I was 12 and I was in trouble. Again.

I had just started Geometry and we had to learn to use a protractor to measure angles and wotnot.

Never seen one before.

I could not, for the life of me, figure out what the two sets of numbers were for. Why two? Made no sense.

A twelve-year old boy’s mind works in mysterious ways.

It got bad.
I was worried.
I was falling waaay behind.

Everything seemed to hinge on this horrible, plastic, protracted, Protractor thingy.

Out of desperation while doing my homework one autumn night, I quite predictably fell asleep.

At 3:27 that night, I awoke with a start … and with the answer. “Aha, one set of numbers goes one way and the other set of numbers goes the other way! What could be simpler?”

Considerably impressed with myself, I got wondering whether I could do it again? I did and, wonder of wonders, it worked again. Hmmmm….

I went looking for stories of people who had achieved the same feat and found a considerable number of very famous and amazing ones.

The Power of Dreams

We have all heard of the power of dreams. Countless people waking up in the middle of the night with the answer to a difficult problem. A life-changing experience for many.

I often talk about Professor August Kekule, a very important chemist who lived in the mid-1800s. Kekule was the world’s first structural chemist, the first person to see how all the atoms in the universe fitted together like very tiny Lego, which creates shapes and new molecules (please click here).

Ask yourself, “what would you personally be worth today if you were part of Kekule’s family tree and good old great-granduncle August’s estate still owned the Intellectual Property Rights to all Plastics and Dyes manufactured and sold worldwide today? Can you say Gazillions?”

Can everybody do it at will?

It turns out that it’s actually quite easy to instruct our brain to work on the problems we face and the goals we want to achieve, to show us the way and to put on our path the tools and opportunities that will see us through to a successful outcome.

In the years that followed my own discovery, I came across a very wise master who passed on to me a discovery of his own and taught me how to open up a channel of communication directly with my brain anytime I wanted it to search through its massive bank of data and experiences and offer me the speediest, most easily implementable and valuable solution to the question.

I had discovered the Eye Roll Technique.

The Eye Roll Technique

The Eye Roll is a very simple technique that is designed to open a channel of communication with your brain. It is something that you would not normally do any other time and that your brain, therefore, interprets as a signal that you want it to pay attention and that you are about to instruct it to do something for you.

This is how it works: (You can also view the technique demonstrated here).

1. Lie down or sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor.
2. Take three very deep breaths and let the air out really slowly. Pay close attention to the calming relaxation response at the end of every breath.
3. Close your eyes and, with your eyelids closed, just roll your eyes up to the top of your head until you feel a little bit of eyestrain.
4. Relax your eyes and keep your eyes closed.
5. Say “Hello” to your brain.
6. Then ask your brain to work on something you would like it to figure out for you.

You have just learned how to communicate directly with your brain.

Some people get an immediate response when they do this exercise. For others, it may take a little longer … a few hours, a day, a couple of days perhaps. An answer may pop in while they’re driving home, doing the dishes or just going about their daily activities.

You can use the Eye Roll Technique anytime of the day but it is particularly effective when you do it just before going to bed at night. Since your brain will be busy sorting out everything that has happened since you woke up that morning, it’s the perfect time to get it to sort out and provide an answer to a specific issue that matters to you.

Regardless of when you do an Eye Roll, the important thing is to start a conversation or a relationship with that magnificent instrument that is creating your experience of living right now, this very moment.

Try this: As you get ready to go to bed tonight, start to wonder about some of the ideas you have read here so that when your head hits the pillow, it will be a signal to your brain to start the process of rewiring itself. Roll your eyes up to the top of your head until you feel a little bit of eyestrain. Relax your eyes and keep your eyes closed. Say “Hello” to your brain. Ask your brain to work on something you would like it to figure out for you while you sleep. In the morning, don’t be too surprised if your brain astounds you with some interesting, useful and valuable insights that you can use right away. When you notice these insights, thank your brain, actually say “Thank you” to your brain. This will produce a flood of endorphins that will reinforce this beneficial pattern. Enjoy them. Who knows, you could get the answer to the next best thing to benzene and then you’d have to figure out what to do with all that money. I bet your brain would come up with a good many mind-blowing suggestions of its own.

Let me know how it goes for you.

1. Have you ever woken up from a dream with a momentous idea or realization? Can you share it with us?
2. Have you ever woken up inside a dream, realized you were still asleep and went flying for the sheer delight of it?
3. What would you ask of your brain if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Post your answers below, and read what others are saying.

What I’m watching:

In the 3rd millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on
wax tablets. In the years since, we haven’t paused in our quest to understand why we dream. And while we still don’t have any definitive answers, we have some theories.

In this short video clip, Amy Adkins reveals the top seven reasons why we might dream.