Operating Manual for Enlightenment

Abstract

This book is not offering enlightenment, it's describing it. The enlightened mind unites intellect and emotion despite their separation being built into the structure of our brains. This split appears in the mythic division between our lower and higher natures, and the separation of mind and body. Intellect and emotion function in concert. As color and shape are to vision, one complements the other. When fully integrated, they cannot be taken apart. The topics in the book's first half lean toward the intellectual. The second half looks at the division from the emotional side. What we are separating with one hand, we are putting together with the other.
Struggle: We naturally consider our problems as different from ourselves. We see them in our environment, and rely on our skills and insights to resolve them. Our intellectual solutions address one aspect of these problems, while our emotions address another. Are these problems to be solved, or processes to be understood? What should we do if our problems are inside us?
Mind: Your state determines your readiness, arousal, and self-reflection. Your state of mind orients your thinking, how you can feel about yourself, and who you re able to be. Equally important are thoughts you’re not likely to have,or cannot have at all. This book is about the states of mind that support focus, awareness, thoughts, and feelings. It s is not a guide to solving problems, it s an explanation of how you see.
State: With our state of mind, we gather our thoughts and focus our attention. Focus without a state is like a telescope with no one to look through it. In order to focus, first take full responsibility for all you think and feel. The properties of your state determine what you re capable of. One state of mind is not enough because you cannot understand the world from one point of view. Your future is determined by your range of states of mind.
Wisdom: Alternate states of mind support understandings we don t have. They may be logical, emotional, spiritual, or evanescent. They could involve knowledge spread across generations so that no one generation has the complete picture. We might call them prophetic, inspired, psychedelic, or delusional. Larger states of mind develop with experience, but they re not defined by the facts they hold. One needs a state of mind that can accommodate contradictions without generating conflict.
Instantaneous Enlightenment: Change does not happen instantly, but epiphanies feel instantaneous. The reason is simple: a new state is a whole rearrangement of one’s previous conception. There are no halfway states to total rearrangement. Many pieces need to fall into place before we can make ourselves into something new.

We are at a watershed moment in our understanding of the mind, after which psychology will change. Instead of focusing on thoughts and behavior, we are coming to understand that what s important is what you can think and how you can behave. The Operating Manual is an intellectual, emotional, and neurological road map to the integration you don’t yet have.

REVIEWS and WORDS of PRAISE

What a pleasure to see the wry wit and humor of an old friend focused on that which we all take for granted: our deep complex 'hard problem' of consciousness. It is not a linear treatise, but a winding through the mind’s labyrinthine pathways to archetypal insights. What a pleasant journey!
--Jay Gunkelman, Chief Science Officer of Brain Science International and NeuroNet Neuroscience Centers. Past president of the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research, and the Biofeedback Society of California

I strongly recommend Operating Manual for Enlightenment. It is a true guide to empowering and liberating yourself, written in common language. The pages are full of gems for readers of all ages and interests.
--Adrian Bejan, Distinguished Professor of Engineering, author of Freedom and Evolution, and The Physics of Life: The Evolution of Everything

Like Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan, Lincoln's Operating Manual is an essential "life reference"... wherever, whenever or whoever slips into these fields of care and concern, or dives into the waves of the vast ocean of life. These visions from the "oh so human minds" are worthy of the effort ~!~ Thank you, inspired ~!~
--Armand Huet de Grenier, psychotherapist, adult and youth special educator, organization business consultant, Fellow of the Clinical Hypnosis Society of Nova Scotia, and past president of the Mahone Bay Buddhist Meditation Centre. Carrier of the of the Eagle Staff at the Gesgapegiag Mi'kmaq SunDance in Maria, Quebec

Dr. Lincoln Stoller thinks outside the box of current thoughts and existing practices, beyond the dross of what’s taught to find the potential we’ve been told to keep hidden. Are you a conformist or a rebel? Do you do what you're told or go for the gold ring? Go over the breach to lead future generations into the world! Thank you, Dr. Stoller.
--Tony Hunt, Host of Educational Triage Podcast, Alternative Ed Director and Developer

A cornucopia of facts, thoughts, and ideas about what it is to be us. Such a pleasure to read!” — Allan Leslie Combs, Professor of Consciousness Studies, author of The Radiance of ¬Being, and Consciousness Explained Better (“The finest book on consciousness written in modern times, bar none.)
--Ken Wilber

Lincoln's work goes to places few have gone before. Drawing on dozens of fields, he creates a super-structure of everything that inhabits your body and mind. I consider him a true sage, sharp thinker, and skillful therapist. For the first time in my life I’m grasping what it feels like to be integrated. Whole with myself.
--Richard Guenther, MSc, IT Manager, Business Analyst

’ve gained so many connections into the crazy day I've had, allowing me a bigger space to process all the voices, personalities, and opinions that came up.
--Charlene Bradbury, speech therapist

Through carefully crafted examples and exercises, the author illustrates how these elements converge, enhancing our understanding of such a complex subject. An enriching journey of insights on enlightenment, highlighting the interconnectedness of intellect and emotion, experience and being, with clear and brilliant exposition.
--Dr. Rubén Pérez-Elvira, Neuropsychologist

Enlightenment is a complex concept in these dark times. Or is it? Lincoln Stoller has a knack for deriving clarity from complexity without being verbose. He shines his 'black light' of enlightenment on the 'crime scene' of contemporary consciousness, finding clues to the nature of humanity where others see only stains. An enjoyable, insightful read.
--Captain Ben "Doc” Askin", author and podcast host of Anti-Hero’s Journey

About the Author

This book contains the results of fruitful curiosity. I am addicted to the endorphins of exploration and discovery, which is considered a sign of overachievement. I no longer consider anything to be a failure. I now practice as a psychotherapist, neuropsychologist, and hypnotherapist, specializing in sleep dysregulation, chronic illness, altered states, and personal transformation. Hypnosis is the bad boy of psychology. It can get wacky, but its roots are deeper than Western medicine, and its practice spans centuries, cultures, and disciplines. I work in the areas of emotion, psychopathology, neurology, personal growth, cultures, creativity, entrepreneurship, computation, and the foundations of science.