The Rainbow with the Pot of Gold

We live in a world where Ð''education' and the accumulation of skills have assumed fanatical proportions. We tch tch at heavy school bags, but continue putting noses to the grindstone. Always in the hope of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Except, that in the first decade of the 2000's the way to that pot is no luminescent rainbow. And the sad part is, it needn't be so. The proof of the pudding -- the training experience of companies including U.S.A.-based AT & T's National Product Training Centre and Audi, IBM and Seimens in Germany; Pentagon's Institute of Defense Analysis; and teacher Charles Gritton's efforts in a Des Moines ghetto school that became a case study of success.

Putting the Ð''no pain, no gain' credo of learning to shame is the concept of accelerated learning, perhaps more famous as Ð''superlearning' following breakthroughs made by Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder and Nancy Ostrander since the 1970's. However, the ball was actually set rolling about a decade before they started. It was behind the Iron Curtain in the 1960's that Dr. Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian psychiatrist, first applied suggestion and relaxation techniques to classroom learning and termed these methods Ð''Suggestopedia'. These pioneering techniques engendered and gave impetus to what we now know as Suggestive Ð'- Accelerative Approaches to Learning.

Accelerated learning believes that the human brain can work at least two to five times faster (Ð''superlearning') and retain more and for longer periods (Ð''supermemory' or Ð''hypermnesia') if it is put into the Ð''right state' of "relaxed alertness" (therefore non-stress, therefore pleasure) for learning. In a nutshell, it works by addressing our unconscious as well as our conscious mind, exploiting the power of our own imagination since it has been found that a trained imagination helps learn better Ð'- thereby aiding in accessing what are termed as the "success patterns" in our bodies, minds and emotions.

Significantly, Ð''superlearning' shows us how to relax our body and calm our mind at will. It is sometimes described as "global learning" since it involves our entire inner world, including parts repressed in older styles of education, and goes to the extent of our most

ancient memory of life, exactly according to nature's blueprint for us. Moreover, it is global in the sense that the techniques can be adapted and used in virtually any culture to learn virtually anything, age and background no bar. It extends not only into academics, mathematics in particular, and into building general memory, but is frequently and effectively used to develop skills in language Ð'- computer and other, at work, in the sports arena, and for public speaking and decision making.

There is a close link between Ð''Superlearning' and Sound Therapy. This is because the learning method employs rhythm, relaxation and special music to achieve its ends: a combination that lowers heartbeat, blood pressure, muscle tension and stress factors in the blood. Probably the weightiest contribution so far has been that of Dr. Alfred Tomatis, member of the French Academies of Medicine and Sciences, who, after four decades of research, pointed out that certain high-frequency sounds can literally revitalize grey cells in the brain, in fact the whole body; as well as cure learning disabilities like dyslexia and autism. His findings that Mozart's music is exceptionally rich in brain energizing sounds was corroborated by subsequent US research that indicated that listening to Mozart for a mere ten minutes prior to a test boosted IQ scores sharply.

The incredible advantage of certain types of music for learning possibly lies in the way the human brain is designed. While everybody does not feel exactly the same thing on hearing a piece of music, bodily responses are easy to track. The state of physical relaxation similar to that induced by meditation is a result of the soothing 60 beats a minute music, which also affects the frequency of the brain waves. Children are better able to perform complex tasks of spatial reasoning while listening to music. The right kind of slow Baroque music by 17th and 18th century masters such as Vivaldi, Corelli and Bach, and Mozart activate both the left and right hemispheres of the brain and this simultaneous activation maximizes learning and information retention. Activities that engage both sides of the brain (like playing an instrument or singing) make the brain more capable of processing information. None other than Albert Einstein was asked by his school to give up studies and take up manual labour because he was too "stupid". Einstein learnt to play the violin, particular favourites being Mozart and Bach. A friend says Einstein figured out his problems and equations by improvising on the violin. The rest is history.

Similarly, music with 50 beats a minute facilitates drawing up images from the subconscious and is remarkable for imaginative rehearsals of athletic or artistic performance, reclaiming lost memories and increasing creativity. The brain responds in special ways primarily to the order in music. Order by way of repetition and changes, rhythm patterns, pitch and mood contrasts. Classical music with its rich variety of changes in pitch, tone and melody can provide just the stimuli a baby needs to thrive in the first year of life when the brain develops faster than at any other time; although Dr. Tomatis discovered babies start developing their listening and learning abilities in the womb itself during the 26th week and high fidelity music recorded in a certain way had the potential to give them a head start in life. A possible reason is explained by James R. Kreuzer, Department of English, Queen's College, in his book Elements of Poetry, "Rhythmical walking is an everyday activity Ð'... Night follows day rhythmically; season follows season rhythmically; food is chewed rhythmically Ð'... It (rhythm) is a part of everyday living."

Extensive research by Kay Gardner, a contemporary musician and music therapist, proves that all global aboriginal cultures have the heartbeat as the basic pulse of their music. This makes for a double-edged sword. While certain types of music are beneficial, anything that actually clashes with the heart's natural rhythm snaps the symmetry between both cerebral hemispheres, so that eventually body