February 14, 2013

Super-Learning: A Method to Getting Out of Your Way


When it comes to modalities (Visual, Audio, Kinesthetic, etc), I never considered myself to be much of an audible person. However, I know (intellectually) that I use all my senses to gather information, including my ears. Hearing may not be my strongest modality, but I still depend on it regularly throughout each day. It’s my guess, this situation is not limited to just me. This article was written as a result of a brief conversation with Andrea Sumers.

~ What is Super-Learning? ~

Super-Learning is a method that accelerates the learning process using the audible modality. In the field of hypnosis, there are a series of steps for any session.

1> Focus the attention of the client (also known as “induction”).

2> Distract the conscious mind (also known as “by-passing the critical factor”).

3> Use a "deepener" strategy to “lock” the conscious mind out of the way.

4> Input suggestions for change (this is where the learning program or lecture fits in).

5> Re-orient the client, allowing the conscious mind to return to normal awareness.

[Note: I use the term “client” to mean “the person being hypnotized”, even for self-hypnosis.]

There are many ways to accomplish all of these steps, and many programs to teach them. When using light hypnosis as a tool for accelerated learning, that is Super-Learning.

~ The Learning Problem ~

When I apply Super-Learning to study courses, the information is allowed directly into my subconscious mind without the hassle of my conscious mind getting in the way. In fact, the conscious mind can only handle 7 bits of information (+/- about 2 bits) at any one point in time. This is one reason we feel overwhelmed or get confused if we have many different facts tossed at us at one time, and we’re expected to remember them all.

Brute force memorization is probably the worst form of learning there is. There is certainly a time and place for it (as there is for everything), but it falls short as the “go to” default since it involves more work than is needed for most learning. This is where repetition comes in.

Repetition is well documented and accepted as the power behind really learning something. While this is true to a certain degree, it is most often misapplied as the reason for brute force memorization thru repetition. This method of learning (more often than not) results in frustration, and general feelings if inadequacy. So why are we all taught this is the way to learn?

~ Getting Out of Your Own Way ~

If you need to take something away from a toddler there are some things you can expect. If you just take it away, you can expect anything from fussy disappointment to full blown tantrum. Mothers learn quickly there is a power in distraction and substitution. If you need to take something away from a toddler without the fuss, you better be in the process of handing that toddler something else to be interested in.

This same concept is what happens with our conscious. Our conscious mind wants to be in the middle of everything we do; even if it slows everything to a crawl. When our conscious mind wants to be in control, it tries to handle everything that comes in and analyze it all. We are taught to memorize stuff, and so we try to do so. This is especially true of things we feel is important to learn.

When you want to learn something, it is easiest to do when your conscious mind is not getting in the way. The goal then is to find a means to busy your conscious mind and get it out of your way. There are many ways to do this, but they all involve some form of Super-Learning as described above. I’ll give a few examples of these methods.

~ Doodling, Jogging, & Soundscape Mapping ~

Doodling has been around for a very long time, and most of us have doodled something at some point in time. Most of the time, doodling is done while listening to a lecture, such as in a classroom or during a board meeting. Why? Because when we doodle, we are distracting the conscious mind from what is going on, and allowing the subconscious to absorb the information audibly.

The same thing happens when you play a game like solitaire or perform a repetitive activity such as jogging. Jogging tends to work better for people who are more kinesthetic, whereas doodling seems easiest for more visual people. For those who are already audible, Soundscape mapping seems to work well.

Soundscape mapping is a method of closing the eyes and focusing on subtle sounds in the area, focusing awareness beyond the sound of the lecture. The point is to divert the analytical conscious mind to something else, and therefore allow the subconscious to have full access to the lecture.

~ Finding Balance ~

There is a catch to using these types of distraction methods though. If the distraction uses too much of your cognitive skills, then your subconscious mind becomes focused on the distraction and away from the lecture. If the distraction uses too little of your cognitive skills, then your conscious mind becomes bored, and can actually hinder your learning efforts as it begins to mentally fidget.

Finding your personal balance is an essential and very deliberate thing to do. The better you get at finding and then maintaining your personal balance, the more supercharged your learning becomes.

~ Intention Directs the Capacity of Super-Learning ~

The best way to find your personal balance and maintain it is to direct your intention. This is the underlying psychology behind why methods of intentional doodling (like Zendoodling) work as well as they do.

Intentionally doodling with the purpose to distract the conscious mind and allow yourself to slip into a light hypnotic trance performs the task of distracting your conscious mind, while naturally being flexible enough to easily find and maintain an optimum balance for Super-Learning.

~ In Practice ~

In the late 1970’s, an experiment was done at a private K-12 school in California (which will remain unnamed for now as I do not have their permission to mention them). As a child, I was attending that school during the time when this experiment of intentional doodling was being taught as a learning tool. As the instructor would lecture on a topic, the students were to doodle while listening.

The students had to be able to answer questions if asked, and were to ask questions if they had them (which they did). This requirement seemed to turn random doodling into intentional doodling. The result of the experiment was an amazing increase of retention, ease of learning, and higher testing scores across the board.

I have heard of many other experiments done along these same lines. In fact, during the tutor training course I took, the other students and I (all adults) were told to play with wooden blocks while listening to the lectures to increase our learning; this is another example of the same Super-Learning principle.

Unfortunately, this research doesn’t seem to have reached public schools yet. I personally know it’s been around for decades as an amazing, proven, time-tested learning tool. So why isn’t it more widely taught, and used? Why torture students with the old brute-force memorization method of learning for everything?

~ In Closing ~

The easy way to do this yourself is to get some paper (or use the borders of your note-taking paper), and a pen or pencil (I prefer pencil since shading becomes part of my intentional doodling fun), and doodle with simple shapes; lines, squiggles, circles, curves, and angles. These are the basic palette to use.

The object is not to draw something specific. The object is to doodle something abstract and detailed. A few small circles bunched together, connecting to a squiggly line that is then traced in parallel a few times, and so on. The intentional doodle should focus more on small details than on any big picture.

Here is the important part for true Super-Learning: While creating your super-detailed doodling, have your lecture or audio training program (which is what I prefer) playing and pay just enough attention to make sure you can answer questions about what is going on if someone were to ask you.

I said I prefer audio training programs. The reason is because I can listen to the same one multiple times. Using the Super-Learning method of intentional doodling while listening to an audio program I have listened to before increases the power of learning by adding repetition. Generally, I give myself some time between repeats for my subconscious to digest what it has learned (which is much less time than trying memorize by brute-force).

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