Lorayne feels we are less likely to fall for certain
ideas or sales pitches if we increase our vocabulary.
He feels an increased vocabulary means greater
‘mind power‘. He says that when we think, we are
talking to ourselves. When we think we produce
pictures in our mind and talk to ourselves about
those pictures.
Scientists have proven that our lips and larynx move
with our thoughts.
Lorayne believes that the more words we are familiar
with the easier it will be for us to think accurately.
Make the effort to look up words that you hear or
read to enlarge your vocabulary and thus improve
your thinking. Reading can expand your mind if you
are selective with your reading material.
Lorayne jokes, ” If you are going to talk to yourself,
you might as well make it an intelligent conversation!”
In his book he suggests different ways to exercise your
mind. Reading, of course, but also he lists different
problem solving activities, such as; crossword puzzles,
cryptograms or as I stated in the last article his ‘solvems’.
The one example I gave was about ‘John’ who couldn’t
sleep in his hotel room.
Here is another one:
Cleo is lying dead on the living room carpet. She is
surrounded by broken glass and water. Tom is asleep
in the bedroom. Why?
The answer to this one is kind of silly; but it still takes
some thinking to latch on to it: Cleo is a goldfish; the
broken glass and water are her former home — the
fish tank. Tom is a cat who knocked the whole thing
over! That’s all.
Now that one I will make my own observation: To me
Cleo would not be lying on the carpet. Tom maybe would
be sleeping but not until after he ate Cleo!
Lorayne also gives some examples of cryptograms and
then goes on to what he calls a ‘brain twister’ to set your
thinking straight’:
You’re lost in a forest which is inhabited by Red men and
Green men only. The Red men always tell the truth; the
Green men always lie. You come to a fork in the road; you
have to get to a town called “Umgowa,” but you don’t know
whether to take the right or left road. There is a man standing
at the fork, but it is too dark to see if he’s Red or Green.
The twister is this: Can you ask just one question of this man,
which calls for a “yes” or “no” answer, and find out which is the
correct road to take?..<more>
