II. The practical basis
The proper implementation of the method
First of all, give all your attention to reading the entire method so that you gain a clear and unequivocal overview. Whatever you have not managed to take in completely the first time of reading through, read through it again, as well as whatever you find that is especially meaningful for you. Only then should you begin with putting it into operation properly.
Systematic work - systematic learning
Before we turn our attention to the practical basis of learning while you sleep and the instructions, we need to present and deal with a very important topic as to how true, permanent success in learning can be achieved.
Probably everyone, at some point, has started to learn something with self-study, filled with enthusiasm - and then just as quickly gave it up again. Why does that happen? The question has a very simple answer: because no clear and beneficial goal was set. A person only achieves real accomplishments when he has a clear and beneficial goal. Before we can achieve a specific, clearly defined success, we have to make this success into a clearly and firmly defined goal. And this success must then also be beneficial, thus give us an actual benefit.
However, in order to decide exactly what we want to achieve, we need time to think about it and reflect on it. Therefore we should not set ourselves any goals before we have spent at least a full week on thinking about it daily. Whatever we can spend a whole week thinking about because we see it as something good and worthy of aiming for is what we should set as our goal and seek to follow. Anything else, especially any rashly made decision, is more or less worthless and will only lead to failed resolutions that are never carried through to completion.
So, if it is your intention to reach a certain goal through the modern learning method set out here, then ponder the matter long and thoroughly until you can actually say: “Y e s! T h a t i s w h a t I w a n t!”
And when you have set yourself a clear and definite goal, then you only need to work to the plan until you have achieved it. This working according to plan, however, like many things in this world is double-edged:
1. You have to do everything according to plan in order to achieve your goal!
2. You have to avoid everything that could distract you from your goal or draw you away from it, even to the very slightest extent.
If you heed this advice, provided that you can understand the full implications of it, then there is nothing that you cannot achieve once you have set yourself a clear goal.
The practice of familiarisation in learning while you sleep
As the actual familiarisation process is only a problem with technical aids in learning while you sleep, it is presented here by way of two examples.
1. Learning while you sleep with sound production
For your first attempts, you only need to choose any narrated learning content such as vocabulary, texts or, for example, a recording of a radio or TV report downloaded from the internet (for more details seeChapter I “Source references and the areas of use”).
Choose a suitable playback device such as an MP3 player, for example, and in the f i r s t week simply let the narrated learning content run the entire night. The selected learning content should be limited to a maximum running period of 10 minutes. Just how you can limit the narrated learning content to the maximum time period and let it run repeatedly during the entire time you sleep will be explained in more detail inChapter III. When you play the recorded learning content, turn the sound down so that it is so quiet that, when you are in bed, you can just about understand what is coming out of the speaker.(More on this inChapter III).
In the s e c o n d week, start with the time delayed playback of the narrated learning material. For the time-delayed playback you can use multimedia programs with a timer function and repeat function, narrated learning content with a time-delayed storage function, automatic timers or suitable playback devices.(More about this inChapter III).
Set the sound playback so that 30 minutes after you have gone to bed the playback starts on its own and switches itself off again after 60 minutes. The second playback takes place 60 minutes before you usually wake up and ends after 55 minutes. The sound can be set a little louder in the second week. If you have become used to the level of sound and are not disturbed by this, then start with the first learning attempts as described later in this course.
2. Learning while you sleep with a recording device
For familiarisation purposes, look for any general live report on an (Internet) radio or TV channel (e.g. foreign language reports on tourism, holidays and travel) and record this report onto a data carrier. In the f i r s t week, let the spoken recording play non-stop, very quietly the whole night long. (Instructions for this inChapter III).
In the s e c o n d week, let the recording play back 30 minutes after you have gone to bed and stop 120 minutes later. Moreover, set the playback time so that playback starts 30 minutes before you get up and ends again after about 20 to 25 minutes.(Instructions for this inChapter III).
If at first you find yourself disturbed by the learning content, then you must follow the familiarisation phase very slowly by first of all setting the volume so low that hardly anything can be heard and then day-by-day setting the volume a tiny bit louder. This is especially advisable if you either are unable to sleep or if you wake up if you hear the sound replay.
The essence of familiarisation is that you familiarise yourself very slowly with the new learning method without being disturbed in the night by the running of any playback device or feeling disturbed.
Any unpleasant feeling can bring about a mental resistance to the method. The familiarisation procedure can be compared with what a country dweller might feel when he moves to the city and at first cannot sleep very well because of the noise from the street and the traffic or even lies awake in bed for hours at a time. However, over time he gets used to it and he can sleep just as well in the city as he did customarily in his countryside abode.
If you work to plan with the learning while you sleep method, the recording should no longer disturb you when it is played back. It should neither delay the onset of when you would normally fall asleep nor should it awaken you from sleep. You should not have any feeling other than that which you would normally have with street noises and which you would normally be able to sleep through.
The basic mental attitude during familiarisation with the method has to be complete indifference. To a certain extent, you must be impassive about it and must not let yourself be carried away by the desired success, for this would create a mental tension and not allow you to sleep. You must therefore be indifferent about the success of the method and treat it as unimportant, just like the traffic outside that you also do not hear when you are sleeping although it invades your subconscious mind.
The first practical attempts at learning while you sleep
Only once you have familiarised yourself should you start the first practical attempts with proper narrated learning