Book review

Super Brain
by Deepak Chopra, MD, and Rudolph E Tanzi, PhD
Harmony Books, 2012, 344 pages, $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-30795-682-8

If you’ve ever wondered about the untapped power of all that grey matter inside your head, Super Brain could be the book for you. Billed as a guide to “unleashing the explosive power of your mind to maximize health, happiness, and spiritual well-being,” Super Brain is a roadmap to a better life.

The book brings together a melding of Eastern spirituality and the healing techniques of Deepak Chopra with the concrete scientific approach of Rudolph Tanzi, the head of Harvard Medical School’s Alzheimer’s Genome Project. This marriage of ideas takes flight as each author’s observations builds upon and complements the other.

So what’s so super about Super Brain? The book is a manual for achieving control over the mind, instead of allowing the mind to be in control. That’s a difficult concept for many to understand. Most of us think we are in control of our minds, but this book suggests otherwise.

By following the suggestions in Super Brain, we can break free of self-imposed and self-limiting mind control. We can become self-aware and live with conscious intention, two important factors in training the brain to reach beyond its current self-imposed limitations.

The goal of the book is to push readers to recognize that they are in control of their brains—that they can use their brains to achieve anything, including health, happiness, and well-being. But while the goal is admirable, the path is strewn with difficulties.

While reading and absorbing the ideas in the book, one is constantly challenged to understand concepts that are often hard to soak up. I found myself reading and rereading many of the ideas presented. As I progressed through the book, I had to flip back and reread several passages to help me grasp the next step in my super brain attainment.

Clearly, the authors have recognized the difficulty in grasping some of the higher level concepts. The book is arranged well and includes a “Super Brain Solutions” section at the end of each chapter to help readers overcome common problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Chopra fans will love this book unconditionally, while the uninitiated will appreciate the combination of esoteric ideas and scientific credibility. In either case, they’ll be well on their way to realizing improved health, happiness, and well-being thanks to their new and improved super brains.