PART I
How to Understand Yourself

4.THE TRUTH ABOUT SLEEP LEARNING

By now, nearly everyone has at least heard that it is possible to "learn while asleep." Seldom has anything aroused more in­terest and stimulated more controversy than has the subject of sleep learning.

Early in the century, Dr. William James, one of the America's foremost psychologists, became convinced that the human mind could receive suggestions while asleep and recall the material and impressions upon awakening. Dr. Boris Sidis, a Harvard instructor and former student of Dr. James, conducted experi­ments in sleep teaching more than fifty years ago and reported a number of successes. During World War II, a selected group of service personnel mastered the Japanese and Russian lan­guages within weeks, when their regular courses were supplemented by language recordings played to them at night while they slept.

It was estimated that many months of valuable time were saved in this way.

Recently, a young woman born in Switzerland and employed by an American magazine solved a serious language handicap while listening to a recording at night. She spoke fluent German and French but her English was almost unrecognizable. A New York researcher was successful in developing recorded material designed to improve this young woman's diction. She played the recording every night while she slept, and within a short time her accent was gone and she was able to speak perfect English.

A rural mail carrier from Tampa, Florida, who changed mail routes quickly memorized several hundred new names and ad­dresses by listening to a recording at night while he slept.

Since Dr. James and Dr. Sidis of Harvard blazed the trail over a half century ago, sleep learning has from time to time been credited with fabulous results. A bit of probing many years ago brought to light enough concrete evidence to convince this writer and his associates that a few people could benefit from sleep learning. No doubt you will ask, as we did, why, if such a simple, painless method of education exists, it isn't used by more people. Why, in fact, has sleep learning not become stand­ard practice in every home? Our earliest experiments answer this question. Results varied with people: some absorbed the information, word for word, as it was heard during sleep, while others were only mildly impressed and could recall little or nothing of it upon awakening. Up to that time, nothing of a truly scientific nature had been done on the subject. No material or instruction existed, so our first efforts were on a trial-and-error basis.

Various procedures were tested, including repeater tape cartridges and timer devices to start and stop the recorders periodically throughout the night. The process was laborious and time consuming due to a shortage of equipment, and nearly a year elapsed before enough data was accumulated for an accurate evaluation of our efforts.

In the first year, research proved one thing if nothing more: ordinary unconscious nighttime sleep is not a satisfactory medium of learning for most people. From the one hundred sub­jects participating, the final tabulation indicated the following: 3 per cent received fabulous results, being able to recall with uncanny accuracy a large amount of the recorded material heard while they slept; 12 per cent were impressed to some degree, being able to recall sketches of the recorded matter heard while asleep; and 85 per cent were unimpressed.

This test gave us the reason why sleep learning had never become a popular method of education—85 per cent of our sub­jects remained completely unimpressed and had no recollection of the material played to them while they were sleeping. Per­centage-wise, these figures might have been discouraging had it not been for the three excellent subjects out of one hundred who demonstrated beyond doubt a remarkable ability to learn while asleep. Obviously, an area of subconscious perception be­came automatically alerted in the minds of these three subjects, thereby establishing a rapport with the recorded voice.

The federal government made an impartial survey to deter­mine the effectiveness of sleep learning during nighttime sleep, and it is interesting how closely their conclusions parallel ours. Notice in the government report that ordinary nighttime sleep is the lowest level of perception, while induced hypnotic sleep is the highest level of perception known. In this report the EECG charts electrical brain waves. Alpha wave indicates potential power to receive visual and auditory impressions. Government researchers investigating sleep therapy reported that EECG tests showed that Alpha wave drops during ordinary sleep to but a fraction of what is registered during the waking state. EECG tests given persons under hypnosis showed that Alpha waves do not drop as during normal sleep, but rise instead to a point much higher than what is registered in the waking state. Final EECG tests proved that material heard while one is in a state of hyp­nosis is far more effective than when heard during natural sleep or even while wide-awake.

What do we learn from this impartial government report? Tests such as these indicate that during normal sleep perception drops suddenly to but a fraction of what is registered during the waking, conscious state; yet, under the induced state of hyp­nosis, perception soars to its highest peak, higher than when one is wide-awake and conscious, and many times higher than normal-sleep perception.

