The Blank Slate
The Scottish philosopher David Hume was the first to propose the idea of the tabula rasa or blank slate. This theory says that each person comes into the world with no thoughts or ideas at all, and everything that a person thinks and feels is learned from infancy onward. It is as though the child's mind is a blank slate that every passing person and experience leaves a mark on.The adult becomes the sum total of everything he or she learns, feels, and experiences growing up. What the adult does...
Random Dot Stereogram
Imbedded in the computer generated random dot matrix below is the 3-D image of the word PHOTOREAD. Seeing the 3-D image is a fun way to achieve PhotoFocus, the divergent gaze used for PhotoReading. Allow your eyes to space out and gaze through the paper. You may watch the two dots at the top of the page become four. Each eye sees two dots independently. Overlap the two dots in the center so that you see three dots. When the two central dots fuse into one, just relax and hold your gaze steady,...
Minimind Map Word Exercise
The Mini-Mind Map is the embryonic form of a Mind Map. 'Mini' though this Mind Map is, its implications are gigantic. To do the following exercises, you will need pens and a Mind Map notepad see page 310 or several large sheets of blank paper. Doing the exercises Fill in quickly, with printed single key words on the lines, and without pausing to choose, the first ten associations that radiate from the centre when you think of the concept 'happiness'. It is important to put down the first words...
Example of a mind mapped presentation
The Mind Map on page 258 forms the basis of a presentation on the predictions of John Naisbitt, the futurist. The central image is a picture of Naisbitt and the arrow from the top of his head represents his vision of the future, from 1990 to the year 2000. The ten numbered branches correspond to the ten major areas of change predicted by Naisbitt over this time span. In summary, Naisbitt predicts that the economy will become information-based and global that the world will experience another...
Problem solving
In psychology a problem is defined as a situation in which some of the components are already known and additional components must then be ascertained or determined. Such situations are of interest to psychologists when these unknown factors are neither obvious, nor easily ascertained. Problem solving is broadly all the processes involved in the solution of a problem, and in psychology is the area of cognitive psychology that is concerned with these processes. Examples of classic puzzles used...
Agility of mind
One definition of intelligence is the ability to think quickly, indeed, most intelligence tests set a time limit in which the test must be completed, and if this time limit is not strictly adhered to, then the test score is invalidated. The ability to think quickly and under pressure is a valuable asset to have at one's disposal in many situations. Agility of mind is the ability to think quickly and react instinctively to certain situations. All the tests in this chapter are speed tests against...
How to Use this Book
Generally, critical thinking involves both problem solving and reasoning. In fact, these terms are often used interchangeably. But specifically, what are critical thinking skills They include the ability to be curious, asking relevant questions and finding the resources you need challenge and examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions against facts recognize and define problems assess the validity of statements and arguments make wise decisions and find valid solutions understand logic and...
Here are a few examples
By developing his faculties of relaxation and concentration, a Russian researcher, Karl Nikolaiev, was able to demonstrate amazing powers of telepathy. Before receiving a telepathic message, Nikolaiev would usually require about half an hour to achieve a state of total relaxation. Mylan Ryzl, a biochemist who became interested in parapsychology, and more specifically in the development of paranormal faculties, used hypnosis and suggestion to help a colleague, Pavel Stepanek, become one of the...
Rationale Of The Mind Map Recommendations
The Mind Map recommendations are designed to help you implement laws, to release the flow of your thoughts, and to provide the best poss environment for your brain and body. Should you come up against a temporary block, simply add a line or lines to your on-going Mind Map. This will challenge your brain to complete what ha been left unfinished and will 'tap in' to your infinite associative power. Questions are the main device by which the brain accumulates networks of powledge. When you...
Applications
Our extraordinary uniqueness has many benefits. For example, in any brainstorming or problem-solving situation, the greater the diversity of ideas the better. Each individual thus becomes an extremely valuable part of the process. In the wider social context, so-called 'delinquent', 'abnormal' or 'eccentric' behaviour may often now be perceived in a new light as 'appropriate divergence from the norm, leading to increased creativity'. In this way many apparent social problems may actually turn...
