Let's just say I've been accused of being crazy several times in my life -- how many times? I've lost count, but it's been a lot of decades since I could count them on my fingers. Maybe I'm just slipping.

In meditation and psychic work I find I do best when I'm sharp, mentally and physically -- and by best I mean that the most unusual things happen more frequently. Those are also the things that make people accuse me of being crazy, working with the devil, lying about what happens, etc. But, it's a pattern that's been in place for years: good health, mental acuity, rest and a stable environment all contribute to the accumulation of the strangest experiences I've ever had. They don't happen because of stress, though stress might play a part now and then. When everything's good and things click into place it's a marvelously scary thing.

Most of the time I'm not that sharp. If I'm not, I'm pretty darned normal in my views of reality. My interest in things like focus and concentration and perception is based on this relationship and the fact that I want to be better and do more. I'll try anything that works and I'll stay away from the things that don't.

Which brings me to the game of Lumosity -- or at least the site of that series of brain-twisting and painfully difficult games. Or maybe they'd be simple to you and I'm at the bottom of my class. Some people are interested in psychological interpretations of the world and the reasons we do and see the things within it. I'm not -- I just want to know how my brain works, where the strong and weak points are, what makes me function as I do, and I believe in mechanical reasons more strongly than psychological ones. Lumosity fits a person like me. I can see where things go worng. At this point, having played enough to establish a profile (it'll take about an hour of play), I'm aware that there are some things I apparently can't figure out. Some of the color and meaning games have parts that I really don't appear to see correctly. I've always had problems with color. Seems like a simple thing, but I get them wrong quite a lot.

Establish a free account at Lumosity and you can see how you stack up against the rest of the species. There may be some surprises. Alice and I both completed the profile games and even though she beats me at everything and is faster at everything we do (except long distance running, so far) I scored higher in most areas. Maybe it's the demonic possession thing that's holding me back in Scrabble.

I have to say I'm impressed, and it's a nicely done site with few quirks. I lost a couple of good scores because I went to my profile to look at my stats instead of pressing "continue" when I finished a good game. Don't do that -- the site won't record your score. For a week you can play for free, with full access to all the website's games and features. I can't say as yet whether it improves mental acuity overall, or just in relation to the games, but it's a lot more fun than Bejeweled.

My Lumosity scores after completing my profile runs.

My scores after a week of occasional play.