HIGHER COGNITION eight new levels, achieved through reading

The mind seems more like an instrument to be tuned and played, than a tool or source of some facultative quality to be measured and compared. ?The landtrain series contains books on: Reading, Physics, Diet, Music and Intelligence.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Were we to sit before an orchestra there might be an expectation of the coming of events, sounds, even emotions.?That we dislike the idea of it, or perhaps are posited perfectly in time and place, so it may be in reading.

PROLOGUE

This book will attempt to provide a journey into the dynamic that is reading;…?what one sees and feels when holding an opened book; to what one finds when expectations meet with sensory perceptions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Exuberance propelled me to expose my children to learn about themselves as they wandered through life.?Reading became an opportunity to revel in the expressions of the mind, and to share the love felt in them, and to sensorally walk through mental brooding and understanding with them.?During the course of sharing myself with?three bright, wonderful daughters; we exposed the fragments of mental grasping during the reading process; (kinda.)?So, for a short period during the early years of “my girls” time with dad, I would collect them on the couch; and we would perform cursory trials of successively obtuse auditory, visual and conceptual, quiet remonstrations whilst reading. ?

INTRODUCTION

Does one remember how we began reading; ?the years of grammar including word usages, sentence diagrams, creative writing??That we should be intimidated by the language is no wonder.?That we approach reading at all, is laudatory.?This book is participatory; offers the reader a chance to sit in the orchestra; to contribute to what may be a course of events leading up to, during and after, some performance.?For the reading process may be one’s mind and body performing.?And so at this, let the symphony begin…

OBSERVATIONS

Ever notice how some people just love to read; while others, like myself, would rather fall down some steep incline??(Of course, unless I’m reading Scott’s Ivanhoe.)?Now?Sir Walter Scott?is one of the more wordy, poetic, long winded writers.?I believe he began as a poet, and at midlife, he began to write stories. ?Let’s just say I feel his pain.?We’re all different.?It doesn’t matter that we like considerably easy or difficult books. ?Our minds could truly care less. ?

Ever notice how when meeting someone for the first time, one “kinda gears up;” puts on a new and fresh face??We may find that we do the same before reading.?Somehow knowing, remembering, thinking, “kinda?messes things up.”?How long does it take someone to recognize an old photograph, of an obscure friend passing through one’s life??Does “racking one’s brain” seem to help??So may it be thus while reading.

When one is in the shower, do we sing??Have you heard your voice lately??Ever sing and get lost in the lyrics only to become aware of the changes in pitch, or one’s lack of range? ?Well, we can do that while reading too.?We have ranges of “chops” or muscular tone; that we develop as we read.?

At times we naturally become aware of the human condition. ?Whether we look in its’ direction, or not, our bodies will continue to breath, our minds will activate and worry, etc…?Should our bodies touch?or come into contact with things and others, whether we look at it or not, they are there for us to interpret, or not.

Take something meaningless, like placing one’s hand on the table.?Does this make someone upset??(of course not.)?It’s an impersonal act.?If one were to suddenly “be taken back” in memory it might be far enough removed that emotional attachment does not consume, but elicits an ever so easy smile.?Well, during reading, we can choose to make the process as personal or impersonal as we like. ?We will chose posture, and keep the emotions a little distant, and see how that affects our performance. ?

INTERNAL VOICE - ACCENTUATED

Grab a fresh book.?Or do what I do and grab an old friend; mine is Ivanhoe. ?While one reads the first page, let’s sing in the shower, so to speak.?Read to oneself with lots of intonation; the more intonation the better. ?There is a natural tempo, in iambic pentameter and it goes like this:?da da’, da da’, da da’, da da’, da da’; ????????????????da da’, da da’, da da’, da da’, da da’.?Accentuate this meter, while one reads.?Don’t even think about rate of reading…. Sit comfortably, hold one’s head still, breath normally. Don’t even worry about understanding at this point. ?That will come.?If we have memories of this book, you can notice them, but don’t acknowledge or entertain them.?This is an impersonal process.?We are learning about ourselves, our instrument…. Our mind and body connection.?Take notice of all the different things that come to mind, occur, happen… etc…. while reading in this style…. ?We’ll want to do the same, and notice all the little idiosyncrasies, along the way… as we approach eight levels of reading.

