Book Description

This Multiple Mentality course is a revised version of the course originated by Harry Kahne in the early 1920s. At that time he was billed as The Incomparable Mentalist and The Man with the Multiple Mind.

He often demonstrated his ability on stage by doing six different mental operations simultaneously. His platform performance entailed standing in front of a large blackboard with a piece of chalk in each hand while conversing with the audience. There was a newspaper on a music rack in front of him. He began reading the headlines while writing upside down and backwards with one hand and mirror language with the other hand.

At his left was another small blackboard on which appeared the number 28,642,981,673 --- which was being divided into five unequal parts --- these figures he began computing at the bottom of the large blackboard. To his right was another small blackboard on which appeared seven columns of figures which ran into the millions. These were being added and notated as well at the bottom of the larger blackboard in front of him.

This was Harry Kahne's demonstration of doing six things at one time, i.e., reading, transposing, writing backwards and upside down, holding a conversation, adding and dividing. These six separate processes actually involve fourteen distinct operations, i.e., hearing questions, answering questions, reading a newspaper, transposing what is read, transposing spelling, writing with right hand, writing with left hand, writing upside down, carrying six different thoughts in mind, retaining questions, retaining figures for addition, retaining figures for division, proving previous work and controlling all other physical actions of the body --- such as walking, bowing, etc..

At the end of Harry Kahne's demonstrations, people often asked him, "Do you really believe that nearly everyone can learn to perform the amazing mental feats you demonstrate? Is my brain capable of carrying on four to six independent functions at one and the same time, as yours is? Isn't the ability to master your training confined to well educated people?" When answering, Harry Kahne admitted he had only an average brain to do things no other man in history had done. Education had no bearing on it.

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Introduction

One of the saddest  things the people in this complex world of today are confronted with --- is the disuse of their brains! We are constantly beset and bombard with ever-increasing demands that we are ill-equipped or unprepared to handle! Hence, very often, stress sets in. Stress can then contribute to physiological and psychological disruptions which bring about disease and illness. Efficiency is down. Accidents and mistakes become more frequent.

Now this course may not turn you into an Einstein or an Edison, but it will help you to think with more of what GOD gave you --- Your brain! It is the only course of its kind in the world. If you proceed with it lesson by lesson without deviating or digressing, you will no longer be besieged by situations too hard to cope with! You WILL be master over the most difficult situations and the answers will show themselves easily. This course is the key to clearer thinking.  It will elicit that latent potential that has always been within you, and you will mentally grow strong and vibrant --- full of life and health.

Have you ever watched an unusual performer do something that you thought was fantastic? Did you ever wonder how he got that way? He certainly wasn't born with this talent, but instead he learned to develop such a talent by training himself. You are endowed with the same basic mental and bodily functions as such a performer. Of two people, each possessing the same natural ability and identical schooling, one will attain great heights of achievement, while the other remains in a status of mediocrity.

There are many examples in history of those who excel and use their brain. Some mechanics become Thomas Edisons or Henry Fords, while others are "grease monkeys" to the day of their death. This wide discrepancy in the fortunes of men is due to the fact that some see and do the right thing at the right time --- while others do not. But... the one man in a thousand who sees correctly and acts with decisiveness at precisely the proper time does not blindly HAPPEN to do so. He sees and acts courageously and correctly because his mind is trained to react efficiently under all circumstances. He has acquired this mental training --- this ability to make his brain cells really work --- unconsciously. He has not realized that he has been training and developing his mind to do so.

After completing this mental development course, you will no longer suffer the balm of a tired mind, but instead you will be mentally alive and feel at ease with yourself. Problems that plagued you before will become easy to solve and the correct decisions will always be readily available.

Follow the instructions conscientiously and you will be amazed at your own ability to perform mental feats that you previously had not thought possible of yourself. It is then that you will realize the boundless potential of your own mind and what it can do for you. As you proceed through each lesson, your brain power will be increasing in strength. Mentally you will be more equipped to handle everyday situations. No matter what your education or experience, for the first time in your life, you will be truly using your brain power storehouse.

Of course, this course in mind training can only benefit you in proportion to the time and effort with which you devote to it. Don't try to find easy methods of doing a certain exercise or lesson for you will only be cheating yourself out of the rewards of completing that lesson. When an exercise states that you do it from memory alone, then don't copy, but do it from memory alone!

Whatever your profession this course will help you perform better and more efficiently. You will find that the difficult and near impossible success can be yours and your hidden dreams can be concrete realizations.

Harry Kahne's brain was little different from yours. However, such as it was, he taught it to work for him. Really work! All its resources were instantly available when he wanted or needed them. It had been trained to do what he wanted it to do, when he wanted it done. His was only an average brain made to perform certain tasks for him.

In this series of lessons or exercises are all the things you need to make your mind work for you. You will be surprised to find how simple they are and how much actual fun and satisfaction you will get from completing the course. Why, it's like a game --   but with far more value than any game ever possessed!

