BRAINTENANCE: Train, Strain And Improve Your Brain. Expand Your Mind.

The Single Most Important Thing About You.

2013-05-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

It is quite an awe-inspiring legacy, viewed from a grand perspective. You have such a rich history encoded in your unique DNA. I wish that we could actually read that book together, chapter by chapter, from end (today) to beginning (the first murmurings and grunts of our species). It took such an amazing journey to bring you here. And now that you have arrived, no one other person in the world could take your place or assume the amazing work of being you. You were bred for being something unique. And you are instilled with such amazing genetic memory. Draw upon your instincts, intuition and dreams to draw this memory forth.
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Let us simply look at the math regarding Bearers Of The Torch who participated in the amazing process which brought it to you.

Bearers Of Your Torch - The Number Of Torchbearers (Genetic Predecessors And Contributors To Your Genetic Composition) Leading Up To The Miracle Of Your Birth:

Parents        2
Grandparents     4
Great Grandparents 8
Ten Generations Ago    1,024
Fifteen Generations Ago   32,768
Twenty Generations Ago       1,048,576
Twenty Five Generations Ago     33,554,432

The odds of your becoming the unique Human Being whom you've become are incalculably small! Miniscule. You are incredibly unique in the Universe. You are irreplaceable. Just look at the overwhelming odds against your becoming you!

NOTE: The above calculations were done on a terrific exponential calculator which can be found at http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/math/Exponent_Calculator.htm

Thank you for being who you are. You are a miracle, with an unfathomable legacy of generations of torchbearers before you. You are completely and thoroughly unique. You are irreplaceable. Be You. The balance of our native planet Earth depends upon you, and the choices that you alone will make and the things that you will accomplish -- even the teachings and stories you tell to others may become legendary some day. Everyone you interact with will carry a bit of your light forward to future generations.

With every second, you make the future, and you affect all of Humankind. - Douglas E. Castle

By the way, the single most important thing about you is the way you use the torch - whether you use it to burn things down, or to light the way to greatness.

Thank you, wonderful followers, for reading me, and for spreading my words and sharing my articles with your connections, comrades and colleagues through your ever-growing list of social networking platforms and forums.

Douglas E. Castle

Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
CFI Business Growth
Douglas E. Castle On LinkedIn - Join Me!

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3 Stupidest Things I've Ever Heard

2013-05-03T20:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Brain Trainers:

We are taught using metaphors, parables and "sayings." We call them sayings because someone once said them. That is not an assurance of their quality. It is just a statement of the obvious. To make things worse (or more worser yet still), the older they are, the more wisdom is to be assumed to be contained in them. And to further worsen things (to make the worst even more worser yet), the more that people say them, the truer they are. This is interesting, because apparently, there are degrees of truth -- I'll have to consult neighbor Bill Clinton regarding the particulars of this issue.

Here, for you pleasure, live (somewhat) from The Braintenance Blog Of Blockbusting Brilliance, we offer you the three stupidest things I've ever heard, excluding such conversational Moronyms as "Notary Republic," Redundons [trite, expressions spoken by members of the Order of Illiterati such as "I'll be here for the duration," and the like:

1) "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times." [mathematically ridiculous];

2) "If you had half a brain, you'd be dangerous!" [This could mean many things, none of which would make me dangerous, unless I had stolen an ossified hemisphere from the exhibit in the science lab and flung the thing at someone -- which would actually cause 'brain trauma' in both senses of the expression!];

3) "Hey. We all put our pants on the same way. One leg at a time." [This is intended to make the person being spoken to feel more self confident. It is stupid. What if I'm going to read an academic paper to a bunch of Celts? What if I'm wearing my little black party dress? And what about the time when I was an undergrad, and I won a five dollar bet by putting baby oil on my legs and jumping into my jeans from the upper bunk in my dorm room?]

Enough. Now sit back, relax and enjoy a gentle bit of philosophy, with Flickspire's wonderful video, titled, "Life Is Like Coffee": Simply click on the link below:

= LINK BELOW

Even if you disagree with the philosophy, or the simile (the cousin of a metaphor, but using "like" or "as" in its description and delivery), the acoustic guitar music is wonderful. Seriously, the music is so relaxing, and the sound quality crystal clear. Someday, when I find myself (how 'bout that one? Eh?), I would like to try my hand (there's another - is it metonymy or synecdoche? {sp?}) at producing a philosophical video. I'd give it a snappy title like "Crossing The Callosum"

Thank you, as always, for reading me, digging me, grokking me, and feeling me - and for sharing my articles (my wallet is missing! So's my pen!) with your contacts, comrades and colleagues across your social media platforms.

