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De-suggestopedia

It is an approach to education whose primary objective is to tap into the extraordinary reserve capacities we all possess, but rarely if ever use. This method utilises techniques from many sources of research into how best we can learn. The Bulgarian scientist, Dr. Georgi Lozanov, for example, has demonstrated that through  a carefully “orchestrated” learning environment, including most importantly, a specially-trained teacher, the learning process can be accelerated by a factor of three to ten times, enjoyably. Such results are possible through the proper use of suggestion. The suggestive-de-suggestive process allows students to go beyond previously held beliefs and self-limiting concepts concerning the learning process and learn great quantities of material with ease and enjoyment.

The artful use of suggestion as a means of facilitating the learning and communication process is, of course, and has always been, a part of nearly all effective teaching and persuasive communication. Not until the past twenty years, however, has the phenomenon of suggestion begun to be methodically researched and tested as to how it can and does affect learning. At the centre of these developments is the work of Lozanov. For more than 20 years he has been experimenting with accelerative approaches to learning, has founded the Institute of Suggestology in Sofia, Bulgaria and has authored the book: Suggestology and the Outlines or Suggestopedia (Gordon and Breach, New York, 1997).

In his early research Lozanov investigated individual cases of extraordinary learning capacities  etc. and theorised that such capacities were possible to learn and teach. He experimented with a wide range of techniques drawn from both traditional and esoteric sources, including hypnosis and yoga, and was able to accelerate the learning process quite dramatically.

Well aware that methods directly involving yoga and hypnosis were not generally applicable or acceptable, he continued seeking universally acceptable means to tap into the vast mental reserve capacities of the human mind we all have, but which are rarely used. Suggestion proved to be the key.

Implementation in public schools has been  impressive: eighteen schools in Bulgaria offered all subjects under Lozano’s supervision and the results have been that children have learned the same amount of material, as in control groups, in less than half the time and with more enjoyment and less stress.

The central premise is that we all possess considerable mental reserves, which we rarely if ever tap under normal circumstances.

Our inner, unconscious set-up is extremely basic and important to our behaviour and to our survival - and can be extremely limiting, for it can imprison us in unconscious, consistently patterned responses which prevent us from experiencing and exploring other alternatives - which might be far more desirable and beneficial to us.

Means of Suggestion

1. A carefully orchestrated physical environment: an uncrowded room, aesthetically pleasing, well lit, plants, fresh air...

2. The teacher, thoroughly trained in the art of suggestive communication -

    a) with a well-developed sense of authority. (more details below)

    b) the ability to evoke a receptive, playful-, child-like state in the students / patients.

    c) a mastery of double-plane behaviour, especially the ability to use appropriate and purposefully suggestive language, voice intonation, facial and body expression.

 3. Music:

4. Carefully integrated, suggestive written materials.

5. Visual stimuli: posters, pictures, charts, illustrations.