Reality Check: What Your Mind Knows, But Isn't Telling You

What is reality? Can we rely on our brains to tell us what reality is? What about our emotions? Do they come from the brain, some other part of the body, or even from something outside the body such as the soul or spirit? The subtitle of this book is "What your mind knows, but isn't telling you." I believe it would be as accurate to say the book is about what your mind knows but can't tell you because you wouldn't believe it. The author David L. Weiner writes in a style that is easy to understand even when the things he writes about are not easily understandable. He covers such topics as the anatomy of the brain, how neurons work, the impact of general relativity, and the marvel of DNA. This is one of those books that has so many good pieces of information in it, that you sort of wish it would just on and on explaining everything. I liked the book especially in those areas where Weiner puts things into perspective such as describing our DNA as a 6 foot long thread that is so thin you could only see it with a scanning electron microscope. Yet contained in that small thread is the whole blueprint of our minds, bodies, and very existence. The difference between any two humans expressed as a percentage of this DNA is so small as to be meaningless even though we spend our entire lives proving to ourselves and others that we are different. Sometimes proving entails the expression of the best in art, music, science, or even politics while at other times that proving entails torture, killing, war, and enslavement. Another section I found fascinating dealt with religions of the world. Quoting from the World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, published by the Oxford University Press, Weiner reports that "there are at least 10,000 distinct and different religions across the world, of which 270 have more than 500,000 adherents." And the single largest component of religion is genetics - at least 99.99% of the time you inherit your religion from your parents. In the United States where religion is considered more changeable than in many parts of the world, Weiner states that fewer than 2% convert from one religion to another in any year. I would venture that that is much to high of an estimate. Although Reality Check won't give you all the answers to life's questions, it will provide you with several hours of interesting reading and dozens of thought provoking questions.

This book is kind of a random walk down Mr. Weiner's mind. He seems to be quite interested in following the current research in quite a number of scientific areas and then explaining these results to his readers. If this book has a central theme, it is that the mind is a marvelous thing that you can use to do a lot of things, some good, some not so good. He cautions you, for instance on following the latest (or the earliest for that matter) religious fad that attempts to tell you what to think about everything. He makes it your task to do a 'Reality Check' on what you're being told and to make up your own mind. Much of the book is on what you might call self help popular psychology. He describes the current research that is being conducted and illustrates how this might be applied in our daily lives. I particularly enjoyed his comments on religion. With 10,000 religions and 33,000 variations of the Christian religion alone, it's hard to imagine that they are all right. And yet the overwhelming percentage of us adopt the religion of out parents, unthinkingly, with no 'Reality Check.'

This book is as informative as Weiner's other books. It is well written with a hint of humor so the lay person can understand what they are reading. The mind is such a complicated mass that it takes a great deal of guts to try and explain its workings. Obviously Weiner has done a great deal of research in compiling such an informative book. I would just like to say to the two negative reviews posted that it is easy to criticize someone else for trying to educate others on the workings of the mind ... especially if you don't seem to understand it yourself. I would suggest you read the author's other books...Power Freaks and Battling the Inner Dummy.

I've always enjoyed reading books from this author. I found this book full of great interesting facts. I just love how he takes quite complicated material as a basis for his books and assimulates it in such a way that makes them a pleasure to read along with his personal observations. Just loved it. This first part is rather "deep" but it swings into an easier read and, for me, was really a good read. Thank you Mr. Weiner for writing this book.

This book is filled with fascinating physiological facts about the brain and neurological system and how we are all connected...more than I ever imagined. Thought provoking with humor and personal anecdotes to make this an extremely mind opening and enjoyable read.