A psychiatrist reads Castaneda, doesn't believe a word - and starts finding confirmation in neuroscience, clinical practice, and twenty thousand neural networks.

Recursive Spirit is the story of a double diagnosis: every discovery about the mind forces the author to run a differential on himself. Is this an insight - or am I becoming my own patient?

The book begins with breathing and the word 'spirit,' moves through neural networks, philosophy of mind, rehab centers, rocket attacks and night shifts as a security guard with Castaneda on a phone - and ends with the answer to the question worth the entire journey: what distinguishes a mage from a paranoid.

The answer: calibration. The ability to stop, check, and continue. Or not continue - if the check says don't.

This is not an argument for magic. This is not an argument against science. This is an argument that a person who speaks both languages sees more than a person who speaks one.

The freedom costs loneliness. The loneliness is part of the territory.