The Pelman System of Mind and Memory Training - Lessons I to XII. Anon
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Название: The Pelman System of Mind and Memory Training - Lessons I to XII

Автор: Anon

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Спорт, фитнес

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isbn: 9781528765015

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СКАЧАТЬ Effort.

      10. But for success in our Course, there is one other qualification even more important than confidence, and that is WORK: work in the sense of effort. Reiterated effort is the price we have to pay for progress. It is not dull or disagreeable or exacting work, it is not work which will occupy your exclusive attention for long periods of time, but it is work. The payment of a fee, the possession of certain printed words and phrases and paragraphs, even the mere reading of our instructions, will not suffice to produce a perfect memory and a state of mental efficiency. The directions with which we shall furnish you, and the exercises we shall set you, will occupy but little of your time, and you will find them of genuine and increasing interest, but if you do not follow the directions and work through the exercises, you cannot reasonably complain if at the end of Lesson XII, you have not made the progress you anticipated. The Pelman System is not a speculation in which you can invest your fee and then after a lapse of time and with no effort whatsoever on your part, simply pick up a big percentage on your outlay. Rather, it is like a business. You invest your money in it to the amount of the fee for the Course, then you interest yourself in the work, and at the end you find yourself with a permanent source of income returning a regular profit of several thousand times your expenditure. Is it not worth doing? If you have even for a moment the shadow of a doubt as to the answer you ought to return to such a question, it can only be because you have not fully realised the value of mental efficiency.

      11. In the world of scholarship, to the literary man, the student, the scientist, the teacher, the value of mental efficiency is self-evident. Its paramount importance is less obvious, though not less real for those engaged in commercial pursuits or employed in occupations more apparently connected with physical activity. For the student, mental efficiency means not only more perfect apprehension and recollection but also an immense saving of time which is set free for further work. But to the business man the benefits are no less great, since a power to grasp details, to hold them in the mind, to compare them, to remember prices, contracts, the names and addresses and peculiarities of clients and the extent of stock on hand at the moment, to foresee the probable future movements of markets, must inevitably give a man an inestimable advantage over competitors. Every external achievement is first of all an internal idea: each successful act is primarily an invisible thought. Consequently, right thinking—in the broad sense—means right action; and it is for this reason that mental efficiency is the foundation of every other kind of efficiency.

       What Students say.

      12. The qualities of mind just enumerated are developed by the assiduous practice of Pelman principles; and it may not be amiss to quote here a few phrases from the letters of past students, showing exactly the kind of results achieved.

      “I have been taught to believe in myself” says one who used to suffer from lack of self-confidence.

      “I have gained control of my attention” says another, who up to that time had been unable to concentrate.

      A student with a naturally poor memory, writes: “I passed my examination in the first division.”

      Another states: “My reading now remains with me, and I have consequently an increased delight in study.”

      These few testimonials emphasise the twofold nature of mental efficiency. On the plane of the real it means financial, or £ s. d. success1; on the plane of the ideal it means knowledge and culture.

      13. “So far,” you may say, “you have told me only what I could easily see for myself.” This may be true, but sometimes that which is most clearly visible is not actually seen at all. In any case, it is imperative that you should start upon this Course fully convinced that it is going to be of real use to you personally. We know that it can be of such use, and will be of such use, if you follow our instructions, and we want you to feel an equal confidence.

       Brains and Hands.

      14. “But,” you may object, “I earn my living with my hands, not with my brain.” This is a mistaken idea, whatever your occupation. The miner traces his seam and directs his pick with his brains; the ploughman plans his furrow with his brains; the drover is constantly estimating and circumventing with his brain the erratic movements of his herd; the engine-driver is studying steam-pressures and gradients and loads; the chauffeur has ever his brain on the alert for the problems of traffic; the carpenter must have some mental knowledge of the laws of stress; the bricklayer must exercise judgment in the placing of his bricks. In addition to the direct action of the brain in such employments, there is also an indirect action, and a trained brain finds its reflection in a more ready acquisition of manual dexterity.

      When certain portions of the brain, known as motor centres, are injured, paralysis of the body ensues. If you inadvertently touch with your fingers something that is very hot, you immediately and “instinctively” draw back your hand. The action of withdrawal may appear instantaneous, but what actually happened is that the sensation of excessive heat travelled from your finger-tip to your brain, and your brain has sent back to the muscles of your arm, hand and finger, a message and impulse to remove the finger from that which is causing the pain. In the case of certain diseases, interruptions may occur in the course of the transmission of these nervous and muscular messages. All this demonstrates the influence exerted by the brain over the rest of the body. Later, we shall see evidence of influences exerted by the body at large upon the brain in particular. The point to be grasped at present is that the brain is the directing power.

       Manual Skill and Mental Efficiency.

      15. It is, however, possible to train the body to manual skill without training the brain to anything like the same equivalent degree of mental efficiency. Now it is an elementary principle of economics that the market value of a commodity is governed by its scarcity. An article which is readily obtainable is cheap while an article difficult to acquire is dear. In the present state of human society, manual skill is far more common than mental efficiency, and consequently must command less remuneration. The alert and capable mind, ready for any emergency, enterprising and original in its conceptions and persevering in its execution of those conceptions, can demand and will receive its own price.

      16. We have spoken of the body and the brain and have made passing reference to the mind. We have now to consider briefly one of the most keenly contested questions in psychology. Is the mind merely a function of the brain? Does it secrete thought as the liver secretes bile? Or does the mind possess a separate existence, using the brain as the instrument of its expression? The physical brain consists of three main portions, the forebrain (cerebrum) which is probably concerned chiefly with thought; the little brain (cerebellum) situated behind and somewhat below the forebrain, and probably concerned mainly with the maintenance of equilibrium, the balance of the body, and certain forms of motion; and the oblong marrow (medulla oblongata) or spinal bulb, which is the centre to which converge the nerves of the body. In the fore-brain are many millions of small cells and certain prolonged indentations or channels, and it is commonly believed that there is a close relationship between thought and these cells and channels. Materialists maintain that thought is nothing more than an activity of the brain cells stimulated by the senses or by other means. The idealists argue that thought is primarily a function of an immaterial mind which subsequently СКАЧАТЬ