Finding Your Inner Genius
Experiment Tries to Tap Brain's 'Savant' Qualities

By Bob Brown
ABC News

Is this going to fry my brain?

That was one of the first questions I had for Dr. Allan Snyder when I visited his lab at the University of Sydney in Australia. I had gone there to participate in an experiment with mind-numbing potential. Literally.

Snyder peered over the circular lenses of his glasses and smiled. "In Australia we have very strong mental health guards before we're allowed to do this on anybody," he said. "And … I don't want to hurt you at all."

TAPPING INTO GENIUS-LIKE ABILITIES
In fact, I felt pretty safe knowing that Snyder himself and dozens of volunteers, including the famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, had gone through the same procedure — having magnetic pulses fired into targeted areas of their brains in an experiment designed to tap into the genius — like abilities that savants possess in art, music, and math.

The experiment actually inhibits some brain activity to afford — in its premise, at least — heightened access to the parts of our brains that collect raw information before the data is filtered into concepts.

"We have these severely brain-impaired people who are performing what seems ostensibly to be a miracle," Synder said, referring to the extraordinary powers displayed by savants who otherwise have difficulting coping with everyday life. "It must be something that's in us all, and we can't access. They can."

Amid the Gothic architecture of the University of Sydney in Australia, Snyder directs a place called The Centre for the Mind. Even in winter, the slightly-built American-born scientist begins each day with an Olympic-sized swim to get his own brain working, and he is a bit of an eccentric — some say a wizard.

But he has master's degrees from Harvard and M.I.T.; a Ph.D. from University College in London; is a winner of the prestigious Marconi International prize; and also has been named one of Australia's 10 most creative minds.

Before I underwent the experiment myself, I had some basic questions — especially, "How can a person heighten certain skills by by suppressing some brain activity instead of increasing it?" The simple answer to that is, our brains are always filtering information. Snyder wants to suppress that filtering process, so we can see things in a kind of raw state — as autistic savants do.

I've reported many stories where I witnessed the types of feats that Snyder is studying. In 1993, I met Kim Peek, a savant who was diagnosed as retarded, not autistic. Kim was one of the models for the savant that Dustin Hoffman played in the movie Rain Man. Despite an IQ measured at 69 and an inability to dress himself, he has read and remembered encyclopedic details and can execute astounding calculations in his head.

Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant I met in 1991, became world famous for his books of architectural illustrations, even though he was walled off emotionally by his autism and had no conceptual appreciation of the buildings he could draw-accurately and beautifully — from memory.

SAVANTS 'HYPER-LITERAL' WORLDVIEW
Here's the difference. We might appreciate a great architectural work as a masterpiece of human achievement, functioning, for example, as a center for art or commerce. To an autistic savant, Snyder says, the same building is essentially a collection of components and objects — raw data with no particular meaning.

"These are people who are hyper-literal," Snyder said. "They see the world, they see the shading, they see the details in this world that we bypass and we're never aware of. But of course, they pay often a heavy price for that. They don't have the concepts. They don't have the meaning."

The question that Snyder studies is: can we unlock that same potential in our own brains without paying the price?

To conduct his experiments, he uses a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS.

"I'm using artificial means, in this case magnetic pulses to create virtual lesions — artificial brain damage — in a way that I can switch it on and off and have you display savant skills," Snyder said.

The "artifical" damage isn't permanent. Snyder's technique has been safely applied medically to treat depression and schizophrenia by using the pulses to temporarily suppress activity in some areas of the brain.

IMPROVING OUR ABILITY TO LOOK AT RAW DATA
With his experiment, Snyder wanted to improve my ability to look at the raw data. When Snyder's assistant marked a target with a pen on my blue skullcap, it was used to aim the magnetic pulses at the left fronto-temporal lobe of my brain, where (among many other things) I form concepts.

Synder says about 40 percent of his volunteer subjects show pronounced effects. "They say they're much more aware of the details around the room. One person said that he had never before wanted to write, but suddenly he now wants to write compositions. In other words he was able to see the world in a kind of descriptive way."

I didn't become a da Vinci, but I did produce typical and interesting results. When I drew a dog before the experiment, I used the same techniques I learned in elementary school — assembling patterns of circles and ovals to represent the body and its parts.

After the pulses, I drew a dog in free-form style, imposing a better sense of motion on the figure. I started by drawing tufts on its back and tail — not the outline patterns I had been taught — but I was unaware until I looked at the videotapes that I had changed my method.

When Snyder published the results of his long-term experiments (in the Journal of Integrative Neuroscience), he reported that that was how many of the participants had responded. Compared to the "before" drawings, the "after" drawings — following 10, and then 15 minutes of pulses — showed stylistic changes that sometimes were radically different.

Skeptics say this could simply be the result of practice or repetition — even with savants. Snyder cites case studies where sudden brain damage has resulted in unusual change.

"There's another person we've worked with who got hit on the head with a baseball when he was 9 years old," Snyder said. "He became very quickly … a calendar calculator." (He was instantly able to associate days of the week with specific calendar dates). "How can this be due to practice?"

Snyder also cites a landmark study by Bruce Miller, now of the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Miller found that some patients began having extraordinary creative impulses even as some areas of their brains were deteriorating because of disease. The areas that showed damage in brain scans controlled language and behavior — where we label things. And as those areas were disabled, the creative side of the brain — including the frontal temporal lobes — gained more influence.

The condition is called frontotemporal dementia, and through Miller, I met one of its victims, Jack Friedman. As the damage to his brain progressed, Friedman changed from a conservative businessman to a free-spirited artist whose whimsical works sold for hundred of dollars each at California galleries. At the same time, his ability to function in everyday life declined drastically.

FREEING ARTISTIC TALENTS?
Another journalist who participated in Snyder's experiment reported showing much more improvement than I did in his drawing skills. Describing his progress in drawing cats, New York Times reporter Lawrence Osborne wrote, "I could hardly recognize them as my own drawings? Somehow I had gone from an incompetent draftsman to a very impressive artist."

When asked what benefits may be possible from his studies, Snyder replied, "I don't want to be able to draw like a savant. But what I would like to do is see the world just for a moment the way it really is. I'd like to be able to switch off the mind sets, switch off the prejudices if you like … make new connections.

"Humans are very good at concepts. They're very bad at seeing the world in a new light. If I can switch off the part of your mind that has that mind set … and allow you to just momentarily to look at the world in a new light, then you might see a different way to connect the dots."

I was disappointed that I didn't even approach that type of creative enhancement, but the experiment did change the way I think about things. What you come away with is a lesson in perception — the idea that your brain can deceive you, or hide things from you, or make you see things as you expect to see them, not as they are.

Source: ABC News

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The Sixth Sense: Measuring Intuition

By Denise Cullen
The Age

Ten years ago, an experienced bridge designer was called in after disturbing fractures caused by excessive vibrations were detected in a new structure in Denmark.

An urgent solution was needed, but the designer decided not to use mathematics to analyse the problem. Instead, he stood among the spars and cables of the bridge, took hold of them, and with intense concentration felt the violent shuddering pass from them into his body.

"This 'laying on of hands' approach was much more than a vibrational data-gathering exercise," says John Weir, a lecturer in engineering design at the University of Melbourne.

"It was more like communing with the bridge, and connecting with myriad experiences of vibration phenomena to get to the heart of this particular problem."

The importance of this elusive "sixth sense" when it comes to grasping design problems behind the introduction of a world-first program aimed at developing intuition skills in undergraduate mechanical engineering students. It's being run collaboratively through Melbourne and Monash universities.

"Conventional engineering programs only educate half the engineer — the left hemispheric part associated with technical knowledge and mathematical skill," explains Bruce Field, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Monash University.

"Graduates are usually shocked when they start working and find that only a small percentage of 'real world' decisions are based on the kinds of calculations they spent so much time on at school."

In a work environment that's far more complex than any textbook, intuitive ability is one thing that distinguishes the experienced practitioner from the novice.

"Intuition, or the ability to reach a correct solution without formal analysis, is an extremely useful skill for engineers," says Field.

While most people won't be designing suspension bridges or skyscrapers, we've probably all had intuitive experiences -- like the mother who senses that her child is desperately ill despite medical advice to the contrary, or the traveller who abruptly cancels his plans just in time to avoid jetting into a war zone.

However, we're apt to dismiss our insights because the inexplicable nature of "intuition" has long left it languishing on the lunatic fringe.

Yet there is nothing magical about intuition, says Janice Langan-Fox, associate professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne.

"Anything seems magical if we don't know how it happens (or) where the knowledge came from," she explains. "There appears to be no 'rational' process for the sort of knowledge we suddenly have as a consequence of intuition."

Beyond its application in a range of other fields, including business, education, medicine and law, intuitive abilities can help on a personal level, says Patricia Shaw, who teaches a course on developing intuition, through the University of Queensland's continuing education program.

"It's easy to get locked into a 'left brain' way of life if you're not listening to your intuition," Shaw explains. "You just keep going and going and that can result in ill health, a loss of energy, feeling dull, having no spark and being stuck in a rut -- you get into survival mode and eventually something will snap."

But can your intuition ever lead you in the wrong direction? By definition, no, unless you're tuning into another "frequency", like fear, prejudice or wishful thinking, the experts say.

"My interest in researching this area was prompted by my own experiences," says Langan- Fox. "And I've found that every time I've doubted my gut feeling — the 'unscientific' feeling — I've regretted it."

Source: www.theage.com.au

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The Future You

By Stuart Goldsmith
Inner Circle Course

Here is a little exercise I want you to do.

Imagine walking into a room and meeting the 'you' of ten years from now. What will you be wearing? Where will you be living? What will your lifestyle be like? What car will you be driving? Will you be running a business? If so, how successful will you be? What will your net worth be?

