I really liked Leadership and Self Deception. I found The Anatomy of Peace both more challenging and less easily “organized” in my own mind–I’m still trying to fully gather my thoughts about AoP. I did leave the book with a really defined sense of the correlation between where our hearts are and the behaviors we thereby “invite” in others, and how we “box” others in when we have to rationalize or justify our own lack of giving. If you end up reading AoP, will be very interested in your thoughts.

Love the good discussions here.

To my way of thinking, the brain isn’t the source of our thoughts so much as it is a switching station that receives, processes and redistriutes our thoughts — and the thoughts themselves actually originate in the mind, which is not only different and distinct from the brain but, as Bruce Lipton suggests in The Biology of Belief, may dwell literally “out there” in the atmosphere, with our brain receiving them much the way TV sets receive their programming from afar. (Though I do not think our thoughts originate at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.)

The brain/mind distinction is huge, yet there is one huger: I agree with Eckart Tolle, that just as we are not our brains, we also are not our minds — that the actual “me” that is aware of my thoughts is not my thoughts, but something beyond the mind.

And that, I would think, is where the impulse at the heart of the go-giver mindset comes from!

About the comments feed: we actually do have a feed to track comments, at the bottom of the sidebar to the right — is that what you’re referring to? Or something else?

To say that we are doing what our brain tells us is a materialist/reductionist point of view. The goal for acting with free will is to rise above the brain and make choices with our mind. One way of thinking and acting is reactive, the other reflective.

If you are making choices about which part of your brain to follow, you are no longer in your brain but in your self-aware and self-observing mind. The mind is now in control, not the brain. That self-aware mind is capable of a much deeper and truer altruism than is any place in your brain. One is animal; one relies on the best of our human spirit.

To quote Jeff, “The brain puts out the call, the mind decides whether to listen.”

Hope you don’t mind me sending you my two cents but I get a little concerned when people believe they are at the mercy of their brains. As human beings, we are much better, bigger, and freer.

So, regarding the title of your post, I don’t think there is a go-giver part of your brain. I think there is a go-giver part of your mind—and heart. At least as I read your fine book.

I’m currently reading “The Anatomy of Peace.” As in their previous book, “Leadership and Self Deception,” the Arbinger authors discuss the psychological change that takes place when we make a choice to *not* help someone. It’s a fascinating study in how, when we don’t do something of good for someone else, we have to construct a vision of reality to justify our (in)action–a vision that creates a form of blame toward the other person, and that then invites the very negative behavior that we unreasonably ascribed to them.

That’s a mouth- and mind-ful, but it’s a fascinating way to look at how un-generous behavior then creates its own self-fulfilling negative consequence.

I’m dying to read “The Answer” now to see if all of these threads come together. I’m on vacation with my family, so hoping in our next trip to town I’ll have a chance to stop by the local Borders Books and pick up a copy.

BTW, would love it if your blog had a feed to track the comments. It makes it much more likely that discussions will continue.