Our Fictional Minds

Our Fictional Minds examines and challenges our most common—and seemingly common-sense—ideas about human consciousness. Drawing on developments in neuroscience, psychology, and monitoring technology, psychologist David Fisher shows how and why our usual takes on the human mind both serve us and limit us. Instead, research points to a more complete and all-encompassing way to understand consciousness. In this thoughtful well-considered book, Fisher explores our collective scientific and philosophical knowledge (and imaginings) about what a human mind might be and how it might work, discovering that shifted our perspective on hypnosis, uniquely, may lead to unforeseen insights on the human mind. Examining and challenging existing frameworks undermine many of our comforting ideas about human beings, including these: A trance state is different from our "normal" state of consciousness. Our thoughts control our actions in clear, observable, self-evident ways. Each of us can observe