Gettier cases
We have said that knowledge is justified true belief. However, as you're no doubt aware by now, philosophers like to get to the bottom of things, and this can often mean throwing the spanner in the works of an apparently satisfactory theory. We are going to end this chapter by discussing some cases that cast some doubt on the plausibility of the intuitive theory that knowledge is justified true belief. These sorts of cases, in which we have a true belief for which we have adequate rational...
Applications of mind maps in teaching
Apart from familiarising his or her students with the theory and practice for Mind Mapping, the teacher can use Mind Maps in a number of practical ways to make teaching and learning easier and more enjoyable. One of the most powerful ways to use Mind Maps is as lecture notes. Preparing a lecture in Mind Map form is much faster than writing it out and has the big advantage of allowing the lecturer and the student to keep an overview of the whole subject at all times. A Mind Mapped lecture is...
Fact Versus Opinion
Facts are objective statements whose truth can be verified. If a fact is true, then it is always true. For example, Hawaii became a state in 1959. It is simple to do some research to verify that Hawaii did, indeed, join the United States in that year. Newspaper articles are another example of facts. They are intended to be objective reports of occurrences. The opinion of the reporter should not interfere with, or be a part of, the article. An opinion is a subjective statement based on personal...
special education
Mind Maps are particularly useful for helping those with learning disabilities. The Mind Map on page 231 was done by the author in conjunction with a nine-year-old boy we shall call 'Timmy'. Timmy suffered from fairly severe Cerebral Palsy, which meant that his motive functions were significantly impaired. He was considered by many to be ineducable and unintelligent. When spending an afternoon with him surrounded by coloured crayons and blank notepaper, Tony first asked him to say who his...
Further Evidence
I find this passage from Ad Herrenium particularly uncanny. As you know, people play an essential part in my approach to memory. I have even assigned characters to every number from 00 to 99. Ad Herrenium is the only one of the three surviving Latin sources which states that people make the best images. Quintillian advocates the use of objects such as anchors to remind him of the naval content of a speech and weapons to remind him of the military content , and Cicero talks ambiguously about...
Exercise 8 Honesty For Better Clarity
Can you imagine a world where everyone was perfectly honest Do you know what honesty really means The dictionary defines honesty as integrity, truthfulness, honor or freedom from fraud. Why are people dishonest Fear of pain or discomfort or the revealing to others that you did something wrong It was once said, that truth can only be told when the person telling it feels safe. It's sad if true, but if you're filled with fear, you can't feel safe and dishonest behavior often becomes acceptable....
Visualize Your Best Self
Your imagination is the preview to life's coming attractions. Our minds can't easily distinguish between what we visualize and what we actually experience. Many experiments support this. One well-known experiment by psychologists involved a number of men divided into three groups. One group practiced basketball every day, the second mentally visualized themselves practicing, and the third the control group did neither. The study found that the men who physically practiced and those who mentally...
MEMORY PEGS and SILLY STORIES
The children looked blankly at him. What did he mean First you learn ten memory pegs, said Grandpa. What's that asked Adam. Pegs are places to hang things, said Grandpa. You mean like the pegs at school where we hang our school bags Jasmine asked. That's right, Grandpa replied. Do you know the song that goes like this
Expanding your powers of association
The next step is to extend the original 'happiness' exercise, following the guidelines already laid down. In exactly the same way that your ten original words radiated from the central concept of 'happiness', each of these ten words can also radiate its own associations. By 'free-associating' on each of the ten words, connecting the concepts that Spring from them with lines and clearly printing single key words on lines which ire the same length as the words, you can begin to build a verbal...
Brain waves telepathy and EEG
In 1924 a German psychiatrist, Hans Berger, author of a book on telepathic phenomena, decided to develop his theory of differing brain waves, which he firmly believed in after performing various experiments on paranormal phenomena. He measured the electrical impulses emitted by an accident victim whose skull had been partly removed. His work showed that brain cell activity, far from being random, was organized into distinct patterns, in the form of waves. The first type of wave to be explored...
