States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness
To accompany a major exhibition opening in February 2016, Wellcome Collection will publish 'States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness'. The book is a collection of literature, science and art delving into the mysteries of human consciousness. It has a new introduction by Mark Haddon, author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'.
Understanding the nature of consciousness continues to challenge even the most progressive experts and thinkers. Yet we all experience some form of consciousness and make daily journeys between different conscious states as we sleep and wake.
Through the eyes of writers, artists, scientists and philosophers, States of Mind explores the meaning of consciousness and, in particular, the nature of interrupted or liminal conscious experiences, such as somnambulism, synaesthesia and disorders of memory. These diverse – even conflicting – perspectives pose fundamental questions about what it means to be alive, aware and human.
In his new introduction, 'The Hardest Problem', Mark Haddon asks: "When does consciousness begin and when does it end? Do dreams give us access to some deeper truth? Can evil spirits possess us? What happens on that strange borderland between the conscious and the unconscious?"
This lively collection probes these questions and more, spanning science and the soul, language and memory, being and not being. It draws on five centuries of thinking, and includes works by Jane Austen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Crick, René Descartes, Emily Dickinson, H L Gold, Franz Kafka, H P Lovecraft, Marcel Proust, Mary Shelley, Henry David Thoreau, Alan Turing, H G Wells and Emile Zola.
"...no one can imagine what it is to be unconscious – how far removed from the state of consciousness and all that we call 'this world' – until he has experienced it." Henry David Thoreau
"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends and where the other begins?" Edgar Allan Poe
"Try it for yourself: stop what you’re doing and try to listen in to the mind's ear. What can you hear? Indeed, are you hearing at all? Can you say, definitively, that your inner voice sounds in the sense that we usually understand it?" Jennifer Hodgson
"Perceptions of the most maddeningly untransmissible sort thronged upon us; perceptions of infinity which at the time convulsed us with joy, yet which are now partly lost to my memory and partly incapable of presentation to others…" H P Lovecraft
"There is a kind of sleep that steals upon us sometimes, which, while it holds the body prisoner, does not free the mind from a sense of things about it, and enable it to ramble as it pleases..." Charles Dickens
For more information and to order the book online, visit Wellcome Collection.
About Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is the author of three novels, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Red House, and a volume of poetry, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea. He has written drama for stage, TV and radio. His latest book, a collection of short stories, is The Pier Falls, published by Jonathan Cape.
About Anna Faherty
Anna Faherty is an award-winning writer, editor, researcher and teacher who has worked in publishing for almost a quarter of a century. Anna collaborates with publishers and museums on a diverse range of print, exhibition and digital projects and is an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. She is the author of the Reading Room Companion, published by Wellcome Collection.
About 'States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness'
States of Mind: Tracing the Edges of Consciousness is an exhibition developed by Wellcome Collection to interrogate our understanding of the conscious experience. Exploring phenomena such as somnambulism, synaesthesia and disorders of memory, the exhibition examines ideas around the nature of consciousness, and in particular what can happen when our typical conscious experience is interrupted, damaged or undermined.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.
Our investment portfolio gives us the independence to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, our free venue for the incurably curious that explores medicine, life and art.