I learned a lot from this book. The author does a great job of explaining science’s implications on philosophy. The scientific details were helpful for understanding, but sometimes it would get repetitive and unnecessary.

The book has great information. The only part that was hard for me was the quantum physics. I got quite lost here. Quantum physics only takes up about two chapter. Great analysis of experiments and what was gained from them.

This is a hard book (for me) to rate.

The first 3/4 of the book are great. It discusses a variety of topics with great detail with a good structure. Schwartz first discusses his work with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and how he used Buddhist mindfulness practices to develop a behavioral therapy for OCD. After describing how mindfulness-based therapy influences brain activity, he gives a detailed history on the views on neuroplasticity and the pivotal moments in the history of science that made it clear that the adult human brain is capable of great change.

Then, he tries to answer the question "How does conscious, willfull decision-making (the mind) affect the brain?" and everything goes downhill because he employs quantum mechanisms to try and provide an explanation for consciousness and free will. The argument, however, is roughly as follows:

1) Materialistic determinism, as the dominant view in science, does not leave room for a free will.

2) Quantum physics shows that matter cannot be totally predicted because there is some probabilistic uncertainty.

3) Brain is made up of matter

Therefore; the brain cannot be predicted with certainty. We need to include conscious free will to explain it.

On top of the giant gaps in the core pf the argument, the buildup to it is also filled with unbased parallelism between random terms, the gravest of which is the unwarranted parallel between "observing" as in the act of perceiving, and "observing" as in the act of interacting with a subatomic particle to take a measurement. The whole theory is based on the notion that these two observation types are basically the same thing and on that since we can think about our own minds and brains, we directly influence the wave function collapse of the molecules in our brains.

I hatr quantum consciousness theories. They act like a molecule suspended in the cerebrospinal fluid or the cytoplasm will act just like a particle in a highly controlled lab environment, assume a very dichotomous view of determinism with no regard to relativistic or probabilistic determinism, do not provide any explanation as to how different wave function collapses can actually influence behavior without referring to unrealistic hypotheticals, etc. This book was no different than the other works I've read on quantum consciousness.

I gave this book 4 stars because the first 3/4 were very well written and discussed very interesting findings and topics. The last quarter was torture with wishful thinking, baseless claims and unwarranted similes and a hint of new age spiritualism.

A research psychologist offers a successful program for OCD patients that led to evidence of neoplacticity in the brain as the changes these people made in their behavior resulted in verifiable changes in their brains. Schwartz delves deeply into the mind/brain problem, classical determinism and quantum physics (his explanation of quantum physics is among the most accessible I've yet read - and this not an accessible topic, even for the physicists who work in the field!). He deals with the issue of free will at the quantum level, bringing quantum physics into neurology. Recommend.