Tangerien

The Tangerine Technique
The tangerine technique is probably one of the simplest techniques you will find on InfiniteMinds, but don’t let its simplicity
fool you. Like with so many things in life, the simplest ideas can often be the most powerful.
This technique will allow you to quickly and easily enter a peak performance state of mind associated with accelearted
learning. While in this state you will; find it easier to concentrate and remain focused, remember more of what you learn, be
better at solving problems and be able to come up with more creative solutions.
The Technique
1. Start by closing your eyes.
2. Next take a deep breath in, hold it for a few seconds and then slowly let it out. Repeat these slow deep breaths four or
five times. Try to make each exhalation slower and deeper than the last. (People are often tempted to skip this step, but it
is important as it prepares the mind and body for a change in states)
3. Hold an imaginary tangerine in your hand and take a moment to really experience it. Smell it, see the colour, feel the
weight and the texture. Imagine throwing the tangerine back and forth between your hands.
4. Now take the tangerine in your dominant hand and place it on the top back part of your head. Touch that area gently
and imagine feeling the tangerine resting there while you bring your arm down and relax your shoulders.
5. Just let the tangerine balance where you left it, really focus on the feeling of the tangerine resting against your head.
6. With your eyes still closed, imagine your peripheral vision expanding outwards and your field of vision opening up. Take a
moment to notice what has happened to your physical and mental state, you will feel simultaneously relaxed and alert.
7. Maintain the relaxed feeling of alertness as you open your eyes and begin working on whatever it is you have to learn
today.
The tangerine technique works particularly well when you have lots of material to read, and notes to make. If you take just
two to three minutes to use this technique each time when you sit down to learn or study something new, you will soon find
entering this peak performance state becomes automatic.
Try combining this technique with the Intutive Writing Method for a real free flow of creative ideas.
Increase Intelligence
For most of human history, in fact right up to the end of the twentieth century, it was widely believed throughout the
scientific and academic communities that it was impossible for someone to increase their intelligence.
These experts in psychology and neuroscience thought that although you could accumulate large amounts of knowledge
through your life, helping you to put your innate intelligence to better use, the fundamental characteristics of intelligence
were determined by genetic factors.
Their understanding was although these factors could be influenced by a stimulating environment while you were growing
up, once you reached adulthood your intelligence was locked into place, only to gradually decline with age.
Fortunately we now know that is not the case. Neuroscience research from the last two decades has shown there are a
variety of methods you can use to get reliable, lasting and transferable increases in your intelligence.
By improving your intelligence you are able to more easily see patterns, combinations, relationships and connections which
improves your innate problem solving abilities. The articles here will show you the specific techniques as well as some
general strategies for improving your intelligence.
Increase Intelligence Techniques

 Working Memory - The Key to Intelligence
 Visual Thinking - The Afterimage Technique
 Image Streaming
 Image Streaming Increases Intelligence
 Does Sleep Learning Work
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Working Memory - The Key to Intelligence

Source: Nature Neuroscience, volume 7
Your IQ was once thought to be purely determined by genetics, and that your score was fixed. However research is finally
starting to show that this just isn’t true.
Recent research has shown that the basis of intelligence may be a brain function called working memory. If you improve
your working memory, then, you will presumably increase your intelligence, and measurements of it, such as IQ.
Working memory is like the working space of the brain, the place where tools and materials are gathered to make things.
To put it simply, the more you can hold, the more you can think.
At the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, a team led by Torkel Klingberg found evidence that neural systems
underlying working memory grow in response to training. Training consisted of tasks like memorizing the position of dots on
a grid. After five weeks of such training, brain activity increased in the ares of the brain associated with this type of
memory.
When the group had children do these types of mental exercises, they found cognitive improvements not related to the
training. They also recorded an average increase of 8% in IQ test scores of the participants. Klingberg thinks that training of
your working memory may be the key to increasing your brainpower.
Related Techniques
Brain Exercises to Improve your Problem Solving and Creativity
Breathing Techniques to Improve your Brainpower - The Crossed Squat
Do Self Help techniques actually work?
13 Tips for Leading a Stress Free Life
Brain exercises to improve your creativity and problem

solving
Brain exercises can help improve the way your brain functions. Much like any physical exercises for your heart and muscles will
strengthen them, exercising your brain is essential for better mental function and to improves its activity.
Lifting a weight puts a strain on the fibres that your muscles are built from, and your body responds by making the existing fibres
stronger and by building new fibres so they are packed more densely. In the same way exercising your brain reinforces and strengthens
existing connections between nerve cells in your brain, and stimulates growth of new cells too.
By performing certain exercises we can activate new connections between cells that allows the cells to transmit and receive information
from one another, this increased connectivity within your brain will give you greater creativity and problem solving abilities as more of
the brains resources are directly interconnected.
In order to stimulate new connections you need to encounter different types of stimuli from day to day, otherwise the same neural
pathways just get used over and over.
When you are learning how to write, for example, provides the stimulus that enables the brain nerve cells to create new information
pathways to one another.
But as this stimulus becomes a routine activity, the neural pathways are set and no new connections are being made. What the nerve cells
in the brain want is a new type of stimuli to allow it to develop new circuits.
So to best exercise your brain you should be embracing the idea of putting the mind into situations where it is experiencing new stimuli.
Now while you might not be able to take on a task as challenging as learning to write all over again each day, what you may be able to
do is to try to do routine tasks in a different way.
Sticking with the example of writing, the routine way may be to write by using your right hand. But when you try to learn writing using
your left hand, meaning the one that you don't usually use, you are putting your brain to a different kind of stimulus. This simple exercise
will help the nerve cells in your brain to create new connections and therefore help your brain in functioning better.
You might find it hard to read what you write at first and it will take a lot of concentration but you'll be surprised how quickly your
"wrong hand writing˜ improves, and that is the proof that new connections are being wired into your brain!
Here are some other easy to use exercises and examples that will get those new neural connections up and firing:
- Try brushing your mouth using your other hand

- If you usually stay at home, try camping out for the weekend and enjoy the different stimuli that come from being in another
environment
- Next time you're sitting on a train or in a cafe try to listen and follow 2 different conversations at the same time.
I'm sure you can add in plenty of your own here. The key is to break your routine in order to help your brain cells make new connections
and create new information pathways among the brain cells.
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Related Techniques
5 Ways to Overcome any Obstacles
Do Self Help techniques actually work?
Goals Tips and Tricks
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Breathing Techniques to Improve your Brainpower - The
Crossed Squat
So often in life it is the simplest ideas that can be the most powerful, the smallest of changes that can lead to the most
dramatic results. I am always amazed at how doing something as simple as changing your pattern of breathing can have
remarkable effects on the body and mind.
Just by breathing slower and more deeply you will start to feel more relaxed. Or by pushing the air of your lungs out in a
series of quick sharp breaths will make you feel more focused and energised.
These are 2 very basic ways to change your body chemistry and state of mind simply by altering your breathing and I hope
they are obvious (if not give them a try) however there is another simple breathing technique that build on the same
principles but can produce far more amazing results.
The technique originates from traditional Hindu and QiGong practices and in recent times has appeared on CBS News as a
potential treatment for autistic children and suffers of Alzheimers, with the support from doctors, neurobiologists and
therapists.
However the technique doesn't just apply to those with mental conditions, but rather it seems to work for everyone,
improving memory, focus and mental clarity even in perfectly able minds.
The Crossed Squat Breathing Technique
• Stand with your feet about shoulder distance apart, toes pointing forward.
• Hold your right ear lobe between your left thumb and finger (I know this sounds strange but just go with it)
• Hold your left ear lobe between your right thumb and finger. You should now be holding both earlobes with your arms
crossed over your chest .
• Squat down by bending your knees and lowering your body toward the floor, breathe in while doing this.
• Go as low as you can comfortably manage and then raise yourself back to a standing position, breathing out as you raise
yourself back up.
• Repeat this squat motion for 1 to 3 minutes while continuing to hold your earlobes, and making sure your breathing is
synchronised with the squatting movement, breath in on the way down and out on the way back up.
If you're fit enough go for 3 minutes each day. If that feels like too much at first, start with one minute and slowly build the
time up.
How does this work?

Dr Ang , a neurobiologist at Yale, showed that the images from an EEG (electroencephalography) after doing this exercise
indicate the right and left hemispheres of the brain had become synchronized.
Synchronizing the hemispheres of your brain is associated with improved functioning across a whole range of mental skills.
This simple technique will only takes 3 minutes of your day to test out, so give it a go for a week and see if you can feel the
difference.
Do Self Help Techniques Actually Work?

For every person out here who stands firmly behind a particular technique or method, and would tell you in a heartbeat
‘that technique changed my life’, there’s another person who will say ‘I tried that and it didn’t make the slightest difference’,
and plenty of times I’ve comes across people who will say something like ‘What a load of hippy nonsense, I can’t believe
you fell for that!’
With such different experiences it seems a reasonable question to ask; ‘Do self help techniques actually work?’
Well if you’re looking for a one word answer, then i've got good news, its ‘Yes’.
But its easy to see why plenty of people think they don’t, and that’s mainly down to the way the majority of programs are
marketed and as a result the expectations that people have.
Just like me you’ve probably seen plenty of self-help programs promising, instant and effortless, dramatic changes to your
life, and all of your problems solved if only you buy whatever product it is they’re selling. Inevitably with claims like these
being made, some people will buy the product, try out the method or technique being suggested but surprise, surprise
when they wake up the next day their life is exactly the same.
The only way you’re going to wake up one day millions richer than when you went to bed is with a lottery ticket. If you
want to instantly become irresistible to the opposite sex, or go from a couch potato to a professional athlete overnight then
you’re going to need a magic lamp!
But if you’re serious about wanting to change your life, and it really doesn’t matter what it is you want to change, you are
going to need to put in the effort to make that change. Sorry, there’s no getting round it, that’s just the way that it is. You’ll
need to have the right attitude, mindset and commitment to make the change.
Now here’s where self-help techniques come in. Depending on which particular technique you use they will help you do
some or all of the following; change your thought patterns, attitudes, actions, your sub-conscious beliefs and values. By
sticking with an effective technique and allowing these fundamental changes to take place you will then start to experience
some effects in your life:
- Your mind will begin to notice and focus on all the events and opportunities relating to your goals going on all around you
that you never noticed before.
- With the right mindset in place and opportunities presenting themselves you will be motivated to take the necessary
actions to achieve those goals
- With persistence you will begin to notice that areas of your life where you have applied the technique have improved and
so you will naturally apply it to other goals and so a cyclical habit of choice, motivation and success will develop.
The right techniques (and for the right person, remember we’re all different) can do 2 key things:
1.) They can dramatically speed up this process, and the faster you notice results the more likely you are to stick with the
approach that got you there.
2.) They can make the difficult task of change easier by giving you a solid foundation that has been tried and tested on
which to builds that change.
13 Top Tips for Leading a Stress Free Life

Did you know every 2 seconds, 7 people die of stress related illnesses around the world. That's 110 million people every
single year, all being wiped off this planet thanks to a little word called stress.
I find the most worrying thing about this statistic is that more often than not it isn't those really big unavoidable stressful
events in life that contribute most here, but rather the build up of all the little stresses and frustrations every single day.
Over a span of many years they add up and take their toll.
On top of this, the more immediate effects of being stressed cause us lose a significant proportion of brainpower. When we
are stressed our brain uses those neural pathways that are most familiar to it as these are quickest and take least effort.
This leads to erratic and hasty thinking, missing options and perspectives, and if we can't immediately find a solution to a
problem, we end up just going round in circles, only making ourselves more stressed in the process!
Fortunately just be taking a moment to step back there are plenty of simple tips we can put into practice to lead a more
stress free life. Which in turn means it will be longer, happier and healthier life too!
Here are my top tips for making your life a little less stressful:
1. Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning delays and distractions will be less stressful if you
aren't pushed for time.
2. Be prepared to wait. Carrying a paperback book with you, can make waiting in a post office or doctors reception almost
pleasant.
3. Procrastination is stressful. Whatever you want to do tomorrow, do today; whatever you want to do today, do it now.
4. Always have a contingency plan just in case things don't go quite the way you planned them. 'If for some reason either
of us is delayed, here's what we'll do..." Or, "If we get split up here's where we'll meet."
5. Relax your standards. The world will not end if the grass doesn't get mowed this weekend.
6. Turn off your phone. When you want to relax, whether its by taking a long bath, meditating, having a little sleep or
reading a book without interruption. Temporarily disconnect or turn off your phone. The probability of there being a terrible
emergency in the next hour or so is almost zero.
7. Reframe your perspective on your 'needs' Turn 'needs' into preferences. Our basic physical needs translate into food,
water, and keeping warm. Everything else is a preference. Don't get too attached to preferences.
8. Get enough sleep. Sleep is one of the most important processes for allowing your body to regenerate and your mind to
get organised and focused. Set your alarm for bedtime.
9. Get yourself organized! A place for everything and everything in its place. Losing things is stressful.
10. Write your thoughts and feelings down on paper. It can help you clarify and give you a renewed perspective.
11. Do one thing at a time. When you are working on one thing, don't think about everything else you have to do.
12. Allow time every day for a little bit of privacy, quiet and thinking. Even if you think you are really busy and just don't
have any time for this, find just 5 minutes in your day (and everyone can do that) to just relax, let go and be alone with
your thoughts.
13. Everyday, do something you really enjoy.
Visual Thinking - The Afterimage Technique

