• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Master mind

WHow to Develop a Perfect Memory

By Dominic O'Brien

Publishers: Headline Book, London

Price: 5.99

HOW many of us successfully keep track of names, faces, telephone numbers, speeches, jokes, addresses that matter in our day-to-day life? Do all of us know how to remember geographical and historical facts, binary numbers? What's the importance of memory and how do we sharpen it to lead more organised life? These are some of the questions answered by Dominic O'Brien in his book How to Develop a Perfect Memory.

The author has been the victim of his own forgetfulness but soon overcame his problems to be one of the world's leading memory champions to such a degree that he has his name in Guinness Book of Records for memorising the sequence of 35 packs of shuffled cards in the staggering time of 55.62 seconds! Now as a celebrity memory man he regularly appears on television and tours all over.

But how did all this happen to a man who was once considered absent minded and forgetful? The author says developing a memory is not a trick. Nor is there any special effect or electronic aid involved in his art of perfecting memory. It is all because he learnt how to train his memory and use his brain. He says the brain is more powerful than any computer, far better than anything money can buy. It is capable of storing and recording enormous amounts of information. However, he regrets that most of us u se this memory sparingly and unsystematically.

The author feels that there are ways of getting our memory to work, some based on theory, some on practice. He dispenses the notion that one has to be highly intelligent to have a good memory or an exceptional IQ. Any one could achieve what he did by tra ining memory and for this one has to give more time and make efforts to practice certain memory related exercises, he contends.

He does suggest some techniques on how to remember one's shopping items by using one's imagination and by generating stimulating images. He says there is no need to be alarmed or put off by the long winding methods he prescribes. With practice the brain responds more quickly than what is generally perceived.

Regarding remembering names of people or faces, he suggests that one should take first impression about every individual seriously. One has to take into consideration various techniques depending on what the person looks like and the circumstances in whi ch he or she are introduced. Next comes stretching of imagination by linking the thoughts to location, random places etc. He says, factors like clothes, places and shapes of people serve as useful linkages in remembering people for no name is insurmounta ble provided it is broken into its constituent parts.

The same analogy cannot of be extended when it comes to remembering numbers. The problems with numbers is that they are cold and unfeeling. They play such an important role in our lives and still people find them awkward, be it an account number of a ban k, personal identification number or credit card number, he points out.

According to the author, to remember a number one has to put life into it and make it come alive by giving it a character literally. He suggests his own system christened as DOMINIC system that he uses extensively in many subjects discussed in the book - - that strips numbers into pairs of digits, each pair representing a person.

The formidable 81,269,471 therefore becomes 81-26-94-71 which in turn could be related to four persons. He elaborates on how to remember two, three, four, six and eight digit numbers by using number-shape system which translates tedious numbers into memo rable objects. Thus, certain numbers could be easily recalled by associating them with some personalities or places or objects. For instance, 07 could be associated with James Bond. According to the author, it does not matter how one arrives at a person, provided same association with a particular person or the object is made every time. He also narrates at length on how to remember binary numbers -- the language of computers.

The author agrees that the easiest way to honour the appointment is by writing them down in a diary but feels that there will always be time when one leaves the diary behind nor it is practical to carry the diary along every time. He, therefore, suggests ways and means to equip oneself with the mental diary for he feels that even the latest gadgets like personal organisers tend to go blank at times. He lays emphasis on building up the mental in-tray to remember one's daily chores and appointments. Such an attitude also helps in job interviews, he insists.

The author feels that to be an effective speaker it is better to condense speeches into a series of key points. Listed on cue-card they help in triggering of particular anecdotes, subjects or aspects so important to the story. However, the best way accor ding to him is to prepare a mental speech file and make an entry into this file and organise it systematically before delivering the speech.

In such cases, he says, one could dispense with physical notes, by translating key points into key images placed along a story. Such a file enables the speaker to have a smooth transition from one point to another, he explains. He, however cautions that stress is a major cause that may disrupt the sequence and it is better to give oneself more time for memorising when one is performing live.

The book also focuses on how to remember directions or addresses, learn calendars, new languages, recall lost chapters of one's life through memory therapy. He says often locations could be used as central part in various methods of learning languages. G eographical facts could be remembered by not just turning to atlas but by turning one's imagination and association with people and places, he suggests, He feels that it is much easier to use familiar names or locations or people as substitutes for real ones to recall historical facts.

The author refers a study called popular mnemonics. Mnemonic -- the word derived from Greek goddess of memory -- is some thing that assists memory. The most common forms that fall into this category are acronyms and verses. This method he says is useful in memorising pack of cards, sports activities and important events of the past and present. The book also contains write-ups on famous men and on how Greeks devised some of the greatest memories the civilised word had ever known. By putting into practic e some of the methods suggested in the book one is sure to reap the benefits of a trained memory.

Gopal Sutar