originally his own. If you don't believe in the concept please read George Orwell's essay: "Politics and the English Language", and "The Selfish Gene". Ignore the other naysayers only defending their narrow world view. If you have an open mind this book is an adventure.

The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think

Average customer rating:

A memes to an end
A species should not define a kingdom
Aunger gets ahead of himself
Memetic Determinism??
good start...

The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think
Robert Aunger
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Anatomy | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Cognitive Psychology | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

The Meme Machine
Virus of the Mind:: The New Science of the Meme
The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment
Thought Contagion: When Ideas ACT Like Viruses (The Kluwer International Series in Engineering & Computer Science)
Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

ASIN: 0743201507

Book Description

From biology to culture to the new new economy, the buzzword on everyone's lips is "meme." How do animals learn things? How does human culture evolve? How does viral marketing work? The answer to these disparate questions and even to what is the nature of thought itself is, simply, the meme. For decades researchers have been convinced that memes were The Next Big Thing for the understanding of society and ourselves. But no one has so far been able to define what they are. Until now.

Here, for the first time, Robert Aunger outlines what a meme physically is, how memes originated, how they developed, and how they have made our brains into their survival systems. They are thoughts. They are parasites. They are in control. A meme is a distinct pattern of electrical charges in a node in our brains that reproduces a thousand times faster than a bacterium. Memes have found ways to leap from one brain to another. A number of them are being replicated in your brain as you read this paragraph.

In 1976 the biologist Richard Dawkins suggested that all animals -- including humans -- are puppets and that genes hold the strings. That is, we are robots serving as life support for the genes that control us. And all they want to do is replicate themselves. But then, we do lots of things that don't seem to help genes replicate. We decide not to have children, we waste our time doing dangerous things like mountain climbing, or boring things like reading, or stupid things like smoking that don't seem to help genes get copied into the next generation. We do all sorts of cultural things for reasons that don't seem to have anything to do with genes. Fashions in sports, books, clothes, ideas, politics, lifestyles come and go and give our lives meaning, so how can we be gene robots?

Dawkins recognized that something else was going on. We communicate with one another and we get ideas, and these ideas seem to have a life of their own. Maybe there was something called memes that were like thought genes. Maybe our bodies were gene robots and our minds were meme robots. That would mean that what we think is not the result of our own creativity, but rather the result of the evolutionary flow of memes as they wash through us.

What is the biological reality of an idea with a life of its own? What is a thought gene? It's a meme. And no one before Robert Aunger has established what it physically must be. This elegant, paradigm-shifting analysis identifies how memes replicate in our brains, how they evolved, and how they use artifacts like books and photographs and advertisements to get from one brain to another. Destined to inflame arguments about free will, open doors to new ways of sharing our thoughts, and provide a revolutionary explanation of consciousness, The Electric Meme will change the way each of us thinks about our minds, our cultures, and our daily choices.

Customer Reviews:

A memes to an end.......2006-08-26

Aunger's book The Electric Meme is incredibly interesting, and probably the most optimistic of the many books on memetics at propelling it as a science. However, although Aunger is convinced that by testing the ideas in his book could very likely lead to a palpable meme, he didn't exactly convince me (A very ardent lover of Memetics I might add).

There's one fundamental flaw with Aunger's electric meme and I'll state it as concisely as I can: What I call a handgun, you may call fun killing tool. Meaning, what we perceive, our subjectivity, is completely...umm...subjective! By proposing we can find, and model the same tangible meme inside two separate individuals is an enormous oversimplification of consciousness. How the handgun is represented in my brain (the firing neurons, synapses, and associated patterns) is completely different and as far as I know, unable to even be correlated, transposable, or recognizably similar to how it's represented in yours.

By knowing that I process visual information in the same area that you do by no means gives us a clue to how they correlate because the "areas" in the brain that we can image mean nothing due to the fact that the brain is functioning at a precision we cannot model or accurately understand. Because Aunger is so anxious for the tangibility of the meme he's using rather primitive knowledge of brain activity, and presumptuous ideas about neural patterns to argue for the electric meme, he's using it as a "memes" to an end.

Nevertheless, The Electric Meme is still a fascinating book and a must for all who are interested in memes.

A species should not define a kingdom.......2005-08-26

In the Electric Meme Robert Aunger suggests that neurophysiologists should be able to find physical evidence that certain electrical patterns generated by neural nets in the human brain, are capable of replicating themselves, either at the same spot or, significantly, at some other similar spot in the same or another brain, and that it is the pattern itself that is a significant reason for its replication, as opposed to the fact that the pattern is the inevitable consequence of some important object or process out in the world being surveyed by sensory mechanisms. Additionally, the pattern is not perfectly replicated, giving rise to various versions of it in a competitive environment, which are then subject to natural selection. It is a brilliant idea (if not an obvious one, once it has been pointed out) that struck me as being true the moment Dawkins first released it into the meme pool in a more general form in the Selfish Gene, especially in the later versions of that book. Aunger's attempt to define the beast a little more precisely in order to assist in its experimental capture is a nice direction as long as nobody takes it too seriously. The existence of memes is one of the most delicious ideas floating around right now, and with the singular exception of Dawkins and his forgiveable insistence that it must rhyme with "creams," I'd be comfortable to see the notion be allowed to float around unhampered a bit longer. If a scientist of whatever stripe is fortunate enough to trap something specific, with a knowable, reproducible, structure, which looks like a meme, and walks like a meme, then I say call it a meme, but don't define the whole kingdom based on a single species.

And by the way, Mr. Aunger, ribosomes do not replicate DNA, and nitric oxide is not the same thing as nitrous oxide, and a lot of specific facts in your book, could have been repaired with a little Googling prior to publication, but thank you for a fine book.

Aunger gets ahead of himself.......2003-07-16

This is rigorous and well researched, but it gets ahead of itself. To say that memes (or meme components) correspond to some sort of pattern in human brains is saying more than we know now about the correspondence between brain states and our thoughts and experiences. If we don't know this for one brain, then certainly we don't know how these analogous states can be replicated across brains. Ambitious work, but too soon.

Memetic Determinism??.......2003-01-17

In this book Aunger tries to create a material, not metaphorical meme-an ELECTRIC MEME. His meme is a parasitic super replicator that uses the host brain to accomplish replication. He defines his meme as a millisecond neural tendency to spike across the brain's synaptic gaps. However it is well known that human consciousness requires hundreds of a second. This means that by the time one becomes aware of a meme's content it has already been replicated in one's brain. Before one becomes conscious of making a decision one's brain has already made it. Aunger suggests that free will can't survive the coming onslaught of neuroscientific advances-and if his idea holds water he might be right.

Aunger got as far as discussing neurotransmitters and nitrous oxide ions that produce neuron firing. But he has limits to how fast and how tiny he wants to go. He stopped short of including the internal quantum measurement required by cells to replicate (as articulated by McFadden in QUANTUM EVOLUTION). Although he finishes by saying he'll accept either finding of whether memes exist or not, he first leads one through 300 repetitive pages of caring a lot. He tries to piggyback his idea of the electric meme on prion and computer virus replicators. Strange that with all he had to say of comp-virus he never once used the common term cellular automata. If you can plow through this book your IQ will increase by 1%.

good start..........2002-12-26

i urge you to check out Ian McFadyen's Mind Wars, an extension of memetics into 'tenetics'.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books