“I can’t afford your base rate,” said the mother.
“No problem, she can pay me back when she is older if she wants to with money or labor.”
He thought about all the times people promised to pay him with deep sincerity and then never did.
“That’s okay,” he thought. “At least, they THINK they will pay me back for what they are to receive.”
“What does the course include?” asked the mother, “I heard so much about it from my sister and the wonders it has worked on Susan.”
“Susan maintains a good practice. She has made it her own and has adapted it to suit the life she needs. She’s a little more ambitious. She spends 80 minutes a day training by herself. And by the way, since this is free, I permit NO late assignments. If she fails to complete her assigned work, the work either terminates at no cost to you, or you pay back fees and continue to pay for every hour in the future. For people I train for free, I am not very accommodating.”
His eyes showed he meant it. He was, of course, lying. He was generous when life emergencies happened to his students. He continued.
“Anyway, part one is Memory Training. In it, she uses a piece from an ancient Greek text called the ‘Rhetorica Ad Herennium.’ When she masters the teachings in this text, then she will have a virtual hard drive to hold anything she chooses to maintain. This is the same techniques that the Greek Scholars used to memorize speeches and texts and other useful information. It’s how people use to be able to hear a speech once and maintain it’s content for the rest of ones life if one chose. She will memorize blocks of information and she gets to choose works of her preference for this effort.”
“That sounds incredible. Almost unbelievable,” said the mother.
“It isn’t easy and it’s a practice. One must maintain the structures daily or the memories will fade away. So, in essence, it is a sensual imagination practice. But starting at her age, she can become a master of it and be able to house an entire library if she chooses.”
He scratched an itch his head and continued.
“Part Two is about Critical Thinking. After she has mastered memory training, her next phase is to study critical thinking skills as well as the social engineering techniques used by religious charlatans and people of a mind to control her and shape her emotional attachments. She will memorize these and be taught to think for herself in the middle of manipulative situations so she can point out these techniques in real time for herself and for others less trained than her.”
“Part Three is Mathmagics. In this training, she has the chance to become a master of mental calculations and the memorization of numbers. She will be able to process numbers in her head like ancient accountants who had no adding machines or paper. She will also learn the Abacus as well as mental shortcuts to number crunching. I’ve found that people tend to either use a mental abacus OR math hacks but not both. Some, however do use both at once. The course also builds on the earlier memory training by teaching her how to memorize numbers using a system called ‘The Pao System’ which allows people to memorize entire pages of digits rapidly.”
“Part Four is Communication Training. After she knows how to remember, think and calculate, she learns to read micro-emotions and communicate in a non-violent way with others. This is about learning good conversation techniques and dialogue models as well as social graces and moving gracefully between power and submission with minimal ego damage to herself or others.”
“Part Five is Mindfulness Training. In this last segment she learns three meditation techniques: Zazen, Tonglen, and Meditative Exercise Movement. Zazen practice is learning to just sit, that is all and is used by the Soto Zen School. Tonglen is about breathing in the suffering of life and breathing out a mighty wish of liberation. It is used in Tibetan mediation practice. In this practice you start with yourself and then work up to your spouse and family, humanity and all sentient beings, This technique has been shown to produce the largest gamma waves ever measured in a human brain. Gamma waves are science’s best measurement of happiness and well being. You may want to google “Matthieu Ricard, the world’s happiest human” to verify these claims and then look at critical articles of them.”
“Finally, MEM (Meditative Exercise Movement) is about learning to be mindful in how you do things. This practice also includes physical exercise so that the mind and body are both engaged and aligns with Tai Chi in its methodology.”
He paused and then calmly stated.
“My materials are open to your inspection. I offer no religious instruction at all. The meditation techniques came from religious traditions, but all religious elements are excised out of them. The goal is to improve people’s brains to think well and manage one’s emotions and communications. Most of our students tend to be those who are not deeply aligned with any religious faction, but are more science based.”
He breathed deeply and concluded.
“After completing the work, if she passes our exams we give out the title ‘Competent Human.’ I wish I could say, that the title is TRUE but alas, it is just a title and a title isn’t a life. And human life is HARD. Sometimes it breaks people. This is an effort to minimize that breakage, but it too fails to deliver on some of its aims in many cases.”
“Anyway, after she has mastered all of these, it takes about an hour a day of practice to maintain all of them at peak ability. But if she does this, she will be centered, fit and able to think like the rest of our world CANNOT. And if she’s smart…”
He swallowed and smiled with a closed mouth.
“She’ll keep her abilities quiet and enjoy their benefits and help our world.”
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