The Secret Principles Underlying a Superpower Memory
The Greeks so worshipped memory that they made a goddess out
of her - Mnemosyne. It was her name from which was derived the
current word mnemonics, used to describe memory techniques
such as those you are about to learn. In Greek and Roman times,
senators would learn these techniques in order to impress other
politicians and the public with their phenomenal powers of learning
and memory. Using these simple but sophisticated methods,
the Romans were able to remember, without fault, thousands of
items, including statistics relating to their empire, and became the
rulers of their time.
Long before we had discovered the physiological breakdown of
the functions in the left and right hemispheres of our brains, the
Greeks had intuitively realised that there are two underlying
principles that ensure perfect memory:
imagination and association,
whereas, in current times, most of us are actively discouraged
from using our imaginative abilities, and consequently learn very
little about the nature of mental association, the Greeks emphasised
these two foundation stones of mental functioning and
opened the way for us to develop the techniques even further.
Quite simply, if you want to remember anything, all you have to
do is to associate (link) it with some known or fixed item (the memory systems in this website will give you those easily remembered fixed
items), calling upon your imagination throughout.
The Rules
The rules for perfect memory laid down by the Greeks fit in exactly
with the information recently discovered about the left and right
brains. Without a scientific basis, the Greeks realised that in order
to remember well, you have to use every aspect of your mind. This will be outlined shortly.
In order to remember well, you must include in your associated
and linked mental landscape the following:
1 Colour: The more colours you use, and the more vivid they are,
the better. Using colour alone can improve your memory by as
much as 50 per cent.
2 Imagination: Your imagination is the powerhouse of your
memory. The more vividly you can imagine, the more easily you
will remember. Sub-areas within imagination include the
following:
a Expansion: the more gigantic and enormous you can make
your mental images, the better.
b Contraction: if you can clearly imagine your picture as
extremely tiny, you will remember it well
c Absurdity: the more ridiculous, zany and absurd your mental
images are, the more they will be outstanding and thus the
more they will be remembered.
3 Rhythm: The more rhythm and variation of rhythm in your
mental picture, the more that picture will weave itself into your
memory.
4 Movement: As often as possible, try to make your mental
images move. Moving objects are usually remembered better than
still ones.
5 The Senses:
tasting
touching
smelling
seeing
hearing
The more you can involve all your senses in your memory image,
the more you will remember it. For example, if you have to
remember that you have to buy bananas, you stand a far better
chance of not forgetting your task if you can actually imagine
smelling a banana as you touch it with your hands, bite into it with
your mouth and taste it, see it as it is approaching your face, and
hear yourself munching it.
6 Sex: Sex is one of our strongest drives, and if you apply this
aspect of yourself to your magnificent daydreaming ability, your
memory will improve.
7 Sequencing and Ordering: Imagination alone is not enough for
memory. In order to function well, your mind needs order and
sequence. This helps it to categorise and structure things in such a
way as to make them more easily accessible, much in the same way as an ordered filing system allows easier retrieval of information
than if that same information were simply dumped randomly on
the floor.
8 Number: To make ordering and sequencing easier, it is often
advisable to use numbers. Many of the memory systems
throughout this book will teach you simple and advanced methods
for memorising using number aids in different ways.
9 Dimension: Use your right-brain ability to see your memory
images in 3-D.
Key Memory Image Words
In each memory system there is a Key Word. This word is the
'Key Memory Word' in that it is the constant peg on which the
reader will hang other items he or she wishes to remember. This
Key Memory Word is specifically designed to be an 'Image Word'
in that it must produce a picture or image in the mind of the person
using the memory system. Thus the phrase 'Key Memory Image
Word'.
As you progress through the increasingly sophisticated mnemonic
systems outlined later, you will realise
the importance of being sure that the pictures you build in your
mind contain only the items you want to remember, and those
items must be associated with or connected to Key Memory
Images. The connections between your basic Memory System
Images and the things you wish to remember should be as fundamental
and uncomplicated as possible:
1 Crashing things together
2 Sticking things together
3 Placing things on top of each other
4 Placing things underneath each other
5 Placing things inside each other
6 Substituting things for each other
7 Placing things in new situations
By now it will be clear to you that the systems worked out by the
Greeks, and for nearly 2000 years discarded as mere tricks, were
in fact based on the way in which the human brain actually
functions. The ancients realised the importance of words, order,
sequence and number, now known to be functions of the left side
of the brain; and of imagination, colour, rhythm, dimension and
daydreaming, now known to be right-brain functions.
Mnemosyne was to the Greeks the most beautiful of all the
goddesses, proved by the fact that Zeus spent more time in her bed than in that of any other goddess or mortal. He slept with her
for nine days and nights, and the result of that coupling was the
birth of the nine Muses, the goddesses who preside over love
poetry, epic poetry, hymns, dance, comedy, tragedy, music,
history and astronomy. For the Greeks, then, the infusion of
energy (Zeus) into memory (Mnemosyne) produced both creativity
and knowledge.
They were correct. If you apply the mnemonic principles and
techniques appropriately, not only will your memory improve, but your creativity will soar,and with the twin improvements in memory and creativity, your
overall mental functioning and assimilation of knowledge will
accelerate at the same fantastic pace. In the process you will be
developing a new and dynamic synthesis between the left and right
side of your brain.
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