The Hidden Spring

A Journey to the Source of Consciousness

By: Mark Solms

Narrated by: Roger Davis

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

For Mark Solms, one of the boldest thinkers in contemporary neuroscience, discovering how consciousness comes about has been a lifetime's quest. Scientists consider it the "hard problem" because it seems an impossible task to understand why we feel a subjective sense of self and how it arises in the brain.

Venturing into the elementary physics of life, Solms has now arrived at an astonishing answer. In The Hidden Spring, he brings forward his discovery in accessible language and graspable analogies.

Solms is a fearless guide on an extraordinary voyage from the dawn of neuropsychology and psychoanalysis to the cutting edge of contemporary neuroscience, adhering to the medically provable. But he goes beyond other neuroscientists by paying close attention to the subjective experiences of hundreds of neurological patients, many of whom he treated, whose uncanny conversations expose much about the brain's obscure reaches.

Most importantly, you will be able to recognize the workings of your own mind for what they really are, including every stray thought, pulse of emotion, and shift of attention. The Hidden Spring will profoundly alter your understanding of your own subjective experience.

©2021 Mark Solms (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

It’s a heavily packed book—better read in text

It’s a great theory of consciousness from one the leading man in the field. It’s a heavy packed with scientific material (and also referencing other theories), so it’s better to read it in text form which I plan to do after finishing the audio version.

YES!

YES!!! I predict it won’t be long before Mark Solms’ ideas will be commonplace and universally deemed accurate. Intelligent humans will laugh at so many of the current theories. Consciousness is as fundamental as life itself!

Darwinian Goggles

Solms analysis of human feelings is interesting, thoughtful, and creative. I admire his attempt to locate the neural origin of feelings and his exploration of their functional value. However, I believe his view that feelings arise from multiple homeostatic mechanisms that govern our personal survival is incomplete. Some of our most intense feelings (eg. orgasms) have nothing to do with personal survival; they are concerned with gene survival. Indeed human feelings are better organized around the three essential elements required for reproductive success: survival to reproductive age (hunger, pain etc.), reproduction (desire, jealousy etc.) and offspring survival (eg. love, pride, etc.).
Human brains did not evolve to accurately represent the true nature of reality; they evolved for the sole function of enhancing the survival of our genes. Although the external environment is teeming with electromagnetic radiation and air pressure waves, without consciousness it is both totally black and utterly silent. Of course there is no sweetness in sugar and no noxious smell in old rotten eggs; these conscious evaluative feelings evolved to discriminate between threats and benefits to our reproductive success. In essence, we all see the world through Darwinian Goggles that add light, love, and meaning to the silent coin of being.
(See “Why We Feel; The Science of Human Emotions.”)

Greek Reason, Human Consciousness Explained !!

This changes, at least, the wording of most every nuero book I've read, that's lots in recent years.

This book, this writer, on every level delivers a coup de gras. The writer, like an Olympic fencing champion, swishes away a universe of creepy crawly consciousness seekers, at the same time, the blades tip is at science writing's
throat.

Switching from 8+hours of TV, to audible, taking advantage of hearing speed, by Brian & Body the writers bemoaning their inability to cope with consciousness is a steady stream This book is as a satisfying as it gets.

Weeks ago, on completing Hidden Spring, I looked outside, I expected a mega phone to be going down the street letting us all know, ...

Brian Doidge and plasticity, move over. Mr. Porges, polyvegal.., great stuff but go sit with Norman. Lay intellectuals are on top Swashbuckler Mark Solm, salivating for more and a writing community's answers.

Amazing Book

I loved this book, i was abled to connect and understand it, welll narrated .

Links Psychoanalysis with Neuroscience

Groundbreaking integration of neuroscience with psychoanalysis which has significant implications for both fields especially around subjectivity. Freud's emphasis on the unconscious, dreams and feelings are given neuroscientific explanation. The pioneer in affective neuroscience, Jaak Panksepp, is prominent in Mark Solms' theory as is Karl Friston, the most cited neuroscientist living today. Solms' understanding of Freud matches his expertise in neuroscience. He critiques Freud as he critiques the cortex centered approach of neuroscience and psychiatry tracing the roots of this false centering back to the empiricist philosophers of the 18th century. Solms shares his journey from childhood to neuroscientist alongside the stories of his brain damaged patients. The book is groundbreaking and ten years ahead of our time, especially in an almost sci fi ending.

Probably the most challenging frontier.

When pushing forward in any frontier, it seems that we are always creating more questions than answers. It also appears that we can’t contain ourselves with the excitement of learning more.

Fascinating

I'll admit most of this content was over my head, but I understood enough to follow most of the major principles and was blown away from implications of all of it, particularly the last chapter on AI.

Highly recommend for anyone curious about neuroscience, consciousness, the inner workings of the brain or answering the question about whether experience comes from the world around you or a reflection of the world inside you.

On a side note, don't watch The Terminator or The Matrix immediately after reading this. Trust me on this one.

Solms for smart lay persons

Mark Solms is an extraordinarily intelligent man driven to understand the mind and brain from a perspective that is equally brain-based and emotionally-based (in the sense of emotion as driver of thought and behavior). This book is accessible to non-scientists but still a stretch in places. Worth the effort!

His case well made.

While I don’t have the background in Neuroscience to follow all of the History that Solms cites to underlay his argument, I feel that he makes a substantial case for the Source of Human Consciousness.

I have read enough in the Field to bemoan the lack of attention paid to the role of Affect and Feelings in arousing Consciousness. Solms uses his Life Experience with real patients to destroy this omission by other “experts”. How can we possibly ignore the effects feelings and what I call the Affective Insight have on our day-to-day Human Experience? Whether the Source rests in the Brain Stem, Cortex or some combination of the two matters far less than emphasizing the role of this vital component in the reality of our Life Experience. Solms provides that necessary emphasis. .

This is not an easy read for us laymen but if the workings of the Brain interests you at all you should give this book a try. Four Stars! ****