Full House Stephen Jay Gould

p.4 Previous book Wonderful Life "emphasizes that the origin of Homo sapiens must be viewed as such as an unrepeatable particular, not an expected consequence. Full House presents the general argument for denying that progress defines the history defines the history of life or even exists as a general trend at all. ... Life has always been dominated by its bacterial mode."

Life is mostly bacteria. Because bacteria are relatively simple normal variation has a much higher probability (though small) of developing complex life. These are just minor branches off the main evolutionary tree. In other words, there is a left wall that limits variation toward simplicity but no right wall to limit complexity. Evolution depends on local conditions. There is no notion of progress. One can pick and choose to make it seem like evolution progresses, but that is false. This gave me a whole new understanding of our place in the universe.

Gould also considers the loss of .400 batting in baseball. Batting averages have stayed the same but because of the improvement in ability the variation from the mean of about .260 has narrowed making it much more unlikely that someone will hit .400

My Stroke of Insight A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey Jill Bolte Taylor

See video
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight
She had a stroke which disabled much of her left brain. It's fascinating to see how the right brain is purely the present, losing sense of self and feeling liquid and at not separable. It's what spiritual seekers strive for.

Two -- Simple Science
p. 19 The hippocampus learns and remembers. When the amygdala is triggered by a threat attention is shifted from the hippocampus toward self-preservation.
     The limbic system processes sensory information which has a feeling by the time it reaches the cerebral cortex. ".. biologically we are feeling creatures that think."

Three --  Hemispheric Asymmetries
p. 30 "To the right mind, no time exists other than the present moment ... when everything and everyone are connected as one."
p. 33 The left hemisphere places the judgment of good on the things we like and bad on those we dislike.
p. 34 "Without the right hemispheres' ability to evaluate communication in the context of the bigger picture, the left hemisphere tends to interpret everything literally."

Four --Morning of the Stroke
p. 41 "In place of that constant chatter that had attached me to the details of my life, I felt enfolded by a blanket of tranquil euphoria."
     "In this void of higher cognition and details pertaining to my normal life, my consciousness soared into an all-knowingness. a 'being at one' with the universe."
p. 42 "I could no longer clearly discern the physical boundaries of where I began and where I ended."
p. 45 "It was clear to me that this body functioned like a portal through which the energy of who I am can be beamed into three-dimensional external space."
p.46 "I wondered how I could have spenty so many years in this body, in this form of life, and never really understood that I was just visiting here."

Five -- Orchestrating My Rescue
p. 49 "As the hemorrhaging blood interrupted the normal functioning of my left mind, my perception was released from its attachment to categorization and detail ... and my perception was free to shift such that my consciousness could embody the tranquility if my right mind."

Six -- My Return to the Still
p. 61 "...my consciousness ventured unfettered into the peaceful bliss of my right mind"

Seven -- Bare to the Bone
p. 67 ".. my perception of my physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air.
          ... I would never be able to squeeze the enormousness of my spirit back inside this tiny cellular matrix.
          .. the 'I' whom I had grown up to be had not survived this neurological catastrophe."
p. 67 "On this special day, I learned the meaning of simply 'being'."
p. 69 "... with souls as big as the universe, connected to the energy flow of all that is ... my perception of myself returned to tis natural state of fluidity."
p. 70 "It was impossible for me to distinguish the physical boundaries between objects because everything radiated with similar energy."
         ".. there was both freedom and challenge for me in recognizing that our perception of the external world, and our relationship to it, is a product of our neurological circuitry. For all these years of my life, I had really been a figment of my own imagination!"
p. 71 "I was simply a being of light radiating life into the world. .. In the absence of my left hemisphere's negative judgment, I perceive myself as perect, whole, and beautiful just the way I was."

Eight -- Neurological Intensive Care
p.77 "When using pictures to navigate my way back into language, it was impossible to go from a general file to a specific detail."
p. 79 "The essence of your energy expands as it blends with the energy around you, and you sense that you are as big as the universe.  ... Everything, including the life force you are, radiates pure energy."

