Excerpt from email to Aldy Wirawan:
Hello, as your older, wiser and handsomer brother, I know deep in your tiny mind, you're afraid of this big world and all the mumbo-jumbos of this unfriendly environment. Sometimes you get this scary story about some superhuman strength, just like the midbrain activation and ability with seeing while blindfolded. Scary and fascinating world at the same time, huh? Surprisingly, this method has been there for some time, started in russia, growing to japan, australia, and perfected in malaysia, and some internet video in fact really shows the training method and the music used. I tried the method, and it WORKED! i blindfolded myself with a tie and YES, I CAN READ BLINDFOLDED. please read the "most" complete and objective article about this phenomenon which I could find below. So the key is to be open minded and to be diligent and curious to learn. Let's discuss about it later.
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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/magic-in-mind-or-a-mirage/384104 (article copied and pasted below)
Magic in Mind, or a Mirage?
During the wake for a distant relative a few weeks ago, those in attendance were treated to a mesmerizing spectacle of sorts, courtesy of my wife’s 8-year-old niece.
At the insistence of her proud father, Felicia repeatedly showcased an apparent ability to read. Blindfolded. With her eyes covered by the hands of curious aunts and uncles, Felicia “read” leaflets, newspaper clippings and the serial numbers off random banknotes.
Always the skeptic, I handed Felicia an English-language biography of an American rock band that I was reading. She ran her hands over the page, “smelled” it and slowly “read” the first page without hesitation.
Hearing a blindfolded kid rattle off song titles such as “My Valuable Hunting Knife” and “Man Called Aerodynamics” made me take a second look and reconsider the seemingly bizarre demonstration as more than a mere parlor trick.
Felicia, along with her 12-year old sister, Fanny, is just one of many children who are part of a new trend often referred to as “midbrain activation,” a method of teaching that claims to enhance the link between the two sides of a child’s brain and develop cognitive abilities that may be considered at the very least extraordinary, and by most people impossible.
So what’s going on here? With parents incessantly showcasing their children’s apparent newfound abilities to friends and relatives, rapid word of mouth has been the most effective marketing tool for schools promoting methods to achieve them, such as the Genius Mind Consultancy, which has been in Malaysia for about five years and started opening centers in Indonesia last September.
Guiro, the father of a 9-year-old boy enrolled at a GMC center, said: “My wife and her friends were constantly talking about it and bragging about how some of their children now had supernatural powers. Of course I was intrigued.”
What schools such as GMC offer is a one-and-a-half-day session where the child’s “middle brain” will be “activated.” They only accept children aged 5 to 15.
After the sessions, depending on the talent of each child, they will purportedly come home with newfound skills, mostly consisting of the ability to perform routine tasks without using their sense of sight. GMC specifically discusses blindfold reading.
This supposed skill, also known as the Bronnikov method after a Russian who popularized a version of it, has the scientific-minded up in arms; they point out that it is biologically impossible, that it is explicable by “peeking” — because it is always demonstrated with blindfolds and with the reading material directly in front of the subject, there is scope for cheating — and that there is no evidence of it working under rigorously controlled conditions.
That doesn’t seem to have quelled the hype, and session-leaders are keen to stress a less controversial issue, that of enhancing standard cognitive skills in children.
According to Ovi, the process is about “normalizing” the brain. “When we are born, all parts of our brain, including the middle area, work in balance. But as we grow up, we tend to rely on only one part of the brain,” she said.
This is the explanation that schools like GMC give for only taking kids up to 15 years old. Anyone older, they believe, is already dependent on only one side of the brain. “We build the bridge between the left and right brain,” Ovi said.
The learning part of the training consists of rehearsing physical gestures said to rely on midbrain activity, such as simultaneously working the right and left hands with different movements.
For instance, rubbing the right hand on the right thigh while the left hand is pounding on the left thigh — all the while rapidly alternating the movements between the two hands.
Ovi, who has been accepted by GMC as a practitioner for the Kemang Pratama area in South Jakarta, explains that the two days of sessions are far different from typical classroom lessons. Much of the time is spent watching humorous videos, such as cartoons or gag shows.
“It’s to get the children in the right frame of mind,” Ovi said, adding that children who are in a happy state of mind will be more conducive to learning “midbrain” skills.
