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Browse published articles attributed to Hal Wechsler, with full-archive search.
Can Tickling Dramatically Improve Your Health? Is Nature wasteful or thrifty? Evolution uses the same structures by Adaptation for human survival over the millennia. You read that fish gills evolved into the human face and neck, while dinosaurs with tiny feathers evolved into present day birds. Is laughter just a waste of time?
Why Symphony Conductors Live Longer. If you read the obituaries for fun and as social history, the #1 occupation producing healthy, long living folks – I mean into their 90s – are musical conductors rnmaking ridiculous arm gestures. Can their secret of healthy, long lives, work for others? Inquiring Minds need to know because we want to be around for the fun and games. The critical exercises are easy to employ at your desk and requires a miserly five-minutes to implement daily. We have recommended these baby-easy exercises to a legion of executives whor
Can Ten-Cent Earplugs Improve Your Learning, Memory & Reading Speed? NASA’s Astronauts could not use their pens in space so they spent ten million to invent a special ink-flow device. The Russian space cadets had no dinero, and solved the same problem by writing with pencils, which worked like a charm. Earplugs are not exactly high-tech, but work instantly to eliminate unwanted noise. The first earplugs written about were wax and used by the crew of Odysseus to ward off the Siren’s Song and a shipwreck. How old? 8th Century, B.C.
How to Make Big Decisions Consciously – Instead of on Auto-Pilot It is an insult to tell anyone living that they make their most important decisions non-consciously. Homo sapiens pride ourselves on behaviors using logic and reason, math and science, right? Neuroscientists until 2008 concluded our consciousness (reason, logic and thinking) was the basis for western civilization and its progress. Imagine an executive at Apple being told his conscious mind is almost an illusion, and all their success is the product of non-consciousrn(auto-pilot) decision-making. Ridiculous.
How Can a Fake Smile Produce Health And Avoid Stress? Howard Hughes owned a major airline called Pan-American World Airways from the 1930s to December 4, 1991. Pan-Am required all its flight attendants (Stewardesses) to be thin, attentive, and consistently smile at the passengers. Of course it was a phony smile, and became recognized as a Pan-Am Smile. All their advertising revealed beautiful young women exposing their pearly white teeth standing in front of massive airplanes. There are two types of smiles: the Pan-Am toothy, forced Smile.
Is Replaying An Emotional Trauma Good Or Bad For You? Who Cares – But Why Controlled mental replaying of your negative experience (event) is excellent therapy. Repetition with new understanding deadens, dulls and benumbs the pain from the original occurrence. Mental repetition of a traumatic event desensitizes your emotions. Examples: a severe car accident, the boss firing your fundament, a dirty divorce, war battles or personal physical attacks (rape).
How to Hum Your Way Back to Health Can you keep an open mind about knowledge that is NOT scientific? I have to force myself not to giggle at beliefs and practices of non-scientific cultures. But, recent research on Tibetan practices have proven as real as a heart attack. Do you have to be a computer scientist to surf the Internet and make satisfying discoveries? How about being an electrical engineer in order to throw the light switch? Do you need a degree from Ford on auto mechanics to drive your car? Physical Healing
How to Save Your Brain By Playing Dumb Word Games If it is dumb, why should I do it? Because you are going to live into your late eighties or nineties, and you want to have all your cognitive (senses and memory) skills. See, fifty-percent of seniors past 85 live with Alzheimer or other forms of dementia. No good. What about helping your brain now – in the present?
“Did You Know - You Can Improve Your ‘Working-Memory’, Up To 65% With a Two-Minute Strategy. Ask me How?” • 1. Before this new research: the prevailing scientific belief was ‘working-memory’ is fixed, and Not trainable. • 2. “So-What?” When you improve (train) your ‘working-memory’, you trigger the ability to communicate between different areas of the brain. That helps you master complex language comprehension, problem-solving, and even decision-making. • 3. “I don’t get it?”
