Brain Power

How My Mind Can Work For Me

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

— Chief Seneca

Have you ever had the experience of being "in the zone?" Everything you did worked out just great. You felt in tune with your surroundings and everything you said came out right. You walked into a room or into your home and you knew all was well. On the other hand, did you ever have one of those days when no matter what you did, it just didn't work out right, or when you walked into your house and you felt immediately that something was wrong? In both cases you felt the vibe, you could feel the energy of what was going on around you, and rightly so. The truth is you can feel the energy around you. You can and do experience the electrical charges in the atmosphere of your surroundings. You might feel that some classrooms you enter are calm and serene, while others are happy and jovial, and then in another the energy might feel unsettling. In this chapter we explore how you can start to become more aware of this energy, identify it, and even manage it for your best advantage. The first step is to become aware.

What is awareness? Where does our awareness dwell? How do I know what I know? How do I decide what is important for me to know and what is important for me to do? Who is the one who wants to know, and who is the one asking these questions? Is it that little voice inside of me, and where does that little voice come from? In the following chapters we will take a journey together on the road to awareness to answer these questions and discover what those answers will mean for your growth and development.

In this first chapter we will explore the way your brain functions. You will come to understand that your brain is a powerful instrument that gives off various electrical currents or brain waves. You will be able to identify those different brain waves and come to understand that your brain really is like a computer. You have the ability to program your brain like a computer to think, and consequently affect your behavior in ways that are most beneficial for you. You will learn ways to use certain brain waves to your best advantage.

Awareness means "having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge." Let's begin our journey on the road to awareness. The purpose of the stories, examples, and demonstrations in this chapter is to illustrate how brain power can be used to gain insights and answers when traditional thinking is not yielding the needed solutions. We will explore how these brain game techniques can be incorporated into your journey.

In 1972, I had the day off for Flag Day, which was a school holiday in Brooklyn and Queens. I turned on the TV, which I rarely got a chance to watch in the mornings, and watched the Today Show. A priest by the name of Father Barum was being interviewed about a course he was teaching called Silva Mind Control. I was impressed by what he had to say about the results people were achieving by using the techniques that were taught in the course. People were saying they were able to be more productive; they were able to easily find things they had lost; and that they were doing better in school or on their jobs. I quickly wrote down all the information and immediately called to register. I took myself to the McAlpin Hotel on West Thirty-Fourth Street that following weekend, where the course was being offered.

There were at least three hundred people in the large ballroom at the McAlpin Hotel where the Silva Mind Control Course was being presented. We were all there to learn the techniques of the Silva Method, which were developed by Jose Silva. The techniques involved learning to understand and control the electrical frequencies emitted by the human brain. By becoming more aware of the more productive frequencies, one can become more in control of his or her life.

Jose Silva was fascinated by the transmission of radio waves. He understood that the human brain acts in a similar fashion by transmitting different frequencies. He did experiments to measure, calculate, and determine the effects of human brain wave transmission. He saw that the brain transmits different frequencies under various conditions. While awake, the brain operates under a Beta frequency, 14–21 cycles per second. These frequencies are measured in Hz, named after Heinrich Hertz, who demonstrated that electromagnetic energy exists and can be detected and measured. Electromagnetic radiation is all around us. The waves range from high-frequency cosmic and gamma rays through X-rays, ultraviolet light, infrared radiation, and microwaves, down to very low frequency radio waves. The brain frequencies emitted by the human brain can be designated in the following way:

The more relaxed, in-tune frequency of light sleep and meditation is called Alpha, which is a lower brain frequency at 7–14 Hz.

During deep sleep the brain frequency is at Theta from 4–7 Hz.

Finally, when the brain is in deep sleep, a coma, or sometimes in a deep trance experienced by some yogis, the brain frequency is at ITLΔITL at 0–4 Hz.

Through his own experimentation, especially with his own children, Jose Silva discovered that the mind is highly suggestible while at the more in- tune Alpha level. By utilizing some of the techniques he developed, his subjects became more productive, creative, skillful, and even clairvoyant, meaning they were able to see beyond the range of ordinary perception.

