Human Mind Owner’s Manual: Your Connection to the Universe, Consciousness, and Non-Human Intelligence
This month I’ve been taking a look at psychology type books, and we are ending on a high note before the next president, making this weeks book Human Mind Owner’s Manual: Your Connection to the Universe, Consciousness, and NonHuman Intelligence by Sean Webb.
I have previously reviewed two of Webb’s other books, Mind Hacking Happiness volumes 1 and 2, which were excellent. And this one…I think I expected more of that. And it kind of was. But it was less here’s how to be happy, and more we are all connected and here’s the proof. I mean, there IS information on happiness, specifically he repeats some of what was in his Mind Hacking Happiness series on how to take control of your mind from your feelings. Which, honestly, brought me back a lot to Marcus Aurelius Meditations. You are in charge of yourself and how you respond to things.
But, in the heat of the moment, when something has upset or angered or saddened you…it can be a little hard to wrest control from those feelings and reassert your dominance over moment. So, Webb recommends inserting The before a pronoun. The I is feeling angry. This break in the emotional thought train can help you refocus and step back from the feelings.
And it really is imperative to regain control if you want to find a path out of the void of feeling. And as anyone who has been in a depressive state can tell you…. it’s a void. The I is feeling sad today. Break the neural pathways that are being run by your emotions.
This is not to say that one should only be logic and robotic. That’s not the point at all. But by seeking out that calm center a step or two removed from emotion, you’re opening yourself up to some truly cool experiences.
And after reiterating the importance of taking control of your mind, Webb takes us through all the ways consciousness is bigger than all of us as individuals and encompasses all of us as part of a greater whole. Or as Webb puts it “Ultimately, all this science supports that the idea that your consciousness extends beyond your body and makes it reasonable to say you’re not a human, but a consciousness having a human experience.”
Moreover, Webb is pretty sure the answers to all we don’t understand about consciousness can be found in quantum mechanics, a field so advanced that no one understands it. Yet. But we will. And possibly artificial intelligence. Which…ok, this was a bit startling. Webb did work on artificial intelligence, and he recounts a conversation with a Dept of Defense contractor where he was specifically asked if artificial intelligence could be used to manipulate people into acting or responding a specific way. Webb confirmed yes…which just brought back to me Ari Mendelson’s Kingmaker series I read in 2023/2024. #IYKYK.
This book goes into remote viewing by talking about Joe McMoneagle and out of body experiences/near death experiences by talking about the first standstill surgery which was done in 1991 with Pam Reynolds. This was interesting enough I went ahead and wish listed McMoneagle and Robert Monroe’s book about Out of Body experiences.
Now, I for real thought standstill surgery was some Hollywood made up Grey’s Anatomy bullshit. But nope, that’s a real thing. And from it we got a definitive, detailed story of near-death experience. I mean…for all intents and purposes Reynolds was dead for most of the surgery. But she recalled with absolutely accurate detail things that were said and done in the operating room, as well as meetings with deceased relatives who guided her back to the table when the operation was over, and they were reviving her. Now, sceptics will say her neurons were still firing and so she heard the surgeons talking and remembered it subconsciously. Nope. See, as she was put under, she was wearing custom molded ear buds that produced 100-decibel clicking noise which helped the brain monitor track if there was any brain stimulation. These also blocked all incoming noise so she could not hear anything. She was, legally and medically, dead for this surgery. For several hours. And then brought back to life. Not just Hollywood bullshit. And yet her consciousness picked up things she should have had no way of knowing.
He tells us about Dorothy Eady who was born in 1904 and when she was three, she fell down a flight of stairs and died. The doctor said she died and left to make arrangements to pick up the body. When he returned, Dorothy was alive. And knew about ancient Egypt. So much so she would eventually move there, marry, have a son, and become an esteemed member of their antiquities department at a time and in a place…EGYPT…where women are rarely granted such accord. Her knowledge of ancient Egypt was so detailed that if they dug where she told them to dig, they’d find what she said they’d find. Now, this COULD be reincarnation. Certainly. OR…. during her own near-death experience, little Dorothy’s consciousness could have brushed up against this very old consciousness that had rejoined the collective and was eager to share it’s knowledge with the 20th century. Shades of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.
In Mind Hacking Happiness volume 2, Webb recounts his own enlightenment experience through meditation. In this book, he discusses his ayahuasca experience undertaken with his two Navy SEAL friends.
He talks about Skinwalker Ranch, which has hit quite a bit of popularity thanks to Netflix and yes sounds intriguing. He talks about close encounters of the 5th kind, which is where small groups of people invite contact. Which could certainly explain the recent uptick in reported contact.
And he rounds out the book with how to connect with your greater consciousness. Starting with meditation. Which, of course, had to be on the list. Contemplative prayer. Chanting, Yoga, Martial Arts, Fasting, Sweat Lodges or Physical Distress, Dancing/Quaking/Shaking, Pilgrimages, Sensory Deprivation, Near Death Experience, Depression/Despair, Trans-Human Technologies, Psychedelics, and Spontaneous Awakenings.
Now, obviously your mileage may vary with each of these, and several of them are not recommended…he does not recommend having a near death experience, and with reservation recommends sweat lodges…like if you want to go that route, find a legitimate qualified medicine man to lead you. Although hot yoga can combine two of these things…hot yoga if fucking distressing, but I always felt amazing after class. Depression/Despair…not so much recommended, but often times when you’re dwelling in that dark night of the soul enlightenment can pull you out of it. Spontaneous awakenings are…well…rare. Don’t count on it, but count your blessings if it happens. Dancing…well, we got the Whirling Dervishes, who seek enlightenment through constant spinning. And in Arabic, there’s a term for it when dancers flow so beautifully with the music they become an instrument. Tarab. The Quakers and Shakers derived their names from exactly that.
I enjoyed this one. I think Webb is an interesting person and I think he’s correct, consciousness is bigger than any one of us, and collectively we are greater than any one person. I got some reading recommendations to buy for later this year and while I have not yet seen Skinwalker Ranch, it’s now on my watch list. And that’s it for this week.
