I have three kids that age! Send me the link for the course. I am interested. Maybe just maybe I could get some cheap flights and count it as our holiday?
Hi Mandaplus3,
Believe TmT posted their fB link already. http://www.midbrainactivationinfo.com/
I’m a bit skeptical but DH is willing to give it a try when our DS is 5! ($ in exchange for superpowers shoulds like a bargain)
My SIL sent her son to a similar blindfold reading class before (>5 years ago). Eveyone in the family laughed at the idea; and guess what? it didnt work because apparently my nephew was very left brainded already (if there is such thing…in her own words her son was too opinionated and unwilling to accept new ideas of thinking?) he was prolly 5 yo that time…
@ Chris
I don’t have a dog in this race so it matters not whether this is real. However, I do have some questions about saying RB techniques don’t work, for purposes of argument, defining terms is always good.
There are many times you and I are not on the same page but I always read your posts, I’ve even gone so far as to search the archives for your posts. You are a skeptic of the best kind. So when you jump into a debate - you rarely do - I want to know why. This often has the effect of clarifying my own thinking.
I asked the question earlier in the thread: what qualifies as midbrain activation/right brain techniques? It is clear that Little Reader works. I have a 2 year old who reads by sight but is also reading phonetically. Some of the techniques being discussed were developed as hypnosis and mind control techniques and happen to be very effective and I suspect dangerous in untrained hands. The flashing and strobing on the wrong child or adult can cause seizures. I don’t think it is wise to lump all this is the charletan category. Some of these things are truly manipulating brain waves and rewiring the brain.
Whether people can read blindfolded or develop esp/superman characteristics (kidding with the last one, just kidding) is not the totality of what is being discussed. I would be interested in your thoughts on the rest of it.
I once read in an autobiography about a girl who left africa and became a model in england than moved to america. Apparently a tv station wanted to do a documentry on her life and took her back to Africa (The specific country she was from but escapes me now) They asked her how she was going to find her mum without a telelphone to let her know she was in the country) She said My Mum will know Im here and she will find me. Low and behold on the last day of shooting her mum turns up. She was not surprised but her crew was. She said one of the things that many tribal cultures have was some sort of telekinetic connection to each other so they always knew they were safe. This defies logic but I can see that maybe without formal schooling and second guessing that their intuition was freely allowed to develop.
This is not the first time I have read about intuition being a part of tribal cultures apparently this type if intuitution has been recorded through out Aborigianal tribes as well.
I am beginning to think that we always had these powers but because we no longer needed them up unitl now where the information is just at you all the time and now we need the skills to take in all that info, that we bothered to do anything about it. I think both my girls and I would benefit greatly from having these skills. @Mandab I have a friend in the travel industry she could do you a good deal if you want to go to Maylasia.
What do you think? Is this really new or are we reactivating what we always had? And do we need RB acticvation to not only survive but really live our lives in this century?
Kimba
I am very happy to see that the topic of Midbrain Activation is gaining so much interest
Thank you for all the insights, questions, links etc.
- TMT - perhaps you might want to move the other relevant threads here: Midbrain activation home study program and Testers wanted.
I am glad you found comprehensive information at the blindfold reading site - I paid much more but didn’t find anything useful.
For one thing, the man is anonymous - even when he sends a parcel by post.
According to GMC - the creators of MBA - he is an Indonesian copying their material.
The hardcopy I received was full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
-
It is not the old nose peek trick - we have met this objection before. You see can a child reading even with a full plastic bag over her head.
My niece read her book upside down - at the Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation. -
What Kimba has pointed out is also called the Hundredth Monkey Effect. Another term is The Morphic Field ( Sheldrake).
-
PhotoReading : I spent over 10 years and more than $10,000 trying to perfect the photoreading seminar when I came across blindfold reading. BFR or MBA. Combining the techniques from BFR, I was able to get six adults to demonstrate what Pete Bissonete does on TV.
