Brief Tour Of Human Consciousness [Hardcover]

The book is divided into two main sections; the actual book, consisting of no more than 112 pages, more or less half the total of pages, plus the notes, glossary and other small portions that constitute the other half. I usually prefer when notes are added at the bottom of every relevant page rather than have the reader switch to the end of the book every few pages. In the case of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness, this would have been impossible since nearly half the book (or a good third) is written in the notes. Instead, most of these notes include further information that could have fitted the normal flow of the book had they been better integrated directly into the text.

This work feels a bit disjointed, in that there is initially no clear direction to where the narrative is going exactly, although it is highly fascinating throughout and does come together rather nicely towards the end. Never too scientific or complex to become tedious, it remains a fun ride into the human mind that’ll make you suddenly aware of several processes that we take for granted and rarely consider. The author’s descriptions of the various processes at work simply related to vision is quite astounding, as are many of the experiments described in the book with patients who suffer from various disabilities. This alone is well worth the price of admission. The book touches many interesting topics, such as language, evolution, art, free will, various mental and physical illnesses, and many other aspects relevant to the human mind, which are all truly fascinating.

Unfortunately, many questions also remain unanswered as Professor Ramachandran talks about future experiments and potential results by clearly admitting that there is much work yet to be done. A good portion of the book remains highly speculative. There is the odd bit of humour that seems a bit out of place, such as peculiar references to Germans and Jews (albeit separately) that I visibly did not fully understand, though various other funny moments fared much better, thankfully.

There also comes the problem of repetition, where the same ideas are sometimes mentioned more than once throughout the book, and the poor black and white pictures are mediocre at best. Some diagrams are unreadable and appeared better suited at colour printing, though they are fortunately very few and usually not required for full understanding of the main elements.

Despite these few minor setbacks, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness should appeal to curious minds interested in a light overview and better understanding of their own selves. The book’s five chapters had me smiling to myself more than once and later provided many hours of interesting conversations with friends and colleagues!