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The
human mind has been the subject of searching, probing and study
for centuries and centuries. Throughout history countless views
have been expounded concerning the existence, functions,
relationships and true nature of the human mind. There are endless
mysteries and countless wonders in our universe, but of all the
mysteries and wonders that confront us, none is as exciting and
none is more challenging to understand than the human mind.
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No
wonder, as we look up at the heavens with our vast reservoir of
knowledge which scientists through the ages have supplied us, that
we should be excused as we fall into silent awe. The greatness of
the universe, as we see it, reaches out infinitely; but distance
and time in infinite degrees are really incomprehensible to us.
During moments of thought, like this, we are prone to regard
ourselves as of little consequence. Yet we are amazed at the
infinitely small atom. But, caught as we are between the macrocosm
and the microcosm, our minds are ingeniously built. We are endowed
with thought, feeling and reason. We are truly one of the
universe's most unique wonders.
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Many
of the world's greatest neurophysicists have pointed out that if
science were to build a computer in an attempt to match the human
brain, it would, first of all require billions and billions of
dollars. In addition to this tremendous expenditure of money, it
would require a building the size of the Empire State Building to
house the computer and billions upon billions of watts of
electrical power to run it; and even with all of this, in spite of
its tremendous cost, space, and electrical power, the computer,
when finished, could not feel emotion or use the power of reason.
With all of its wonderous capabilities, it could not even begin to
out-think the human mind.
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Without
doubt, the human mind is one of the last frontiers for man to
explore. We have put men on the moon and done all kinds of
spectacular things, but we are just now really beginning to
explore the full potential of the human mind, a potential which
leads to a sense of worth and selfhood. The person who carries an
accurate concept in his mind of what he really is, with all his
assets and limitations in true perspective, can best find true
contentment.
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Today
we find a new interest in the "why" and the
"how" of human behavior and in man's search for real
meaning in his existence. Supervisors take courses to learn better
ways to get increased production out of their subordinates,
parents read books on parenting, husbands and wives work at
learning how to better communicate with each other and teachers
search for ways to cope with emotional disturbances in their
students.
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Many
people, in addition to their interest in material things and in
technology, are concerning themselves with what it means simply to
be human. In one of my classes a young engineer with a large
engineering firm recently put it this way. He said, "I
struggled very hard to get a degree in engineering. When I went to
work for this firm, I thought my problems would be engineering
problems. I know now that they are not. My problems are 'people'
problems."
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Man
is not totally at the mercy of either his heredity or his
environment. He can modify both. A BETTER MEMORY increases a
person's awareness of the real power he has at his disposal to
direct his own life, to make accurate decisions, to develop his
own character, to enhance the lives of those around him and to
understand that he too can enjoy a life filled with abundance.
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A
BETTER MEMORY gives a person the necessary tool needed for
analyzing and understanding his own behavior-a useful avenue for
discovering the fragmented parts of his personality, integrating
them and developing a core of self-confidence. A BETTER MEMORY
gives a discovery and fostering of awareness, self-responsibility,
genuineness and a concern with what is happening "now."
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The
task of finding out "how" the brain works is probably
the most difficult task that faces science today. We need merely
turn to the evidence of human behavior to see the real complexity
of the problem. Or, if that is not enough, to reflect that the
human brain contains about ten million million connections between
its nerve cells. The challenge of brain research, as it now
appears, is to explain how the mental capacities and behavior of
man depend on the patterns of these interconnections.
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MEMORY
has, perhaps more than any other subject, fascinated psychologists
and psychiatrists through the ages. Man's ability to benefit from
personal and cultural experiences is prized almost as much as his
creativeness. And, of course, without MEMORY this is not possible.
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All
our lives we have been taught that ALL we have to do to succeed
and have a happier and more productive life is to start thinking
properl. There can be no doubt that those who have been teaching
us to discipline our minds are correct, but they have not gone far
enough. How do you start "thinking properly?" The person
with a BETTER MEMORY enjoys the experience of being able to better
control his thoughts and, in turn, he IS able to THINK MORE
PROPERLY. We all know, even as youngsters, that simply making up
our minds to succeed and to lead a more productive life is not
enough. Certainly, the declaration is very important but the
declaration alone does not do the trick. There is, to be sure, a
moment of excitement, when we are told that all we need to do is
to make a firm decision and then we can achieve what we wish.
Unfortunately, in a few hours, or days, or weeks, most of us have
FORGOTTEN our new goal and we are right back in the same old
"rut."
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Making
a declaration to succeed and to lead a more productive, effective,
creative and successful life is simply not enough, because it does
not go to the root of our problem, which is faulty perception.