What he doesn’t say ( but what I heard from my instructor in Minneapolis ) is that he practiced for one year to get to that stage. My group had only 8 weeks of practice
Hi Ruwan
James Randi has offered a prize of US $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate this kind of ability under a controlled challenge.
He does advise the following-
"Please be advised that several applicants have suffered great personal embarrassment after failing these tests. I strongly advise you to conduct proper double-blind tests of any ability you believe you can demonstrate, before attempting to undergo a testing for this prize. This has saved many applicants much time and work, by showing that the powers were quite imaginary on the part of the would-be claimant. Please do this, and do not choose to ignore the need for such a precaution. This advice is offered only so that the applicant might be spared these problems.
- James Randi"
Are the left brain, mid-brain, right brain ideas a myth? Is there evidence to support the claim that babies are right brain dominant?
" Under the scanner, language turned out to be represented on both sides of the brain, in matching areas of the cortex. Areas on the left dealt with the core aspects of speech such as grammar and word production, while aspects such as intonation and emphasis lit up the right side. In the same way, the right brain proved to be good at working with a general sense of space, while equivalent areas in the left brain fired when someone thought about objects at particular locations."
http://www.rense.com/general2/rb.htm
“But at least there seems no prospect of a return to the old left-right caricatures that inspired so many self-help books exhorting people to liberate their right brains and avoid too much sterile left-brain thinking.”
It seems more likely that our brains function mainly in an integrated fashion under all circumstances.
Kuda Bux performing this trick- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6x_zO0IIsE
Chris.
If you watch the lecture I posted by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, he discusses the lack of character that James Randi has and that he isn’t an expert or professional in the field of science nor is he an honest person. While Dr. Sheldrake never applied for the James Randi challenge, James Randi made some false statements about Dr Rupert Sheldrake’s work, and when Dr. Sheldrake asked him to provide evidence of the statements made, James Randi confessed he made it all up about seeing all of Dr. Sheldrake’s videos and then stated that he no longer has the evidence to disprove Dr. Sheldrake’s experiments because he threw them away along time ago. James Randi appears to be his own fraud. Dr. Sheldrake takes no issue with real skeptics and he works alongside many skeptics to verify the validity of his experiments. They usually come up with the same data, but data can be interpreted differently. I think this is very true when trying to collect data from experiments relating to intuition and what appears to be paranormal phenomenons.
While I don’t plan on discussing this topic a whole bunch, I thought I might chip in a bit.
The dailygrail link quotes Loyd Auerbach. In the 90s I read his book “Mind Over Matter” where it discusses how to perform legitimate PK. Curious, I decided to give the methods a shot. This isn’t something I go around admitting - but there is something to it (but to this day I don’t know what it is). I worked up the ability to interact with a target at a range of about 15 feet with said target enclosed in glass. Not too long after this though, I stopped working on it and don’t really see the value in embarking in such an exercise other than practicing to clear the mind and focus.
Other than the first hand experience above, I pretty much view any of this sort of thing with a prove it mentality. The video posted earlier of the girl putting cards in numerical order was clearly cheating and there are at least two ways to notice it. 1. how she re-adjusts the stacks perfectly, 2. how she slightly tilts her head back when either moving or placing a card.
When I see that sort of thing, I have to ask myself why they’re doing it… what does this lady have in the game to put up a youtube video where she’s taught her kid to try and fool people?
James Randi’s JREF forum is one of my favorite forums to browse - though I don’t do it all that often unless I’m following some big story. I appreciate the guy but I also know that if I had ever tried to do the simple experiments discussed above, he’d make it impossible (perhaps put me in a different room, etc).
There is some level of weirdness in the world - you need to look no further than the world of the quantum to see it - but 99.99% of the stuff you read, see, hear about, are told to believe despite contrary evidence is frankly, lies mistruths or myths.
IMHO, of course.
The video of the child reading blindfolded isn’t a very believeable one, but there are some out there that go out of their way to prove legitmacy.