Why would you want to think visually?
Well for starters it is considerably faster than thinking verbally. We can only think verbally about as fast as we can talk.
However when we do visual thinking, we are thinking at the level of the unconscious. We are now processing information at
the brains natural speed. It has been estimated that the human brain can process 4 quadrillion bits of information per
second (4,000,000,000,000,000 bits/sec).
Also, visual thinking is the natural ‘language’ of the subconscious mind. It is much easier to bypass the critical conscious
mind and access the vast resources of the subconscious, which allows for improved creativity and problem solving.
How to improve your Visualisation Ability - The Afterimage Technique

First you will need a partner or, if you are working on your own, an audio recorder. Most computers and mobile devices
would record just fine for this. Speaking aloud to a listener (even if it is an imagined listener as with your audio recorder)
involves additional sections of the brain, which will accelerate your progress.
For 30 seconds, stare at a light, window, or part of the room that has a strong contrast; any striking colour against a white
background works well. Do not use the sun, a light brighter than about 40 Watt, or anything else very bright as this can
damage your eyes.
Now close your eyes, you will momentary see an afterimage of whatever you were looking at. Afterimages are leftover
prints of light on the retina at the back of the eye. You may see a floating blob of light or colour or perhaps a few lines in a
similar shape to whatever you were just looking at. If it was a complicated pattern or object, you may just see the
outline/silhouette of this object.
Describe aloud to your partner or into your recorder what you see in as much detail as possible. Continue describing what
you can see it changes colour and shape.
At first your afterimages will probably fade fairly quickly. Unreinforced afterimages tend to last for only a few seconds.
However with practice, and when reinforced by attention and description, your afterimage can last for minutes at a time. To
begin with if yours fades after a few moments, just go back to staring at the light/object and repeat the process.
At some point while describing your afterimages, you may begin to notice other kinds of images flash up in your minds eye.
These might be vague impressions of a face, a landscape, some random object, or even a short scene like a mini movie or
animation. As soon as you become aware of an image, describe it.
Describe the image in the present tense, as if you still see it, even if you caught a glimpse for a moment before it faded
away. With your attention focused on the description of the object, you will often find it comes back into view, and with
more detail. As you continue to do this you will find the image will change and more images will start to appear.
To take this technique to the next level, and to unlock some of the great insights your subconscious mind can bring, see our
article onImage Streaming.
Problem Solving & Creativity - Related Techniques and

Articles
Image Streaming
Image Streaming Increases Intelligence
Over the Wall Technique
Image Streaming
What are the nature of your thoughts? It would seem at first look, that our thoughts are mostly structured in language, we
are all aware of the constant internal dialogue going on inside our mind. But in truth only 2% of our thoughts, experience
and understanding is actually formed in words, this is the conscious part of our mind. The other 98% is made up of
continual sensory impressions and associations in the subconscious mind.
Image streaming is an amazing technique that allows you to access the resources of your subconscious mind. Research has
shown that image streaming for just a few minutes each day actually makes you more intelligent. But how does it do this?
Everyone has sensory images and thoughts going on in the back of the mind all the time, however mostly these are ignored
by the conscious mind. Image streaming brings these sensory images into the focus of the conscious mind. It is by bringing
more of your subconscious messages and understanding into the realm of your conscious mind that image streaming has
the effect of making you more intelligent.
Image streaming also lays the foundations both in terms of the physical neural structures inside the brain and the mental
skill in linking the conscious and subconscious minds that are required for many advanced thinking and problem solving
techniques. (The Over the Wall technique is a good example of one that builds on this foundation)
How to Image Stream
Before you start its worth noting that the technique works best if you have another live person who you can describe your
images too, the next best option is to use a tape recorder, although if neither of these are available the technique will still
work by simply imagining another person and describing your image stream to them. This is an important point as the
external focus of the description allows the mind to see these an objective statements about yourself, as a process of
discovery. Rather than as part of its ongoing internal dialogue.
- Begin by taking a few deep breaths, make each one as slow and satisfying as possible. This will help you to relax and will
get mind into state where the conscious and subconscious are more closely synchronised, and so can communicate easier.
Take about a minute or so of slow deep breaths and you should notice you already feel a lot more relaxed.
- Now close your eyes, and begin to describe what you can see;. It is important just to describe the images as they
naturally arise, don’t try to consciously choose and picture an object. Just describe the sensory impressions that are
presented to you
- Describe the image stream in as much detail as possible, and try to keep the descriptions constantly flowing. Also don’t
worry if the images change too quickly just keep up as best you can.
- Start off with a 2-3 minute session and build up to between 5 and 8 minutes. After this open your eyes, and let out s quick
sharp breath, this will help re-orientate yourself to an external focus.
- Finish the technique by reviewing what you have just described, look at the number of details, features and aspects of
your sensory images you have described, also consider that richness and colour of your descriptions. These will help guide
you in future image streaming sessions, the aim is to be able to describe the sensory impressions in such a way that some
on listening to your descriptions would be able to see and feel exactly the same experience as you.
Although we talk about image streaming the sensory impressions from your subconscious mind may not be limited to
images, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells could all be included. Also, especially at first your mind may not present clear
images and scenes, even if you only experience lines and colours begin to describe these, the visualisations will take on
more detailed and concrete forms as you become more comfortable using the technique.
Research Shows Image Streaming Increases

Intelligence
A research study carried out by Dr Reinert, has shown that on average students showed an increase of 0.9 IQ points per
hour of image streaming practice. This means if you were to do a daily image streaming session of just 8-10 minutes you
could expect an increase in IQ of about 1 point per week.
Now 1 point per week might not sound like much, but by making the technique part of your daily routine it will soon start
adding up. You could boost your IQ by 10 points over just one term while at university, or by 50 over an entire year, that's
enough to move someone from an 'average' score of 100 into the genius realms of 150!
Not only that, the study also details significant improvements in the students creativity across a range of tests and creativity
scales. You can see the full study summary here: Dr Charles Reinert's Study on Image Streaming and IQ
Over The Wall

The Over The Wall technique takes advantage of the latent problem solving
power of the subconscious mind. When you come up against a problem or
question that you just can’t work out, you can get your subconscious to
present a solution to you may not otherwise have found.
By setting a question or problem you want to find an answer to and giving your mind a place to work and create this
solution deliberately outside of your conscious view, it allows you to expose it to your conscious mind all in one instant as a
fully formed idea. This is as opposed to the usual step by step logical process of the conscious mind, which builds up its
solutions one piece at a time. You in effect outrun the critical editing faculty of the conscious mind. This gives you access to
creative solutions that would otherwise have been dismissed or not even considered in the first place.
The role of the conscious mind is to then ask follow up questions, observe the changes in the imagery and analyze the
results of your ‘over the wall’ experience. It makes sense really, let each part of your infinite mind do what it does best.
Start out by deciding on a question or a problem that you have been unable to find an answer to through thinking in the
usual way. It can help set the question in your mind by writing it down. Next close your eyes and imagine a great wall in
front of you so you cannot see what is behind it. Behind this wall is where the solution to your problem lies. You can then
forget about the question confident in the knowledge that your sub-conscious will already have begun working on the
problem. To occupy your conscious mind which will be itching to take a peek over that wall, focus on visualizing the
surroundings on this side of the wall. For example imagine you are in a beautiful, almost magical garden. The key here is
the detail, try to notice everything about it. What’s in this garden? What colours can you see, what about sounds? Smells?
How does it feel to be there?
Your visualizations will be much more vivid and engaging if you describe them aloud. You can do this by describing to
someone else what this garden is like, or by imagining someone else is in room with you and describe it to them, or even to
a tape recorder. The important thing is to have some kind of external focus. Spend a few minutes creating a detailed and
vivid environment, then slowly approach the wall and describe it in the same level of detail; what does it look like, feel like,
sound like?
Now leap over the wall, and immediately begin describing out loud the first things that come into your mind; what can you
see, what sensations do you feel? Follow the imagery your mind creates for you and as before do this in as much detail as
possible, don’t try to direct your experience just describe what your mind is presenting you with. Continue with your
descriptions for a few minutes or until you feel have absorbed all of what your mind is showing you, and then slowly open
your eyes and re-orientate yourself to the room you are in.
Now it is time to go over your experience. The subconscious speaks to the conscious mind in ideas and by metaphor. What
do the images you have seen represent, how does this relate to the problem you set out to solve? Once you have an idea of
what your mind has been showing you, ask some follow up questions; How do I know what I have understand is the right
answer to this question, What should I do next about this? Is there anything else I should know? Each time close your eyes
and notice how the imagery changes, describing it out loud as before and then looking back on what you have described.
Try this simple technique for yourself and you will be amazed at the results.
Image Streaming
What are the nature of your thoughts? It would seem at first look, that our thoughts are mostly structured in language, we
are all aware of the constant internal dialogue going on inside our mind. But in truth only 2% of our thoughts, experience
and understanding is actually formed in words, this is the conscious part of our mind. The other 98% is made up of
continual sensory impressions and associations in the subconscious mind.
Image streaming is an amazing technique that allows you to access the resources of your subconscious mind. Research has
shown that image streaming for just a few minutes each day actually makes you more intelligent. But how does it do this?
Everyone has sensory images and thoughts going on in the back of the mind all the time, however mostly these are ignored
by the conscious mind. Image streaming brings these sensory images into the focus of the conscious mind. It is by bringing
more of your subconscious messages and understanding into the realm of your conscious mind that image streaming has
the effect of making you more intelligent.
Image streaming also lays the foundations both in terms of the physical neural structures inside the brain and the mental
skill in linking the conscious and subconscious minds that are required for many advanced thinking and problem solving
techniques. (The Over the Wall technique is a good example of one that builds on this foundation)
How to Image Stream
Before you start its worth noting that the technique works best if you have another live person who you can describe your
images too, the next best option is to use a tape recorder, although if neither of these are available the technique will still
work by simply imagining another person and describing your image stream to them. This is an important point as the
external focus of the description allows the mind to see these an objective statements about yourself, as a process of
discovery. Rather than as part of its ongoing internal dialogue.
- Begin by taking a few deep breaths, make each one as slow and satisfying as possible. This will help you to relax and will
get mind into state where the conscious and subconscious are more closely synchronised, and so can communicate easier.
Take about a minute or so of slow deep breaths and you should notice you already feel a lot more relaxed.
- Now close your eyes, and begin to describe what you can see;. It is important just to describe the images as they
naturally arise, don’t try to consciously choose and picture an object. Just describe the sensory impressions that are
presented to you
- Describe the image stream in as much detail as possible, and try to keep the descriptions constantly flowing. Also don’t
worry if the images change too quickly just keep up as best you can.
- Start off with a 2-3 minute session and build up to between 5 and 8 minutes. After this open your eyes, and let out s quick
sharp breath, this will help re-orientate yourself to an external focus.
- Finish the technique by reviewing what you have just described, look at the number of details, features and aspects of
your sensory images you have described, also consider that richness and colour of your descriptions. These will help guide
you in future image streaming sessions, the aim is to be able to describe the sensory impressions in such a way that some
on listening to your descriptions would be able to see and feel exactly the same experience as you.
Although we talk about image streaming the sensory impressions from your subconscious mind may not be limited to
images, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells could all be included. Also, especially at first your mind may not present clear
images and scenes, even if you only experience lines and colours begin to describe these, the visualisations will take on
more detailed and concrete forms as you become more comfortable using the technique.
Research Shows Image Streaming Increases

Intelligence
A research study carried out by Dr Reinert, has shown that on average students showed an increase of 0.9 IQ points per
hour of image streaming practice. This means if you were to do a daily image streaming session of just 8-10 minutes you
could expect an increase in IQ of about 1 point per week.
Now 1 point per week might not sound like much, but by making the technique part of your daily routine it will soon start
adding up. You could boost your IQ by 10 points over just one term while at university, or by 50 over an entire year, that's
enough to move someone from an 'average' score of 100 into the genius realms of 150!
Not only that, the study also details significant improvements in the students creativity across a range of tests and creativity
scales. You can see the full study summary here: Dr Charles Reinert's Study on Image Streaming and IQ
Does Sleep Learning Work?

