Neuroscientist Amir Raz shares decades of research and case studies to show how suggestion changes the brain and shapes our behavior—and how we can protect ourselves from and harness suggestibility in our own lives. Suggestions can make cheap wine taste like Château Margaux, warp our perception of time, and alter our memories—and in an age where disinformation has impacted our personal lives and our politics, the power of suggestion is worth even more attention. In The Suggestible Brain, world-renowned expert on the science of suggestion Amir Raz, PhD, brings together cognitive aspects of psychology, sociology, and anthropology with issues in our contemporary culture, media, alongside a series of case studies of patients with disorders ranging from Tourette’s Syndrome to false pregnancies, lactose intolerance, and asthma to show exactly how suggestions can cut deep into our brains, shake our fundamental knowledge, and override our core human values. Some questions include: Why do placebos work even when people know they are inactive pills—and why do red pills cause stress whereas blue pills feel calm? Can suggestions effectively treat depression and anxiety? How do people weaponize suggestion in the form of gaslighting and mental abuse? Why are we more likely to believe fake news that already aligns with our political beliefs? How can suggestions help fight racism, hatred, and bigotry? Conversely, how can suggestions backfire and create the opposite effect? Merging Dr. Raz’s experiences as a magician and hypnotist with decades’ worth of his own neuropsychological research, The Suggestible Brain maps the twilight zone where magic and science coalesce, and shows how easily suggestible and manipulable we all are. Readers will walk away with actionable advice on how to harness the science of suggestion to propel change, protect against manipulative misinformation, and better regulate our internal, mental universe. “Professor Amir Raz is a consummate scientist and former professional magician. His scientific research and writing have made substantial contributions to our understanding of hypnosis, placebo effects, and suggestion. His book will amaze and entertain you, while at the same time being firmly rooted in the scientific data. It is a magical book.”--Irving Kirsch, PhD, author of The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth "[This book] could have been titled This is Your Brain on Magic. Told from the twin perspectives of a world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist who happens to be a professional magician, you’ll never again think about what you see, hear, and experience the same way.”—Daniel Levitan, author of This is Your Brain on Music

National Geographic's riveting narrative explores the world of placebos, hypnosis, false memories, and neurology to reveal the groundbreaking science of our suggestible minds. Could the secrets to personal health lie within our own brains? Journalist Erik Vance explores the surprising ways our expectations and beliefs influence our bodily responses to pain, disease, and everyday events. Drawing on centuries of research and interviews with leading experts in the field, Vance takes us on a fascinating adventure from Harvard’s research labs to a witch doctor’s office in Catemaco, Mexico, to an alternative medicine school near Beijing (often called “China’s Hogwarts”). Vance’s firsthand dispatches will change the way you think—and feel. Expectations, beliefs, and self-deception can actively change our bodies and minds. Vance builds a case for our “internal pharmacy”—the very real chemical reactions our brains produce when we think we are experiencing pain or healing, actual or perceived. Supporting this idea is centuries of placebo research in a range of forms, from sugar pills to shock waves; studies of alternative medicine techniques heralded and condemned in different parts of the world (think crystals and chakras); and most recently, major advances in brain mapping technology. Thanks to this technology, we're learning how we might leverage our suggestibility (or lack thereof) for personalized medicine, and Vance brings us to the front lines of such study.

What would it mean to become supernatural? What if you could tune in to frequencies beyond our material world; change your brain chemistry to access transcendent levels of awareness. Dr. Joe offers nothing less than a program for stepping outside our physical reality and into a new world. This is who we really are, and this is the future I'm creating; one in which each and every one of us becomes supernatural.

Two legendary masters of science fiction and fantasy come together in this landmark anthology, filled with gems from the Weird Tales era and beyond. During the weird fiction boom that gave birth to H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore produced some of the most enduring pieces of speculative fiction in the genre’s history: the sagas of Jirel of Joiry, Northwest Smith of Earth, Galloway Gallegher, and more. Working closely, Kuttner and Moore became a husband and wife team whose work appeared in everything from television and print to the Cthulhu mythos. Both Moore and Kuttner have a legacy that is as acclaimed as it is widely read: Moore received a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement by the SFWA while Ray Bradbury called Kuttner a "neglected master." Now, for the first time, some of their best work is collected in one anthology, including “Black God’s Kiss,” “Shambleau,” “Graveyard Rats,” “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” and “The Proud Robot.”

