Nov 18, 2006

benign brainwashing: reading obsessively to change your life

Joe Carter writes,
For the one or two people who will find this useful, the four steps that will transform your worldview are:

1. Choose a book of the Bible.
2. Read it in its entirety.
3. Repeat #2 twenty times.
4. Repeat this process for all 66 books of the Bible.
I wouldn't be surprised if absorption in any sort of motivational text would change your way of thinking, and maybe even change your life. Neuronally, when you read and re-read, you're establishing patterns of activity that will quite literally reshape connections in your brain--which, in the glorious feedback loop of behavior, will reshape your responses in the future.

So, I'm taking up Carter's challenge, and reading and re-reading (and re-reading) Emerson's "Self-Reliance" for twenty days straight. I'll report back when I'm finished.

4 comments:

TeacherRefPoet said...

Don't forget part IV...reread of Emerson's other essays. "Works and Days" and "Experience" are gems that aren't looked at so often these days.

Reread all of them 20 times, and you'll approximately replicate my experience writing my senior honors thesis.

TeacherRefPoet said...

Er..."reread all of."

Anonymous said...

I imagine reading Ezekiel 20 times would have disturbing effects on anyone.

Jim Anderson said...

Or, for that matter, the book of Numbers.