The phenomenal power of the human mind.
According to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole.
Amazing, huh?
Ok, you will be tested, so pay attention here. Were you able to read the first paragraph fairly easily? With only a little bit of difficulty? With difficulty but, with perseverance, successfully? Or did you have to “sound out to yourself” each of the misspelled words and then figure out its real meaning?
I cannot answer for you, and you need to be completely honest here. Honest with yourself, not with me. I really don’t care one way or the other, although we’ll get further into that in a bit. Lets take a look at two examples and see where we’re going with this.
First, my sweetie, my wife June, and I are very different people in our understanding and interaction with the world around us. The above paragraph gives some insights into both these differences and our perception, understanding and interaction with both ourselves and the world around us.
June types words and phrases and at speeds of 80-85 wpm. She ignores advertisements on television, she carries on conversations with people while continuing to work and/or type and watching the television, she types a document and usually is completely unaware of the content of what she has typed, she is good at remembering words and names, not great with numbers – though she is a numerologist and deals with numbers and meanings. She also ‘tunes out’ the commercials which show on TV. Her verbal and reading skills are superior. When she reads books she reads words and phrases. She reads 100-150 wpm and she carries her personal phone directory with her in printed form.
Loring (me) types individual letters of words at speeds of 100+ wpm. He knows everything he has typed and is able to make punctuation and word corrections “on the fly” as he types. He prefers to have “white sound” (i.e., music) playing as he works, is easily and often distracted by the TV and other people, sees the details of all the ads that play on the TV, has difficulty at times with names of people and places including the street where he lives, does most easy computations in his head, and remembers most peoples telephone numbers after just a few telephone calls. Loring learned Morse Code by identifying each individual characteristic of the letters, not by the “sound” of the different letters and numbers, but still took Morse code at 30 wpm when most people 1) begin failing between 10 and 15 wpm, and, in order to get beyond 12-15 wpm must learn to identify the distinctive “sound of each letter/character” because they are too fast to be able to count the individual “dah’s and dit’s”. When he reads books he reads letters of words, spelling them out in detail to understand what the word is. In spite of this he reads between 500 and 1000 wpm. His verbal and reading skills are superior.
The powers of the human mind are, indeed, phenomenal. A healthy mind can heal an otherwise healthy, though injured, body faster than it normally should. And these powers are only beginning to be investigated and understood. Yes, these investigations began hundreds of years ago, but we have only scratched the surface of understanding the powers of the mind. We do know, however, that healthy bodies and powerful minds begin with proper nutrition.
In fact, the overriding role of proper nutrition in overall health cannot be overemphasized. In this world we have created, filled with pollutants of all kinds (both the outright poisons and the anti-biotics), we need to be very careful in our diet in order to minimize the effects of the various pollutants and maximize the benefits of proper nutrition. Consider the role of a supplemental “greens” product with your diet for overall good health. Consider also the possible role of herbal food supplements on your diet and overall health.
Okay, here’s the drill on this exercise – but its purely voluntary on your part.
Rank yourself from 1 thru 5 on the above criteria – i.e., easy to read = 1, must translate = 5, etc., plus the details of what it is about and why and email Loring Windblad with your information. Include other personal idiosyncrasies you deem interesting.
I reserve the right to use your overall statistics in future articles and essays. However, I guarantee that any and all personal information you submit, including your email address, will never be divulged to any other person(s) and/or organizations under any circumstances. Your personal information is totally secure with me and will never be used except by me for an acknowledgement of receipt and, if you wish, updates on future data collected and essays.
