Dr. Emily Gunter visited our class on Wednesday, September 20. She is the founder of "Rites of Passage," and the author of the book entitled Thirteen Golden Keys to Learning: She did an awesome presentation on the 4 levels of knowledge and how to maintain your sense of balance while listening to the news.

1) Un-Conscious incompetent which leads you to ignorance, possibly "evil ignorance" if you are a person who thinks that you cannot be taught anything new.

2) Conscious incompetence is a step toward learning. This person will seek to become more knowledgeable about a subject.

3) Conciously competent is the level in which you take what you are learning and become more competent and have greater understanding

4) Un-Consious competent. "I know, but I don't know how I know it." You study and do the research. It is a spin-off back to level 3 and you become competent.

Overall she explained that we should seek to become what she calls our "genius self," which is the highest level of living. This is done by learning how the right and left brain can work together. She also emphasized knowing who you are, your purpose in life and what you want to do and then do it.

I learned that we should also watch for the energy vampire, which zaps our strength. When we hear the news our "false ego" sets up an illusion which causes us to become unbalanced. What we must remember is that everything is already passed. We should strive to live in the now.

She explained the importance of breathing right. She also shared a technique to increase memory. She explained that the heart, spleen, liver, etc senses are in the hands. And that to increase memory that for a female, we should place our right hand on our heart, then our left hand on top connecting our thumbs and focusing on our breathing when we are trying to recall something to memory. It is directly opposite for males. I thought I would try this technique while studying for my test for today, thus far I must say that it has been quite helpful.

It was a very interesting presentation which left me feeling I wanted to learn more, and so I plan to purchase her book on the 13 golden keys to learning. The focus on breathing correctly reminded me of Tai Chi that also emphasizes breathing right. Til next time!

Peace, V