Neuroscience and ancient wisdom reveal why your brain's left hemisphere is stealing your happiness.
Hunter-gatherers in Tanzania report remarkable happiness despite poverty, disease, and high infant mortality. The modern world has unprecedented wealth and comfort, yet suffers an epidemic of anxiety, depression, and despair.
What if the root cause of this suffering isn't stress, loneliness, or lack of purpose, but a fundamental misalignment in how we experience reality?
Integrating neuroscience and ancient contemplative wisdom, Steven Jensen presents the Divided Brain Theory of Happiness. We possess two incompatible ways of experiencing the world, split between the left and right hemispheres. The left hemisphere has come to dominate the Western psyche, with devastating consequences for well-being. The right hemisphere holds the key to lasting fulfillment, if we can reawaken its potential.
Part memoir, part science journalism, part practical guide, Buddha Ex Machina moves from 1960s split-brain laboratories to active volcanoes in Guatemala, from ancient monasteries to breakthrough consciousness research. Along the way, Jensen shares his own path from anxiety-ridden tech entrepreneur to a life of unexpected peace, and provides a roadmap for others to do the same.