This one appears to be a skeptic taking a closer look into a story of a boy who others have claimed can read blind folded. Forward to segment at 13:41 and then 16:05 is where the blind folded reading begins. Its very short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHmrLDs_Z-s
Here are others that appear to demonstrate the child is truly blind folded. I can not confirm my opinion about these videos as they are in another language, and we do not know if these children have memorized texts before the video is taken. Honestly, I do not know where I stand, but I do believe that we have a lot left to explore when it comes the human mind and its capabilities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4wbeUII1Zk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFzn1PGRhIU
and probably could find a few more videos…but what questions comes to the forefront of my mind is if this is all really real"where are these kids now?" “how long did the abilities last?” “how have they benefited?” and “how do the parents feel about it after a year or two later?”… I guess I have a ton more questions but for now I will just leave it as that.
My point in sharing the video of the girl sorting cards was actually more for the parent testimonial. She sent her daughter to a midbrain class, and she’s very happy with the results.
As far as Kuda Bux goes, I had never heard of him but enjoyed learning more about his life. He was most famous for his “blindfold trick”, which he always attributed to mental concentration and the third eye. He also admitted to incorporating conjuring tricks into his acts. The fact that conjuring magicians would do blindfolded tricks doesn’t make midbrain activation less valid to me. Every “trick” has an explanation, a way that it works. If you were a magician and learned about midbrain activation and it wasn’t well known, wouldn’t you be interested? Why not?
Here are a couple more magicians that may or may not be using midbrain activation. When all is said and done, I’m not trying to prove it’s validity to anyone. All I’m saying is that I think it’s real and I’m trying to figure out how to teach it to my kids. I already know I’m crazy. :biggrin: If I crack the code though, the BK forum will be the first to know about it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGBK8rkZLF8
(his comment: As a teenager I witnessed Kuda Bux on the Mike Douglas show,THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES. To me is was real magic, years later when I began performing mentalism myself I had to duplicate his act. I hope you enjoy this tribute!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=twaWTZShUno&feature=endscreen
(I thought the duck was interesting. He says “This is almost like electricity only different”)
Cokers4life
It is still possible to see wearing these blind folds even with the addition of tissue, extra card, duct tape or play dough. Why are there no demonstrations of children wearing painted swim or safety goggles?
Bronnikov school exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKh9Yh-GsU
Chris.
Let’s not just stay stuck on whether or not its believable. The questions that are more important are completely avoided. Okay so you claim you can read blind folded…so what? What does it really mean? What purpose does it serve? I am not looking for a parlor trick. Neither am I making myself a victim of it by inquiring. I only become a victim if I buy into it without any considerations. I haven’t bought into anything. I am merely considering it.
I have only said that some go out of their way to prove legitimacy, and I am quite capable of arguing for the possibility of fraudalant activities. For example camera editing and so forth… I am saying so what? Where are these kids now? All these videos are old by two to ten years. What purpose has it served them? How has it added value to their life? Sometimes we buy into something right off the bat, and then years later after considerations and other experiences we have a very different view of what happened. I would want to interview these children years after the fact…maybe as adults who have worldly experience.
I also realize the cultural differences between the Western world and Asia. One group believes in solid proven scientific fact and the other believes there is something more that can’t be proven with current scientific methodologies. Everything can be explained but not everything has been explained. Each culture has their virtues. Neither better than the other…IMHO.
We are quite isolated in America from mystical interpretations and events making it easy to dismiss them as supersition and stupidity. I am not naive enough to dismiss what I have not seen with my own eyes and with my own understanding. Neither am I naive to dismiss what I have seen. We must also consider that science has come up with so many faulty theories where some are still proposed as fact even after many have proven their faulty disposition.
The fact is these videos don’t go a long way to prove or disprove anything, and that is my own opinion.
I just had a flash of inspiration!
If anyone has materials that can teach blindfold reading, please PM, we could do quite well for ourselves… go to google or youtube and search for “potripper” to see what’s possible when you have a skill that’s known in the poker world as “god mode”
with god mode, potripper crushed poker. It is the ultimate super power at a poker table… what I’d do to get my hands on this…
Corkers I am with you. Whether or not it is possible or not isn’t nearly as important as whether or not the skill has use. Blindfolded reading has no real use, but apparently it is used more as a test than a skill. It’s the proof that the midbrain is active. Speed reading has use. It’s worth chasing after, it is worth putting effort into getting. Photographic memory has use also. Activities that enhance this possible capability are worth pursuing.
