What the Hell are the Neurons Up To?: The Wire-Dangled Human Race

''Know Thyself.'' Such was the advice constantly offered over 2,000 years ago by the famed Greek Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. It was given in response to those who sought her counsel regarding the course their destiny was likely to take. It is still sound advice for most of us in the modern world. To come to really know oneself-discover one's distinctive temperament and character-requires frequent self-scrutiny. It is well nigh impossible to know what makes one ''tick'' without recognizing the nature of one's attitudes and responses to life in the outside world, while also acknowledging the highly personal inner psychological drives of feeling, thought and imagination. The consciousness that impels us is psychologically deep and wide-ranging. The search for the essential Self requires a ''Sherlock Holmes'' mentality and discipline: it's a hell of a job to unify outer and inner ''consciousnesses.'' This book should help. Every chapter can be seen and read as its own ''story'' describing an especially significant aspect of consciousness. Cumulatively, they are meant to help readers attain a sense of their own body-mind-spirit complexes and who they are as entities unto themselves. And then to ask the question as to where ''reality'' is to be found: in the mental life of thoughts and feelings . . . or in physical encounters with the material world of time and space?