Once we see things correctly, once we interpret our environment
accurately, then we can change our lives. And there can be NO
DOUBT as to the importance a BETTER MEMORY plays in this process
and in our overall well-being.
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I
have known and worked with men and women from all walks of life.
Business men and women, professional men and women, teachers,
students, housewives, parents, laborers and countless others have
attended my classes.
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And
there is one thing that I know for sure. That is, that people ARE
NOT effective or ineffective or do not meet with success or
failure as a result of their intelligence or their lack of it, or
because they have, or have not, set goals. Those who fail, do so
because they have not discovered their true mental capabilities.
They look at things in the wrong manner and then they start
believipg things about themselves, their families and those with
whom they work that simply are not true. And because of this fact
alone, they begin to lose touch with reality and with their
realistic ability to achieve. A BETTER MEMORY
helps everyone to see things correctly and helps them to
act accordingly.
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Man
is the only animal that talks to himself .All day long we feed ourselves
information about everything that concerns us. Figuratively, we
become a programmer feeding a computer. But we are more than this.
We are BOTH the programmer and the computer. We let our five
senses do the programming, and if our sense perceptions are
incorrect, then we are out of touch with reality. Success depends
upon proper signals from our environment to our minds, and MEMORY
plays a vital part in facilitating accurate "input."
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We
observe a situation; then we program our minds with what we think
is the reality of the situation. From this reality we determine
our mental processes and our behavior, which, in turn, determine
how we perceive the next situation. Thus-we perceive; we believe;
THEN we behave. MEMORY is really our road map for arriving,
mentally, from point A to point B to point c.
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People
say, "I couldn't help myself" when they should really be
saying, "1 didn't help myself." We can all help
ourselves. What we need to do is to learn to be aware of our own
accomplishments, to have compassion for ourselves and to praise
our own achievements. A BETTER MEMORY will give you ways to create
a richer life for yourself and those around you whoever you are
and wherever you are.
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The
key to social betterment is best found in personal betterment.
Remake man and you remake the world. As society is made by man, so
man, in turn, is made by his own thoughts, his decisions and his
choices; and MEMORY plays an extremely important part in this
process. In fact, few things happen which do not first happen
inside the mind of man. The material of the world's
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highest
building merely fulfills the architect's dream. Even the material
of our physical selves is the servant of our thoughts and
attitudes and MEMORY controls our thoughts and attitudes. The
better our MEMORY the better daily control we have of our thoughts
and attitudes. Psychosomatic illnesses are simply a result of poor
thoughts and attitudes.
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Psychologists
recognize that our bodies may become tired because of fatigue of
the mind. Worry, anxiety, fear and boredom bring a physical
reaction. Mind fatigue appears to us as bodily fatigue. A BETTER
MEMORY gives us a sharper mind with which to control our emotional
feelings.
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One
basic reason for mind fatigue is the conflict in all of us between
ideal and achievement, between what we ought to be and what we
are, between our longing and our having, between our powers of
understanding and the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe.
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A
tidal wave of absolute boredom has recently been sweeping across
America and it is drowning thousands of persons each year. Take a
look around you. Many people are simply disillusioned with life.
They are bored with politics, with drugs, with permissiveness,
with violence and with life in general. This is a very dangerous
situation because it is a well known fact among psychiatrists that
boredom does kill. It kills because the cells of the brain die
when they are not stimulated. Each cell is like a small plant
which needs nourishment to survive.
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Boredom
's fatal effects can best be seen among older people. Some are
simply vegetating in a rocking chair with little or no mental
stimulation and like plants in a garden, they wither away and die.
Thousands of young people too are becoming bored with life. They
have no real mental challenge and no real worthwhile mental
stimulant. When this happens they seek other forms of mental
stimulation, such as drugs. Many middle-aged men and women also
find themselves easily bored. They become depressed. They become
irritable and hard to live with. It is impossible to say exactly
how many people are dying each year, either directly or
indirectly, from boredom, but it no doubt runs into the thousands.
Boredom is very cancerous.
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The
highest building merely fulfills the architect's dream. Even the
material of our physical selves is the servant of our thoughts and
attitudes and MEMORY controls our thoughts and attitudes. The
better our MEMORY the better daily control we have of our thoughts
and attitudes. Psychosomatic illnesses are simply a result of poor
thoughts and attitudes.
|
Psychologists
recognize that our bodies may become tired because of fatigue of
the mind. Worry, anxiety, fear and boredom bring a physical
reaction. Mind fatigue appears to us as bodily fatigue. A BETTER
MEMORY gives us a sharper mind with which to control our emotional
feelings.
|
One
basic reason for mind fatigue is the conflict in all of us between
ideal and achievement, between what we ought to be and what we
are, between our longing and our having, between our powers of
understanding and the incomprehensible mysteries of the universe.
|
A
tidal wave of absolute boredom has recently been sweeping across
America and it is drowning thousands of persons each year. Take a
look around you. Many people are simply disillusioned with life.
