For years, North Americans have been seeking rational, analytical answers to despair and anxiety. But now, this rational Western perception of consciousness has been challenged by an Eastern discipline which brings into sharp focus the travesty and deception underlying many of the contemporary awareness movements. Yet it is also the author's intent to combat the easy criticisms of the super-rationalists who dismiss every new development as the irresponsible inventions of the "guru-of-the-month club." He offers not only the finding of extensive scientific research on the brain, but also the valuable discoveries of personal experience. There is no one who is better qualified to assess our modern approach to matters of the mind than Robert Ornstein, and he does so with clarity, wit and utter persuasiveness.