The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain (Princeton Legacy Library) Paperback – March 8, 2015

Good!!!!!’

I enjoyed reading this book. It was not too complex or too detailed for the lay person. It was an honest and thoughtful perspective of a neurosurgeon who asks questions philosophically regarding the origin and energy source with regard to the mind. The brain is an organic structure that functions much like a computer. The mind is more like the programmer. His first hand experience of working with patients with epilepsy and the responses of these when electrical stimulation was applied to various regions of the brain help to support his premise.

I found Penfield's writing about the "mind" and "spirit" to be fascinating. Scientists know what part of the brain is responsible for things like speech, sight, memory, sight, hearing, movement, etc. But what makes humans act and think the way we do? What is responsible for thought, reasoning, conscience, and those things that cant be measured? He describes the brain to be like a "computer that needs to be programmed". I found all his writing to be very interesting and informative. Some of the medical information was over my head as a lay person. But as a former patient of Montreal Neurological Hospital who had this very surgery while Awake for epilepsy, it brought back many memories of how they "poked" around in my brain and it created sensations in various areas of my body. For anyone interested in how the brain and mind work, this is an easy to read, interesting book. Like Dr. Feindel says in the introduction:" the brain is the most organized structure in the universe".

I found Wilder Penfield's research with epileptic patients, fascinating. Reading his accounts of subjects responding to his "poking around" in their brains inspired me to read on. I was amazed that such poking could cause the recollection of detailed memories or the bodies of his subjects to react consistent with the area poked. It is remarkable that this brain surgeon was so puzzled by the fact that he could find no "record" in the brain of decision-making. His analogy of a "programmer" for the "computer/brain," gave even more data to the assumption of a "spirit" that resides in a person until death. I found it a reinforcement of what I already believe, but also surprising that a physician, who was not intending to propose such a hypothesis, came to such a conclusion. The book is very interesting reading for anyone who is interested in the workings of the brain or who is inquisitive about the existence of a "spirit" or a "mind" in human beings.

Today's secular scientists make an underlying assumption that only matter and energy (and space and time) exist. But this work, done over a half century ago, and the follow on work such as that down by Jeffrey Schwartz (MD-neuroscientist) show the existence of the immaterial portion of who we are. Penfield (and Schwartz) call this the "mind"--as distinguished from the "brain." The Bible calls this the "soul." An interesting thing to ponder: how does one "kill" something immaterial? Could the soul truly exist eternally?

Very Good!!!!!😀

This book is a classic. An excellent read for anyone pondering where the brain ends and the mind begins.

The book makes reference to several illustrations that are not included, and it was quite disappointing when I was searching for the appropriate diagrams, but they were simply not included.