Consciousness is perplexing: too familiar and intimate to ignore, too complex and elusive to understand. Although consciousness is embedded in all our experience and is considered basic to all our knowing, no one seems to know what exactly it is, and the concept is both widely used and much abused. For the better part of the twentieth century, the study of consciousness was viewed as unworthy of scholarly and scientific pursuit. Research has consequently suffered. This cross-cultural examination first explores the varieties of conscious experience and reflects on the attempts to understand and explain consciousness in the Western scholarly and scientific tradition. The next section deals with Eastern spiritual traditions and how they differ with and complement the Western viewpoints. In the final chapters the author reconciles the two traditions for a comprehensive understanding of what consciousness is, and considers how such an understanding may be helpful for a cross-cultural assessment of behavior, as well as for enhancing human abilities and wellness.
This book discusses the profound philosophy and practical psychology behind yoga, beyond its popular body-culture aspect. It pays particular attention to the psychological principles involved and their implications for the consummate understanding of human nature. It explores the psychological aspects of yoga theory and practice and discusses the aphorisms in Patanjali’s treatise on Yoga with necessary commentary in current psychological terminology to make them intelligible to students of psychology and other interested readers. Importantly, the author draws out the implications of these aphorisms for future psychological study and research. The book discusses the author’s concept of yoga of nonviolence which brings in Gandhian ideas into the framework of yoga. The author’s own vast experience in creating interfaces of yoga research with practice also informs the discussions in this book. This authoritative and topical book by an eminent academic like Professor Ramakrishna Rao is of interest to scholars and students of diverse disciplines, including but not limited to psychology, philosophy and wellbeing research.
Cognitive Anomalies Consciousness And Yoga ( Series: History Of Science, Philosophy And Culture In Indian Civilization / Volume Xvi Part 1 ) By K Ramakrishna Rao & General Editor: D. P. Chattopadhyaya Book Description The volumes of the Project Of History Of Science, Philosophy And Culsture In Indian Civilization aim to discover the central aspects of India's heritage and present them in an interrelated manner. In spite of their unitary look, these volumes recognize the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The Project is not being executed by a single group of thinkers, methodologically uniform or ideologically identical in their commitments. Rather, contributions are made by different scholars of diverse ideological persuasions and methodological approaches. The Project is marked by what may be called ‘methodological pluralism’. In spite of its primarily historical character, this project, both in its conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by scholars drawn from different disciplines. It is the first time that an endeavour of such unique and comprehensive character has been undertaken to study critically a major world civilization. Cognitive Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga is Professor Ramakrishna Rao's magnum opus, a culmination of life-long efforts to develop a comprehensive model of the person that is inclusive of our rational, emotional and spiritual dimensions without reducing or converting one into another. Professor Rao brings his vast scholarship in eastern and western thought systems and his experience as a practicing scientist and psychologist for a unified understanding of human nature. His arguments move with ease from Upanishadic conceptions to current phenomenological and existential discourses on the mind and from quantum mechanics and particle physics to neural correlates of consciousness. Professor Rao sets out in the book with the primary question who we are. Are we merely brain-driven machines? Is consciousness no more than a pack of neurons firing in synchrony? Is there anything in us that does not fit into the material framework of the universe and calls for a paradigmatic shift in our search for a more inclusive universe? These questions take him for an in-depth discussion of paranormal phenomena, extraordinary human abilities. Pointing to the pervasive scientific evidence in support of such abilities that cannot be wished away as unreal artefacts of sloppy research nor explained adequately on materialistic / reductionist models, Professor Rao argues that the current research paradigms are simply inadequate to study these phenomena. Extensive discussions of current research on consciousness bring into focus certain aspects of consciousness that in principle appear to defy all attempts to explain them within the physicalist framework. Prominent among them is subjectivity, the "what is it like" feel of experience. While acknowledging that physical models of the mind have contributed significantly to our understanding of cognitive abilities, Dr. Rao argues that they, however, leave many gaps in our knowledge of higher forms of