Trying to get into exclusive club...

[Atash Hagmahani]

What's the name of the book and I'll order it from Amazon.

The one I have a spare of is this one:

Speed Mathematics using the Vedic System

but I prefer this one

Vedic Mathematics made easy

The author of the latter was 19 years old when he wrote it!  Quite well written too. It was written with the goal of acing college entrance exams, probably in a different country than this one--I don't think US college entrance exams expect students to know how to calculate arithmetic. 

It has a few fun algorithms like calculating the day of the week that any given valid date falls on.

One of the most important algorithms is the checksum algorithm. I use that one all the time to check my work. I learned that from a different source but he explains it in the book.

He mentions a few of the sutras--the mnemonics used to remember the algorithms--but unfortunately not all of them and not systematically. He only covers the topics that are useful for passing college entrance exams.

The original (I think) Vedic Math book can be had in English translation as Vedic Mathematics or Sixteen Simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas by Sri Bharati Krisna Tirthaji and V. S. Agarwala, but it is devilishly dense. It loses most Americans after the first few chapters. I have it too. I might work on that one after I have mastered enough of the basics to have a fighting chance. Although not a long book, it goes into fairly advanced mathematics--calculus and linear algebra at least, and I have not checked to see what else. The author(s) assumes you already know the material and that he's just presenting a new perspective and a new approach to solving problems.

Somebody else has a comprehensive mathematics course on-line--I THINK its arithmetic through calculus--that integrates these methods. I'm thinking of subscribing to it.

Despite its lack of user-friendliness, it rates surprisingly well on Amazon, due to its merits of presenting a lot of relatively brain-efficient algorithms for calculation, as well as providing a different perspective.

Funny, I have such a different attitude as I did when I was school age. Then, all I cared about was getting the answer in the back of the book. Now I actually care about really mastering the material. That's because I'm doing it for ME, not the teacher.

[offdalip]

That is very interesting LL, personalized applied Biochemistry .

Somewhat along the lines of what we do we do here. personalized cancer care.

Tailor the treatment to the patient depending on which signaling pathways have been activated , or not.

[Eddie]

That last one looks good and for only $11. I need a quick formula for adding and subtracting fractions easier, this looks like it might have one.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Unfortunately, the $11 book doesn't, but no worries, mate:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2238626_add-subtract-fractions-using-vedic-math.html

If the denominators have common factors you might need to reduce the answer but that's not too big of a deal.

Here's adding and subtracting:

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-or-Subtract-Fractions-Using-Vedic-Math

[Eddie]

Actually Im trying to figure out a simple method to subtracting fractions in my head.
Like 72 3/8 - 53 3/4. I used to be fairly good at it but I think my brain is turning into mush as I get older. Maybe its time to get a calculator instead.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Better to fight it. Unused neural pathways get "pruned". If too many neural pathways get pruned, your brain ages faster, and you die younger.

There is a convent in Minnesota whose inhabitants have two interesting habits (no pun intended): they stay mentally active in their old age, doing a lot of puzzles and other mental work, and they donate their bodies to science when they die.

They live longer than average, and go senile at lower rates than average. The two are related: when the brain goes the body tends to follow (not always, especially with "heroic" interventions, but naturally and in general, yes).

I'm trying to get to the point where I can do 2 and 3 digit arithmetic in my head quickly, accurately, and relatively effortlessly. Because of the multiple algorithmic approach of Vedic math, some problems are very easy, but most take some effort to keep track of all the digits, including and especially carry digits.

Naturally this helps exercise working memory, which is one of the most important factors for staying sharp.

[Dame]

So, would oral traditions using memory, be healthier (live longer, go senile less frequently) than written traditions.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Dame, Vera Birkenbihl recommends working out your own life story, looking up big events that were happening at the same time, looking for memory threads you can tie to...for example, if you look up who was in office at the time, what songs were popular, what styles were popular, what movies were playing, where you lived, it will start triggering old memories that you can strengthen.

I thought about doing this. Wasn't sure how to handle unpleasant memories. I'm still sort of working on that.

Anyway, she claims that our personality is largely the sum total of our memories. Loose too many memories, and your personality...dies...

That's what happens to people who go senile. 

[Dame]

Unpleasant memories - the events out of which these memories arose did not kill us off or make us clinically insane; so remembering them is an exercise in reminding myself that if I survived the actual event I will also survive the memory and that denial and/or suppression will interfere with my current life.

A time line of my life helps somewhat.  Particularly when I have bad memories of childhood.  My perspective changed radically when I started realizing that my parents were the age my children are now, when these things happened.  It is much easier to see events as errors in immature judgement (on my parents part), when I have experienced myself as a young parent making similar errors, and now watching my adult children make some of the same.

As a parent and grandparent who actually remembers my own great grandmother, I have concluded  the Amerind "unto the 7th generation" is about the number of generations I will personally have known in my lifetime by the time I die.  Each of us would do well to improve parenting, even if by just a bit, in our lifetimes with our own children, grandchildren etc.  I have not been able to continue to expect more in the way of parenting improvements over the parenting they received, than I have been able to provide for my own progeny.   

[Atash Hagmahani]

Unpleasant memories - the events out of which these memories arose did not kill us off or make us clinically insane; so remembering them is an exercise in reminding myself that if I survived the actual event I will also survive the memory and that denial and/or suppression will interfere with my current life.

Memories are structured, and the way we structure them when we recall them makes a difference. The type of situation you brought up is when we structure them in "empowering"--or at least, useful, ways.

I am relatively emotionally detached compared to most people, but I have the same vulnerability to traumatizing memories. Actually, the memories don't really traumatize; it's the reaction to them. I'm currently working on my negative feelings as regards my childhood.

Here's a story:

A high-level nuclear engineer is very happy. He has a prestigious career in his country's national nuclear program, material wealth, and a young wife he adores.

One day, she's killed in a freak automobile accident.

He is devastated. While he is going through her belongings to sort them out, he finds something odd on her computer. He takes it to a friend who is a crackerjack computer geek. The geek works on it for two whole weeks, telling him simply that yes, there is something VERY strange going on. Finally he announces that there was a hidden security system on the computer that he has broken into. He shows the engineer what he found.

The engineer is horrified. It's full of top-secret communications between his wife and a foreign national black-ops service. She was a spy...and an assassin. She was within days of making the kill when plans were foiled by the freak accident.

Now he's REALLY distraught. She never really loved him. It was all an elaborate deception. She was going to kill him.

Odd thing: while he was in danger, he was happy. Once out of danger...he's traumatized!!

It's because of the shift in how he was mentally modelling the situation. The contextual frame of reference has shifted. It's like the Taoist story of the farmer and the wild horse:

A farmer caught a wild stallion. "How lucky!" said his neighbors. "We will see," he said.

The next day the stallion ran off. "What bad luck!" said his neighbors. "We will see," he said.

The next day the stallion trotted back...with a pregnant mare! "How lucky!" said his neighbors. "We will see," he said.

The next day the farmer's son broke his arm falling off the stallion trying to tame it. "What bad luck!" said his neighbors. "We will see," he said.

The next day the emperor's agents came through conscripting all able-bodied young men from the farming village. They left the farmer's son because of the broken arm. "How lucky!" said his neighbors. "We will see," he said...

The scenario in the story of the nuclear engineer is surprisingly common due to a limited perspective on the situation. What typically happens is that children are raised up into a situation from birth; the situation is not a secret, they just don't have the perspectives of someone coming from different life-origins. Then they grow up, and their perspectives shift.