Review: Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment

Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment by David Perlmutter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought that Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment by David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo was the book about the blending of science and healing that I wanted to read but it turned out not to be the case. There were two distinct voices and separate sections featuring each author's point of view. This pattern repeated itself throughout the book. That is not a synthesis. At least one of the authors said that they were coming closer together in finding a common ground for their viewpoints. For example, this book made the connection between healing energy and mitochondria. The lifestyle schedules that the authors put into the book indicated to me that the authors intended this book to be an exercise and diet regime book on how to achieve optimal conditions for enlightenment. That was not clear in the title. It is not an intellectually stimulating book about scientifically valid connections between neuroscience, DNA switches or triggers (e.g. attunements), and faith healing. In other words, this book wasn't what I wanted. I did like some concepts that the book put forward for the reader. For example, it explained the four sub-brains within the human brain: the newest prefrontal cortex that is activated during meditation, the newer neocortex where logic is thought out, the older limbic brain where the emotions are, and the oldest reptilian brain where basic biological urges such as hunger are processed. I always thought that there were competing entities within my mind and this concept of four sub-brains is a good indication to me that this is really the case. I give this book three stars because there was a lot of good, complex, and intricate information about the body's metabolic processes. You can read to your heart's content about scientific stuff at the intracellular level in this book for sure.

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