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The Mindful Geek details how to derive the benefits of mindfulness meditation without having to join a religion or drink metaphysical Kool-Aid. In the book, Michael Taft gives you step-by-step instructions in the powerful and reliable techniques of mindfulness meditation, and outlines the psychological and neuroscientific research underpinning these practices. An excellent book for beginners who are atheists, agnostics, and skeptics of all stripes who want help with anxiety, depression, and to enjoy life more.
Publisher : Cephalopod Rex; 001 edition (Sept. 14 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 240 pages
ISBN-10 : 0692475389
ISBN-13 : 978-0692475386
Item weight : 327 g
Dimensions : 15.24 x 1.4 x 22.86 cm
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13 reviews for The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics
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Philip Sharman –
The most approachable and useful book on meditation I’ve yet found
The most approachable and useful book on meditation I’ve yet found. Clear and useful. I like how he describes _why_ to do certain things certain ways. For those, like me, who are somewhat skeptical of meditation, I need to be convinced why, not just told “do this, trust me”. He doesn’t get caught up in the non-essential parts of many meditation practices; he sticks to the essential core.
Olivier Asselin –
As a science-oriented meditation enthusiast, I felt home in this book.
I was interested in meditation because I could feel its benefits in my life after practicing only a short time (~few months). I am a science PhD student with acute skepticism regarding religious stuff, so I often reacted with aversion to non-secular viewpoints on meditation (for instance while doing the Vipassana Meditation class). I felt home in this book. The tone is humble, pleasant, funny. Lots of interesting studies are pointed out. If you are a hardcore skeptic, you might find some of the evidence non-rigorous, but I think that’s the best one can do about it as of this writing (2015). Clearly, there is something there. Can’t wait to be old to know more about all of this! In the mean time, sit down and meditate. PEACE.
RD –
The book is both fun to read and deeply insightful
An expert’s guide to learning how to develop a successful mindfulness practice. Taft writes with authority and clarity as he takes the reader through a systematic step-by-step guide to learning how to practice mindfulness. It will appeal to both geeks and non-geeks. .His systematic approach to teaching mindfulness will especially appeal to those with a background in science or technology. The book is both fun to read and deeply insightful.
Cliente Amazon –
A must have for beginners and advanced practitioners as well
Simple, insightful, formula or reciepe-like instructions to learn how to meditate. It’s the next generation of mindfulness books.
Jacob Lalonde –
A Fun and Inspiring read.
I thoroughly enjoy Michael’s podcast Deconstructing Yourself, so I was keen to read his book, and it did not disappoint! You get clear and practical advice, wry humor, and no sacred cows. Well worth the read.
rob heeney –
Enlightening
This concise book gives the reader a wealth of approaches to meditation. I appreciate its friendly tone, conciseness and secularism
Steve in Canada –
Very Helpful
I found the instructions given to be very clear. I find Shinzen Young’s meditation instructions difficult but this book modifies them slightly and makes them easy to follow. I especially appreciated the author’s focus on emotion narrative and instructions.
Cree Tickle Thynker –
Fun but can’t take this seriously
The author claims to approach things from a scientific manner but he does nothing of the sort. He starts off by saying that he “Knows” it works. Putting aside the fact that to be scientific you can’t make claims of “knowing” anything, he claims that he knows because of nothing more than anecdotal evidence. To quote: “How do I know? First, from my own experience. I started meditating over 30 years ago”He gives paragraph after paragraph of anecdotal “evidence” which doesn’t hold much water in scientific or critical thinking.One of the many fallacious claims he made that rubbed me the wrong way was: “Finally, current brain science and psychology backs up many of these claims about meditation with some fairly robust findings. In the last decade in particular, the number of serious research studies involving mindfulness has skyrocketed.”It bothered me because he makes it clear that he’s already held this opinion and that finally there is research to support his claim, he’s not using research to determine if anything is true or accurate but cherry picking the studies that support what he already believes.To me this is re-enforced on page 52 where he cites Dan Gilberts & Matthew Killingsworths (self-reported and hence anecdotal) study to try & prove that daydreaming causes unhappiness. The whole point being that meditation will reduce daydreaming & make you happier. The study does support the claim that the more people daydreamed the more unhappy they were (again, very subjective) but the books author conveniently omits the fact that the study also said: “Surprisingly, the nature of people’s activities had only a modest impact on whether their minds wandered and had almost no impact on the pleasantness of the topics to which their minds wandered.”So even according to his own citation, mindfulness will at best have a modest impact on how our minds wander yet he found it acceptable to cherry pick the part about how daydreaming makes causes unhappiness.He also claims that: ” Mindfulness meditation changes your physical brain structure in many ways; one is that it may actually increase the thickness of your cortex.”If you check the study cited (published in 2005) you’ll see that the “well-validated computational approach” they used to measure the thickness of the cerebral cortex was a method done only 5 years previous to the cited study by one of its main authors (Bruce Fischl). 5 years is not long enough to be considered well validated & might also be a conflict to create your own method of evaluation then use it to justify your claims.To sum up, I’d have to say that the author wrote it from a very unscientific perspective but was probably hoping to market himself to the science/geek crowd. There was so much fallacious reasoning that I wouldn’t have room to mention it all. Also, the vast majority of citations were either: -very poorly done studies with any combination of: no control, small samples or self reported making them very subjective. -Made untrue claims (like the one of a well validated approach) with possible conflicts of interest -were written in low quality journals with low or no impact fator -confirm something the author said if you look at one sentence but contradict his claims if you read the whole thing in context. – are totally irrelevant to his claims & if anything contradict rather than support him.At first I did have fun with it picking out how many fallacies & could find but there were so many that it just got overwhelming. Personally I would suggest that if someone want to read this book they read How to Think Clearly: A Guide to Critical Thinking by Doug Erlandson first.
Renato Rongcal Jr. –
Clear, no-nonsense, and at times funny. I’ve been meditating for over a decade now but this was a nice refresher, as well as being a fresh perspective on ancient meditation practices. The numerous citations to scientific articles make it all the more credible and robust.
T. B. –
Mir als logisch denkende Person fiel das ganze esoterische immer schwer, aber mir war bewusst, dass Meditieren auch einen nachweisbaren Effekt auf das menschliche Hirn hat.Das Buch zeigt verschiedene Meditationstechniken auf und begründet diese mit wissenschaftlichen Studien und Quellen, also perfekt für alle die “Beweise” brauchen wie mich 🙂
rupert Bryan –
I have been a meditator for a long time and read a lot of books on the subject. This one, although short, has been the most practical. I had no intention of reading another book on meditation, but some how end up with a copy of the free electronic version. On night with nothing to do I was looking for something to read and remember I had it. Once I stated I could not stop. Brought a new clarity to things I had been doing for year and has brought out a new aspect of my practice. I felt so grateful to the author for making the electronic version freely available I thought I would buy a paper back.
Hans Wurst –
Sehr empfehlenswert.
Amazon Customer –
I think is a good book to start meditating and very appealing for science-oriented people. It does right in backing up everything it states with studies. I think it’s clear the author is not trying to sell you smoke.PS: I didn’t rate it with five stars cause I leave that for books that are really really life changing for me.