"I know well that if I try to bury or ignore the battle that is taking place inside my head, the only thing I will achieve is to provoke an even greater war. I feel like I'm moving on an iron track that branches out, with one line leading to asylum and the other to freedom. I am sure that what pushed me to study consciousness was my need to solve my dysfunctional bonds and be able to bring some order to my inner madness. […]

This is a step-challenge, but the more I practice consciousness, the more I understand to what extent humans are slaves to thoughts and emotions. Our margins of freedom are very narrow, until the moment we have managed to train our minds. With consciousness, we can understand the human condition much better. No one is really chasing us, we are simply mostly dominated by our own pain and ignorance, and often we cannot control our words and actions." - Ruby Wax

"The efforts of communication between three such different professions and personalities (an Austrian-American-Jewish psychologist and former actress, an Indo-English Buddhist monk, and an Indo-American neuroscientist) activate the humorous mood of the reader of Ruby Wax. However, it quickly becomes apparent that, beyond the humor that runs through the pages of How to Be Human (The Manual), we hold in our hands one of the most charming, interesting, and informative books about the relationship between mind and body, under the light of this new science called 'consciousness'. Easy to read, informative, insightful, and unexpectedly wise."