Quotes from Robert Ornstein

But most of us, for most of our lives, do not try to determine the causes of things. Rather, most of the time we try to get by; to eat, sleep, and of course, to reproduce. In other words, we are mainly concerned with surviving, getting along in a complex and changing world, in short, with adapting rather than with interference.

Many of us have experienced the difficulty in successfully 'giving up' doing something; too often, trying to give it up seems only to keep one focused on the forbidden object or enterprise — enhancing the desire rather than taming it…

deactivating this area (right parietal lobe) of the brain that controls self, time and space enhances virtues such as forgiveness, and allows us to take a "higher" view of life.

the injunction to act virtuously, which is found in all traditions, is as a 'means of travel,' intended to move consciousness away from our ordinary, self-centered mode to a greater vision — as do other 'ego-reduction' techniques.

Spiritual experiences are described as 'selfless,' 'timeless,' 'placeless,' 'thing-less' and 'higher,' ... they are nonverbal and so difficult to talk about — and, if talked about, confuse the listeners and sometimes even put them off.

The simplest, most comprehensive and hardest to disprove explanation for absolutely everything that ever could happen anywhere, at any time, is, of course, 'it was God's will.

Consciousness is the awareness of awareness.

Finding and knowing, rather than absorbing dictums, is what "deeper understanding" is. It is a conscious and direct perception of the unity of life, a removal of the mind's internal barriers to direct understanding and knowledge, and "seeing" truth on another level.

the capstone to Robert Ornstein's brilliant, ground-breaking half century of research into the dimensions, capacities, and purposes of human consciousness. —Tony Hiss

This landmark book shines new light on things we thought we understood. —Charles Swencionis

There will be no further evolution without conscious evolution. - Robert Ornstein, The Evolution of Consciousness

A fine, fine book, lucid, unsmug, amazingly comprehensive. Reading [it] I felt over and over again that this was the book I had been waiting for. —The New Yorker

An original and explosive book. It starts out by making psychology, the science of the mind, what's it actually is—as exciting and suspenseful as a good mystery story. —George B. Leonard