Customer Reviews

Opening the Mind's Eye: How Images and Language Teach Us How To See

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I've always been fascinated by the inner workings of the mind and how one can improve it. This book is a fascinating exploration on how the mind really thinks. It's illustrated in extremely simple language. Interestingly post reading the book I came across other people who use a similar concept. Moreover I have been reading books on memory etc. primarily by authors such as Harry Lorayne, and there too I find the emphasis on thinking in visuals. If you visualize it you remember it. The book does cover memory also to a certain extent but the other coverage is awesome. This book is a definite yes if you want to learn how your mind works and how you can help yourself think better. I wish I had come across this earlier in life. I'm definitely on the lookout for more of such work.

Opening the Mind's Eye reveals both how the mind's eye operates and how language can limit its visual range. Robertson suggest simple and immediate methods by which we can strengthen our ability to make images, improving memory, boosting problem-solving capabilities, combating stress, enriching artistic expression, and increasing athletic achievement. Image-based therapies have become increasingly vital elements in the treatment of illness and disease. This book shows why. How well we use our mind's image making capacities affects every aspect of our lives.

I purchased this book to learn more about the functions of the right hemisphere of the brain. It was disappointing to have a sermon from a self-proclaimed agnostic advocating that religion be subordinated to "science". Robertson acknowledges throughout the book that there are ways of knowing beyond logic (as processed by the left brain). The science part is informative and helpful. It's his added editorializing that weakens the book. He concludes it with a push for a "new religion" to emerge, some odd mixture of various existing religious. His argument indicates his religion is science, which contradicts what he argues elsewhere in the book, about different forms of knowing. He lumps all religions together, seeing them as essentially being all alike, with Buddhism being his slight favorite. I learned new information on the way the brain works, however I had to tolerate a lot of intolerance to my Christian faith along the way.