Why am I passionate about this?

As a thirteen-year-old boy, I read Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams and I became totally fascinated by Freud’s slow, methodical questioning that eventually revealed deeply hidden unconscious conflicts in the lives of his patients. Then and there I resolved to become a psychiatrist. As a psychiatrist, I explored my patients’ early memories. Over the years, I authored seven books, including The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, published in 28 countries now. I have previously taught at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, York University (Toronto), and St. Mary’s University. This book takes my studies of memory a step further and drills right down to the intelligence of cells.


I wrote

The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies

By Thomas R. Verny,

Book cover of The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies

What is my book about?

It seems that in July 2007, a 44-year-old French man went to a hospital complaining of mild weakness in his…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are

Thomas R. Verny Why did I love this book?

I am a great admirer of Dr. Siegel who is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. This is a terrific book in which Siegel explores the role of interpersonal relationships in forging key connections in the brain. As he says, “Human connections shape neural connections, and each contributes to mind. Relationships and your personal linkages together shape the mind. It is more than the sum of its parts; this is the essence of emergence.” His description of brain architecture is excellent

Siegel’s emphasis on relationships is important and I fully agree with it. His take on the mind is interesting. He says, “The mind is a process that emerges from the distributed nervous system extended throughout the entire body and also from the communication patterns that occur within relationships.” I echo those sentiments in The Embodied Mind when I say that the mind is more than the brain. Where I differ from Siegel is in suggesting that at the present the most scientifically supported evidence points to the mind as being a hybrid operating reversibly between quantum and classical realms.

By Daniel J. Siegel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Developing Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This highly influential work--now in a revised and expanded third edition incorporating major advances in the field--gives clinicians, educators, and students a new understanding of what the mind is, how it grows, and how to promote healthy development and resilience. Daniel J. Siegel synthesizes cutting-edge research from multiple disciplines, revealing the ways in which neural processes are fundamentally shaped by interpersonal relationships throughout life. And even when early experiences are not optimal, building deeper connections to other people and to one's own internal experience remains a powerful resource for growth. Professors praise the book's utility in courses from developmental psychology…


Book cover of Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind

Thomas R. Verny Why did I love this book?

Andy Clark is a Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He asks as I and many others have, how does mere matter give rise to non-material mental states, including consciousness? He explores with brilliant wit and wisdom the intersecting domains of neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. We are both synergizers, gathering ideas from leading scientists and thinkers arriving at new theories and explanations of natural phenomena based on those studies.

We explore the wiring and plumbing of the brain; we are spelunkers of cognition, brain, and mind. While much of Clark’s discussion veers towards artificial intelligence and robotics, my interest lies in understanding the functioning of cells, both neuronal and corporeal.

By Andy Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Surfing Uncertainty as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such as ourselves can think, dream, feel, create and understand ideas, theories and concepts? How does mere matter give rise to all these non-material mental states, including consciousness itself? An answer to this central question of our existence is emerging at the busy intersection of neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

In this groundbreaking work, philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark explores exciting new theories from these fields that reveal minds like ours to be prediction machines - devices that have evolved to anticipate the incoming streams of sensory stimulation before they…


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Book cover of Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders

Traumatization and Its Aftermath By Antonieta Contreras,

A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.

The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster…

Book cover of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles

Thomas R. Verny Why did I love this book?

Bruce Lipton is an American developmental biologist who in The Biology of Belief describes the mechanisms by which cells receive and process information. He shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; instead, DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. We have more agency and authority over our life experience than we ever realized. I am in total agreement with these ideas and reflect upon them in The Embodied Mind.

I very much like Lipton’s spiritual approach to cell biology which is missing in most scientific publications.

By Bruce H. Lipton,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Biology of Belief as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This 10th-anniversary edition of Bruce Lipton's best-selling book

The Biology of Belief has been updated to bolster the book's central premise with the latest scientific discoveries-and there have been a lot in the last decade.

The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work in the field of new biology. Former medical school professor and research scientist Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., presents his experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, which examine in great detail the mechanisms by which cells receive and process information.

The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life, showing that genes and DNA do…


Book cover of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Thomas R. Verny Why did I love this book?

Norman Doidge is a Canadian psychiatrist and award-winning science writer, currently on the Faculty of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Research Faculty at Columbia University. In this book, he provides a fascinating synopsis of the current revolution in neuroscience with an emphasis on neuroplasticity. Essentially, Doidge cites many case histories illustrating the power of positive thinking in healing neurological diseases.

Doidge’s focus as the seat of the problem is always the brain. His book is highly readable and holds out hope for many people with neurological impairments.

By Norman Doidge,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Brain That Changes Itself as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed-people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety…


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Book cover of Today Was A Good Day: A Collection of Essays From The Heart Of A Neurosurgeon

Today Was A Good Day By Edward Benzel,

My book is a collection of monthly Editor-in-Chief letters to the readership of World Neurosurgery, a journal that I edit. Each essay is short and sweet. The letters were written for neurosurgeons but have been re-edited so that they apply to all human beings. They cover topics such as leadership,…

Book cover of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Thomas R. Verny Why did I love this book?

I like it because it is written almost jargon-free and it’s a lot of fun, as the title indicates. As Sapolsky explains, when we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal's does. However, animals stop experiencing stress when the environmental emergency passes,  while we humans can worry for long times and thus produces the same physiological responses which, if chronic, can take a toll on our bodies and, if prolonged, can make us sick. 

By Robert M. Sapolsky,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now in a third edition, Robert M. Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers features new chapters on how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress. As Sapolsky explains, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases we fear - and the ones that plague us now - are illnesses brought on by the slow accumulation of damage, such as heart disease and cancer. When we worry or experience stress,…


Explore my book 😀

The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies

By Thomas R. Verny,

Book cover of The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies

What is my book about?

It seems that in July 2007, a 44-year-old French man went to a hospital complaining of mild weakness in his left leg. When the doctors performed numerous scans of his head, they discovered a huge fluid-filled chamber occupying most of the space in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue. It was a case of hydrocephalus, literally – water on the brain.

Dr. Lionel Feuillet of Hôpital de la Timone in Marseille was quoted as saying, “The images were most unusual...the brain was virtually absent.” The patient was a married father of two children and worked as a civil servant apparently leading a normal life, despite having a cranium filled with spinal fluid and very little brain tissue.

Book cover of The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are
Book cover of Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind
Book cover of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles

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