Douglas E. Castle

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Are You Partially "Brain Blind"?

2013-04-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

By the way, the two fellows mentioned in the last post were 15 and 18 years old, respectively.

Are you partially "Brain Blind?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards down from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Painfully difficult to recite the names of seven random items mentioned to you...even if reiterated three times in a row?

You're not alone.

We are, each of us [even those who faithfully read The Braintenance Blog] handicapped to some extent when it comes to doing things with our minds which we would think to be easy.

This is really a function of how we learn, how we focus and how we associate things, scientists believe.

We all too often rely on singsong rote memorization than on imaginary pictures of things: for example, if you could picture the alphabet, or the numbers from 1 to 100, you could easily recall that picture and just read it from the vision in your mind.

We have difficulty focusing on two or more stimuli to the same sense. If two people speak to us at once, or if a person is speaking to us and a song we enjoy is playing somewhat loudly in the background, we have a difficult time focusing in on one stimulus at a time. In the situation with two people talking simultaneously, rather than listening to noise, focus strictly and unwaveringly on one person's conversation -- upon recall, you'll be surprised to find that not only do you recall the conversation of the person upon whose conversation you had focused upon, but you'll also remember a great deal of what the other person was saying.

This latter phenomenon may be due to a splitting of our mind into an active, frontal, conscious listening device in short-term memory (which is later moved to long-term memory) and into the powerful recorder of the subconscious, being summoned by the conscious mind to replay the secondary conversation.

In remembering the names of a series of people, the key is to simply listen and not to focus on how you look, or what you are going to say in response. Don't rehearse your own personal introduction when you should be focused on listening to the three names. In fact, if you identify each of the three names with a silly short story about tat person and an article of his or her clothing, or some eccentricity, it gives you the context to recall each of the names with some relevance (although you don't want to say that to a fellow named Lance Boyle, John Reade, or Suzanne Bumpers).

Lastly, in order to become a memory master and to recite, in order, a series of unrelated terms which are recited to you, look about you (if possible), and associate each word with something either unmistakably memorable or something just going on at the time, and cobble the associations into an ordered, sequential story. You'll find that you can remember objects placed in key positions in a story much more easily than by any other method. Incidentally, without using this technique, most individuals can usually not remember and recite more than five unrelated objects.

None of us is truly "Brain Blind." We simply need to learn how to utilize our minds more efficiently.

Do you see my point? By the way, without looking,how old were the two boys mentioned at the very beginning of this article?

Thank you for reading me and for spreading the word to your colleagues and friends across your ever-growing social media networks.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

Sponsored by:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC

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One Simple Exercise To Expand Your Intelligence And Creativity

2013-04-12T17:42:00.003-04:00

One splendid braintenance trick to expand your analytic intelligence (reasoning and problem-solving ability) and your creativity (the ability to envision something in your mind without having seen it with your open eyes) is [believe it or not] doing algebraic word problems in your head. No pens. No pencils. No computers or mobile devices. This absolutely requires that you keep information filed in various parts of your mind while looking at new information, and then ultimately going back to those files and fitting these "saved" pieces together to find the solution.

Your intellectual curiosity and perhaps your oversized ego demand that you meet this little challenge. It involves two brothers from Poland named Mario and Lorenzo (their parents had a particularly bizarre sense of humor):

Mario is currently three years older than his bother (this is a Freudian Slip inserted in the interest of making this exercise a bit more challenging) -- er, brother;
The sum of the two digits in Lorenzo's age is 6;
Both brothers are teenagers.

What are the brothers' ages?

One helpful hint - It might serve you well to actually picture the two boys in your mind...give them different heights and hair colors as well. Neither should have freckles (that's just my own opinion).

Now solve the problem. If you can do it in less than 1 minute you are in possession of a good cranial companion; if you can do it in less than 5 minutes; you've done well. If it takes you longer than 5 minutes to do this exercise (and to get the answer correct), you need to work a bit more on these types of algebraic logic and memory problems.

