The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

I love this book because it's so mentally stimulating and so well written. The book covers a broad range of topics in it's quest to describe neuroplasticity. This book gives an in-depth account of how scientists discovered neuroplasticity, the current theories about how neuroplasticity can be used in treatment, the concept of neuroplasticity and its connection to quantum physics and Buddhist meditation practices, and more. I find this book really intriguing, exciting, and interesting, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone curious about neuroplasticity and the biology of changing bad habits.

Although this book is full of great material increasing non-brain-scientists knowledge about what can go wrong in the brain and why mental disorders are,in fact, physical disorders, the audio version is not good. It sounds like the computer voice on my Kindle.

Sharon Begley has written a lot about brain/Mind science, and she is extremely good at articulating issues that might leave us scratching our heads. I have enjoyed her other works that cover nearby areas very much. The information in this book is so important for therapists to know. It really is the century of the brain, and if we don't understand why things go wrong we will never get better at treating them. The research is piling up day by day, but its not getting into therapist training programs or continuing Ed. This book explains in detail how a person develops OCD and would be useful for people with this diagnosis, and for family members trying to understand the constant checking and washing. In addition, his truly helpful information about mindfulness in therapy could benefit anyone. Learning how to manage our thinking (thinking about our thinking) may be the most important mental wellness thing we can do for ourselves. And why aren't we teaching Mindfulness Meditation to our children???

Monotonous voice, flat affect and very little variation, really almost a computer-like reader.

Hmmmm. Fantastic Voyage II - Into the Brain. Tag line: This time, its about the neural networks!

So much amazing information for the public to educate themselves about Brain Disorders. This is a really important book. Too bad the reading detracts from it.

Brilliant, thought provoking, a bit wafty

no

A wonderful book that will change the way you look at the world both inner and outer. It is heavy going at times and the writer sometimes seems to go on and on a bit, but overall I really loved it and have recommended it to my friends. If it gets a bit boring, stick with it because there are some really fabulous chapters.
I love books that change me- this did
I learnt a lot

Mind body Spirit brain correlaries and the use of Intention and Attention to change intranced patterns and to creat altrnate results and states fof mind adn thus reality

I thought his reading was clear and insightful and well tempered

the last 1/4 Changing reality andinner and outer states thorugh the use of will and attention .

Excellent science but most of all the proof that we co create our reality and that reductionist materialism is aremnant of old non science.
the practical uses of intentional focus and willful use of dynamics to create alternate results and reality.
If you ar into the mind body spirit movement and or the brain sciences this gives you a great amount of ammo to prove that our intentions are powerful if we use various techniques.

Most of this book (the actual science) was very interesting, with a lot of valid and important ideas about neuroplasticity.

If you have OCD or know someone who has read the same author’s Brain Lock (which has much of the practical information without the metaphysics). This book is good. the narration excellent and there is a short PDF is available with diagrams of the parts and uses of the brain and nerve cells if you are not already familiar with these.

The book is largely conversational and easy to listen to, but from time to time drops into metaphysical discussions. The last third the book takes off to a somewhat unscientific path attempting to demonstrate that the soul must exists and connects to the body via quantum effects. Having such ideas is not inherently unscientific, but, to be science a clear hypothesis should be stated along with an experiment differentiating the cases. Here the book is quite weak. The logic seems to be 1) We don’t understand consciousness 2) We don’t understand quantum effects 3) Quantum theory has elements of consciousness and randomness 4) The author’s religion (Buddhism) supports the idea of a non-brain mind learning to control the brain. Thus) mindfulness must control the brain via quantum effects through randomness. Now I believe consciousness is a product of quantum effects (as is everything else) but that does not imply the mind is separate from the brain. The brain seems quite capable of changing itself and capable of all the practical aspects of OCD treatments without resorting to magic.

I have a passion for neuroscience, so it's the only reason i tolerated the narration, which sounded computer generated. Fascinating material (although a few side jaunts that seemed, well side-tracked). I have told my friends that if i had it to do over, i would borrow the print version from the library.

For my taste the book could have been shorter. More research than I needed, monkey experiments were tough to get through, theories from many other sources to back up the premise that the mind can change the brain. I did get a great deal out of the book and was then inspired to get a hypnosis book about the Mind changing the brain, by two different Doctors. It is good to know we are not "stuck" with the brain we have, we can make improvements.

Experience is a good teacher. This book explains why. OCD patients have a bad habit. This book describes the four step process to break the bad habit. Learn how a stroke patient can regain some lost functionality. Learn how some students with language problems overcame them. Learn what some serious musicians facing career ending decisions done to overcome the struggle.
You could summarize the above in less than 30 minutes. But it would not include the history or the series of scientific experiments that changed the thinking of the scientific community.
Some Christians believe in “free will”. Others believe in predestination. The author makes the case for free will but from a Buddhist perspective.
And while many of the Ten Commandments contain “shall not”, the scriptures also contain some things to do. Philippians 4:8…Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest… think on these things.

Talent is Overrated. Some of the research presented by both books blends together.

This non-fiction book was engaging and informative. It is kind of dense, but once you get into it, there is so much great information about the brain and how it works. Neuroplasticity provides so many possibilities.

The reader does an excellent job.

Buyer beware, this is not an easy "read". The author uses a good deal of analogy to represent his subject matter, which I found helpful. He also uses a great deal of description, which added interest and humanness of the subject while at the same time added to the complexity of the book. But if you like science and medicine, as I do, this is an interesting read. The author provides insight and description on many medical problems which are affected by brain function, but from a neurological perspective only. As far as usefullness of the information in the book, to either my practice or personal life, the book leaves a lot to be desired. I've listened to it once, and am currently going through it again to try to get more understanding of the information. Morey does an amazing job making such a complex subject interesting, but his speed was too fast for me due to the complexity of the book.