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| Meet your
amazing brain |
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Your four separate
wavelengths*
The second step is learning to use your
subconscious mind.
And here's where we meet up with brainwaves. Link
yourself up to an electronic scanner and you'll soon find out that parts of your brain can
send and receive information on different frequencies. In one sense they're similar to
television signals. Tune in your TV set to channel 2, or 22, and you'll be able to receive
messages sent out on that wavelength.
Scan your brain when you're wide awake and it will be
transmitting a certain number of cycles per second. Scan it when you're dozing and it will
be transmitting on a "different frequency". Likewise when you're in the early
stages of sleep and dreaming, and later when you're in deep sleep.
Many researchers are now convinced that we can
absorb information much more quickly and effectively when our brains are in a state of
"relaxed alertness".
That's the state we often achieve with certain types of
meditation. Or listening to relaxing music. Some of the "accelerated learning"
techniques to be explored later in this book are based on experiences with
"baroque" music. The pace of many baroque compositions is similar to the
"wavelength" you'll find in your brain when it's in that same state of
"relaxed alertness". If information is read to you in time with that music, it
"floats into your subconscious" and you can learn much faster.
But whether or not you use music, the logic is very
simple. You'd find it impossible to make any sense out of a radio receiver if you were
tuned in to four stations at once. Likewise in learning. You need to clear your
wavelengths - and tune in to only one station.
That's why nearly every successful study session starts
with relaxation: clearing your mind so your subconscious can receive uncluttered
messages - and store them in their right "file".
Your brain runs on oxygen and nutrients
Like any other complex machinery, your brain needs
energy. Basically, it gets that from the food you eat. If you're an adult, your brain
makes up only about two percent of your total weight. But it uses about 20 percent of the
energy you develop.
* See next chapter, page 168, for an
illustration of brainwaves in action. This subject is handled in much more detail in
chapter 9.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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