Follow the instructions conscientiously and you will develop all the cells of your brain. You will train them to work in unison for you. And when they do that, YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MIND DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO DO! You can carry on several lines of thought simultaneously. The most difficult problems will seem to solve themselves. The hardest questions, seen in their proper perspective and with all their factors viewed concurrently, become easy to answer promptly and correctly. You will not become perplexed about little things that now cause you setbacks of greater or lesser degrees, because your brain will automatically analyze and evaluate them accurately and give you the right answers at the right time. Such thinking brings SUCCESS!

The first lessons are almost childishly simple. But as you progress from one to another they become more difficult and involved. However, your mind will become correspondingly more able to grasp them and, in a surprisingly short time, you will be actually amazed by your own ability to perform mental feats you had not thought possible  --- feats of incalculable value to you in the business and professional world. You will realize at last that there is literally NO LIMIT to the extent to which you will be able to make your mind work for you!

With each lesson, you will learn how you can apply the principles of mental function you acquire to help you in your everyday life. There is no lesson that does not have its practical application in achieving financial or social success. When you are only half way through, you will be unwilling to accept a thousand dollars for the ability you already will have acquired. No matter what your education, training or experience, you will be using them to real advantage for the FIRST time in your life!

Obviously, this course can benefit you only in proportion to the time and sincerity with which you follow it. Therefore, devote the prescribed time effort to every lesson. Do not cheat yourself. Do not copy the exercises from the words you put down. Do them from memory --- and from memory alone. Do not proceed to any lesson until you have thoroughly mastered the one preceding it. To do so defeats the purpose of the course --- defeats your own desires --- nullifies your efforts. Be fair with yourself throughout! Soon you will be achieving mental exercises previously never thought possible.

Although the exercises necessarily are performed with words and figures the results they accomplish in building Brain Power will be reflected in your work day by day, no matter what that work may be. You will find that problems now difficult or even impossible for you to cope with resolve themselves into simple matters before you are half way through the course. In short, the Impossible becomes Simple!

And now I shall give you something startling to think about -- something at once alluring and encouraging. There lies dormant within every man some thought, idea, plan --- call it what you will --- that probably is deeply buried in his subconscious mind, doomed never to reach fruition. But if that thought or plan were brought into the light, allowed to develop, it would make its owner a truly outstanding success --- a man of achievement to whom people would point. And I say to you that if you train your mind to work for you --- to delve into the unexplored resources of your brain and emerge with the treasures hidden therein --- spectacular success will be yours! If you are honest with yourself in understanding Multiple Mentalism, if you are earnest and sincere in your desire to rise far above the ordinary, I will show you how to be successful and powerful beyond your fondest dreams! Simply follow my instructions as given on the following pages --- and you will amaze yourself and the world at large!

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How the Space Age Degenerates Intelligence 

Dr. Alexis Carrel, surgeon, scientist, member of the Rockefeller Institute, winner of the Noble Prize in 1912 for his success in suturing blood vessels and the transplanting of organs, co-discover of the famous Carrel-Dakin solution which made gangrene virtually unknown in World War I and thus saved tens of thousands of lives, said in his book, Man, The Unknown:

"Modern civilization seems to be incapable of producing people endowed with imagination, intelligence and courage. In practically every country there is a decrease in the intellectual and moral caliber of those who carry the responsibility of public affairs. The education dispensed by schools and universities consists chiefly in a training of the memory and of the muscles, in certain social manners, in a worship of athletics. Are such disciplines really suitable for modern men who need, above all other things, moral courage and endurance!" Those statements are truer now than when Dr. Carrel wrote the book in the early 1930s. Now our brightest and best students have shown an average drop in SAT scores since the early 1970s. This controversy abounds in speculative arguments blame television, permissiveness and educational teaching methods.

But the cause of this mental weakness is not difficult to discern. The pioneers who settled our country were many-sided men --- we are not. They were at once hunters, trappers, explorers, fighters, teamsters, ship or canoe builders, horsemen, wheelwrights, carpenters, cabinetmakers, well drillers, masons, farmers, blacksmiths, traders, cooks -- all these, and more, "specialized" trades and abilities combined in single individuals! No wonder they were possessed of "mental equilibrium, nervous stability", and other attributes mentioned by Dr. Carrel! They were well balanced because their talents were well rounded. They had nervous stability because they had serene self-confidence based on a knowledge of their ability to cope with any problem that might arise in their world. They had sound judgment, for the most part, because their minds were expanded, embraced many branches of lore and learning, were capable in thinking on many varied planes.

And so with the early merchant. He was at once his own architect, store designer, buyer, stockkeeper, advertising manager, salesman, bookkeeper, and financial wizard. The doctor of only a generation ago was an obstetrician, gynecologists, dentist, opthalmologist, throat specialist --- in short, a "general practitioner" in all branches of surgery and medicine.

Today, we have more intelligent exploration, more intelligent farming, better architecture, advertising, accounting, obstetrics, dentistry and surgery. But what Man as a whole has gained, man as an INDIVIDUAL --- you and your family and your employer and your employees --- has lost. You have lost the capacity for broad-gauge reasoning. You are incapable, at present, of viewing many conflicting factors simultaneously --- weighing them side by side at one and the same time --- balancing them, one against another, concurrently --- reaching almost instantaneously a decision which you know, in the depths of your being, is the correct decision and acting upon it promptly with the courage that comes with such conviction.

