Understanding human unconscious behavior and impulses
The most exclusive guide!
“The ‘me’ you perceive is the most elaborate illusion created by the brain!”

[Nature] [Washington Post] Recommended Books
Scientists Spotlighted by [Scientific America]!
Recommended by world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Ramachandran and AI authority Professor Sebastian Seung
The emergence of Oliver Sacks's most compelling neuroscience storyteller.

The core topic of 21st-century neuroscience is not ‘consciousness’ but ‘unconsciousness.’
We believe we think and choose for ourselves, but our perceptions, memories, emotions, and actions are deeply influenced by the brain's unconscious circuits.
"The Brain Science of the Unconscious" does not say that the unconscious is simply instinct, hidden impulse, or repressed desire.
Instead, it is described as a global cognitive system that perceives the world, constructs memories, and forms self-identity.
This book fascinatingly explores how the unconscious reconstructs reality through the strange and fascinating phenomena humans experience, from dreams and habits to hallucinations, multiple personalities, and even alien abductions.
This book, which world-renowned neuroscientist Ramachandran praised as “a new horizon in popular brain science,” examines everything from familiar everyday experiences to cases of mental illness, providing a completely new perspective on who we are and why we feel and act the way we do.

Eliezer J.
Sternberg, a neurologist and neuroscientist at Yale University New Haven Hospital, combines clinical experience with cutting-edge research to unravel the complex workings of the brain in compelling narratives.
Hailed as “the emergence of Oliver Sacks’s most compelling neuroscience storyteller,” this book combines scientific precision with the allure of a story in its own right.
This bold attempt to explore the world of the unconscious based on neuroscience and brain science has garnered attention and praise from the media, academia, and even contemporary science writers.
Tracing the hidden "unconscious circuits" of the brain through clinical cases that are sometimes bizarre and sometimes wondrous, this book is the most unique guide to understanding human unconscious behavior and impulses.

In this book, we will trace the workings of both the conscious and unconscious systems of the brain, examining how these two systems work together and, more importantly, how they interact to create our experiences and sustain our sense of self.
After reading this book, I hope you will understand that there are distinct patterns in how the brain's unconscious mechanisms guide behavior.
There is a fundamental 'neuro-logic' in the brain that guides how we experience the world.
You could think of this neural logic as software.
What we need to do is decipher the code of that logical system.
To do that, we need to observe the input and output, as well as find out what brain system creates that logical system.
Cracking the code of the software within us has profound implications for the study of neurology and psychiatry, the study of human relationships and interactions, and our understanding of humanity.
--- From the "Preface" on p.14~15

The brain does its best to create stories.
The brain's unconscious mind is incredibly adept at finding patterns, predicting the next pattern, and using contextual clues to fill in the gaps in an incomplete picture.
Perhaps these activities work collectively to stitch together the tattered signals received by the unconscious and weave them into a dreamscape.
In this way, a patchwork of thoughts, memories, fears, and desires takes over our minds, sometimes even giving rise to metaphorical stories.
Even so, our dreams are generally quite bizarre.
--- p.41~42 From “The brain knows how to ‘see’ even without seeing”

A driver who is deeply immersed in another thought will not remember the conscious experience of driving.
He doesn't remember stopping at a red light or turning left when he got the signal.
He drives on autopilot.
In a situation where an accident could easily occur, you are startled, quickly come to your senses, and step on the brakes hard.
He screeches to a halt just a few centimeters from the mail truck.
The driver calms down from his shock and then ponders how this happened.
This may not have happened just because of a moment of carelessness.
I feel like I was driving absentmindedly, not just for a moment, but on a much more serious level.
He thinks maybe he was completely distracted the whole time he was driving.
Driving in this daze is no different from driving without looking ahead.
--- p.82~83 From “Another Name for the Unconscious: Habit”

Memories play a huge role in determining who we are as people.
Our personal history creates our self-image and gathers stored knowledge.
The unconscious encodes our memories and also shapes our personality.
The unconscious, like a video camera, does not capture experiences as they are.
Instead, the unconscious focuses on our own role in the story, on what we consider important.
Then, at some point, a context emerges about how we are feeling, what our emotions are in that moment, what we are expecting and fearing, and what that moment 'means' to us.
And based on that context, the brain begins to write the first draft.
--- p.177 From “Can You Remember Something That Never Happened?”

