The Pelman System of Mind and Memory Training - Lessons I to XII - Anon

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by beginning at the end of your journey and going backwards over the ground all the way to the beginning. This method of the return journey is a little difficult at first, but it is one of the finest mental exercises ever prescribed. You are building up the power of reproductive imagination, in other words, your visualising faculty; you are training your memory, and you are developing your powers of observation. If, during the process of reconstructing your journey from the end to the beginning, you observe weak connections, study those weaknesses very closely, because they are bound to reveal memory defects which call for attention.

       Exercise VI.

      The use of pen and pencil in recording observations is an excellent training in both speed and accuracy. The next time you visit a friend’s house, or the room of any building to which you are a stranger, or even the inside of a shop where you make a purchase, take two glances round the room, and when you get home take four sheets of paper and draw what you can remember of the pictures on the walls. On a fifth sheet, put down the position of the furniture of the room and indicate the number of tables, chairs, and other articles. This can be made not only mentally profitable but socially fascinating. The members of a party can be provided with the proper materials, allowed a certain time in which to look round a room, marks can be awarded for accuracy, and if need be, a prize can be given to the winner.

       Exercise VII.

      Ask someone to read aloud to you a number of proper names—those in a directory will do. After he has read six of them, repeat them after him. Then try six more, and then another six. Do not do too much at first, but increase the number for the second week. If you cannot find a friend to help you, read the names aloud to yourself; allow one minute to elapse and then try to recall them.

      Vary the Exercise by reading a sentence, such as a definition, and see if you can reproduce it in the exact words. Then try another, such as a quotation from some collection of brilliant or witty sayings. Do not do too much of this work at first; two or three the first day will be enough.

       Exercise VIII.

      Take a walk in the country and, sitting down, listen to the sounds you can hear. From what direction do they come? How many are there, and what is the difference between them? Afterwards, when reading nature descriptions, compare your knowledge of sounds with that of the author. There are some suggestive details in R. L. Stevenson’s “Travels with a Donkey,” and in the Nature books of W. J. Long. Repeat these exercises as opportunity serves, but endeavour to preserve regularity.

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      By EUSTACE MILES, M.A.

      The exercises prepared by Mr. Miles will suit the requirements of the majority of students, but where exercises of a special character, and advice as to diet and matters of a confidential nature are concerned, the Secretary of the Pelman Institute will give an introduction to Mr. Miles, who has consented to treat all Pelman students at special fees.

       Second Lesson.

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      Before beginning to do any exercises, spend a little time, while you are still lying in bed, in recalling the importance of the right physical exercises, as described in the first Lesson.

      In the first Lesson, without mentioning more than a few of the advantages of the right exercises, I said, first, that they encouraged regularity of habit, and that they strengthened the will-power; secondly, that they increased self-respect by making the body more efficient, and more a thing to be proud of; and, thirdly, that they tended towards health and fitness; fourthly, that by certain methods and a system of exercise, of which an instance was given in the first Lesson, imagination and memory could be trained in a very pleasing and health-giving way.

      Now for a second sort of exercise.

       Exercise IV.

      Before you get up, and while you still lie in bed, stretch out your right hand and arm up in front of you. Then, if there is room, send it to your side so that it is in a straight line with your shoulders. Have the fingers well apart, as if you were striking an octave, and have them bent well back, the exact opposite of the grasping habit. Have the arm quite stiff and the elbow back, and the shoulder well back. Now hold this position for a moment. Then, keeping the arm quite stiff, and the fingers stretched back, rotate the right hand round as far as it will go—first in one direction, then pause; then in the other direction, then pause. Repeat this three times.

      During this movement, be sure to keep the left hand as relaxed and limp as possible. Do not let that twitch and “sympathise” with the work of the right hand. Economise energy in this way.

      Now reverse the sides. Go through the exercise with the left hand and arm, instead of the right, and this time keep the right hand and arm relaxed and limp. Do this exercise three times with the left hand and arm.

      Then do it three times with the two hands and arms together.

      After this, shake out your hands freely, as if you were shaking the stiffness out of them.

      Then keep quite still, with your arms by your sides, and recall the exercises in imagination. Recall the movements and sensations. If you have done the exercises properly, you ought to be able to do this quite easily, as you will still have the muscular sensation in your mind.

       Exercise V.

      Lying on your back, as before, and having your two hands over your abdomen, as in the First Lesson, go through the abdominal breathing as described in the First Lesson.

      Now, as a change, begin as before: that is to say, as you inhale, send your abdomen up and out; but, instead of exhaling, hold the breath in, and move the abdomen up and down a few times. It is comparatively easy to move it up, but much harder to move it down and in, and in the latter exercise the hands are of use in pressing downwards and inwards. Be sure not to strain.

      Then, if any air is left, exhale from the mouth. This exercise not only enables you to inhale more oxygen than usual, but it massages the stomach and liver, and it also helps you to circulate and disperse the air through the lungs, and up to the apex of the lungs, where disease so often is apt to begin.

       Exercise VI.

      Get out of bed now, and, if you like, go through the skin drill, but, whether you do this or not, practise hopping or skipping exercises without a rope. Keep your chin in, and the small of your back hollow. Have your hands as relaxed and as limp as possible, not gripped. Have your feet pointing straight forward—not turned out; and have your feet also comfortably apart—about six inches apart would do to start with.

      While you hop on your left foot—of course on the ball of the foot, not coming down on the heel—send your right leg straight out in front of you, with the toes as far away from you as they will go, and the knee well back. Hop a few times on this foot, and then hop on the other foot, sending the left leg and foot out and down in the same way. By degrees you will be able to get your raised foot and stiff leg higher and higher without difficulty, but at first do not try to stretch too much upwards.

      Then, hopping on your left foot, send your stiff right leg with the toes still as far away from you as they will go, back behind you. Be sure to keep the knee well braced back: do not bend the leg. Hop a few times on the left leg. Then hop on the right, sending the left leg back in the same way.

      If you begin to get out of breath, stop and do

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