Includes bibliographical references and index

Problem -- Dualist-interactionism: my story -- Recent theoretical studies on the mind-brain problem -- New light on the mind-brain problem: how mental events could influence neural events -- Do mental events cause neural events analogously to the probability fields of quantum mechanics? -- Unitary hypothesis of mind-brain interaction in the cerebral cortex -- Evolution of consciousness -- Evolution of complexity of the brain with the emergence of consciousness -- Quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness / F. Beck and J.C. Eccles -- Self and its brain: the ultimate synthesis

In this book the author has collected a number of his important works and added an extensive commentary relating his ideas to those of other prominent names in the consciousness debate. The view presented here is that of a convinced dualist who challenges in a lively and humorous way the prevailing materialist "doctrines" of many recent works. Also included is a new attempt to explain mind-brain interaction via a quantum process affecting the release of neurotransmitters. John Eccles received a knighthood in 1958 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology in 1963. He has numerous other awards honouring his major contributions to neurophysiology