---
product_id: 60847555
title: "Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy"
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---

# Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

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Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy [Thompson, Evan, Batchelor, Stephen] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

Review: Is there consciousness beyond death? Probably... - This book is an invitation to delve into buddhist philosophies and history and their points of contact with the Western science of the mind to inquire about the usefulness of meditation. The author, a brain scientist who is also a practicing buddhist, minutely discusses a challenging problem: can we still "exist" after our body stops living? Is there consciousness beyond death? The book also attends to the many paradoxes and perplexities that remain unanswered, though the author wisely engages the reader in an eventful dialogue. The book is wealthy in information, ingenious in elaborating arguments and exploring the subject matter from diverse and often oppositional points of view. It treats the reader as an adult capable of following a complex line of thought as the author is always willing to go the extra mile giving good examples and explaining the meaning and drift of every unfamiliar or technical term. The similarity between the title of Heidegger's essay "Building Dwelling Thinking" and the title of this book --"Waking Dreaming Being"--should not go unnoticed, as "Waking" gives us the opportunity to gather and build upon the elements of material reality, "Dreaming" is the place where we dwell in other to transform that material into knowledge, and "Being" is what we become through the activity of thinking and meditating. It is fun to read and never morose even in its most obscure passages. It took me a week to reach the last page, but when I finished I felt my week had been well spent.
Review: Down another rabbit hole - I would like to give this five stars, but the author limits himself to a narrow subject that mostly concerns whether or not consciousness exists apart from the physical body, the brain in particular. This may be fascinating stuff for some, even for many, but is of little interest to me. The waking and dreaming chapters hold moderate interest for me, and the being chapter was disappointing especially, as I read it. Still, if you like the Dali Lama and his thinking, then you may enjoy reading this book. The Dali Lama is a thoughtful man. Unfortunately, I believe that thought is the booby prize in this pursuit.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #359,278 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #316 in Consciousness & Thought Philosophy #359 in Medical Cognitive Psychology #581 in Cognitive Psychology (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (242) |
| Dimensions  | 5.9 x 1.2 x 8.9 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 0231136951 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0231136952 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 496 pages |
| Publication date  | August 8, 2017 |
| Publisher  | Columbia University Press |

## Images

![Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Vht0TEaoL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Is there consciousness beyond death? Probably...
*by L***O on February 17, 2015*

This book is an invitation to delve into buddhist philosophies and history and their points of contact with the Western science of the mind to inquire about the usefulness of meditation. The author, a brain scientist who is also a practicing buddhist, minutely discusses a challenging problem: can we still "exist" after our body stops living? Is there consciousness beyond death? The book also attends to the many paradoxes and perplexities that remain unanswered, though the author wisely engages the reader in an eventful dialogue. The book is wealthy in information, ingenious in elaborating arguments and exploring the subject matter from diverse and often oppositional points of view. It treats the reader as an adult capable of following a complex line of thought as the author is always willing to go the extra mile giving good examples and explaining the meaning and drift of every unfamiliar or technical term. The similarity between the title of Heidegger's essay "Building Dwelling Thinking" and the title of this book --"Waking Dreaming Being"--should not go unnoticed, as "Waking" gives us the opportunity to gather and build upon the elements of material reality, "Dreaming" is the place where we dwell in other to transform that material into knowledge, and "Being" is what we become through the activity of thinking and meditating. It is fun to read and never morose even in its most obscure passages. It took me a week to reach the last page, but when I finished I felt my week had been well spent.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Down another rabbit hole
*by B***G on February 20, 2015*

I would like to give this five stars, but the author limits himself to a narrow subject that mostly concerns whether or not consciousness exists apart from the physical body, the brain in particular. This may be fascinating stuff for some, even for many, but is of little interest to me. The waking and dreaming chapters hold moderate interest for me, and the being chapter was disappointing especially, as I read it. Still, if you like the Dali Lama and his thinking, then you may enjoy reading this book. The Dali Lama is a thoughtful man. Unfortunately, I believe that thought is the booby prize in this pursuit.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Wide-ranging look at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy and phenomenology
*by K***O on May 20, 2016*

This book covers a wide-ranging gamut of topics around consciousness, including various aspects of perception, awareness, dreaming/lucid dreaming, sleeping, dying, and a theory of the "enacted self" ("I" as a process). The chapters are chock-full of references to neuroscience studies that are quite relevant, presented neatly in context, and highly thought-provoking. The philosophical discussion (mostly Buddhist and some Vedanta) is well integrated and logically presented. The tone is simulanteously openminded and sober, striking an intriguing balance somewhere between the skepticism of Sam Harris and the idealism of Deepak Chopra. One challenge for me was wading through some of the verbose logical explanations and repetition of some concepts. In places, the book seemed to be written to anticipate the arguments of adversarial philosophers; those parts were less interesting to me. I didn't care how well the book could defend some esoteric models or refute others. What interested me was how well it could bring together philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives, in a way that suggested promising avenues for both experiential and research investigation. It did a fine job at this. The book concludes with an "enacted self" theory on the nature of the ego's construction, which brings together various threads explored in earlier chapters. As far as theories of enlightenment go, it's fairly restrained. It successfully resists (as does the book as a whole) the temptation to claim knowledge beyond one's own experience. It serves to close out the book on its own terms. For me, the book's conclusion was secondary. What's more compelling is the wide-ranging look at the current state and thoughtful recommendations for future work at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and phenomenology.

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*Last updated: 2026-03-13*