It happens like this: You start by dog-earing every page that holds a powerful truth worth revisiting. Upon seeing the futility of bending every single page, you resort to a highlight pen to illuminate each devastating passage, only to discover that some profound maxims are short and are better noted by underlining in ink. The result? Your book is a mess. So, you decide to jot down your favorite affirmations and tape them on the fridge. This is to say nothing, of course, of all the bent, highlighted, and underlined pages you photocopied for friends, or the journal in which you scrawl your own revelations while doing the sentence completion exercises. Then, at some point you look up from the page and see with perfect clarity. In short, you see your life changing for the better.

In "The Art of Living Consciously: The Power of Awareness to Transform Everyday Life," Branden challenges his reader to turn up the light of consciousness, explaining that consciousness exists on a continuum -- as though on a dimmer switch -- and our choice is between living more or less consciously. To deprive oneself of consciousness (a ten-dollar word for awareness), is to live mechanically, "in a life drained of color, excitement or passion." Conversely, living consciously, he explains, "is a source of power and liberation. It does not weigh us down -- it lifts us up."

This book is a guide on how to flip the switch, and Branden is a compelling and deserving authority. He has a Ph.D. in psychology, has penned 20 books, all underpinned by decades of philosophical study, and is widely regarded as a world expert for his pioneering research in the field of self-esteem.

Branden first began mixing in intellectual circles because of his proximity to the famous, if not infamous, philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand. As a teen-ager in 1950, Branden virtually memorized Ayn Rand's novel, "The Fountainhead." Branden's studious, observant letters to Rand asking about her political convictions prompted Rand to invite him to her Los Angeles home. This 1950 encounter between the married Ayn Rand and the young Nathaniel Branden, who was 25 years her junior, marked the beginning of an 18-year relationship.

As Branden recounts in his most recent book, "My Years with Ayn Rand," what began as a student-teacher relationship evolved into one of best friends, colleagues, then ultimately, adulterous lovers. During this period Rand wrote her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged." All ties were severed, however, in a bitter hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned conclusion when Branden moved to end the sexual aspect of their relationship. But this is another story all together and is poignantly detailed in "My Years with Ayn Rand." Still, Branden's experience with Ayn Rand and the Objectivist movement, and even more so, his own dedication to personal and philosophical inquiry, distinctly informs and invigorates "The Art of Living Consciously."

In a recent conversation at his office in Beverly Hills, California, I asked Branden if everyone can benefit from bringing more consciousness to their lives. "Absolutely," he said, explaining that, regardless of apparent success or intelligence, there is always opportunity to brighten awareness. "We can be magnificently conscious in one aspect of life and relatively unconscious in other aspects of life. There are lots of brilliant people who are so self-oblivious it's hair-raising, yet they may have superior intellects."

Given that intelligence has little to do with consciousness, I asked him where he would place the brilliant Ayn Rand on the consciousness continuum. Speaking with Branden is an intense affair -- ideas are taken seriously and authentic communication is paramount. He is not one to blurt or ramble. When asked a question, Branden pauses to think before answering; a logical, but rare response in today's culture. After a moment he delivered an insightful, precise response that seems to impart the answer as much as embody his character:

"Ayn Rand, as I saw her and knew her, was one of the most conscious people I ever met in many areas -- politically, philosophically. Her blind spots had to do with the more intimate and personal aspects of human relationships and with her own motivations. She was often ruled by her passions in ways she would not recognize, which is rather ironic ... she was far more bitter than she ever knew consciously."

"The Art of Living Consciously" is a book that finds its balance and strength by straddling. It is at once psychological and philosophical, practical as well as conceptual. For example, Branden supports modern-day developmental child psychology theory in one sentence, then echoes Plato's sentiments along the lines of "A life uninspected is not worth living" in the next. Yet, "The Art of Living Consciously" is always readable. Even the term 'consciousness' can seem best left to and understood by philosophy students, but in Branden's hands the reader is easily guided through such lofty terrain. For instance, he simply states that "consciousness" is "being aware of some aspect of reality." Each philosophical concept is handled in this matter-of-fact way and then we're off to the next concept. Before long, he's slipping us dense ideas like the Law of Noncontradiction, and we're getting it.

Also woven into this synthesis of the philosophical and psychological, the practical and conceptual, are the buzzwords we expect when talking about human behavior: self-esteem, reality, denial, responsibility and choice. Branden wields these words so precisely though, that every sentence is sharpened to a point.

The structure of the book is like a lesson plan for living life -- there are chapters to read and exercises to complete. Each of the seven chapters presents a necessary component to living consciously, then, by doing the sentence completion exercises, that component is given a personal dimension. There are segments devoted to different aspects of the human experience, such as parenting, relationships, career, and spirituality. This may all sound abstract, but the book is extraordinarily readable. The pages are colored with real-life examples and questions (in plain English) so that each concept is easy to understand. In short, you read, then do the sentence-completion exercises.

With the sentence-completion exercise work, the reader is given an incomplete sentence and is to quickly jot down six to ten endings. When asked why sentence-stem exercises are such a valuable tool in tapping the consciousness, Branden said, "They stimulate insights, they help us gain access to implicit or tacit knowledge, and they can also be a stimulant to make new connections."

It is difficult to find fault with "The Art of Living Consciously," and nearly impossible if the task is to summon reasons why this book would fail to improve a person's life. The only minor critique of this book is really an editing frustration. On many pages, there is an affirmation in bold print set off from the rest of the text. I assumed the maxim was a paraphrasing of the thought further explored on the page. Unfortunately, it is just a repeat, verbatim, of the text. That might be convenient when flipping through the book to find a particular section, but on the first read it can be disorienting in a "didn't I just read this part?" way.

This is a very minor criticism, however, especially considering how repetition works magnificently in other areas. In fact, repetition is at the heart of the book's power. "It's not just that you raise your level of awareness in regard to some problem, but you sustain the level of awareness over time," Branden explains. "It isn't so much that an awareness heals, but it is sustained awareness that heals."

And this is how "The Art of Living Consciously" will change your life. But you were warned.

Leah Lessard is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. She is currently working on a novel and is completing a master's degree in professional writing at the University of Southern California.