A quick internet search will turn up dozens of products claiming to help you learn while fast asleep. But is there any truth to
these claims?
A couple of decades ago, many people thought you could learn while you sleep. Tapes playing vocabulary for learning a
new languages or repeating lists of key facts as a revision aid were sold in virtually every newspaper and magazine.
Unfortunately this idea turned out to be a fraud, perpetrated by people who sold sleep learning materials and equipment.
Now good quality scientific research has shown this to be the case, such offers have been relegated from any reputable
publications.
But does this mean the dream of making better use of those hours of unconsciousness is gone?
Modern research has shown that while we are asleep the brain is consolidating the day's events into our long term
memories. So, maybe rather than trying to learn brand new information while asleep we could find a way to enhance the
memory consolidation process and end up being able to recall either a greater proportion or even a specific set of
information that you already learned during the day.
A fundamental principle of the way memory works is association. Could we take advantage of this natural tendency of the
brain to link ideas and sensations together, in order to trigger memory consolidation of specific events.
Let consider the example of trying to learn a new language. If we played the sound of a thunderstorm while studying during
the day, and then again later on that night while asleep, would the brain, through the association of those two ideas, recall
and therefore reinforce the memories of that study period.
Some testing of this idea has already been carried out. Scientists at Northwestern University flashed up 50 random objects
in different locations on a computer screen, at the same time as an object was displayed the researchers also played a
sound, with a different sound for each object. They then asked the participants to take a nap, during which the same sound
were played for half of the images they had previously seen. Recording of brain waves showed that they were responding
to these sounds during sleep.
After waking the subjects were tested for their recall of the location of the 50 images. Finally the researchers measured the
distance between the location identified by the participant and the correct position of each object. The researchers
determined that the accuracy of the participants object locations was significantly higher for those objects whose associated
sound had been played during the nap.
So the game isn’t quite up for sleep learning after all. By using triggers to promote the recall and therefore reinforcement of
selected experiences we can improve on our natural recall and so reduce the number of repetitions we have to make of our
chosen subject while awake in order to commit it to our long term memory.
It is also worth noting that in the study mentioned above the associated sounds were presented only during the deep stages
of sleep. It is possible the effect identified in this study could be further increased by providing the triggers during an REM
(dreaming) phase of sleep.
It is well documented that external sounds heard while dreaming are both incorporated into and can change the course of a
dream. Therefore it is possible, particularly if we consider stacking a chain of trigger sounds to lead a dream down a
particular path to promote memory formation for the original learning event. In essence we would direct the brain to
reactivate the latent memory and re-run the experience, this would therefore constitute a memory rehearsal and so improve
the future recall of any of the material contained within the experience.
There is scope for expanding this idea even further. After activating the memory of the learned information we could
interact with it directly through a lucid dream.
An Introduction to Self Hypnosis

Self Hypnosis is one of the most powerful self development tools available, you can use it to overwrite negative or limiting
beliefs you may have picked up earlier in your life; ‘I’m not an intelligent person’, ‘I always feel nervous and panic under
pressure’ with positive ones that can improve your life going forward.
You can also use it to change your habits, both getting rid of unwanted habits such as smoking, or by creating new habits
like getting up an hour earlier to get some extra work or study done. Learning how to hypnotise yourself is very easy, but it
does take a little bit of practice.
Hypnosis gets a lot of dubious press. Most people are familiar with stage hypnotists, who convince people to perform
embarrassing tricks like running around on all fours barking like a dog. In truth, hypnosis has much more productive uses -
including therapy and personal development. It gives you the ability to talk to your inner self. So let's dispel a few myths
about hypnosis.
 You are self aware during hypnosis. The deeper you go, the more you will become immersed in an inner reality. But you
are always aware of the hypnotist's voice and instructions and what you do.

 You have complete control over yourself during hypnosis. You may be more suggestible but you still decide what you
say and do. You can't be convinced to do anything that breaks your moral code.

 You can't get stuck in a hypnotic trance. Even if the hypnotist were to keel over midway through a session, you would
surface from the trance naturally, just as you wake up after a night's sleep.

 Everyone can be hypnotized to some degree. We all enter unconscious hypnotic trances every day, whether we are
watching TV, going through our morning routine, or staring out the window. Some of us are just more willing to go under
than others.

Self hypnosis is very similar. You become closer to your own inner voice and more suggestible to the new ideas you present
to your subconscious. Rpeated affirmations (hypnotic suggestions) can directly affect your sub-conscious mind without the
usual filtering process of doubt and rationalisation from the conscious mind.
How to Hypnotise Yourself

Hypnosis is the act of putting your brain into a trance state, similar to both meditation and to sleep. Being in this trance
state makes you more suggestible than normal since affirmations can directly affect your sub-conscious mind without the
usual filtering process of doubt and rationalisation from the conscious mind.
These suggestions implanted in your sub-conscious can have a profound effect in changing your habits and behaviours by
tackling limiting beliefs you may have from even the first use. Their real power however is in repeated use, which creates
new beliefs, ones which you have chosen that then naturally begin to filter through into your life.
Self hypnosis is simply the process of inducing this trance state in yourself and giving your mind your own affirmations.
There is nothing to be afraid of, during self hypnosis you are still self aware and in complete control.
How To Hypnotize Yourself
#1 – Make yourself comfortable
Find a comfortable place to sit or lie. Unless you regularly practice meditation in this position don’t cross your arms or legs -
have an open posture that is easy to stay in for the next 20 minutes.
Take a few slow, deep breaths, and know for the next 20 minutes at least, you can forget all about anything going on in
your life and just let the world take care of itself. Allow your eyes to close naturally and let your mind relax.
#2 - Release any tension

Focus on releasing any physical tension throughout your body. Start at your toes, and imagine each muscle in turn
completely relaxing. It should feel like a pleasant, warm feeling. Systematically release each muscle group, working your
way up your legs and on to your back. Spend extra time on your shoulders and upper back, which tend to hold a lot of
tension. Visualizing your body gradually filling up with a calm glowing light may help to free up the muscles.
#3 – Connect with your subconscious

Gently roll your eyes back in your head (this is their ideal position for relaxing) and visualize yourself at the top of a
staircase. This staircase represents your consciousness. Now you are going to move your focus from your conscious mind at
the top of the staircase into your subconscious at the bottom.
Start to descend down the stairs slowly, taking each stair one at a time. With each stair take a slow, deep breath and let
yourself feel even more relaxed than you did on the previous step, drifting deeper and deeper into your relaxing trance
state. Starting at 10 count down with each step you go down until you get to 1 at the bottom of the staircase.
#4 – Place your affirmations into your subconscious

Once you reach the bottom of the staircase, you are ready to begin implanting hypnotic suggestions into your subconscious.
Gently repeat one or more of the following phrases in your mind (just choose whichever feels right for you):
 - "I am calm and relaxed"

 - "I am strong and confident"
 - "I am in control of my destiny"
 - "I can have everything I want"
 - "I am healthy and energetic"
 - "I can remember my dreams"
 - "I can have lucid dreams"

Of course, you can make up any phrase you want. Just remember to make every phrase positive and in the present tense.
#5 - Wake Up Gently
Repeat your chosen affirmation as many times as you want. Take the time to enjoy the feeling of deep relaxation.
When you're ready, prepare to wake up from your trance state. Tell yourself you are going to count up to 10, and with each
step you will slowly return to full awareness. Now starting at 1 count upwards to 10, as you climb back up the steps in your
mind. (Exactly the reverse of what you did in inducing the trance in step 3).
When you reach the top, take a deep breath and then open your eyes. Sit for a moment if you like - and remember to stand
up slowly.
Hypnosis Induction
This article takes you through the steps to put yourself (or otheres) into a hypnotic state. For some gernal guidance on
using Self Hypnosis see our article: An Introduction to Self Hypnosis
First you will need to go to a quiet room and sit in any comfortable chair or couch. Although some people prefer to lie down,
you are more susceptible to falling sleep than when you are sitting up. Whether you sit or lie, ensure you do not cross your
legs or any part of your body. You may be in this position for a while and this could end up being uncomfortable.
Make sure you are not going to be disturbed for at least half an hour.
Begin by closing your eyes and taking a few slow deep breaths.
The next stage is to recognize and release the tension in your body. Beginning with your toes, imagine the tension slowly
falling away from your body and vanishing. Imagine it freeing each body part one at a time starting with your toes and
working its way up your body. Visualize each part of your body becoming lighter and lighter as the tension is removed. After
your toes, then relax your feet. Continue with your calves, thighs, hips, stomach and so on, until you've relaxed each
portion, including your face and head.
Recognise the fact that you are now extremely relaxed.
Imagine you are at the top of a flight of 10 stairs which at the fifth step start to submerge into water. Picture every detail of
this scene from the top to the bottom. Tell yourself that you are going to descend the stairs, counting each step down,
starting at 10. Picture each number in your mind. Imagine that each number you count is further down and one step closer
to the bottom. After each number, you will feel yourself drifting further and further into deep relaxation. As you take each
step, imagine the feel of the step under your feet.
Once you are at the fifth step imagine and truly feel the refreshing coolness of the water and tell yourself that you are
stepping into an oasis of purity and cleanliness. As you begin to descend the last five steps, start to feel the water getting
higher and higher up your body. You should now start to feel somewhat numb and your heart may start to race a bit, if it
does just notice the sensation, this is perfectly normal.
At this point at the bottom of the water you shouldn't really feel anything, just a floating sensation. You may even feel like
you're spinning. Once you have achieved this state you are now ready to proceed to address your problems and decide
upon what it is you want from where you are.
Start to narrate what you are doing, speak in the present tense quietly to yourself, as if you are reading it from a page.
Picture three boxes under the water that you have to swim to get to. Once you have found the boxes open them slowly one
at a time, each one should be a positive statement designed to address the issue you have decided to work on.
Narrate to yourself what is happening when you open the box. For example 'As I open the box I feel a radiant light engulf
me, I feel it becoming a part of me, this light is my new found confidence that I can never lose as it is now a part of me'
and then proceed on to the next box. You should avoid using statements with negative connotation such as "I don't want to
be tired and irritable." Instead, say, "I am becoming calm and relaxed." Examples of positive statements "I am strong and
slender," "I am successful and positive," and, if you have pain, "My back is beginning to feel wonderful."
Repeat your statements to yourself as many times as you wish, but 2 or 3 times should be enough
Once you are satisfied with what you have done and embraced, swim back to the stairs and feel with each step you take
the water becoming lower and lower until you have once again reached that fifth step. Continue up the stairs visualizing
each step by its number, feeling the steps underneath you, will yourself to carry on up the stairs.
Once you have ascended, give yourself a few moments before opening your eyes. You may want to visualise yourself
opening a door to the outside world, do this slowly and imagine the light that pours in through the door way, this should
make your eyes open. Take your time reorienting to your surroundings and then slowly get up.
An Introduction to Brainwave Entrainment

In the early 1990s, a team of trained psychologists made an amazing
discovery; they found that sound waves, all by themselves, could improve
your brain’s ability to think, learn, create, and solve problems.
In their study, men and women who listened to a Mozart Sonata before taking an IQ test scored 8 to 9 points higher than
men and women who hadn’t listened to the music. Now Mozart didn’t write his music to deliberately help people think better
and more clearly, what the researchers had accidentally stumbled upon was Brainwave Entrainment.
What is Brainwave Entrainment?
The human brain has a tendency to change its dominant EEG frequency towards the frequency of the dominant external
stimulus, this is known as the ‘frequency following response’. The stimulus that creates this response can be visual, tactile
or aural. The image below shows the EEG for the brains frequencies before and after being a played a tones at a
frequencies of 10Hz.
Any process that aims to cause a person’s brainwave frequency to match with an external stimulus is known as brainwave
entrainment.
What is it useful for?

Brainwave entrainment can be useful because brainwaves are very much related to mental state, by using the frequency
following response to produce brainwaves of a particular frequency will also reliably get the person into a particular mental
state. For example; a 4Hz brainwave is associated with sleep, so a 4 Hz sound pattern would help reproduce the sleep state
in your brain. You can apply the same to almost all mental states, including concentration, creativity, relaxation and many
more. It can also be used as an aid to get into some more unusual mental states , such as those associated with hypnosis,
deep meditation and lucid dreaming.
How effective is it?