How to Use Influence Principles For Personal Success And Win Big She was a ten-year old girl scout selling their annual stale cookies. Cut to the chase - she looked up at me and said, "Would you please make a $300 donation to the Girl Scouts of America?" If she were an adult salesperson I would have pointed at the door with a mean look on my face. Instead I looked down at her and said in my kindest voice, "Not a chance in the world, kid. In factr I am not that crazy about your organization." She looked sad, and I swear a tear ran from her left eye. "But yourr
How to Stay Happy 24/7 & Add 10-Years to Your Longevity Did your Mom walk around the house singing out loud half the time, and smiling the rest? See if you remember this: a French lady namedr Jeanne Calment died in 1997. Her birth and death were documented. She was the oldest person who ever lived – documented, not hot air. How old was she? Age 122 years. My Mom lived to 92 – not bad right? Mom had three sets of facial muscles she always exercised: Risorius (laughingr
How to Stamp Out Personal Fear And Anxiety in Ten-Minutes Do you ever read articles or listen to experts who sound so slick you discount their knowledge as just old common-sense? What we are too nice to say is their great solution to your problem is too good to be true. When the answer is too-easy, something arnten-year old could come up with, we say, No thanks, I will do it myself. U of Chi The University of Chicago is a great school, it was started byr
How to Double Your Memory Permanently Is Intelligence the other side of the coin of Working Memory? When kids and adults have poor working memory, are they automatically stupid? What’s “working memory”? Is it’s your brain’s ability to hold information and manipulate it mentally? Some examples please: how can we understand the idea in a sentence unless we remember the first half and combine it with the last half? What is the 5th letter of the English alphabet? You can hear (subvocalization) them in your mind and count them simultaneously.
What is the Law of Expectation, And Who Cares? Now you are an intelligent person, wise in the ways of the world. If you do some quick internet research on the Law of Expectation, what will you find? Answer: Google has to remove this drivel. These articles contain facts a first-grader would not believe. Example: “Whatever you believe and expect to happen, with confidence, are most likely to occur.” Life is a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, you get what you expect. So expect all positive stuff and you will receive it.” What else?r
Why Resistance to Change is Painful We are not philosophers but like you – very practical folks. Half our job isrnholding workshops for executives at major corporations to train them in two-days to 3x their learning skills and 2x their long-term memory. What that means is these up-and-coming divisional VPs and heads of departments can read-and-remember three (3) books, articles and reports in the time their peers can hardly finish one. Are these new skills beneficial for soon-to-be corporate rntop guns?
Is Your Memory As Good As a 5th Grader? If you got five-minutes, you can discover how to remember rnabstract (tough-stuff) permanently. We teach this long-term memory strategy to ten-year olds (5th graders) and they get it. How about it? Now if your life centers on ditch digging – this is not a big-deal. But if you are involved in the Knowledge Economy as an executive orrnentrepreneur, student or smart-ass, maybe this five-minutes is worth your while. Tell me, just between us, when was the last time you learned something practical for your brain’s sake? Let’s do it, huh?
How to Permanently Double Your Memory in the next 11 Minutes Did you know that after finishing an important article, report or rnnon-fiction book, both students and executives retain about 10% ofrnthe key points after 8-hours, and around 5% after 24-hours? So reading alone is not the secret of LEARNING. If we cannot retain the key points – did we really READ the material? What is the secret ofrnconverting information to long-term memory? Ya gotta have a system, a strategy, a schema to encode the new knowledge, and later to instantly decode its meaning.
How to Double Your Income in 2014 Using Mental-Imagery • 1. Me: “The latest research at the University of Oslo, & published 12.03.13 in Psychological Science drops a bomb. That what we concentrate on as a Mental-Movie, and emotionalize, creates itself in our experiences.” • 2. You: “Do they say that if we can Imagine something long enough and with emotion, it can reveal itself in our physical experience?” • 3. Me: “Exactly. How did you know that?” • 4. You: “Easy, because I concentrate on my Goals like crazy, create a mental-picture of how I want it to turn-out.”
Do You Use Repetition in Your Life? When I asked this question of our staff and students, they answer with their own ‘defensive’ response, “Why should I?” My answer to them and you is, your parents were right. “About what?” “Repetition is the mother of “learning”. I know a ton of learningrnand memory strategies, but “repetition” of important ideas you need to remember, beats them all. The problem doing “repetition” is the time. It takes 21rnconsecutive days to create a habit, and reprogram your brain. What’s The Alte ative to Repetition
“Do you need More Energy About 3PM? Done.” • 1. Mike: “Pop, tell me something new, about acing school?” • 2. Me: “This is the best strategy, baby-easy 30-second exercise, in the past 10-years. It’s a Stress-Buster, and reboots your Life-Energy. • Takes half-a-minute & you can do it yourself without a Guru. Some students do it 3x a day, others only once when they require an ‘energy-boost’. • 3. Mike: “You tested this system at your workshops, and it didn’t kill anybody? Most of your best exercises are from Yoga, right?”r
“Follow-The-Bouncing-Ball!” • 1. “Pop, in plain English, tell me why using a Pacer or pointer to underline or overline the words of each sentence is worth the bother?” • 2. “Fifty years of reading research show that students from 5th grade through high school, college & grad school, and all adults, including executives.” • 3. “They lose their place on each page of text they read, not once or twice, but five to six times – continuously.” • 4. “How come I never notice I lose my place?”
