Books for Mind Development

• What Smart Students Know: Maximum Grades. Optimum Learning. Minimum Time by Adam Robinson - successful students are not necessarily any more brilliant than their less successful peers, but have simply mastered the art of efficient learning.
• Study Is Hard Work by William H. Armstrong - the most accessible and lucid text available on acquiring and keeping study skills through a lifetime.
• Selected AudioBooks from Learn Out Loud - your one-stop destination for audio and video learning.
• How To Use Your Mind by Internet Business Ideas - discover how to succeed at college and still have time for fun.
• Ron Fry's How to Study Program by Ron Fry - equips you for a lifetime of learning.
• Effective Studying and Test Taking by Effective Learning Systems - with this program, any student will develop their academic potential.
• "Think Like A Genius" by Todd Siler. At the heart of genius thinking is the process that Todd Siler has defined as Metaphorming. It's the process of transferring and transforming new meanings and associations from one object or idea to another. The process of Connection, Discovery, Invention and Application is at the core of genius thinking. It is both simple and common sense, to the extent that some may discount its true power. However, to do this is to reject a very powerful concept - anyone is capable of genius thinking.
• "Peak Evolution" by Lauren Holmes. Peak Evolution is a how-to book for operating as you were designed to... with evolutionary consequences. Anthropologist and futurist, Lauren Holmes, presents a revolutionary but accessible, step-by-step route to continuous and sustainable transformation. This is a brand new approach to achieving the most evolved states known to mankind.
• "The Art of Problem Solving" by Russell L. Ackoff. Wharton School professor and father figure in operations research, Russ Ackoff is brilliant and incisive. He has an uncanny ability to frame problems so the solutions pop out and is funny to boot. There are many parables in the text - a form of exposition to which I am partial - and these clarify some quite complicated analyzes and lead to "morals" such as, "The less we understand something, the more variables we need to explain it".
• "Conceptual Blockbusting" by James L. Adams. The author has a background as an engineer and Stanford professor. He defines various "blocks" to creativity such as stereotyping, judging etc. and suggests strategies to overcome them. The best parts are the exercises peppered throughout the various chapters. Be sure to try these. (Sample: Imagine the sensation of a long attack of hiccups).
• "Lateral Thinking" by Edward DeBono. Vertical thinking, according to DeBono, is digging the same hole deeper. Lateral thinking is digging someplace else. Junior is bothering his aunt who is knitting a sweater. He feels constricted by the playpen and howls. Solution: put the aunt in the playpen where she can knit undisturbed while junior romps outside. Several sets of exercises are included.
• "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward DeBono. DeBono specifies hats of six colors, each associated with a different thinking mode. Putting on the white hat requires you to present facts and figures in a neutral, objective manner. The red hat requires you to present how you feel about "the proposal" emotionally, the black hat what your negative assessments are, and so on. The method is designed to switch thinking away from arguments into collaboration.
• "Serious Creativity" by Edward DeBono. Prolific as he is, it is easy to understand how DeBono can afford to live on his own private island. This book summarizes his other works and gives new anecdotes, business examples and exercises..
• "Creative Problem Solving: The Basic Course" by Scott G. Isakson and Donald J. Treffinger. This is a workbook that comes in a three hole binder and provides detailed instructions on data finding, problem structuring, idea and solution finding etc. The checklists of questions are quite helpful.
• "The Creative Edge" by William Miller. A consultant to major corporations, Miller does a fine job of showing how to enhance creativity in individual and group settings. His discourse on intuitive methods is good, as is his discussion of human values. Methods of achieving "win-win" solutions in the workplace are neat.
• "The Magic of Your Mind" by Sidney J. Parnes. Another book that talks about the creative process, what blocks it and how we can overcome the blocks. Many standard exercises are presented. The sans-serif type is none too easy to read but, to compensate, there is a profusion of cartoons most of which are very, very funny.
• "A Whack on the Side of the Head" and "A Kick in the Seat of the Pants" by Roger von Oech. Nobody would publish his first book so von Oech did it himself and created a blockbuster success that is still being touted by purveyors of manuals on self publishing. It also established his reputation as a creativity consultant and he picked up many prestigious Silicon Valley clients including Apple Computers. Oversize and easy to read. Good graphics and pictures. Fun exercises.
• "Zen and the Art of Making a Living" by Laurence G. Boldt. The subtitle of this book is "A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design" and it is that and more. The best book, by far, that I have come across on how to identify what your strengths are, how to visualize your ideal job and how to go about bringing it into existence. Hundreds of inspiring quotes and dozens of thoughtful checklists. If you go through this book with care, it will assuredly be life changing in addition to thought provoking.
• "Cultivating Inner Peace" by Paul R. Fleischman. The author tries to deliver on the title by defining "inner peace" and outlining simple steps that can be taken to reach the state where the noise and violence is all outside you. He makes reference to powerful role models such as John Muir, Walt Whitman, Gandhi, Thoreau and Tagore and draws lessons from their privations and methods of dealing with them.
• "Skillful Means: Patterns for Success" by Tulku Rinpoche. The patterns of success that Tulku discusses in great detail in this book have to do with self awareness, coping with change and sharing with others. Long before anyone heard the term "emotional intelligence," Tulku was practicing and teaching it. A classic from a master.
• "The Path of Least Resistance" by Robert Fritz. An inspiring book that analyzes the process of creating and the mental barriers that frequently obstruct this, and describes how best to go about achieving new objectives.
• "The Possible Human : A Course in Enhancing Your Physical, Mental, and Creative Abilities" When Dr. Jean Houston began The Foundation for Mind Research in 1965, her aim was to explore cultures in order to uncover the many ways peak human potential was defined and achieved. After extensive research using techniques such as dream work, altered states of consciousness and biofeedback on thousands of subjects, she began to conduct workshops that focused on psychophysical (mind/body) awareness and enhancement to reach a higher level of being. The core elements of these workshops are recreated here through essays and exercises designed to "awaken," in every sense, our physical and mental capacities, and to explore the realms of our inner space and creative processes.
• "Inner Knowing: Consciousness, Creativity, Insight, and Intuition" by Helen Palmer. This new release in the New Consciousness Reader series is a stunning collection of essays from leading authorities on perception, creativity, and intuition. Palmer hopes to offer a classic resource for anyone who wants to commit to developing his or her mental and spiritual powers.