One of the observed effects of this type of brainwave entrainment is increased learning ability. A Bulgarian psychiatrist,
Georgi Lozanov, used deep relaxation combined with synchronized rhythms to bring his students brains into the alpha
frequency. His results showed that when in this state students learned over five times as much information compared to
before, with less study time per day, and with greater long-term retention. In some cases, as much as thirty times as much
was learned.
In short, any mental state that exists will have an EEG frequency associated with it, and so it is possible to entrain the brain
to get into any state imaginable simply by listening to the right frequency sound. The next page takes a more detailed look
at different frequencies of brainwaves and their corresponding mental states.
Understanding Brainwaves and Mental States

Before beginning to use any brainwave entrainment process it is helpful to
know a few of the major types of brainwave groups and the mental state
that is associated with them.
In reality people don’t only have one frequency of brainwave at any given time but rather an EEG would show a composite
of many frequencies, however there is usually one that is dominant over the others. A good analogy would be to relate each
brainwave state to a sting on a violin. Each string makes different notes, yet one or more strings can dominate the overall
sound at a greater volume.
There are 5 common groups of brainwaves that you are likely to encounter; Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Each of
these identifies a particular range of brainwave frequencies, and the typical mental processes and behaviours you would
expect to find if someone’s dominant brainwave is in this range.
Delta Waves – From approximately 0.5 to 4 Hz

(1 Hz means one complete cycle in 1 second i.e. on an EEG you would see a wave with one peak and one trough). Each
image below depicts a one second snapshot of human brainwave activity, as detected by an EEG.
Delta waves are often associated with being fast sleep, hyper-relaxed or in a deep meditation. Delta waves are also the
dominant brainwave in babies up to about 1 year. Certain frequencies, in the delta range, have been shown to trigger the
body's healing and growth mechanisms.
Theta Waves – Between 4 and 8 Hz
Theta waves indicate a normal or light sleep, drowsiness or daydreaming, and creative and imaginative thinking that is led
by the subconscious i.e. when ideas suddenly just come to you. This suggests that Theta waves allow for easier
communication between the conscious and subconscious minds. Theta waves have also been identified as key in learning,
memory and reduction of stress. This is the standard frequency range for children up to their early teenage years.
Alpha Waves – Between 8 and 12 Hz
Alpha rates are increased by closing the eyes and relaxing, and can be reduced by opening one's eyes or any concentrated
effort. They are associated with a fully awake and conscious but relaxed state of mind. When you get back in from school or
work, sit down and put on the TV your brainwaves will be in the alpha range. This is the typical relaxation range for anyone
over the age of about 13.
Beta Waves – Between 12 and 30 Hz
Beta waves are characteristic of an engaged mind, which is alert and well focused. These are the dominant waves most of
us will experience during the day. They are produced when our attention is directed to the outside world. They are also
used in complex problem solving, having conversations, any form of active exercise (using motor skills) and in learning new
information and skills. Towards the upper end of the Beta range can indicate stressed or anxious thoughts.
Gamma Waves – Between 30 and 90 Hz
Gamma waves are found when carrying out very complex motor processes. When people describe themselves as being ‘in
the zone’, highly alert and focused, these are Gamma wave traits. They can also be associated with very anxious or panic
attack type behaviour. Gamma waves are important in harmonizing and bringing together thoughts being processed in
different parts of the brain. They are also produced during hypnotic states.
There are the states and frequencies that comprise the vast majority we are all likely to experience on a daily basis. An
appreciation of these should help in understanding how brainwave entrainment can be used to bring about useful and
positive changes in our state of mind. For a look at some rare and more difficult to achieve states beyond these ranges and
a consideration of the boundary states e.g. Alpha-Theta please see our Full Brainwave States article.
Full Brainwave Frequencies Table

Between 0.5 and 90Hz are the states and frequencies that comprise the vast
majority of our day to day experiences. The table below, breaks these core
frequencies down further and shows some frequencies outside of this range
that correspond to some more rare and unusual states of consciousness.
Name Frequency Characteristics
~200Hz Self awareness, higher levels of insight and information. Tibetan monks that walk barely clothed for days
Lambda
through the snow have exhibited high levels of these. They are difficult to measure and little is known about
Hyper ~100Hz them. They are carried on the very slow moving Epsilon Waves (<0.5Hz).
Gamma
Important in harmonizing and unifying thoughts processed in different parts of the brain. Combines different
38 - 90Hz perceptions. Essential for complex motor processes. Suppressed totally by anaesthetic. Found in all parts of
Gamma
the brain.
Wide awake, alert, focused, analyses and assimilates new information rapidly, complex mental processing,
Beta 18 - 38Hz peak physical and mental performance, cannot be sustained indefinitely otherwise exhaustion, anxiety, and
(High) tension result.
Beta (Mid 15Hz-18Hz Wide awake and alert behaviour.

range)
Also known as Sensory Motor Rhythm (SMR) - vigilance, reduced mobility, shallow breathing, less blinking,
Beta 12 - 15Hz
fixed attention and eye focus, enhancing through neuro-feedback has a calming effect.
(Low)
Hyper-efficient in processing single tasks as the brain can focus on the details as well as the overall task at
12Hz
Beta-Alpha the same time
Mental coordination and resourcefulness, relaxation, alert but not mentally processing anything, inward
7.5 - 12Hz focus, calmness, at ease, deep breathing and closed eyes can amplify alpha wave production, peaks around
Alpha
10Hz.
Schumann frequency. Stimulates retrieval of memories from the subconscious. This is the natural vibrational
Alpha- 7.48Hz
frequency of the ionosphere in the earth’s atmosphere.
Theta
Associated with memory access, learning, deep meditation, sensations, emotions, the threshold of the
4 - 7.5Hz
Theta subconscious, dreaming.
6.2 - 6.7Hz Cognitive activity, sustained attention, low anxiety
Associated with many altered consciousness states. Shamanic trances, Tibetan mantras and Buddhist chants
4.5Hz
use this frequency to access trance states
Theta- ~3.5Hz Long term memory access

Delta
Deep sleep, human growth hormone release, low blood pressure, low respiration, low body temperature. No
0.5 - 4Hz
Delta muscle movement - Reticular Activating System (RAS) shuts this down.
As with Lambda and HyperGamma waves, less is known about these states due to the rarity of observing
<0.5Hz them. They have reportedly been associated with when state Yogi's go into when they achieve "suspended
Epsilon
animation" where no heart beat, respiration or pulse are noticeable.
So now you're probably wondering, just how exactly does Brainwave Entrainment work, and how can i entrain my brain?
Take a look at our next article on Methods of Brainwave Entrainment
Methods of Brainwave Entrainment

There are three main methods currently used for brainwave entrainment;
Binaural Betas, Monaural Beats and Isochronic Tones.
Binaural Beats
Two waveforms combine to produce the ‘binaural beats’

In 1973, Dr. Gerald Oster of Mount Sinai Medical Center published a report in the Scientific American called “Auditory Beats
in the Brain”. In it, he explained that when tones of different frequencies were presented separately to each ear, pulsations
called binaural beats occurred in the brain, which resulted in the whole brain becoming entrained to the internal beat and
resonating to that frequency.
The application of the binaural brainwave entrainment process is quite simple. You hear two pure tones in each ear. Let's
say 400 Hertz and 410 Hertz. Each ear hears a singular tone. Your brain detects the difference between these two
frequencies - and 'produces' a 3rd tone of 10 Hertz inside the brain.
How binaural beats generates a single frequency in the brain

Even though you perceive this 10 Hz sound, the third tone is not an actual sound at all; rather, it is an electrical signal that
is created as your brain processes each tone from the left and right ear separately. As the brain continually processes this
3rd ghost signal, it begins to emulate (or “entrain”) to that 10 Hz stimulus.
This phantom 10 Hz signal is created by both sides of the brain working in unison. This dual processing can lead to a state
called hemispheric synchronization, or whole brain sync. This high function brain state occurs when both sides of the brain
are functioning in tandem.
This is especially useful for entraining the brain to frequencies that are below the threshold of human hearing as
entrainment at these levels cannot be produced by Isochronic or Monaural beats.
Isochronic Tones (Also referred to as Pulsed or Rhythmic tones)
Isochronic tones played out of each speaker are identically spaced

Isochronic tones, also referred to as Rhythmic Entrainment uses audio entrainment pulses to entrain the brain; a single tone
that is cycled on and off to produce the beat. The main advantage of using Isochronic tones over Binaural beats is that they
do not require stereo headphones for effective entrainment. It has also been claimed that the brain adapts to, and as a
result filters out binaural beats with prolonged use, and although there is some research that supports this hypothesis, there
is still conflicting evidence over this claim.
Monaural beats
Monaural beats waveform

Monaural beats play both tones in each channel, so the interference pattern that produces the entrainment beat is present
outside your head and again does not need headphones to be heard.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is being aware you are dreaming while in a dream. Lucidity usually begins when the dreamer realizes that
the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is actually a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer
noticing something that is either impossible or extremely unlikely in real life.
If the average person spends 8 hours a day sleeping, and lives an average lifespan of say 75 years, then they have slept
nearly 25 years of her life away. Can we get more out of all those years than just rest? With lucid dreaming that's a very
real possibility, but before being able to control your dreams you have to be able to recognize that you are dreaming. Once
you are aware you are dreaming you can alter your dreams and dictate what happens.
Lucid dreaming is an amazing skill, it gives us direct access to the vast unconscious mind, the collective knowledge and
experience of our entire lives. Whether you've always wanted to sit on top of the pyramids, take off like superman, or
maybe just having some time to yourself to sit back on a tropical beach with a cocktail in hand, literally anything is possible
in a lucid dream!
Lucid dreaming also provides an environment that allows you to explore and develop your mind, to overcome fears, and is a
great tool for enhancing your learning. When hearing about lucid dreaming for the first time, people often ask, "Why should
I want to have lucid dreams?, What are they good for?" If you consider that once you know you are dreaming, you are not
restricted by the rules of society or even by the laws of physics, but only by your imagination, then the answer to what lucid
dreaming is good for is either extremely simple (anything) or extraordinarily complex (everything).
How to Lucid Dream

A quick internet search will turn up literally hundreds of different techniques on how to lucid dream, and forums full of
thousands of people all giving thier own take on the best method to help you get lucid. Now all this information isn't
necessarily a bad thing, there is some brilliant advice out there and a very active lucid dreaming community willing to lend
anyone a hand. But it can be confusing, especially if you're new to lucid dreaming and struggling to get that first lucid
experience under your belt.
This page is a quick summary of all the basics. Everything you need to learn how to lucid dream is here. The essentials are
split into 3 categories; the basics, lucid dreaming techniques and dream control.
How to Lucid Dream - The Basics

These are often overlooked in the rush to get straight down to the techniques, but the truth is 90% of whether you have a
succesful lucid dream is determined by these 3 basic things. Get these right and everything else you do will be easier and
more effective.
Get enough sleep - I can't make this point strongly enough. Almost all dream expereinces take place during REM sleep,
and your body naturally gives over longer and longer portions to REM the longer you are asleep for. You need to be getting
at least 7 hours, and ideally 8 each night to get these longer REM phases in your sleep cycle.
Keep a dream diary - This can seem like an unnecessary waste of time at first, but keeping a dream diary will
dramatically increase your dream recall. It might seem like common sense, but if you don't remember you dreams how will
you even know when you have a lucid dream. Get into the habit of writing down everything you can remember about your
dreams as soon as you wake up.
Perform reality checks - The particular reality check you use isn't nearly as important as the very act of reality checking
at all. By getting into a habit of asking yourself 'Am I dreaming, or am I awake?' you make your mind more aware of the
dream state, and direct it to look out for unusual things that might suggest you are in a dream. If you ask this question
often enough throughout the day, the behaviour will also carry over into your dreams.
Lucid Dreaming Techniques

Once you've got the basics down you can move on to using a specific technique to induce a lucid dream. The key here is
consistency, it can be very tempting to try one trechnique if it doesn't work after a few nights move on to something else,
but by doing this you are only making your own life more difficult. Like any new skill, learning how to lucid dream takes
practice, so by all means read through a few different techniques, but once you've picked one stick with it for at least a few
weeks. This shows your mind you are serious and is much more effective than jumping between one technique and
another.
Below is a short summary of the three most popular lucid dreaming techniques, click on the technique name for a more
detailed step-by-step explanation.
Mnemoinc Induced Lucid Dreams - This is a perfcet technique for a beginner, and was the original method used by Stephen
LaBerge in his lucid dreaming research. It is by far the quickest and easiest lucid dreaming technique to learn. It invovles
repeating a sentence like 'Next time I am dreaming, I will recognise I am dreaming', over and over as you fall asleep. This
sentence acts as an instruction to your subconscious mind and can trigger you to become aware you are in a dream.
Hypnosis Induced Lucid Dreams - Dreams are a creation of your subconscious, so programming a suggestion that you will
have a lucid dream directly into that subconscious can be a very effective method for inducing a lucid dream. It involves
getting into a deeply relaxed state of mind before going to sleep and using an instruction like 'I find it easy to have a lucid
dream', or 'I often have lucid dreams'.
Wake Induced Lucid Dreams - These is a very powerful technique, but will take more time to learn. It involes keeping your
mind alert and focused while your body falls asleep. This allows you to move directly from being awake into a dream. If you
practice meditation and are used to holding your attention in a relaxed yet focused state you may want to try this
technique.
One additional method you might find heplful is the Wake Back to Bed Technique. While not a lucid dreaming technique in
it's own right it will increase the effectiveness of any of the above techniques. All you have to do is get yourself out of bed
an hour or two earlier than usual (after 5-6 hours of sleep), stay awake for about an hour and then go back to bed. This
makes it much more likely your brain will be ready to go straight into a REM sleep phase.
How to Lucid Dream - Dream Control