It was established that the subjects who achieved outstand­ing benefits were natural somnambulists who had the ability to achieve hypnosis with little effort. The other 12 per cent who benefited to some degree from the tests were found to be better-than-average hypnotic subjects, proving that a rapport compara­ble to that identified with hypnosis was the missing link to successful sleep education. Awareness and perception tests of this nature are simple to prove. Controlled experiments have been conducted with subjects listening to recorded material during normal sleep, and then listening later to the same ma­terial under controlled sleep, hypnosis, or transitional sleep. The difference in perception is much too obvious to question. Only occasionally were there observable effects from recorded sug­gestions heard during normal sleep, yet the same material was up to 92 per cent effective when received by the same subjects during controlled sleep.

We realize that the facts are contrary to statements of some who apparently believe otherwise and still sell expensive repeater devices and special equipment for purposes of sleep learning during unconscious nighttime sleep. We do not believe that those dispensing literature and repeater equipment for learning during nighttime sleep do so with fraudulent intent—far from it. A user of such equipment occasionally receives good results, and, although such reports are rare, they have been sufficient to keep interest alive and to establish the myth that nighttime sleep is an educational medium. The theory behind the old sleep-learning systems is based on the repeater-principle device using a continuous reel of tape. Those who use this system be­lieve a mental block or barrier is responsible for the limited success of sleep learning. It is their belief that the barrier prob­lem varies with different people and can be overcome only by repeating the recorded messages through the night while one sleeps. Research has proved this theory to be entirely erroneous.

It was evident that a recorded conditioning process was nec­essary, and that it would have to be developed to activate the latent areas of perception before many could profit from this wonderful new approach to self-attainment. Through hypnotic research and aided by the electropsychometer, suggestive tech­niques were developed, not only to induce the transitional-sleep state, but to maintain rapport over a prescribed period of time. With the evolution of new methods to scientifically induce relaxa­tion, our percentage of success soon outnumbered that of our failure. Experiments with new and different programs, various types of suggestions, the length of tape, and with timing proce­dures and techniques have contributed to the current 92-per-eent efficiency of prerecorded tape courses.

This is an over-all record for all users. What an improvement from the 15-per-cent effectiveness recorded in the beginning without conditioning, and using normal nighttime sleep!

TRANSITIONAL SLEEP BENEFITS ELECTRONICALLY PROVED

The electropsychometer is an electronic development used by mental therapists to locate and interpret the emotional pat­terns of the patient. It is a supersensitive and highly accurate electronic device that consistently differentiates between pleas­ant and painful emotions. It has two dials, or meters. One meter reads the subject's psychophysical, or general, tone level and is only slightly affected by emotional impulses. The other indi­cator, the surge meter, registers the state of activity of the cen­tral nervous system. While the patient holds in one hand an electrode connected to the electropsychometer, the operator directs suggestions and questions to him. Any resistance, agree­ment, or reaction of the patient is immediately reflected by the surge needle, and the end result is muscular tension plus psy-chogalvanic-reflex response. Through equipment of this nature it is easy to observe and analyze accurately how a person is accepting questions or reacting to statements posed to him. In developing techniques for determining and stabilizing the levels of subconscious perception best suited to sleep learning, the electropsychometer clearly defines the extremities of conscious resistance, areas of subconscious awareness (transitional-sleep state), and levels of unconsciousness or natural sleep. It is in­teresting to observe a subject who is holding the electrode and listening to suggestions of relaxation. If he is in complete agree­ment with any remarks and suggestions, the surge needle will so indicate. Should he be told that he is quite sound asleep, he will (if not asleep) naturally resist the remark that he recognizes as untrue. This mental resistance cannot be consciously con­trolled by the patient or concealed from electropsychometric registration! Experiments have proved that such conscious resist­ance, even in the lower levels of awareness (drowsy state), rendered sleep learning almost valueless.

Suppose the same subject, while listening to continued sug­gestions of relaxation, drifts below the conscious level of thought. The same suggestion that he is sound asleep will not affect the surge meter now, for subconsciously he knows and agrees that his conscious mind is asleep. It is at these levels of perception that genius resides, where perfect recall and sleep learning is possible, and where suggestions are recorded, accepted, and vigorously enforced. Why? As the electropsychometer so indi­cates, the suggestions received are not resisted or hindered by conscious thought.