According to Jose Silva, the more you practice the techniques required to get into the Alpha level, the better you will be at using the Alpha state to attain the things you want. One technique was the three-finger technique, using an anchor, simply putting your thumb, index, and middle fingers together. Anchor is a hypnosis term that refers to a simple physical activity you can use to help you achieve a particular result. Some people might put their hand over their heart when they want to calm down. According to Jose Silva, by simply putting your three fingers together you can bring your brain waves to an Alpha level and then simply tell yourself what it is that you might want. You could put a suggestion into your mind for anything from finding a parking space to getting a good mark on an exam. An important aspect of this technique is that you will be able to suggest to yourself only those things that will be good for you and others. Over time, by using these techniques you will start to see results. This became a handy little trick I used to find parking spots while living in New York City. I also discovered that my anxiety level would drop if I simply put my three fingers together during a tense situation.

Another important tool is the ability to use your mental screen, which is your ability to use your imagination to see images in your mind. When I learned how to do it, I was a young teacher at PS 42, a very old public school in the Arverne neighborhood of Queens, New York. The school was poorly equipped, missing desks, chairs, and books. The classes were overcrowded. I started to use some of the Silva Method techniques with my students, who were seven years old. The idea was to help them relax and to be more in control of themselves.

Around the same time, the school received a grant for a cultural enrichment program called Cultural Opportunities in the Metropolitan Environment (COME). I had the opportunity to take many of the children in the school to a variety of cultural programs, including a production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. The culmination of the program was a theatrical production created by the students. We based our performance on The Me Nobody Knows: Children's Voices from the Ghetto, edited by Stephen M. Joseph, using original poetry and pieces written by the children at PS 42 themselves. It was then that we started to experiment with adaptations of the techniques I had learned from the Silva Method. We would all stand in a circle, close our eyes, and imagine that light was filling our bodies from our heads to our toes. We would then imagine that this light turned different colors. One child would stand in the middle and tell us the color of light they felt they wanted for that day, depending on their mood or their needs. Using their imaginations the children in the circle would beam that color of light to the child in the center of the circle. One of the boys in that group later created a dance company called Purple Light from his remembrance of that exercise he had done as a child. Another student from that group later appeared on Broadway in Dream Girls, directed by Michael Bennett.

I was teaching elementary school at the time but wanted to teach theatre on the high school level. I realized I needed to get a masters degree in theatre and communications in order to be qualified to do that. I had no idea where I would go or how I would proceed. The Silva Method teaches a technique that addresses this kind of circumstance, when you really do not have a clear picture of a solution or the outcome you would like. It is the glass of water technique, and I must say it is my favorite. Simply drink half a glass of water before going to sleep at night, and say to yourself as you look upward, "This is all I have to do to solve the problem I have in mind." Do the same in the morning with the remaining water. It is recommended that you stay alert for a period of seventy-two hours for your answer to appear in the form of a sign or symbol. I did the exercise on a Sunday, and the next day I had an appointment at Brooklyn College. I was an hour early, so I went to the library to check out college bulletins. There were none that interested me on the library shelves; however there was a note that said other bulletins would be in room 207. I went to that room. It was an office with a desk, bookshelves, and a long reading table. On the top shelves were computer printouts, and the bottom shelves were dedicated to college bulletins. The odd thing was that on the inch shelving that separated the two was my name taped to the shelf: BARBARA. Right under my name was the bulletin for Northwestern University. I opened the bulletin and realized that this was the school for me.

Soon after that discovery, I learned that the whole area where I was teaching was going to be turned into the first urban national park, called Gateway National Park. The federal government was going to help fund the building of a new high school of oceanography. I applied to be the drama teacher when the school would open the following year. I was accepted for this position. I could earn my masters at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, and then return to teach at the school.

This was a dream come true. Many of the students I had taught at PS 42 would then be my students at the new high school. This school was to be the High School of Oceanography. Part of the mission of this new magnet school was to support the efforts of the rangers of the national park in cleaning up Jamaica Bay. The students from PS 42 would be going to a brand new, beautifully equipped school situated right on Jamaica Bay. At this school they would have the opportunity to learn scuba diving so they could better explore the marine samples in Jamaica Bay. I was to be a teacher in the Communication Arts Department, where I would teach drama, public speaking, interpersonal communication, and broadcasting — subjects that would give these students a whole different way to navigate in their lives.