Nine -- Day Two: The Morning After
p.82 "I liked knowing I was a fluid. I loved knowing my spirit was at one with the universe and in flow with everything around me.   .. I loved the feeling of deep inner peace that flooded the core of my very being."

Eleven -- Healing and Preparing for Surgery
p.99 "Who would have guessed that my left hemisphere needed to be told about color in order for it to register? I found the same to be true to seeing in three dimensions."

Thirteen -- What I Needed the Most
p. 117 "Eventually, I could read one word at a time, attach a meaning to that sound, and then go on to the next word. I think a lot of the problem was that I could not attach one moment to the next or think linearly. As long as every moment existed in isolation, then I could not string ideas or words together."
p. 121 "Paying attention to what emotions feels like in my body has completely shaped my recovery.
             ... I may not be in total control of what happens to my life, but I certainly am in charge of how I choose to perceive my experience."

Fourteen -- Milestones for Recovery
p. 129 "During the eight years of my recovery, my perception of my self finally shifted from that of being a fluid back to that of being a solid. ... I really miss perceiving myself as a fluid. I miss the constant reminder that we are all one."

Fifteen -- My Stroke of Insight
p. 132 " most important, could I retain my newfound sense of connection with the universe in the presence of my left hemisphere's individuality?
           "What price would my right hemisphere consciousness have to pay so I could once again be judged as normal?"
p. 133 "The two haves of my brain don't just think and perceive in different ways at a neurological level, but they demonstrate very different values bases upon the types of information they perceive, and thus exhibit very different personalities. My stroke of insight is that at the core of my right hemisphere consciousness is a character that is directly connected to my feeling of deep inner peace.It is completely committed to the expression of peace, love, joy, and compassion in the world."

Sixteen -- My Right and Left Minds
p. 140 "In the consciousness of my right mind, we are laced together as the universal tapestry of human potential, and life is good and we are all beautiful -- just the way we are."
p. 142 "My left mind is the tool I use to communicate with the external world...Through the use of brain chatter, it nor only keeps be abreast of my life, but also manifests my identity. Via my left brain language center's ability to say, 'I am,' I become an independent entity separate from the external flow."
p. 143 "our right mind is biologically designed to readily tune in to our physiology.
             .. our left mind is biologically adept at identifying separate lines between adjacent entities."
p. 144 " the left brain is doing the best it can with the information it has to work with...I need to be very wary of my storyteller's potential for stirring up drama and trauma."
          "The portion of my left mind that I chose not to recover was the part .. that had the potential to be mean, to worry incessantly, or to be verbally abusive to either myself or others."

Seventeen -- Own Your Power
p. 146 "Within  90 seconds .. the chemical component of my anger has completely dissipated. .. if I remain angry it is because I haven chosen to let that circuit continue to run."
p. 147 "I make the choice to either reflect your anger (left brain), or be empathetic and approach you with a compassionate heart (right brain)."
p. 148 "Forgiving others and forgiving myself is always a choice.  Seeing this moment as a perfect moment is always a choice."

Eighteen -- Cells and Multidimensional Circuitry
p. 153 "making the decision that internal verbal abuse is not acceptable behavior, is the first step toward finding deep inner peace."

Nineteen -- Finding Your Deep Inner Peace
p. 169 "Purposely relaxing muscles you routinely hold tense can help you release pent up energy and feel better. I'm constantly checking in with the tension in my forehead..."
          "I find that using repetitive sound patterns such as a mantra .. is very helpful."
p. 171 "If I had to choose one word to describe the feeling I feel at the core of my right mind, I would have to say joy. My right mind is thrilled to be alive!"
      "If you have lost your ability to experience joy, rest assure the circuitry is still there."
      "Our desire for peace must be stronger than our attachment to our misery, our ego, or the need to be right. .. Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?"
p. 174 "The easiest way I have found to humble myself into a state of peaceful grace is through the act of gratitude. When I am simply grateful, life is simply great!?"

