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Borrowed Genius
(Five- to ten-second pause) "... and report what this special insight or
perception was, to your listener beginning now . . ."
(Same parenthetical instructions, two to four minutes. One "bing," three "bings," then say:)
14. "Returning with full awareness to here and now, fully refreshed, coming fully
present, and feeling pretty darn good! When you come back from the
five-minute break, please be with a new partner for the most important part
of this experience. When you return five minutes from now, please sit with a
new partner. Thank you."
(Or snap off the tape recorder at the point of "feeling pretty darn good" in that step. If working alone and from the tape as guide, your debriefing will need to be on paper see below.)
![]() (De-briefing) 15. "Like an astronaut returning to Mission Control from a mission to a far world, tell your new partner everything you've experienced on this mission as if your new partner were Mission Control. Tell everything that happened, and in rich detail, but in just a minute or two. We'll take turns on this one after two minutes I'll sound the chime and your partner will get to de-brief to you. 16. "In debriefing, please keep eyes open this time, and if you can stay in the present tense, so much the better telling it like it's happening now instead of having just happened. Instead of, ‘I was walking down this path,' say more like ‘I'm walking down this path, it's all bricks with moss over, grass with dew sparkling to either side ...' and so on, and try to stay in present tense if you can. So, in present tense, eyes open, please tell your new partner everything you experienced, especially from the part where you became the genius and saw surprising differences between the way the genius saw the garden and the way you'd seen it earlier. So please begin describing now . . ." (Two to four minutes later, with first lull in buzz-murmur, gently "bing" three times, saying gently ...) 17. "Even at some risk of incompletion, please now make sure your partner also has air time. You can finish your present sentence, and then it's time to let your partner begin describing now . . ." (Optional, if you feel this session has been going really well, you may elect to include this Step 17-A next. Otherwise, skip on to Step 18.) [17-A. "Now for a minute or so, not only describe your genius to your partner, show your genius to your partner. The expressions on your genius's face; the way that genius sits, stands, moves about; your genius's characteristic posture and patterns of gesture and movement please show these to your partner and vice-versa."] (Two to four minutes later, half-minute single "bing" and then a half minute later, three "bings," saying:) 18. "On your own, with blank tape and a tape recorder, you can go back to this or any garden, to this or any genius, as often as you please, first on this one skill or subject until you've fully mastered it and then on as many others as you like." 19. "The main thing is to go back and forth between this kind of experience at genius level understanding and skill, and real-time practice and conventional learning at that same understanding or skill. If you've never touched a keyboard but had Rachmaninoff for your genius this time, then as soon as you can, go over to a real piano in real time and try some ‘plink-plunk.' Then go back to Rachmaninoff and be that genius again, then back to the piano in real-time again, back and forth like that if possible 2 to 4 times per day for several days, 10 to 30 minutes each way each time. All of a sudden, it'll come together and you'll be that genius and playing the piano well in real time, and all that skill and perception will be yours. And so on for whatever skills or subjects you please, hours of this combined inner and outer experiencing accomplishing what years of conventional effort could be." 20. "For now, please return to this space here, fully refreshed, and determine how, as soon as possible or in the next 12 hours, you can get in some real-time learning or practice of the same skill or subject you've just been a genius at. Soon as you can, begin that alternation and drive your own skills, within a day or so, all the way up to where that genius was and then beyond. Thank you for making this experience happen."
![]() The foregoing was a very detailed "recipe for an experience," but note how simple as A-B-C it really is: A. The more you describe something while examining it, the more you will perceive. ![]() Working with tape recorder Now that you've read through the detailed, group form of the "Model Method" (or "inside story of genius"), and referred it back to the three simple key principles, please set up your tape recorder. Here are two ways to work with your tape recorder:
In either case, decide now what skill or subject you're going to build by High Leverage technique this time. Stick with that skill or subject, through this and/or subsequent procedures and through that alternating between various inner "genius" experiences and outer "real-time," conventional-level experiences and learning efforts until you've built your actual high proficiencies therein. Time enough afterward to pick up other skills, other subject learnings. Complete what it takes to build genuine real-time personal proficiency in the one first, to "legitimize" for you that continuing on to as many others as you please will be a personal-growth investment and not just an indulgence in whimsy.
![]() Instruction summary Here, then, is the "do-it-yourself" capsule of summarized instructions for the "Model Method" of Deep Recall, High Leverage, Learning:
One of the ways you, yourself, can discover new techniques of your own for accelerated learning, and fresh skills, is to use the above from time to time on yourself, "putting on the head" of teachers, real or imaginary, who are extraordinarily good at just that ... teaching!
![]() Availability details for the book, Beyond Teaching And Learning, which is chock-full cover to cover with a great range and variety of such self-taught techniques, you can find posted in the "Book Reviews" section. ![]() Observer's Eyes read a teacher's report of using "Borrowed Genius" in her classroom to good effect and with the enthusiastic participation of her students. ![]() Comments to Win Wenger
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