Over a period of one year, the children of PS 42 and I used the Alpha conditioning techniques. Many opportunities opened up for us, and wonderful things started to emerge. These techniques can be used to help you identify things you would like to change in your life and to open you to beneficial ways to achieve the goals that will assist you in making those changes.

The following activity is a technique for creating and using your own mental screen, useful when you want to program beneficial outcomes for situations in your life.

Try This for Yourself

• Sit quietly, feet flat on the floor, hands on your lap, and gaze at a point in front of you about forty-five degrees above the horizon line. Start counting down from ten to one, slowly.

• Say each number in your head and see if you can see each number as they may appear on a large TV screen as on Sesame Street.

• With each descending number take a deep, long breath, inhaling slowly and exhaling in the same rhythm.

• When you reach the number one, see in your mind's eye that you are in a very comfortable place anywhere in the world. It could be on top of a mountain, or even beneath the sea, just as long as you know it is a wonderful place where you can feel the most powerful.

• When there, imagine that there is a large easy chair where you can sit. Before you is a large screen. This is your mental screen where you can see the past, the present, or the future.

• Place on your mental the screen an image of something that may be troubling you or that you would like to change. Put a colored light around the frame and let the image pass to the left.

• Now put an image of the way you would like the scene to unfold, or how you would like the situation to turn out. Put a white light around that. This is the image you can revisit at any time when you want to energize the positive outcome you are wishing to achieve. According to Laura Silva of Silva International your imagination is stronger than your will power in supporting you in affecting positive changes in your life.

• Count from one to five to yourself, open your eyes, and feel better than before and more refreshed.

• Whenever you want to imagine that situation, put in your mind only the way you saw it with the white light. See what happens over a period of time.

I used these techniques when I was a student at Northwestern. There were times that I used the three-finger technique while studying and taking tests. These techniques helped me to clarify what to study for my exams. They also helped me understand better what my professors were looking for in the projects they assigned.

What does this mean for you?

If your mind works like a computer and you can program it to support you in determining, taking action steps, and achieving your goals, then why not learn some techniques that will assist you in taking control of your mind? Why not learn ways to set up images in your mind that will assist you to achieve what you want for your life? Using some of the techniques that have been suggested in this chapter may offer you some support.

At first, practice going to an Alpha level by using the method described in this chapter. Count down from ten to one to achieve a more relaxed state. Then try using some of the techniques suggested such as:

• The anchor: putting your three fingers together, or covering your heart with your hand;

• The mental screen: to work out solutions for problems or projects that you have by visualizing solutions.

See what results you are able to produce for yourself.

Try some of these techniques in your classes at school. If you have a class that is particularly difficult for you, sit in class with your three fingers together and just say to yourself, "I will understand and know everything that is taught." See if this helps. Then work with these techniques on larger issues and questions to improve control of your brain power. Good luck.

The Paradigm Shift

Paradigm shifting Is like shape shifting

Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs.

— Maxwell Maltz

When I was sixteen years old, I went to see a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author, a play by Luigi Pirandello, at the McAlpin Theatre (the same place where I took the Silva Mind Control course, a funny coincidence). I was very moved by the staging of the play, but I was particularly struck by the message it portrayed. The play starts with the cast and crew of a play assembling for a rehearsal. Just as the rehearsal begins, the lights in the theatre grow dim, and eerily, six characters, oddly clothed and with heavy make- up, seem to float in as a group onto the stage. The six characters are looking for a director. Each one tells his or her version of the story they want produced as a play. Unfortunately, there can be no play, because each character tells a different version of the story.

When I returned to the Thirty-Fourth Street subway station after the show, I had a moment of reflection, and my first true epiphany: "an unusually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something" according to Merriam–Webster. I realized from the theme elaborated in the play that everyone has an individual perception of reality.

Your view of life can only be an illusion of what is real because it is defined by the limitation of what you see, and how you perceive. Consequently, there is no single view of reality, only millions of interpretations. I realized that my mother and father had their own views of reality, as did everyone standing on that subway platform. At that moment I realized that I create my own reality and that I can be conscious of creating the reality that best suits me. I was deeply moved by that understanding. It was the play Six Characters in Search of an Author that helped me to understand that concept. I saw how powerful theatre can be. It was then that I knew my life would be dedicated to that art form.