Work quietly and swiftly, and Dr. Braintenance will be back with answers!

Thank you as always for reading me, and for sharing my articles with your colleagues and friends via your social media groups.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
ICS - International Connection Services

***

Be Yourself: Paradox Of Objectivity. [Brain Versus Mind?]

2013-04-03T12:01:00.001-04:00

Click Upon The Image Below To See It Far More Clearly


RUN YOUR CURSOR OVER THE IMAGE ABOVE TO STRETCH YOUR MIND FURTHER

RUN YOUR CURSOR OVER THE IMAGE ABOVE TO STRETCH YOUR MIND FURTHER

Being Yourself - The Ultimate Challenge... A Paradoxical Puzzle. This incredibly strenuous introspective and reflective exercise requires a Braintenance Strain that will, if you'll allow it, elevate you to a new level of reasoning and a higher state of awareness and consciousness. We'll call it "The Paradox Of The Self Upon Reflection." It is a never-ending exercise which causes the essence of you as an unidentified, unattached, disembodied, ego-absent observer, to continually evolve. It is ultimately transcendental. It builds a newer power of intellect both analytically and emotionally.

Try to envision your mind (not your brain, but the electromagnetic, biochemical and mysterious "animator" which operates it at different levels to accomplish different things) as a fantastic machine which works at each or all of these settings in varying degrees:

1) The Unconscious Mind: This layer is purely for sustenance, is geared to the central nervous system and does not produce anything short of certain signals to certain part of the body to keep you alive. It does not create or ruminate - it is highly mechanical, and physically reflexive;

2) The Subconscious Mind: This layer is where all of your robotic programs and memories are stored, and it tends to fight with your conscious efforts to achieve things. L. Ron Hubbard (in a rare moment of genius) referred to it as the "reactive mind." It tends to remember failures and contradict your conscious efforts. It is like the mind of a child, and unless properly programmed, holds you a prisoner of your failures and disappointments of the past. In fact, it keeps you most comfortable repeating this undesirable but programmed shortcomings. It must be programmed constantly to keep your conscious goals and innermost desires within reach. It suppresses successes [rhyme time? Nein.] and causes most subtle but powerful emotional stresses. It is permanently childish, but has a giant capacity for full sensory memory;

3) The Conscious Mind: The component of mind that is thinking, working, deciding, reacting, and creates the world, or your perception of the world, which you carry with you. It let's you read, write, be entertained, converse, but it is an instrument -- but not the artist playing it. In most of us, it senses things around us, and we identify the notion of "self" with it. Yet it is the mind thinking on its own for the most part;

4) The Superconscious or Ubermind: This is the notion of you standing outside yourself as a detached but dedicated observer...watching what you do as if you were a third party. This is the mind that is representative of you watching yourself. It makes itself a part of the world around you looking at how you conduct yourself. This is the captain, or pilot of the other layers of mind. It is, in philosophical theory, the ultimate controller of all of the other levels, if you find it, focus upon it, and float free of your other layers. It is a part of you that can look at you from any angle and separate itself from you if you know how to will it to do so. This Superconscious looks down upon you as you live your life and interact with your environment.

Persons claiming experiences with astral projection, out of body experiences, and near-death experiences have reported experience this kind of detached observation. Much research was done on the whole out-of-body liberation experience by Robert A. Monroe, the fellow who they named the Monroe Institute after. These types of detachment sensations have also been induced externally by deploying such catalysts as various psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD, DMT, peyote buttons and other phytochemicals, mostly tryptamines.

5) Then there may be the collective consciousness that many sociologists and psychologists use to explain phenomena such as spontaneous and simultaneous breakthroughs, instant revelations, clairvoyance and many other things which the proponents of the paranormal , Rosicrucians, and other groups reference in their writings and doctrines.

Getting back to the theme of "Being Yourself," we Braintenancers see the oddest paradox -- in order to know who you are and who you should be, would mean that you would have to detach your Superconscious objective mind from all of the other layers of mind in order to view yourself somewhat objectively... and wouldn't that require either losing the notion of the creature we were observing as being anything more than a reactive robot, or getting the notion that when we step outside of ourselves through meditative observational detachment, there is no longer any self at all.

