Barbara's Brain Gym class was featured in the German magazine "FOCUS" on November 17, 2003, issue No. 47. The title of this issue was "IQ and Memory - Thinking Faster, Memorizing Better - The Way Your Brain's Performance is Improved". There were related articles extending over 14 pages on this topic. Our good friend, Ernst Koelpin, provided the translations shown below for the story on Barbara's class:
First doing gym, then learning
Private teachers, institutes, and adult evening classes offer courses in Neurobics or Brain-Gym. Learning blockages are to be reduced by means of specific physical exercises. Whether this leads to augmented mental power has not been proven scientifically.
LEARNING BLOCKAGES within the body is what the instructor intends to solve
"Left knee to the right elbow, right hand knee to the left elbow," Barbara Aigen is commanding. While the participants – aged from 12 to 65 – are diligently exercising in the party cellar, the nurse is explaining the principles. It was essential to correlate the left with the right hand sides. By doing so, both hemispheres of the brain were exercised.
Whether it's called Brain-Gym, Neurobics, or Neuronal Functional Reorganization – the interest in gym for the brain is rapidly growing. In these instances, movements and physical contact are aiming at activating the gray mass within the head and simple exercises try to undo blockages in thinking and learning.
Ms. Aigen, at home in a suburb of Washington D. C., instructs the class to massage the "brain buttons" beneath the clavicle or to knead the ears in order to boost the supply of blood or energy to the body.
One participant has brought her 12-year-old son along and has in mind he might be taught how to improve his ability to focus attention. Another lady wants to take precautions against Alzheimers. A 14-year-old (female) student is convinced: "My report card has greatly improved by virtue of Brain-Gym." Scientists are not sure about the brain acrobatics. "The connection between physical exercise and mental fitness has not yet been proven unambiguously," is the critical opinion of George Rebok from the Johns-Hopkins-University.
The essential page 98 is hyperlinked to show the full German text.