Some people believe that you can absorb information when you are in a
deep, restorative sleep. They invest in audio tapes to improve various
aspects of their lives, including their recall of important information.
Then, they play these tapes through a speaker which they put under, or
next to, their pillow through the night.
I have not had any success with this myself, nor have I seen any reliable research which confirms (or completely disproves) these ideas.
I think that deep sleep is probably not the best time to absorb information from outside of yourself. I think that’s the time when your physical systems are resting and restoring themselves, while your mental faculties process the information, positive and negative, which you pushed into them during your waking hours.
I have had more success by listening to recorded material while totally relaxed, leaving the answering machine or another person to handle all interruptions (I’m not really lazy, I just do a lot of this sort of learning!)
You already know that stress and distractions reduce the quality of your mental impressions which are the basis of your ability to recall most things effectively.
I suggest that you try setting aside a period of, say, no more than a half an hour a few times a week when you can listen to your taped information without stress or interruption.
You may think that’s too much time – you just can’t do it. I understand that some readers may have difficulty with that at first, but I strongly believe it is really worth the effort to re-arrange things so that you can devote the time to these sessions.
You will get results fairly quickly and they will be much better than you get now with longer sessions in a location, and at times, where you suffer more distractions.
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Cramming information into your head in long, late-night sessions just before an important test, and at the expense of your regular sleep, is likely to give you negative results too.
The shorter, more frequent and stress-free sessions which I recommend will better repay you for the time and effort to organize them.
The relaxed, drowsy state which I recommend (rather than deep sleep) is similar to the induced state of people that are under light hypnosis. It may be that properly supported subjects could benefit from sessions of therapeutic hypnosis so that they could absorb large amounts of information and recall it more easily.
I won’t explore that area in this book because I don’t want to encourage anyone that might just dabble with it. Hypnosis can be a useful, powerful technique in the right hands, but has the potential for considerable harm in it.
I have discussed this subject with several experienced professionals who used hypnotism and other people who have been hypnotized. I have been hypnotized myself. It was a pleasant experience and there were no after-effects or concerns of any kind.
But, I believe that only experienced and reputable people with a successful, verifiable track record should be allowed to hypnotize anyone.
Inexperienced, careless or devious people can cause lasting harm even if they have the best of intentions.
Please, think carefully before you let anyone hypnotize you.
If you decide to try self-hypnosis or deep meditation, which have similarities, always make sure that you first set up a simple way to bring yourself back to the waking state, with a positive frame of mind, at any time.
I also strongly recommend that you ensure that your partner or another trusted person is nearby, though not necessarily in the same room, and that you arrange beforehand that they will check on Copyright © 2006 by John Williams 25. http://www.ezymagic.com/
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you at a pre-arranged time. They should also discuss with you what you want them to do if they have any concerns when they check on you.
These are basic precautions, but too easily forgotten when we start to try something new.
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