Books Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - The reality of Neuroplasticity
Thanks to the Dalai Lama for organizing and encouraging research in this vital area. Now we know that neuroplasticity is reality,and it changes the expectations for inital learning, re-learning and neuro-recovery in profound ways. Excellent read. Cogent and intelligent.

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Rating: - Exceptional Reporting about a Complex Subject
Those who enjoy Sharon Begley's "Science Journal" column in the Friday edition of the Wall Street Journal will discover that she is an even better reporter than a columnist. This book is a feast of useful information elegantly presented. Most important, it's inspirational. Its "between the lines" message: There is hope for our species.

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Rating: - (3.5) All Work and No Play-Doh Gives Jack a Dull Brain
With a bright yellow jacket and the title tackily displayed in big bold letters, "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain", by Sharon Begley, seems to scream "READ ME!" with a great sense of urgency. After all, being featured in a recent issue of Time magazine would seem to lend it that extra commercial "Oomph!" Going along with such anticipatory "hype", I ordered the book hoping to glean a whole gamut of valuable lessons and instructions that would help me mentally transform myself right away. What I got instead, was a history lesson on "Neuroplasticity", a cerebral trait uncovered by neuro-scientific experiments conducted in the last two decades. I am not saying that's a bad thing, but I hoped the author would have been more discreet in choosing the title of her book. Misleading titles like these can and often do result in less-than-ideal reviews by frustrated readers (which you yourself can see by scrolling down). That is unfortunate, and justifiably so. Reviews are meant to evaluate how a book meets the expectations it sets out to fulfill: Consequently, creating a wrong set of expectations for the prospective reader is extremely detrimental to the overall success of the book. This withstanding, the factual content itself remains mostly free from culpability and is not without its merit (which is reflected in my ratings).

In October of 2004, a slew of neurologists and psychologists met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled "spiritual leader" of Tibet, for a conference at the town of Dharamsala in Northern India. The goal of this ambitious enterprise was to foster a reconciliatory "bridge" that would unite both the Buddhist and Scientific views on the human "mind". Parallels were to be drawn between recent empirical findings in the western world of neuro-psychology and millennia old secular philosophies of the East. This aforementioned "bridge", of course, was none other than "Neuroplasticity", or the ability of the brain to rewire itself throughout an individual's life regardless of age.

Begley starts off her book by reiterating the current scientific dogma as applied to all fields of neuroscience; namely, that the adult human brain is a fixed entity, unable to change its structures or functions, and incapable of "neurogenesis" (the making of new brain cells). Such a bleak mechanistic outlook would suggest us human beings as nothing more than static creatures enslaved by the conditioning of our formative years, powerless to transform ourselves in any significant way (apart from "superficial" memory functions). However, to the contrary, experiments after experiments on rats and monkeys (and some humans) in the last two decades have unequivocally dethroned such reductionist notions of our "gray matter". Neurogenesis, it has been proven, is very much an inherent function of our ever-evolving brains. Such a trait, in conjunction with synaptic functions, has laid the foundations for neuroplasticity. This is especially the case in newborns, whose undifferentiated neural networks make for a brain that is highly malleable and susceptible to external influences, or lack thereof. For example, in the brains of congenitally blind infants, the unused "visual" cortex is "reassigned" to perform auditory functions such as "peripheral hearing" or enhanced linguistic processing. On a similar note, the quality of emotional security a child receives from their primary caregivers in their infancy may create an "attachment" style that can effect his/her general disposition and outlook on life all the way into adulthood. Furthermore, although most scientists are quick to ascribe behavioral traits exclusively to genetic coding, experiments have shown that a child's environment, as mediated through their parent's upbringing, can trigger the transcription of certain genes in the brain. (That whole "Nature vs Nurture" debate.) Cerebral plasticity in the formative years of a child, however, is not the major bone of contention within the scientific community; it is that of an adult's. Once again, through myriads of experiments, therapies and training, the adult human brain has been shown to be able to "cope" and alter its structure in the face of an unexpected change in stimuli, such as temporary blindness, brain damage from a stroke, or learning a new musical instrument. The brain is constantly reallocating neural "real estate" to the different demands that are placed on it. The most important chapters in the book are when Begley elaborates on how an adult human brain can willfully change its own circuitry to overcome neural aberrations (such as dyslexia, OCD and depression) or mindfully raise the "happiness set point". In the former scenario, "mindful observation" and cognitive therapy, where patients are trained to be "aware" of the mechanical nature of their malfunctioning circuits, have proven most effective in helping them to "rewire" their brains so as to overcome these disorders. As for promoting overall happiness, fMRI scans performed on eight Tibetan monks (each who averaged 20-30,000 hours of meditation throughout their lifetimes!) revealed that "mindful meditation" (to elicit compassion) literally rewired their brains so that it allowed emotionally positive circuits to light up consistently and the negative ones (hate, jealousy, anger, etc.) to wither away into oblivion. The core concept in such "mental training" regimens, of which meditation is a subset, is that of "focus" and "attention". Our minds can act on the brain through the sheer act of "will", when applied with enduring consistency. These deliberations are highly reminiscent of David Bohm's essays on "Soma-Significance", "The Structure-Process of the Ego" and his discussion on the conscious act of "Suspension" (see "The Essential David Bohm" by Lee Nichol). These correlations are not surprising; moreover, it is expected, considering Bohm's and His Holiness' close association through years of professional and spiritual interaction.

The implications of this book are clear: our brains are neuroplastic, even in adulthood, and can be molded for optimal wellbeing with rigorous mental discipline; the same way a bodybuilder meticulously sculpts his physique. What this book lacks, however, is a practical basis from which we can apply these discoveries to our daily lives. It's all "peaches and cream" that a Buddhist monk's brain is wired for 24/7 happiness, but which ordinary person would sit in meditation eight hours a day to accomplish it? Furthermore, outside the realm of experimentation and psychological treatment, what tools can we "normal folk" use on a daily basis to help mold our circuitry to a more fruitful disposition? The author is surprising silent on these questions, the very ones she created by titling her book so. Another issue that I think needs addressing is the seemingly negligent treatment of laboratory animals in the experiments described in the book. A few people have been keen to condemn Begley's publication because of the extensive "page time" she devotes to them. Here, we must be mindful not to kill the messenger, as it were. These experiments occurred outside the context of this book and were never conducted on its behalf: The author simply drew upon them to validate her content. Granted, there is a sense of apathy in her choice of diction, almost as if, in her "story", the animal rights activists were disruptive villains who attempted to foil the noble pursuit of groundbreaking research (as seen in her account of the Silversprings monkeys.) What may seem even more contradictory is that the Dalai Lama should condone such "cruel" practices by his very attendance of a conference arranged by these "morally bankrupt" neuroscientists. Here, His Holiness was quick to provide this utilitarian justification: "...as a result of experiments the scientists have done ... a much larger community of human beings will benefit...Therefore, we have some justification to use another animal's life, but while we are exploiting them, it must be with some feeling, some care." Whether you take that statement in a noble stride, with a pinch of moral salt, or with a sense of righteous disgust is all up to you. But be not hasty in your judgment, for that is not the Buddhist way.

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Rating: - Without Compassion
The book is filled with pages of disturbing animal experimentation that the author actually defends by saying the animals felt no physical pain. The animals were locked in cages, had their bodies permanently multilated, and their skulls cut open. The author has a quote from the Dalai Lama about animal experimentation and he seems to be saying that the ends justify the means. Compassion and science need not be mutually exclusively. Answers to our questions about the world can be found in many different ways. I don't know what this book had to do with Buddhism.