While exaggerating one’s intonation, watch how one’s mind grabs, chooses, anticipates meaning from the process.?We’re learning…. So we can utilize, and master.??Are we sputtering along, word by word.?If this is correct,?that’s good!?If not, that’s good too!?Sometimes our minds are full ….. ?Does it suddenly remember stuff.?Yes. ?Does it get bored and pass through sentences thinking about what one would rather be doing??Yes.?Of course.?That’s fine.

All the aforementioned symptoms that occur during the reading process, and a hundred others I have failed to mention, are normal and go away with posture.?Posture, we will begin to describe, in the next level,?could be described as a muscular tone, that we develop. ?It becomes a method of experiencing… and acknowledging, or letting go…. But first I want one to notice all the different muscles, to tone! ?I want one to notice all the ways that a lack of tone, or posture, manifests itself! ?So we start out, in an exaggerated manner;?using all the muscles; “kinda hard.”?Tone and control are then introduced as we learn to recognize what it is that we need to control. ?

INTERNAL VOICE – MONOTONE

Now let’s try this again.?This time, imagine sitting in an uncomfortable, straight-back chair; whilst laying comfortably on the couch.?Sit absolutely motionless.?A tiger is in front view, ready to eat, if one muscle is moved.?We are still comfortably lying on the couch, right??I call this,?sitting “noticeably still.”?Next, take one’s breath and stop!?Just for a second….?Stop breathing…. Long enough for one to feel the “gastric urge climbing up the back of the throat, like some radiating body.” ?Use an imaginary rope to pull the breath up…. And out…. Then passively watch the breath exit….. watch it… don’t control it….it’s going to be a slow hot breath… so it shouldn’t come pooring out…. It should kinda follow the chest collapsing….. We’re “making like Tibetan monks!” ?So now,… take one’s internal voice… and one wants to create a slow, quiet,… syllabilic chant…. In low monotone voice…. Deep…. Like a monk… sitting in the temple…. Hummm……….humm…….. etc…. This is what I call the “dead man walking voice.”

RECAPITULATION:

Sit noticeably still;?

stop breathing and begin to pull the breath… passively watching the release;?

create low tonal, and quiet monotone, slow syllabilic chant when reading the text “dead man waling voice;”

Now start the book over.?We’re going to start anew in understanding as well.?Just disregard any memories; watch them; disregard any plots or setting etc…, watch them, as one employs the three new postures referenced above.?Employ posture.?Posture!?Do not worry about understanding.?Does one worry about understanding, while watching a movie??Not normally.?We either understand or don’t, usually. ?And, we may think about understanding… during the movie. ?We can and will do the same, here, while reading.?There’s no need to limit understanding to some wrote, linear acceptance.?Learn to watch and to separate types of understanding, with the actual mechanical reading processes.

RECAPITULATION:

So, we started out “singing in the shower,” and began anew utilizing a “dead man walking voice,” contorted in an imaginary erect position, perhaps Indian style, legs crossed, in some Tibetan temple (all the while staying relaxed on the couch.)?One need only to experience these two reading styles.?One could read a paragraph, or page, or read for the rest of one’s life in either of these two fashions.

OBSERVATIONS:

What one may notice is a quicksand, initial feel, in rate, as one switches gears, from exaggerated intonation, to low monotone internal voice. One may also notice that we actually pick up the speed a little, naturally, as we speak in a?quiet, low monotone voice.?Don’t worry if this doesn’t happen. It could take a day, or two, or a week.?Some of us are pretty stressed out.?We’re not concerned with rate at all.?One may also notice a sense of freedom; or increased cortex available to process information.

IMAGINATION

The next fashion of reading is “kinda fun.”?We begin the book again, from the top.?This time do not produce the internal voice, but let the internal voice be produced passively, as one allows his or her eyes to fall on the page, one, two, three or more words at a time.?Stay on the words until the voice is produced, then move to the next word, or words.?We’ll do this over and over.?While we do this begin to notice one’s imagination, or what one sees.??Employ all the postures applicable, including noticeably still, dead man walking voice, and slow hot breath, with stopped breath at first, followed by deep rope pull drag inward, and passive watchful expiration.?But passively produce the internal voice here.?One can begin to notice the imagination, but disregard it here.

