Upgrading the Brain
Upgrading the brain refers to two different visions depending on the profession of the specialists treating the subject.
On one side, the neuroscientists have in mind the improvement of the brain by way of physiological changes. They talk about generating or regenerating the neurons, synapses, and all other physical components of the brain matter. "wiring" is a familiar term used to designate the whole collection. The scientific ones are "Brain plasticity" or ‘Neuroplasticity’. Attempts to rekindle or assign new tasks to existing neurons are also part of the game.
On the other side, stand all kinds of psys. To them improving the mind is mostly (though not exclusively) concerned with memory tricks, methods, and mental exercises aiming at improving the performance of the original brain at the exclusion of the intention of adding or altering its physical components or connections.
You'll find in this work what some people will qualify as "strange ideas". You might think: this has nothing to do with self-realization. You could be right; or you could be wrong.
Many people will tell you to pray if you want something. They are nice, good and friendly people. That's great; yet you can do more. What I am trying to do here is transform you from someone who begs for favors into a person who works on his goals and participates in turning them into reality. See the difference: a young man, perfectly sane and healthy but reluctant to work, ask his parents for money to buy a car while he spends his own funds liberally. On the other hand, his sister works hard and makes savings, but asks for a temporary loan. Whose claim do you think wise and responsible parents would value more?
Modifying the brain is no easy task. It requires serious efforts. Creating a friendlier line of communication with your unconscious intelligence and convincing it to transform one’s wishes into reality is not for everyone. Then, why should one attempt to improve both? The answer is: because it's very rewarding.
One must accept that no two individuals are the same. In this book I take into account that uniqueness. For this very reason there can be no short-cut. Together, we'll work on transforming both your intelligences: the conscious and the unconscious ones. These new ideas will become the sources and the roots of all modifications in your physical body, a term that includes your brain.
To bring about these changes, we must create new patterns of thinking. We are about to shock and challenge your actual beliefs in more ways than one. Your refusal to fully ponder these notions is like refusing to take medication to cure your illness. It won’t hurt you but it won’t help you either.
Allow me to use an analogy. Let's refer to hypnosis. Actually, hypnosis is a very simple technique. Yet not everybody can induce it and it doesn't work well with everyone. According to most specialists in the field about one-third of adults can be hypnotized.
I completely disagree with such a declaration. In my opinion and experience, the figure is more like two thirds or more. A clever hypnotist will succeed in inducing hypnosis in roughly one third of a crowd. So he says: "These fellows are the only ones in this group who are sensitive to hypnosis. I am the best and no one can do better" True? A moot point. What he doesn't know or doesn't admit is that in other circumstances, when the other two thirds of the same crowd is in a different mood, another performer using different techniques will succeed in inducing hypnosis in a percentage of those that seemed totally refractory in the first attempt.
The conclusion being: whatever you think you know or really know, there is room for new ideas. These new ideas or at least these new ways of approaching a problem cannot be dodged. Both your intelligences must take a different look at this world and this Universe to change. Old patterns have already exhausted their full potential. Imagination and creativity have to come to the rescue.
Existential, philosophic, psychological and practical questions need to be mulled over again and again to allow your intelligences to evolve. Without such challenge, nothing will ever improve.
Here’s something very important: your organism will only respond to new needs. Don’t forget this. Those who cannot understand and accept the process of evolution could be disappointed here. Let’s go for another analogy: if you intend to seriously increase your physical strength, there are two ways to do it: 1) Use appropriate drugs 2) Exercise. If you merely sit and dream about increasing your physical abilities using an intellectual rote without visualization, you will get non- significant results. This is not natural and your organism will not respond or will respond very weakly to this type of intellectual stimulus alone. On the contrary, if you physically exercise while putting your intellectual capacity to work using autosuggestion, visualization and/or many other techniques, you will get results beyond what physical exercise unaccompanied by such intellectual stimulus would attain. To my knowledge, all prominent athletes in the world use such techniques.
I insist; there is no perfect way around this: be tolerant, be patient, and try to understand the lessons of life Nature is offering us all. The result depends on such discipline. Yet because you’re one of a kind, you will have to dose the technique and adapt its elements to suit your uniqueness. What is very reassuring holds in the fact that the ultimate power will never ask for more than you can afford. You want, you can.