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Believe

January 25th, 2010 Comments off

Beliefs determine how we see, interact and feel the world around us. Beliefs are ideas that are formed after repetition and contemplation that are accepted as truth and reality. Therefore they impact how we see life.

Belief and knowledge are often in conflict. The difference might be subtle, but significant. Knowledge is something that you and others, who might be considered experts in that field, consider to be true and there is reasonable, plausible, and provable scientific explanation for that wisdom.

A belief on the other hand is founded on personal experience or only on faith.

Too many people require you to accept their belief based on blind faith. Belief is not a fact and therefore usually not provable beyond a shadow of a down.

Recall that it wasn’t long ago that people believed the world is flat, and that we thought women were witches, hunted them down, and burned them.

Welcome to belief, which is based on superstitions, or ignorance.

Ignorant humans who once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that it was flat. Really demonstrated that what really was FLAT was the human ability to think outside the box and perceive something that others could not observe.

When scientists discovered great things, hundreds of years ago, they were imprisoned, tortured and murdered. The Catholic Church did not want people to see beyond, and therefore stopped the voices of these researchers.

Actually, during that time in history it was thought to be common knowledge that these ancient flat world beliefs were true. Even though humankind was sincere in its ignorant beliefs, those beliefs were false and by not believing as the others told you to, you were subject to arrest, imprisonment, and torture which often lead to death.

Times have changed. Today, things that you believe have changed, and you may believe in something so strongly that you count it as knowledge. When, in fact, there may be considerable evidence from the past experience that a particular belief is a truth, its only truth for you is from your personal experience. Just because you believe it is true, does not make it true. Although it might become a truth for you personally, by believing it you are limiting yourself by holding on to self-limiting beliefs.

The trick is to pull back the veneer and see the real truth. That is one that is universal and does not need to be believed, it just is. These are referred to as universal truths. They exist and work beyond our own self-limiting beliefs. They shape and work through the universe and in our lives.

Gravity is a truth. Believe in it or not – its still a real truth. If you drop something it will fall to the ground. If you slip, and fall, you could hurt your butt. You can only fall DOWN, you don’t fall up.

Now this is only a truth that exists here on Earth under normal circumstances. There are other forces that can resist this law such as a strong wind. You may have been programmed since childhood to believe things that you thought to be true – but, once you realized that they were not true, you may have wondered why you wasted time and energy believing in them at all.

Take the case of Santa Claus. You believed he was real. You believed that by some mystical miracle he went around the world in one night and brought presents to every well-behaved child. You may have further believed that he ate the burnt cookies you left for him and he drank that horrible lactose free milk. You believe that it was all associated to your doing good things and not bad things, and that Santa was, well, almost like God!

There was strong evidence to your belief:

Your parents told you he was real. (You trusted your parents unquestionably)

The cookies were eaten and the milk glass was empty. Also the crumbs disappeared.

There were gifts under the Christmas tree in the morning.

You saw Santa at the mall, and you had a photo of Santa to prove it.

Your friends believed in him too.

All of this proves pointed toward knowledge, you just knew he existed. It pointed to a truth in that not only did you know he existed, everyone around you knew also. This belief as you found out was not true. It had shaped your view of the world as a child and still may have a lingering impact on your current belief system.

The point is that there are other things that you may believe are true, but are not. You have been told things all your life for a variety of reasons: to make you feel better, to be funny, to hurt you, because other people believed it was true, and for other noble and not so noble reasons. You made the choice whether to believe what was being told you. You weighed this information and decided whether it fit or not into your already existing belief system. You either rejected the idea straight out, accepted it as part of what you already believed, or it changed your belief system.

Beliefs are very powerful, and they do shape our reality. If you believe in anything strong enough, it becomes real in your life. There is a universal law that states that likes attract like. If you believe in something strong enough it not only becomes your reality, it attracts similar things in your life.

Suppose you believe you are clumsy. Your parents said you were clumsy, your coach as school did and so did your friends. They told you that you were an accident waiting to happen. You thought this to be true. Your whole life you tripped over your shadow. Not only did you believe this, but you also created the reality and circumstances of being clumsy.

