William Gadea is a Peruvian-American author, filmmaker, and Zen practitioner.
His book ARROW: The Power and Poison of Story is due out in October 2025.
The story of Story
Story is the superpower of our species – but also our greatest vulnerability.
Through the ages, we’ve used stories to entertain, to teach, and to persuade each other – but somewhere along the way, Story became more than a tool; it became who we are. Our Self is a cluster of stories: an explanation of where we came from, a definition of who we are, and an anticipation of where we are going. As the Gautama Buddha observed 25 centuries ago, this Self is an illusion and a source of suffering and dissatisfaction.
In ARROW, William Gadea weaves together insights from neuroscience, evolutionary studies, the Buddhist tradition, history, imagination, and memoir – to tell the story of Story. How many different human faculties, each with their own independent adaptive utility – consciousness, self, emotions, episodic memory, mental modeling, theory of mind, language – converged to create the majestic power of storytelling. This new ability became not just a tool of communication and organization, but a mechanism of self-regulation and social connection: we became Story Animals. Our minds turned into hives where the narrative often seemed more real than our actual experience. This mode was powerful, but it also left us discontent and vulnerable.
ARROW points the way to a different way of being that can make us steadier, stronger, more connected and more content.
“An arrow is something linear, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It travels through space effortlessly, in short time. It can carry things: poison, fire, even messages. Story is like an arrow.
But Story is a tool that became its inventor. What we call our Self is a Story.
The Arrow has pierced our soul and our soul has taken the Arrow’s form.”
- William Gadea, ARROW: The Power and Poison of Story
Praise for William Gadea’s ARROW
“Gadea probes the deep roots—and hidden pitfalls—of humanity’s storytelling gifts. The author’s own narrative powers, and his ability to cut through even the thorniest scientific thickets, make it a constantly delightful read, as entertaining as it is enlightening.”
– Luke Dittrich, New York Times bestselling author of Patient H.M.
“ARROW goes straight to the heart of storytelling – the beguiling tales we tell each other and the deeply ingrained stories of our selfhood.
In these pages, Gadea expertly charts the evolution and neuroscience of this uniquely human ability, with its power to bind and heal, but also to mislead and poison. ARROW is meticulous, wise and tightly argued.”
– James Kingsland, author of Siddhartha’s Brain
Excerpts from ARROW
ARROW approaches its topic through both scientific and humanist perspectives.
Modularity of Mind
The scientific basis for modularity of mind started being developed in the mid-19th century.
East vs. West
How the identities of the world’s major religions developed.
Afterword
This is the coda from ARROW: a last chapter that ends in a stirring call to life.