Dream control is often confused with lucid dreaming techniques, but really they are two different things. Lucid dreaming
techniques are all about how to lucid dreamin the first place, dream control is about what to do after you get lucid.
In principle the moment you become lucid you are free to do whatever you want, but in practice that first moment of
lucidity can be such a rush of excitement, the surge of adrenaline wakes you up! It is also possible to get distracted by
followng along with the story of your dream and lucidity slips away. Dream control is all about a few simple things you can
do to ground that lucid state, keep calm and stay in control of your lucid experience.
Engage your dream senses - Take a moment to engage each of your dream senses in turn. By stopping to look at the
dream scene before you, listening out for any sounds you can hear and bending down to touch the floor your awareness of
your dream increases.
Stabalise the dream - If you feel lucidity is starting to slip away (and at some point you will). One quick action you can
take to regain control is to rapidly rub your hands together, this focuses your attention on the action and feelings you are
consciously creating rather than the rest of the dream beign generated by your subconscious. Another way to stabalise a
lucid dream thats slipping away is to spin round and round, this often acts to 'reset' the dream and you will find yourself in
an entirely different place but importanly still lucid.
The COBRAS Method - The Direct Way to Induce Lucid
Dreams
For a while now I’ve been searching for a more reliable way to induce lucid dreams. It seems all the
techniques around at the moment are all based around focusing your energy and intention on developing
mental and psychological triggers in order to become lucid. Well why not cut out the middle man and focus
your energy and intention directly on becoming lucid!
Lucidity is simply a mental state that exists in the brain, albeit an unusual state that has characteristics of both being awake
and of being asleep. Lucidity is not just a unique mental state, it is also a unique physical one. There is a particular
combination of regions of the brain that are active when in a lucid dream that are not all active at any other time.
The first piece of good news is that this relationship is a two way street. Not only does the mental experience of a lucid
dream cause this combination of brain regions to become active, but also the physical process of this combination of brain
regions being active causes the experience of a lucid dream.
So what if you could just choose activate those regions of the brain? You would be able to become lucid on demand.
And now for the second piece of good news . . .you can!
Here’s a little one minute experiment you can do to prove it is possible:
Try focusing on the tip of your index finger on your right hand. Just keep concentrating on this area and after a few
seconds, you will start to notice you can ‘feel’ this part of your body much more than normal. You might even begin to get a
tingling sensation. This is because you are sending electrical signals via your nervous system to the nerves in the end of
your finger.
Maintain this focused concentration on the end of your finger for about a minute and then stop. Even after you stop
focusing you will probably still feel your fingertip continuing to tingle for a few seconds, exactly how long will vary from
person to person and how good you are at maintaining your focus. This residual signal means the nerves in this region are
still active and are still sending electrical signals between each other and back to your brain.
Amazing isn’t it! You can activate regions of nerves within your body just by concentrating on them. Not only that but the
nerves will continue to be active for a little while even after your mind moves on to something else.
So now lets use this remarkable property of the human mind to directly induce a lucid dream!
The Conscious Brain Stimulation method for Inducing Lucid Dreams (or CoBraS for Short – Its a lot easier to remember!)
1.) Since the residual stimulation effect will only last for a limited time this technique works best when you are just about to
enter a period of REM sleep. If you set an alarm to wake yourself up after approximately 5 hours of being asleep there is a
high chance you will interrupt a REM period.
2.) Since you will shortly be back asleep anyway and so the areas of the brain associated with regular sleep will be active
anyway the only area you need to consciously activate is the area associated with lucidity; the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
(at the front and to the left as shown in the image below Focus your attention on this region of your brain, and hold your
concentration here while letting the rest of your body relax.
3.) You will begin to be able to feel this area of your brain more than usual just as you did when focusing on your fingertip.
As your body should be both relaxed and tired you will quickly fall back asleep with residual activity still going on in this
area.
.
4.) If you timed your alarm right and maintained your focus on this region of your brain both this and the regular REM sleep
regions of your brain will be active simultaneously.
5.) The way in which you will experience becoming lucid may vary slightly. Some people simply have a sensation that they
are in a dream and become lucid almost instantly, for others they will become much more aware of dreamsigns and become
lucid via a reality check.
And there you have it a direct way to induce lucid dreams!
Don't want to wait? If you would rather take the fast track to lucid dreaming then check out Instant Lucid Dreams, the only
lucid dreaming course that comes with a guarantee of lucidity.
How To Lucid Dream - Wake Induced Lucid Dreams

(WILD)
Wake Induced Lucid Dreams, or WILDs as they are more commonly known, are the holy grail of lucid dreamers. Variations
on the WILD technique have been used by Tibetan monks for over a thousand years. It is one of the most powerful lucid
dreaming techniques, and mastering it will allow you to have lucid dreams on demand.
In short a WILD is exactly what it sounds like; a lucid dream you induce directly from your normal waking state. Just take a
moment to think about that because its a powerful idea – you can move directly from being awake into being lucid within a
dream environment.
Since you do not need to become unconscious at any stage you are in complete conscious control of the process, and there
is no need to rely on your subconscious to prompt or trigger you into lucidity.
In truth ‘WILD’ is more of a category of lucid dreaming technique rather than one specific approach, WILD techniques can
be so wide and varied that they could never be covered in a single article. In addition to this, since WILDs depend on an
individual to pass directly from a conscious wakeful state of mind to a dream state, and since each person has unique
physical, mental and psychological characteristics, each person will likely experience this transition slightly differently.
There are however a few common elements, I have included these into a guide for a basic WILD technique:
Step 1 – When Should I Try to WILD?

Since you want to enter a dream and not just slip into unconscious sleep, you will only want to attempt a WILD when you
are approaching a REM phase of your sleep cycle. So if you’ve been awake all day, trying the technique when you first go to
bed at night is unlikely to lead to any results.
Let your body have about 5 hours of normal sleep, this will give it the opportunity to go through the vast majority of its
non-REM phase but should also mean you will still be tired enough to easily fall asleep again. With practice you’ll find your
body will wake up naturally at this time, but I suggest starting off by setting an alarm for 5 hours after you go to bed.
When your alarm goes off you’ll need to wake yourself up just enough to be able to focus on the technique. If you have to
get out of bed to turn off your alarm that will probably do the trick.
Step 2 – Relax & Set the Scene

Lie on your back, get comfortable and close your eyes. Take a few deep, relaxing breaths, try to exhale as slowly and
smoothly as possibly. Now take a minute to notice the feeling of your body lying on the bed, relax your muscles, releasing
any tension you can feel.
Once you body feels relaxed you want to make sure you don’t move it again. This stillness is going to play a key part in
tricking your subconscious mind into thinking you have fallen asleep. So keep your body totally relaxed and still.
Now slowly begin to count and repeat the phrase “I’m dreaming” in your mind. "One, I’m dreaming, Two, I’m dreaming,
Three. I’m dreaming” and so on. This will focus your intention, act as an autosuggestion to recognise when you enter a
dream and keep your mind alert while you let your body fall back asleep.
Step 3 – Hypnagogic Imagery

After about 5 to 10 minutes you will begin to see hypnagogic imagery. The exact appearance of this will vary from person to
person, but generally start off as flashes and swirls of colour, slowly coming together into patterns. Let your mind watch
and follow these images without getting too absorbed by them as they develop. A relaxed yet focused state of mind is what
you’re after here, if you practice any meditation or use a brainwave entrainment program this is the state of mind to aim
for.
As the imagery develops, it will begin to take the form of objects, or little scenes, and beyond this almost like mini-movies
that play for a few seconds at a time. These are your dreams slowly taking shape, as above just try to be aware of these
without getting too involved. It is very easy at this stage to become fascinated by these images and drift off to sleep.
Step 4- Let your body fall asleep

Your body and mind are now approaching the threshold between being awake and asleep. Before completely falling asleep
your subconscious mind will do a quick check that your body is really asleep. It does this by sending a signal to part of your
body to move, this will start off as a feeling you want to move position, as this desire to move grows your may begin to feel
quite uncomfortable.
This is where you need to trick your mind into believing your body has fallen asleep. Just resist the urge to move and stay
completely still, the feeling of uncomfortableness will pass. As it does, your body will enter ‘sleep paralysis’. This stage can
be a little frightening at first, as you will be unable to move your body and will likely feel a vibrating or tingling sensation.
Don’t worry it is entirely natural, you go through this stage every nigh when you fall asleep, just normally you aren’t still
conscious to be aware of it.
You may now also begin to hear some sounds, these again vary form person to person. Common experiences are hearing
faint voices, or a buzzing/humming sound. This is the final stage as your mind switches over from receiving external stimuli
from your environment to generating these internally.
Step 5 - Enter your Dream World

The Hypnagogic Imagery will now begin to come together into a full dreamscene. You will be aware of your field of vision
expanding, as your mind begins to create a full 3 dimensional dream environment. As you feel your peripheral vision
expanding, imagine either reaching an arm or leg out into the dreamscense in front of you. Since your physical body is now
asleep, you will take control of your dream body.
Now you are ready to fully step into your dreamscene, some people suggest ‘rolling’ or climbing out of your physical body
and into the dream world, but I have found that by testing the waters with just an arm or leg first, you can simply step into
the dreamscene in your minds eye. As always play around with the different approaches and find what works best for you.
You are now standing lucid in a dream world!
WILD Top Tips

Successfully completing a WILD technique, particularly the first few times is an exhilarating moment and you will likely feel
a huge adrenaline rush. Try deep relaxing breaths to keep as calm as possible to avoid this surge of excitement from
waking you up!
You can also increases the effectiveness of the WILD technique by combing it with the Wake-Back-to-Bed method.
WILDs really are the ultimate aim for most lucid dreamers, and it does take a lot of practice. I think I had been trying every
day for over a month before I first managed to do it so don’t get disheartened if you drift off to sleep the first few times you
give it a go. Just stick with it, and your experience, awareness and understanding of hovering at the boundary state of
consciousness between being awake and asleep will only get better and better.
How To Lucid Dream - Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

Dreams (MILD)
A Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD) is the method that most
people find easiest to pick up and work with when first starting to learn to
lucid dream, there is little preparation involved and it doesn't involve getting
up in the middle of the night to there's no loss of sleep. Before you begin
attempting to use the MILD technique to induce lucid dreams you should be
able to recall at least one dream per night and be familiar with reality
checking.
The MILD technique was developed by Stephen LaBerge to induce a lucid dream at will by setting an intention, while falling
asleep, to remember to recognize that you are dreaming or to remember to look for dream signs when you are in a dream.
1. Find a position that you can easily and comfortably fall asleep in.
2. Relax. Use whatever relaxation technique works for you for 5-10 minutes, or longer if you need it.
3. As you fall asleep repeat to yourself: "After every dream period I will wake up and I will remember my dream" Believe
that you will wake up after each dream you have.
4. When you wake up write down your dream immediately. Even if you can barely remember anything, just write down
what comes to mind, or how you felt when you woke up. (You will recall more the more often you practice this technique)
5. Now lie down and let yourself drift back to sleep, as you are doing this imagine that you are back in the dream you just
had. Only his time imagine that you saw a dreamsign in your dream and recognized it. As you fall asleep keep visualizing
yourself in your dream, recognizing a dreamsign, and realizing that you are in a dream.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 each time you wake during the night.
Don't worry if your mind starts to drift while you are performing steps 3 and 5, just notice your mind was drifting and then
go back to the technique. You just want your last thought as you fall asleep to be about lucid dreaming. To improve the
chances of having a lucid dream further you can repeat the phrase in step 3 during the day.
Reality Checks
The reality check is a fundamental part of lucid dreaming when it comes to
Dream Induced Lucid Dreams (DILDs), or dreams in which you become lucid
while a dream is in progress. The ability to become lucid during a dream
hinges on a certain awareness- of both yourself and of your environment.
A reality check serves two purposes:
The main feature of a reality check involves asking direct questions about the world around you when you suspect that you
are dreaming. It is a tool by which to verify or falsify your suspicions of the dream state. You do this by attempting
something you know is impossible; like pushing your finger through your hand or by holding your nose shut and trying to
breathe through it.
Secondly by asking the question ‘Am I Dreaming, Right Now?’ You gain an increased awareness of yourself, your
behaviour, your surroundings, and the fact that things around you are maybe not quite adding up. In effect you are taking a
moment to ask, ‘What isREALLY going on here?’ By training yourself to critically analyze the world around you, you'll learn
to pick up on the details that signify that you are actually in a dream.
With this increased awareness and these tools to test your suspicions, you can learn to become aware, and then to use that
awareness to determine that you are dreaming.
How to Reality Check

There are a huge number of reality checks you can do, here are few examples that are effective, in each case something
unusual or impossible happening lets you know you are actually in a dream. No-one is exactly sure why these effects work
consistently within a dream but for now its enough that they do
 Hold your nose and attempt to breathe through it, if you’re in a dream you’ll be able to breathe
 Try to push one of your fingers through the palm of your other hand. In a dream it will go through!
 Look at the time on a digital watch or clock, then turn away for a second before looking back. In a dream the time will have
jumped to something entirely different or perhaps show symbols like hieroglyphs instead of number.
When to Reality Check:

There are lots of different times that you can use reality checks, however trying to remember too many at once can get
confusing, here are some of the most important when first learning lucid dreaming :
 1. The most important is whenever you think you should. If you think about reality checking, do it.
 2. Whenever you think of or see one of your dreamsigns.
 3. Whenever something strange or unusual occurs, you get a feeling something isn’t quite right, or when you have trouble
understanding what is going on around you
 4. Whenever you wake up. This way you will catch False Awakenings.
Remember- you are doing a reality check because you think there is a good possibility that you are in a dream. Because of
this, a reality check should not be a chore to somebody who wants to become lucid, it should be the second most exciting
part of your day, second only to actually realizing that you're dreaming!!!
How are Dreams Created?

