Brain Fitness

    This book was written back in 1987, and translated into English in 1990. I dunno—maybe the French people are much smarter than Americans, or maybe humanity was much smarter back in 1987, before smart phones and all the other smart stuff that is making us more stupid. And add to that the fact that these days we are being doused non-stop with toxic aluminum nano-particles in chemtrails that we know are seriously affecting our health, including the explosion of Alzheimer's Disease, even in younger people, directly related to the amounts of aluminum in the brain.
    Whatever the reason, I found many of these exercises difficult to impossible, and I consider myself to be way above average intelligence. Even in my student days of memorizing lists of facts, when my brain was working full-steam in that mode, do I believe I could have gotten perfect scores or even near, to any of these exercises. I actually scored zero on several sessions, although on some I did much better, but that is still unnerving. My consolation is that, upon doing a bit of investigation, this book has earned very few stars in readers' ratings.
    Le Poncin spends the first 66 pages discussing the functioning processes of the brain. She also talks about how she became involved in researching and treating people with cerebral underactivity and brain hypoefficiency, mostly through aging but also related to stress, so therefore it includes younger people, too. I was in my thirties when I bought the book, but for some reason never read it then. She was one of the founders of the (English translation) National Institute for Research on the Prevention of Cerebral Aging in France.
    I had issues with this book from the start. First, there was a little questionnaire to fill out, consisting of forty questions. I checked six, although even those were iffy. Her next statement was that anyone checking five to thirty questions was at risk. REALLY? There is a hell of a lot of difference between five and thirty.
    And I had also some issues with the chapter on using lab animals. It is ethically wrong. Period. If you are doing work for humans, use humans for your lab animals. Discussion over. It is obvious that this lady's mind runs super-scientific, and those kinds of people are often deficient in other basic human qualities.
    And so . . . I got through the explanatory stuff and went on to the Sessions. There are exercises for over a four week period, with three session per week, with mostly five exercises per session. They deal with perception, logic, verbal abilities, visuospatial ability, structuralization ability, plus long- and short-term memory. She also has little graphs that you can fill out to show your progress. In one graph, which she calls "typical," the "typical" person scored a 9, then 11, then 28 on the three sessions. REALLY? At no point did I score a 28, even with all my scores added up.
    One of the things that makes this book nearly impossible, at least for me, is that each exercise is timed. For instance, one lists seven scrambled words, with the shortest one being seven letters. In less than three minutes, you must unscramble all seven, without using pencil and paper. In another, there are two multiplications problems with digits missing. The first is three digits times two digits with only seven of the sixteen needed digits supplied. The second one is three digits times three digits, with fifteen of the twenty-four needed digits supplied. You are allowed 15 seconds to observe them and one minute to fill in all the missing digits for both problems. I'm sorry, but unless you are really into math, I cannot believe anyone could do it in the time allowed. I ended up doing the second one in about ten minutes, but the first took longer. Of course, I scored zero. In another is a map of the US with twelve cities marked only with their first letter, and a line drawn to connect them. You are allowed forty-five seconds to observe, then must close the book and name the cities marked on the map. Geez. It took me fifteen seconds just to figure out what cities the letters stood for.
    So basically, at least from my viewpoint, I think this book is WAY beyond realistic. I'm going to test it on some of my younger friends, but I suspect they will find it just as difficult. I cannot fathom an older person, especially (unfortunately) many older people I know (excluding myself), who have gone brain dead. Actually, I think even more young people are there. Along with the toxic aluminum being pumped into our brains, technology has dumbed us down. When people get killed by walking into an oncoming car because they are texting, there is something dreadfully wrong.
    But of course, as mentioned above, Le Poncin wrote this even before the www was a reality, and I think at one point in history people really did utilize their brains. Probably the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks. From there it has been going downhill.
    And so, do I recommend doing this book? Absolutely! Despite its flaws, I am finding that working with these exercises is opening my brain up to long-shut-down processes. We are so used to "thinking" everything to death now. These are not about thinking. They are about perceiving and organizing and remembering—natural functions in which our brains should be engaged in. An alertness of the world around us, of which most people are totally unaware in this age. How could people possibly be clueless to the fact that we are being sprayed, day in and day out with toxic poison that lingers in the sky for days and sometimes weeks? How can they not be aware that, at least here in Northeast Ohio, we go days and days without a glimmer of sunshine. How can they not be aware of all the other issues on this planet that are terribly unnatural? It's because their natural brain functions have shut down, and that is a scary thing.
    And so, yes, by all means do this book. You can get it really cheap at Amazon. Then go on and find other ways to exercise you brain and restore it to its natural and peak condition. It will make the world a better place, and supply yourself with a fresh new set of tools for setting your own life aright.
    For more of my commentary on this book and the subject of brains, please read my companion article, Brain Atrophy.