Power of Human Mind

Take a look at this paragraph. Can you read what it says? All the letters have been jumbled (mixed). Only the first and last letter of each word is in the right place:

"I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt!"

[For those who can't able to read this paragraph, check at the ending for original paragraph]

I hope most people would be able to read this paragraph. Are you amazed about the reading power of human mind. The fact is our mind is capable of doing more powerful reading than this. It is just a proof to define what it can do.

One such example is Swami Vivekananda's unusual capacity of intense mental concentration, which made him learn and remember essential subject matter in the books in very short period of time, and that too by just reading once!

Once Swami Vivekananda was reading the volumes of 'Encyclopedia Britannica'. His disciple associate (Sharatchandra Chakravarti), seeing those twenty-four volumes, remarked, "It is difficult to master the contents of so many volumes in one life." He did not know at the time that the Swami had already finished ten volumes and was reading the eleventh. "What do you mean?" said Swamiji. "Ask me whatever you like from those ten volumes and I can tell you all about it." The disciple, out of curiosity, brought down the books and asked Swamiji many questions on difficult and varied topics/subjects, selecting one or two from different volumes. Swami Vivekananda not only replied each correctly, but in many instances he quoted the very language of the books!

At other time, Swami Vivekananda happened to turn the pages of a book in quick succession just by looking at them once. The disciple asked as to what Swamiji was doing. Swami Vivekananda replied, "Why, I am reading the book." The fellow was utterly surprised to see such an odd method of reading the book! Then Swami Vivekananda explained: Just as a child reads every letter of a word, most of adults read a cluster of words or a full sentence, similarly ‘I can read paragraph to paragraph’. Thus, three glances and the whole page used to be read! Later he greatly emphasized to cultivate power of mind in the form of purity and concentration for spiritual gains, so also perfection in many arts and studies in science and other branches of education.

If you notice the initial paragraph, we can able to read the words even with letters ordered incorrectly. It is because our mind is trained to read a word as a whole. Similarly through an high level of concentration it is possible to read a line as a whole.


Original Paragraph

I couldn't believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. Using the incredible power of the human brain, according to research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total, mess and you can read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, huh? Yeah and I always thought spelling was important!