“Are You ‘Normal’ and Hate Learning?” • 1. Me: “Normal is the opposite of Abnormal, right? Dictionary.com defines ‘normal’ as Average-Ordinary-Common. Add: mediocre & second-rate. • Normal makes you Defensive toward Change, Improvement, and expanding your Comfort-Zone. Are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet & Donald Trump Normal?” • It’s not just Semantics - ‘Normal’ is for losers. Extraordinary ideas and actions bring home the bacon.”
“Affirmations Change Your Brain?” • “Wait. Are you saying that ordinary, dumb words, repeated in a sing-song fashion, can change my thoughts and emotions? Sounds ridiculous to me”, said Stephanie. • “More incredible, the latest scientific research at Carnegie-Mellon University, and published in the jou al, PLOS ONE, says these “dumb” words, repeated like a parrot, can boost your problem-solving skills. Our experience is “affirmations” can improve your results up to 80%.” • “Tell me more.”
Three (3) Strategies to Attract Wealth 1. Bagha 2. Positioning 3. Rhythm For Money-Magnet You and I are skeptics, and that means we disbelieve most of what we hear and read, unless we are presented with proof. We consider ourselves followers of Cause-And-Effect, not superstition, right? This is plain common-sense. Einstein said, ‘Common-sense is the accumulation of our prejudices for the first eighteen years of our lives.’ But common-sense is better than believing nonsense, and being a fool. We are and remain practical folks, skeptics.
Do Inquiring Minds Know This? A hobby that feeds my sense of curiosity is collecting facts and definitions nobody else knows or cares about. Statistics 1. The human body has 60,000 miles of blood vessels for circulation. If you Google it, scientific research papers quote this number for the past decade. How do they know? Vas You Dere Sharlie? That’s almost three-times around the planet. We must be very important entities. 2. Our lungs are filled with Alveoli – tiny air sacs that exchange rncarbon dioxide for oxygen. Good idea.
How to Overcome Fear Of Change Does this make sense to you? Humans are wired as a species to haver Danger-Avoidance functions take precedence over our Pleasuring-Seeking functions. What does it mean? Fear overrides our desire for pleasure. Is it hard to believe 40-million Americans, according to the National Institute rnof Mental Health suffer from Anxiety Disorders – Panic Attacks? According to UCLA professor Michael Fanselow - “Fear is the most powerful emotion.” It spreads out to Fear of Failure, of looking stupid, criticism, and rnappearing incompetent.
“Science Finally “Gets” Meditation, Do You?” • 1. “Have you tested “mindfulness-meditation”? You seem to know that you hate it, and it’s a waste of time.” • 2. “Sure, a dozen times, and it gives me a headache, and seems like it’s a way to take a nap when you should be working.” • 3. The University of Califo ia, Davis, Johns-Hopkins School of Medicine, and the jou al, Health Psychology, (March 28, 2013), say meditation reduces the stress hormone, Cortisol. That a serious physical indication of its usefulness.
How Critics Influence Behavior – And So Should You Half of the major theater critics said they liked Jersey Boys, while the other half called it 1970s corny. The NY Times gave it a moderate rave on November 7th 2005 and in the middle of June 2010 it is still a major hit on Broadway. George Orwell said, “We are all equal, but some of us are more equal than others.” NY Times is More equal than the other critics. Addams Family opened April 9, 2010 to lousy reviews. NY Times was begrudgingr
Who Needs a Boot Camp (basic-training) For Learning & Critical Thinking? Neuroscientists estimate about 83% of students and 76% of executives are missing the link between knowing and doing. It is called the “critical-thinking” step. Use-it-or-lose-it. My Pop used to say, “Something for nothing? Nix it, kid.”
How Different Are Lefties? Are folks hand-eye-foot Dominant? Yes, but more important, handedness influences our decisions on good or bad, clever or ordinary, skillful or clumsy, and positive or negative. Judgments often hang on our Attitudes, Aptitudes, and only third, Intelligence. Get this: left-handed people associate whatever is on their Left side as good, smart and correct, while the majority (90%) Righties, identify the Left with death, females, clumsiness, and negativity.
