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"...I mean it. Consider precognitive phenomena. I have long thought of these as the most well-documented and philosophically important of all impossible events. As such, they carry immense potential for influencing everything intellectuals and scientists do. If taken as real (by which I simply mean, “they happen��), such experiences and events (and they are both) would transform the entire order of knowledge upon which our present culture depends, the sciences included. For a start, they could tell us something stunning about the practice of history (time goes both ways), the history of religions (divination is globally distributed because it is based on an actual, if unreliable, human ability), the philosophy of mind (consciousness and cognition are not stuck in the present skull cavity or in this temporal slice of a body), and even something as abstract as causality itself (agency can act from the future). If we want to begin to learn how to think impossibly, precognitive phenomena are going to be a key to any such new order of knowledge."

"Impossible things certainly happen in numerous cultural zones and through specific ritual practices on a fairly routine basis. This is why a comparative practice is so necessary, so liberating and healing, but also so devastating to our local assumptions. Trained intellectuals who experience the impossible are commonly shocked and often see and say more or less the same thing: “It is not what we thought.��13
That is the very first lesson of thinking impossibly: recognizing that the impossible is a function not of reality but of our own present social constructions and subsequent perceptions and cognitions. That is also the humanist’s secret taken to its furthest point until it bends back on itself and consumes its own historical perspective. That is the deconstruction of deconstruction. That is the snake biting its own tail."

"...But what happens if you take a tablespoon of dust or dirt and stir it into a quart of water? Add a tablespoon of that slurry into another bottle, then press repeat and dilute it one more time. If you looked at the murky blend through a microscope, you’d start to appreciate the complexity of dust. Tiny crystals and mineral chunks mix with flakes of rotten wood, legs and hairs of insects, soot, odd-looking eggs, and fibers from plants and your clothes. Microscopic algae and protists bump into each other and veer off like windup toys. Dust is alive.
If you treat the diluted mud with a dye that binds to DNA—the chemical compound that makes up the genes of all living things�� and shine ultraviolet light through it, microscopic life lights up like the Milky Way, a universe in a drop of water.2 Bacteria and viruses shine like stars. Pollen grains drift by like glowing blimps. And among all these particles are the extending tubular cells, geometrical spores, and budding yeast cells of fungi."

"This book is a journey through the hidden world of fungi and their relationships with humans, other living things, and our environment.
We will look at how we use fungi, and how they use us, as we strive for a sustainable future.
Looking back, I can see that my family history and childhood experiences set me on a path with an unexpected result. I didn’t plan to be a fungus guy—who does?"

"...When we think of minds changing we usually think of psychological changes that affect our moods and outlook. Or neurological changes following a head injury or during an illness. But the changes I am interested in run much deeper. They span the evolutionary history of our early human ancestors and shape every aspect of who we are �� our emotions, our memories, our languages, our intelligence and, indeed, the very fabric of our cultures and societies. It might not feel like it, but we are all heirs to millions of years of brain evolution: countless trial-and-error experiments in our mind’s relationship with the natural world. As a result, we are cleverer and more interconnected than our forebears ever imagined."

"Scholars in the new field of discursive psychology, a branch of science that investigates how the self is socially constructed, are particularly interested in how people’s pronouns affect their sense of self. According to these scholars, the self is a ‘continuous production�� built from words and culture. Until recently, the first-person pronouns ‘I��, ‘me�� and ‘mine�� predominated in Western society. Now, however, dozens of pronouns are used to express various identities: ‘ze��, ‘ey��, ‘hir��, ‘xe��, ‘hen��, ‘ve��, ‘ne��, ‘per��, ‘thon�� and more. Sticklers for grammar view this as an assault on the English language. Sticklers for tradition view it as a slippery slope to government-mandated speech codes.
Yet far from being new-age gobbledygook or an omen of tyranny, novel pronouns in fact have a crucial social function. They reveal your personality, reflect important differences among groups and help knit communities together."

"Even today, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-IV, defines autism as a condition manifesting in an ‘abnormal development in social interaction and communication, and a markedly restricted repertoire of activity and interests.�� But I am reluctant to accept the words of a psychiatric organisation that as recently as 1968 defined homosexuality as ‘a mental disorder��."

