Want to reduce lapses of
memory?
Here is a simple method for remembering what you
went to the shop for, or the secret ingredients for Aunt
Bessie’s fudge.
This system is one of the pegs of those expensive
courses you see promoted on late night television. Your
memory will
improve!
Did you realise that you always remember when your
holidays start or when your next pay rise is due? You
remember anything easily when you pay attention and
are interested in it!
Preparing, say, ten crazy pictures and indelibly pasting
them to the numbers from one to ten in your mind.
Here is a sample list;
1. SUN
sounds like ONE a crazy cartoon sun
2. GOO sounds like TWO a pot of glue
3.
TREE sounds like THREE oversize tree , lots of
branches!
4. LAW sounds like FOUR think of a policeman
5. HIVE sounds like FIVE think of a beehive
6. DISK sounds like SIX think of a computer disk
7. HEAVEN sounds like SEVEN think of clouds, angels
8. CRATE sounds like EIGHT think of a fruit crate
9. MINE sounds like NINE think of a mineshaft or miner
10. PEN sounds like TEN think of a pigpen or writing
pen
It should be very easy to think of something to visualise
for the pictures.
You can substitute anything that you think is easier for
you to link to a variety of items for any of the ones I
suggested.
Make the pictures really outrageous because no-one
will ever see them or know what they look like unless
you meet a real mind-reader!
Most people will find this takes no more than half an
hour.
Do not worry if it takes you longer than that. You will
use these peg pictures for the rest of your life.
Ask a friend if they want to improve their memory. Most
will jump at the chance. Show them this system and
you can help each other to learn.
This will accelerate your rate of improvement.
Take turns to make up ten unrelated items (maybe a
shopping list) for the other person. Ask them to write
them down as they tell you so they can check that you
get them right.
For each item they say, make a ridiculous association
with one of your mental pictures. If their third item is
dogfood, you could think of a tree (you remembered
that was item three, didn’t you?) covered with packets
of the dogfood you usually get.
When they have written all the items down and put their
list out of sight, ask them to quiz you on the ten items.
Do them first in order but you will find that with only a
little practise, it is easy for you to call them up in any
sequence.
Change your list of practise items each time. The old
list will be wiped when you do it the next time.
This
exercise will increase the accuracy of your recall in
other circumstances.
There is no reason to stop with just ten pictures. When
you are comfortable with ten, go to twenty (SENTRY?)
and more if you like.
This feat with a hundred or more items is performed by
professional mental magicians around the world.
You will still impress your friends when you
demonstrate your own achievements with a smaller
number of items, especially when you invite them to try
to do it themselves.
You don’t have to accept what "everyone" knows, that
"we have a
bad memory" or that "it deteriorates with
age". Our recall rate is poor because we don’t exercise
it enough and, through laziness, we don’t take the
trouble to remember things.
More abstracts about the Memory Master