Reasoning from analogy
An analogy is a special form of reasoning, which has some similarities with reasoning from specific cases. Reasoning by analogy involves drawing an equally specific conclusion from specific premises via a comparison of like aspects. Good analogies avoid comparisons between items that have too many dissimilarities. For example Imagine a friend gave you a guinea pig to look after but forgot to tell you anything about what to feed it. You might say to yourself, 'I have a guinea pig and do not know...
How To Remember Lost Chapters Of Your Life
This brief chapter is for those who are frustrated by their inability to recall scenes from their childhood. It's also for anyone who likes the idea of fit- ness training, but can't stand jogging. I am dedicated to the concept of exercise. Every morning I enter my mental gym usually an easy-back chair to put my imagination through a punishing programme of exercise. One of my favourite routines involves something I call 'time travel'. If I am honest, this particular 'exercise' is anything but...
Exercise 190 Sensory Telepathy
In an experiment with married couples, wives were hooked up to measure their galvanic skin response to stress while their husbands in a nearby room were shown photographs that included some pictures of ex-girlfriends. Whenever a husband looked at a former love, his wife was consciously unaware of it, but her subconscious reacted to it and registered a change on the instrument graph. In a similar experiment, husbands in another room plunged their feet into buckets of ice water. Even though their...
Diagnosing Ad
At present there is no definitive method for pre-mortem diagnosis of AD. Accepted practice is for AD to be diagnosed postmortem by pathological examination of autopsy tissue. Histopathological analysis of post-mortem tissue uses criteria not appreciably different from those described by Alois Alzheimer himself in 1907 10 . The gross hallmarks are cortical atrophy, enlargement of the ventricles, and shrinkage of the hippocampus and surrounding areas of the medial temporal lobe. Microscopic...
Caslants method
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Eugene Caslant published a small book entitled 'Method For The Development of Paranormal Faculties.' Caslant's talent lay in being able extract a clear, effective and simple method from the huge body of literature on occult sciences which existed at the time, a method that is being rediscovered by modern researchers. The accuracy of his remarks, combined with his vast personal experience, has made the book a classic of its genre, which is why it is...
Lecithin
Lecithin is an essential ingredient of living cells. It prevents cholesterol accumulation in arteries, and helps prevent liver degeneration. Phosphatidylcholine is the active element in lecithin that works against memory loss. Phosphatidylcholine is broken down to choline, which the body then uses to synthesize Lecithin has a prolonged duration of action and needs to be taken only once or twice a day. Like choline, in more than a dozen controlled studies of Alzheimer's patients, lecithin's...
Applications of dynamic relaxation
Many pregnant women suffer from so-called morning sickness as their body assumes its new shape. Nausea and vomiting stem from an unconscious rejection of the fetus, which is perceived as a foreign body. Dynamic relaxation helps future mothers become aware of their new corporeal structure, causing morning sickness to disappear. Athletes can improve their performance by developing an awareness of the physiological effects training has on their body, and by transforming equipment skis, paddles,...
Iii Shortterm Facilitation In Aplysia Is Mediated By Changes In The Levels Of
What happens when serotonin is applied to sensory neurons Serotonin binds to receptors in the neuron's cell surface membrane that are coupled to adenylyl cyclase and phospholipase C, which generate cAMP and DAG, respectively. When a sensory neuron sees a single pulse of serotonin, adenylyl cyclase and phos-pholipase C are activated, cAMP and DAG levels increase, and the activities of PKA and PKC are greatly enhanced. As long as serotonin is present, these enzymatic activities remain elevated....
Photoreading Course Map
Congratulations As owner of the PhotoReading Personal Learning Course, you have taken a powerful step forward in life. As you harness the conscious and preconscious processing capabilities of the mind, you will learn how to learn at speeds many times faster than before. Imagine the benefits of being able to mentally photograph the written page at rates exceeding 25,000 words per minute. Using the PhotoReading whole mind system, you experience what may have seemed impossible. How will your life...
modern brain research The brain cell
It was after studying the brain cell that Sir Charles Sherrington, considered by many to be the grandfather of neurophysiology, was moved to make the following poetic statement 'The human brain is an enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern, always a meaningful pattern, though never an abiding one, a shifting harmony of sub-patterns. It is as if the Milky Way entered upon some cosmic dance.' In each human brain there are an estimated one million, million 1...
