Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind and the Proof That Will Change the Way We Live Our Lives

In Brain Wars, acclaimed neuroscientist Mario Beauregard reveals compelling new evidence set to provoke a major shift in our understanding of the mind-body debate: research showing that the mind and consciousness are transmitted and filtered through the brain—but are not generated by it.

Following his boundary-breaking neuroscience book The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, coauthored with Denyse O’Leary, Brain Wars makes a powerful and provocative case against the widely held view equating human beings to complex biological computers.

Like Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Beauregard believes that consciousness is more than simply a physical process that takes place in the brain. And here, he presents the evidence to prove it. Brain Wars will revolutionize the way we think about thinking forever.

The brain can be weighed, measured, scanned, dissected, and studied. The mind that we conceive to be generated by the brain, however, remains a mystery. It has no mass, no volume, and no shape, and it cannot be measured in space and time. Yet it is as real as neurons, neurotransmitters, and synaptic junctions. It is also very powerful.
—from Brain Wars

Is the brain "a computer made of meat," and human consciousness a simple product of electrical impulses? The idea that matter is all that exists has dominated science since the late nineteenth century and led to the long-standing scientific and popular understanding of the brain as simply a collection of neurons and neural activity. But for acclaimed neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, Ph.D., along with a rising number of colleagues and others, this materialist-based view clashes with what we feel and experience every day.

In Brain Wars, Dr. Beauregard delivers a paradigm-shifting examination of the role of the brain and mind. Filled with engaging, surprising, and cutting-edge scientific accounts, this eye-opening book makes the increasingly indisputable case that our immaterial minds influence what happens in our brains, our bodies, and even beyond our bodies. Examining the hard science behind "unexplained" phenomena such as the placebo effect, self-healing, brain control, meditation, hypnosis, and near-death and mystical experiences, Dr. Beauregard reveals the mind's capabilities and explores new answers to age-old mind-body questions.

Radically shifting our comprehension of the role of consciousness in the universe, Brain Wars forces us to consider the immense untapped power of the mind and explore the profound social, moral, and spiritual implications that this new understanding holds for our future.

Provocative and accessible, this book is ultimately less about hard science and more about the mind-body problem and philosophy of materialistic science. - Library Journal

“In this carefully researched, ground-breaking work, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard cites a wide range of scientific studies challenging many widely held materialistic assumptions about the relation between the mind and brain. In a triumph of empirical evidence over dogmatic allegiance to metaphysical beliefs, open-minded researchers cited in this book follow the true spirit of Galileo, heralding the first true revolution in the mind sciences.” - B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D. President, Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

“The current assumption that the brain makes consciousness, like the liver makes bile, and that human consciousness is confined to the brain and body, can only be called neuromythology. History will show that this belief was one of the great misguided concepts in human history, like the flat earth. This belief will not endure because it is unscientific, and cannot account for how consciousness manifests in the world. In this important book, Dr. Mario Beauregard shows why.” - Larry Dossey, MD Author of Reinventing Medicine and The Power of Premonitions

“The reigning scientific paradigm tells us that the mind, and especially the conscious mind, is a curious but probably meaningless side effect of brain processing. But paradigms are like old shoes. Even when scuffed, full of holes, and literally coming apart at the seams, they’re so darn comfortable that we give them up with great reluctance. Brain Wars explains why the prevailing brain-mind paradigm is falling apart and why we are increasingly being forced to reconsider the nature of consciousness. The consequences of this paradigm shift are profound, and Mario Beauregard does a magnificent job in explaining why.” - Dean Radin PhD Co-Editor-in-Chief, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing Senior Scientist Institute of Noetic Sciences

“In this important book, Dr. Mario Beauregard describes extensive and convincing scientific evidence that mind and brain are not identical. The challenging view that changes in consciousness can greatly influence what is happening in our brain and body now seems to be supported by many well designed studies: humans are not just powerless biochemical machines. In addition, Beauregard comes to the conclusion that our mind/consciousness has a fundamental and irreducible nature, and that it sometimes can be experienced independently from the body because it is not limited to our brain. Brain Wars clearly announces the end of physicalism, reductionism, materialism and objectivism in science. Highly recommended.” - Pim van Lommel, cardiologist, author of Consciousness beyond Life

“Mario Beauregard shows convincingly that the materialistic philosophy of the 19th century is an impoverished framework incompatible with contemporary science, from physics to psychology. The concepts he develops in Brain Wars are required reading for scientific literacy in today’s world.” - Bruce Greyson, M.D. Research psychiatrist, University of Virginia. Co-author of Irreducible Mind

“In this ground-breaking work, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard cites a range of scientific studies challenging many widely held materialistic assumptions about the relation between the mind and brain.” - B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D. President, Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

“The assumption that the brain makes consciousness, like the liver makes bile, and that human consciousness is confined to the brain and body, will not endure because it is unscientific, and cannot account for how consciousness manifests in the world. In this important book, Dr. Mario Beauregard shows why.” - Larry Dossey, MD Author of Reinventing Medicine and The Power of Premonitions

“Brain Wars explains why the prevailing brain-mind paradigm is falling apart and why we are increasingly being forced to reconsider the nature of consciousness. The consequences of this paradigm shift are profound, and Mario Beauregard does a magnificent job in explaining why.” - Dean Radin PhD Co-Editor-in-Chief, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing Senior Scientist Institute of Noetic Sciences

“Dr. Beauregard describes that our mind/consciousness has a fundamental and irreducible nature, and that it sometimes can be experienced independently from the body because it is not limited to our brain. Brain Wars clearly announces the end of physicalism, reductionism, materialism and objectivism in science.” - Pim van Lommel, cardiologist, author of Consciousness beyond Life