Expanded Awareness
A Health Psychologist's Exploration of Consciousness
The engaging spiritual and metaphysical guidebook Expanded Awareness maps out human consciousness in broad, involving terms.
Health psychologist Sophie Guellati-Salcedo’s spiritual guidebook Expanded Awareness unites scientific theories with personal, interdisciplinary insights on human consciousness.
Emphasizing personal experiences and leading by example, this experiential guidebook first chronicles Guellati-Salcedo’s formative engagements with ranging topics, including childhood intuition, psychosomatic impacts on health, and loss—subjects often given short shrift in clinical discussions. It then seeks to map out human consciousness in broad terms, drawing on a combination of scientific, philosophical, and experiential perspectives to do so. Free will, multiple levels of awareness, and the nature of multidimensional realities are considered in the course of this work, while reflections on sound, time, symbolic memory, and intuition conclude the book.
The book’s progression is deliberate, moving outward from personal experiences, such as studying Tibetan Buddhism because of engagement with the teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche, to cover conceptual and philosophical terrain before returning to the ground level of lived experience: “What began with questions of resonance has expanded into an invitation to live inquiry itself.” Reflective of the belief that genuine understandings of consciousness cannot be transmitted through argument alone, this is a book that’s concerned with exploring possibilities as much as it is with making decisive arguments. Its guidance also reflects the quiet, personal work of integrating new perceptions into one’s everyday life.
Its prose precise, authoritative, and clear, the book treats even speculative concerns with credibility. Its discussions of multidimensional reality and intuitive knowing are compelling, as is its inquisitive tone throughout, which is reflective of both intellectual rigor and humility. However, the book’s personal anecdotes, which cover Guellati-Salcedo’s evolution from an isolated child into a scientific and metaphysical seeker, are somewhat distant—alluding to, but not showing, how her worldview was dismantled and reformed.
This is not a standalone volume, either; engagement with the preceding volume is recommended to understand its points in full. Thus, while its development of a bridge between science and consciousness is intriguing, it sometimes feels incomplete—like an overview of the topic, or a survey of themes, with references to books and outside sources shared to deepen audience understanding outside of its bounds. Its concluding Socratic questions, which are designed to spur introspection and further thought, are piquing sans finality. Indeed, the book places the onus for understanding too much beyond its own pages, undermining its ultimate delivery.
An encouraging spiritual guidebook, Expanded Awareness draws on fields including psychology and science to deconstruct and explore the bounds of human perception.
Reviewed by
John M. Murray
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
