Double Your Brain Power: Increase Your Memory by Using All of Your Brain All the Time

by Jean Marie Stine

Offers strategies and techniques for boosting mental efficiency in order to maximize one's ability to concentrate, learn, and remember

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Brain, Psychology, Health, Personal Growth

216 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Double Your Brain Power' is a self help book that helped the author earn a pay cheque.
The reader who purchased the book learns not to waste their money.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly fluff and repetitive at that. Still, there are nuggets of gold. For instance, the deep breathing technique is simple and powerful. That is one part of directing and harnessing our awesome brain power for learning.

According to studies by Jerome Singer, Ph.D., dean of consciousness researchers, no matter what else we are doing, our brains are wired to keep ticking along in thought-sorting information and generating possibilities, practical and impractical-through our every waking moment. When we have nothing else on our minds, this helps maximize the use of brain power that would otherwise be wasted. (Essentially, it's due to this little function that we moved from the cave to the condo and survived innumerable challenges along the way.)

Research by psychologist Eric Klinger, Ph.D., however, shows that when you are trying to learn, ordinary consciousness becomes an obstacle to the alpha state and the OLS just beyond. More than 75 per- cent of your learning power is drained off in "ticking along in thought-sorting information and generating possibilities." Klinger found that this left less than 25 percent of our brains free for acquiring new information and the task at hand.

It's possible to quiet those thoughts, deepening relaxation, releasing learning power, and moving closer to the OLS. The basic procedures have been well known for centuries and have recently been validated anew by scientists such as Herbert Benson, M.D., in research at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. In the past, they went under names such as "prayer," "meditation," "yoga," and the "indwelling of the holy spirit."

I also appreciate the insights into smart, expedient reading for volume and comprehension as outlined in How to Read Better and Faster.

In his landmark work, How to Read Better and Faster, reading instructor Norman Lewis chronicled the powerful connection between concentration and reading speed. During an experiment at his Adult Reading Laboratory, Lewis had volunteers read a short article at their normal speed. He provided comfortable surroundings and an atmosphere conducive to relaxation. The volunteers were asked to read material at the same pace they typically did at home. The only stipulation was that they read every word and strive for comprehension. Afterward, Lewis recorded their reading times and tested them for comprehension.

The next day, Lewis had his volunteers read a second article of the same length. This time, he asked them to read through it as fast as they could. Again, the one stipulation was that they were to read every word and not sacrifice comprehension. Again, Lewis recorded participants' speeds and tested them for comprehension afterward.

The results provided dramatic evidence of the power of concentration. Most volunteers had read 25 percent to 50 percent faster, and their comprehension was undiminished.

I made a list of the author's recommended reading.

[Emmanuel Ayeni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book on the power of the mind

[Randy Corn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up at McKay, hoping that it would be as much help to me as the book I bought a couple of weeks back on the Evelyn Woods speed reading program. It was not quite as good, but there are aspects of it that I am sure will be helpful.

I suppose this is a more comprehensive book. It talks about reading, but also listening, thinking, and memory. There are a number of common sense suggestions along with a number of illustrations of where people really needed what the writer is about to suggest. I suppose one of the simplest ideas that this book includes is the idea of deep breathing as a way to calm the spirit and focus one’s attention. The author talks about it in terms of scientific research about brain wave patterns. I think this might well be valuable to me in the future.

I don’t think I will be recommending this book to anyone, and I’m glad that I did not pay full price for it. It was worth reading, but not so good that I would suggest others invest time in it.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of info from this book, I kept a log of all of the main bullet points from each chapter. I gave this a 4-star rating because it got me thinking about what kind of intelligence I excel at: visual thinking. This alone was extremely helpful and I have delved into thinking more about how to approach things I'm learning visually.

[Maddelline · Rating 3 out of 5]

We have the (brain) capacity to do anything

[Rana Habib · Rating 3 out of 5]

Id give this a 7/10. Good book but the information isn’t that groundbreaking. There’s irony in the fact that I don’t remember much of what was in the book except the Loci method

[Emmannuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

All help is good help, in my opinion.

I like the tests and the concept of measuring my knowledge and it taught me new ways to approach puzzles and stuff. Not a bad book for helping out people that are just getting the hang of this whole "use your brain" thing.

Plus, I like puzzles.

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book as really improve my learning skill despite I've learned some of her methods from other books

[Ary · Rating 4 out of 5]

an old book with provocative language. but with a good content

[Averill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok little book. Im glad i got it from the library. The parts on deep breathing for ols are pretty good, and i like the mind mapping section as well.

[Inayat Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a very little part of this book , this will give you an idea about this book for free. http://increaseyourbrainpowerinfewmin...

[Loren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book gives great advice & tips on learning. I liked how they broke down learning cycle into before, during & after learning. It's a must read for anyone who once to enhance the way they learn.