Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain - by David Engleman (2011)

Another prisoner here on death row lent this book to me after he found out I like reading about how the brain works. Ironically one of my attorneys had offered to order the same book for me about a year ago, but I deferred his offer at the time because I already had a stack of good books that I needed to read (and still do). So I guess this is one of those books that I was just meant to read.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Despite the unfair (and deceptive) criticism I read that was written by some other neurologist, Engleman does a fair job of presenting complex brain science in layman's terms. Yes, he glosses over some stuff that a scientist might think important, but the book is not written for scientists, so to critique him for this is not just unfair, it's pretty lame. For the lay person this book is informative, well written, and ingaging. Though I strongly disagree with Engleman's conclusions in regard to how neuroscience could be applied to criminal law (he almost completely ignores the sociological aspects of criminal behavior), he at least confines this discussion to one chapter; and I don't disagree with the need for more behavioral science when it comes to criminal law (as opposed to the pseudoscience that isn't science at all though it currently dominates our criminal justice philosophy). I mostly just abhor the idea of using behavioral statistics to determine how someone is treated after committing a crime (i.e. locking someone up because of what they MIGHT do instead of just what they HAVE done). The last thing we need is more people like me being brainwashed into believing what terrible people they are just because some statistics say so. The statistics themselves become self propogating data.

But overall Engleman's book was a pleasure to read. I learned a few things I didn't know, and refreshed a lot I had read before. I expect this book will influence at least a few of the things I write for this blog in the future (especially the idea that we aren't as individually "free willed" as we think, and the concept of conscious entities that exist unconscious to us in our own brains, i.e. "zombie systems").

In Defense of Chaos:The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action - by L. K. Samuels (2013)

Finally, someone has tied Chaos Theory to the human experience. I've been waiting for a book like this ever since I first read a book on Chaos Theory and saw clearly for myself that science was finally starting to break free from its cause and effect mentality and realize that even the most random events give rise to order.

This book is well researched but unfortunately poorly thought out and written. It contains a lot of information that is only roughly catagorized and dumped into several uncoordinated chapters. Then it ends without any conclusions or suggestion for further exploration. I suspect that maybe the author wanted to avoid a controversial stance. The evidence and studies in this book seem to me to point to only one conclusion: that the science of cause and effect is limited, and that any attempt by man to understand his own purpose and reason in this world by using his ability to reason and control (manipulate) his environment will - and already has - consistently result in more disorder and chaos (i.e. destruction of the very things we seek to protect). The only solution is to trust the process that somehow brings order out of chaos when we don't try to interfere; to trust the "invisible hand".

No Exit: And Three Other Plays - by Jean-Paul Sartre (1946, translations by Gilbert and Abel, Vintage Ed. 1989)

This book was recommended and purchased for me by a friend in Germany. I read not only the plays in this book, but also some other writings on Sartre's existentialism. It was extremely enlightening and well worth the read. I had not realized how complete the philosophy of existentialism was. I enjoyed it very much.

Selected quotes:

"Once freedom lights its beacon in a man's heart, the gods are powerless against him." - The Flies

"Today I have one path only, and heaven knows where it leads. But it is my path..." - The Flies

"The most cowardly of murderers is he who feels remorse." - The Flies

"... human life begins on the far side of despair."

"We shall not abolish lying by refusing to tell lies, but by using every means at hand to abolish classes." - Dirty Hands

"There is no heaven. There's work to be done, that's all." - Dirty Hands

The Gospel of Judas, 2nd Ed. - by: Kasser, Meyer and Wurst (2006, 2008)

I requested this book out of curiosity. Nothing about it really surprised me. I was glad that it presented different scholarly views and not just Christian or even secular. This allowed me to enjoy my own view, given my own prior knowledge and understanding. As I would expect, the Christian accounts for this lost "Gospel" were biased and used cherry-picked and incomplete historical references to attempt to discredit other scholar's conclusions. Christian "scholars" refer to these tactics so routinely that I strongly feel they should not even call themselves scholars at all; "theologians" would be a much better term.

Clearly, The Gospel of Judas, and other nonconical scriptures from the first few centuries tell us a lot about how Christianity formed as a religion. Christian "scholars" deny they have any merit at all in regard to their religious beliefs. Of course, they must say that, or they'd be forced to admit that what they believe is a human fabrication, and not "devine" at all.

The Mind of the Cells - by: Satprem (1981, 2010 translated from French)

This is one of those books that so closely mirror my own understanding of the reality in which I find myself that I think if I were a better writer I could have written it myself.

Anyone who has read my blog posts with any understanding would recognize much of my thoughts and ideas in this book - even though I've never read anything quite like it before. Like my own thinking, "mother" (the actual human source of this books wisdom) bases her understanding on direct experience, not on things she has read or otherwise been told.

Every cell in your body is independently conscious and self aware. The consciousness that we experience as humans only arises from the ability of the cells in our body to share their conscious experience through "emotional" connections that we humans might call love. But no matter what it is called, it is a very real and fundamental force of life and nature. Someday, when humans learn to love each other, and the world itself, as our cells love each other and the body they belong to, then we will awaken to a new reality that will be as strange and alien to our present reality as our present reality is to that of a single cell. "Mother" calls it evolution, so did Darwin, and so do I.

The Racketeer - by: John Grisham (2012, 2013)

This book was given to me by another prisoner after he finished reading it. I read it during a power outage last week. I really liked Grisham's take on the American criminal justice system. Here's an example:

"A trial (in the US) is a contest in which one side will win and the other side will lose. Each side expects the other to bend the rules or to cheat, so neither side plays fair. The truth (and any chance of real justice) is lost in the melee."

This has been my experience exactly and consistently, as I have tried to express at times elsewhere in this blog.

Drawing: A Complete Guide - by: Giovanni Civardi (translation from Italian, 2006)

I've got several books in my cell to help me learn to draw better. I like this one the best; it's the most comprehensive. But, I have a long way to go.