Ming Singer’s Trilogy on “Human Mind and Consciousness”

This website focuses primarily on my eBook, Guiding dreams and visions: A personal account (2011), which is the last book of my trilogy on the subject of human mind and consciousness. The first two of the trilogy were published in print form: Unbounded consciousness: Qualia, mind and self, was published in 2001; and the second, Sentience: Companion to reason, in 2003.

The trilogy aims to present what I believe to be a fuller contour of human mind and consciousness. This contour embraces the scientifically explicable and common-to-all aspects of consciousness through to the more private and subjective human experience including dreams and a variety of credible yet unique mental experience, which are unaccountable by the present-day laboratory science. “Unbounded consciousness” addresses the former co-knowable aspects of the mind; “Sentience” moved from there to the latter subjective domain.

“Unbounded consciousness” provides reviews of relevant literatures from philosophy, physical sciences (micro quantum and macro dynamic-system approaches), and human sciences (cognitive science, neuro-physiological and neuro-anatomical models). The reviews identify a persistent historical trend in dividing the holistic mind (self, or consciousness) into its “third-personal, agentic-reasoning” aspect and its “first-personal, subjective-sentient” aspect. This trend has led to today’s lopsided intellectual climate characterized by “science-over-spirit” or “reason-over-sentience”.

For the study of human mind and consciousness, this “reason-sentience divide”, by marginalizing the self’s unique experiences, thus diminishes the unceasing dialectic dynamics between reason and sentience. However, such constant interacting dynamics necessitate and underpin a fuller understanding of the subject on mind and consciousness.

The 2^nd book of the trilogy, “Sentience: Companion to reason”, focuses on bridging this divide. It first brings together the unifying principles in physical and biological sciences (system self-organising, covert multiplicity of possibilities, “intent” makes manifest corresponding covert possibility). Congruent with these unifying natural principles, a mind-reality is then described and supported with literatures in secular and esoteric philosophies and psychologies.

The second half of “Sentience” addresses and highlights the pragmatic and beneficial consequences of subjective sentient experience. It is argued that unique personal experiences can serve the function of guiding, affirming and fostering the individual’s work and purpose in life. A selection of existing first-personal accounts is presented to illustrate this point.

However, the guiding functions of private experience go well beyond our life’s work, they embrace all significant aspects of life’s journey. “Sentience” only covers the guidance for life’s work and thus leaves all other beneficial consequences unexplored. Because of this, the 3^rd book of the trilogy, “Guiding dreams and visions: A personal account” completes that coverage.

To illustrate sentient experience’s many other beneficial consequences in this 3^rd eBook, I have made available a small collection of my own experience over several decades. The beneficial guiding functions were discussed under the categories of “Life’s work”, “Dealing with stress and moral dilemmas”, “All spiritual traditions end in the one divine spirit”, “Our heritage”, “Dreams of afterlife and my father”, and “Guiding dreams that come through significant-others”.

Unlike existing titles on dream and dream analysis, which deal with discrete dreams across different individuals, this present eBook covers guiding experiences from one single person’s (my own) continuous stream of consciousness over time. As such, among existing books in the category of dream interpretation, “Guiding dreams and visions” thus takes a more appropriate, yet rare, comprehensive and longitudinal approach.

As a preview, the preface of this ebook is available on this website under the icon, “The eBook/audioBook”. A brief review from the Ivy House Publishing Group can also be viewed under the icon, “Review from Ivy House Publishing Group”.

For prospective readers, I would sincerely suggest that you keep in mind this one overriding issue: our individual consciousness is part and parcel of the ever-expanding layers of larger group-minds and collective consciousness; their intricate interconnectedness and thoroughgoing entanglements thus ensure an unceasing and ever-evolving influence of one over the other.

So, to help readers to gain a broad picture of our present-day collective consciousness as well as its influence over our own individual lives, I have made available, on this website, my writing on this subject (taken from Sentience: Companion to reason, London: FAB, p.128-143). To view this, please click on the icon, “Present-day collective consciousness and consequences for individuals”.

Conversely, a person’s own guiding sentient experience, when acted upon, can most often benefit a great many other lives. The award-winning neurosurgeon, Dr. Alan Hamilton has given his own accounts in his book, The scalpel and the soul (2008). In my short book, “Guiding graces for our life’s work” (2009), I have collected many other similar kinds of examples from a wide range of existing literatures. This book is available on this website under the icon bearing its title.

Lastly, given that this eBook is the third of my trilogy on consciousness, I think that, for readers interested in a more comprehensive understanding of human mind and consciousness, it would be helpful to also take a look at the first two books. The two icons bearing the titles provide links to the books’ information and their brief synopses.