Links of Interest

• Personalized Brain Training - Lumosity
  One of the best facilities on the Internet... Improve memory and attention with personalized brain training with powerful online programs. Play games and train your brain to boost overall mental power and perfomance.
• Simply Smarter :: Sequential Processing Software
  he Simply Smarter Project 9 +/- 2 is a proactive, international effort to help everyone achieve more of their potential. It is based on the assessment and development of sequential processing. For decades psychologists have understood the significance of what are called sequential processing skills, which refer to the brain's ability to take in auditory and visual information. When these functions are developed to advanced levels, all sorts of things become possible; this is very close to the original Mind Development research line.
• The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential
  The Institutes is a nonprofit educational organization that serves children by introducing parents to the field of early child development. Parents learn how to enhance significantly the development of their children physically, intellectually and socially in a joyous and sensible way.
• The Bilateral Psycho-Galvanometer
  The simple psycho-galvanometer was one of the earliest tools of psychological research. A psycho-galvanometer measures the resistance of the skin to the passage of a very small electric current. It has been known for decades that the magnitude of this electrical resistance is affected, not only by the subject’s general mood, but also by immediate emotional reactions. Several researchers have noticed that one side of the body gives different responses to the other. The point of using a Bilateral Psycho-Galvanometer, as invented by Gregory Mitchell and utilized throughout the research of Mind Development, is to monitor the differential arousal of the two hemispheres of the cortex.

  If one takes into account that the left hemisphere of the cortex usually controls speech, logical action and symbolic functions, while the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial and holistic processes, there is value in having a simple device to facilitate cognitive growth through the technique of real-time, instantaneous biofeedback monitoring with the Bilateral Psycho-Galvanometer. A full instruction manual for application of the Bilateral Psycho-Galvanometer is available for download here. Unfortunately there is no current manufacturer of the Bilateral Psycho-Galvanometer, but I hope and expect that situation to change; in the meantime there is a great deal of understanding to be gained by learning about this technique.

• The Insight Project
  A system for self-discovery that will help you move from where you are in your life right now, into realms of awareness and power that you may never have dreamed to be possible for yourself. See advert below...
• The Center of Adlerian Studies
  The Center of Adlerian Studies offers courses in psychotherapy based on the Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, the Analytic Psychology of Carl G. Jung and the developments of Otto Rank.