The Einstein Factor
Last night I finished Win Wenger’s and Richard Poe’s The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence. I meant to blog about it along the way, but it never happened. And I must say that now that I have read it, I’m not sure what to think about it. First, I’m inclined to shun self-improvement books that sport slogans such as “Boost Your Brainpower Now!” and “Increase Your Intelligence Today!” (both from the cover of this book). Had I seen this book in the bookstore, I would never have bought it.
I am, however, a firm believer in the powers of the subconscious and “the right brain”, and this book is about learning to communicate with your subconscious. Think of it as dream interpretation while awake, with the ability to consciously interact rather than just floating along, as in dreams. You breathe calmly, closing your eyes and start describing out loud (to a tape recorder or other person) the images you see – not just what you visually perceive, but how things smell and feel, and what they sound like. Wenger stresses the importance of describing out loud; the point is aurally feeding back the description to the brain.
The techniques are intended to “bridge the poles” – simply put to form as many connections as possible between the left and right brain (although Wenger is careful to point out that the left/right dichotomy is a simplification; in reality, there are many poles in the brain, and he describes them briefly). The point with this “pole bridging” is that it increases your intelligence, if I understand correctly. Wenger talks a little about what your subconscious can tell you, as well as in what ways your IQ is increased – and he suggests that we all get together and practice “Image Streaming” to change the world into a better place. But I’m not sure I get it.
After having read this book, I feel that I want to read more about the brain. Some months ago, my friend Cliff recommended me the book Zen and the Brain, written by the neuroscientist and Zen practitioner James Austin. (I can’t help but thinking of everything I read about Zen practice and Zazen (Zen meditation) as I read about Wenger’s techniques.) I also want to read more about how learning works – and from browsing at Amazon, I think that the books How People Learn and The Book of Learning and Forgetting would be interesting.
Wenger suggests that you try the techniques as you read about them, which I had no possibility to do (as I read the books a few minutes at a time, while taking care of my daughter). I must say I’m tempted, though, because I’m convinced that it works. Images come easily to me, especially as I’m about to fall asleep. Sometimes I have told stories while being drowsy, and they often, in fact, just stream out of my mouth; perhaps it would be interesting to decipher them. But I couldn’t motivate me if my only goal was to increase my IQ.
Two chapters stand out as my favorites; first, The Socratic Effect, about humans’ natural instinct to express themselves (which, according to Wenger, is an important reason why the school system needs to be redone: because children are expected to learn by mainly listening, when it’s the expression of the information that is required to learn). Wenger writes, “In general, what is expressed by the learner is a hundred times more productive learning than what is expressed to the learner”. (Which, of course, made me think about weblogging.)
The chapter also discusses “Freenoting” which says that, during a meeting or when reading a book, if you just scribble what comes to mind, without judgment, your understanding and memory of what you heard or read is significantly amplified. (My friend Niklas wrote about this recently – here – and here; in Swedish.) When reading books, the guideline is to take regular breaks and just write your thoughts for 5-15 minutes.
The chapter Use the Force talks about when you act on your gut feeling (see here) because the situation is too complex to handle consciously. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow is also discussed, and the importance of having a playful attitude towards what you do – that you should do things for the sheer pleasure of doing them, rather than trying to meet a goal.
Oh, and it covers photo reading, too. I’m not sure if I really want to use that technique; it’s a little scary because it’s about subliminally consuming the book and then trying to recall it afterwards. But it shed a little light on speed reading, too (see here). Asking yourself what you expect from what you’re about to read is probably of use. And as for getting a feel for a book’s structure and content, it is suggested that you read all “titles and subtitles; and any boldfaced or italicized print. Also read any boxes, diagrams, or charts.” You can also try to pick up words that occur frequently, or “key trigger words” as Wenger calls them. After you have done this, you should reevaluate your expectations to see if they have changed.
In all, it’s a very interesting book. I can’t really explain it, but the boook left me quite unsatisfied; I feel as if I haven’t quite understood it, or as if I’m not quite done with this subject. I think it will linger in my subconscious for a while, so we’ll see if something pops up that lets me come to closure.