7 Secrets of Happiness Your Brain Doesn’t Want You to Know

The non-conscious parts of your brain aren’t just taking charge of your muscles during brief moments of danger - they’re grabbing the controls of your mind constantly, ordering up feelings, ideas and behaviors for their own purposes, directing and fighting with your conscious in accordance with ancient, obsolete rules that have nothing to do with your happiness. Praised by Kirkus Reviews as an unusual, easy-to-follow examination of some perplexing aspects of human behavior, 7 Secrets of Happiness is the first attempt at a comprehensive accounting of the most significant ways your mind works against your happiness - through lies, cultural stupidity, arbitrary punishment, superstition, and an evolved vulnerability to exploitation by others. Drawing on everything from ancient myth to the latest discoveries in the brain sciences, 7 Secrets exposes that other being in the human skull: named the ultraconscious here, he is an ancient, powerful and terrifying creature who can nevertheless be weakened with knowledge.