SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

                                         SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

Author Dr. CAROLINE LEAF

Publisher BAKER BOOKS

ISBN 978 0 8010 1839 8

I have not read a book quite like this before.  It deals with the neuroplasticity of the brain.  This sounds like something quite beyond the scientific layman and not particularly pertinent for a Christian.  Anyone thinking this would be quite wrong.  Dr Leaf is a communications pathologist and audiologist who has worked in the area of cognitive neuroscience since 1985.  She brings a wealth  of experience as a Christian and expert in this field into this book.  Perhaps the greatest benefit for me in reading it was twofold.  Firstly the fact that men and women are not the victims of their biology, they can change the way they think.  Secondly, the way the findings of research being done on the human brain only serve to confirm the ways of God as revealed in the Scriptures.  The possibility of putting on a new mind, removing toxic thoughts and the fact that through Christ Jesus, being quiet in heart, waiting meditatively upon Him and experiencing the deepening of thought and coming of peace in Him we can be renewed in the spirit of our mind.  Another factor brought to light scientifically is how toxic thoughts change DNA which then can be passed on to the third and fourth generation.  

The book is divided up into two main sections.  The first, made up of eight short chapters, brings all kinds of data to bolster both the Biblical testimony and the scientific findings that all conspire to show how we can exercise our brain, ‘switch on your brain’ as the author puts it.  She shows how mind controls the matter of the brain, the place of choice and entering into directed rest.  There is a penetrating chapter about Thinking, God and the Quantum Physics Brain.  

In the second part she unfolds her 21 day detox plan, something she has developed over many years to help people cooperate with the Lord in the changing of thinking patterns.  It consists of five elements or steps, gather, focused reflection, write, Revisit and Active reach.  It all sounds a bit technical and some will regard it as promoting a technique.  But, a careful reader will see how so much of it corresponds with a Holy Spirit guided approach to reading of Scripture and walking with a quiet and humble heart in His ways, making choices to think God’s way.  Because the book simply shows how science corroborates God’s creation of man and how man functions it can encourage faith in our hearts.  It translates modern brain science into something we can all understand and all encourages us to walk in obedience to the Lord and thereby be transformed by the renewal of the mind.  

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