Dreams are created naturally by the subconscious mind. Although once you are lucid it is possible to make changes to your
current dream and direct the creation of new dream worlds consciously, the majority of the work here is still carried out by
the subconscious mind.
For example you might choose to make a red sports car appear in front of you, but that’s pretty much all the direction you
would consciously give. The exact shape of the car, the feel of the materials, the controls and displays on the dashboard, in
fact all the details of the car have been created automatically for you by your subconscious.
Your subconscious creates dreams from Schemata you have built up from your experience and understanding of the world.
A Schema is an abstract mental structure, like a set of rules, which functions to organize our knowledge and represents our
understanding of the world. They are your expectations of what things are and what things should be.
This process begins with a single idea or image coming into your mind, what this image will be can be fairly random, but
will usually be linked to whatever thought was in your mind as you were falling asleep. In this example let’s say this image
was a pencil.
Now your mind will begin to build a dream, using the set of schemata that you unconsciously associate with a pencil:
- When you think of a pencil your schema says you most commonly use a pencil when sitting at a desk, so this detail is
added into the dream.
- When you think of sitting at a desk you think of being at school.
- When you think of being at school, you think of being in an exam, and feeling anxious, and like you just want to run away.
Using the above schemata and starting from that one idea of a pencil your mind has created a dream (or a nightmare),
where you are back in your first school, where you are feeling anxious, running around the building trying to escape.
This is how all our dreams are created, and governs much of how the dream evolves and progresses. Your mind simply
adds in the content of rich visual images and a storyline to your inbuilt expectations of what ‘should be’.
Now see how the Schema your mind has created for Lucid Dreams might be hampering your progress: The Lucid Dream
Schema
How To Lucid Dream - Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

Dreams (MILD)
A Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD) is the method that most
people find easiest to pick up and work with when first starting to learn to
lucid dream, there is little preparation involved and it doesn't involve getting
up in the middle of the night to there's no loss of sleep. Before you begin
attempting to use the MILD technique to induce lucid dreams you should be
able to recall at least one dream per night and be familiar with reality
checking.
The MILD technique was developed by Stephen LaBerge to induce a lucid dream at will by setting an intention, while falling
asleep, to remember to recognize that you are dreaming or to remember to look for dream signs when you are in a dream.
1. Find a position that you can easily and comfortably fall asleep in.
2. Relax. Use whatever relaxation technique works for you for 5-10 minutes, or longer if you need it.
3. As you fall asleep repeat to yourself: "After every dream period I will wake up and I will remember my dream" Believe
that you will wake up after each dream you have.
4. When you wake up write down your dream immediately. Even if you can barely remember anything, just write down
what comes to mind, or how you felt when you woke up. (You will recall more the more often you practice this technique)
5. Now lie down and let yourself drift back to sleep, as you are doing this imagine that you are back in the dream you just
had. Only his time imagine that you saw a dreamsign in your dream and recognized it. As you fall asleep keep visualizing
yourself in your dream, recognizing a dreamsign, and realizing that you are in a dream.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 each time you wake during the night.
Don't worry if your mind starts to drift while you are performing steps 3 and 5, just notice your mind was drifting and then
go back to the technique. You just want your last thought as you fall asleep to be about lucid dreaming. To improve the
chances of having a lucid dream further you can repeat the phrase in step 3 during the day.
How You Can Predict The Future
You can predict the future!
Its simply a matter of having enough infromation about any given situation, and understanding the natural rules involved in
how the situation will play out. Fortunately your subconscious mind has stored every event and expereince from your entire
life so for almost any circumstances you can imagine this knowledge and understanding is already at your disposal.
Lets start with a really simple example just to prove the principle.
Imagine you're just gettting ready for bed and your thoughts turn to going into work tommorrow. Suddenly a thought
flashes into your mind "Oh no! My boss is going to be in a really bad mood tommorrow. Whatever I do it will be the wrong
thing". You feel completely certain about this, but how? It hasn't happened yet.
In this example its really simple, your boss had told you the day before he was going out to watch Manchester United in
their FA Cup semi-final game. You also know your boss is a die hard Manchester United fan, and you know that they lost 3-
0 in tonights game crashing out of the competition! You also remember last year when they were knocked out he was in a
bad mood all week.
So you see from just a few simple facts you can make a very strong prediction about something that will happen in the
future.
Now at this stage you're probably saying 'This is obvious! And its hardly predicting the future' But all we are doing at this
stage is proving the basic principle, in order to predict events and outcomes in the future, its simply a matter of having
enough information.
The problem in trying to predict more complex events is only in the vast numbers of factors involved. You need to be able
to hold and process more infromation that your conscious mind can handle at any given time. So here's where the
remarkable abilities resulting from using your InfiniteMind come in.
Lets take a quick look at 4 key facts we now know:
1.) The only requirement for predicting the future is having enough information about any given situation.
2.) Your subconscious mind is capable of processing and handling information at a rate 10,000 times faster than your
conscious mind.
3.) Your combined subconscious and unconscious minds also contain all the knowledge and experince of your entire life.
(Remember we all have perfect memories just imperfect recall)
4.) In a lucid dream you can consciously access the resources of your subconscious and unconscious mind.
Now we have all the pieces of the puzzle to allow us to predict how any particular event is going to play out.
Predicting the future using Lucid Dreams
Start by entering a lucid dream. (if you aren't sure how to do this check the lucid dream section here). Once you are lucid
you need to create a space for your subconscious mind to work on the problem without interference from the conscious part
of your mind.
Creating an area blocked off from you view as in the 'Over the Wall' technique works well. I've also found creating a 'Future
Predicting Machine' in the dream environment gives good results. The improtant thing is that there is an area that you set
aside to work on the problem that you can not see into until the solution is complete. (otherwise your conscious mind will
start to overrule the subconscious and direct the process, and it simply doesn't have the resources to cope with this task).
Now clearly state what it is you want to know, what you are trying to predict in a single sentence. Focus on this question for
about a minute and then let it go and relax.
You need to distract yoru conscious mind away from the problem for a couple of minutes to give your subconscious the
opportunity to do the work unimpeded. A good way to distract yourself is to focus on all the details of the room you happen
to be in, (or the details of the garden in the over the wall technique). After a couple of minutes have passed, its time to find
your answer!
Pull the lever on your 'Future Predicting Machine' or Leap over the wall and see the answer that yoru InfiniteMind has
created.
Remember if you aren't compeltely sure about what you're seeing at first ask follow up questions to your mind and watch
how the imagery in front of you changes. If you're anything like me you'll be sceptical the first time you try this out but then
amazed when you see your predictions actually happen!
Its worth a quick mention on the scope and limitations of this technique. If you ask your mind to come up with next weeks
lottery numbers, sorry its unlikely to come up with right result. But give it any questions involving situations and people you
have some experience with such as 'What will the board think of my presentaiton', or 'What is going to happen at Sarah's
party tommorrow night' and you'll be suprised how accurate it can be.
This is one technique that you really need to try out for yourself to understand just how powerful, effective and reliable it
can be. And if you do decide to give it a go, let me know how you got on.
Memory Enhancement
Do you have a problem remembering names or faces, what about dates, or do you get back from the shops only to realize
you've forgotten what you went for in the first place. Chances are we can all think of a time when our memory has let us
down.
Well there’s good news, there are a whole range of techniques that can help you overcome these blocks, to fight memory
loss, improve short-term memory, and enhance memory performance for success at work, in school and in every area of
your life.
Just take a look at what some people have shown in possible by playing with and practicing some of the techniques and
exercises on this site:
- David Farrow remembered the order of 59 packs of shuffled playing cards – that 3608 individual cards!
- Boris-Nikolai Konrad memorised a list, in order, of 280 random words in only 15 minutes
- Chao Lu set the world record in 2005 for recalling π to 67,890 digits
Now you might not need to know Pi to more than 67,000 decimal places in your everyday life but the same techniques work
just as well for a shopping list or a phone number. And the more you exercise and develop your memory, the better it will
get all round.
Memory Enhancement Techniques

 Instant Memory Enhancement
 Mnemonics
 The Journey Technique
 The Link Technique
Get Immediate Results to Improve your Memory
If we take advantage of the way the mind naturally processes information we can improve both our ability to learn and later
to recall this information. The technique below is a simple approach that will give you an immediate and noticeable
improvement in your memory.
Natural Memory 1: Primacy and Recency

Let say I read you a list of 30 words and then asked you to recall them. Unless you were applying a mnemonic technique, it
is highly unlikely that you would recall all of the words but rather you would most likely be able to recall some of the words
from the beginning of the list, some from the end but very few from the middle of the list. (If you don't believe me, try it).
These effects are known as Primacy (words from the beginning of the list) and Recency (words from the end of the list).
Putting this into practice, it is easy to see why if you study for hours and hours without a break, then the gap in recall
between the Primacy and Recency effects would be large, and the majority of this information would be lost.
By splitting up your study time into 30-45 minute chunks with 10 minute breaks in between you create more Primacy /
Recency high points and so remember more from your studying. Spending any less time than this makes its hard to get into
the flow of learning. During the 10 minute breaks it is important that you relax, do something physical or creative. The
breaks will give your mind a chance to rest from learning and doing something different will actually stimulate it.
Natural Memory 2: The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

The German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus pioneered the experimental study of memory, one of his most significant
achievements was in proving that within 1-2 days, we forget about 80% of what we have learnt. That seems quite a waste
doesn't it? Fortunately he also discovered a way to overcome this problem.
When you stop at the end of a learning session your mind integrates the information that you have just studied so that your
ability to recall it actually rises. This ability to recall information during integration peaks after about 10 minutes and then
falls off dramatically. If you review what you have learnt at that 10 minute point, you will reinforce the information at its
strongest in your mind. You might have noticed this also fits nicely with the 10 minute break tactic above to boost the
Primacy and Recency effects. By sitting down to learn some new material for 30-45 minutes then having a 10 minute break
where you let your mind focus on something completely different, then coming back for a short review of what you leant in
the previous session (this only needs to be a few minutes to be effective), you will get multiple boosts to your ability to
remember and recall the information.
By following these steps your ability to recall the information will remain at its maximum for about a day before it begins to
drop off again, so after a day has passed do another short review. This second review will reinforce the information in your
mind and your ability to recall what you have learnt will remain at a very high level for about another week before it begins
to tail off. So again after a week has gone by, do a third review of the information (don’t worry if it seems like a lot of
reviews, remember they only have to be a few minutes each). You’ll need to do a couple more reviews, another after a
month has passed and then one final review 6 months later, by this point the information will now be locked into your long
term memory.
The repeated reviews will have refreshed and built strong neural pathways to the information within your brain making it
easy to access and recall.
Mnemonics
'Mnemonic' is just another word for a memory tool. They are techniques for
encoding difficult to remember information in a way that is much easier to
remember.
Our brains evolved over millions of years to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colours, structures, sounds,
smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language, and the good news is our memories store all of these very
effectively. Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented very differently - as
words printed on a page. While writing is a great tool for conveying complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode
written information, making it difficult to remember.
Use Your Whole Mind to Remember

By representing the information you want to remember as vivid mental images, you can reliably code both information and
the structure of information. And because the images are vivid, they are easy to recall when you need them.
You can do the following things to make your mnemonics more memorable:
- Use positive, pleasant images - our brains often block out unpleasant ones
- Use vivid, colourful images - these are easier to remember than drab, dull ones
- Use all your senses to code information - mnemonic with sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as
pictures will be even easier to remember.
- Give your image three dimensions, movement and space to make it more vivid.
- Exaggerate! – enhance both the size and shape of important parts of the image
- Use humour - funny or unusual things are easier to remember than normal ones.
Designing Mnemonics: Imagination, Association and Location
The three fundamental principles of mnemonics are imagination, association and location. Working together, these
principles create powerful mnemonic systems.
1. Imagination: is what you use to create mnemonics that are potent for you. The more strongly you imagine and visualize
a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall.
2. Association: this is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a way of remembering it. You can create
associations by:
- Placing things on top of each other
- Merging images together
- Wrapping them around each other
- Using motion – crash things together or have them rotate around each
- Linking them using the same colour, smell, shape, or feeling
3. Location: gives you a context into which you can place information so that it hangs together, and a way of separating
one mnemonic from another.
On the following pages are some of the techniques you can use that make use of all these principles.
The Journey Method

