The Dawn of Mind
In The Dawn of Mind, Inner Space Institute founder and director James Cooke PhD synthesizes science and spirituality to show where consciousness fits in to our understanding of existence.
“A gripping exploration of the science and philosophy of consciousness that reads like a Dan Brown thriller. The Dawn of Mind presents a radical and compelling solution to the age-old mystery of consciousness. James Cooke deftly interweaves scientific inquiry and spiritual insight to resolve multiple mysteries of the mind and of our place in reality. A timely book that captures the moment we are in, where modern science and ancient wisdom traditions are converging through paradigms such as meditation research and psychedelic medicine. An invaluable perspective on the elusive connection between matter and mind, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the greatest enigma of our time.”
Shamil Chandaria PhD, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Oxford University, Research Fellow at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, and at The School of Advanced Study’s Institute of Philosophy, University of London.
“The Dawn of Mind is not just a book about consciousness — it is an experience. You will come away with a new understanding of the nature of mind and cosmos, one that helps bridge the unnecessary gap between science and spirituality.”
Bobby Azarian PhD, author of The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity
"Dr. James Cooke is a fascinating thinker, neuroscientist, and explorer of consciousness. In The Dawn of the Mind he guides readers on a journey through the many approaches to consciousness and mind. We are in a period where the world's scientific and spiritual traditions are coming together in good and bad ways. Dr. Cooke's new book is a great guide for navigating this transformation."
Prof. W. Keith Campbell PhD, University of Georgia, Author of The New Science of Narcissism.
“A visionary theoretical framework and a practical guide to understanding our interconnected existence.”
Rowman & Littlefield
“A remarkably current and forward-looking treatment. This book uses all my favourite words—in the right order—and some I have never encountered before. It offers a delightful narrative, grounded in state-of-the-art thinking about what it is to be an observer or, in the author's words, BEING IS BELIEVING.”
Karl Friston, FRS FMedSci FRSB, University College London, the world’s most-cited living neuroscientist.
“If as James Cooke suggests in his carefully argued and well explicated scientific and practical investigation of All of the Right Questions, "All that exists is a single relational process that we call reality", then this enthusiastic blurb is part of it. So hear my ringing declaration that if you follow along and periodically argue with Dr. Cooke in this book, you'll be gifted with a clear eyed short course in the mysteries of life and consciousness, including your role in this "single relational process we call reality." What could be better than that for you, here and now?”
Richard Doyle PhD, Professor of English and of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University, author of Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noosphere, On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences, and Into the Stillness: Dialogues on Awakening Beyond Thought (co-authored with Gary Weber)
“James Cooke’s new book is part of a growing movement away from substance metaphysics and materialistic science toward a more process-relational approach to the fundamental nature of reality and our human place within it. Cooke not only skillfully introduces some of the implications of such a shift, which directly challenges reductionism, but also carefully steers clear of idealistic excesses. The relational turn in evidence in this book is a welcome sign that the tide is beginning to turn in the study of consciousness.”
Matt Segall PhD, Associate Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Department at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), author of Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead's Adventure in Cosmology, The Re-Emergence of Schelling: Philosophy in a Time of Emergency, and Crossing the Threshold:
Etheric Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead.