FROM SUCCESS MAGAZINE APRIL 1991
(Reprinted with permission of Success Magazine - Copyright 1991 by Hal Holding Corp.)

THE PULSE

Richard Poe


Image Streaming - Dr Win Wenger has developed an easy-to-use visualization technique that increases you I.Q. And opens you mind to deep, hidden sources of inspiration and genius.

An Easy Way to Increase Your Intelligence

Did you know that you have the potential for becoming a greater genius than Einstein? Just start listening to your subconscious mind. Throughout history, the greatest discoveries have come not from meticulous consideration of facts and figures, but from "irrational" flashes of insight. Elias Howe, for example, invented the sewing machine after dreaming of being attacked by cannibals wielding spears with holes at the tips! A "genius" is nothing more than someone who has learned to draw out his unconscious perceptions. One technique is called "image streaming." In one study, physics students at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn., experienced 20-point increases in their I.Q. scores, after only 25 hours of practicing! Developed by Dr. Win Wenger, president of the Institute for Visual Thinking in Gaithersburg, Md., the method is so simple, you can start using it as soon as you put down this article.

Here's how it works:

Let's say your video production business has stalled out. Fierce competition has beaten your
profits down to nothing in the corporate training market. Unless you can pioneer a new market,
your business is doomed.

STEP 1: You set an alarm clock for 20 minutes. Then you sit back, close your eyes,'and turn on
your tape recorder

STEP 2: At first, you see only black and purple splotches. "I guess I just can't visualize," you sigh.

STEP 3: Then you remember there are two techniques to use if you're having trouble starting the "Image Stream." One is to focus on an afterimage from a bright light or computer screen. The second is simply to begin describing some scene or person from your past.

STEP 4: So you start describing your mother stirring cake batter in the kitchen. It's surprisingly easy. Describe not only the sights, but also smells, sounds, feelings of texture and temperature.

IMPORTANT! You must describe aloud what you're seeing while you're seeing it. Writing it down later doesn't cut it. That's because visualizing, free-associating, intellectually analyzing, and speaking aloud all use different parts of your brain. It's only by doing them all simultaneously that you "bridge the poles" of your brain.

STEP 5: You find your attention drawn into the bowl of batter. Go with it. As you state, the swirling batter becomes a whirlpool in the ocean, then a brisk, choppy current cutting across a placid sea. That reminds you of an old navigation chart in your fifth grade history book, showing the Gulf Stream, the current which flows between Europe and North America, providing an avenue for seagoing commerce in colony days.

STEP 6: Suddenly, the alarm clock goes off. Rats! You still don't have your answer.

STEP 7: Two days later, a trade journal falls open while you're rummaging on your desk. You notice an article that you had begun reading six months before, but never finished. It's about the new fiber-optic lines being laid across the Atlantic Ocean.

STEP 8: Eureka! The fiber-optic lines are the new Gulf Stream! With Europe united in 1992, global-minded entrepreneurs will be ravenous for trans-Atlantic video-conferencing services, video data feeds, video everything! That’s your new market!

Don't be disappointed if you don't receive this sort of revelation your first time out. Like everything else, visualization takes practice. And interpreting the images is an art in itself. Here's a tip. If you've just image streamed but still don't have the answer, try again. Thank your subconscious for the first message, then ask it politely to please "rephrase" it in a different form. It may take several tries before you get something you can use. But your persistence will pay off. Believe me, it works. I used the technique to write this article!

Senior editor Richard Poe explores the frontiers of human social for SUCCESS.

SUCCESS is possibly the world's most outstanding among modern entrepreneurial monthly publication. On your newsstand, or 212-551-9500, 230 Park Avenue, New York City, New York 10169

©1996-2004 Matthew Turco unless otherwise noted