If our subject is too relaxed to resist the suggestion that he is sound asleep, will he not be too relaxed to react to any type of suggestion made to him? No. Remarks that stimulate the emotions, or perhaps questions that might offend moral or reli­gious ethics, generate strong emotional reactions and will reg­ister on the surge meter at subconscious levels. Now, what if these moral, religious, or other controversial statements are made to the same person after he drops into natural sleep? Nothing occurs. In the unconscious sleep state (existing below subcon­scious awareness), the surge meter remains inactive regardless of the nature or type of statement received. In unconscious sleep the mind still records all sounds and suggestions, but for all practical purposes involving memory recall these levels are un-suited for sleep education.

With the electropsychometer as a guide, certain techniques were evolved and eventually standardized. These suggestions, recorded on tape, guide the consciousness to the desired level of transitional sleep. The phrasing of the recordings has been so selected, correlated, and timed as to stabilize subconscious per­ception at the optimum level for maximum benefits.

Through electropsychometric instrumentation it is easy to assess one's degree of faith or certainty on almost any subject. Since this instrument interprets subconscious attitudes, its read­ings reflect true belief with unerring accuracy. We will cite an interesting case in which the electropsychometer was employed to determine the degree of certainty present (ASRF Clinic, Miami, Fla., 1957).

Mrs. G., age 55, a telephone operator, had suffered from weeping eczema for five years. Mrs. G. stated that the condition was steadily spreading over her body and had resisted X-ray and all other medical treatment. With the electropsychometer as a guide to Mrs. G.'s attitudes, we questioned her about her condi­tion. A high degree of doubt registered when it was suggested that her eczema would clear very soon. Various other questions relative to her condition and possible cure indicated that Mrs. G.'s strong "doubt factor" was most likely aggravating her prob­lem. On the following day, the same questions were repeated, this time under mild hypnosis. The readings now indicated the subject's threshold of doubt to be considerably lower under hypnosis than it was the previous day. The depth of hypnosis was then increased and the suggestions that she would soon recover were again repeated. At this increased depth of relaxa­tion the factor of doubt was missing, and meter readings reg­istered Mrs. G.'s complete agreement with suggestions of im­minent recovery. Firm suggestions were then given to her sub­conscious mind that a complete elimination of the skin eruption was to be achieved within one week. This concept, complete with time element, was repeated once more under hypnosis the following day. Within one week Mrs. G.'s skin was completely clear.

Mrs. G., in her first interview, frankly despaired of achieving relief from her skin problem. Strong doubt is normally present in physical conditions of long standing, the persistence of the problem adds fuel to the doubt of recovery, and the additional doubt, in turn, further aggravates the condition. This down­ward spiraling combination of negative factors operates inde­pendently of the conscious mind and, as in Mrs. G.'s case, con­tributes to an attitude of general despair.

When the doubt factor gains sufficient strength to produce chronic conditions, health impairment is difficult to reduce or even control through the use of will power alone.

It is well to note that, during hypnosis or deep relaxation in which the conscious awareness is reduced, the doubt factor may be altered by direct suggestions to the subconscious mind. With doubt banished the conceptual seed of recovery can germinate, develop, and soon bear fruit. While Mrs. G. was under hypnosis the idea of imminent recovery was implanted. She also gave verbal agreement, under hypnosis, to the following conditions: that she was certain of complete recovery within one week; that she would, in the future, visualize her skin as healthy and per­fectly clear; and that within one week all evidence of eczema would be completely gone, never to return. Since Mrs. G. was in deep hypnosis, she had no recollection of this procedure after she awakened. When again questioned in the waking state, she felt positive that she would soon recover, a complete reversal of her earlier opinion.

Another point of interest was present in this case, that of faith. Although Mrs. G. experienced full recovery from a chronic, disagreeable skin condition, she confessed later that a question of religious faith was causing her anxiety. Mrs. G. was deeply religious, and for three years many special prayer services by members of her congregation were devoted to her physical recovery, all to no avail. This failure of prayer was interpreted by Mrs. G. to mean that she must be unworthy and was being punished by God in this manner. This example is typical of all prayers that remain unanswered. They are not answered because an element of doubt remains. What Mrs. G. and many others do not understand is that faith and belief cannot be forced; they are products of the subconscious and ordinarily resist the power of will to produce.

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