The Body Has A Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do Everything Better

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

THE BODY HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better. Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee. Random House, New York, 2007. 228 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. A noted third-generation science writer, Sandra Blakeslee (a New York times correspondent), and her son, Matthew, here report on new discoveries of how your brain maps your body, the space around your body, and the social world. The invisible volume of space around your body out to arm's length is part of you, they say. "This is not a metaphor, but a recently discovered physiological fact. Through a special mapping procedure, your brain annexes this space to your limbs and body, clothing you in it like an extended, ghostly skin. The maps that encode your physical body are connected directly, immediately, personally to a map of every point in that space and also map out your potential to perform actions in that space. Your self does not end where your flesh ends, hut suffuses and blends with the world, including other beings." The work represents another piece of the puzzle about how our sense of self is created. They explore the science and the implications for all of us.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning