Mind Power News No. 168: How to Think Like a Genius


Mind Power News Issue No. 168 / Friday, May 18, 2007 www.MindPowerNews.com In this issue: HOW TO UNLEASH YOUR INNER GENIUS: All the research points to one specific trait that geniuses have in common: the ability to be creative. It's not so much that they think more often then we do, it's the WAY they think that makes them unusual. CAN 'GENIUS PILLS' BOOST YOUR BRAIN POWER? Animal experiments suggest that the drug enables the brain to rewire itself or make neural connections between different regions that normally people cannot make. This rewiring... may enable people to "build thoughts that are a little bit beyond the normal brain". 7 STEPS TO THINK LIKE A GENIUS: By its very design, the human brain stores vast potential for memory, learning, and creativity. However, your capacity for learning and achievement must be unlocked. Although everyone holds this incredible power, the brain does not give of its powers away freely. MEDITATION SHARPENS THE MIND: In the next five years, Davidson expects a dramatically increased level of research into meditation "because it is beginning to be recognized as something that takes advantage of the plasticity of the brain, has relatively few if any side-effects and has potentially very beneficial effects, the impact of which can be documented using the most rigorous scientific methods." YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SMART TO BE RICH: "People don’t become rich just because they are smart,"said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research. "Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty." A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE TO HELP YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING: Mnemonics aren't difficult or tiresome activities; in fact, it's as if there's no pressure when doing the actual memorization because of how simple and pleasant the steps can be. Join the Ultimate Reality Challenge "Come achieve a Breakthrough Goal over the Next 45 Days… then go celebrate with a FREE 3-day/2-night holiday at a 5-star resort..." SIGN UP NOW... How to Unleash Your Inner Genius By Michael Masterman Author of The Cheat's Guide to Instant Genius Have you ever wondered what it is that makes a genius unique? What makes him or her stand out from the crowd? Is it the size of his/her brain, the way he or she was brought up, or is intelligence simply passed down from one generation to the next? Before we take a look at exactly what genius is, let's clear the air once and for all and find out some of the things genius definitely is NOT. Forget I.Q. tests, levels of education, how big your forehead is: genius has very little to do with any of these things. You can't inherit your intelligence from parents or grandparents, nor can you become intelligent simply by passing an exam or two. And even if your brain is the largest in the world, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll use it in a more intelligent way. If you're a well read person you might have a lot of knowledge on a variety of topics. You may even have a degree or diploma in your favorite subject. Each of these is a positive sign of the potential for intelligent thinking, showing that you have drive, determination, and the ability to reach certain goals. ... But it doesn't make you a genius. The One Specific Key to Genius All the research points to one specific trait that geniuses have in common: the ability to be creative. It's not so much that they think more often then we do, it's the WAY they think that makes them unusual. So naturally if you could learn to think like a genius, you should be able to gain access to your own creative powers just as easily. That's exactly what The Cheat's Guide to Instant Genius will help you do. To get you started thinking like a genius, here are four simple techniques you can use to unleash your creativity right away! 4 Simple Ways to Unleash Your Creativity No. 1 - The Daydreamer Daydreaming happens regularly in the course of every day. That's because most of us can only concentrate for a certain amount of time, and then our minds tend to drift off. This is when your conscious brain takes a little break, allowing your subconscious to sneak through and make its unique contributions. Since your subconscious houses your creativity and imagination, this presents you with a number of opportunities throughout every single day to get in touch with your creative side. All you need to do is simply notice those times when your mind wanders, relax and let it happen. No. 2 - The Overnighter Another great way to encourage your creative juices is to take a problem to bed with you. In other words, sleep on it! This is a well-known technique for learning new information: simply glance at the information immediately before going to sleep at night. While you sleep, your brain will take the information and reorganize it, ready for you the next time you want to call on it. No. 3 - The Movers and Shakers Physical exercise has been shown to increase brain power by as much as 30%. That means taking a walk, weeding the garden or painting the side of your house can actually make you more intelligent! These activities increase the flow of blood to the brain and feed it with much needed oxygen. Any form of repetitive physical activity causes you to relax and forget about everyday worries, allowing other thoughts to come to the surface. And that's when inspiration can strike. No. 4 - The Dealers Sometimes it's the things we haven't done that prevent us from being more creative. You know what it's like; a job you've left unfinished, a chore you haven't got round to doing. They eat away at you, sitting there in the back of your mind, nagging you to hurry up and get them done. And that makes it so much harder to concentrate and focus on the task at hand. So whatever it is, either do it and have done with it or put it on your list of things to do. Once you've dealt with it, your mind will be fre'e to give its full attention to your present task. As we stated above, you don't have to be a genius in order to think like one. With a few tips and techniques you can begin to harness the power of your mind to its full potential, discovering new depths of creativity and awareness. To start thinking like a genius immediately, try these suggestions... Consider a problem from as many different points of view as possible. Try to see the problem as an image with its own color, shape and dimensions. Keep yourself busy. You never know when a great idea will come along. Think outside the box, exploring unusual combinations just for the fun of it. When considering a problem, look for opposites to fire up a new way of thinking about it. Make comparisons between completely different things to see if one can be used to improve the other. Remember that lots of discoveries happened by mistake! Failure in one direction could be a major step forward in another. Of course, these are all quite basic points... The full version of the course includes all of the best information about unveiling your inner genius, in addition to the awesome "brain hacks"! Michael Masterman is the author of The Cheat's Guide to Instant Genius Can 'Genius Pills' Boost Your Brain Power? By Pallab Ghosh Source: BBC News The government is assessing the impact of a new generation of drugs that are claimed to make people more intelligent. The Department of Health has asked the Academy of Medical Sciences to assess these so-called "cognition enhancing" drugs, some of which are already being widely used in the US. In the 1960s the self styled guru, Dr Timothy Leary, urged American youth to "tune in, turn on and drop out". Now a new generation of so-called designer drugs are becoming available. But instead of fuelling a new drop-out culture, they are being used by people who think they will help them do better at school and work. One of these drugs, Modafinil, was developed to treat people who involuntarily fall asleep. Dramatic effect Dr Danielle Turner, of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge University, tested the drug out on 60 healthy volunteers. It did not just keep them awake. She found that the effects on their brains were much more dramatic. "We tested them two hours after they had taken a single dose of Modafinil and found quite strong improvements in performance, particularly when things got difficult," she said. "That was interesting - as problems got harder, their performance seemed to improve. With Modafinil they seemed to think a bit longer and they were more accurate." Bjorn Stenger was one of the volunteers in Dr Turner's study. He told us how the drug affected him. "During the test I felt very alert and I could focus very well on the problems at hand... I had no problems memorising rows of numbers. I felt pretty much that I was on top of my game." Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/GeniusPills.htm 7 Steps to Think Like a Genius Source: TheOptimizedLife.com At this very moment, you are holding unbound potential. You hold within your possession the most powerful learning and creative problem-solving system known to man, far superior to any supercomputer ever invented. It is your brain. There are 100 billion neurons in your 3-pound brain. By its very design, the human brain stores vast potential for memory, learning, and creativity. However, your capacity for learning and achievement must be unlocked. Although everyone holds this incredible power, the brain does not give of its powers away freely. Geniuses of this world have successfully tapped into this unlimited power, including Einstein, Galileo, Newton, and Mozart. Within the rest of this article, we will turn to these same revolutionary minds in order to unlock the genius that is hiding in the tapestry of our own minds. God didn’t give us formal instruction manuals for our brain. Therefore, we must explore the power of thought on our own. Let this article be your guide. Read the 7 steps here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/ThinkLikeAGenius.htm Instantly Think Like a Genius! "I've Trained Special Government Agencies & Universities. Now Discover the SECRET BRAIN HACKS That Can Activate Your Inner Genius in Just Sixty Seconds Flat..." You ARE already a Genius. Click here to discover why... Meditation Sharpens the Mind By Charles Q. Choi Source: LiveScience Three months of intense training in a form of meditation known as "insight" in Sanskrit can sharpen a person's brain enough to help them notice details they might otherwise miss. These new findings add to a growing body of research showing that millennia-old mental disciplines can help control and improve the mind, possibly to help treat conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). "Certain mental characteristics that were previously regarded as relatively fixed can actually be changed by mental training," University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson said. "People know physical exercise can improve the body, but our research and that of others holds out the prospects that mental exercise can improve minds." Paying attention to facts requires time and effort, and since everyone only has a limited amount of brainpower to go around, details can get overlooked. For instance, when two pictures are flashed on a video screen a half-second apart, people often miss the second image. "Your attention gets stuck on the first target, then you miss the second one," Davidson said. This is called "attentional blink," an effect akin to how you might overlook something when you blink your eyes. Still, the fact that people can occasionally catch the second picture suggests it's possible to sharpen one's attention with training, which is just what the new meditation study found. Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/MeditationMind.htm You Don't Have to Be Smart to Be Rich, Study Finds Source: NewsWise.com It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a lot of money, according to new research. A nationwide study found that people of below average intelligence were, overall, just about as wealthy as those in similar circumstances but with higher scores on an IQ test. Furthermore, a number of extremely intelligent people stated they had gotten themselves into financial difficulty. “People don’t become rich just because they are smart,” said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research. “Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty,” Zagorsky said. The one financial indicator in which the study found it paid to be smart was income: those with higher IQ scores tended to get paid more than others. While other research has also found the IQ-income link, this is one of the first studies to go beyond income to look at the relationship between intelligence and wealth and financial difficulty, he said. Read the full story here... http://www.mindpowernews.com/IQWealth.htm A Simple Technique to Help You Remember Anything Source: Memory Improvement Techniques You might have heard of Mnemonics and how they can help you improve your memory. Mnemonics aren't difficult or tiresome activities; in fact, it's as if there's no pressure when doing the actual memorization because of how simple and pleasant the steps can be. An example of a mnemonic method is the Loci System. A good scenario when the loci system can be effectively used is when a person has several items or a list needed for immediate remembering. The first important thing to remember when using the loci method is the familiarization of a place and the correct order of locations of the chosen place. It could be the dining room, bedroom or kitchen at home or a favorite route in the park. It doesn't matter where, as long as the location can be easily recalled accurately by the doer. Let's say, the specific locations are the parking lot, pond, willow tree and the benches in the park. So, let's pretend the items are umbrella, dog food, cell phone and picnic basket. To associate the items, visualize strongly hundreds of open umbrellas falling down on the parking lot as you find a space where you could park. Next, as you pass by the pond, you pick up the usual dog food to feed the fish followed by the big willow tree bearing cell phones for fruits and lastly, as you sat by the benches, a picnic basket approaches and sells you what is inside it. Each time you visit the park or any other place you're strongly familiar with; you can immediately associate the specific locations with any items you need to remember. When using this method, it's better to imagine objects in familiar places in bizarre or amusing ways because it helps a lot in retaining information. There are many other ways how to enhance your memory skills. Interesting and effective memorization techniques can be found in the book Memory Improvement Techniques More news at the Mind Power Blog How to Slow Down Time With Your Mind Perceptive awareness is being fully alert and living fully in the moment... It is clearing the mind of future events and past replayed scenes, so you can experience the entirety of the current moment in time... It is being fully alive. With that kind of perceptive awareness, a moment can seem to you to last forever. Read more here... Karma of the Brain: Why Good Things Happen to Good People New research suggests that doing good deeds can actually help people live longer, healthier lives... "The remarkable bottom line of the science of love is that giving protects overall health twice as much as Aspirin protects against heart disease." Read more here... Do Gut Feelings Predict the Future? Do some of us avoid tragedy by foreseeing it? Some scientists now believe that the brain really can predict events before they happen. Read more here... How to Wire Your Brain for Religious Ecstasy Persinger is one of the more colorful characters in the fast-growing, flakey field of neurotheology, which studies what is arguably the most complex manifestation — spirituality — of the most complex phenomenon — the human brain — known to science. Read more here... Want more fascinating news? Daily headlines are now available at the Mind Power Blog. Simply sign up on the right-hand side of the page and receive all the best new headlines as soon as I find them. Want to Subscribe/Unsubscribe? To unsubscribe, simply follow the link at the very bottom of this message. If somebody forwarded this message to you, please sign up to receive your own copy of this e-zine each week at www.mindpowernews.com