Subliminal: The New Unconscious and What it Teaches Us

Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of The Drunkard's Walk and coauthor of The Grand Design (with Stephen Hawking) and War of the Worldviews (with Deepak Chopra) here examines how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world, and how, for instance, we often misperceive everything from our relationships with family, friends and business associates, the reasons for our investment decisions, to our own past. Your preference in politicians, the amount of tip you give the waiter-all our judgments and perceptions-reflect the workings of our mind on two levels, the conscious, of which we are aware, and the unconscious, which is hidden from us. The latter has long been the subject of speculation, but over the past two decades scientific researchers have developed remarkable new tools for probing the hidden, or subliminal, workings of the mind. The result of this explosion of research is a new science of the unconscious, and a sea change in our understanding of how the mind affects the way we live. These cutting-edge discoveries have revealed that the way we experience life-our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment-is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed. Employing his trademark wit and his lucid, accessible explanations of the most obscure scientific subjects, Leonard Mlodinow takes us on a tour of this research, unraveling the complexities of the subliminal self, increasing our understanding of how the human mind works, and how we interact with friends, strangers, spouses and coworkers. In the process he changes our view of ourselves and the world around us.

About the Author :
LEONARD MLODINOW received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute, and now teaches at the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include War of the Worldviews (with Deepak Chopra); the two national best sellers The Grand Design (with Stephen Hawking) and The Drunkard's Walk (a New York Times Notable Book and short-listed for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books); Feynman's Rainbow; and Euclid's Window. He also wrote for the television series MacGyver and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Review :
PRAISE FOR The Drunkard's Walk: Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists ... The result is a readable crash course in randomness If you're strong enough to have some of your favorite assumptions challenged, please read The Drunkard's Walk, a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory Delightful...Our lives may be shaped by chance, but they are enriched by awareness-just the sort of awareness that this fascinating book will give you Leonard Mlodinow never fails to make science both accessible and entertaining With the same deft touch he showed in The Drunkard's Walk, Mlodinow probes the subtle, automatic, and often unnoticed influences on our behavior If you liked The Drunkard's Walk, then you'll love Subliminal. Mlodinow has written an engaging and insightful book that explores the new science of the unconscious. In Subliminal, Mlodinow not only makes neuroscience understandable-he makes it fascinating. After reading this book, you will look at yourself (and those around you) in a new way Think you know the whys and hows of your choices? Think again. Follow Mlodinow on a gorgeous journey into the enormous mental backstage behind the curtain of consciousness