All 20 books.

The Top 20 Most Mind-Expanding Books in the Mind-Body Domain

Context

I have been working on an extensive mind-body research project started in 2000 that unifies and galvanizes the deep truths of East and West (“deep biology”) called:

A Unified Theory of Fitness: A New Theory of Fitness Based on the Flow of Energy and the Integrity of Information*

The World’s Fittest Humans is the first application of this effort.

Criteria for book selection

1. These are the books that personally impacted me the most meaning they had both ample caliber and the element of surprise to bulldoze any confirmation bias and alter the trajectory of my thought and/or constitute a colossal contrarian to prevailing beliefs, a David amongst Goliaths. (Most books just reinforced what I believed.) Obviously there are a lot of great mind-body books not on my list.
2. All were read cover-to-cover. Besides different translations of the Tao Teh Ching, only one book I have read cover-to-cover thrice and that is Ma-Wan Ho’s The Rainbow and the Worm.

Note: My definition of “mind-body” is in the the broader and deeper sense of embodied cognition but encompassing all life forms, a physics of organisms from bacteria to global ecosystems and not the typical narrow definition of the human mind-body domain. In other words, superimposing Eastern parallels, it almost spans the holistic range of Taoism but is limited to earth — not Taoism’s “heaven and earth”.

The list is unranked. Reasoning behind the selections below the list.

1. The Rainbow and the Worm by Ma-Wan Ho
2. Incomplete Nature by Terrance Deacon
3. Holistic Darwinism by Peter Corning
4. The Cybernetic Brain by Andrew Pickering
5. The Stress of Life by Hans Selye
6. Epigenetic Principles of Evolution by Nelson Cabej
7. Into the Cool by Eric Schneider and Dorian Sagan
8. Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
9. The Book of Balance (Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching) translation by Yasuhiko Genku Kimura
10. Mind in Life by Evan Thompson
11. Self Comes to Mind by Antonio Damasio
12. I of the Vortex by Rodolfo Linás
13. Molecules of Emotion by Candice Pert
14. The Ontogeny of Information by Susan Oyama
15. Action in Perception by Alva Noë
16. Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition edited by Caporael, Griesemer, and Wimsatt
17. The Music of Life by Denis Noble
18. Evolution and Function of Cognition by Felix Goodson
19. Biological Emergences by Robert Reid
20. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution by Mary Jane West-Eberhard

1. The Rainbow and the Worm features amazing insights between the nature of energy and living systems by bridging East and West and mind and body. The wholistic physics of organisms. Sublime.
2. Incomplete Nature is the most ambitious book I have ever read. How is it possible to connect the dots between matter and sentience starting from 1st principles in 500 pages? Sure, there are holes but it is an amazing attempt at the impossible. Makes you think about everything in new ways.
3. Holistic Darwinism is a treat and treatise of understanding the meaning and significance of synergism in a broad context. A different interpretation of evolution through leverage of simple, nonlinear relationships.
4. The Cybernetic Brain is both a historical account of the emergence of cybernetics in the UK and the case for why the brain is an organ for adaptation to the unknown. A wonderful starting point for understanding the meaning of intelligence, natural or artificial.
5. The Stress of Life is a foundational working model for the modus operandi of biological systems and understanding adaptive response. A first-order classic that is way beyond “stress management”.
6. Epigenetic Principles of Evolution I consider to be the most important book in biology in the last 30 years. A difficult read because it is technical but completely changes the way you understand how animals perceive and adapt to their environment. A much broader definition of epigenetics than the formal, limited definition. It should be called something else to avoid this unfortunate misunderstanding. Phenomenal book.
7. Into the Cool is a very unique book that reframes ones understanding of energy flow and its impact on ecosystems. Delves into open system thermodynamics. Most people know about closed system thermodynamics but nothing about open systems which applies to biological systems from amoeba to the Amazon.
8. Acid test for what you think is a genius theory: read Antifragile (or The Black Swan); Taleb has made a quantitative discipline out of “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men”, the reincarnation of the skepticism of Karl Popper. Helps you see the world with greater clarity by removing your rose-colored glasses. Claims minus (all) disclaimers is often less than zero!
9. The Book of Balance is the best translation of Tao Teh Ching I have ever read and I have read at least 6 different translations. Mr. Kimura I know personally. He was born in Japan, is a Zen Buddhist priest and also understands Western science through a Westerner’s eyes. His collaboration with an expert in the ancient Chinese language combined with his Western understanding makes this version as precise as possible for Westerner’s to truly grasp the original intensions of Lao Tsu.
10. Mind in Life is the essence of the philosophy of embodiment and provides a foundation for understanding embodied cognition and the deeper meaning and origins of perception from the organism’s subjective and functional perspective as opposed to science’s outside looking-in observer perspective.
11. Self Comes to Mind is the best book I have ever read for understanding the evolution of consciousness from the Western perspective of neurobiology.
12. I of the Vortex is a classic text on the co-evolution of mind and body as it evolves up the complexity ladder from the simple sea squirt to man. Simple and powerful arguments make this book unforgettable and one I have read twice and also as a goto for reference.
13. Molecules of Emotion examines the mind-body unity through a lens of the role of emotions. Profound and important book in the mind-body genre.
14. The Ontogeny of Information addresses the role of biological information processes in the development of organisms. Makes clear the fact that genetics is not the sole determinant in the development process — genetics is just an important piece of the puzzle. See #6 Epigenetic Principles of Evolution above for reinforcement of this position.
15. Action in Perception delves deeply into the role of the body and its movement (sensorimotor) play in the mind’s understanding of the environment. A wonderful book on embodied cognition — mind and body are inseparable.
16. Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition is not the typical book on this list because it is composed of many authors but it provides a multifaceted view of how individual organisms adapt (developmental biology) and also evolve (evolutionary biology) in terms of a coherent and unified model based on the architectural concepts of scaffolding in the building process. It then extends this model into human societies. Provides a new toolbox to understand the ABC’s of biological principles.
17. The Music of Life provides an incredible music metaphor to explain how biological systems work. By reading this book you will be prepared to tackle very advanced works in biological systems. Start here!
18. Evolution and Function of Cognition provides a principle by principle process of the construction of cognitive processes from simple organisms to humans. I refer to this book often to gain clarification. A greatly under appreciated book.
19. Biological Emergences is essentially a textbook on biological emergence. Emergence is a greatly misunderstood concept that is properly defined and contextualized here. An emergence theory of evolution. Complementary with Corning’s Holistic Darwinism (#3 on the list).
20. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution is a monumental text in how organisms develop, adapt and evolve. This book is a lifetime achievement of incredible scholarship by Mary Jane West-Eberhard.

Footnote

*Think of the offspring of a ½ breed open-system thermodynamics, ½ breed Taoist father with a ½ breed epigenetics/embodied cognition mix, ½ breed dynamical systems theory mother, sorta. Awesome kid, right?

James Autio | about.me/jamesautio

email: jim@phenomicgames.com

Follow Twitter: @phenomicgames

Medium: James Autio

www.WorldsFittestHumans.com

PHENOMIC GAMES and PHENOMIC 5 are trademarks of James Autio.

The World’s Fittest Humans ©2015 James Autio. All rights reserved.