Einstein and Mental Snapshots
The name A. Einstein is a universal metaphor for genius and intelligence. Even those of us who are math and physics challenged may be aware of terms like E=MC2, General and Special Relativity, and his Nobel Prize in 1921 in physics for the Photoelectric Effect.
His work of 1905 is still considered miraculous by specialists in Superstring theory; and there are scientists who believe his Unified Field Theory is correct. He did not work on the Atomic bomb, but alerted President Roosevelt the Nazis were committed to manufacturing such a bomb to win World War 2.
Al cashed in his chips in 1955 at age 76, and willed his brain to researchers at
Princeton University. After many years of research it was concluded that nothing
in the Einstein brain accounted for his scientific genius.
Lost And Found
For the next twenty years the Einstein brain was lost in space. Steven Levy cared;
a reporter for the New Jersey Monthly about 1975, he set out to hunt it down.
Turned out it was in the possession of Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who
did the autopsy in Princeton. He had taken the brain with him to his lab at Wichita, Kansas. Tissue samples were sent to interested scientists, and the remainder was
returned to Princeton, N.J. because of Levy.
One of the Einstein brain tissue samples was sent to McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, for Dr. Sandra F. Witelson and her team. In 1999, she sent the results of their examination to Lancet (British medical journal) for publication.
The Einstein brain revealed a 15% larger width when compared with other normal cerebral cortices. Specifically, Brodmann Area 39, is the site of mathematical thought, and the ability to analyze in terms of space and movement; it was significantly larger in the Einstein brain.
Not words, but clear images of a visual kind – was a specialty of the Einstein brain,
according Dr. Witelson. This Area 39 is located in the Parietal lobe and part of the Association Cortex of our brain; it activates Mental Visualizations and potential creativity.
Glial Cells
Gray matter consists of our brain cells, 100 billion neurons, and in particular their axons and dendrites. White matter are the complementary glia (glue) cells, that
number ten to fifty-times as many as the neurons. Yet our glial cells get no respect.
Until about ten years ago, Glials were considered housekeepers, who merely cleaned
up broken and deceased neurons.
Today, Astrocytes, (starshaped), a type of glial cell, are given credit for providing
insulation for the neurons (myelin) located in our Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems, and for having projections to anchor our neurons to their blood supply.
Glials provide nutrition, and support in signal synaptic transmissions (linking).
These activities are of prime consideration for life. Glials are also involved in the release of neurotransmitters and Synaptic Plasticity (change) and Synaptogenesis (growth) of neurons. Life enhancing, deadly serious stuff are our glials.
Profound Statement: it appears that our memories are stored in the Synapses of
our neurons. See: Hebb research. Synapse is the connectivity (junction) of neurons, from Greek, meaning to join together. You might want to remember that Synaptic
Plasticity is the most important of our neurochemical foundations of learning and
memory.
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Al Einstein said – Imagination is more important than knowledge. One fades into obscurity in five years, the other connects to the cosmos. He also said, Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted,
counts. He knew more than E=MC2.
Mental Snapshots
Interested in the Einstein secrets of mental visualization?
You decide if it applies to ordinary mortals without a 15% wider brain for glials.
Look-Link-Snap
1. Close your eyes. It access Alpha brainwaves cycles of 8-13 Hz
and creates alert relaxation.
2. Look: Place a mental image on the movie screen of your mind: Example: see, visualize, and create a man with a cup of coffee balanced on his head, with grass-green hair, standing on a slab of ice. When you decide to take the Look step, you are focusing your Attention through Intention.
3. Link: is connecting what you see with the new thing you want
to remember. Our objective is to remember the name of this
man we met at a business conference.
He introduced himself as Joe Greenberg. Truckers call a cup of coffee – a cup of Joe, and seeing it mentally on the top of his head is so weird you will never forget his first name is Joe.
His hair looks like a strip of lawn grass – a deep green. You
can hardly forget that color hair; it stands for the first half his
surname name, Green. He is standing on a slab of ice reminding
us of an Iceberg, and establishes a link with the last half of his
name, Green – Berg.
4. Snap: is creating a mental long-term memory in our
hippocampus we can retrieve, and a physiological anchor
in our body we can anchor this weird memory to.
All it takes to create the Snapshot is to intentionally blink
your eyes as if they were the lens of a camera three-times
quickly. The secret is three-blinks with the lens of your eyes.
You capture the unique image of Joe Greenberg,
with the coffee cup on his head, green-hair, and standing
on an keg of ice once-twice-three-times. You snap it once, and
open your eyes for a second; close and snap a second time;
open your eyes for the third time, and snap this weird image
again for just one-second. Now you own it in under a minute.
Endwords 2
This Look-Link-Snap system works for remembering names and faces.
Find a shape that helps you access his/her face, height or posture.
Convert a book to a memorable mental visualization, based on its key
ideas. Attend a lecture and remember the major ideas by using
your eyes to create a Mental Snapshot of the ideas discussed.
Do you know the average college graduate forgets 92% of what he/she has
read, seen, or heard within fifteen minutes, when left to random memory?
You now have a tool that is baby-easy, always works, and develops your
learning and memory skills. Please note there are scientists who offer
evidence indicating training your imagination creates a Firewall to prevent
Alzheimers Disease. Yes, really. What is the secret again? Look-Link-Snap.
See ya,
copyright © 2006
H. Bernard Wechsler
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