consciousness. Professor Rao finds in Indian theories of mind and consciousness, especially Yoga, the necessary ingredients for a more comprehensive paradigm of human nature. From these ingredients, he develops the Trisula (Trident) model of the person as a composite of body, mind and consciousness. Body-Mind-Consciousness nexus in humans is conceived as a single unitary process, and yet one that takes on quantum jumps and qualitative leaps as we move on from bodily processes to mental experiences and to conscious phenomena. Consciousness and mind are independent and irreducible to each other, and yet are manifestations of the same process. The irreducibility aspect tends to lead us to mistakenly hypostasize them as non-interacting entities. Their origin from a single source gives us the temptation to reduce them into a single category. Cognitive Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga are three books in one. Each part can be read as separate and distinctive. However, together they give a comprehensive picture of the person. This, indeed, is a source book of serious ideas that could provoke much further discussion and research. About The Author Professor Koneru Ramakrishna Rao, is currently the Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi. He earlier served as Professor of Psychology and Vice-Chancellor at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India and Director of the Institute of Parapsychology and the Executive Director of the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man in USA. He studied at Andhra University and the University of Chicago and received Ph.D. and D.Lit. degrees in philosophy and psychology respectively. Among the 15 books he published earlier are Experimental Parapsychology: A Review and Interpretation (Charles C Thomas, 1966); Gandhi and Pragmatism (Oxford & IBH, 1969); Consciousness Studies: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (McFarland, 2002) and Cognitive Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga (Matrix Publishers, 2011). A member of numerous professional organizations in India and abroad, Prof. Ramakrishna Rao was elected thrice as President of the Parapsychological Association, an international society of scientists based in USA and twice as President of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. He is currently the President of Asian Congress of Philosophy. Dr. Rao travels widely and lectures at a large number of universities in India, Japan, and other Asian countries, USA, Canada and Europe. He worked at Duke University as a Research Associate and also taught at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and California Institute of Human Science. Professor Rao served as the Editor of the Journal of Parapsychology (USA) for nearly twenty years. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Indian Psychology. He continues to serve on the editorial boards of a number of philosophy and psychology journals in the country and abroad. Professor Ramakrishna Rao has received several honours for his scholarly contributions, the most recent being the Padma Shri Award from the President of India. He was also honoured by the award of the degrees of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from Andhra University (his alma mater) and Kakatiya University and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Nagarjuna University.
About the Author Prof. Koneru Ramakrishna Rao, PhD, DLitt, is currently Chancellor of GITAM (deemed to be) University. He has the rare distinction of being National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, and Distinguished Honorary Professor at Andhra University. His earlier academic appointments include Professor of Psychology and Vice-Chancellor at Andhra University; Executive Director, Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, USA; Chairman, A.P. State Council of Higher Education, and Advisor on Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He published 26 plus books and nearly 300 research papers. Prof. Rao received numerous honours that include the national award Padma Shri from the President of India and Honorary Doctoral degrees from Andhra, Acharya Nagarjuna and Kakatiya universities. He was elected as the President of the US-based Parapsychological Association, an international association of scientists involved in psi research, three times, the only Asian to be so honoured. About the Book This book is an autobiographical essay of a man who rose from a humble beginning in a remote village with one room elementary school to attend the University of Chicago, with its impressive Gothic structures ranked among the best in the world; and to become the Chancellor of a prestigious university in the country. Dr Rao attributes all this to destiny. Destiny in this view constitutes the circumstances in which one is situated; but it is the deftness with which one manoeuvres himself through the maze of circumstances that really matters in the final analysis. The book is offered as a possible source to inspire the aspiring individual not only to set noble goals but also find possible ways of reaching them. Blessed is the one who moves his way upward without hurting himself or others in the process. This has been the guiding principle of Dr Rao.
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