This book takes a look at long held assumptions about human consciousness, and examines them in the light of modern empirical neuroscience. It examines the processes of perception and the work of the left brain's "interpreter." It's an uncommon look at "common sense."
The first chapter of the book examines the "Fictional Self," and continues to weave this thread of thought throughout the book. What fascinated me most about this line of thought was that it paralleled ancient Eastern thought about the illusion of individual reality. However, Dr. Gazzaniga's book does not draw on these ancient traditions, and it is up to the reader to figure them out.
Dr. Gazzaniga writes, "... the primate brain prepares cells for decisive action long before we are even thinking about making a decision! These automatic processes sometimes get tricked and create illusions - blatant demonstrations of these automatic devices that operate so efficiently that no one can do anything to stop them. They run their course and we see them in action; as a consequence we have to conclude that they are a big part of us." p. 20
In The Bhagavad-Gita it says, " As the ignorant act with attachment to actions, Arjuna, so wise men should act with detachment to preserve the world." (3rd Teaching, 25, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller) Just like "The Mind's Past," The Bhagavad-Gita points out the illusion of willful action. Dr. Gazzaniga's empirical observations have a poetic parallel in The Bhagavad-Gita.
The book also examines the dual functions of perception, the flow of perceptual information to the parietal and temporal lobes simultaneously, one prepares the body to act within reality, and the other constructs an illusionary perception of reality. This was also noted by physicist Richard Feynman in his lecture on space/time, commenting on our inability to perceive space/time as it really is; which is also a fundamental concept found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.
On page 157, Dr. Gazzaniga reports on an experiment in which humans, using the left brain "interpreter," chose the right response 68% of the time, while none-interpreting animals get it right 80% of the time. "While it quickly becomes evident that the top button is being illuminated more often, subjects keep trying to figure out the whole sequence and deeply believe they can. Yet by adopting this strategy, they are rewarded only about 68 percent of the time. If they always press the top button, they are rewarded 80 percent of the time. Rats and other animals are more likely to learn to maximize and press only the top button. It turns out that our right hemisphere behaves like a rat's. It does not try to interpret its experience and find deeper meaning. It continues to live only in the thin moment of the present." This right brain strategy is Taoism at its essence.
This book is an interesting read, and highly recommended to anyone who is a student of perception. It will challenge the egocentric view of reality, and will provide an unwelcome jolt to a belief-system of egocentric reality, but it does so with humor and scientific insight.