Nirmala Dewi, who owns a GMC-licensed school in Bekasi, says that the learning portion also consists of listening to “music” consisting of random sounds — “Like helicopter noises,” Nirmala said — and ends with a classical movement “to calm the children’s nerves.”
After a few days, she claims, most of the children will have their midbrain area activated. They will have skills, which, apart from reading blindfolded, include riding a bike and maneuvering through obstacles and even — serious skeptics should perhaps blindfold themselves at this point — “something akin to prediction.”
Nirmala gives the example of the child of Aditya Herpavi, the host of the Indonesian version of the game show “Deal or No Deal,” who enrolled in a GMC class. “The child was watching an episode on TV with his mother and asked her, ‘Mom, do you know how much money is in daddy’s pocket? I do,’ ” Nirmala said, referring to the portion of the game show where the host withholds a varying sum of money in his pocket. “The child said Rp 9 million [$990], which turned out to be correct, and then said the next amount, which was also true.”
Nirmala gave another example involving a child telling his mother to close her car door as she was putting shopping bags into the trunk because “a motorcycle will be passing” and would hit the door if it were open. The mother closed the door in the nick of time to avoid the motorcycle.
GMC, however, does not officially promise that children will develop any types of predictive skills.
What it does promise, through the so-called activation of the middle brain, is heightened perceptive awareness, hence the “reading” without actually seeing.
Ovi is quick to point out that the crowd-drawing skills are not the end goal, but just a showcase of the children’s increased perceptive awareness.
She recalls the story of a 5-year-old obsessed with Rubik’s cube, who would take four to five minutes to solve the puzzle before enrolling at a GMC. “His parents told me that now it only takes him a minute,” Ovi said. It was not clear how much time the child had had to learn the cube’s routine moves and practise getting his time down.
According to her, the end goal is to have a child who is more perceptive of his or her surroundings. “A child who is hyperactive will become calmer and more compassionate toward others,” she added, citing some behavioral examples and saying that “the real proof is in the drastic increase in the academic achievements of the students in school.”
So far, the results appear to have been mixed. Julia, mother of 7-year-old Joe, said she enrolled her son in GMC hoping it would improve his academic performance. “We have not yet seen any significant improvement in Joe,” she said.
Benny, whose two daughters also enrolled in a GMC session, says that while he has seen a change in his daughters’ attitudes — they are calmer and wittier — their academic skills are the same.
Nirmala says she understands how some parents may be skeptical. She was one of them, especially with regard to the methods used.
“My friend told me about GMC and I was hesitant at first. But since the parents are allowed to see the lessons firsthand, I saw that there was nothing involving hypnotism, the mystical or anything that was dubious,” she said.
Ovi explains the whole process as “mapping” of the brain, where the process of “regulating the brain” transpires.
But what do the children actually “see” when they close their eyes or “smell” when they sniff an object?
Fanny, 12, says that she is “able to see something, but it’s hard to explain.”
Felicia, a little weary of people asking her about her skills, says that she “feels” something when she reads blindfolded, but “cannot explain it.” She assures me that she is not peeking in any way.
Wina, Felicia’s mother, says that her daughter experienced nosebleeds during the “activation” process. “I found out about her nosebleed when I came to pick her up from class. She was sitting alone in a separate room from the other students. When she saw me, she said that she wanted to go home,” Wina said.
It turns out that Felicia’s nosebleed, which lasted on and off for a few days, began during a “speed reading” session. “She was also throwing up for a few days following the ‘activation,’ ” Wina said.
She added that she was also skeptical at first and asked her daughters if they were taking a peek when they started to show off their newfound skills. No, they said.
Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying the current hype. It doesn’t hurt that GMC has held a string of high-profile publicity events.
“We had an event a few months ago” Ovi said. “More than 500 students rode their bicycles blindfolded through the Thamrin area [which was closed for the event]. And more than 600 participated in a blindfold-drawing competition.”
Whatever your view, the idea of 1,000 blindfolded kids doing tricks is a work of marketing genius, at least.
At the insistence of her proud father, Felicia repeatedly showcased an apparent ability to read. Blindfolded. With her eyes covered by the hands of curious aunts and uncles, Felicia “read” leaflets, newspaper clippings and the serial numbers off random banknotes.
Always the skeptic, I handed Felicia an English-language biography of an American rock band that I was reading. She ran her hands over the page, “smelled” it and slowly “read” the first page without hesitation.
Hearing a blindfolded kid rattle off song titles such as “My Valuable Hunting Knife” and “Man Called Aerodynamics” made me take a second look and reconsider the seemingly bizarre demonstration as more than a mere parlor trick.
Felicia, along with her 12-year old sister, Fanny, is just one of many children who are part of a new trend often referred to as “midbrain activation,” a method of teaching that claims to enhance the link between the two sides of a child’s brain and develop cognitive abilities that may be considered at the very least extraordinary, and by most people impossible.
So what’s going on here? With parents incessantly showcasing their children’s apparent newfound abilities to friends and relatives, rapid word of mouth has been the most effective marketing tool for schools promoting methods to achieve them, such as the Genius Mind Consultancy, which has been in Malaysia for about five years and started opening centers in Indonesia last September.
Guiro, the father of a 9-year-old boy enrolled at a GMC center, said: “My wife and her friends were constantly talking about it and bragging about how some of their children now had supernatural powers. Of course I was intrigued.”
What schools such as GMC offer is a one-and-a-half-day session where the child’s “middle brain” will be “activated.” They only accept children aged 5 to 15.
After the sessions, depending on the talent of each child, they will purportedly come home with newfound skills, mostly consisting of the ability to perform routine tasks without using their sense of sight. GMC specifically discusses blindfold reading.
This supposed skill, also known as the Bronnikov method after a Russian who popularized a version of it, has the scientific-minded up in arms; they point out that it is biologically impossible, that it is explicable by “peeking” — because it is always demonstrated with blindfolds and with the reading material directly in front of the subject, there is scope for cheating — and that there is no evidence of it working under rigorously controlled conditions.
That doesn’t seem to have quelled the hype, and session-leaders are keen to stress a less controversial issue, that of enhancing standard cognitive skills in children.
According to Ovi, the process is about “normalizing” the brain. “When we are born, all parts of our brain, including the middle area, work in balance. But as we grow up, we tend to rely on only one part of the brain,” she said.
This is the explanation that schools like GMC give for only taking kids up to 15 years old. Anyone older, they believe, is already dependent on only one side of the brain. “We build the bridge between the left and right brain,” Ovi said.
The learning part of the training consists of rehearsing physical gestures said to rely on midbrain activity, such as simultaneously working the right and left hands with different movements.
For instance, rubbing the right hand on the right thigh while the left hand is pounding on the left thigh — all the while rapidly alternating the movements between the two hands.
Ovi, who has been accepted by GMC as a practitioner for the Kemang Pratama area in South Jakarta, explains that the two days of sessions are far different from typical classroom lessons. Much of the time is spent watching humorous videos, such as cartoons or gag shows.
“It’s to get the children in the right frame of mind,” Ovi said, adding that children who are in a happy state of mind will be more conducive to learning “midbrain” skills.
Nirmala Dewi, who owns a GMC-licensed school in Bekasi, says that the learning portion also consists of listening to “music” consisting of random sounds — “Like helicopter noises,” Nirmala said — and ends with a classical movement “to calm the children’s nerves.”
After a few days, she claims, most of the children will have their midbrain area activated. They will have skills, which, apart from reading blindfolded, include riding a bike and maneuvering through obstacles and even — serious skeptics should perhaps blindfold themselves at this point — “something akin to prediction.”
Nirmala gives the example of the child of Aditya Herpavi, the host of the Indonesian version of the game show “Deal or No Deal,” who enrolled in a GMC class. “The child was watching an episode on TV with his mother and asked her, ‘Mom, do you know how much money is in daddy’s pocket? I do,’ ” Nirmala said, referring to the portion of the game show where the host withholds a varying sum of money in his pocket. “The child said Rp 9 million [$990], which turned out to be correct, and then said the next amount, which was also true.”
Nirmala gave another example involving a child telling his mother to close her car door as she was putting shopping bags into the trunk because “a motorcycle will be passing” and would hit the door if it were open. The mother closed the door in the nick of time to avoid the motorcycle.
GMC, however, does not officially promise that children will develop any types of predictive skills.
What it does promise, through the so-called activation of the middle brain, is heightened perceptive awareness, hence the “reading” without actually seeing.
Ovi is quick to point out that the crowd-drawing skills are not the end goal, but just a showcase of the children’s increased perceptive awareness.
She recalls the story of a 5-year-old obsessed with Rubik’s cube, who would take four to five minutes to solve the puzzle before enrolling at a GMC. “His parents told me that now it only takes him a minute,” Ovi said. It was not clear how much time the child had had to learn the cube’s routine moves and practise getting his time down.
According to her, the end goal is to have a child who is more perceptive of his or her surroundings. “A child who is hyperactive will become calmer and more compassionate toward others,” she added, citing some behavioral examples and saying that “the real proof is in the drastic increase in the academic achievements of the students in school.”
So far, the results appear to have been mixed. Julia, mother of 7-year-old Joe, said she enrolled her son in GMC hoping it would improve his academic performance. “We have not yet seen any significant improvement in Joe,” she said.
Benny, whose two daughters also enrolled in a GMC session, says that while he has seen a change in his daughters’ attitudes — they are calmer and wittier — their academic skills are the same.
Nirmala says she understands how some parents may be skeptical. She was one of them, especially with regard to the methods used.
“My friend told me about GMC and I was hesitant at first. But since the parents are allowed to see the lessons firsthand, I saw that there was nothing involving hypnotism, the mystical or anything that was dubious,” she said.
Ovi explains the whole process as “mapping” of the brain, where the process of “regulating the brain” transpires.
But what do the children actually “see” when they close their eyes or “smell” when they sniff an object?
Fanny, 12, says that she is “able to see something, but it’s hard to explain.”
Felicia, a little weary of people asking her about her skills, says that she “feels” something when she reads blindfolded, but “cannot explain it.” She assures me that she is not peeking in any way.
Wina, Felicia’s mother, says that her daughter experienced nosebleeds during the “activation” process. “I found out about her nosebleed when I came to pick her up from class. She was sitting alone in a separate room from the other students. When she saw me, she said that she wanted to go home,” Wina said.
It turns out that Felicia’s nosebleed, which lasted on and off for a few days, began during a “speed reading” session. “She was also throwing up for a few days following the ‘activation,’ ” Wina said.
She added that she was also skeptical at first and asked her daughters if they were taking a peek when they started to show off their newfound skills. No, they said.
Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying the current hype. It doesn’t hurt that GMC has held a string of high-profile publicity events.
“We had an event a few months ago” Ovi said. “More than 500 students rode their bicycles blindfolded through the Thamrin area [which was closed for the event]. And more than 600 participated in a blindfold-drawing competition.”
Whatever your view, the idea of 1,000 blindfolded kids doing tricks is a work of marketing genius, at least.
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Like I said before, this technique have existed in russia and japan. Russia technique takes 1 year, Japan takes 3 months to learn it, but the new Malaysian technique takes only 2 days training.
Well, I found MY OWN TECHNIQUE, it'll take only 1 hour including reading the article above, so its about 30 minutes left more to go. keep on reading.
From the article above, we can see something really pick on curiousity;
1. this technique is taught only to children 5-12 AND the parents are not allowed to see it
2. the midbrain can act like radar, which can sense things under the nose (curious huh, since mesencephalon is actually closer to the back of the head)
(from http://otaktengah.com/ - but dont read it now)
3. the children sometimes smell at the article to read it
4. the children "can see everything" but "not clear" or "can't explain it"
5. despite all the wonderful things mid brain can do (predict the future, increase IQ) they can only demonstrate the reading blindfolded skill
Well, all of these can be answered if we followed the root of the technique in russia. It is called the bronnikov technique http://www.bronnikovmethod.com/ (warning! don't read it, or you will surpass your 1 hour training time)
you can see in here that bronnikov use meditation and everything else to activate this so called "inner power". His son demonstrate his power below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWHcyWKGbAU&feature=related (warning; watch this as the last video if you still have enough time! I dont want to exceed my 1 hour training time)
now, please, look at this video. this is part of the training
now, please look at this video only if you still have time from the 1 hour I promised you.
