What do you think?
Rate this book
The Mind Field: A Personal Essay
First Edition, First printing Book is in Very Good + condition. Boards have a tiny bit of shelf wear. Fore edges have a small amount of wear. Previous owners name on the inside. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Dust Jacket is in Very Good + condition. Tiny bit of shelf wear/rub. Tiniest bit of wear along the edges. Not price clipped. Dust Jacket is covered by Mylar wrapper. Thanks and Enjoy. All-Ways well boxed, All-Ways fast service.
- GenresPsychology
Hardcover
First published December 3, 1996
2 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Robert Ornstein
28 books100 followersPsychologist Robert Ornstein's wide-ranging and multidisciplinary work has won him awards from more than a dozen organizations, including the American Psychological Association and UNESCO. His pioneering research on the bilateral specialization of the brain has done much to advance our understanding of how we think.
He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from City University of New York in 1964 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968. His doctoral thesis won the American Institutes for Research Creative Talent Award and was published immediately as a book, On the Experience of Time.
Since then he has written or co-written more than twenty other books on the nature of the human mind and brain and their relationship to thought, health and individual and social consciousness, which have sold over six million copies and been translated into a dozen other languages. His textbooks have been used in more than 20,000 university classes.
Dr. Ornstein has taught at the University of California Medical Center and Stanford University, and he has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He is the president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), an educational nonprofit dedicated to bringing important discoveries concerning human nature to the general public.
Among his many honors and awards are the UNESCO award for Best Contribution to Psychology and the American Psychological Foundation Media Award "for increasing the public understanding of psychology."
He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from City University of New York in 1964 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968. His doctoral thesis won the American Institutes for Research Creative Talent Award and was published immediately as a book, On the Experience of Time.
Since then he has written or co-written more than twenty other books on the nature of the human mind and brain and their relationship to thought, health and individual and social consciousness, which have sold over six million copies and been translated into a dozen other languages. His textbooks have been used in more than 20,000 university classes.
Dr. Ornstein has taught at the University of California Medical Center and Stanford University, and he has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He is the president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), an educational nonprofit dedicated to bringing important discoveries concerning human nature to the general public.
Among his many honors and awards are the UNESCO award for Best Contribution to Psychology and the American Psychological Foundation Media Award "for increasing the public understanding of psychology."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 18, 2024
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHER LOOKS AT VARIOUS "EXPANDED CONSCIOUSNESS" AREAS
Robert Ornstein (born 1942) is a psychologist, researcher and writer, perhaps best known for his work on left brain/right brain studies. He has taught at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and been professor at Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, and has promoted modern Sufism (e.g., Idries Shah). He has written/edited other books such as 'The Psychology of Consciousness,' 'Symposium on Consciousness,' 'Multimind: A New Way of Looking at Human Behavior,' 'The Mind Field: A Personal Essay,' 'On The Experience Of Time,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1976 book, "We are now on the threshold of a new understanding of man and of consciousness, one which might unite the scientific, objective, external approach of Western civilization and the personal, inward disciplines of the East. The emergence of this new synthesis has caused many to flock, unthinkingly, to rudimentary spiritual sideshows, which are quick, cheap, and often flashy... I write to develop a more secure position... somewhere between the two dominant positions...
"I hope the book will prove in a small way elucidating to many who have wondered whether they should go to a psychotherapist to deal with their interest in consciousness, whether there is anything useful in 'awareness training,' whether they should meditate, whether they should travel to the East, whether they should seek refuge in Shahmanism or in systems of thought more relevant for cultures different from ours, or more relevant perhaps for a different epoch....
"This book is based more on personal experience than any of my other books, based as it is partly on my travels in Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as on my twelve years as a research psychologist and on my personal acquaintance with people involved in meditation, parapsychology, brain research, and connected disciplines."
He covers topics such as Carlos Castaneda, Idries Shah/Sufism, Transcendental Meditation, Gurdjieff, etc.