The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based
around the idea of remembering key points or landmarks on a well-known
journey. It combines the narrative flow of the link and story methods and the
structure and order of association based systems into one powerful
technique.
You use the journey method by associating the information you want to remember with landmarks on a journey that you
know well. This could be your journey to school or work in the morning; a tour around a holiday destination you’ve been to,
or just an imagined route around your house.
The technique works most effectively if you prepare the journey beforehand. In this way the points on your journey are
clear in your mind before you try to add information to them. One of the ways of doing this is to write down all the stops on
your journey that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these as the significant points to be used
in your mnemonic, separating them from others that may notice in the future.
Now to remember a list of items, whether these are people, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things with
the stops on your journey.
The system is extremely flexible: to remember more items all you need do is to prepare a longer journey with more stops,
and to remember a short list, only use part of the route. One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work
backwards, forwards or starting anywhere within the route to retrieve information.
Technique walkthrough
Start by imagining the house where you live, see the front door as you walk in. Then, in your mind's eye, walk through the
house visiting every room in turn, just as if you were really doing it. Now pick 10 specific places in your house, these can be
individual rooms or specific pieces of furniture, so that as you walk round your house in your imagination, you visit each
place in turn in the same order each time.
Lets say the 10 points on your journey were: The front door, a table in the hallway, a sofa, the TV, your fridge/freezer, the
stairs, your bed, the wardrobe, the bath, and the bathroom sink.
Now lets use this short journey to remember something simple like a shopping list:
Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, toilet paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, orange juice.
Your mnemonic journey might therefore appear as:
1. Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat,

2. Lettuce leaves and tomatoes growing out of your hallway table
3. Potatoes, onions and cauliflower all stacked up on your sofa
4. An arch of French bread bent over the television
5. The fridge and freezer are all wrapped in toilet roll
6. Some haddock and cod are flapping their tails trying to swim up the stairs
7. Chickens squawking and flapping around on your bed
8. A pig comes charging out of the wardrobe
9. The bath is filled up with tomato soup
10. Fresh oranges are pouring out of the tap in your sink.
Because you’re so familiar all the stops within your house you won’t miss any of the items. Try it for yourself and see.
The Link Technique

Mnemonics are designed to allow you to utilize your brain to its full potential. The link technique does this by exercising
your innate creativity. All you have to do is activate your creative mind using visual images.
The art is simple. When you come across an important word, name, picture or information, immediately take something out
of your stored memory. Something that you're already familiar with is essential for associating a new item to the old
because this way, whenever you think of the old item, you'd immediately remember the new one and vice versa.
Let's say you need to buy several things for your family members. Since this task requires you to remember several
different things at the same time, which are also entirely not related with one another, you need strong memorization skill
to accomplish this.
Pretend you need to purchase a bar of soap, bottle of wine, a pair of socks, a box of tissues and a bag of dog food. Since
association is the main tool you have in order to remember all these things, start linking these words to each other.
You know you are going to drive to the shop to get these items, and this means getting into your car, so lets use the car as
the starting point for your linking. That way when you see your car on the way to the shop the links will allow you to
remember the entire list.
Try to imagine your car transforming into a giant bar of soap, so now you are driving a bar of soap which happened to float
well on a lake of wine that you needed to cross. Then, at the toll gate, you hand over a pair of socks so you can pass
through. Next, a box of tissues signals a green light and right before you find a parking space; a walking bag of dog food
shows you a vacant space.
Because the items have now been linked to one another, you only have to remember one for all the others to be triggered
in your mind.
The 3 Laws of Memory

Despite the huge complexity in both our brains and the functioning of our memory, how well we manage to remember
something can be reduced to 3 simple laws. If you have already read any of the memory improvement techniques from the
InfiniteMinds site you will be able to see how they use one of more of these laws to achieve their memory enhancing effect.
Once you know these laws you can use them to your advantage, and to create your own techniques and approaches to
improving your memory.
The First Law of Memory: You Need to Concentrate

When your mind receives new information it determines whether to simply hold this information temporarily and then to
discard it, or whether to move it into your long term memory. If you do not concentrate on the information for a long
enough time, it will simply not be transferred into your long term memory and so will be lost after only a few seconds.
Being distracted during a lecture or meeting, or when you’re meeting new people can cause you to momentarily lose track
of the information and so it never enters your long term memory. This is the main reason why when being introduced to
someone new we often forget their name just seconds after being told it. We are so busy concentrating on introducing
ourselves we aren’t paying attention to what we are being told.
So in order to learn make sure you have a clear mind, and if you do get distracted take a moment to refocus and then go
back over the last part of whatever you were trying to learn,
The Second Law of Memory: Build More Associations

A memory is stored by a neural pathway in your brain. Whenever you learn something new, a new pathway is created, if
this new pathway is linked in to other pre-existing neural paths in your brain then it will be easier for you to recall it.
Every association you can build links up that idea or memory into others in your mind. So lets say you meet someone new,
if you can associate their name to someone famous, then that name will already have lots of connections in your mind. The
more associations you can build the more firmly that persons name will be lodged in your mind.
The Third Law of Memory: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Your memory is like a muscle, and the more you exercise a muscle the stronger is becomes. When you repeat learning
some information again and again it is just the same as doing reps with weights in the gym!
Going back to our neural pathway model, imagine when you first learn some new information your mind creating that
pathway. As you repeat, and go over the information again, the pathway becomes a little more well travelled, and becomes
a small road. Going over this road again and again builds it up into a motorway and that information is now built into your
mind.
So there you have the three laws of memory, play around with these to lock into your mind anything you want to be sure to
remember, the more you use together the more powerful the effect will be.
Use Motion to Make Things Stick in your Memory
The human brain easily absorbs information, when it is presented in a way that catches the attention: stories, names and
faces.
This is why you can easily remember the whole plot to a movie in great detail, including character and place names but
would struggle to remember anywhere near the same amount of infromation from a text book.
In creating stories out of pictures or images, motion helps a lot in connecting the unrelated objects.
Studies show that when there is motion among objects, it makes it a lot easier for the human brain to absorb details from
the situation. This is the way our brains have naturally evolved to process infromation about our environment.
Let's see if you can memorize several objects at a time. Our objects will be: shoes, door, cake, fish, mountain and ceiling.
I picked these objects as theyare all completely irrelevant from one another. But by using the snapshot memorization
technique, we can create a scenario which
makes it easier for us and our brain to absorb the information.
A pair of shoes woke up one day upon hearing a knock on the door. To Shoes' surprise, a big cake waits on the front door.
Shoes takes the cake in and delighted by the surprise, decides to take a bite when all of a sudden, a humongous fish
jumped out of the cake carrying another gift in hand. The fish gave Shoes its gift. The gift is a picture of a mountain Shoes
always wanted to climb. Thrilled, fish and Shoes placed the frame on the ceiling and looked up at it with awe all day.
After reading the paragraph, an immediate recall is possible about what happened to the mentioned objects in the scenario.
The reason is, moving objects have a context and are all linked ot each other. The imprint of this single moving image is far
larger in your mind than the list of objects would otherwise be.
Try making another one and see for yourself how much you can remember.
Consciousness Engineering
Consciousness Engineering is a new approach to personal development. The vast majority of self-development and
improvement programs tend to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach, suggesting if anyone follows their guide to the letter they
will get the results they want. But the reality is that just isn’t true, everyone is different and everyone will have their own
starting points and their own ideas about what they are looking to get from any program they choose to follow.
Consciousness engineering takes a more individualistic approach, and lets you choose where you want to go and gives you
different options for getting there so you can pick the way that’s right for you.
The Fundamental Principle of Consciousness Engineering

Wherever you are in your life, and no matter what you can or can’t do today, you can choose where you want to be and
what you want to be able to do in the future. Such a vast array of exercises and techniques exist, it is possible to realise any
change, and to develop almost any skill or ability you could want.
3 Steps to Consciousness Engineering
1. Using the pool of exercises, skills, techniques and abilities that have been discovered and developed throughout history
and drawn from all over the world, you can create a simple step by step path to learn the skills which will take you to your
goal.
2. By bringing together different skills that are each useful in their own right you can produce even greater results. In some
cases this will even lead to new emergent abilities being developed.
3. There are many different ways of approaching and learning new things. Some will be more suitable and effective for
some people and different ways will be more effective for others. Following the Try, Notice, Apply (TNA) approach will help
you to quickly and easily find which methods work best for you, allowing you to integrate these into your life, while leaving
behind those which don’t.
Consciousness Engineering Articles & Techniques
 Why We Start But Don't Finish
 The Tangerine Technique
 Do I only use 10% of my brain?
 How to Build Yourself an Iron Will
 The Pseudo-Telekinesis Techniques
 How to Build Your Intuition
 Breathing Techniques to Improve Brainpower
 The Subconscious Mind - Your Inner Genius
Why do we start but not finish?
When we start something new the brain releases a chemical called dopamine. That's the same feel good hormone released
when you're eating chocolate or having sex. It's a survival hormone. It allowed our primitive ancestors to know what would
help keep them alive.
So why does starting something new release this feel-good hormone?
Prehistoric survival was highly dependent on being alert to new things. Whether spotting approaching predators or being
able to find new sources of food, our ancient ancestors didn't know how to raise livestock, farm or build cities. They were at
the mercy of nature, both its bounty and its threats, and these could very suddenly change.
Because of this kind of environment they lived in our ancestors were always at the whim of performing short-lived
experiences like escaping from a tiger, finding a handful of wild berries or managing to hunt down a boar. And so each time
they set out on one of these activities their brain gave them a shot of dopamine to let them know they were on the right
track.
In our modern more sophisticated society, a short attention span is just not as compatible with the types of material,
psychological and spiritual progress that we are looking for. In fact the exact opposite has become true; if you can't focus
and stick to something for a sustained period of time, you won’t make very much progress. Whilst this won’t lead to you
starving to death, you will most likely find yourself leading a dull, unhappy and unfulfilled life.
Unfortunately our ancestors' short attention span and obsessions with new threats and opportunities seems to be coded into
our DNA. After that initial excitement where our body and willpower are fighting side by side towards our new goal, we are
left with a situation where our willpower has to continue the fight alone or worse fight against the natural habits of our
body.
This is one of the major reasons we have so much trouble sticking to a personal development program for more than a few
days. The same reason is behind why we get bored after learning a few basic greetings in a new language and why we give
up on a diet and exercising after only a week.
But despite this many of us will have experiences where a burning desire, or even a life-and-death necessity has aroused
our willpower and made us commit to certain long-term goals, and more importantly manage to stick to and achieve them.
And the satisfaction of completing a long term goal like this, produces a deep sense of joy and wellbeing that the fleeting
rush of dopamine we get form first starting simply cannot compete with.
So now you know, what can you do about it? Well the good news is being aware of the underlying cause is half the battle,
now you know what to expect, and this allows you to plan for it.
Let’s say you want to make a new habit of going for a run every morning. If this is important to you, and you feel motivated
to do this, you can be reasonably confident you’ll keep that motivated state for at least the first 5 days or so. But after that
you’ll probably have a few off days, where it will be a real battle with yourself. So why not build in some rewards to your
plan.
Plan that when you complete your first 7 days, give yourself a reward. It doesn’t have to be big or expensive just something
that you really want. Make sure to write down just what this reward will be before you even start on your first day and
leave it somewhere you’ll easily be able to see it.
So when you get to your 6th morning, you might not be feeling that motivated to go for your run, your mind will probably
come up with all sorts of excuses why you can’t or don’t need to do it. But you’ll also know you only need to go on 2 more
mornings to get your reward, and that doesn’t seem like too much effort.
Add in more little rewards at roughly 10, 15 and 20 days, to keep yourself motivated in little bursts and before you know it
going for those runs (or whatever else you want) will just become habit.
Brain exercises to improve your creativity and problem

solving
Brain exercises can help improve the way your brain functions. Much like any physical exercises for your heart and muscles
will strengthen them, exercising your brain is essential for better mental function and to improves its activity.
Lifting a weight puts a strain on the fibres that your muscles are built from, and your body responds by making the existing
fibres stronger and by building new fibres so they are packed more densely. In the same way exercising your brain
reinforces and strengthens existing connections between nerve cells in your brain, and stimulates growth of new cells too.
By performing certain exercises we can activate new connections between cells that allows the cells to transmit and receive
information from one another, this increased connectivity within your brain will give you greater creativity and problem
solving abilities as more of the brains resources are directly interconnected.
In order to stimulate new connections you need to encounter different types of stimuli from day to day, otherwise the same
neural pathways just get used over and over.
When you are learning how to write, for example, provides the stimulus that enables the brain nerve cells to create new
information pathways to one another.
But as this stimulus becomes a routine activity, the neural pathways are set and no new connections are being made. What
the nerve cells in the brain want is a new type of stimuli to allow it to develop new circuits.
So to best exercise your brain you should be embracing the idea of putting the mind into situations where it is experiencing
new stimuli. Now while you might not be able to take on a task as challenging as learning to write all over again each day,
what you may be able to do is to try to do routine tasks in a different way.
Sticking with the example of writing, the routine way may be to write by using your right hand. But when you try to learn
writing using your left hand, meaning the one that you don't usually use, you are putting your brain to a different kind of
stimulus. This simple exercise will help the nerve cells in your brain to create new connections and therefore help your brain
in functioning better.
You might find it hard to read what you write at first and it will take a lot of concentration but you'll be surprised how
quickly your "wrong hand writing˜ improves, and that is the proof that new connections are being wired into your brain!
Here are some other easy to use exercises and examples that will get those new neural connections up and firing:
- Try brushing your mouth using your other hand

