The Mind and the Brain

Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

By: Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Sharon Begley

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind' is merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain. Now in paperback, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley's groundbreaking work, The Mind and the Brain, argues exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life of its own.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2002 Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

A must read for educators

If you could sum up The Mind and the Brain in three words, what would they be?

This book will open your eyes to just how complicated, yet chemically simple we humans are.

What did you like best about this story?

Explains quite a bit about human nature.

karma and volition

I loved the book- i wish he expanded on then the notion of karma, volition and the human mind. Maybe a good follow up book would be on how to expand meditation practices to increase our volitional attitudes towards self-improvement and karmic experiences. thank you for the book tomorrow

Eye opening

Gives an entirely new scientific and encouraging outlook on a persons potential to better themselves.

Interesting premise, but gets too weighed down

Would you listen to The Mind and the Brain again? Why?

Probably not - I honestly couldn't get through the whole recording. I still have >1 hour left in the recording, but I felt it was becoming far too weighed down with repetitive scientific studies instead of discussing their application near the end.

Any additional comments?

I absolutely loved the first half of this book. I am a physician and was intrigued by the evidence that they present that has a clinical application for my own patients, as well as friends and family. However, the 2 hours spent describing in detail the atrocities performed on lab-chimps was wholly unnecessary. It was not enjoyable listening, and truly not what the book was about. I really appreciated the scientific results of the chimp studies, but the message got lost. As the story progressed, it moved from a more clinical application to repetitively belaboring endless studies. The premises in this book about how we learn, how our brain learns and changes, and how we can use this information to change the way we teach ourselves and our kids is amazingly useful- but I think a lot of people aren't going to read it because of the length and serious scientific studies. A revision for the lay-person just discussing the results and clinical application would be very useful. I would still recommend the book for what can be learned - but with the caveat that there may be some times you really have to stick with it and tough it out.

Very well written

At first I thought I would struggle to understand this book. While there is a lot of medical terminology, it is extremely well written and packed full of Revelations for me, or should I say confirmations. It seems like every new physiological understanding that he mentioned in this book is almost intuitive. I kept saying out loud, "Of course".

Good Science plus a little religious magic

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.

Very well researched

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.

One of the best books ever written

This is truly one of the best books ever written and gives hope that through the exercise of free will man can change. This book rings and feels true. If man has no choice about creating the quality of his or her life, life has no meaning.

Exception book on Brain Pasticity

Overview of the research of Michael Merzenich, Edward Taub, and Jeffrey M. Schwartz showing how the research can be applied to OCD, Turrets, and other brain disorders can be modified and eliminated with a four step process. There is also wonderful discourses comparing and relating the work to mindfulness practices from Buddhist meditation. I like the depth of theory, practice, and philosophy from the perspective of William James. Also and interesting weaving of supportive concepts from quantum mechanics with highlights from Henry Stapp. He also manages to show the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics, entanglement, the uncertainty principle are related to free will and moral responsibility. Beautiful story with solid scientific principles trying to address the show how one can utilize mental effort or mental force to plastically modify ones brain to become free from compulsive actions and thoughts. It is one of my favorite texts. I see that few have the courage to under take such a broad field of study and explanations in an effort to help those who often have little hope or recourse to change their situation. Authur Morey does a splendid reading as usual.

The scientific discovery of conciousness

This book describes a hopeful look into our future as a potentially new species. The book also ties in the quantum realm in a way that hadn't occurred to me before reading it.