Books Written by Michael W. Taft

Michael W. Taft is the author of three books on awakening, enlightenment, and nonduality. These are:

1. The Mindful Geek
2. Nondualism
3. Ego:The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity (which he co-authored with Peter Baumann)
   

You can read more about these books below.

The Mindful Geek: Mindfulness Meditation for Secular Skeptics

The Mindful Geek details how to derive the benefits of mindfulness meditation without having to join a religion or drink metaphysical Kool-Aid. In the book, Michael Taft gives you step-by-step instructions in the powerful and reliable techniques of mindfulness meditation, and outlines the psychological and neuroscientific research underpinning these practices. An excellent book for beginners who are atheists, agnostics, and skeptics of all stripes who want help with anxiety, depression, and to enjoy life more.

By treating mindfulness as a scientifically-based, psychological technique, you can learn mindfulness meditation without having to believe in reincarnation, karma, or other mystical ideas. You can maintain a powerful, regular, and deeply effective meditation practice and stay well within the boundaries of science and common sense.

That is because meditation doesn’t require you to believe in it to work. Like any good technology, if you use it correctly, it will do the job reliably whether you believe in it or not. And–make no mistake–meditation is a kind of technology; a technology for hacking the human wetware to improve your life. This book is a practical,hands-on, step-by-step manual about how to make the most of that technology for yourself.     Buy on Amazon

Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept

Many traditions and mystics talk about nondualism. But what is nondualism, and how have people—from different religions in different parts of the word—described this concept over the millennia?

In this book you will discover the long history of nondualism, from its first roots in the Indian Upanishads, to its flowering in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, to its most modern-day expressions in the West. If you are a person in a nondual tradition, this book is an invaluable companion on your journey.

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Ego: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity (co-authored with Peter Baumann)

Ego: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity by Peter Baumann and Michael W. Taft is the first book to explore the positive evolutionary potential hidden in one of the most destructive events in history. In their examination of the evolutionary implications of 9/11 and its aftermath, the authors contend we are not falling into the grip of a new dark age at all; rather, we are on the verge of a much brighter one as the Darwinian process of natural selection continues to advance humankind.

The authors’ inquiry led them to the roots of human suffering: the ego. That the ego underlies our problems as a species may come as no surprise. But a deeper look into the ego’s origin and history is full of unexpected revelations:

The self we identify with—along with its biases and beliefs—turns out to be an evolutionary tool that made its first appearance some 50,000 years ago during what’s called the conceptual revolution, arguably the biggest developmental leap in human history. The emerging ego accompanied our ability to construct complex tools, create art, and redefine social structure. For the first time as a species, we were able to imagine the future, consider the thoughts of others, and picture ourselves in our own minds. The ego is a cognitive trick of natural selection intended to insure the survival of the individual. Baumann and Taft say the problem comes when we take the ego’s conceptualization of reality as the truth about who we actually are.

Using the latest research from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, and paleontology, Baumann and Taft show that modern humanity may be on the verge of an expansion of cognitive abilities akin to the development of the ego. This next step will free the human mind to see beyond the confines of the prison, and open the vast potential of conscious awareness.

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