"...A time when much of the world has access to rigorously produced, independent, and carefully curated information on everything from our health to details about the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. There are more highly trained researchers than at any time in human history. There are more diverse voices and perspectives in the knowledge- creation mix. There is more research happening on more things. And there are more ways to access and share the knowledge produced by that research and analysis.
This is all good. And it should continue to excite and amaze us. It should give us hope that we can find rational and evidence-informed answers to our problems, both big and small. Both personal and societal."

"The present reality: our information environment—that space where we seek, contribute to, and interact with the world’s knowledge—is completely and truly f*cked. It is a tangle of lies, distortions, and rage- filled rants. This has created a massive paradox: we have more access to more knowledge than ever before and, at the same time, less and less certainty about the issues that matter to us.
Everybody knows this. It is a truism of our time. But it gets worse. The tools we use to navigate through the noise and to find some semblance of certainty—science and academic analysis, expert opinions, representations of consensus, and evidence- informed recommendations—are also being corrupted and twisted, often rendering them near useless. There are, for example, fewer transformative scientific discoveries happening now than in past decades, but research is hyped now more than ever. There are an increasing number of fake and poor- quality scientific journals that pollute both the academic literature and public discourse. It has become the norm to use bad science—and science-y language—to sell us bogus products, procedures, and policy agendas. Fake consumer reviews and ratings exploit our desire for authentic opinion. And even our search for clarity is manipulated by marketers using a manufactured and illusory certainty about what is healthy, needed, and good. We are adrift in a storm of information chaos, and we are tearing down the lighthouses."

"...The researchers paid hundreds of hardcore Fox News watchers fifteen dollars an hour to watch seven hours of CNN for an entire month. Despite the fact that many of the participants were likely suspicious of the goals of the research (“you’re trying to brainwash us with Anderson Cooper propaganda!��), the results were both surprising and encouraging. Watching CNN caused the Fox News fans to alter their perspectives, even on highly contentious and politically polarized issues..."

"While this is just one study with obvious limitations (paying people to be exposed to different perspectives isn’t a sustainable solution!), it is clear we need to consider ways to penetrate the citadels of certainty created by information echo chambers."

"...These questions occurred to me when I first met a spotted dolphin in the wild one humid summer morning in 1985. I swam slowly away from my anchored boat through the gin-clear waters of a shallow sandbank in the Bahamas. The water was calm and peaceful, and there was no land in sight. Two dolphins approached and swam around me, looking directly into my eyes. Exchanging eye contact with a wild creature is like a splash of ice-cold water on your face. I sensed a keen and mutually exploratory awareness. Ten years later, after experiencing strong currents and large sharks, I would have a different type of respect for the ocean, one that wouldn’t allow me to swim out so far alone with such a calmness. But this first experience was different..."

"This book is also an opportunity to talk about the focus of my current work: using artificial intelligence (AI) tools—like machine-learning software that can help us categorize sounds—to look for language in animal communication. With today’s discussion of bots or AI agents like ChatGPT, the concept of technology mimicking language will no doubt seem familiar.
As a scientist who has worked for over three decades to implement similar systems with wild dolphins, I have collaborated with other people, across research disciplines, to create new communication programs with our unique dataset of dolphin sounds and to determine potential language patterns. In the last few years, I have worked with computer scientist Thad Starner and his team at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and we have been able to identify and analyze dolphin sounds in new ways.9 I argue that we see rules, including grammar, that appear to be very important to the dolphins. We are creating a user interface so that other researchers can use these new tools to explore their recordings of other animals."

"Think about it: Why do we cook chocolate chip cookies for 10 minutes and not 20 minutes? Why does steak taste differently cooked at different temperatures? Why do we knead bread? What determines the amount of egg required for making mayonnaise? Although these recipes might have been discovered empirically, the reasons for these rules are strongly rooted in science and the scientific method. We created the class together with our colleagues and friends Ferran Adrià and José Andrés, two of the most inventive chefs on the planet, both of whom dreamed that the discoveries and innovations they had used so successfully in their restaurants could inspire people to learn to think about science."

"Combining science with cooking, and learning from their respective viewpoints, establishes a very fruitful dialogue. Although we have been cooking and searching for universal knowledge for millennia, these exercises have intersected only sporadically in human history. The turning point likely came in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when a group of scientists started experimenting with what they called molecular gastronomy: a scientific attempt to explain why different reactions take place to make a series of culinary preparations possible.
Importantly, understanding the composition of the products and the reactions produced by culinary techniques has been beneficial beyond improving haute cuisine and dining experiences. It has also made it possible to better determine why certain allergies and intolerances occur—this is a phenomenon of growing importance for society in general, and catering in particular, often to the extent that certain tables will require different menus.
Furthermore, advanced knowledge of products and preparations not only allows us greater innovative and creative ability, but being aware of everything that can happen on the microbiological scale also contributes to achieving increased food safety and hygiene."