“Can you “Scientifically” Attract Money & Wealth or Is It Bull? My friend’s daughter was 21, and always complaining about the absence of money in her bank account. “Paycheck to paycheck, behind in the rent, & worse, always thinking of the “Lack” of funds. I hate my life, and I see “debt” 24/7.” • 1. Is it “science”, superstition, or “willpower” to believe there is a “strategy” (algorithm: step-by-step) to Attract money into your life? You decide.
Why Peripheral Vision is Your Secret Asset “Always look people in the eye,” my Pop said, “because Gonifs (thieves, swindlers, and rascals) never look you in the orbs. They are too busy figuring how to steal your 401K like Bernie Madoff.” That remark got me thinking about peripheral and foveal (central) vision. When you are jerking around on the Internet, playing video games, watching TV, add reading-and-writing, you are focusing your eyes through a tiny keyhole in your retina called the Fovea < Latin for Pit.
How to Gesture And Double Your Communication Skills Adults are learners too, so how do we get our point across (comprehension) without sounding like a dominating school teacher? If you visit your doctor and he says your x-rays are Benign, you are a lot happier than if he says the results are Malignant, right? Benign means Healthful, Good, Favorable or Friendly. Malignant, on the other hand, means Bad, Harmful, Diseased or Lethal. But you know that. What if your doctor says the results are Benign, and air-writes with hisr
How to ADD 51% to Your Long-Term Memory – Permanently • 1. This is a conversation I had with my teenager, Mike about a system we teach at our one-day workshop at Columbia University. • It helps our graduates ACE school & their careers. It works for kids age 10, to high school, college & grad-school. We train corporate executive with this strategy. • 2. Me: “Michael, you’re a good high school student without my help. Would you be interested is learning a baby-easy system to improve your comprehension & long-term memory about 51%, permanently?
How to Learn to Love Your Mistakes Why do executives suffer emotionally when the world discovers they are not perfect and make mistakes? Making mistakes, errors or failing makes them feel stupid, embarrassed and worse – incompetent. These emotions lead to chronic stress, a weak immune system and even heart attacks. The negative feelings about making future mistakes make them gun-shy rnabout decision-making, that leads to the Unemployment line. Stop
n EVELYN WOOD'S SPEAKING SUGGESTIONS Here are our memories of a short but brilliant lecture by "Evelyn Wood", nthe Mother of Speed Reading, to a small group of us about, "how to give a speech". It was a half-century ago, so we admit some lapses, but it has stayed with us and nserved ...
Why Mindfulness 101 is a Lifesaver Are you curious about new scientific research on baby-easy meditation that can help overcome chronic insomnia, reduce high blood pressure, and support self-control over anxiety? Would you be interested in scientific research on how about 9 minutes of Mindfulness meditation can seriously help reduce backaches, and even chronic arthritic pain? We do not offer medical advice, so Google Mindfulness, and then discuss it with your physician. Science - Not Quackery Scientific research on the results of meditation on our mind, body and emotionsr
Five Minute Eye Exercise to Self-Help We Homo sapiens refuse to do things without a good reason. Why? Back two-thousand years ago, our ancestors were already skeptics, and it has become a human instinct and reflex. Why should I do what you say? Why should I believe you – you must have a vested interest – so tell me,rn(WIIFM) – What’s in it for me? Be patient! Control your need for (IG) Instant Gratification for 60-seconds. 1. “You can’t depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out-of-focus.”r
How to Dissolve, Destroy And Chew-Up Anxiety & Stress My grandma told me something at our Thanksgiving Day feast that I will never forget. For those who don’t know me, I am a skeptic, doubter and contrarian, and those are my positive character traits. Would you believe a close relative (middle 80s) who suddenly announced she was a healer with special knowledge? She said I should know I have two angels – not baseball players –rnbut the Archangel Michael and the Archangel Gabriel as my personal guides and guardians. They accompanied me 24/7 on either side as myr
Is Memory The Enemy of Learning? Did you know that Cursive (connected letters), Printed Lettering, andr Spelling are being slowly eliminated? Many teachers in elementary schools have already stopped giving writing and spelling lessons leading to these ancient skills. The use of our ubiquitous Word-Processor and Texting are the modern replacements, right? Plato (not Mickey’s Dog) In a dialogue by Plato called Phaedrus (15 BCE – 50 CE) Socrates says, “Theuth the Egyptian invented writing. The god, King Thamus suggested, ‘Writing would
Double Your Influence And Ability to Persuade? When we ask college students and corporate executives if they know about the power of Influence, students strike out, while up to 74% rnof executives name a book called Influence: the psychology of persuasion. What’s It All About Alfie Picture training little girls going door-to-door selling Girl Scout cookies. Fund-raising even for a worthy cause is a pain in the fundament.
