Irreducible Mind- Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century

Written by a consortium of Authors, all foremost in the field of experimental Psychology: Edward F. Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly,Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso and Bruce Greyson. Using the work of F. W. H. Myers and William James who were instrumental in birthing the discipline of Psychology over a hundred years ago; Using Myers' voluminous research as a template the authors revisit and expand on what they feel is the missed opportunities when Psychology veered into 'Behaviorism'.

At this point I have to say that any description or synopsis which I am capable of giving would be coarse and inadequate. Being virtually computer illiterate I can't even cut and paste someone else's review. What I can say is that this book defines the phrase: dense reading. However, the author's far ranging and inclusive forays into the mind/brain question is both intriguing and illuminating. They explore and connect subjects such as: hypnosis, NDEs, psychosomatic disease, genius, memory, multiple personality, automatisms (e.g.- automatic writing), meditation/yoga, PK et. al. This book is large by any description- even intimidating.

I am not a speed reader by any stretch nor do I have eidetic memory. What I am is tenacious and I must say that it took all of my tenacity to slog through to the end. Just to give myself a further handicap I read it in tandem with "The Firfth Option" finishing them together. I know that this book won't be for everybody (especially given the conditioning we all have to shorter and shorter attention spans). However, I believe the rewards can be great.

If nothing else this book pointed out to me that of all the various subjects of reasearch which have held my attention over the years in my never-ending search for truth, Psychology was the gaping hole in my education (Psychology 101 ca. 1964).

One other thing which must be pointed out is cost and availability. It is a large book and for that reason alone it is expensive. There is no E-version. I would suggest that in this instance your public library is your friend. They will no doubt have it. Personally I use a fair percent of my meager funds for books. My wife chafes at this.

I debated with myself as to whether I should even put the book up on this thread but considering what I consider its value I did it.

Knowledge protects.

Thanks for this information, buz/p. I did find the book on Amazon for about $35. That's the new price. The used price is far more expensive. It ships in 2 months too, for some reason. Here's more information on the book for people interested in it:

Current mainstream opinion in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind holds that all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by physical processes occurring in brains. Views of this sort have dominated recent scholarly publication. The present volume, however, demonstrates_empirically_that this reductive materialism is not only incomplete but false. The authors systematically marshal evidence for a variety of psychological phenomena that are extremely difficult, and in some cases clearly impossible, to account for in conventional physicalist terms. Topics addressed include phenomena of extreme psychophysical influence, memory, psychological automatisms and secondary personality, near-death experiences and allied phenomena, genius-level creativity, and 'mystical' states of consciousness both spontaneous and drug-induced. The authors further show that these rogue phenomena are more readily accommodated by an alternative 'transmission' or 'filter' theory of mind/brain relations advanced over a century ago by a largely forgotten genius, F. W. H. Myers, and developed further by his friend and colleague William James. This theory, moreover, ratifies the commonsense conception of human beings as causally effective conscious agents, and is fully compatible with leading-edge physics and neuroscience. The book should command the attention of all open-minded persons concerned with the still-unsolved mysteries of the mind.

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And here's a video of a woman reading aloud from the book:

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fXf7xhOAa8

Again, thanks for this information, it sounds like a great and challenging read.

Thanks Hesper. One of these days I need to learn how to do things on the computer.

buz/p said:

Thanks Hesper. One of these days I need to learn how to do things on the computer.

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Hey it's no problem at all. But don't let "one of these days" come too late. Are there any community colleges in your area that would offer some rudimentary computer skills courses? Or do you have a family member who could help you out? Since this entire forum is one of the most amazing schools ever created, and it is based completely online for most of us, the more you know how to use computers the more you can both contribute and learn.

This is not just a bump up. After a few weeks I am curious to know if anyone has taken the plunge and read the book. I started Laura's new book "Comets and the Horns of Moses" wherein it promises to be delving further into psychology. I have always been a 'hard sciences' guy, so psychology represents a weak spot in my knowledge. The Kelly et. al. book has begun to fill in some of those gaps. Plus it represents a synthesis of sorts between the physical and the esoteric.

Just saw this thread and the fact that it's fairly expensive and harder to get than others - even though it was published in 2009 - already got me interested.

I will add it to my list. Thanks for sharing, buz/p.

buz/p said:

This is not just a bump up. After a few weeks I am curious to know if anyone has taken the plunge and read the book. I started Laura's new book "Comets and the Horns of Moses" wherein it promises to be delving further into psychology. I have always been a 'hard sciences' guy, so psychology represents a weak spot in my knowledge. The Kelly et. al. book has begun to fill in some of those gaps. Plus it represents a synthesis of sorts between the physical and the esoteric.

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I have only read portions of it, but from what I've read, I think it's pretty good. I like that it's inspired by F.W.H. Myers (whom William James admired), whose early work in psychical research was pretty comprehensive. When I get around to finishing it, I'll post more.