Being and becoming: A guide to act in the theatre of existence

Part I       The Neuroscience Perspective - Where is my self?

1.     The emergence of the self

1.1     Perception is everything

1.2  The usefulness of brains

1.3  Cognition without a brain: the "thinking" slime mould

1.4  A brief tour through the brain, for the non-specialist tourist

1.5  The cognitive powers of a worm

1.6  On the essence of selves: properties are all we perceive

1.7.1 The mirror test

1.8  Of animals and babies: the development of self-awareness in humans

1.8.1. The body in the brain

1.8.2 Our starting consciousness in our early times

2.     The origins and the fallacy of a central commander in the brain: the emergence of agency and the demise of the concept of free will

2.1  Incorrect body perceptions: illusions of ownership and out of body experience

2.1.1. The mind out of the body -out of body experiences

2.1.2. A mini science project: elucidating the intriguing phenomenon of OBEs in blind individuals

2.2 Free will, or what is free in that will

2.2.1  The making of choices - In search of the last ventriloquist

2.2.2 The will in epileptic patients -what seizures reveal about volition

Postscript to section 2

3. The strange world of split brain patients: in search of the interpreter of our  

actions

3.1 Closing the coffin of free-will

4.  Dissociative identity disorders. Are multiple personalities ever lonely, or, can a 

 psychiatrist charge twice a person with dual personality?

7. Demystifying consciousness

7.1 On emergence

7.1.1. A criticism and a reply

7.2  Perception is personal -The essence and source of the mystery

Postscript to part I

Part II      The Biophysics perspective - What is my life?

8. The Biophysics perspective - What is my life?

8.1 Preparing to cook life

8.1.1 Global regularity from local mess - The beginnings of the living

8.1.2   Noisy surroundings: when noise really makes sense

8.1.3  A fluctuating world

9. Let there be life

9.1 Molecular crowding: a tale of the most probable

9.3  Clarifying the entropic fallacy

9.3.1  And furthermore, clarifying other closest relatives of entropy

9.4  And yet another fallacy: (wo)man and machine

9.5 The dance of the genes

10. The special ones

11. The enduring life

12. And why there is something instead of nothing

Postscript to part II

Part III     The philosophical perspective - How do I experience reality?

13. The self and consciousness throughout history

14. The power of contemplation -Explorations on the self and consciousness in the Buddhist tradition

15. Shrinking the self

16. Naturalising death -The ultimate becoming

17. Law and Neuroscience: the impact of brain research on criminal justice 

Postscript to part III

Final conclusions