Powers of Mind

by Adam Smith

Powers of Mind

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, Science

418 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

For other authors of this name, see Adam Smith.

Adam Smith FRSA FRS FRSE was a Scottish philosopher and economist who was a pioneer in thinking on political economy and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. He wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations , is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work that treats economics as a comprehensive system and as an academic discipline.

Authorities recorded his baptism on 16 June 1723 at Kirkcaldy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith

Reviews

[Jay Cresva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm still asking myself what this book was about, and I don't think there's an answer to this- at least at this point. It's a book I hated picking up, and once I did and started reading, it grabbed me with surprising force. Why was I hesitant to continue with the book? Who wanted to know about psychonauts and other speculative things that are outside the realm of science-the one and true human religion? I didn't like it at first, but had no choice but to surrender to its power. The book spoke to me so much that hairs on my back stood up and gave it a due standing ovation.

So I'll summarize the book quite haphazardly here-
-It begins with the placebo effect. And asks why it works at all? My understanding is that it's because expectancies create biofeedback loops, and in turn tricks the body into performing unexpectedly. Nothing voodoo here.

-There's a section about the stigmata phenomenon. There's only scientific speculations about this. Ample material to philosophize about the Christ's influence in mortals' lives.

-Why can people speak fluent Greek under hypnosis? Recall time, places, and events they possibly could not know about?- no, it really is the question posed in the book, with a slight hint to the answer.

-Big part of the book is about meditation...of different kinds. There is one type where one just stays still and observe the world around him/her. There's also another type where you hum stuff (mostly in Sanskrit..once a free language for millions) for $100 or more (in the 60's more than any other era). Another type that got lost in translation, resurrected in Japan as Zen. There's also another type where one would go into a tank where noise can't reach you, but you get to hallucinate, and perhaps reach your own soul.
All the biological effects of meditation are the same. It creates biofeedback loops, and lets your body carry out what it wants to- efficiently. Who knows what happens outside the realm of science? Slowing down the heart to the point of death, and coming back- yogis did that. Sticking needles and not bleeding- meditators tried that. But they managed to do that by controlling their bodies with discipline, like meditation.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the meditating brain emits alpha waves, worrying/preoccupied brains emits beta waves, there are other waves, but they're not common as the alpha and beta. The author doesn't go into the theories about alpha/beta and their relevance to modern life- and that's a point worth considering if someone's thinking of reading this book.

-With the topic of mediation comes the business of meditation. Ever since people thousands of years ago claimed that they had achieved Nirvana, there were people trying to rip off the unenlightened. It was probably worse during the 60's when The Beatles started to notice and promote the Eastern philosophies. First came TM with its mantras, then the Eastern philosophies got translated and integrated into new views. They invaded every part of life. 'We are one Earth, one consciousness, so we must not harm the planet"- came the Esalens and their self-efficacy. "You harbor disharmony within your body, and one must use special techniques to liberate you."-came ROLFING (at first I thought it was rofl-ing- though you do get to lie down on the floor, but only the practitioner is laughing at your stupidity to spend money on this crap). There are 'Packagers' who come up with the ideas, often times blending Aurobindo and Wittgenstein's views together, and boom!- there's an Ashram popping up in the woods.


-Now to something interesting like spoon bending, metal breaking, and telepathy. There's no explanations to these yet. The author himself claimed to be tested by one of the psychics who had successfully guessed what he was staring at building away. There's was one dude who predicted the intimate properties of planets by teleporting there, and pissed off NASA by doing so. Why send billion dollar rockets to distant planets only to be told by some Joeshmo 'I told you so'? Of course the author doesn't investigate if these are hoaxes/frauds or not.

-There's an alternative story to why Freud and Jung had split.
Jung once said

.I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

.
, and when his table exploded for no apparent reason, he just had to consult his more 'rational' mentor- Freud. They were discussing something that one can't see, hear, smell, and according to physics- has no weight, mass, or velocity- the unconscious. All of a sudden a loud noise from the bookcase startled them both. Jung tried to justify that by saying something like 'look, this is a perfect example!' which caused fraud to reply 'that's pure bosh, Jung".
With unnatural confidence Jung told him " to prove my point, I now predict that in a moment there will be another report!" and there again was the loud bang! Obviously Freud got spooked and thought Jung was trying to trick him, and eventually he started mistrusted him.
The noise was coming from the shelf holding books on the Occult (why did Freud have them?).

-Finally, he ended the book with the uncertainties within physics. The wave/ particle duality, quantum physics and all the goodies to keep the irrationalists cheering. How can you say this or that doesn't exist when your paradigm has holes in 'em? I will end how author had ended his book, with T.S. Eliot -

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
...
And the end of all our exploring.
Will be to arrive where we started.
And know the place for the first time

My rating: [★★★★/5]

[Lulu Fleming-Benite · Rating 5 out of 5]

mind expansion

[James Bovay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading books about est (the Carl Frederick book is garbage, the Sheridan Fenwick book is great as straight reportage of the experience, and the LA library doesn't have the Luke Reinhart one) but George Goodman did it all- est, TM, Arica, Zen &c. &c. &c. His style is reminiscent of HST. Terrific book.

[Reg Aubry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy good, fun romp through the parapsychology of the '70s.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clearly written conversation about things our rational consensus deems unpossible.

[Isaiah Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reading this was 10 years ago, found at a small library in Costa Rica. Just completed it again, still very interesting.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Smith (not the "invisible hand" one) branches out from financial writing to look at mid-seventies explorations of higher consciousness (apparently some of them were quite popular on Wall Street at the time). As someone who was around back then, it was interesting to read about transcendental meditation, biofeedback, EST, LSD (Smith tried it back when it was legal) Uri Geller and various other explorations of our mind. As someone who meditates ineffectively, I found it quite useful as a prompt. Smith isn't a gung-ho believer, but he definitely feels there's something there, at least in some of the processes. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to, but I would recommend it.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discusses the Worldy pursuit of all areas of study relating to the mind.Most of society uses very little of the untapped potential that is available to them in their own intellect. This book serves as a Catalyst , or waypoint, if you will, to unlocking that potential of the vast unused resources within our own minds.Food for thought.

[Alana Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting books I've ever read. For anyone wanting to right about the "flower power" era, this captures the spiritual/intellectual questing. It's intelligently written and the author is pretty funny! A great book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from my friend's step-dad's book shelf at fifteen from in a room with a vaulted ceiling where they had a lot of wine parties. the power we wanted was the way to get to that wine.