I'm pretty sure now you can read blindfolded too. please imagine red banana before doing so, just in case you fail to read it the normal way.
well, if you still have time, please enjoy the remaining video, and also enjoy the article I made below.
We sceptics has one simplest strongest rule. it is called the Occam Razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ockham_razor
the basic principle of the rule is we shouldn't make more assumption than what we should
or in other word,
the simpler the explanation, the better.
in this case, we should choose, which is the simpler explanation;
1. children can see blindfolded through activation of some dormant brain part which, after thousand years of human evolution,
has just been found now (and right after the invention for left and right brain, yeah right), can be activated by listening to music,
meditating and paying around 6 million rupiah, and off course also imagining red banana. Found by a .....rather civillian, not scientist,
never published in scientific journal, and can be applied only to children. It will makes you predict the future! read things with your nose!
(but all the teachers somehow choose a rather difficult way of life to teach the children and ask money from their parents then to buy lottery and be a winner of millions dollar)
2. they're all lying to get your money
while the answer to this question is obvious, (IT IS OBVIOUSLY NUMBER 2, scientifically speaking!),
we can continue to explore how these things correlate,
why the children would "smell" the paper, why they "can see" but "not clear" or "can't explain it",
and why the so-called teacher in this method say that the power naturally occurs just right below nose.
Now the puzzle started to fall in to places.
They cheat!
And... why the children does not tell their parent about this technique?
why do they keep silent about their little trick?
The answer is in the age.
This is exactly why the company only train children from 5 to 12.
I'm not sure if I get this right, but Rendy might be able to help me,
I can only conclude that children at this age is when they're most susceptible to their social environment.
If the so-called teacher ask them politely (please dont tell anyone, or we gone bankrupt),
or persuasively (if you tell anyone, you will lose your pride, your parent will be sad),
or coercively (tell anyone and i'll break your neck and eat your kidneys)
or even brutally (shinnneeeeeeeeeeeee........!!! chop chop chop!)
we can be pretty sure that those poor-poor children will follow whatever they're asked to do.
The so-called teacher might simply don't ask the children and just "expect" them to "see" something - children at this age might be eager to make the person who is kind to them happy,
or maybe, when their friends really successfull at "reading blindfolded" they're forced to conform and to compete by doing something they normally dont do.....they cheat,
especially when the so-called teachers said "maybe you can try putting it under the nose first... THAT IS WHERE THE POWER OF MIDBRAIN IS THE STRONGEST!"
I believe the phenomena is called "social conformation" which can be clearly explained by Rendy.
Social conformation is a scary things if it is to be exploited, and I'm pretty sure that it is the key to all this midbrain thingie.
it's certainly not good for social health.
here, for the final video, try too look something from http://midbrainactivation.net/
LOOK REALLY CLOSELY TO THE CHILD
see how he fix his blindfold (by lifting it up a litte bit before he started to read)
see how he "smell" the cards
see how he would do just like you when you're trying to read something UNDER YOUR NOSE
MID BRAIN is more to a MYTH BRAIN. There's nothing like reading blindfolded or predicting the future by imagining red banana.
Maybe in the future we will be able to do those things, but when we come to that, we will do it by SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY,
definitely not by CHEATING.
Actually, i can do it. they allowed me but im 16. and i still did it. and i can actually play wii with the lights off, and blind folded.
ReplyDeleteMy sister, 10, can see things 50 meters away from her eyes closed. i can stand 50 m away and ask her to copy my pose, blindfolded with the lights off. believe me she can do it.
prove that.
You must be an adult, dear writer. And that's why adults can't do it. They have too many doubts. That is why the 7 year olds normally do better than those who are 12 and above. This entire blogpost is crap. SERIOUSLY.
ReplyDeleteIT'S A SCAM - No way kids can read without seeing.
DeleteI READ BODY LANGUAGE and I can see this little pips squeeks move their head around to get a better view because they can't see through the blind fold properly.
I see them adjust their blindfolds because they can't see properly.
I saw a demo of an entire class with blindfolds. I saw kids sitting back doing nothing and as soon as the camera is on them, they start pretending to read and act for the camera. This means that they can see through the blindfolds, across the room.
SCAM!!!!!
Thank you very much for your enthusiasm, good sir. I agree with you.
