Chapter II

How Multiple Mentalism Differs From Psychiatry &

Psychology

Simplistically, psychology is the study of the normal human mind in the laboratory; that is, in an abstracted, ideal state influenced by actual, everyday environment. Psychiatry is the study of the mind’s functioning, or disorders in the functioning, under workaday conditions. Multiple Mentalism is a training system that enables the average, ordinary mind to cope successfully -- and more than successfully --with the circumstances created by modern civilization.

Psychology studies the mind, but does not treat it. Psychiatry treats the maladjusted mind, but does not train the normal brain to use its full powers. Multiple Mentalism neither studies nor treats the mind, but does train and DEVELOP the average brain so that it may function easily at full capacity.

Multiple Mentalism makes no pretense of encroaching upon the domains of psychology or psychiatry -- the study of instincts or psycho-neuroses. It is concerned only with taking the mind as it is -- rusty, unused, dull and almost to the point of moronism in contrast to what it COULD be -- and training it to utilize ALL its component parts. It is at once a method, and a process -- an wakening and development of parts of the brain that now lie almost atrophied, or festering with “complexes” and unrecognized inhibitions. It brings these slumbering capabilities to the surface, energizes your thinking, broadens your grasp of things, deepens your understanding, enables you to solve instantly problems that baffle other men, gives you the power to follow several lines of thought at one and the same time, to reach decisions -- correct decisions -- while others fumble, to attain success that will be granted to you!

And if the rich rewards offered you through Multiple Mentalism seem disproportionate to the seeming childishness of the exercises given you to master, think again! True, you will not become Chairman of the Board in charge of all the DuPont interests because of your ability to write the alphabet backwards -- nor will you land any big contracts on the strength of your being able to transpose the letters of the alphabet. But neither would Mohammed Ali expect to enter the ring with a skipping rope and beguile the public with the old childhood formula, “Salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar”! He spends much of his training time in skipping rope -- but only to improve his footwork, his co-ordination and his endurance. In other words, the exercises I give you are merely silly if viewed as ends in themselves, which they decidedly are NOT. Considered in their true character, as MEANS to an end, they are most effective, the most fruitful, the speediest and most practical means of mind training that the world ever has known. And actual results will prove that I am understating their value, rather than overstating it.

With this proper understanding of what Multiple Mentalism is, and an appreciation of the exercises’ value, we are ready to proceed.

Exercise II:

Do not attempt this exercise until you have mastered the three parts of the first lesson! The mental drill you are about to be given deals with words, and while you may not at first see that it has anything to do with what you learned in Exercise I, Exercise II is based on the TRAINING there given you and follows it in logical sequence. That is why it is absolutely ESSENTIAL that you master the first before taking up the second.

If you have mastered Exercise I, you will agree that it is rather easy, and very interesting, to write the alphabet backwards and to intermingle the letters. Remember, however, that the letters, words and figures used in this training are merely the tools with which you work on your mental processes -- as useless in themselves as a slide rule is to a Sunday driver. They are the means -- the end result is a mind of such power and adaptability that it will carry you to pinnacles of achievement far beyond your present imagination!

For your first drill in Exercise II, write from memory as many three-letter words as you can; at least thirty of them. Fifty to one hundred would be better. There is not much mental work involved in that, is there? Here are just a few for samples:

MAN DOG CAT THE HAY SEX RUN TOP WAS BUT NOW FOR HIP

|Now, write your list from memory! Do not copy these words, but think up three-letter words yourself and write them on a sheet of paper. Write them a half dozen times until you have them pretty well in mind and can recall them easily. Next, without looking at what you have written (throw the paper in the waste basket!), write as many of those words as you can remember, writing them BACKWARDS from memory, like this:

NAM GOD TAC EHT YAH XES NUR POT SAW TUB WON ROF PIH

Some of the words you have selected will form new and correct words when spelled backwards, but disregard these new words thus formed. For the purpose of this exercise they mean nothing, but are mere coincidences.

The purpose of this drill is to train your mind to see things holistically in their entirety. For instance, when you think of the word “can”, it should mean not just the sequence “c-a-n” to you, but should appear as a picture in your mind, of three letters, each equally important regardless of arrangement. The “a” is as important as the “c” or the “n” even though it is in the middle of the word. You can see the practical application of this is the consideration of commonplace problems of life and business!

Repeat this exercise twenty-five times, each time removing your previous effort from sight and making your new attempt entirely from memory, quickly forwards or backwards. And when that word pictures itself in your mind, it will appear to you not as a static sequence of three letters, but as three separate letters which your mind will be able to group into any form at will.

“But what good will that do me?” you may ask. “What good is it to me to be able to spell short words backwards?” This exercise will have taught your brain to do something it never could do it do before -- it will have broken down another rut in which your mind was traveling -- it is a step toward untrammeled, original thinking. And it will have developed your brain by just that much -- prepared it for further training by the lessons that follow in this course.

Furthermore, it will have trained your brain to see little things, like little words, in their entirety. The small problems of life or business or the home are made up of two or three sides, or questions, or ‘angles”. No matter how simple, every question has at least two sides. The successful man is the one who can see ALL sides at once -- the other fellow’s as well as his own. And, knowing the other man’s problem, he is able to take advantage of the situation of his own interests -- while the other man, who sees only HIS side of the matter and does not grasp the problem as a whole, is placed at such disadvantage that he usually comes out second best. This exercise is powerful indeed in its potentialities!

Of course, these two chapters will not make you a success overnight in what you are striving for, but they have started your brain on the path to clear, concise, concurrent and analytical thinking -- which is an essential to success in any effort.

Multiple Mentalism Brain Stimulator: Visualizing and Memory Drill

Try these drills in your spare time. Make a game of them. You will learn to like them, and all the time you will be developing your brain cells.

Drill A

Write any THREE LETTER WORD you can think of, at the same time spell aloud

an entirely different THREE LETTER WORD. Example:

Write: c-a-t Write: p-e-n Write: c-u-p Spell: d-o-g Spell: i-n-k Spell: s-u-m

Continue with this drill, using different words in each attempt, until you are capable of writing ONE THREE LETTER WORD and spelling ANOTHER three letter word at the same time, without hesitation.

Drill B

Do not attempt this drill until you have mastered Drill A

Write a THREE LETTER WORD, writing the letters in reverse sequence -- at the

same time spell it aloud correctly. Example:

Write: t-a-m Write: t-i-h Write: y-a-p

Spell: m-a-t Spell: h-i-t Spell: p-a-y

Continue this drill, using different words.

Drill C

This drill may be a little more difficult than those preceding, but you can master it. Remember your brain is now more flexible than it was before you started MULTIPLE MENTALISM -- and these drills will make it even more flexible.

Write any THREE LETTER WORD spelling it BACKWARDS: at the same time spell ANOTHER three letter word correctly. Example:

Write: t-a-h Write: t-i-f Write: n-i-p

Spell: c-a-p Spell: f-u-n Spell: p-i-t

Continue this drill until it is easy for you, using different words.You are becoming mentally STRONG.