Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith

Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought

Pascal Boyer · 430 pages

Formerly at Princeton, King's College, Cambridge and the University of Lyon, Pascal Boyer is Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St Louis, MissouriWhile human religious practice and belief are extraordinarily varied, they are nevertheless not infinitely so. The varieties of belief have provided generations of anthropologists and religious scholars with material for research; ther

Who Switched Off My Brain?

Caroline Leaf

Do you ever feel like your brain has just been "switched off"? Have you ever felt discouraged, unfocused or overwhelmed? Are there unhealthy patterns in your life or your family that you just can’t seem to break? A thought may seem harmless, but if it becomes toxic, it can become physically, emotionally or spiritually dangerous. Thankfully, we are living in a time of revolution. We can see clearly

Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment

Robert Wright · 336 pages

The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life

Jesse Bering · 262 pages

An evolutionary psychologist examines humans' belief in God and argues that it evolved in the species as an "adaptive illusion" that originally had an evolutionary purpose, now outdated, that ensured the survival of the human race.

Blame It on the Brain: Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience

Edward T. Welch · 204 pages

Research suggests that more and more behaviors are caused by brain function or dysfunction. But is it ever legitimate to blame misbehavior on the brain? How can I know whether "My brain made me do it"? Viewing brain problems through the lens of Scripture, Edward T. Welch distinguishes genuine brain disorders from problems rooted in the heart. Understanding that distinction will enable pastors, cou

Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life

Stephen LaBerge · 77 pages

What if right now, reading these words, you suddenly realized that you were actually dreaming and that in this domain you could do anything imaginable? That is what it's like to dream lucidly, teaches Stephen LaBerge. With Lucid Dreaming, the author of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (more than 120,000 copies in print; Ballantine, 1991) teaches his simple, tested methods for becoming fully c

Prometheus Rising

Robert Anton Wilson · 287 pages

Prometheus Rising is a book by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1983. It is a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, relativity, and quantum mechanics, amongst other approaches to underst

The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space

John C. Lilly · 256 pages

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan Haidt · 297 pages

Applies the latest findings in psychology and brain research to the wisdom of the ancients to define what makes people happy and how you can find more happiness in your life. Confirms and builds on the happiness formula defined by other psychologists: H=S+C+V or Happiness = your biological Setpoint + the Conditions of your life + the Voluntary activities you do

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris · 256 pages

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Waking Up is a guide to meditation as a rational practice informed by neuroscience and psychology. From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, Waking Up is for the twenty percent of Americans who follow no religion but who suspect that important truths can be found in the experienc

Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections Between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices that Can Transform Your Life and Relationships

Curt Thompson · 304 pages

The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness

Yongey Mingyur, Eric Swanson · 280 pages

For millennia, Buddhists have enjoyed the limitless benefits of meditation. But how does it work? And why? The principles behind this ancient practice have long eluded some of the best minds in modern science. Until now.In this groundbreaking work, world-renowned Buddhist teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche invites us to join him in unlocking the secrets behind the practice of meditation. Working with

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Rick Hanson, Richard Mendius · 348 pages

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · 790 pages

Why do we do the things we do? Over a decade in the making, this game-changing book is Robert Sapolsky's genre-shattering attempt to answer that question as fully as perhaps only he could, looking at it from every angle. Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise mo

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

Jonathan Gottschall · 271 pages

The Ghost in the Machine

Arthur Koestler · 384 pages

The Ghost in the Machine is a work in philosophical psychology published in 1967. The title is a phrase coined by the Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle to describe the Cartesian dualist account of the mind–body relationship. Koestler shares with Ryle the view that the mind of a person is not an independent non-material entity, temporarily inhabiting and governing the body. One of the book's central

The Art of Happiness

Dalai Lama XIV, Howard C. Cutler · 322 pages

Summary:One of the world's greatest spiritual leaders teams up with a psychiatrist to share, for the first time, how he achieved his hard-won serenity and how readers can attain the same inner peace

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Steven Pinker · 525 pages

From the Preface... I have never met a person who is not interested in language. I wrote this book to try to satisfy that curiosity. Language is beginning to submit to that uniquely satisfying kind of understanding that we call science, but the news has been kept a secret. For the language lover, I hope to show that there is a world of elegance and richness in quotidian speech that far outsh

The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

Michael Shermer · 385 pages

Shermer demonstrates how our brains selectively assess data in an attempt to confirm the conclusions (beliefs) we've already reached. Drawing on evolution, cognitive science, and neuroscience, he considers not only supernatural beliefs but political and economic ones as well.

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Gary F. Marcus · 224 pages

A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness

Michael Pollan · 320 pages

Changes That Heal: How to Understand the Past to Ensure a Healthier Future

Henry Cloud · 368 pages

Soul Mates: Honouring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship

Thomas Moore · 288 pages

Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

L. Ron Hubbard · 436 pages