Baland Jalal – författare

In the no-man’s land between wakefulness and sleep, the ordinary rules of consciousness can break down. Dreams can spill into waking life, awareness can re-enter a dream, and the sleeping brain can awaken before the body. Sometimes cinematic visions of REM intrude into consciousness, like dreaming with your eyes open. People across the world report terrifying bedroom intruders: witches, demons, aliens, vampires, and even gigantic cats.Harvard neuroscientist Baland Jalal explains these apparitions as the brain’s attempt to make sense of the impossible, filling in the gaps to construct a new reality until we awaken and it fades. One of the world’s foremost researchers of sleep paralysis, he sees it as a window into the brain’s wider functions. Yet sleep paralysis is only one of several remarkable states that emerge on the edge of sleep. By exploring it alongside lucid dreaming, narcolepsy, and REM sleep behaviour disorder, Jalal reveals how these unusual states illuminate the neural machinery of human nature.Packed with fascinating stories from research that has taken him all around the world, he explains how our expectations and cultures shape the visions we bring to life, and what this might mean at the deepest level for who we are. How it is that the activity on such small scales within the brain gives rise to consciousness in all of its complexity, and our sense of the self, helping us understand what it means to be so uniquely human.

A fascinating exploration of sleep paralysis that reveals the inner workings of the human brain. From a leading Harvard sleep researcher.At the transition between wakefulness and REM sleep, the dream and waking worlds sometimes collide. Cinematic visions of REM spill over into conscious awakening, which can sometimes feel like a nightmare on steroids. As if being paralyzed when awake weren’t chilling enough, people across the world encounter terrifying bedroom intruders—witches, demons, aliens, vampires, and even gigantic cats.In The Phantom Mind, Harvard neuroscientist Baland Jalal explains that these apparitions are a result of the brain’s prediction machine making sense of the impossible, filling in the gaps to construct a new reality. One of the world’s foremost researchers of sleep paralysis, he sees it as a window into our brain’s wider functions. Our minds create the dream world and populate it with our own creations—the way we make sense of sleep paralysis and dreams tells us much about our sense of self and of others. Going further, Jalal shows how it is this point on the edge of dreams, stretching the imagination like no other, that enables great artists and thinkers to have their most profound revelations.Packed with fascinating stories from his research all around the world, the author explains how our expectations and cultures shape the visions we bring to life. Ultimately, he reveals how the activity of tiny wisps of protoplasm in the brain gives rise to consciousness and makes us so uniquely human.

With an increasing number of Muslims living in the West, and studies suggesting that mental illness may be more prevalent and chronic amongst Muslim cultural groups, there is a pressing need for appropriate treatment options. This book provides mental health professionals with a practical guide to delivering culturally adapted therapy to Muslim immigrants, refugees, and those with a Muslim religious or cultural background. It takes into account the religious, spiritual, social and cultural dimensions of individuals, framing elements such as mindfulness, emotion regulation and sleep problems within well-known Islamic terms and concepts. The book covers issues such as prominent somatic symptoms, multiple comorbidities, low education, ongoing life difficulties and mental health stigma. As Multiplex Therapy is transdiagnostic, targeting anxiety and mood disorders, the treatment is applicable to a large proportion of patients. Each chapter guides the reader through therapy sessions, giving clinicians an invaluable everyday manual for delivering treatment.

With an increasing number of Muslims living in the West, and studies suggesting that mental illness may be more prevalent and chronic amongst Muslim cultural groups, there is a pressing need for appropriate treatment options. This book provides mental health professionals with a practical guide to delivering culturally adapted therapy to Muslim immigrants, refugees, and those with a Muslim religious or cultural background. It takes into account the religious, spiritual, social and cultural dimensions of individuals, framing elements such as mindfulness, emotion regulation and sleep problems within well-known Islamic terms and concepts. The book covers issues such as prominent somatic symptoms, multiple comorbidities, low education, ongoing life difficulties and mental health stigma. As Multiplex Therapy is transdiagnostic, targeting anxiety and mood disorders, the treatment is applicable to a large proportion of patients. Each chapter guides the reader through therapy sessions, giving clinicians an invaluable everyday manual for delivering treatment.