Too much skepticism can lead to a radical postmodernism that denies the possibility of achieving not only complete knowledge of our selves, but any knowledge at all. If The Undiscovered Mind succeeds at all, it will persuade readers to view mind-science with hopeful skepticism. That is one upside. The fact that those goals may never be fully attained means, paradoxically, that mind-science might continue forever. As long as we remain mysteries to ourselves, as long as we suffer, as long as we have not descended into a utopian torpor, we will continue to ponder and probe our minds with the instruments of science.
Inner space is our final, and possibly eternal, frontier.
John Horgan is a freelance writer in Garrison, New York.