Examine your thoughts and draw back the veil. Well, Ill be. They seem to have repeatedly hypnotized me to trip myself up — all my life” well, I’ll be! And, then ‘you don’t have to be!’ It’s all your belief.

Dr. Jay Polmar, author of Thinkright, was a teacher and instructor at colleges and universities in the Southwest and Hawaii about the lineament and power of Thought being an active force in creating the quality of your life. Learn more in Thinkright.

Strengthen your own belief and faith with ThinkRight ThinkRight and have a great life!, and ThinkRight and have a great life!

Who First Created Speed Reading?

January 9th, 2010 Comments off

The worlds most famous speed reading course is Reading Dynamics developed by Evelyn Wood. It’s famous for teaching people to read faster, or speed reading as she called it. Her live course was the first known course that taught students to read faster and it started with about 25 hours of training to double your reading speed.

Over time the system was made available all over the world. These well practiced techniques teach students to read more rapidly, and also comprehend more of what they are reading. These techniques have proven to be repeatedly effective with all ages in many countries around the world.

There are many stories about how Evelyn Wood first learned speed reading. My personal favorite was that she, as a child, was fishing at a nearby lake in Utah where she was living. To Evelyn, fishing was a relaxing necessity, but her mind was always very active.

When fishing, she brought a book to read until she saw that the float on the fishing line was bobbing. Then she’d reel in the fish. It was said that she read with the sun at her back for natural light, and used her index finger on her dominant hand to track under the words she was reading.

Every time when a fish bit, she just put down the book and started fishing again. That’s how it all started.

As she got older, she went to the University of Utah where one professor read and graded her 80-page research paper in just ten minutes. This came to 2,500 words per minute. He didn’t know how to tell his student what made it so he could read fast, nor how he developed his ability. He just read and could understand very quickly and efficiently.

Challenged by the potential to read that fast, Evelyn researched and studied fast readers to see if she could increase her reading speed and comprehension too. Then, she began to teach students herself, she figured out that it could be beneficial to them if she passed her skills on.

The desire to read faster and comprehend more is Universal. People all over the world were fascinated in, what turned out to be, Evelyn’s own techniques for speed reading and comprehension. As she expanded her research and investigation of speed reading, she found people from different parts of the world reading from 1,500 to 6,000 words per minute. All had an impressive level of comprehension proven by their knack for recalling specifics of the text.

She cataloged what each of them did to read faster and she discovered that each had their own traits and all of them had multiple traits in common with the others. along with these:

1. Words were seen, and read, in groups. 2. Readers identified patterns and key words when they scanned text, quickly identifying the purpose and theme behind the writings. 3. Readers also sped up or slowed down with the simplicity or complexity of the reading materials. This permitted them control of levels of comprehension.

Based on this the Evelyn Wood program was created. Techniques were developed and tested.

In 1959, she was proficient and prepared enough to develop a system that would teach others to speed read as well. Later that year, she opened the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute in Washington DC. John F. Kennedy was the first president to have his White House staff trained by the Evelyn Wood method.

Today, the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute no longer exists in the US. The rights were sold off to various publishers to market as courses, self-taught, and the remaining Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics teachers have private instructional practices. Some teachers are still healthy enough in their mid 6os and 70s to teach the original technique.

Today, the few remaining teachers have departed their secrets to others, who have put the courses online for you to study. Though, you might learn from itinerant speed reading instructors who usually teach classes at community colleges, or private corporations throughout the US and beyond. In New Zealand, Australia, and Western Europe, some offices of the original Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics have survived the creator who past on over 20 years ago.

Since the 1990s, courses became available in audio, video VCR, and later, DVD, adding a convenience that Evelyn could never have even dreamed of when she first taught. Faster reading with greater comprehension can be reached by students around the world by using the system that Evelyn Wood invented while fishing one sunny day. To find Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics courses, check with www.speedread.org, they carry the audio and video versions to help you double your reading speed and achieve far greater.

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