This is a book that shows, in simple detail, one of the most startling findings of modern science: We don't experience the world as it is, but as virtual reality. And while much of the latest scientific work demonstrates this, as do many of the classical psychological illusions, it is an important meeting point for students of the mind, brain, philosophy and religion because, as we can now see in light of this book, all these disciplines begin at the same place.
This is not an abstruse treatise, but part graphic novel and part direct address. It allows the reader a breakthrough understanding of the mind which is not available anywhere else. It is, in part, a summa of Dr. Ornstein's research and writing of the past 35 years (with pieces and references to many of his works) as well as a seminal introduction to new readers.
From the Preface:
Let's make it clear: there is a world out there, and there is a world in here. It's not like “east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet,” for if they never met, then we wouldn't be alive. Think of it as two overlapping circles; a thin ellipse at the intersection is where the mind and world join. There's more to the world than we experience, obviously — the galaxies, the subatomic world. We “catch,” for instance, only one-trillionth of the waves that dazzle our eye.
I see this book as a beginning. It may be a real beginning for someone who hasn't thought about the mind, or psychology, or philosophy. It may be a second, third or fourth beginning for another who has had some interest.
At the core of these realms, and of religion and consciousness as well, is this: our “reality” isn't the reality of the world, but a tiny portion of it. This means, in one view, that we're subject to illusions and misjudgments; in another, that true knowledge is very, very difficult; and in a third, that the “world” is an “illusion.”
However, realizing that the reality we experience is “MindReal” is the first step to a deeper understanding of ourselves, and of our possibilities.
Fear not: this won't be a philosophical conundrum or some kind of epic esoteric treatise. My aim is to make the feeling of MindReal clear in terms of both everyday and, like many of our media now, even in graphic novel (well, graphic nonfiction) form.
Robert Ornstein, 2008
