Ruly Bookshelf: How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life
I was recently contacted by yet another publicist, this time pitching a new book by psychotherapist and professor Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D. about how the secrets of the ancient Greek philosophers could improve our health and happiness. Given my Greek heritage and this month’s theme on health, my interest in How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life was piqued.
The book turned out not exactly as I expected and the review that follows is going to stray a bit far from my usual organizational focus. How to describe this book? I’ll let the author speak:
“[W]hat kind of strange book is this? We have a book primarily about Greek mystical philosophy with an autobiographical intro that includes nightclub stories, recollections of all sorts of nocturnal candy along with a story about death and transformation and some explorations into new science. What gives?”
–Nicholaras Kardaras, Ph.D., How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life
A discussion on Greek philosophy? Perhaps you are thinking this is not your thing and will choose not to read further. If you are a person interested in organization, however, you may find it surprising to learn as I did that seeking order among chaos is one of the common characteristics of those seeking a deeper purpose in life. Wow! Yes, ruminate on that for a moment.
“[P]sychologically, we need the comfort of order; it soothes us like a mother’s embrace and makes us feel that the world is less threatening and that everything will be all right. Order, in its defeat over chaos, allows for the belief that there is, in fact, some sort of unifying purpose to help us make sense of our seemingly random universe. It’s with this quest to make sense of things—this need for order and purpose—that religion, science and philosophy come in. They give us interpretive and explanatory frameworks for a better understanding of our world.”
–Nicholaras Kardaras, Ph.D., How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life
The organization of this book is based on Dr. Kardaras’ experimental therapy wherein he asked 12 subjects, 6 men and 6 women to engage in readings on Greek philosophy, participate in discussion groups and engage in personal meditation exercises. At the end of the 8-week experiment, participants “indicated that they had more of a sense of purpose in their lives, felt more connected, experienced an increased sense of concern for others, and felt an increased sense of spirituality, as well as greater concern with social or planetary values.” Dr. Kardaras believes strongly that this practice of learning philosophy and personal meditation can result in “the Greek miracle,” a transformation of body and spirit to a higher plane of consciousness.
I am not a great student of philosophy. I was required to take a year of philosophy as a freshman in college. At the tender age of 18, I was asked to read the texts of the great philosophers and then engage in discussions about the meaning of life with middle-aged college professors who had spent years studying the subject. It was a very confusing and overwhelming experience. Many of the texts made almost no sense to me at all. Often, what I thought was just a mythical story was actually a deep reflection on some fundamental truth of human existence. I mostly listened and took a lot of notes.
Dr. Kardaras’ book is nothing like my college experience. He breaks down the Greek philosophers’ ideas into easily understood concepts. He brings the philosophers to life with details about their personal lives. It would have been so helpful to me to have read this book before I undertook any study of philosophy and I imagine Dr. Kardaras is a very engaging professor.
From my own experience, however, philosophy is best absorbed when you are ready for it. It is hard to force someone to ponder questions such as “Is there a soul?” or “How can I prove that God exists?” if the person is not ready to take on the magnitude of that inquiry.
What can this book teach us about health? There were a few key insights for me:
1) There are two types of physical exercise. Pythagoras instructed his followers to engage daily in light exercise as well as physically demanding exercise. Light exercise was primarily for mental benefits:
“Initially, a person would take a reflective morning walk alone to compose his or her thoughts. The Pythagoreans thought it was essential to not meet anyone until ‘their own soul [w]as in order and [they] were composed in their intellect.’”
–Nicholaras Kardaras, Ph.D., How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life
2) Food is for the mind as well as the body. Pythagoras was a health food guru and semi-vegetarian, believing that you needed a strong, healthy body to have a healthy mind.
“For breakfast, he prescribed honey and bread. . . . For the later meals, bread was once again served, with cooked or raw vegetables. Meat (and not from all parts of the animal) was to be eaten on rare occasions. Pythagoras had also created a form of energy bar for those long hikes in the shrines.”
–Nicholaras Kardaras, Ph.D., How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life
3) Finding purpose in life is a critical component to health. Dr. Kardaras reveals in the short autobiography in the first chapter that he was only ready to undertake his study of philosophy after graduating college, rejecting a stable job for the thrill of opening a hot spot nightclub, succumbing to drug addiction and a near-death experience. The same thrill seeking that led Dr. Kardaras to open the night club is strangely similar to his philosophical quest. He clearly believes that deep study of philosophy could have the power to unlock hidden powers of the mind. While skeptics may disagree whether this is possible, Dr. Kardaras makes a compelling case that attempting to access this potential is the most thrilling human endeavor. Whether you find your purpose through philosophy, religion or science, having a framework to evaluate your life helps us to cope with adversity and find the inspiration to move forward in our everyday lives.
For those who are seeking a deeper purpose in life, Dr. Kardaras’ book provides an easily-accessible framework to contemplate the meaning of the universe. He gives sample meditation exercises to guide you in your own personal reflections. He will give your mind a workout with his discussions of science and philosophy. Ultimately, you will need to reach your own conclusions, which may differ from what Dr. Kardaras espouses but I think he would agree that his purpose is to guide you to your own sense of truth.
Have you found your life purpose? Do you agree that knowing your purpose impacts your overall health? Please share in the comments.