"We all have defining moments in our lives—meaningful experiences that stand out in our memory. Many of them owe a great deal to chance: A lucky encounter with someone who becomes the love of your life. A new teacher who spots a talent you didn’t know you had. A sudden loss that upends the certainties of your life. A realization that you don’t want to spend one more day in your job. These moments seem to be the product of fate or luck or maybe a higher power’s interventions. We can’t control them.
But is that true? Must our defining moments just happen to us?"

"In this book, we have two goals: First, we want to examine defining moments and identify the traits they have in common. What, specifically, makes a particular experience memorable and meaningful? Our research shows that defining moments share a set of common elements.
Second, we want to show you how you can create defining moments by making use of those elements. Why would you want to create them? To enrich your life. To connect with others. To make memories. To improve the experience of customers or patients or employees.
Our lives are measured in moments, and defining moments are the ones that endure in our memories. In the pages ahead, we’ll show you how to make more of them."

"...Did the poor sap freeze while ice swimming? Was he squished by an asteroid or was he swallowed by a whale? Sometimes they won’t even tell you!
And when they do reveal a cause of death—say the obituary provides a tantalizing detail like “tragically killed by an oversize magnet”—the story quickly moves on to next of kin while you’re left wondering if magnetism even can be lethal. They are skipping the most interesting part!"
We understand your frustration, so we set out to resolve it. We pick up where even the most elucidating obituary leaves off.
We tell you what really happens when you jump into space wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. We explain why Boeing doesn’t let you roll your window down on the 747, and we explore the problems with swimming in the deepest part of the ocean with as much science and gruesome detail as your stomach will allow.
In other words: Stephen King meets Stephen Hawking. The upside in wading through all this gruesomeness is you may accidentally learn some science, a bit of medicine, and what to do if a shark begins circling you (encourage him to eat your entire leg�� not just a chunk)."

"Sperm whales have the most expensive poop in the world. Their bile duct secretion, called ambergris, is a prized commodity in the perfume industry. A one-pound chunk is worth around sixty thousand dollars."

"...Interestingly, you would be fine. Normally, traveling through space at the speed of light is not recommended. It’s not the speed or acceleration that’s dangerous, though; the issue is hitting stuff. Even teeny particles pose a big problem when you’re going that fast—and space is not a perfect vacuum. It is littered with bits of hydrogen that hit like atom-destroying bullets when you’re traveling near the speed of light. The hydrogen would smash through your body and destroy the nuclei of your atoms, which would be fatal."

"Whenever people go in for risky heart surgery, as a safety measure the doctors first cool them down. If something goes wrong and the patient’s brain stops getting oxygen, the cooling gives the doctors a little buffer time to fix the problem. With a low body temperature your brain can go as long as 20 minutes without air before it starts dying. Under normal conditions you have only 4 minutes"

"...I had known Stanley Prusiner for some years and had been watching the progress of his laboratory in characterizing this highly unusual “microbe.�� I had also seen the tremendous amount of skepticism raised by his outlandish claim that it lacked genes, that it was an infectious protein. Stan’s issue that morning was what to call this unique infectious agent. He had two candidates, he said: “piaf�� and “prion.�� I forget what piaf stood for, but I said that the name was already taken by a very popular French singer. Fine, he said, in any case he preferred prion, a contraction of protein and infection. I agreed. What I did not say was that prions in my native French tongue means “let us pray,�� and that if he persisted with his claim of an infectious protein, he would need prayers. As we know, Stan was right, and for the discovery of prions he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997."

"The human brain contains approximately eighty-six billion neurons, which communicate through close to quadrillion (10x15, or one followed by fifteen zeroes) synapses. Those are astronomical numbers. It is difficult, or even impossible, for us to construct a mental image of a quadrillion objects. It is too large. For example, one hundred billion is the number of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The number of synapses in our brain is equivalent to the number of stars in ten thousand Milky Ways!"