FOURTH LEVEL

The fourth level introduces one’s imagination.?We’ll begin the book anew.?There is no worry over meaning; we’ve now read the passages three times.?And we shall read again. ?We are tuning our instrument; our minds.?Now, book in hand, let the eyes fall?on the words again, to passively produce the internal voice.?Yet this time, do not regard the voice.?Let the imagination begin to form. ?As the imagination forms, let the eyes fall on enough words to begin to set the tempo.?This process may be incredibly slow at first ( it may take you a month!)?One may find that he or she let’s the eyes rest on a group of words, only to see nothing, or to see the accounting problem they were working on, or what the children are doing in the kitchen; that’s ok, your imagination is working!?Soon you’ll decide, and learn to decide, how and when to acknowledge those things that you want to….. Besides, your mind is able to view all that you’re concerned or interested, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. ?There’s nothing to say that one couldn’t read a book, and develop a recipe, together.?But for this exercise, let’s keep it simple. ?Employ one’s posture, watching the breath, sitting noticeably still;?let the internal voice go.?If this happens once for you, then great!?Don’t tense up, but don’t relax either… it’s not about relaxing or tensing.??If production of imagination?doesn’t happen again for you, then stop; and try in another day. ?It’s not that one can not do it, it’s that we are training, or toning our minds. ?It takes some time for your neural networks to adapt, some 24 to 48 hours.?This is not some special ability for one or two people, this is something we are all capable. ?Posture is important.?Like holding an egg, or placing one’s finger on an elevated string, applying gentle pressure…. Gentle… tone… pressure…..as if one would concentrate equally on the upward pull or posture, as the downward pressure of that fingertip. ?

OBSERVATIONS:

Ok, if this works, or if one can begin to see the storyline, as we allow our eyes to fall on the page, on a few or many or even just one word at a time; a wonderful thing happens.?The first time, second, third, or third day or week, one’s mind opens up.?It’s an incredible awareness.?And like walking in some desert, without water for days, one begins to drink up the words. ?One may begin to feel as though one can not read fast enough; as though there is some energy generating force to propel, rather than some chore to push oneself through. And it only gets?better, on the steps to come!

FIFTH LEVEL

A Fifth level involves allowing one to begin to recognize the eyes, as the right eye pulls to the right, and the left catches the line on the left, or caches to the left. ?On this level, notice the imagination, but begin to allow an UNDERSTANDING to begin to form.?Understanding is an overwhelming calm sense that comes over oneself, that allows one to anticipate what is going to happen next. Notice understanding beginning to form, but disregard it. ?So as you begin to recognize, or anticipate, THIS IS UNDERSTANDING, disregard, and keep pulling to right,?and cache to the left. ?Employ posture.

SIXTH LEVEL

A sixth level of reading would have us begin at the top again.?Now I have suggested that we begin at the top, each level. ?One need not do so.?I have suggested this to allow for a calm, enhanced, memory filled experience, more apt to be free of PANIC! ?One not be concerned with rate at all. I have said this over and over again.??However, each level, will produce a higher rate of read;?while seemingly creating a feeling of moving slower, and slower and slower. ?This level will, or may elicit an internal voice, let it go.?It will produce some imagination, let it go as well.?It may do this over and over, throughout the read; just let them both go.?Understanding will be pulled out here. ?Let the mechanical eye motion, in right to cache left, fade away. ?Begin to let UNDERSTANDING guide the placement and tempo of the read. ?Remember, understanding here, is the feeling of ability to anticipate what is going to happen.?Your mind will, when employing this level, create an incredibly powerful, open minded sensation; so much so, you may be conditioned to walk right out the door, and employ a manner of delivering?kind accoutrements in one’s address to each and every neighbor that comes into view.?You’re gonna feel like a million dollars! ?Your mind may open up like it never has before. It will put a smile on your face!?It’s gonna feel incredible and powerful.

SEVENTH LEVEL

Two more levels to go. ??Hold on to your socks! You may kiss the neighbors! This level has to do with focusing on the black and white, or text and spaces between. ?Understanding will pervade both this and the next level. ?Allow focus on the white spaces, a gentle focus, gentle fingertip-like pressure, guide the rate of understanding and then the tempo.