Think about it. The more you think about this, and the more you focus on being an outside, detached observer of your own actions, the more brilliant, yet peaceful you will become. This is the perhaps the highest level of consciousness you can obtain -- and in the process, the identity of you as a being, fades away.

As any accomplished sufi.

See you soon.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog

p.s You absolutely must read this article on The Deeper Consciousness And Altered States Blog.....

TRYPNAURAL MEDITATION FOR TRANSCENDENTAL STATES

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Download Knowledge Directly Into Your Brain - Coming Very Soon To A Mind-Programming Salon Near You!

2013-03-21T13:16:00.000-04:00

The following information was posted by a LinkedIn colleague, Darryl Warren just a few days ago. It should give every Braintenance Mind Builder great pause for thought (pun intended) in terms of short-cutting the long path to mastery:

Study of the Day: Soon, You May Download New Skills to Your Brain theatlantic.com New research suggests it may be possible to learn complex tasks with little to no conscious effort, just like in The Matrix. Whoa, indeed. [read entir e article]. ---------------

I will be using the term "jellyware," as opposed to hardware or software, to describe the Human brain throughout this article. The mechanism for physically placing or implanting information into the brain (we used to call this "learning," but here there the term "programming" is much more readily suitable) without speaking of the exact engineering and anatomical specifications of this type of operation would be either be via program inserted into the appropriate area/s of the brain, or via download from the cloud inserted into the appropriate area of the brain.

I like the idea of accelerated and high-efficiency learning, whether by entrainment, subliminal programming, hypnotherapy, NLP, experience and Braintenance exercises, but this radical new “instant” programming approach raises some issues that are worth thinking about, and ultimately addressing.

1) This will require a very fine and precise mapping (science is not quite there yet) of each of the appropriate learning centers and knowledge repositories for each type of programming. What if several different loci within the jelly ware are required for the full comprehension and application of a downloaded program?

2) Will this type of programming cause any type of atrophy of the physical brain, and its counterpart, the mind, due to the infusion of programming without certain learning exercises proven to increase cognitive ability, plasticity and creativity? Will our ability to learn through experience, interaction, the creation and strengthening of neurological connections, and association (pattern recognition, generalization, modification and appropriate reaction) be compromised?

3) What if either flawed or conflicting programs are downloaded into our personal jellyware? What might the effects be? Can an implanted virus (whether deliberately programmed-in or accidentally downloaded) destroy both our personal jellyware and our physical bodies?

4) Will the notion of “free will” apply to the removal or debugging of programming once it has been plugged in to our jellyware?

5) What if the programming of our jellyware does not take into account our potential physical limitations? We could be programmed to do perform actions that could injure or kill us -- would there be a physiological feedback mechanism to tell our newly programmed minds that a running program must be terminated before it destroys the body? We cannot forget that a great deal of learning requires feedback and adjustment between both mind and body.

6) By what mechanism would we A) know when it was time to upgrade or replace an implanted program, and B) be able to acquire the new program, upgrade or patch?

7) What might be the emotional, behavioral and physiological consequences of implanting programming into an individual who:

was emotionally immature;
was emotionally or psychiatrically unstable;
was physically incapable of bodily perform what the mind programming demanded of him?

8) Could this programming create dangerous dependencies or co-dependencies where we could lose our identities and begin to function robotically, or as a “hive mind”?

9) A program is only as good as the intentions and abilities of the being (Human or robot) which programmed it. How do we pre-test the implantable software or programming for trojan horses, hidden controls and commands prior to utilizing it?

I believe that the above issues should be seriously studied, peer-reviewed and tested repeatedly prior to beloved Braintenancer or other Human Being be subjected to this accelerated mind modification. The mind is perhaps the final frontier of many sciences, and it must be much better understood before we tamper with it. Ironically, our understanding of the precise functioning of the Human Brain and Mind is far behind our understanding of computers, devices, programs and applications. There will be much catching up to be done, as this type of learning leap represents both revolution and evolution.

This material is certainly (pun intended) food for thought.

Thank you, as always for reading me and for sharing my articles with your social media contacts.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog, The Global Futurist Blog and The Internationalist Page Blog

Top 10 Formulas That Changed The World!