First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

p. 48 "The energy flows everywhere. It is how God 'gods.'  It flows in cycles, in waves, in constant lines of force. ... We can't control this energy; all we can do is recognize it and get in step with it, in synch, so that our very existence is in harmony with what is rather than at cross-purposes with it. This is the great orientation; it puts us in phase with the rest of creation. "

The Cunning of History The Holocaust and the American Future Richard L. Rubenstein

1. Mass Death and Contemporary Civilization
     The WWI generals let hundreds of thousands die. Stalin disposed of many. Europe had excess population. p. 21 "We are more likely to understand the Holocaust if we regard it as the expression of some of the most profound tendencies of Western civilization in the twentieth century.... Properly executed, extermination is the problem-solving strategy least likely to entail unanticipated feedback hazards for its planners."

2, Bureaucratic Domination
     p. 27 "The same meticulous care that goes into the manufacture of a Leica or a Mercedes was to be applied to the problem of eliminating the Jews.  ... It was only possible to overcome the moral barrier that in the past had prevented the systematic riddance of surplus populations when the project was taken out of the hands of the bullies and delegated to bureaucrats."
     p. 29 "The land of the Reformation was also the land where bureaucracy was able to create its most thoroughly secularized, rationalize, and dehumanized 'achievement,' the death camp."
     p. 31 "The culture that made the death camps possible was not only indigenous to the West but an outcome, albeit unforeseen and unintended, of its fundamental religious traditions."
     p. 33 "They were perfectly consistent in demanding that the deportees be made stateless before being transported to the camps. They also understood that by exterminating stateless men and women, they violated no law because such people were covered by no law."

3. The Modernization of Slavery
     p. 42 "The same tendencies toward rationalization, secularization, and disenchantment that are expressed in both Protestantism and capitalism are also expressed with far less ambiguity and contradiction in the Nazi camps."
     p. 46 "Regrettably, few ethical theorists or religious thinkers have paid attention to the highly significant political fact that the camps were in reality a new form of human society.  Only when the doomed inmates were kept alive for a time did the new society develop.
     p. 47 "Auschwitz was both a slave-labor and an execution center."

4. The Health Professions and Corporate Enterprise at Auschwitz
     p. 61 "As Weber could not have foreseen the ultimate potentialities of systematic domination given twentieth century technology, neither could Marx or Engels have foreseen the extent to which terror could replace all other incentives in human exploitation."
     p. 65 "it was possible for respectable business executives to participate in and profit from a society of total domination and a venture involving the murder of millions of defenseless human beings without losing their elite status in one of the most advanced modern societies."
     p. 67 " ... merely carries to a logical conclusion operational attitudes and procedures that are everywhere predominant in the working of bureaucracy and modern corporate enterprise."

5. The Victims Response" Bureaucratic Self-Destruction
     p. 77 "...tha the best and most selfless Jewish leaders presented no greater obstacle when the Nazis took over their communities than did the most opportunistic raise some terrifying questions about the potentialities of bureaucratic domination."

6. Reflections on A Century of Progress
     p. 79 ".. a society of total domination creates a world of the living dead that can serve as a prototype of a future social order, especially in a world confronted by catastrophic crises and ever-increasing, massive population redundancy."
    p. 90 " .. no theologian has attempted to deal with the problems implicit in the g=fact that the Nazis probably committed no crime at Auschwitz.
     p. 91 " We atr sadly forced to conclude that we live in a world that is functionally godless and that human rights and dignity depend upon the power of one's community to grant or withhold them from its members.
     p. 92 "It is an error to imagine that civilization and savage cruelty are antitheses. ... Both creation and destruction are inseparable parts of what we call civilization."
    p. 97 "Is there not a measure of madness in a system of technological rationality that first produces masses of surplus people and then holds forth extermination as the most 'rational' and pratical solution of the social problems the pose?"