This is a well-written, informative book about one of my favourite subjects, the brain. However, the version I read was from 1986, and I kept feeling that the book was somewhat out-of-date. I now see that the latest version is from 2014, so others can read that one.

I am myself using Bill Harris´s brain synchronization programme, Holosync, with some success, but there was no information on that, obviously, the edition being so old.

We´re told of brain experiments with rats showing how, when placed in an “enriched environment”, they become smarter, and whose brains increase in size. (Not that I approve of animal experimentation.)

Then we´re introduced to various, fascinating machines which were shown to stimulate the brains of humans, including those with a variety of neurological problems, including Down´s syndrome, mental retardation and learning disabilities; the subjects were shown to have “astonishing recoveries of mental abilities or sharp increases in a variety of brain values”.
The focus of the book is about examining these tools as a means of stimulating already healthy brains and provoking them into greater-than-normal growth and higher-than-ordinary capabilities. The author states that “the ultimate creative capacity of the brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite.”

We are informed about the work of Ilya Prigogine, a scientist Bill Harris was much inspired by. Prigogine discovered that order arises because of disorder, not despite it, and life emerges out of entropy (“a quantity expressing how much of a system´s thermal energy is unavailable for conversion into mechanical work”), not against it.

However the chapter on Prigogine´s theory of dissipative structures, for which he received the Nobel Prize, was somewhat difficult for me to comprehend, and it was not terribly clear what all this had to do with the subject on hand, apart from the fact that the brain apparently is a dissipative structure (dissipate = to disperse or disappear), and neither was it clear to me what dissipative structures actually were, except for the fact that the brain apparently is one. So I will refrain from attempting to explain the matter.

The author refers to the second law of thermodynamics without explaining what this is, neither does he define “dissipative structures”.

When stimulated, the brain is pushed into a higher level and spontaneously “transforms itself into a new state, more ordered, more coherent, more complex, more interconnected, more highly evolved than before”.

I found Michael Hutchison´s explanations abstruse and lacking in definitions, thus making the material hard for the non-scientifically gifted reader to comprehend.

The author himself tries various exciting brain-enhancing machines and presents us with his experiences. These machines were 1) a transcutaneous Electro-Neural Stimulator (a TENS unit), which caused the brain to release large quantities of pain-killing, euphoria-causing endorphins, 2) the Alpha Stim, mostly used for pain relief, but which also provides “electronarcosis”, characterized by deep relaxation, heightened awareness and a sense of euphoria”, 3) the CAP Scan, where one oneself can observe the brain and interact with it, changing various colours in order to produce various positive effects, 4) the Mind Mirror, where five patterns can be identified – high beta activity, symmetrical alpha rhythms, “alpha blocking”, symmetrical alpha and lesser-amplitude theta, and finally “the awakened mind, lucid awareness, the fifth state”.

Then there is an exciting chapter about Robert Monroe´s renowned Hemi-Sync. Monroe was the definitive investigator into out-of-body experiences as described in his three thrilling books. The author of the present book attended a seminar at the Monroe Institute and listened to many Hemi-Sync tapes every day, each one taking the participants “progressively further away from ordinary consciousness into expanded awareness”.

Further chapters deal with the Synchro-Energizer, the Graham Potentializer, Tranquilite and the Flotation tank.

To sum up, I found this book to be in part immensely gripping and stimulating, and will now google the various mentioned apparatuses to see if they are still available, which I assume they are. The only problem was that the text was in part not easily comprehensible, and necessary definitions and an index were lacking.

I would recommend the book in the newest edition for all those interested in brain development and such machines as assist in this. ( )