Harry Lorayne
Harry Lorayne is one of the great memory men of the twentieth century - a fine performer, actor and lecturer. Hundreds of companies, including the likes of IBM, US Steel and General Electric, have hired him to conduct seminars on mind power and memory training. And he has appeared on just about every American TV show, including Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Lorayne grew up in the depression years of the late 1920s and 1930s, in New York's Lower East...
Defining Problems
There are a number of different perspectives on the definition and nature of problems, as well as different types of problems. Here is a brief overview of some of the classic ones. One general definition describes a problem in terms of some difficult obstacle or goal. According to this definition, anything difficult to overcome is a problem. Although this definition is descriptive, it is not precise enough for most purposes. Most challenging situations present more than a goal to overcome and,...
examples of group mind maps in action
In recent years the group Mind Mapping method has been used very successfully by families, schools, universities and multinational companies. A Boeing Aircraft engineering manual was condensed into a 25-foot long Mind Map, to enable a team of 100 senior aeronautical engineers to learn in a few weeks what had previously taken a few years. The result was an estimated saving of 11 million. See page 171 bottom . Electronic Data Systems EDS , Digital Equipment Corporation and Nabisco have...
Beyond the Subvocal Barrier
After a student moves through the subvocal speed barrier of about 800-900 words per minute, he usually hits a range of reading that can best be described as rough. Specifically, when the student's rate varies between about 900 and 1,200 words per minute, there's a tendency to shift back and forth between subvocal linear reading and visual-vertical reading. As the pace moves up toward and above 1,200 words per minute, however, the style of reading becomes more consistently visual-vertical. But...
Crescent Style Seating without Tables Figure 517
This arrangement offers many of the advantages of circular style seating while creating a central trainer position. The crescent configuration is also a little more formal than the circular style, yet less so than with the use of tables. Audiovisual aids can also be used. There is no writing surface for participants. FIGURE 5-17. Crescent style seating without tables with VCR, overhead projector, and flip chart FIGURE 5-17. Crescent style seating without tables with VCR, overhead projector, and...
Rhetorical ploys and fallacies
Substantive fallacies 11 6 Further fallacies 139 Sometimes we are moved to accept or reject claims when we have been given no good grounds for doing so. Often this is because speakers or writers attempt to persuade us in ways which appear to provide good reasons but which do not really. We'll call these persuasive devices sham-reasons and the process of employing them sham-reasoning. As critical thinkers we should be alert to the possibility of sham-reasoning, take care to avoid being persuaded...
How Richard Learned to Soar
Consider what happened to Richard, a high school senior who took one of our three-week Evelyn Wood reading courses. He had been progressing quite well and had increased his reading speed from just under 300 words per minute to just over 1,000, according to the most recent test he had been given. Many of our students end up reading faster than this, however, and Richard's fast-developing skills suggested that he might increase his speed significantly if he kept practicing. His instructor...
More on the PhotoFocus State
As you read, imagine the tangerine on the back of your head, and notice how your visual field opens. Move your eyes smoothly across the lines of print. Cocktail Weenie Effect Hold your hands about eighteen inches in front of your eyes, and bring the tips of your index fingers together. With a focal point somewhere beyond your hands, maintain relaxed, divergent eyes. Rather than looking at your fingers, notice what is in your visual field. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. Draw...
Neurogenesis In The Adult Cns 1
BOX 2, cont'd C Acquisition of the delay eye-blink conditioned response delay paired and the unpaired condition delay unpaired . D Total numbers of BrdU-labeled cells in the dentate gyrus of these animals following delay conditioning. These animals received BrdU injections 1 week before training and were perfused 24 hours after the last day of training. n 5-6 . E Acquisition of place and cue learning in the Morris water maze. F Total numbers of BrdU-labeled cells in the dentate gyrus of these...
4 Practice Neurobics In The Supermarket
Use your senses. Close your eyes and distinguish fruits by their smell or by the feel of their rinds. Use self-serve bins to buy small amounts of grains, cereals, or spices with different tastes, textures, or odors health food stores are especially good sources . i Change your usual route through the aisles. Ask the people at the meat, fish, or deli counters to help you choose something instead ofjust picking out prepackaged foods. i Change the way you scan the shelves. Stores are designed to...
