Mental mind exercises Adolphus Huxley would approve of.
“MENTAL MATTERS”
ADOLPHUS Huxley, after keratitis punctata nearly blinded him for three years, had to re-teach himself how to see; which he documented in his book “The Art of Seeing”. That book gave specific ways to practice visual eye simulations and techniques that increase our ability to remember, to view objects in better detail, and vividly sharpen our mental prowess like practicing eye calisthenics. I offer these next various approaches in this spirit; to help sharpen your brain and creativity, to help you recall, and to help you live.
IF I want to stimulate my brain, for whatever reason, I practice what I call “Mind Eye Imaging”. What I do is close my eyes and create, in my minds eye, a three dimensional object. It can be any object; I usually do numbers or letters. I start with the letter “A”. I picture the letter A in three dimension block form, then I give "A" a color. Your brain might want to automatically color it for you and this is where you will want to stay focused and color it the way your conscious will wants it colored. Envision a green letter “A”; now change the color to yellow and keep it yellow. Now envision the letter B in three dimensions and make it yellow also. Practicing seeing colors with your minds eye is fun because it seems sometimes it is harder to do and takes longer than other times. I contribute this to the length we are away from being at our creative best, like sometimes our muscles are tight and we go to stretch and it is harder than it was to reach the same level of reach just the day before. Practicing viewing numbers and letters or any object is fun mental stimulation; especially for those who are a troubled sleepers, like my (non) / self.
HERE is one that you dreaming fliers will like. Its a pathway practce that uses your brain like a video editing program stitching together mental takes from your memory, padded and filled in with those of your subconscious, enabling your mind to run through the path at what ever speed you like, and leading you flying consciously. Try it. While you lay still somewhere, close your eyes and try to envision your journey to work, or your favorite walk. First, try to walk the path. look around in your mind's eye and see the walk as you are there seeing what you know to be there from your memory. Start at the beginning, your front door. (Is that the beginning?) Sometimes, along the way, there might be a gap in your walk, it helps to remember a landmark like a tag on a wall or a shop that will open up that bit of imaging space and help you piece the images together keeping the route of your mind journey precise, realistic, and vivid. When you are comfortable with this, speed up the process; see the path as if you are riding the path on a bike covering ground smoothly and quicker. Then maybe try flying the path.
The Spiritual side.
NOW this is what I call a spiritual prayer type “meditation” because of the amount of insight and knowledge this type of meditation brings forth. I practiced this type of meditation for the better part of a year in 2000 with amazing results. It was like I had the opportunity to live life twice; the entire process was very spiritual for me like a prayer, although, I do not know how it would seem for others. (I put meditation in parenthesis because there are those who will argue that thinking is not meditating; even though this is not a form of thinking as much as it is, mind reeling or memory reeling)
FIRST, always as I lay in my bed at the end of the night, I would calm my mind and focus on my breathing like traditional meditation until I would feel a sinking sensation. The first time this sinking sensation happened to me, I felt a shock. But before I could worry I felt wrapped in warm energy of the spirit and calmed; so I let it continue and everything became very still and quiet. After being calm for a short while breathing, I remembered waking up that day. What was it like that morning when when I woke up? (In that same spot)
The two experiences of the spirit calming me and memory of waking up allowed for the total recall of the day from one moment to the next through the continuation of ideas and experiences. It is fascinating
What was the first thought, what did I do right when I awoke? I would picture myself in my mind’s eye getting up out of bed. Starting there progress through the entire day reviewing the day; every action, sight, thought, note to self, person I came in contact with, conversation, moments of insight, moments of spiritual calm, cool animals I saw that day, slowly going through the entire day piece by piece remembering the flow of thoughts through the day. This form of meditation proved very insightful to me. The time that escapes us the first time through, such as the routine drive to work or school, the walk up the stairwell we remember the second time through; the thoughts that we are experiencing then in those times are important and hold value that we so easy let go into the oblivion of routine. Other times we see what we are really thinking at that time behind a cloud of emotion or powerful image. Our brains are always present, thinking, and computing; by going through the day completely and in sequence up until you find yourself coming to the position you are currently in, we allow our brain to review all of our actions and all of our conversations.
Going through the day a second time I saw and became aware of many of the hidden thoughts and emotions I was feeling when I was living the moment initially.
The second time you see the little meaningful gestures and looks, the small joys, the small confusions, and other details which prove to really progress our learning as human beings. We see the life around ourselves and our function within it from a second perspective. Thus, I was able to learn why I was behaving in such fashion, or acting a certain way. Actions and thoughts become clear to us from this reviewed vantage point.
So much of the mundane happiness looks spectacular the second time; things I saw by the road, or a strangers faces as they walked down the sidewalk are now part of life that I could think about if I wanted to now that I had the time to. Starting and stopping the days progression in my mind’s eye like a DVD I began to take longer and longer periods of review.
Going slowly through the day I was able to recall the things I wanted to remember and why. I was sable to live a second day in my minds eye enhancing my path toward the achievement of my goals; enhancing my clarity of communication, learning many things about the transfer of energy in communication in the second time around. I got to the point where I was spending two hours a night reliving the day moment by moment in one twelfth speed. I can not express how valuable this technique proved to be and how much I grew that year.
Can you see why I call it a “prayer”?

Mark Stegman 2008