2013-03-14T15:56:00.003-04:00

While doing some casual research, I came across a wonderful article and video about the ten most significant formulas (derived from mathematics, physics, engineering, chemistry and a variety of other frequently disruptive and often controversial academic fields) discovered since the beginning of time. I enjoy all of these disciplines, and have a great amount of respect for those for work at them, whether from a theoretical standpoint or from an application standpoint..

First, we have an embedded video player (which frequently fails to appear due to Murphy's Law, which was my late father's favorite -- the funny thing about this law is that it is interactive, and as such cannot be defeated -- for example, if I get onto a line at the supermarket that seems shorter, it will become longer than the other line that I would have chosen; or if I drop buttered toast on the carpet, it will invariably fall with the buttered side down):

The other interesting thing about Murphy's Law, which is often quoted as "If anything can go wrong it will, and at the worst possible time, yielding the greatest damage or inconvenience. It's different that the laws expressed in the ten formulas because it actually addresses, in a most pessimistic manner, the way we interact with the Universe.

Then we have a link to the original article: http://video.answers.com/top-10-mathematical-equations-that-changed-the-world-517505208

Wildly enough. I unearthed this gem of an article on Ask.Com while on a completely unrelated search.

If you'd like to go on a fabulous mind excursion, just look up any item on one of the search engines, arbitrarily click on some link and see where it leads you. Those of us in Braintenance, have a tremendous appreciation for this random yet often serendipitous stream-of-conscious rambling activity because it is unfocused, not fully controlled (consciously) by us, and because it often takes on a very important tangent leading us to something which we find utterly fascinating.

If you read The Braintenance Blog, you'll know that I believe that a foray into the wilderness of irrelevance (i.e., something like the 'rabbit hole' stream-of-consciousness search engine adventure described in the preceding paragraph) often creates new interests, and therefore increases and broadens the scope of things which we consider relevant from that moment on.

I've referred to it as "The Virtue Of Irrelevancy" - it is a wonderful counterbalance to obsessive focus and elusive answers, and a way to increase your knowledge base and ability to associate.

By the way, please remember to read an older article which I recently posted:

Trick Your Mind Into Expanding! - Braintenance (braintenance.blogspot.com)

The suggested exercise (in the above article) requires a great deal of time, but it is well worth the beneficial effects on consciousness, cognition and neuronal plasticity.

Briefly going back to those 10 revolutionary formulas which we opened this article with, it is important to note that every one of them has an inherent ability to benefit us as well as the inherent ability to destroy us, or some aspect of our civilization. Whether an object is a tool (to build or heal) or a weapon (to destroy or injure) is fully dependent upon the intentions and abilities of the individual who wields it.

As I've said before, let's avoid confusing cause and effect when we are beset by bullying or violence. I can build a house with this brick, or I can throw it at some unfortunate person and cause him or her a concussion. The responsibility resides with me, not with the inanimate brick. Carrying this just a bit further, the person whom I clobbered could have been a terrorist, planning to bomb a packed shopping mall, or a person who was otherwise headed on a course to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

We Humans never fully know the power that we wield over the future.

Enjoy the 10 Formulas That Changed The World not only for what they describe, but for what their potentials are, each one separately, for construction or destruction.

Thank you for reading me me and for sharing my thoughts with your social media networks.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog and for CrowdFunding Incubator LLC

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Trick Your Mind Into Expanding! - Braintenance

2013-03-07T11:28:00.001-05:00

The above is unrealistic - If you are truly paying attention, you can focus your full awareness upon only one object or task at a time.

Braintenancers - You've seen advertisements and advertorials on TV about "tricking" and "confusing" your body's muscles into growth and clearer definition. This confusion theory is absolutely true and is genuinely effective. The mind responds the same way to confusion and the need for resolution, or to alternating between one type of thinking task and another. I have an interesting exercise which will force your brain to shift gears -- this initiates, creativity, imagination, cognition, memory and many other wonderful brain benefits.

The exercise is very simple, but is time-consuming, so please do it in the evening, when you have a clear hour-long block of time and nothing to interfere with your exercise and experience -- it only requires the following steps:

1) Listen to a binaural/subliminal entrainment audio recording which will stimulate those parts of the brain that heighten wakefulness (not nervousness or stress) and gear your state of mind to a razor-sharp focus.

2) Rest for one minute.

3) Listen to a binaural/subliminal entrainment audio recording which will give you a nice, relaxing dose of alpha; your mind's most free-flowing and creative state.