Mind mapping for examinations
Having taken Mind Map notes throughout your course of study, and having reviewed your Mind Maps at the recommended intervals, you should be more than ready for the examination. All you need to translate your excellent knowledge into excellent performance is the correct approach. The first step is to read the examination paper fully, selecting the questions you choose to answer, noting in mini-Mind Maps any thoughts that immediately spring to mind on reading the questions, t Next, you have to...
Avoiding implied premises
these premises is a reflection of the difficulty of thinking deeply enough about complex issues. When we do, it is usually because we have unconsciously assumed some complex relationship that, in fact, needs more open analysis. Here is an example. Imagine we reasoned that 'The economy is growing strongly at the moment, so employment will also grow strongly'. If we look closely, this explanation does not represent a clear analysis. The first claim puts together two components 'economy' and...
The Law of Dominant Effect
This refers to the ideo-motor aspect of suggestion we talked about earlier the conscious mind will rationalize ways to transform any idea accepted by the subconscious mind into a reality. In addition, a stronger or dominant suggestion will take precedence over a weaker one. Our behavior is characterized by the choices we are constantly having to make. We cannot think two things at the same time, nor can we act in two different ways at the same time. If you manage to convince a kleptomaniac that...
Normal Versus Abnormal Forgetting
Tests of memory and related cognitive functions can help distinguish memory disorders from normal, age-related memory loss. And make no mistake age-related memory loss is not a disorder. However, two memory disorders mild cognitive impairment and dementia do become more common with age, leading memory researchers to wonder if there is any relationship between them and age-related memory loss. Experts disagree about the answer. Some say that mild cognitive impairment and dementia are entirely...
Problemsolving
Solving personal problems using Mind Maps Interpersonal problem-solving using Mind Maps The stages of interpersonal problem-solving Benefits of interpersonal problem-solving Mind Maps In this chapter you will find out how to use Mind Maps both to solve personal problems and to resolve difficulties in your relationships with others. Many of the skills you have already acquired - such as self-analysis and decision-making -play a part in problem-solving. solving personal problems using mind maps...
BOX 1contd CENTRAL PATTERN GENERATORS
Again, this pattern of behavior is mediated by the highly coordinated firing of an elaborate network of neurons in the animal's nervous system. Much of the circuitry and cellular physiology of this central pattern generator was worked out in the late Peter Getting's laboratory. Why do I bring this up in the context of general theories of the chemistry of memory Because these are classic examples of hard-wired behavioral responses. They are seemingly immutable in the absence of injury to the...
Summary
A well trained guide can help you develop your supranormal faculties. Although passive images may, at first, be vague and imprecise compared to actual memories, they will soon become just as sharp and clear. All it takes is a little practice. Depending on a subject's temperament and previous conditioning, clear images may arise during an initial induction session. In most cases, however, it takes a few sessions before they appear. Guides should proceed as follows during all induction sessions a...
Extrasensorial communication
First let's take a look at the various ways extra-sensorial communication could be established between two brains see the diagram below . Since there is, as yet, no terminology to describe the possible modes of extra-sensorial communication, the best we can do is offer a description of each of the diagrams. Figure 1 - Simple communication from subconscious to subconscious. Proof of the existence of this type of communication was obtained by studying sets of twins two sets of twins were able to...
iiiit is not an inductively forceful argument that is defeated for that person
It can even happen that an argument is rationally persuasive for you at one time, but not at a later time, because you have acquired new evidence which defeats the argument by suggesting that the conclusion is false, more strongly than the argument suggests its truth . To be strictly accurate, then, we should speak of rational persuasiveness for a person at a particular time. For the sake of simplicity, however, we have omitted this complication from what is already a rather complex definition....
Understanding how your memory works
Before you attempt to grapple with the science of memory, it is important to remind yourself that there are two different elements of what most of us think of as memory 1 Fixing the memory in the first place. 2 Recalling the memory when you need it. What is actually going on in your mind when you are using your memory is, not surprisingly, extremely complex. Rather than focusing on any one single area, scientists increasingly think that a number of different ones are involved, often almost...