Buddha and Einstein Walk into a Bar

If you find this title obscure, then the subtitle is much more illuminating: 'how new discoveries about mind, body and energy can help increase your longevity'. The contexts set at the beginning of the book not only include the Buddha and Einstein, but also Alexander the Great, Darwin, Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. They stand respectively for self-knowledge, imagination, potential, wisdom, service and responsibility. The novel angle of the book is sensing how long we can live – in the case of the author, 102 - and then seeing how one can best achieve this in terms of lifestyle, which he states is 70% of the equation, with only 30% for genetics. He describes his own path before covering background in cosmology, superstrings, neural plasticity and epigenetics. He then looks at the optimal duration of existence and our place in evolution – I was not convinced by his statement that we are the most advanced conduit of consciousness in the cosmos, as it seems to me that are other intelligences for more advanced than us, although in different realms.

The value of the book is practical in terms of its many useful exercises for mastering the mind and body, quite a few of which I have not seen elsewhere, for instance a focus on ring muscles. He asks how we can be the best version of ourselves at every age, how we see ourselves in the future, and gives the reader a very valuable exercise for establishing a master structure in one's life that can be used as a self-management framework going forward. There is also a helpful chapter on habits and creating more happiness and meaning in life. As with many books of this kind, its value lies not just in the information but in practical application.