Short stories by a pioneering female author who went on to become a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. This anthology includes some of C.L. Moore’s best-known and most beloved tales, including: “Shambleau” First published in Weird Tales, Moore’s bizarre, imaginative, and wildly acclaimed debut features space outlaw Northwest Smith and his meeting on Mars with a strange young lady whose turban hides a terrifying secret . . . “Black God’s Kiss” The debut of Jirel of Joiry, one of the classic heroes of sword and sorcery and fantasy’s first true strong female protagonist. As cunning as she is fierce, Jirel descends into a nightmarish land beneath her castle to find the instruments of her revenge . . . “The Bright Illusion” One man’s journey to a mind-bending, terrifying planet of blinding colors and impossible angles, filled with unutterable horrors and strange temptations . . . With these and seven additional stories that evoke the enduring spirit of sci-fi and fantasy’s early days, The Best of C.L. Moore is a treasure that belongs on the shelf of any reader of speculative fiction. “Her contributions to the field are instrumental in the formation of the modern face of science fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews

Before Robert Silverberg won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and became Grand Master of science fiction, he was a young man learning the art and craft of writing the genre. In Science Fiction: 101, Silverberg reveals the roots of modern science fiction with thought-provoking essays about some of the field’s most groundbreaking stories—included in this volume—which inspired him and taught him to write. These insightful analyses, along with the skills and strategies Silverberg developed to build his successful career, make this an indispensable volume for readers interested in science fiction history. Featuring Thirteen Classic Stories by Brian W. Aldiss, Alfred Bester, James Blish, Philip K. Dick, Damon Knight, C. M. Kornbluth, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Frederik Pohl, Bob Shaw, Robert Sheckley, Cordwainer Smith, and Jack Vance

"This monograph was stimulated by the extraordinary growth now apparent in an area, generally identified as sleep and dream research, for this recent concentration of scientific effort offers a singular example of the power that basic research can exert in penetrating the problems of mental health and illness. In the past year alone, the National Institute of Mental Health supported over 60 projects related in whole or in part to studies of sleep and dreams, with awards totaling over $2 million. The work of many of these NIMH investigators is included in this summary, which extends beyond the Institute's program insofar as necessary to indicate the major trends of work in the area. The report cannot, of course, encompass the classical studies already summarized in published literature, nor even provide comprehensive survey of present-day sleep research, for although much of the scientific data on sleep have been generated during the last dozen years, significant references in this field now number in the many thousands. The mosaic of disciplines contributing to the study of sleep contains such diverse fields as psychiatry, and mathematics, psychology, and biochemistry, physiology, and anthropology. Nevertheless, ferment about the subject matter and a spirit of cooperation across traditional disciplinary lines have made it possible to knit together data that might otherwise have lain unrelated in a variety of laboratories. During the past year, individual summaries of many of the projects cited here were distributed to scientists working in the field of sleep and dreams. Many of the recipients felt that up-to-date reports, especially in a field of such dynamic activity, represented a unique solution to the problem of scientific information exchange. Such communication, it was felt, provided a quick look at work in progress that might prevent duplication of effort and stimulate pertinent contacts among scientists, thus aiding them in their work. It is hoped that this monograph will be a further part of that process."--Foreword.

Ten classic stories from the birth of modern science fiction writing The Golden Age of Science Fiction, from the early 1940s through the 1950s, saw an explosion of talent in SF writing including authors such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke. Their writing helped science fiction gained wide public attention, and left a lasting impression upon society. The same writers formed the mould for the next three decades of science fiction, and much of their writing remains as fresh today as it was then. Collected in one giant volume, here is the very best of the golden era. The stories include: A.E. van Vogt, 'The Weapons Shop' Isaac Asimov, 'The Big and the Little' Lester del Rey, 'Nerves' Fredric Brown, 'Daymare' Theodore Sturgeon, 'Killdozer!' C.L. Moore, 'No Woman Born' A. Bertram Chandler, 'Giant Killer'