You really only have three choices here about how the ‘you of the future’ will look, and this is where the power of this exercise lies:

1. Somewhere in between how you are now, and a depressed, broke and scruffy tramp.

2. An exact clone of how you are now - absolutely nothing has changed in a decade.

3. A happier, wealthier, healthier version of the ‘you of today.’

Only a suicidal depressive would visualize number one. Number two is effectively saying that nothing will change; you will not grow over the next ten years, you will not get richer, happier, wiser, healthier - anything. The 'you of tomorrow' will be indistinguishable from the 'you of today.'

So that just leaves number three, and if you selected this it remains for you to back this glittering vision of the 'future you' with all the force of your imagination.

Having imagined how you will be in the next ten years, here is a really neat trick to help you achieve it.

Ask yourself the following questions:

"What do I need to achieve in the next 12 months in order to make my future dream a reality?"

"What do I need to do in the next month to start myself on this journey?"

"What can I do by next week to prepare myself for the journey?"

"What can I do right now, today, in order to start this process off?"

Do you see how this works?

You need to dream, but this is not enough. Dreams come a size too large so that you can grow into them and this means that dreams are too large to realize all at once.

Our minds are finite, and so all large projects must be broken down into bite-sized chunks otherwise we become discouraged by the scale of the endeavor. This is one of the secret keys of successful people. They are undaunted by large projects, because they have the knack of breaking them down into simple steps. Each step is easily manageable, and can be completed in anything from a few hours to a few weeks.

In contrast, it is useful to analyze the situation of people who are stuck, both monetarily and in spirit, if only to allow you to avoid these errors. This is based on my experience of two decades of dealing with both winners and temporary losers in the game of life.

1. They are frightened. Their lives are dominated by fear. They see the world as a scary, threatening place and crave security, dullness, mediocrity. They long for every day to be the same as the last and become scared and upset if even a small change breaks the monotony of their days.

2. They completely lack visualization ability. If asked to visualize their future self, they would stare at you blankly. They are not pretending. They do not even understand what you mean by this exercise. If you force them to try, they'll come back with nothing more than a shrug.

3. Assuming that you could drag some sort of dream out of them (for example wanting to be worth a million dollars some day) then they would be wholly incapable of working backwards from that point to the present, and suggesting actions they might have to take in order to make this come about. Again, they are not faking. There is now; there is the future; and in between, a yawning, fathomless chasm - a blank.

4. Even if you were to write the steps out, 1-100, with a check box next to each one, they absolutely lack the discipline even to start on the task, let alone complete the steps. At the first slight downfall, or negative comment from a friend, they will give up. In any situation which requires a choice between working for a better future, and instant gratification now, they will unfailingly choose instant gratification.

But this is not you, hopefully. If you recognize yourself here, then don't worry because it is possible to change and get out of this 'stuck' pattern you are in.

You need to develop the habits of a winner. You want to enjoy today, but have an even better tomorrow waiting for you.

To do this you must model yourself on winners - people who have achieved great things in their lives. I am talking here about 'winners' and 'losers' but I do not mean the term 'loser' in the usual derogatory sense.

By a 'loser' I mean someone who, by their own definition of winning and losing, is falling well short of where they want to be. By a 'winner' I mean someone who, by their own definition of winning and losing, is pulling ahead of the game and achieving that which they set out to achieve.

THIS IS HOW A WINNER OPERATES
1. They are brave. Like all human beings they feel fear, but have mastered it and are able to rise above it. Whilst they acknowledge that there are frightening people and places in the world, in general they view the world as a benevolent place, full of great opportunities and wonderful people. This is a vital principle. Winners view the world as mainly benevolent with some bad bits. Losers see the world as mainly malevolent with some good bits.

2. They are good visualizers. They have the ability to imagine the future, often in glorious Technicolor detail. They have high self-esteem, and know that they are worth more than they have at present. Life to them is an exciting adventure to be lived to the full. In contrast, losers view life as a terrible chore to be somehow 'got through' with as little pain as possible.

3. They are intelligent, rational and logical. If they have a dream of the future, they know the secret technique for making this happen. Today's dreams are tomorrow's realities. They know that large projects cannot be tackled by finite human minds unless they are broken down into manageable, bite-sized pieces. They are able to work backwards from a future dream to the present day, and to list the logical steps required to make that dream come true.

4. Having written down the steps required to achieve their goals, they know what is required next. Action. Up until this point, all of their plans amount to little more than ethereal hot air. It is action which grounds the circuit and allows the current to flow. They know that the journey will be long and hard. Any worthwhile dream will involve hard work, concentrated effort and some suffering to attain. They need one more quality. Discipline. This keeps them going during setbacks, when the list seems too long, and when others heap mirth and derision upon their efforts

Clients pay $4500 a day to hear Stuart Goldsmith's hard-hitting marketing advice. Learn more about Stuart's private member site here: Inner Circle Course

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