TRUTH SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT.—No. 48.

Vol. 83, No. 2166 Wednesday, June 5, 1918

A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT WORK AND RECENT PROGRESS of THE PELMAN INSTITUTE BY THE LIGHT OF THE LATEST INFORMATION.

By "Truth" Investigator.

June 5, 1918.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF TRAINING THE MIND.

A MOST remarkable thing is the war-work which has been accomplished by the Pelman Institute. A full two years have elapsed since the claims of the Institute to consideration as a serious educational factor in the national life was first discussed in the columns of TRUTH.

At that time the possibilities of a course of instruction which should train the mind systematically and scientifically to perform its functions more effectively had presented themselves to comparatively few people.

The majority even of the few who had considered the matter had viewed it from the professional chair, rather than from the stand-point of the man of action. The psychologist was aware that mind training is as necessary to produce intelligence as exercise is to develop the body, for all education is mind training—of a sort.

What the scientific psychologist generally had not considered was:

1. a practical method by which every adult with a normal brain could improve his mind,
2. a means by which defects caused by bad educational methods in early life could be eradicated,
3. a training which should make the brain of the man or woman subjected to it brighter, stronger, more capable, and more active.

There was one exception.

At the Pelman Institute psychology was recognised to be as readily adaptable to the needs of mankind as any of the other ’ologies—a live science which in its practical application to everyday life and everyday needs had just as great a potentiality for useful service as chemistry or dynamics.

The Institute claimed to have succeeded in thus adapting the discoveries of psychological research to practical purpose by the production of a series of lessons based on scientific principles which should do for the human mind what a course of physical training scientifically devised would do for the body.

It claimed further that this training produced in practice the results that would have been expected in theory, and finally it claimed that as a consequence a Pelman student benefited not only mentally and morally, but materially by the training he undergoes.

These were high claims, but careful and lengthy investigation showed them to be justified in every particular. The conclusions arrived at upon the evidence obtained were:—

1. That the course of training is founded on a scientific basis of natural law.
2. That it is the product of expert psychological knowledge combined with acquaintance with everyday affairs.
3. That it is taught by expert tutors.
4. That it is devoid of technicalities, is adapted to everyday needs and provides instruction for securing physical as well as mental well-being.
5. That there is overwhelming testimony from men and women in all ranks and walks of life to the value of the training, backed up by innumerable specific instances of personal success directly attributable to such training.

From these five specific conclusions the general conclusion was deduced that the Pelman Course of Mind and Memory Training was of the highest educational value, valuable to the well-educated, but still more valuable to the half-educated or the superficially-educated, and that there are few people who would not find themselves:

• mentally stronger,
• more efficient, and
• better equipped

for the battle of life by a Pelman Course.

Chapter and verse for these conclusions were supplied by excerpts from the evidence which had been examined, including the Pelman text-books, the exercises and the lesson sheets supplied to students, interviews with members of the staff of the Institute, and the statements of students who had passed or were passing through the Course.

Particularly they were considered from their bearing upon the demand for efficiency, both in the nation and the individual, and from that point of view a whole-hearted of "Pelmanism" as conducive to that end was offered to the readers of TRUTH.

THE EFFECT OF THE "TRUTH" INVESTIGATION

The effect of the publication of this careful analysis of Pelman methods and investigation of results was as flattering to TRUTH as it was satisfactory to everybody connected with the Pelman Institute, from the director to the latest enrolled student.

From that time forth, the enrollment of new students went up by leaps and bounds. Instead of being numbered by tens of thousands, they may be counted to-day by the hundred thousand, a result which is attributed by Mr. Ennever, the founder and director of the Pelman Institute, in very large measure to the public confidence in the honesty, independence, and sanity of opinions expressed in TRUTH.

Yet as flattering as such testimony is, those results could not have been attained but for two prime factors. There must have been:

1. on the one hand, a vast number of people anxious to improve the working capacity of their brains, and
2. on the other, the means of enabling them to find what they required.

—In other words, the demand, though not claimant, was existent, and the goods were ready for delivery.

TRUTH’S part was to bring the customers into touch with those prepared "to deliver the goods," and its success in doing so may probably be attributed to the fact that so much charlatanry has been mixed up with the subject that a sceptical attitude towards claims put forward in regard to mental development was the average attitude, and that TRUTH has ever made a business of the detection and exposure of charlatanry in any form.

It need hardly be said that had there been any element of charlatanry about the methods of the Pelman Institute the public would have been warned against the Institute in the columns of TRUTH instead of being assured that it was able to carry out exactly what it professed to be able to perform.

It need hardly be said, also, that had investigation disclosed any unfair means of obtaining enrollments, or any unfair treatment of students when enrolled, not only would no recommendation of the Pelman Institute have appeared in TRUTH, but even its ordinary business announcements would not have been found in TRUTH’S advertisement columns.

The Cult of Pelmanism.

But whatever the reason, there can be no shadow of doubt about the magnitude of the recent extension of the Pelman Institute’s activities. Two years ago Pelmanism was known to the comparatively few. For some curious reason students were shy of acknowledging that they were engaged in training their minds.

They may have thought that the ignorant many would draw the deduction that there must be something radically wrong with the brain which does not answer to any of the demands the owner puts upon it. The view lingers yet, but it is being rapidly dissipated by the knowledge that the brain is as responsive to training as the muscle.

More and more is recognition being given to the fact that a course of training for the brain is as eminently a wise and reasonable occupation as a course of physical exercise for the body.

It is not only the weakling who benefits by scientific physical training, the perfectly sound man benefits to an equal extent, and if he desires to increase his physical powers he has no hesitation about putting himself through a course of training for the purpose, nor does he, as a rule, exhibit any shyness about letting his friends and associates know what he is doing.

Such to-day seems to be the position which is being rapidly approached in regard to mind training. Pelmanism is becoming a cult. Those who practise it are no longer few and far between. They are to be found all over the world, in all classes of society, practically in every profession and occupation in which men and women are engaged.

Such being the situation, and in view of the part which TRUTH has been instrumental in bringing about, the time seems to have arrived for a re-survey of the whole work of the Pelman Institute, with particular attention to the evidence of those who have passed through the course as to the results in their individual cases.