Chapter II

The mind is arguably mankind’s greatest tool; the evolution of its cognitive abilities being the justification behind the statement that mankind is the most advanced species on the planet. Its development has led to breakthroughs and inspiration that have taken mankind from the hunter gatherers of the river valleys, to the highest peaks of the Andes, the most faraway islands in the Pacific and the cold polar domains of within the arctic circle. The greatest minds in history have yet led our civilisation further, be it the discoverers of electricity, the creators of psychology or the inventors of sliced bread. The mind is the power progressing mankind to greater heights and further depths, and as such its development is of greatest importance.

All this emphasis on the mind, and some theories suggest that the average human uses only 10% of his mental potential. The dark student should see the great potential he can tap into, and its highest importance and value. The soldier who can use 10 weapons simultaneously will have the distinct advantage over the person who can use a mere one weapon. Tapping into our extra potential can smooth our path through life, through the materialistic world to success, as well as helping you develop a great and potent tool for later studies in other areas such as esoterica.

There are various ways to improve your mental ability. You can expand your capacity, you can expand your efficiency. You can also improve your temperament, which can have knock on effects on your ability. In the same way the stressful athlete will not perform to his full potential, neither will a stressful scholar.

Your mental capacity, the amount you can learn, the amount you can take in one go, the complexity of the mindmap your neural network can make on a subject. The greater this is, obviously the better your understanding. Knowledge is power, and if you can quite simply store more of it, you have the advantage. Not only this, but the more information you have to spot patterns in, the more likely you will be to spot the pattern.

The efficiency is also important. An office stored in a well filed manner, will obviously work much more efficiently than an office which is just a mass of paper, in no particular order, even if each piece of paper has a more informed and detailed piece of information than in the well ordered office.

On top of this other factors exist. As well as the physical, as discussed in an earlier lecture, and basic mental skills as described above, there is the system of operations of the mind. The protocol and language of the mind, such as logic, can be highly improved, and many different games exist to do this, from chess through to sudoku.

The increased strength in one's logic has numerous knock on effects, from becoming a step closer to the mastery of friendships, to the well-recognised dark skill of tactics and strategy. Always remember that logic and rationale is a superb tool, but also remember that it is not a system of truth in itself, and that you should back up as much as possible your rational thinking with empirical understanding. Rationality only ever comes second to experience.