Thinking back and forward now. So my family found silly sentences and mandala easy. Easier than it should have been. We saw reverse colours immediately using visual stimulation cards. Waterdreamer suggested we just might need to do more before the penny drops and the benefits show up. Sighting teaching reading as an example, some kids get it faster than others. I think the idea has solid merit. If step one is too easy move to step two, master that and move to step three.
So based on that idea we need to get LOTs of silly sentance cards made or printed. We need to track down some more difficult visual stimulation cards and we need to practice more complex mandalas. Probably we could work on blindfold puzzles and games but will that give me the results I want? If the focus is on eyes and aiming for photographic memory and speed reading will the puzzles and blindfolds help?
Lol, Poker Dad, you are awesome.
And Chris is right about the magicians. I’m feeling a little dumb about my comment that they were using midbrain activation skills now. I gathered that they aren’t from this thread: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=1486&forum=15. I even found a book you can buy to learn how it’s done (and I’m seriously considering it, I wanted to be a magician when I was younger.). http://www.martinbreese.com/bookpages/blindfold.htm
Cokers4life is right though, questioning how believable the actual blindfold-reading is not the real point, although it would be awesome. We aren’t after a parlor trick, we want educational and life benefits. Frankly I’m a lot more interested in helping my children achieve skills like in the following video than in reading a book blindfolded. Their are many testimonials on the internet who have photo-reading skills, and I really want that for my family.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=joUZpw93eqE
I think it’s time to play “What do we know”. (any fellow square one tv fans out there? ;))
We know that many reptiles have a parietal eye, and depending on the species, that eye is quite capable of seeing.
We know that people have the pineal gland associated with the third eye of reptiles, but lack the parietal organ.
We know that there are many species of animals sensitive to electric and or magnetic fields, such as migratory animals, or bees. (http://eartheasy.com/blog/2013/03/bees-guided-by-flowers-electric-fields/)
We know (I’m assuming, because we are on this forum) that tiny children have a much larger capacity for learning than society gives them credit for.
We know that midbrain activation centers are fairly new and are growing in popularity in Asia. They are popping up everywhere, almost like an informational gold rush. We know that many of these activation centers focus on 2-day workshops, and that they involve listening to alpha-wave music, brain gym exercises, and a variety of blindfolded activities including color sorting, reading, puzzles, and physical activities such as catching and throwing balls, navigating obstacle courses, and riding bicycles.
We know that white people, generally speaking, are not very interested in midbrain activation.
We know that some people cheat/peak.
For myself, I’m very skeptical that all of the children in these videos are cheating. For one, I know that all children instinctively tilt their head up when they are blindfolded even if the blindfold is secure. Think of the last time you did a pinata. It takes seasoned magicians a lot of practice, even years, to perfect and pull off a blindfold act. Most kids aren’t very good at magic tricks, so to see a room full of children doing “blindfold tricks” on their first or second day of practice seems doubtful to me. I also doubt that these learning centers would be so successful if they weren’t producing results. I’m still pursuing it!
I also know that since I started doing the elements that I understand, I have had some real experiences. My kids have been more creative. My 3 and 5 year-old have started writing mostly on their own. Granted, I’ve been working with them on this with a few other resources, but I also think that it is also related to the midbrain-ish stuff, especially brain gym for my son. So if blindfolded activities and ESP scare you, that’s totally fine, there are still some elements that may benefit you and your kids. I’m excited about midbrain stuff in that it is stuff that I the mommy can do for ME. It’s too late for me to change my past and become an early reader, but it isn’t too late for me to develop a photographic memory or speed-reading abilities.
