Notes to Brainiacs or Those Who Are Becoming Brainiacs

Notes to Me, Myself, & My Shadow
• 1. Our brain is a creator of ‘habits’. Its goal is to organize what we do as daily Routines on auto-pilot. That’s good & bad. The benefit of Habit is Not to have relearn daily how to drive, read, dress ourselves & do our job.
• 2. Excessive-Habits turn us into robots because it inhibits consciousness, learning & memory.
• 3. Our brain comes preloaded (hardwired) with systems dedicated to survival. It’s in our DNA. Our left-hemisphere features analysis, logic & reason.
Righty values Pattern Recognition, emotions & creativity. They work together in planning, language, & memory.
• 4. Our Mind creates - reality. No big news, but our short & long-term memory creates our MIND. Alzheimer’s destroys memory & dissolves Mind. Whatever you learn & use to improve your memory, protects your mind, which is your reality.
• 5. Speedreading101.org focuses on a Peripheral (wide) Vision system to read. It complements ‘school-taught reading’ which is based on Foveal Cental (narrow) Vision. We require both.
• 6. Brainiacs: Please Remember these three fancy scientific terms:
• Superior Colliculus in your Midbrain. It receives visual signals from the Retina & creates our eye-movements.
• OptoKinetic Reflex: combines Smooth Pursuit & Saccades as eye-movements.
• Vistibulo-Ocular Reflex: movements of your head to keep words you read centered for clarity (acuity) of vision.
• 7. You can teach yourself the SpeedReading101.org system & comfortably read three (3) words at a time.
• School-taught reading a/k/a “Snailing,” trains us to read one-word-at-a-time. That’s the ‘Speed of Speech’ about 150 words per minute. That’s normal for college graduates.
• You can read & remember at a minimum of 450 words per minute – the ‘Speed-of-thought’. How fast can you read? A minimum of 450 words per minute. A top of 1,450 wpm with excellent comprehension & memory.
• 8. Benjamin Franklin used a kite to attract lightning. He saw that Electricity was the force of lightning. He did not invent the light bulb, but believed in the power of electricity to benefit mankind.
• “But Dr. Franklin, what good is your electricity?”
• “My dear lady, what good is a “new-born-baby?”
• 9. A second system you’ll discover to a make life-long-learning easy is called: “Six-Wh’s + a How”. It helps add 81% to your comprehension. Enough said.
• 10. Third system: to help add up to 85% to your permanent long-term memory. You’ll use it for life. Call it Peg & Link & depends on your ability to Daydream. Easy-Breezy.
• 11. The fourth and final system that you’ll take away is so easy you’ll laugh. But it’s a StressBuster & improves your Immune-System for health & longevity.
• 12. You do it and it makes you feel happy, upbeat and productive for two-hours. Call it the Thymus & Spleen Thump.
• 13. Last shot at you: “The faster you learn, the more you EARN.” Got it? And this gem – “You SNOOZE you lose.”

P.S. “You must choose between Safety-and-Growth 24/7.
Fear must be overcome again & again.” A. Maslow

Copyright © Bernard Wechsler 2013
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