TRAIN YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR BRAIN --- HOW A NEW SCIENCE REVEALS OUR EXTAORDINARY POTENTIAL TO TRANSFORM OURSELVES by Sharon Begley. Ballantine Books, 2007
    FORWARD by the Dalai Lama, who was exiled to India since China took over Tibet, and author of the book The Art of Happiness among others (pix-xi)

      Buddhist practitioners familiar with the workings of the mind have long been aware that it can be transformed through training. What is exciting and new is that scientists have now shown that such mental training can also change the brain. Related to this is evidence that the brain adapts or expands in response to repeated patterns of activity, so that in a real sense the brain we develop reflects the life we lead.

      This has far-reaching implications for the effects of habitual behavior in our lives, especially the positive potential of discipline and spiritual practice. Evidence that powerful sections of the brain, such as the visual cortex, can adapt their function in response to circumstances reveals an astonishing malleability unforeseen by earlier, more mechanistic interpretations of the brain's workings.

      Findings that show how a mother's expressions of love and physical contact with her child can affect the triggering of different genetic responses tell us a great deal about the importance we need to give to bringing up our children if we wish to create a healthy society.

      It is also tremendously encouraging to know that some therapeutic techniques may successfully be used to help traumatized people, who, due to childhood neglect, find it difficult to generate warm, compassionate feelings toward others. Reports of cases where normal function has been restored through therapy indicate exciting and innovative discoveries. The research shows us the fact that how people think really can change their brains!

      We have reached a watershed, an intersection where Buddhism and modern science become mutually enriching, with huge practical potential for human well-being. The repercussions of this will not be confined merely to our knowledge of the mind but also have the potential to be of practical importance in our understanding of education, mental health, and the significance of ethics in our lives.

      The Mind and Life Institute has grown into a substantial network of scientists, scholars, and others who are all focused on the creation of a contemplative, compassionate, and rigorous experimental and experiential "science of mind." I am grateful to Sharon Begley for her artful work presenting the ideas in this book accurately and attractively. I am optimistic that the exciting discoveries have great potential to contribute positively to the betterment of humanity.

    PREFACE by Daniel Goleman author of the books, Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence among others (pxii-xiii)

      The dogma in neuroscience for a century has been that the brain takes its shape for life during our childhood years and does not change its structure thereafter. But that assumption is wrong. This book is an excellent introduction to the new neuroscience research about the "neuroplasticity" of the brain, which indicates that brains are changeable.

      One of the questions raised by the Dalai Lama was, "Can the mind change the brain?" It is a provocative question since one of the main assumptions of neuroscience is that mental processes are caused by brain activity, which means that the brain creates and shapes the mind, not the other way around. The data reported in this book suggest that there is a two-way street of causality, with systematic mental activity (brainpower) able to produce significant changes in the very structure of the human brain. The new data show that old assumptions about the constraints on mindpower must be examined anew.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS by Sharon Begley (pxv-xvi)

      The scientists and Buddhist scholars who made this book possible probably never imagined what they were getting into when they agreed to tell me about their work. (pxv)

    1) CAN WE CHANGE --- Challenging the dogma of the "hardwired" brain (p3-25)

      [1] Hardwired dogma (p5-11)

      [2] Buddhism and science (p11-15)

      [3] Of timepieces and telescopes (p15-19)

      [4] The "Mind and Life Institute" (p19-25)

    2) THE ENCHANTED LOOM --- The discovery of "neuroplasticity" (p26-48)

      [1] The mapmakers (p26-32)

      [2] "Hardwired" not (p32-38)

      [3] The "Silver Spring" monkeys (p38-44)

      [4] Hearing the lightning and seeing the thunder (p44-48)

    3) NEW NEURONS FOR OLD BRAINS --- "Neurogenesis" (p49-72)

      [1] A family legacy (p49-50)

      [2] Bird brains (p51-56)

      [3] Enriched environments (p56-59)

      [4] An "Animal-Rights" interlude (p59-60BR>

      [5] Human "neurogenesis" (p60-65)

      [6] Run! (p65-69)

      [7] Neurogenesis and depression (p69-71)

      [8] The changing self (p71-72)

    4) A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM --- The "neuroplasticity" of young brains (p73-109)

      [1] The brain you are born with (p74-79)

      [2] Hearing sight, seeing sound (p79-84)

      [3] What the Braille Readers showed (p85-95)

      [4] Eyes that hear (p96-97)

      [5] "Seeing" language (p97-101)

      [6] Painting blind (p101-102)

      [7] Rewiring dyslexia (p102-106)

      [8] Attention must be paid (p106-109)

    5) FOOTPRINTS ON THE BRAIN --- "Sensory experience" reshapes adult brains (p110-130)

      [1] Teen brains (p112-113)

      [2] The blindfold experiment (p114-116)

      [3] The cost of "neuroplasticity" (p116-117)

      [4] Phantom limb (p117-120)

      [5] Stroke is not forever (p120-126)

      [6] The musical brain (p126-127)

      [7] Retraining the "seeing brain" (p127-)

    6) MIND OVER MATTER --- Mental activity changes the brain (p131-160)

      [1] The long shadow of Descartes (p131-137)

      [2] Quiting the "OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) Circuit" (p137-141)

      [3] Thinking depression (p141-146)

      [4] Mindfullness and depression (p146-148)

      [5] Changing the depressed brain (p148-150)

      [6] Thinking makes it so (p150-152)

      [7] The Buddhist brain (p152-156)

      [8] Attention must be paid (p156-160)

    7) NATURE THROUGH NURTURE --- Turning on genes in the brain (p161-182)

      [1] A mother's experience (p163-164)

      [2] Rat --- handle with care (p164-166)

      [3] Licking and grooming (p166-171)

      [4] Mellow rats (p168-171)

      [5] Inheriting behavior (p171-175)

      [6] Poverty gets under your skin (p175-178)

      [7] A Dickensian legacy (p178-182)

    8) BLAMING MOM? --- Rewired for compassion (p183-211)

      [1] Attachment theory (p186-187)

      [2] Three attachment styles (p187-193)

      [3] "The child is father to the man" (p193-194)

      [4] A new portrait of humanity (p194-197)

      [5] Attachment in the lab (p197-198)

      [6] Likes, dislikes, and unlikes (p198-202

      [7] The power of primes (p202-204)

      [8] Take my Tarantula . . . please (p205-208)

      [9] Teach your children well (p208-211)

    9) TRANSFORMING THE EMOTIONAL MIND --- Challenging the happiness "Set Point" (p212-242)

      [1] Into the hills (p212-220)

      [2] The emotional brain (p220-226)

      [3] A happiness "Set Point"? (p226-229)

      [4] Moving the needle (p229-233)

      [5] Wired monks (p233-239)

      [6] Freedom from suffering (p239-242)

    10) NOW WHAT? (p243-254)

      [1] Neuroplasticity gone wrong (p244-246)

      [2] Turning back the clock (p246-249)

      [3] "Above-the-line" science (p250-251)

      [4] Secular ethics (p252-254)

    APPENDIX (p255-261)

      About the "Mind and Body and Life Institute" by R. Adam Ingle

      www.mindandlife.org

      www.investigatingthemind.org

      info@mindandlife.org

    NOTES (p262-275)

    INDEX (p277-283)

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR (p285)

Return to essay #1: The Brainpower Theory of True Happiness
Go to index: Interactive Index of Factual Ideas