Robert Ornstein Quotes

“Many of us have experienced the difficulty in successfully 'giving up' doing something; too often, trying to give it up seems only to keep one focused on the forbidden object or enterprise — enhancing the desire rather than taming it…”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“… deactivating this area (right parietal lobe) of the brain that controls self, time and space enhances virtues such as forgiveness, and allows us to take a “higher” view of life.”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“The simplest, most comprehensive and hardest to disprove explanation for absolutely everything that ever could happen anywhere, at any time, is, of course, 'it was God’s will.”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“What these different virtues — humility, generosity, empathy, patience, compassion, forgiveness, honesty, etc. — all have in common is that they each draw attention away from a focus upon the self.... they encourage us not to see ourselves as the center of everything… a step toward timelessness and placelessness — to a 'higher' more comprehensive consciousness.”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“…the injunction to act virtuously, which is found in all traditions, is as a 'means of travel,' intended to move consciousness away from our ordinary, self-centered mode to a greater vision — as do other 'ego-reduction' techniques.”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“Spiritual experiences are described as 'selfless,' 'timeless,' 'placeless,' 'thing-less' and 'higher,' ... they are nonverbal and so difficult to talk about — and, if talked about, confuse the listeners and sometimes even put them off.”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“…the capstone to Robert Ornstein’s brilliant, ground-breaking half century of research into the dimensions, capacities, and purposes of human consciousness. —Tony Hiss”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“This landmark book shines new light on things we thought we understood. —Charles Swencionis”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“There will be no further evolution without conscious evolution. - Robert Ornstein, The Evolution of Consciousness”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“This book is the culmination of, the capstone to Robert Ornstein’s brilliant, ground-breaking half century of research into the dimensions, capacities, and purposes of human consciousness. Deeply thoughtful and wide-ranging in scope, his final book goes well beyond the “left-brain, right-brain” work for which he originally became famous, this time bringing the often-confusing and divisive subject of spirituality into a clear and useful 21st-century focus, presenting it as a matter of perception, not belief. Using rigorous, rational, scientific analysis – always his greatest strength – Ornstein shows that the spiritual impulse is innate, a human ability that from the Ice Age forward has been essential to problem solving. As a final part of his legacy, he lays out how this capacity to reach beyond the everyday can, cleared of cobwebs and seen afresh, play a role and be part of preparing humanity to confront today’s staggering global problems. A rewarding and fascinating book. — Tony Hiss, author of Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“Staggering in scope and breadth, 'God 4.0' is the culmination of Ornstein’s work on the psychology of consciousness. Connecting the latest research from archeology, religious history, psychology and brain science, the authors extend a timely invitation to explore a latent, intuitive faculty we all share – one that can moves us beyond belief, faith, and doctrine to a wider perception of who we are and who we could become. — David D. Sobel, MD, MPH, Stanford University School of Medicine”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“God 4.0' can make you rethink what God, religion, consciousness, and the human experience of them are. What if God were not a disembodied spirit? What if God were an altered state of consciousness? … Our experience of God is seen as an inborn network of the human brain, a second system of cognition and connection which can be accessed and help us today. This landmark book shines new light on things we thought we understood. — Charles Swencionis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Yeshiva University”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“God 4.0' is a visionary fusion of true spirituality and neuroscience. Both authors forcefully argue for “consciousness evolution” which is a shift away from self-centeredness that releases enhanced perceptual capabilities. This shift can profoundly influence epigenetic expression, health, and perhaps even influence the epigenetic inheritance of future generations. — Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine, Author of Change Your Genes, Change Your Life”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“God 4.0' is a stunning tour de force of erudition, deftly summarizing forty thousand years of the human search for spiritual transcendence – via the painted caves of the Ice Age shamans, the Neolithic megaliths and Mesopotamian ziggurats, and the soaring Medieval cathedrals and mosques. The second half of the book turns inward to describe the structures and processes of the human brain that foster transcendence, and the factors that interfere with it. Robert and Sally Ornstein make an ideal team for this collaboration, Sally a painter and publisher of children’s books, and Robert a psychologist and neuroscientist. The result is a brilliant guided expedition through reams of archeological and neurological research, with the authors highlighting in easily understood language the important discoveries and developments in our perennial quest for meaning and purpose. — Lisa Alther, novelist and author of four New York Times best sellers”
― Robert Ornstein, God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”

“A fine, fine book, lucid, unsmug, amazingly comprehensive. Reading [it] I felt over and over again that this was the book I had been waiting for. —The New Yorker”
― Robert Ornstein, The Psychology of Consciousness

“An original and explosive book. It starts out by making psychology, the science of the mind, what’s it actually is—as exciting and suspenseful as a good mystery story. —George B. Leonard”
― Robert Ornstein, The Psychology of Consciousness

“Consciousness is the awareness of awareness.”
― Robert Ornstein, The Psychology of Consciousness

“For the pre-release 'God 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experimence called God' -- “In a compelling blend of solid psychological science and surprisingly universal religious practice, God 4.0 reveals rarified insights into a uniquely human form of consciousness. It is mind blowing, indeed.”
― Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion

“Teaching stories purposely contain certain specially chosen patterns of events. The repeated reading and absorption of the stories allows these patterns to become strengthened in the mind…and begins to create new constructs in the reader — new “organs of perception.”
― Robert Ornstein