"...Because these diseases all cause millions of tiny holes, called vacuoles, in the brain, they are grouped under the name spongiform encephalopathies—diseases that, under the microscope, give the brain the look of a sponge. All of them are caused by a protein called PrP, short for prion protein."

"But there are also “good�� prions! An early and most surprising discovery was made at Columbia University in the laboratory of Eric Kandel. This group had been doing pioneering work on the molecular mechanism of memory using a simple model animal, a sea slug named Aplysia. After much work, they concluded that a protein with prion properties, but again different from PrP, was involved in memory storage in this animal. They went on to show that the same protein was involved in memory in the fruit fly and in mice. And there are more and more “good prion�� proteins being discovered. It turns out that prion proteins appeared very early, maybe even at the very beginning of the evolution of life on this planet. We will discuss later how they help primitive organisms such as yeast to adapt to changes in their food environment. This field is young, fast-moving, and not devoid of controversy. The nomenclature is not yet settled. Some prefer to use the name prion only for PrP, the protein that causes kuru and the other spongiform encephalopathies. They call the others “prion-like proteins�� or “prionoids.�� Maybe it is time to resurrect piaf for those! But for the sake of simplicity, I will call all of them “prion proteins�� or “prions.��

"...Suggestion can make cheap wine taste like Château Margaux, warp our perception of time, and alter our memories. We know that psychedelic substances, illusions, and other dramatic effects can also alter our levels of suggestibility. But, paradoxically, being susceptible to suggestions hardly means we’re feeble-minded or gullible."

"Here, I share some of my best stories about the science of suggestion, the bread and butter of my professional life. Throughout my academic career, I have focused specifically on the role that suggestion plays in the effectiveness of psychiatric medications, alongside how attention, selfregulation, placebo phenomena, and expectations affect human consciousness. For example, sometimes placebos work even when people know that they are taking them. The fields of developmental psychopathology and transcultural psychiatry teach us how much our communities and social standards can shape our thoughts, emotions, and cognitive processing. And using imaging of the living human brain and other state-of-the-art techniques, my research has helped unravel the mental experiences of hypnosis and meditation."

"...by repeatedly showing participants photographs of famous and respected Black people, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and photographs of infamous and disapproved white people, such as criminal and cult leader Charles Manson, negative attitudes waned by more than 50 percent.57 Similarly, videos of Black people during positive activities such as going to church or enjoying a family barbecue also reduced implicit bias.58 These early efforts to change the social context and, through it, reduce automatic prejudice and preference have paved the road to diversity education."

"...In this way, and others, we can apply the science of suggestion—in a way that transcends lip service and performative activism—to result in real social impact, health outcomes, and political change."

"...No surprise, then, that the nocebo effect has been called “the placebo effect’s evil twin.�� In our view, the nocebo effect can be summarized as “the occurrence of a harmful event that stems from consciously or subconsciously expecting it.�� The core of the nocebo effect is that adverse health effects occur as a result of negative expectations. Expectations come up in everyday conversation, like when you tell a friend that you’re stuck in traffic but expect to meet them for dinner in twenty minutes. But it’s also an important technical term that academics use (sometimes interchangeably with expectancy), and it was popularized by Dr. Irving Kirsch at Harvard University. Expectancies can teach us a lot about our behavior and actions. They are critical to our health and well-being. The nocebo effect, then, can be thought of as the scientific term for saying that when you expect to feel sick, you are more likely to feel sick."

"Dopamine, like all neurotransmitters, contains the basic building blocks of life: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. It exists not only in humans, but in all animals. Primitive lizards and reptiles living tens of millions of years ago had dopamine as part of their neurochemistry. What’s more, dopamine serves a similar role in animals as it does in humans: it modifies behaviours by playing a crucial function in learning and reinforcement from rewards."

"In this book, we are going to discuss the common triggers of anger, using some new research on the brain’s rage circuits. Then we are going to look at what happens in our body when we have an anger response. After the science-y part of what anger is, we’re gonna do the unfuckening part.
We’re gonna go through all those light-shining activities that help us understand our unique and personal anger responses, and discuss how to channel our anger into better relationships or barnstorming social action. And I’m gonna share all the work I’ve done in my life around learning how important forgiveness is for my own-damn-self. We are going to discuss ways of living with our very real and valid anger responses without losing our shit or swallowing our rage like so much poison. Because if feeling anger is OK, you can be angry and still be OK."

