The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less

Self-help, with a twist

Meticulously researched and beautifully written by award winning psychiatrist, philosopher, and Oxford Fellow Dr Neel Burton, The Secret to Everything digests the key insights of some of history's greatest scholars and thinkers and invites the reader to work out what they all have in common.

The Secret to Everything has been known to mystics and scholars for centuries and millennia, and, today, is increasingly being confirmed by both philosophy and science. Socrates certainly knew it, as did the Buddha, and more recently, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, and Emily Dickinson. It is a secret not because it is hidden as such, but because it is so difficult to see, running counter to so many of our most basic assumptions.

Each of the book's ten chapters exposes a particular aspect and practical application of the secret, while also keeping it carefully under wraps. On the surface, the chapters may seem to have little in common, but they are all built around the same wisdom. Your challenge, as you read, is to find the common thread that runs through all the chapters. The secret is discussed at the end, but don't peek or you'll spoil the fun.

Dr Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the recipient of the Society of Authors' Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association's Young Authors' Award, the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Award, and a Best in the World Gourmand Award. His work has featured in the likes of Aeon, the Spectator, and the Times, and been translated into several languages. Some of his other books include Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking, Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions, and Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception.

The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less
Amazon
Author: Dr Neel Burton

 

Interview with Dr Neel Burton

Question: What originally inspired the idea of The Secret to Everything?

Dr Neel Burton: I've written several books over several years. Recently, I realised that there is deep current running through all my work, in books like Hypersanity, Heaven and Hell, and Hide and Seek. On the surface, these books appear to be on a particular topic"respectively, thinking skills, the emotions, and self-deception"but underneath they all share a common theme and common thrust: how to live more and suffer less.

I began to look at my writing from this new self-help perspective, and, as I did, I noticed another thing: Curiously, the same trope kept on resurfacing again and again all throughout my work, the same idea, but each time in a different context and a different form"almost as if, for all those years, I had been trying to tell myself something of the utmost importance.

And so one day I thought: Why not write something more practical and to the point, and build it around that central, recurring idea? The title, The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less, immediately came to mind, with the 'secret' being none other than the idea itself, that startling truth that I had been trying for so long to tell myself.


Question: Who do you hope reads The Secret to Everything?

Dr Neel Burton: I think it's fair to say that, until now, my books have been pretty long and 'difficult'. But I've tried to make The Secret to Everything as accessible and practical as possible, and I've already started to get some good feedback from readers. I call it 'self-help, with a twist', in that the reader is challenged to find the secret for herself. I'm very pleased to have been able to involve the reader in that way.

Question: How did you develop your approach to living more and suffering less?

Dr Neel Burton: I didn't have anything like a systematic approach. I followed my interests, and year after year, things kind of came together. Writing is like a ladder that gets you into strange, unexpected places"and then, perhaps, you throw away the ladder. I have a degree in philosophy which really helped. And I'm still a practising psychiatrist, which means that I am constantly exposed to a lot of suffering. I learnt a lot from my patients. I owe them a great deal.


Question: What's next, for you?

Dr Neel Burton: Record an audiobook edition of The Secret to Everything! It's the first time I record an audiobook in my own voice, and it's quite a learning curve. After that I'm going to need a holiday. I think my next book's going to be on sex, love, and marriage. I have a title in mind, but I'm keeping it to myself for now.


Interview by Brooke Hunter

The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less 
Amazon
Author: Dr Neel Burton