I also have to say that something different is happening in my brain, or at least I’m more aware of it. I think photo eye-play has a lot to do with it. I previously mentioned the image of my sheets, as well as my son’s moving arm. For the religious people out there that are squeamish about midbrain activation, I will briefly say that I am a Christian, more specifically LDS (Mormon). I have had many experiences which we call “feeling the spirit”, or in other words, the beautiful, peaceful feeling of God’s presence. I have also been in the presence of evil spirits that have accompanied specific people. As a child I was especially sensitive to that. I had an uncle that was involved with the wrong crowd and whenever he approached the home I would begin to cry uncontrollably. When he walked in the front door I would freak out and run away from him. So I like to think that I recognize both evil and good spirits, and I wouldn’t associate the stuff happening in my head with either of them. I have had an “aha” moment from this thread, that intuition is not the same as “feeling the spirit”. My whole life I have thought they were, but I now think that intuition is perhaps more related to an actual skill. It’s not the same thing as communicating with God. But that’s my own conclusion and we few of us are on the same religious journey. It’s hard to look into midbrain activation without questioning how it fits within your own religious and philosophical beliefs. I would be open to talking more about the religious aspects of midbrain in private messages if anyone is interested. But back to the non-spiritual phenomena, something is happening in my brain related to images in my eyes. I now have greater power in my dreams, so that’s pretty cool. As I go to sleep I’ve become more aware how my brain is sorting through the images of the day. I’ve been awake during rapid eye movement moments and “seen” several image outlines rapidly flash in the screen of my mind. That’s not something they advertise at these midbrain schools, but it is something new to me, and I’m optimistic that it’s beneficial. We’ll see.
There’s something to all of this, I just haven’t been able to pin it down yet. Maybe my kids won’t read blindfolded, and that’s okay. Everybody’s educational journey is different. So far, whatever it is, I like it.
I will take a look shortly and see what I can move/link for you.
I am glad you found comprehensive information at the blindfold reading site - I paid much more but didn't find anything useful. For one thing, the man is anonymous - even when he sends a parcel by post. According to GMC - the creators of MBA - he is an Indonesian copying their material. The hardcopy I received was full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Is this the guy? His contact information is listed here. http://press-release-distribution.net/all-press-releases/97616-midbrain-activation-training-stimulates-brain-to-sharpen-the-intuition.html I just figured the mistakes were due to ESL language barriers.
Some interesting studies about movement and the brain. I debated starting a new topic but put it here on account of the midbrain/athleticism and exercise/memory connections.
Study shows that mice bred for athleticism have larger midbrains.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Athletic-Mice-Have-Bigger-Brains-UC-Riverside-Research-Shows-187918971.html
http://news.menshealth.com/exercise-and-memory/2012/12/15/
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html
A study on the effects being blindfolded has on the brain
http://www.asrn.org/journal-nursing/433-scientists-unmask-brains-hidden-potential.html
Also, here is a general overview on ParaPsychology. It’s interesting to learn that " both Harvard and Stanford Universities have fellowships endowed explicitly for psychical research (but they don’t advertise it, and most of the available funds have been usurped for other purposes)."
http://www.deanradin.com/para1.html
http://www.deanradin.com/para2.html#ninec
http://www.deanradin.com/para3.html
For anyone interested, I came across a book written in 1924 about Mid Brain Activation. I found a copy for about $25 that should be here in a few weeks so I have not read it yet, but the book is also available on worldcat.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Mobilizing-the-Mid-Brain-the-Technique-for-Utiliz-Frederick-Pierce-B000IG7TXM-/00/s/MTMwWDkw/z/Yj8AAMXQIBBRBy33/$(KGrHqZHJE8FD5ffFkMsBRBy33OciQ~~60_35.JPG
Thanks I just got a copy for $35. I knew there was a reason why I was still awake. Look forward to sharing notes with you.
Sweet! I bought it too. Thank you.
Edit: Nevermind, my order was cancelled because they couldn’t locate it, and the rest are above my price range. But I did find a tidbit about the book:
http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/psycarticles-reg/mobilizing-the-mid-brain-eouv4CNeqh