4) Listen to the first recording (as in step #1) again.

5) Rest for one minute.

6) Set a timer and spend five minutes digging deeply into your earliest childhood memories, with as much sensory and emotional detail as you can recall or relive.

7) Set a timer and spend five minutes picturing in full sensory detail the future which you truly wish for yourself. Think of it in very real terms as if you were 'in' that future.

That's all. Access to the two audios that you'll need is right here:

RAZOR-SHARP FOCUS

ALPHA STATE CREATIVE RELAXATION

Headphones would be of benefit, but are not required. Just sit back in a comfortable chair and be certain that the sound is loud enough to drown out any ambient noise.

You'll want to do this simple exercise once per week (on that "off" night), so be certain to bookmark this page or to make it a favorite. You'll notice changes in your mental dexterity and flexibility even after you've done this Braintenance Exercise only once. Do it once weekly, and not more frequently, as that would defeat the purpose.

"Confusion, and the body's and mind's innate need to sort things out, is one of the greatest initiators of real change, strengthening and growth." -DEC

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog,

-- sponsored by CrowdFunding Incubator LLC.

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Expand Your Spatial Intelligence - Visualize, Project, Construct

2013-02-21T14:12:00.001-05:00

When you visualize, project (into the future, thinking of various next moves or paths beyond just simple extrapolation of a recognized pattern), anticipate, or construct a three-dimensional object in your "mind's eye," you are exercising the power of your spatial intelligence or spatial reasoning.

Spatial intelligence is the ability to comprehend and conceive (imagine) three-dimensional images and shapes. This is a primarily a function of the right side of the brain and is used when solving puzzles, figuring out maps and taking part in any type of construction or engineering project.

While spatial intelligence may, in some instances, involve so element of literal vision, it also incorporates abstract and analytical abilities that go far beyond merely seeing images. In The Global Futurist Blog, I have to stretch my spatial intelligence to the limit in order to project alternative future scenarios which incorporate a wide variety of variables. Projection, in this case is the basis of prediction -- literally, it means seeing something as it will be before it has actually happened.

Recognizing a particular image, knowing its relationship to other surrounding objects and displaying the organizational structure of a thought are all involved in spatial intelligence. Beyond that, being able to mentally foresee the various permutations and combinations of a shape have its elements shifted (i.e., like that of the famous Rubik's cube) without using trial and error methods is a perfect example of spatial reasoning and visualization.

Spatial intelligence is also referred to as “visual thinking”. A good example of visual thinking is when someone is hiking and has a compass and map. Although there is no physical path laid out before him, the hiker will use the tools to visualize and construct (mentally) an imaginary path using the maps and compass to formulate the shortest, most efficient route through the forest.

Spatial intelligence skills are essential for mastering a game such as chess or for commanding troops on a battlefield.

When you play chess you have to use strategy and skill in not only planning your moves but anticipating what moves your opponent will make. This is where spatial intelligence comes in because this type of brain exercise lets you visualize the board several moves in advance even though the pieces haven’t been moved, or to visualize military moves (battle strategies) and possible countermeasures which the enemy may take -- and going further, thinking of the measures you would have to take with your troops if the enemy were to take those countermeasures.

Perhaps the most amazing skill of all is the ability to challenge yourself (as if you were two separate individuals, each being the other's adversary) to visualize endless moves and counter-moves based upon varying assumptions. If you were to picture this process in your mind, it might well resemble a giant decision tree, with a vast number of decision nodes [see illustration below]

With a greater number of decision nodes each leading to a greater number of possible paths, a more elaborate decision tree could be a true mind-bender.
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If spatial intelligence is such a wonderful thing to have (and it is), what exercises can we do to strengthen it within ourselves? Here are some links to possibilities. I would suggest that you click on one, return to this page (for some of our viewers that means hitting the "BACK" arrow on your browsers) and click on the next. As my old math teacher (and she was rather old, at that!) used to say with a heavy German accent, "Later. Rinse. Repeat."

How To Develop Spatial Intelligence - eHow

A Conversational Thread About Improving Spatial Intelligence

Increase Visual-Spatial Intelligence

Visual -Spatial Intelligence Test

Different Types Of Spatial Intelligence And Ability

I hope that you've enjoyed being "spaced out." Please join me again for more of The Braintenance Blog. Always remember that Brain + Maintenance = Braintenance.

Douglas E. Castle

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Stretch Your Mind: Because Bigger IS Better...

2013-02-02T15:38:00.001-05:00

The objective of this article is to cause you to use several different parts of your brain's faculties from both hemispheres. The exercise is truly (and legally!) mind-expanding. I was always Leery of Timothy -- But was Timothy Leary of me?

Solutions To Our Last Post, Where I'll Give You Answers Without Explanations - PERCEPTION EXERCISES:

1) Which of the two figures is more stable, standing on its widest surface (on either end -- you choose)? The Cone. It might have something to do with the width of the base versus the "width" (merely a point) at the top.

2) How many cones could you fit (with the dimensions in Figure B) or could you insert into a cylinder (using the same dimensions as in Figure B)? Only one. Despite the fact that a cone contains only one-third of the volume of a cylinder, the size of the base is the limiting factor. Bet you thought the answer was two... well then, don't ever bag my groceries at the supermarket.

3) If you roll a cylinder across a table top, what type of shape would it create? A large circle, the radius of which would be equal to the height of the cone. Close your eyes and you'll see it more clearly (this is not an oxymoron)
4) If you push a cylinder (by its wide side) on a table top, what kind of a shape would it create? It would create a long rectangle, until it finally rolled off the table top. We call this the "Toilet Paper Effect" (No. We actually don't. But It's hard to know if that statement is true because I am a pathological liar)

5) If you could glue a limitless number of same-sized cones together at their respective tips, what type of geometric solid would this fusion resemble from the outside? A sphere, with the complexion of a golf ball.

6) If you knocked both a cone and a cylinder over, which of the two shapes is more likely to stay closer to you (instead of rolling under the couch where the dog might accidentally eat it?)? The cone. Just try to imagine a puppy rolling a cone across the room; not picture the same puppy with a soup can or a toilet paper tube.

7) Assume that the widest end (or at least one end) of each of the shapes were open, which could you stack that would require less space? The cone. Just take a walk over to the office water cooler and look at it. Go on. Cone-shaped cups are stackable. Even truncated cone-shaped cups are stackable. Cylinders have to be stored side by side -- although that can be done in a number of ways, one of which would create a shape which, if looked at head-on, would be shaped like a pyramid... or like....a cone!

8) If both shapes were filled with Styrofoam (or even vermiculite... choose any filling that you wish, as if you were at Aunt B's Yogurt And Cupcake shop) which one would float on its side, and which one would bob? The cone would bob, and the cylinder would merrily spin on its side.

9) Why do you think that cones are used for automobile steering system precision testing, while cylinders are selected to be filled with sand to buttress certain highways (near toll booths and such) in the event of a car crashing into them? Because although the base size is still the same and the cone might actually be more stable, you can fill the cylinder with three times as much buffering material to absorb the impact of the car driven by the imbecile who was texting. Just an example. The Braintenance Blog does not preach. It couldn't anyway -- it does not have the power to speak -- it is inanimate.

10) Bonus! You get to reduce three dimensions to two! Position both shapes to be standing upright, and side-by-side. Cut each in half with a laser beam (or a sword, if you'd like). Without touching the bottoms, throw the tops away. Looking at each of the halved shapes at eye-level, which one will look like a rectangle, and which will look like a trapezoid? Saw a cylinder, get a rectangle if seen from the front; saw a cone, get a trapezoid if seen from the front.

NOTE: In actuality, if you looked at each in the full three dimensions, the cylinder would still be a cylinder (just shorter and stumpier), but the cone would have become a frustum.

Now, relax your body and your mind, and focus on the sound of this wonderful babbling brook, embedded and sweetened with very gentle binaural pulses and positive subliminal suggestions. CLICK ME

Find the next entry in each of the following sequences:

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ?
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, ?
A, C, E, B, D, F, C, E, G, D, F ?

Without looking up, how many "bullets" were lined up vertically in the preceding section?

---------------

Thank you for visiting, I'll be seeing you very soon. Not literally, of course.

Douglas E. Castle for The Braintenance Blog and sponsored by

CFI CrowdFunding Incubator LLC

***

BRAINTENANCE: Train, Strain And Improve Your Brain. Expand Your Mind.

The Single Most Important Thing About You.

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