He says, "Reason, then, primarily involves an analysis of discrete elements, inferentially (sequentially) linked; intuition involves a simultaneous perception of the whole." (Pg. 26)
He suggests, "It is time to give the simultaneous aspect of our consciousness its due place in our understanding of the mind, in our education, and in human affairs. Intuition is not an obscure, mysterious function possessed only by a very few highly creative and unusual artists or scientists who produce interesting theories. Intuition is a faculty considered largely negative---creativity is romanticized, made external, considered unavailable to most ordinary people. The faculty of intuition is, rather, latent in all of us, a primary aspect of our cognitive abilities which we have allowed to degenerate." (Pg. 31)
He points out, "It is often overlooked that even if [Uri] Geller were, as claimed, 'the greatest psychic ever to reach these shores,' he still would yield little in the way of useful evidence of 'psychic powers' in ordinary people. Geller is, by his own definition, unusual, and at best would display only tantalizing possibilities, which would need much follow-up with less extreme subjects and procedures." (Pg. 66)
More so than most of Ornstein's more research-oriented books, this one is somewhat "dated," and smacks of the Human Potential Movement optimism and the anticipation of the New Age movement (which peaked in the 1990s). Still, Ornstein's comments on the various topics are always interesting, if no longer on the "cutting edge" of research.
Robert Ornstein (born 1942) is a psychologist, researcher and writer, perhaps best known for his work on left brain/right brain studies. He has taught at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and been professor at Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, and has promoted modern Sufism (e.g., Idries Shah). He has written/edited other books such as 'The Psychology of Consciousness,' 'Symposium on Consciousness,' 'Multimind: A New Way of Looking at Human Behavior,' 'The Mind Field: A Personal Essay,' 'On The Experience Of Time,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1976 book, "We are now on the threshold of a new understanding of man and of consciousness, one which might unite the scientific, objective, external approach of Western civilization and the personal, inward disciplines of the East. The emergence of this new synthesis has caused many to flock, unthinkingly, to rudimentary spiritual sideshows, which are quick, cheap, and often flashy... I write to develop a more secure position... somewhere between the two dominant positions...
"I hope the book will prove in a small way elucidating to many who have wondered whether they should go to a psychotherapist to deal with their interest in consciousness, whether there is anything useful in 'awareness training,' whether they should meditate, whether they should travel to the East, whether they should seek refuge in Shahmanism or in systems of thought more relevant for cultures different from ours, or more relevant perhaps for a different epoch....
"This book is based more on personal experience than any of my other books, based as it is partly on my travels in Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as on my twelve years as a research psychologist and on my personal acquaintance with people involved in meditation, parapsychology, brain research, and connected disciplines."
He covers topics such as Carlos Castaneda, Idries Shah/Sufism, Transcendental Meditation, Gurdjieff, etc.
He says, "Reason, then, primarily involves an analysis of discrete elements, inferentially (sequentially) linked; intuition involves a simultaneous perception of the whole." (Pg. 26)
He suggests, "It is time to give the simultaneous aspect of our consciousness its due place in our understanding of the mind, in our education, and in human affairs. Intuition is not an obscure, mysterious function possessed only by a very few highly creative and unusual artists or scientists who produce interesting theories. Intuition is a faculty considered largely negative---creativity is romanticized, made external, considered unavailable to most ordinary people. The faculty of intuition is, rather, latent in all of us, a primary aspect of our cognitive abilities which we have allowed to degenerate." (Pg. 31)
He points out, "It is often overlooked that even if [Uri] Geller were, as claimed, 'the greatest psychic ever to reach these shores,' he still would yield little in the way of useful evidence of 'psychic powers' in ordinary people. Geller is, by his own definition, unusual, and at best would display only tantalizing possibilities, which would need much follow-up with less extreme subjects and procedures." (Pg. 66)
More so than most of Ornstein's more research-oriented books, this one is somewhat "dated," and smacks of the Human Potential Movement optimism and the anticipation of the New Age movement (which peaked in the 1990s). Still, Ornstein's comments on the various topics are always interesting, if no longer on the "cutting edge" of research.
Displaying 1 of 1 review