"By shifting from irritation and defensiveness, he validated the experiences of the individuals who have been victimized, which lent support to social change.
2) Own our privilege and power: We are not the sum of our disenfranchisement, we are the sum of our assets. And our assets are not just our fundamental agents of change, our recognition of them informs our compassion for others and our intersectionality. My friend Naomi Brown, who is a minister and social worker, calls this conscious using of privilege to help those who do not have it sneaking in the front door. Power and privilege lets us get into spaces others could not. This doesn’t mean speaking for them, but providing support and amplification of their experiences..."

"...Most of this usage presents mindfulness as a condition solely of the mind and often related to the practice of meditation. But mindfulness—as my students and I have shown—is instead the simple process of actively noticing things, no meditation required. When mindful, we notice things we didn’t notice before, and we come to see that we didn’t know the things we thought we knew as well as we thought we knew them. Everything becomes interesting and potentially useful in a new way..."

"But my use of the word “mindfulness�� also, importantly, refers to a condition of the body. Indeed, I believe our psychology may be the most important determinant of our health. I’m not just speaking of harmony between mind and body. I believe the mind and body comprise a single system, and every change in the human being is essentially simultaneously a change at the level of the mind (that is, a cognitive change) as well as the body (a hormonal, neural, and/or behavioral change). When we open our minds to this idea of mind-body unity, new possibilities for controlling our health become real. Making use of the power of a mindful body is well within our grasp."

"Schopenhauer is presumed to have said, “All research passes through three phases: First it is ridiculed; then it is violently opposed; and third it is accepted as self-evident.��

"...People seeking enlightenment or relief from stress, anxiety, and pain have been the primary audience.
Therefore, most mindfulness teachers have continued to discuss mindfulness within that frame. That frame has been so narrow for so long it might seem that mindfulness is only for the spiritually inclined, or for people with challenging medical issues, such as panic attacks, paralyzing anxiety, and deep depression, or people who just want some stress relief.
That couldn't be further from the truth..."

"I don't know why you picked up this book, but given the title it might be that you've had the thought, “What the hell is all the hype about mindfulness?�� You may be one of the millions of people who have been curious about mindfulness but don't want to be associated with the spiritual crowd that so often drowns out its core meaning. Perhaps you recoil at the thought of listening to someone breathlessly guide meditations in a sickly sweet voice. Maybe you thought you'd need to join a yoga studio and get a subscription for monthly deliveries of incense. If any of those have been keeping you from trying out mindfulness, this book is for you. In these pages, I peel back the layers of hype and hyperbole about mindfulness and provide a practical and demystified approach to reaping the real benefits from a consistent mindfulness practice over just an 8-week period.
The concept of "Mindfulness" is not new, despite the many new Western practitioners who have emerged in the last few decades. Although mindful practices are just hitting an upswing here, they have been a component of Eastern philosophy, namely Hinduism and Buddhism, for a few thousand years."

"Mindfulness is an ability to keep attention on one's present moment experience without getting too caught up in automatic thoughts and judgments."

"Attending my first mindfulness teacher training course was quite a shock. In the morning on the first day, the teachers came into the room holding small bells, wearing Buddhist beads, and carrying special cushions on which they meditated. This struck me as odd, because I had signed up for the “secular�� mindfulness teacher training. It did not take long to gather that this “secular�� training was going to be deeply intertwined with overtly spiritual and new-age thoughts, positions, and perspectives. There were–I kid you not–even Tarot card readings at an evening event and scores of participant comments during the training were met with the response, “That's so beautiful.�� If you want to turn off a corporate audience and never be invited back beyond what your original contract stipulated, just do what's in this paragraph."

"As you progress through the book and do the exercises, you can gain a greater ability to respond thoughtfully and calmly in the midst of high-pressure and complex situations, become more agile in the face of change, and pay more attention to the things you deem most important. You will learn practices that are known to lead to enhanced mental focus, empathy, and resilience. Through consistent practice, you can become aware of some of your self-created challenges and learn ways to avoid automatically falling into the same patterns so you can get out of your own way. You will learn ways to be less affected by unhelpful internal dialogue, limiting beliefs, and irrational feelings of fear (failure, embarrassment, and criticism), allowing you to see and seize opportunities to grow beyond what you previously thought possible and unlock your latent potential. Finally, you'll also begin to be able to connect with people around you more fully and effectively. These benefits cascade and compound, resulting in improvements in performance, leadership, and well-being."