DeleteI'd love to hear some "logical explanation" about this midbrain thingie from a (smart) believer. Unfortunately, before there's any logical explanation (and proof) I have to say that this mid brain is the crap, hehehe. I enjoyed looking at data and information, without them, I would almost always apply "Occam's Razor". So, well, any proof is appreciated, SERIOUSLY, hehe.
ReplyDeleteActually, i can do it. they allowed me but im 16. and i still did it. and i can actually fly faster than a jet fighter.
ReplyDeleteMy sister, 10, can lift a 50 tonnes tank. i can kill a lion with bare hands. believe me she can do it.
prove that.
I kind of think that someone is not getting older after a year has passed. It really makes anyone would question some things; you know... intelligence, trustworthiness, stuffs...^^
ReplyDeleteHOAX
ReplyDeleteI saw this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi3DjizB9r4. Can you please explain if this is cheating or a hoax?
ReplyDeleteBy looking at the gesture, you can tell clearly that she is peeking.
Deletebesides, isn't rather illogical? I mean, don't you think that if you can really look beyond the blindfold, you wont really need to flip the card open to sort them?
MIDBRAIN OR BLINDFOLD ARE GENUINE PRODUCT OR FAKE ONE...????
DeleteIt would be useful to get an honest explanation from a child who has just completed the course. Explaining to them that you are aware that it is a secret trick will enable them to be honest.
ReplyDeletethis technique is making it in-roads into India as well :) One of my relatives kid has enrolled there. I was wondering how they can read... thanks for clarifying :)
ReplyDeleteI found this video as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKh9Yh-GsU
Skepticism is healthy, which is a left brain proponent in questioning and rationalizing affairs mostly from a scientific standpoint. However, science only covers the tip of the iceberg amid the vast ocean of knowledge in the Universe. Hence, blindfold reading may the realm where science has not able to explain as yet but not necessarily impossible. I cannot blindfold read but I have experienced close to it while sleeping. Having my eyes closed to sleep, I dreamed seeing my bedroom surroundings especially beyond the walls. I was surprised what I saw in my dream is exactly what I see in reality. The secret is the images coming from the right brain that 'sees' beyond unlike the left brain that relies on the physical eye. Therefore, utilizing the left brain is key, which all believers and skeptics possess!
ReplyDeleteNice article.
ReplyDeleteMaybe i share my experienced. I have actually antended a session here in Malaysia. From what i can see the kids are doing, it's a case of, as Malaysians call it, "main tembak"(random shooting!). Lots of the kids are just doing wild guesses and somehow the teacher will try to guide them with their hands or something.
More importantly, the teachers and even the so called founder of the programme there...they looks totally unprofessional. The "teachers" looks more like housewives doing part time job. And yes, i agreed some of the kids are peeking given the way they adjust their blindfolds.
The most important thing is...WHAT DOES IT ACHIEVE? Just because you can read blindfolded doesn't makes you smarter, think out of the box, has better communication skills etc.
Unless your future career plan is to replace Ben Affleck as the next 'DareDevil'. LOL.
Wong Tuck Kong,i completely agree with u WHAT DOES IT ACHIEVE? IT DOES NT MAKE U SMARTER
DeleteYou can't read anything through a blindfold. Save your money for something useful.
ReplyDeleteIf it was a real science , they would have patented it. Got a noble prize , earned astronomical money. They could have trained blind people. People are getting dumber these days.
ReplyDeleteRight, left or mid brain - the way humans see, is the light falls on the retina through the eyelens. The nerves connected to the retina carry the signal to the brain, and brain perceives the info from the nerves.
ReplyDeleteIf you understand this, then you will not have any doubts about this yourself that this is HOAX!
Mid Brain
ReplyDeleteI'm new on this community,
and this is my very first post.
I really appreciate your hard work .
thank you for this information.
Thank.God !
ReplyDeletePlease spread this .
total crap. ..
If they really can read blindfold please teach this to the blind their lives will improve magically. They can even try blind children 5 to 15 years old.
ReplyDeleteWe all have this strong imagination willing us contort evidence as per our wanted results. No use arguing with peopke who want to believe. This is complete hogwash. All such schemes and frauds have their day in the sun and then fade into obscurity.