About 10 years ago, I became very interested in the latent potentials of the human mind. I inherently felt that we all have psychic powers that lie dormant inside us. This led me on a journey of discovery to find this holy grail of knowledge.
My decade long journey was traveled by reading a great number of books about the mind. These included books on spirituality, religion, philosophy, quantum physics, self-help, wisdom, and much more.
When I started, I considered myself an average reader. At the time, I didn’t like to read for leisure. Finishing a 300 paged book seemed like a daunting endeavor that would take a month or longer to finish.
After I had been reading for a while I began to notice that the more books I read, the more my reading skills improved. I began to read faster and retain more information. Now I love to read, and I make sure I save some time to read each night before I go to bed. Believe it or not, I feel my consistent reading over the years has significantly increased my IQ. If you want to become an expert at something — begin by reading about it.
For fun, I even read a book that taught me to speed-read. I find this skill very helpful whenever I want to skim a book for the essentials, but for the most part, I usually read at the same moderate speed so that I can retain all the knowledge. If I find a book loses my interest, rather than speeding up to finish it, I simply stop reading it.
Believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve read a single fiction novel in the last 10 years. That’s not because I don’t like fiction. It’s because I prefer self-help books that make me better. I’m addicted to learning any knowledge that can make me a better person. This is my passion — to be the best I can be! I do this for myself and to be an example for others to follow.
Here are my steps for learning from reading:
- Read as much as you can about the subject you want to learn about.
- Keep an open mind about what is possible.
- Decided how new information “feels” to you.
- Test the information in your life.
- File “maybe” info away for later analysis.
My method for learning is simple. I am open to the possibility that anything is possible until I learn information that makes me believe otherwise. This way of thinking is the direct the opposite of what most of us were taught. We were often taught that something is impossible unless it is proven, but that method doesn’t account for the fact that maybe our technology or knowledge is not sufficient yet to understand how something is already working in our lives. An example of this would be electricity in 1600’s. Electricity existed but science had not advanced enough to prove it existed.
Once I learn something new, I analyze it by seeing how it feels to me. If it feels true or plausible, then I file it away as part of my beliefs, or into the “maybe” category in my mind. The “maybe” category means I will have to get more knowledge before I make up my mind about its validity.
If something feels wrong to me then I usually discard it and moved on. I have learned to trust my intuition because it has proven to be reliable.
In my journey I have noticed that I often see the same information in seemingly unrelated text or areas of life. Whenever I see the same thing over and over again it’s a good sign for its validity.
An example of this is the law of attraction which seems to be found everywhere, including the Bible.
Some of the more interesting “maybe” info has been alternative information about the spirituality, The Great Pyramids, Atlantis, and even extraterrestrials. Being open-minded, whenever I read something outlandish I file it away as a “maybe”. Then later if I see it written again in another unrelated book, or in life, I will put the pieces together to form a new opinion.
An example of this is when I recently read a book that talked about the Zero Point Field – which is the space between the smallest known spaces. It talked about how this is the place where we can mentally use our spiritual power to do amazing things. This resonated with another book I had read called Theta Healing, where the author taught about how to get to a state of mind where you interact with the creator by mentally observing a healing as it takes place. When I heard the word observe, I also immediately thought of quantum physics, where the in the double slit experiment it talks about how the observer is able to influence how energy turn into matter on a subatomic level.
I realize that last paragraph was a little advanced, so I hope I didn’t lose anyone there, but my point is that this process of association is how I turn “maybe’s” into beliefs. You see, the Zero Point Field sounds an awful lot like Theta Healing. Theta healing sounds an awful lot like the observer effect in quantum physics. When I see something like this working in different aspects of life, it gives me a type of validation that it is happening. This just means it is my belief. It does not mean I have found a way to prove something to be true.
The next step is to test these things out in my own life. I can say that all three of these things (Zero Point Field, Theta Healing, and Double Slit Experiment) have worked for me because I consider them all to be the law of attraction — just explained from different points of view. And as you may well know, the law of attraction is a key fundamental law of spirituality.
I would say that the thing that I learned the most during this journey was the law of attraction. I tested it out over and over in my life until I was able to make it work consistently. The knowledge I used to test it out was acquired from reading. Reading gave me an understanding of how it worked. Trial and error then allowed me to fine tune the process so that I could learn to consciously control what I attracted.
So in summary, consistent reading is a fundamental skill for gaining knowledge. Intuition is a fundamental skill for evaluation what you learn, and trial and error is the proving ground for testing your theories. Finally, your beliefs are what you have once you have made up your mind about what you feel is true.
The bottom line in learning is to acquire as much knowledge as you can. As Albert Einstein said, “Never stop questioning life.”
I’d like to give you one parting piece of advice before we end this post. Don’t blindly follow the crowd’s beliefs. They are often wrong. Follow your own beliefs — even if they are unpopular. Listen to your heart about what is true. This goes for learning knowledge and for making all of your decision in your life.
So, if you are willing to put in the time and effort to read to gain knowledge of what others before you have learned, and then apply your own insight to what you have learned you will quickly acquire knowledge of whatever it is you are studying. If you stay at it long enough you will eventually become an authority in that field.
By the way, reading gave me the inspiration to write my own book, Awaken Your Power!
What do you think about this post? I’d love to hear your opinion.
Until next time,
Joe Rapisarda
Twitter @JoeRapisarda
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