What E.W. Whispered in My Ear For Your Benefit I was sitting in my freshman contracts law class when a drone from the administration office walked in the room. He whispered something to the instructor who pointed at me and wiggled his finger to follow the administrative assistant. My stomach rumbled because I was certain it was not a notification of being chosen Freshman of the Year.
Like More Brain Memory Today? If you have a baby-easy strategy to deeply relax that requires 1-2 minutes maximum, you can improve your long-term memory up to 40%. That’s a lot and we know three ways. So what? Relaxation releases chronic stress and even adds to your mental health and longevity. Three Facts 1. Fact: deep relaxation helps you receive new information and improves your personal learning and memory skills. Improvement will aid your career and finances. 2. Fact: learning is based on long-term memory. Get this: learning is directly related to your attention-span.
A Second Aha! Experience 1. “Counselor Wechsler – please rise and listen carefully. How many legs does a lamb have?” 2. “Dean Reppy, I have never personally met a lamb and counted his/her limbs. I defer to someone with farm experience.” 3. “You have seen pictures, movies, videos of lambs, is that correct?” You do not deny the lamb creature in question has legs?” 4. “Yes, Dean Reppy, but I never stopped in midstream to count their legs, which undoubtedly propels its lamb body.” 5.
Are there Urban Myths That Block M-o-n-e-y From Your Life? • 1 “Aw quit it, I know you believe it, and mean well, but what I say out loud or hear in my head are “white-noise”, just meaningless chatter. My words are powerless, and so am I.” • 2. When I said that to my mother, I was convinced she was a poor, deluded fool, “superstitious, ignorant, and without scientific knowledge.” Now, maybe I was too quick on the trigger.
So What? Did you ever notice that there is an endless conversation going on in your mind called Self-Talk or Internal Dialogue? We stopped being aware of it because itrnhas always been there. It is called – Thinking or Steam of Consciousness. We hold conversations between our – I, (personality) and our – Me, (mind-body connection) 24/7. Don’t you ask yourself questions before making decisions? How about searching your mind for alte ative ideas or suggestions? Well, tell me, who are you talking to? So What
How to Double (2x) Your Memory – Permanently If you have a kid in school, or are in college or grad-school, this baby-easy strategy is guaranteed to raise your class rank - one-full-grade. Your exam scores will improve up to 37%, and your opportunity for a scholarship doubles. Works for executives too. Why? It’s because Memory is Everything. It’s the secret to academic success, right? V-A-K V stands for “Vision”, you have to see what you want to remember. A stands for “Auditory”, you must hear the word or phrase you want to recall.
Are You A Reading Genius? Indeed. Were we taught to read well in school? It’s easy to be a critic, but teachers can only transmit to students what they themselves were taught. They were trained in Reading-Aloud, not Silent Reading. You learned to read aloud. When do you read out loud in real life? Reading a book, article or report? Nyet. You read to yourself – silently. Giving a presentation? Nada, it sounds too contrived. At a job interview? Not. You are almost always a Silent-Reader. In school the teacher read stories aloud to us.
Work or Fun – Do Words Change Minds? Are you in the business of influencing, persuading and convincing folks to use your product or service, and not your competitor? We all have a boss, someone to report to, even if it is the Board of Directors. Decisions are not mechanical or mathematical – they are at least 50% and more likely up to 85% emotional. If you are depending on your Will-Power, you left-brained logic and reasoning to make the optimal decisions or convince others – NGH it is Not-Going to-Happen. Homo sapiens are emotionally-driven by their right-hemisphere.
“Why Using, “I-AM”, is a Game-Changer!” Remember this? “I-Am-What-I-Am, and That’s All That I-Am, I’m Popeye-The Sailor Man. I’m Strong at The Finish, Cause I Eats Me Spinach. I’m Popeye-The-Sailor-Man.”rn [Repeat the Lyrics]rn “I-am-what-I-am, and that’s all that I-am. I’m Popeye-the-sailor-man. I’m strong-at-the-finish, cause I eats-me- Spinach. I’m Popeye-the-sailor-man.” By Sammy Learner, 1933 www.speedreading101.org 877-567-2500. • The name for God told to Moses is:r