THE SPEED OF THOUGHT.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17460, 22 May 1922, Page 10

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT.

How many thoughts go Mb# sec J ond? A well-knomi .ishjtti. ad philosopher, Dr. Richet, I cently answered ttos dofinitely. ■ / ~ In a communication to tw MM®! Dcs Sciences he stateiLthtttoofom; tions have shown hini thoughts a second may be tam*' ment is remarkable—ho per second-but the question is illusory, &en itself is not properly . I do not say this lightly, period of my own.stuaiea I curried out a *riM some of them very tending over years, in order to secret of problems For example, 1 committed , a great uuUr of poets—Milton, (» Shelley, Byron-and 2Mctf«ya# in-the higner niatlh^matics These 1 learnt tinual repetition. At first cupied almost all a y> time sUidf practioo I reduced >tfce an boar' and at length during -halM».Jf| fore breakfast I used if run ow entire tewes in my mm. I observed the ma,in •' s u\tt i tion,. and it was very cutiou time the repetition of , yiliquired only slight power; it was as if,® , frffl iu my brain rapidly #W a cylinder, revealing as » 010 series 1 had inenioriaed. j ia i Tliis became so sense so automatic, tl * . perform, not ont 11 '' mental work, while : memory task ; yet I j detected had thfe/e „| »; ! weakening in the recollects Pa Th'e speed, therefore, process of tihought took plwe » oi. practice, and H was great increase of rate. lettoume afterl P^JgiW perfect in this Wille^L rt J used W * thousand words, and tW* pe.it every morning dunffij hour, although the origin, had taken many day- favastig We see here one thvt Dr. Itichet has does not constitute ® I criticism of this theory. | What he calls sites or thoughts often, w^ hol( #«» but at the base of a true question should be P rO P « aB <yl: How many I! ' loU^,n d entertf"' tary kind can the mind Tcould write a problem, but the anew ■ p* forthwith. The inrod »*j instant entertain w hich''f&* its relation to a £ f on A? bi consciousness as the fi Dr. Kielict's thougiits * compounding eleinenta , g|t* e ' these are rapid, lar tba? L a second, more rapid l , (jeceirt* the "'swiftness of the tl oU ght eve " for the tpeed of tnav*L 4r tw" 35 %>, -fSfigS? l Lynch in London Da»y,