How to Know Your Self: The Art and Science of Discovering Who You Really Are

For over twenty years, J. Eric Oliver's popular course at the University of Chicago, The Intelligible Self, has transformed the way thousands of students understand themselves. Now, in How to Know Your Self, Oliver brings this life-changing course to readers everywhere, taking us on an illuminating tour of the most relevant ideas in physics, biology, neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology, as well as the time-tested wisdom of ancient and modern philosophical traditions, to show why everything we assume about ourselves--the nature of our identity, the source of our thoughts, even the very idea of a "self"--is an illusion.

But How to Know Your Self isn't just about breaking down illusions. At the heart of the book is a powerful idea: the ability to see through the illusions of selfhood gives us the opportunity to work with rather than to be controlled by them. By the end of the book, readers will have not only a deeper understanding of themselves, but also a set of practical tools--including meditation, breathwork, and cognitive techniques--to help them navigate their lives with more clarity, balance, and fulfillment. Smart, thought-provoking, and ultimately practical, How to Know Your Self is self-help for skeptics--a book for anyone who has ever wondered, Who am I, really?