Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking (Ataraxia)

Hypersanity:  Thinking Beyond Thinking digs deeper into our thinking patterns and processing. Neel Burton challenges our reasoning and how we come to conclusions. He includes examples that allows you to test the theories he presents and explains how faulty the general public as they come up with conclusions that are off the wall and not even relevant. Neel Burton begins with simple explanations and builds to deeper thoughts and methods. Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking is for those who desire a more profound concept of life. His ideas are not what you would hear from an average author, his work is definitely above average. I did not understand everything he discussed in his book, though he presented his theories with a precise explanation. My favorite chapter was on fallacies. I will look deeper into how I read the news and the agenda they are pushing though they don’t line up with the facts.

British author Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and educator who teaches and lives in Oxford, England. His many books on mental health are acclaimed and widely read in many languages.The phrase that opens this warmly accessible book and how we think sets a fine tone – ‘There are essentially three types of people: Those who love life more than they fear it, those who fear life more than they love it, and those who have no clue what I’m talking about.’ And in his informed introductory comments he shares the definition of ‘Hypersanity’ or ‘super sanity’ other authors who have described the term as a ‘voyage of discovery that could open out onto a free state of higher consciousness, or, ‘the descent into madness could lead into a reckoning to an awakening, to a breakthrough rather than a breakdown’ – and this degree of probing and a most communication manner is what makes this fine book so valuable. Ashe summarizes his response to his ancient and contemporary mentors, ‘You can approach Hypersanity as an opportunity to hone you thinking skills, which, in the end, are going to be far more important to your impact and wellbeing than any fact that you could ever learn.’Neel divides his fascinating exploration of our minds into many sections – such as fallacies, reason, intelligence, questions, language, knowledge, memory, wisdom, imagination, inspiration, et al – and in each he shares how we approach these states and what the little journeys hold for us.There is more golden wisdom flowing from these pages than can be explained in an overview. This is simply a book that belongs in the library (and mind) of all concerned beings who elect to explore thought and how we derive it. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, July 19

The author of Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking (Neel Burton) draws on the "Politics of Experience” by RD Laing, and presents us with the following on madness: “madness as a voyage of discovery that could open out onto a free state of higher consciousness, or hypersanity.” For Laing, the descent into madness could lead to a reckoning, to an awakening, to ‘breakthrough rather than breakdown’. Hypersanity, he says is both “liberating and empowering”. We are invited to approach Hypersanity as an opportunity to hone our thinking skills, and our education which, in the words of BF Skinner: “[Education] is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten”The author would not have us get to Hypersanity by our current understanding of madness. Rather, he prefers us moving there through thinking. I will bet that you will agree with this approach. This is a book which will engender a lot of thinking in the reader. If you are like me, you want to stop as you read, and think about a new concept or a sub-concept or one that is in front of your nose, but you never acknowledged it ... until now.The author presents us first with our customary rational methods of thinking and expressing, as comes for example, from a formal education. Some of these are: Logical Reasoning; Language; Rhetoric; Reason; Memory: Intelligence; Science and Knowledge. He then provides us with alternative forms of cognition which support rational methods, but which our current culture discounts or disregards, such as: Intuition, Emotion, and Imagination; Insight and Wisdom (Wisdom is knowing that you don’t know – think on it).So how does all this relate to Hypersanity? “…. we ought to be rehabilitating alternative forms of cognition that can be used to support, supplement, or supplant logical reasoning and return us to wholeness.” Personally, I would aask you to read this book slowly enough, and seek resonance with the issues raised before moving on. You will, as the author promises “become a better thinker".See how bright and smart the guy on the cover looks?Recommended.

I loved the conclusion of this book. I am looking forward to more idleness to discover more living by imagination.

“Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking” is in an incredibly well-thought-out book that will literally change your method and framework of thinking. We, as a society, are taught the standardized methods of thinking as a whole as opposed to being able to break things down in a manner that works for our particular brains and style. With the help of this book, you can learn to literally “think beyond thinking” in a way that will change your outlook and help you to be able to discern things on a level that perfectly will fit your own individualized pattern of thought. A great guide for anyone looking to rise above the rest!

I've made a personal goal to read more books like Hypersanity this year and I have to say, I found it very interesting. Generally, I am a bit of an over thinker and I do have a tendency to think more negatively than positively. Reading Hypersanity really helped me to alter my thinking process whereby I now actively think more positively. Much of what is written here, I have related to a lot and the message of this book is a very powerful thing. If you can master your own mind then you are set for success. After all, our biggest obstacle in life is often our selves. Hypersanity is by no means a fairytale and as it states in the title, it really does make you think beyond thinking.

The appeal of Hypersanity, is in that Burton achieves his goal, which is to get the reader to think. Having taken Philosophy, and Logic classes in the university, it is easy to see where the author’s thoughts originate from, and consequently, the direction of those thoughts toward an absorbing conclusion.Involving how the different pieces are intertwined to make up the whole. Burton delves into history, arts, travel, culture, cinematography and budding societal events toward buttressing salient points.Hypersanity wouldn’t serve as your regular novel, or book. It certainly wouldn’t serve as a diversion, or source of entertainment. However, it would represent a source of inspiration for those who are curious enough to want to think, and experience the borders of critical and analytical thinking.My favorite phrase: “. . . that life is to be found in all of life; that life, at all times, is right in front of us, waiting to be lived.”Kudos to the author.

I did philosophy at university and went through several books on thinking skills, critical thinking, logic etc. This one blows them all away by a country mile. It goes much further and is much more interesting and readable. Actually I read it all in just two or three days, couldn’t put it down. It’s amazing how much Neel Burton packs in, and how he manages to make complex ideas accessible and digestible. I’d recommend Hypersanity to everyone and anyone.

Hypersanity offers the tantalising prospect of understanding the world in a deeper way.Neel Burton cleverly weaves the curriculum of a medieval "classical education" (such as logic, rhetoric and music) with other metaphysical concepts (like truth, imagination and wisdom) to develop a theme of a inspired and purposeful life. A life that makes sense on a fundamental and personal level and not one of fitting in to societal expectations.To do so, he draws on a broad array of sources from Plato and Jung to Donald Trump and Game of Thrones, making for an entertaining read. The overarching message is a hopeful: a joining of education, wisdom and imagination to create real meaning.My only slight caution to the reader would be to follow the author's own advice at the start of Chapter 3 and skip straight to Chapter 5. Chapters 3 & 4 do come across as a mock exam, and I think distract from the crisp flow and clear elegance of the prose in the rest of the book.Overall, I highly recommend Dr Burton's Hypersanity to those wishing to develop their own path to a meaningful life. In polarised and anxious times, what better calling can there be?

The cover is an incredibly stupid choice by whoever made it. The book however did at least challenge you to think about all aspects of human thought.My issue was that I found myself disagreeing a lot with the definitions and the conclusions. I completely disagree with the notion that scientific rationalism has damaged society - I believe society is pooer because it doesn't have enough of it.So in short if you are looking for deep truth you won't find it in this book, but on the other hand I commend it for challenging preconceived ideas. I did agree that wisdom comes in knowing that we actually really "know" almost nothing.Read this to think about thinking but not to swallow wholesale the author's ideas on how or what to think.