The Evolution of Consciousness

A provocative look at how the human mind evolved, and what this means for our future. What is the mind? How is it that, like the proverbial fish that knows so little about the surrounding water, we know so little about something that controls every aspect of our individual and collective lives? Passionate, entertaining and provocative, The Evolution of Consciousness presents a fundamental challenge to our assumptions about the mind and how it works. Robert Ornstein tackles the mind’s central mysteries, such as how, over the course of our evolution, human brain size grew so quickly; why we dream; and how memory works. Crediting the discoveries of Charles Darwin (whom Ornstein considers the central scientist of modern psychology), The Evolution of Consciousness shows how the mind evolved to help us survive - to avoid danger, procure food and perpetuate the species - rather than to 'reason why.' Through a panoramic history of the evolution of the brain and mind, Ornstein shows that the mind is adaptive rather than rational and that, as a result, it consists of a 'squadron of simpletons' - a miscellaneous collection of unconscious mind-shifts that are geared to surviving in a world long-since gone. Even what we call our 'self' is just another of these simpletons, with its own limited role and insight. Ornstein shows that remaining unaware of these mind-shifts leaves us vulnerable to misjudgment and indoctrination, both individually and culturally. But with wit and wisdom, he points out that within all of us is the potential to go beyond these simpletons and develop an innate perceptive capacity, one that’s been called 'higher consciousness' - a new level of understanding reality, and a new altruism, in which everyone can take part. Ornstein maintains that to solve the collective problems of the modern world, we urgently need to develop this innate faculty, which he holds is humanity’s next step.