By relieving man of the necessity for thinking, except within the exceedingly narrow scope of whatever he has chosen as his life work, this Space Age has dulled and drugged the greater part of Man's mind. How many men in this day of automobiles could even harness a horse, to say nothing of caring for it? Why, the majority of them do not understand even the automobiles they drive! The workers themselves, who help build our cars by inserting and securing bolt No. 146, do not understand carburation, ignition, or the principles of the transmission and differential. We no longer train our minds to carry thoughts what we wish to impart to our friends when we next meet them. If the thoughts are important, we reach for a phone or send a letter. If they are relatively unimportant, we forget them. Machines and computers have become Masters, and Minds are deteriorating because of ever-decreasing opportunities, and need for, their use!

That is why your mind needs "limbering up". The very elementary mental gymnastics that I will give you at the start may seem useless almost to the point of foolishness, but they are like the preliminary "warming up" exercises with which athletes indulge before beginning a game. They are simple, easy to do and apparently without meaning. However, they are but the start. As your mind gains flexibility, really "warms" to its task, I shall take you farther and farther until you are performing feats that will astound your friends --- and which will reflect themselves in your increased business ability and earning power.

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Exercise One

Although this is the simplest of my twelve exercises, it is by far the most important, for it is upon this exercise that all subsequent instructions are based. Now, too, is the time for you to acquire the proper habit of study. "Well begun is half done," you know, and this exercise --- comprising three separate mental drills --- affords you the opportunity to establish your earnestness, punctuality and continuity of effort. It is designed to train you to apply yourself to a mastery of Multiple Mentalism and to give you a firm foundation of thought application upon which the rest of the lessons in this course depend.

And right here I want to emphasize what will be repeated time and again throughout the course --- that you must not copy this exercise, but must work from memory alone! In this way, and ONLY in this way, will you be able to train your mind to do things for you, when and as you want them done! It is work --- but it is fun too. It takes time --- but it is worth it! And the results will seem nothing less than miraculous!

First: This the English alphabet:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

You were taught to memorize that in the first grade. Now, with pencil and paper, BUT WITHOUT LOOKING AT IT EVEN ONCE. write the alphabet backwards FIFTY TIMES:

Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A

The first time will be difficult and you may make mistakes. But don't look, nor copy, nor take too long to "think it out." Write it backwards, at a fairly even speed, regardless of how slow that speed may be, from MEMORY. This is the first training for your mind. In ten or twenty attempts you will be able to write the alphabet backwards easily. Do it fifty times and you will have mastered it perfectly.

Second: I assume that you now have mastered the alphabet backwards. If you have not, do not stop at the fifty times you have written it, but continue writing it from memory until you have mastered it. Then transpose in 1-3 2-4 order the letters of the alphabet from A to Z, as follows:

A C  B D,  E G  F H,  I K  J L,  M O  N P, Q S R T, U W V X, (Y Z),

which are left over from the six combinations of four letters each. Do this FIFTY times from memory. It will be by no means easy the first few times, but you will gain accuracy quickly. However, you will profit nothing if you look at the letters of the alphabet in order to copy the exercise. Its value lies in the training given you by breaking up the sequence of letters in YOUR MIND, without the help of your eyes. You can readily understand how this will lead to mental agility in grasping and revolving business problems in your mind. Therefore, do this exercise AT LEAST fifty times, or as many more times as may be necessary for you to be able to do it quickly and accurately.

Third: In the same way, transpose the letters of the alphabet FIFTY times, in the order of 1-26, 2-25, 3-24, 4-23, 5-22, etc.; the first 13 letters (A to M, inclusive) in their regular order; the last 13 (Z to N, inclusive) backwards; intermingling the two halves of the alphabet thus:

A-Z  B-Y  C-X  D-W  E-V  F-U  G-T  H-S  I-R  J-Q  K-P  L-O  M-N

Do this also from MEMORY. Do not copy or look at the alphabet. And when you are doing this exercise, realizing that you are doing two things at once in your mind. You are writing the first half of the alphabet in its usual sequence, and the last thirteen letters in reverse order. You are making your brain do something for you that it never did before. It is performing a dual operation. When you have done this third part of Exercise I fifty times, entirely from memory, you will have demonstrated that you can make your mind really work for you with a nimbleness heretofore unrealized!

Don't forget that you cheat only yourself --- not anyone else --- of you fail to perform these mental gymnastics from memory and if you fail to send ONE HOUR A DAY on the exercises.

And now, I am going to put you on your honor. For your own sake, master this exercise -- in all its three parts -- before you go on to Chapter II and its accompanying exercise. Each chapter and "drill" in this course is based on all that goes before it. Your success with the second lesson depends on your mastery of the first. Be conscientious --- be fair to yourself --- and spend all the time you need to do each exercise quickly, accurately and easily. The rewards will delight you!