Afterwards, You're a Genius

Afterwords, You're a Genius should appeal to a much broader readership than most New Age titles because Brown's first-person narrative succeeds in fusing humor, intellect, and curiosity with a dazzling writing style reminiscent of Tom Wolfe. Suddenly, reading about metaphysics is hip, not dippy.

Examining not only his own intentions but the healers', Brown's record of his growing awareness of such things as chakra influences is amusing. At the same time, the book asks truly important questions about conventional Western medicine and ponders the meaning of a widespread loss of faith in doctors. While he acknowledges that "most of the secular academic world equates faith with naive self-delusion and holds that to entertain the fairy tales of a higher power is to affront the only real higher power, which is reason," he reports that more and more highly educated people are seeking alternative treatment. "Belief," he writes, "is still working some of the weirdest voodoo in the healing world."

Highly informative and offering prolific footnotes, Brown struggles with "chronic misgivings," the "ineffable," and logic as he witnesses things that can "no more be corralled in language than the essence of smell." He writes,

The trauma in Cynthia's back felt like when you go from a paved road to gravel. Cancer felt like dancing in a mosh pit. The voice of the liver was like a cassette playing too slowly in a Walkman with rundown batteries. The pancreas had an agile, hyper feeling. Lymph nodes felt like humid wind blowing over small grapes.

physicians, healers, patients, purveyors of the paranormal, and a gallery of gurus, goddesses, and spirit guides. Throughout it is leavened with genuine humor and truly breathtaking feats of writing. Chip Brown, recipient of more than a dozen journalistic prizes, including the National Magazine Award for feature writing, uses intrepid reportage, painstaking research, and a keen, nimble intelligence to investigate the so-called "spiritual crisis" in modern medicine. He is an original, sublimely eloquent first-person guide to this thousand-mile journey through the terra incognita of healing and the mind.

Brown works out in print the cognitive dissonace between his skeptical and rational evaluations, and his personal empirical results and experiences which contradicted them. I found his ongoing inner commentaries and point-counterpoint debates entertaining and hilarious at times.

This is a great first hand exploration of the worlds of chakra healers, astral spiders, extraterrestrial skull implants, and dozens of other unconventional, new age, and esoteric healing beliefs and practices. There is something here for both believers and skeptics of this universe next door.


Afterwards, I want to hear more   September 18, 2000
Bob Kirk (Chalfont, PA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I approached Chip Brown's book with a healthy load of skepticism astride my shoulders (which is probably why I visit a chiropractor every week!). Having submitted my body to various alternative healing procedures over the past two years, homeopathy, polarity, muscle testing, and accupressure were not unknown techniques. Having been raised in a family where scientific proofs were valued by otherwise open-minded parents, I had been vacillating between belief and disbelief for years. The manner in which Mr. Brown presents his journey into 'the metaphysics of healing' makes for tedious reading at times but also contains passages that flow into the readers consciousness like a tide of enlightenment. Add to this Mr. Brown's hilariously dry wit (which puntuates most of the book) and you have what is basically an exploration by an everyman/writer into a mystery he only half comprehends. When I finally turned the last page I was dismayed that there wasn't more to read as so many questions had been left unanswered. In the final analysis, it has only complicated my own journey of exploration.


very informative but...   December 17, 1999
jimbernard@hotmail.com (melbourne australia)
1 out of 10 found this review helpful

I really enjoyed chip brown's new book,and I can thoroughly recomend it to anyone who is just a teensy weensy bit sceptical about many aspects of the the health and healing industries. If anyone would like to know the real cause of most common illnesses,have a quick look at my home page;www.geocities.com/broadway/orchestra/3086


strange subject treated with integrity and intelligence   March 30, 1999
9 out of 13 found this review helpful

Chip Brown is a journalist. He isn't taken in by mumbojumbo. He starts off quizzically, wondering if all this new age stuff is really mumbo jumbo. But he has the openess to allow himself to be moved, to become involved but never to be entirely taken in. His writing is lyrical and beautiful, his take on this late 90s subject is humourous, intelligent and so raw in its honesty I was really moved. Rarely do men allow themselves to be this exposed. A book to convince women that men who are thoughtful, truthful and brave do exist.