Academics estimate that around 8 percent of the population suffers from sleep paralysis.
In the United States alone, more than 20 million people experience sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime.
The severity of symptoms varies from person to person, but for most people, sleep paralysis lasts only a few seconds and does not last longer, leading to hallucinations.
Studies show that people with high anxiety levels are more likely to perceive a stranger's presence during sleep paralysis. 8 Stress that persists into sleep can make hallucinations, which are otherwise easily forgotten, even more frightening.
People with dysfunctional social imagery, a mild form of social phobia, are also more likely to hallucinate during sleep paralysis.
People with social image dysfunction believe that others are always watching and judging them.
When sleep paralysis strikes, these people experience more severe hallucinations, as if aliens are experimenting on them and poking things into their bodies.
--- p.214 From “The Unconscious is Easily Deceived”

Recently, my wife and I were on a trip to Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, and we discovered an ice cream shop tucked away at the end of a quiet street.
A picture of a strawberry-topped waffle cone hung in the window, and a wooden store sign swayed back and forth in the breeze.
Looking at the store, I felt strongly that it looked familiar.
The feeling was so strong that I confidently said that I had been to this store when I was traveling with my parents as a child.
But that weekend, my father told me that our family had never even been to Connecticut.
We've all experienced it at least once, but why does it feel that way? Why does a place we've never been to feel so familiar?
--- p.282~283 From “Why do schizophrenic patients hear auditory hallucinations”

The most common way to encounter hypnosis is to watch a hypnotist perform it on stage.
A stage hypnotist selects a volunteer from the audience and hypnotizes him into performing embarrassing, bizarre, and even comical acts.
In the hypnosis stage I saw, my friend Lee Seon volunteered.
Lee Seon, who was just as inflexible as usual, was successfully hypnotized.
At one point, the hypnotist told my friend that a falcon had just entered the performance space and was spreading its wings in an elegant pose.
Lee Sun followed the invisible bird with his eyes and made a look of wonder.
The hypnotist continued speaking.
“The eagle flew back and just landed on your head.” Lee Sun froze in fear.
His eyes flicked back and forth between the audience and his own forehead, straining to see the imaginary creature clutching his hair with its sharp claws.
The audience laughed, but Lee Sun didn't care.
The hypnotist went one step further.
“The eagle is flying up again and getting inside your shirt!” Lee Sun’s face turned red and he broke out in a cold sweat as he struggled to fight off the attacker.
Then his shirt was torn in half.
Finally, the hypnotist told him that the falcon had flown away.
After the hypnosis ended, Lee Sun swore that he could clearly see both the audience and the bird, and that he really believed in the fight with the falcon.
In any case, the hypnotic state made him recognize and fight creatures that were not even in the performance hall.
--- p.291 From "Is Hypnotic Murder Possible?"

In the history of science, there are often things that are treated as black boxes and declared mysteries.
This is because researchers have failed to establish an appropriate research framework.
To achieve breakthroughs, you need to ask the right questions.
The road to discovery begins with knowing what to look for.
The idea that the brain is divided into a conscious and an unconscious realm does not provide the answer to the mystery of consciousness.
This is just the beginning of the journey.
This idea serves as a springboard for approaching many of the challenging questions in neuroscience that remain elusive.
While some people are busy researching extensions of already known knowledge, others may be trying to open the black box.
He will think outside the box and not hesitate to ask questions that may seem odd at first.
(...) As brain research advances, the journey to uncover the black box must continue.
We need to fully leverage collective thinking to find the point where our thought and behavior patterns fit perfectly into neuroscience mechanisms.
The evidence is there.
Now it's up to us to fill the gap.

--- p.379~380 From “What Makes Me ‘Me’”