They are bored with politics, with drugs, with permissiveness,
with violence and with life in general. This is a very dangerous
situation because it is a well known fact among psychiatrists that
boredom does kill. It kills because the cells of the brain die
when they are not stimulated. Each cell is like a small plant
which needs nourishment to survive.
|
Boredom
's fatal effects can best be seen among older people. Some are
simply vegetating in a rocking chair with little or no mental
stimulation and like plants in a garden, they wither away and die.
Thousands of young people too are becoming bored with life. They
have no real mental challenge and no real worthwhile mental
stimulant. When this happens they seek other forms of mental
stimulation, such as drugs. Many middle-aged men and women also
find themselves easily bored. They become depressed. They become
irritable and hard to live with. It is impossible to say exactly
how many people are dying each year, either directly or
indirectly, from boredom, but it no doubt runs into the thousands.
Boredom is very cancerous.
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times
than wrong. They have told me that their daily ATTITUDES were
better. Yes, I have even had graduates of my memory course tell me
that they were now less tired at the end of the day. What does
having a BETTER MEMORY have to do with being less tired at the end
of the day? Well, if you are able to function each day with less
pressure and less frustration, thanks to a BETTER MEMORY, is it
not logical that you will use less energy than you would
otherwise? If you are able to make faster and more accurate
decisions based on your ability to recall, is it not logical that
your day will be smoother and less confusing and therefore you
will have a better feeling at the end of the day with "energy
to spare?" It certainly is.
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Now,
there has been research that is leading some to lean toward the
theory that the human mind records EVERYTHING that we hear, see,
smell, taste, or touch from birth to death. Whether this is true
or not, there is one thing certain: Each of us surely realizes
that in the past we have put plenty of "input" into our
mental computer for later use only to find that we could not
extract the knowledge at the exact moment it was really needed.
Naturally, a BETTER MEMORY allows us to pullout of our
"mental computer' , information as needed, which in turn
allows better decisions, a "top notch" personality, a
BETTER ATTITUDE and all of the other things that come as a
"by product" of a BETTER MEMORY.
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Mnemonics,
an aid to MEMORY, is a monumental science which I see as having an
impact on society equal to that of Freud and Copernicus. I
envision it as a vehicle for man to find his way back to his
origins and become once again master of his own destiny. I have
seen the actual results of mnemonic training with thousands of
men and women and boys and girls, and I envision its limitless
future potential.
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All
of the things which intrigue us and offer possible mastery over
all aspects of our lives, can best be mastered by the person who
has better control of his thinking. And one of the best ways to
gain better control of our thinking is by gaining a BETTER MEMORY.
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According
to specialists in the field, bio-feedback, a method for mentally
controlling the heartbeat, body temperature, blood pressure and
other bodily processes, may soon be utilized to prevent and
alleviate many human ailments.
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You
can take your innermost dreams and aspirations and see them become
clothed in the garments of reality. You can become a creative
wonder through mnemonics. With a BETTER MEMORY you can learn how
to perform daily problem solving. You can learn how to live in
harmony with others. You can learn how to attract to yourself the
friends you really want.
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The
saying that "knowledge is power" has always been true,
but it was never so emphatically true as it is today. The right
ATTITUDE of mind is that of expectancy. It has that forward look.
And it is to MEMORY that we owe all that we are and all that we
have. Ideas and concepts are products of it. Each perception, each
thought, each notion is carried by it. MEMORY unites all of the
innumerable single phenomena of consciousness into one entirety.
The important place which MEMORY occupies in our mental reservoir
is obvious. It is fundamental. Without it no intelligent life
would be possible.
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There
is a brand new world waiting for you with a BETTER MEMORY. You do
not have to be a Columbus or an astronaut to make the voyage. The
unexplored territory does not lie over the edge of the earth or in
outer space. It is right inside your own mind.
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This
course, like a physical course, calls for ACTION. To develop your
mental abilities to the fullest, you have to practice the
prescribed exercises. It has been truly said that "there are
no gains without pains."
If knowledge is power, and it certainly is, then you
can develop a BETTER MEMORY for yourself through honest effort.
There is a proverb which says, "Nothing is difficult when you
know how." Hence, when you have become acquainted with
mnemonics, you have taken the FIRST STEP toward gaining a BETTER
MEMORY.
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