- If you usually stay at home, try camping out for the weekend and enjoy the different stimuli that come from being in
another environment
- Next time you're sitting on a train or in a cafe try to listen and follow 2 different conversations at the same time.
I'm sure you can add in plenty of your own here. The key is to break your routine in order to help your brain cells make
new connections and create new information pathways among the brain cells.
he Tangerine Technique
The tangerine technique is probably one of the simplest techniques you will find on InfiniteMinds, but don’t let its simplicity
fool you. Like with so many things in life, the simplest ideas can often be the most powerful.
This technique will allow you to quickly and easily enter a peak performance state of mind associated with accelearted
learning. While in this state you will; find it easier to concentrate and remain focused, remember more of what you learn, be
better at solving problems and be able to come up with more creative solutions.
The Technique
2. Next take a deep breath in, hold it for a few seconds and then slowly let it out. Repeat these slow deep breaths four or
five times. Try to make each exhalation slower and deeper than the last. (People are often tempted to skip this step, but it
is important as it prepares the mind and body for a change in states)
3. Hold an imaginary tangerine in your hand and take a moment to really experience it. Smell it, see the colour, feel the
weight and the texture. Imagine throwing the tangerine back and forth between your hands.
4. Now take the tangerine in your dominant hand and place it on the top back part of your head. Touch that area gently
and imagine feeling the tangerine resting there while you bring your arm down and relax your shoulders.
6. With your eyes still closed, imagine your peripheral vision expanding outwards and your field of vision opening up. Take a
moment to notice what has happened to your physical and mental state, you will feel simultaneously relaxed and alert.
7. Maintain the relaxed feeling of alertness as you open your eyes and begin working on whatever it is you have to learn
today.
The tangerine technique works particularly well when you have lots of material to read, and notes to make. If you take just
two to three minutes to use this technique each time when you sit down to learn or study something new, you will soon find
entering this peak performance state becomes automatic.
Accelerated Learning
Why do we learn the way we do? For most of us the answer is simple, we learn in the way we were taught to at school. We read books by sounding out each word in our
heads, we write everything down in detail, we learn by rote and repetition just like we did with our times tables. But are these really the best ways of learning?
Most of these methods have been in use for hundreds of years and haven’t really changed much. It’s hard to believe that no progress in developing better methods of learning
have been made in all that time. And fortunately it isn’t true. There are many much more powerful techniques you can use to learn more information, pick up new skills and
gain greater understanding in just a fraction of the time.
Just think how many new skills and abilities you developed in the first few years of your life, how much your vocabulary grew, how many ideas, concepts and your very
understanding of the world changed in those early years. For most of us, our formal education replaced those natural ways of learning with a more structured but much less
efficient set of tools for learning. The good news is you can rediscover all of those natural learning skills and even enhance them further by taking advantage of the latest
approaches and techniques that have been identified through research and improvements in our understanding of how we learn.
Accelerated learning techniques will show you how to recognise your natural learning styles allowing you to easily absorb and recall information, how to put your mind into an
‘accelerated learning state’ to enhance your learning, how to read and process information much faster than your internal voice would ever allow, and how to take advantage of
many of the natural abilities of the subconscious mind that we used as babies and young children to learn at hundreds and even thousands of times the rate we do as adults.
Accelerated Learning Techniques

 The Tangerine Technique
 How to use Mind Maps
 Using Lucid Dreaming to Learn
 Speed Reading - Using your Peripheral Vision
 Speed Reading - Force Yourself to Read Faster
 How to Hypnotise Yourself
 Does Sleep Learning Work?
The Tangerine Technique
The tangerine technique is probably one of the simplest techniques you will find on InfiniteMinds, but don’t let its simplicity fool you. Like with so many things in life, the
simplest ideas can often be the most powerful.
This technique will allow you to quickly and easily enter a peak performance state of mind associated with accelearted learning. While in this state you will; find it easier to
concentrate and remain focused, remember more of what you learn, be better at solving problems and be able to come up with more creative solutions.
The Technique
2. Next take a deep breath in, hold it for a few seconds and then slowly let it out. Repeat these slow deep breaths four or five times. Try to make each exhalation slower and
deeper than the last. (People are often tempted to skip this step, but it is important as it prepares the mind and body for a change in states)
3. Hold an imaginary tangerine in your hand and take a moment to really experience it. Smell it, see the colour, feel the weight and the texture. Imagine throwing the tangerine
back and forth between your hands.
4. Now take the tangerine in your dominant hand and place it on the top back part of your head. Touch that area gently and imagine feeling the tangerine resting there while
you bring your arm down and relax your shoulders.
6. With your eyes still closed, imagine your peripheral vision expanding outwards and your field of vision opening up. Take a moment to notice what has happened to your
physical and mental state, you will feel simultaneously relaxed and alert.
7. Maintain the relaxed feeling of alertness as you open your eyes and begin working on whatever it is you have to learn today.
The tangerine technique works particularly well when you have lots of material to read, and notes to make. If you take just two to three minutes to use this technique each
time when you sit down to learn or study something new, you will soon find entering this peak performance state becomes automatic.
Speed Reading - Force Yourself to Read Faster

One of the simplest and yet most effective techniques for increasing your reading speed is simply to force yourself to read faster. This might sound obvious, and you can get an
improvement from your very first attempt, but in order to get lasting results it’s something you have to practice.
First up, pick a book to practice on, it should be something that’s easy to read and has continuous evenly spaced text. For this reason it’s not a good idea to practice on a
technical book or anything that’s written in a text-book style, a novel is a good choice. You will also need a stopwatch or timer.
To know if your reading speed is increasing you first need to know what your current reading speed is. Now a lot speed reading courses advise reading for a set period of time,
such as one minute, and then counting how many words you’ve managed to read. However I’ve found in practice this means you end up spending a lot of time just counting
words, what a waste! So instead I suggest reading for a set number of pages, and measuring how long it took. This is why it’s key that the book you have chosen to practice
on has continuous and evenly spaced text.
Pick a random point in your book, have a quick check that there isn’t an end of a chapter in the next few pages, and then start your stopwatch. Now read 5 pages at your
regular reading rate, and whilst doing this move your finger along underneath the words as you are reading them. When you’re done make a note of how long it took. This is
your current reading rate.
Now pick another random page in your book. This time when you read through the next five pages you’re going to force yourself to read about twice as fast as you did before.
You can do this by using your finger as a guide, simply move your finger along at twice the speed you did before and forcing yourself to read at the rate your finger is moving.
Don’t worry about comprehension at this point, most people feel that they aren’t understanding what they are reading or that it simply isn’t going in, but for now this really isn’t
important.
Repeat this process another 3 or 4 times, and each time move your finger slightly faster than you did the last time. Remember it doesn’t matter if you aren’t remembering or
understanding any of what you read, just force yourself to read the words as fast as your finger is moving. You don’t need to worry about recording the time taken during any
of these practices.
Now, lets see what effect this forcing yourself to read faster has had on your natural reading speed. Reset your stopwatch and pick a new page in your book again, but this
time don’t use your finger as a guide, simply read 5 pages at whatever pace feels natural to you.
You will find you can’t help but read faster than you did in the first place, and if you need some proof check the time on your stopwatch. You will find it is significantly quicker
than the time for your original reading speed.
Now how easy was that! For more techniques to improve your reading speed further check out the next Speed Reading article: Using Your Peripheral Vision
Breathing Techniques to Improve your Brainpower - The Crossed Squat

So often in life it is the simplest ideas that can be the most powerful, the smallest of changes that can lead to the most dramatic results. I am always amazed at how doing
something as simple as changing your pattern of breathing can have remarkable effects on the body and mind.
Just by breathing slower and more deeply you will start to feel more relaxed. Or by pushing the air of your lungs out in a series of quick sharp breaths will make you feel more
focused and energised.
These are 2 very basic ways to change your body chemistry and state of mind simply by altering your breathing and I hope they are obvious (if not give them a try) however
there is another simple breathing technique that build on the same principles but can produce far more amazing results.
The technique originates from traditional Hindu and QiGong practices and in recent times has appeared on CBS News as a potential treatment for autistic children and suffers of
Alzheimers, with the support from doctors, neurobiologists and therapists.
However the technique doesn't just apply to those with mental conditions, but rather it seems to work for everyone, improving memory, focus and mental clarity even in
perfectly able minds.
The Crossed Squat Breathing Technique
• Stand with your feet about shoulder distance apart, toes pointing forward.
• Hold your right ear lobe between your left thumb and finger (I know this sounds strange but just go with it)
• Hold your left ear lobe between your right thumb and finger. You should now be holding both earlobes with your arms crossed over your chest .
• Squat down by bending your knees and lowering your body toward the floor, breathe in while doing this.
• Go as low as you can comfortably manage and then raise yourself back to a standing position, breathing out as you raise yourself back up.
• Repeat this squat motion for 1 to 3 minutes while continuing to hold your earlobes, and making sure your breathing is synchronised with the squatting movement, breath in
on the way down and out on the way back up.
If you're fit enough go for 3 minutes each day. If that feels like too much at first, start with one minute and slowly build the time up.
How does this work?

Dr Ang , a neurobiologist at Yale, showed that the images from an EEG (electroencephalography) after doing this exercise indicate the right and left hemispheres of the brain
had become synchronized.
Synchronizing the hemispheres of your brain is associated with improved functioning across a whole range of mental skills.
This simple technique will only takes 3 minutes of your day to test out, so give it a go for a week and see if you can feel the difference.
Advanced Communication
Effective communication is all about making ourselves understood. At its core is being able to express our ideas clearly, concisely and confidently. That should be easy right?
Just say what you mean and everything is clear. Unfortunately things aren’t quite that simple, have you ever had a conversation that goes something like this:
You: “Why did you do that?”

Your Friend: “Because that’s what you said”
You: “Well it isn’t what I meant!”
Even if we manage to make sure what we mean is accurately reflected in the choice of words we use, which in itself can be no mean feat, the meanings of these words can
easily be lost. They become mixed in with our body language, with our perceptions and expectations of other people and situations, with what we want to hear, and with many
other subtle psychological factors. Together these factors can twist a single sentence round into hundreds of different meanings.
There are many things you can do to improve your communication; from persuasion skills borrowed from the salesman, to the instant rapport techniques of NLP, you can use
not only your words, but also your body, your tone of voice and much more to communicate your message, You can tailor your content and style to your audience, and you can
direct your message to both the conscious and to the subconscious, to increase its power.
Advanced Communication Techniques

 Neuro-Linguistic Programming


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The Tangerine Technique

Increase Intelligence Techniques

Working Memory - The Key to Intelligence

Brain exercises to improve your creativity and problem

- Try brushing your mouth using your other hand

Back to Consciousness Engineering Home

The Crossed Squat Breathing Technique

How does this work?

Do Self Help Techniques Actually Work?

13 Top Tips for Leading a Stress Free Life

13. Everyday, do something you really enjoy.

Visual Thinking - The Afterimage Technique

How to improve your Visualisation Ability - The Afterimage Technique

Problem Solving & Creativity - Related Techniques and

Research Shows Image Streaming Increases

Over The Wall

Research Shows Image Streaming Increases

Does Sleep Learning Work?

An Introduction to Self Hypnosis

How to Hypnotise Yourself

#2 - Release any tension

#3 – Connect with your subconscious

#4 – Place your affirmations into your subconscious

 - "I am calm and relaxed"

Recognise the fact that you are now extremely relaxed.

An Introduction to Brainwave Entrainment

What is it useful for?

How effective is it?

Understanding Brainwaves and Mental States

Delta Waves – From approximately 0.5 to 4 Hz

Theta Waves – Between 4 and 8 Hz

Alpha Waves – Between 8 and 12 Hz

Beta Waves – Between 12 and 30 Hz

Gamma Waves – Between 30 and 90 Hz

Full Brainwave Frequencies Table

Beta (Mid 15Hz-18Hz Wide awake and alert behaviour.

6.2 - 6.7Hz Cognitive activity, sustained attention, low anxiety

Theta- ~3.5Hz Long term memory access

Methods of Brainwave Entrainment

Two waveforms combine to produce the ‘binaural beats’

How binaural beats generates a single frequency in the brain

Isochronic tones played out of each speaker are identically spaced

Monaural beats waveform

How to Lucid Dream

How to Lucid Dream - The Basics

Lucid Dreaming Techniques

How to Lucid Dream - Dream Control

Here’s a little one minute experiment you can do to prove it is possible:

And there you have it a direct way to induce lucid dreams!

How To Lucid Dream - Wake Induced Lucid Dreams

Step 1 – When Should I Try to WILD?

Step 2 – Relax & Set the Scene

Step 3 – Hypnagogic Imagery

Step 4- Let your body fall asleep

Step 5 - Enter your Dream World

You are now standing lucid in a dream world!

WILD Top Tips

How To Lucid Dream - Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

How to Reality Check

When to Reality Check:

How are Dreams Created?

How To Lucid Dream - Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

Lets take a quick look at 4 key facts we now know: