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The brain gain
"People think I was born with gifts of memory and concentration. I learnt them the hard way and so many others can too. You need to strive to reach maximum potential."
- By Shiva Kumar Thekkepat, Feature Writer
- Published: 23:54 November 13, 2008
- Image Credit:
D.P. Mahesha, Founder and director of Masterminds International, an organisation that deals in mind management techniques
"People think I was born with gifts of memory and concentration. I learnt them the hard way and so many others can too. You need to strive to reach maximum potential."
What never fails to astonish me is that we are born with this amazing organ called the brain.
But we hardly ever realise the full capacity of this tool. We only use a tiny fraction of its capabilities in our lifetime. This occurred to me sometime during high school and
it's what made me venture into the field of mind technology. Although I was the studious type, my memory was not too good to start with.
My teachers advised me to try yoga, which I did. It did improve, but I had this feeling that I was not reaching
my full potential.
I was also goaded on by my parents who weren't satisfied with my overall performance. I started reading books by the famous educationist Tony Buzan. The first one I read was Use Your Head. This is when my development really took off. I learnt a lot of techniques for concentration and it helped me tremendously. I then read the entire works of Harry Lorayne – the memory expert – and that's what started me off on this journey. Even though I was an A-grade pupil in school and later in engineering, I never really found myself at home in the corporate world. My calling was in education, and what better subject to teach than how to study better!
I founded Masterminds International to help people like me who are seeking to increase their creative productivity. We are a team of four professionals: two psychologists, a doctor and myself. We study together, we travel the world and meet experts (to formulate our programmes) and we test all the techniques at our two centres, which are in Bangalore and Goa in India.
We have been testing them for years together. Once they start showing good results we go to corporations and schools to impart them.
Of course there are individual based workshops too. For instance, there's a programme for IT employees, which develops skills unique to that industry.
Mind technology may sound like mumbo jumbo, but that can't be further from the truth.
In the US they have doctorate programmes in mind management. In the West, they practise psychology and in the East there is a lot of spirituality, but with little scientific base. The idea behind mind technology is to match these two – psychology and spirituality. In Ramakrishna Paramahansa's book there are many instances relating to astral travel and the scientific explanations for it. It requires the study of both psychology as well as spirituality.
There are a lot of things that can pin this down to the real – technology like the Kirlian camera that is used to measure the mind's potential and help tap into the individual's maximum potential. We start with the mind because we believe everything originates here. When I say 'tapping into one's potential', I am referring to one thing – concentration. If a person can concentrate, he can do anything; it is when a person's concentration gets distracted that problems arise.
The techniques are simple.
I use a number of techniques that can help to increase concentration. Ambidexterity is one such tool; it balances both sides or hemispheres of the brain. We usually talk about two different brains as opposed to two hemispheres – the earlier concept of one brain and two hemispheres has now changed, rather like two kidneys in the human system.
The left side of our brain deals with logistical thinking. The right side is more creative, musical and artistic.
The idea is that once you start balancing these two, you will be able to improve your concentration.
They are all basic techniques that anybody can master: speed-reading for instance.
You can increase your speed from between 300 to 1,500 words a minute. It's rather like learning to ride a bicycle; you never forget. What you're doing is increasing your consciousness to a higher state.
I have worked with many people and for many institutions internationally. I do regular programmes for the Don Bosco group of schools – a major chain in India. I did a programme
for all the principals of Don Bosco schools. I have conducted a number of workshops for many Indian corporations such as the Airports Authority of India, Kingfisher, D-link, Cipla, GCCI, Goa Shipyard, among others. I've trained students, executives and professionals from various fields.
Anyone can learn ambidexterity.
I did a programme in Italy some time back about how we could teach a student to balance both his hemispheres through simple techniques like ambidexterity and mind mapping – a technique where you use images, colours and symbols. It's a technique that was used by Leonardo Da Vinci and it's very powerful. It's a prescribed technique in many European universities.
Mostly the techniques used are for positive and negative thinking, but what about lateral and proactive thinking?
These types of thought processes help you to balance both hemispheres of the brain.
This balance is what will increase your concentration. If you have good concentration, your productivity increases. It has been scientifically proven that your memory will also improve because memory and concentration go hand in hand. Whenever a student asks me how to increase his or her memory I tell them that their problem is not memory, but concentration. If they increase their concentration, their memory will follow.
We have four levels in the programme.
These may differ for different categories of people.
If you start from the first level, it's very basic. You can then move on to level two, three and so on. On the higher levels we focus on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), mind programming and handwriting analysis.
Handwriting analysis is very important.
If you study your handwriting, you can study yourself – where you are going and how to get there. Changes in life often mean a change in your values too and these changes can be detected in your handwriting. We make people analyse their own handwriting and try to change it, because if you change your handwriting, those changes will transfer themselves on to your personality.
We also use techniques such as Neurobics.This is a recently discovered cognitive phenomenon that helps the brain remain agile and healthy.
The 83 exercises that are part of this practice are geared at preventing memory loss and increasing overall mental fitness.
- For more information e-mail D.P. Mahesha: dpmahesh6@gmail.com.
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