EIGHTH LEVEL

An eighth level will involve the peripheral vision; the gentle application of notions of lateral views on the page. This step with make one mess up one’s hair, apply moose, and bemuse at one’s own image of Einstein, in the mirror. ?Like a muscle, or complex network of muscles, we’re learning to flexion new parts. ?Employ postures, let UNDERSTANDING, and now, gentle new applications of focus, bring enough words into view, probably a whole paragraph, perhaps the page, ?to guide a new, seemingly much, much slower tempo.

DISCUSSION

What I hesitate to tell you is the realization that in each step, one feels as though one is reading more slowly. ?Like standing in quicksand, the words render the reader paralyzed; to one’s reception,?one’s awareness.?One’s mind and body respond to excited elicitations.?Over the years I have experienced periods whereby my body responds, almost at will, and other times, not at all.?Disinterest, interest, human emotional contrivations, are part and parcel or not, of the ability to perform. ?One may just not feel like playing today.?Opening one’s mind, I have found, is more of a passive process; one of divine application;?even love.?Feel loved, and one’s awareness responds.?The medical community indicates that a limbic system sitting atop the base of the brain stem, or above the neck, into the centermost and lateral portions of the brain, or midbrain, controls emotions.?Here love opens up higher cortex.

Conditioning one’s mind to accept sensory input, seems to be highly dependent on one’s “good feeling.”?Doesn’t say much for the public school system; in collecting lots of people together, and trying to create a learning environment where bullying and negativity seem to rule the day.?This is kinda counter-intuitive. ?If the brain is shutting down, or has the tendency to do so, to protect itself from insult or injury. ?Treating others respectfully however;?or the application of?kind words, would serve to elicit good feelings and an open mind; or one conducive to higher levels of brain function.

Abject humiliation, self imported, not elicited by another;?also conditions the mind for great performances.?Humbleness. ?Humbleness almost becomes a sort of higher lever of?brain function, in allowing for abilities and to observe items in and of themselves, wholly separate from the individual.?Distinctiveness. ?There is a freedom created, in distinctiveness;?almost an impersonality; that things occurring in the environment around, have something, if not anything to do with one’s own actions.?But one’s ability to contribute to the quality of the environment, in manners of speech, kind words, posture and loving approach; seem to be enhanced; and fully appreciated; or UNDERSTOOD.

RECAPITULATION:

So, we have now revealed eight levels of reading.?We have discussed different postures that may be employed. ?We have discussed tendencies to feel as though one is reading slower and slower, while actually reading more quickly, at each step.?We may have introduced new concepts, during the reading process, than what one is accustomed to, including UNDERSTANDING, as a manner of processing text, determining rates and tempos of the read.?And we have touched on kindness; and humility, as tools for opening up the human mind. ?However; ?like I have always told my three wonderful, beautiful daughters, “there are some things in this life that only others can give you, and then there are some things that one can give to him or herself.” ?Kindness is a part of the act of being humble, and reveling in the love that comes with a wonderful feeling of distinctiveness, or separateness, from all the drama or events related and unrelated to oneself. ?Humility and humbleness then allows for kindness, for love, for which, enables another, someone else, to open up his or her mind.?What a wonderful gift. ?And in response to kindness, one may eventually promote kindness in expressions directed to and on behalf of and for oneself.

FINAL DISCUSSION

Love then, opens up the mind. ?And how to love??Where does it come from??Remember??Look back on oneself, in childhood, somewhere, sometime.?Better yet, look back to yesterday. ?To look on oneself, or one another, (more difficult to pull off without elicitations of negative emotions) is to observe, or TO LOVE.?(you’re not judging yourself in self observation, right?)?Different people have different capacities to love. ?How far can one look in the past, of one’s own life??This may be one, of many indicators, or factors that determines one’s ability to love, to be loved, to be a loving person. ?Now, learn to observe other things, instead of oneself; and now you have begun to apply love, to create understanding in the things that one sees inside oneself, or in the things one sees around him or herself. ?

So let’s talk about hate.?Hate does not promote higher brain function; either delt out to others in spiteful epithets, or to oneself, listening to hateful rap music.?Refinement, taste, manners, etiquette, POSTURE, become tools for higher brain function. ?Kindness, respectfulness, become tools for eliciting higher brain function.?Bullying, shuts one down; shuts another, down.

What a wonderful way to learn how to love, be loved, the importance of etiquette, posture, and of the repercussions of hate, whilst expanding our minds to read!