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68 pages

English

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Do you find that important names, dates, and details tend to slip away from you? Is a spotty memory causing you trouble in your job, relationships, or your day-to-day life? In Memory: How to Develop, Train, and Use It, prominent author William Walker Atkinson offers readers dozens of practical hints, tip, exercises and techniques to build up your memory banks and flex your mental muscles.

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Popular psychology

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 août 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776527328
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0164€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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MEMORY
HOW TO DEVELOP, TRAIN, AND USE IT
* * *
WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON

*
Memory How to Develop, Train, and Use It First published in 1911 ISBN 978-1-77652-732-8 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Chapter I - Memory: Its Importance Chapter II - Cultivation of the Memory Chapter III - Celebrated Cases of Memory Chapter IV - Memory Systems Chapter V - The Subconscious Record-File Chapter VI - Attention Chapter VII - Association Chapter VIII - Phases of Memory Chapter IX - Training the Eye Chapter X - Training the Ear Chapter XI - How to Remember Names Chapter XII - How to Remember Faces Chapter XIII - How to Remember Places Chapter XIV - How to Remember Numbers Chapter XV - How to Remember Music Chapter XVI - How to Remember Occurrences Chapter XVII - How to Remember Facts Chapter XVIII - How to Remember Words, Etc. Chapter XIX - How to Remember Books, Plays, Tales, Etc. Chapter XX - General Instructions
Chapter I - Memory: Its Importance
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It needs very little argument to convince the average thinking person ofthe great importance of memory, although even then very few begin torealize just how important is the function of the mind that has to dowith the retention of mental impressions. The first thought of theaverage person when he is asked to consider the importance of memory, isits use in the affairs of every-day life, along developed and cultivatedlines, as contrasted with the lesser degrees of its development. Inshort, one generally thinks of memory in its phase of "a good memory" ascontrasted with the opposite phase of "a poor memory." But there is amuch broader and fuller meaning of the term than that of even thisimportant phase.
It is true that the success of the individual in his every-day business,profession, trade or other occupation depends very materially upon thepossession of a good memory. His value in any walk in life depends to agreat extent upon the degree of memory he may have developed. His memoryof faces, names, facts, events, circumstances and other thingsconcerning his every-day work is the measure of his ability toaccomplish his task. And in the social intercourse of men and women, thepossession of a retentive memory, well stocked with available facts,renders its possessor a desirable member of society. And in the higheractivities of thought, the memory comes as an invaluable aid to theindividual in marshalling the bits and sections of knowledge he may haveacquired, and passing them in review before his cognitivefaculties—thus does the soul review its mental possessions. AsAlexander Smith has said: "A man's real possession is his memory; innothing else is he rich; in nothing else is he poor." Richter has said:"Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be driven away. Grantbut memory to us, and we can lose nothing by death." Lactantius says:"Memory tempers prosperity, mitigates adversity, controls youth, anddelights old age."
But even the above phases of memory represent but a small segment of itscomplete circle. Memory is more than "a good memory"—it is the meanswhereby we perform the largest share of our mental work. As Bacon hassaid: "All knowledge is but remembrance." And Emerson: "Memory is aprimary and fundamental faculty, without which none other can work: thecement, the bitumen, the matrix in which the other faculties areembedded. Without it all life and thought were an unrelated succession."And Burke: "There is no faculty of the mind which can bring its energyinto effect unless the memory be stored with ideas for it to look upon."And Basile: "Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury ofreason, the registry of conscience, and the council chamber of thought."Kant pronounced memory to be "the most wonderful of the faculties." Kay,one of the best authorities on the subject has said, regarding it:"Unless the mind possessed the power of treasuring up and recalling itspast experiences, no knowledge of any kind could be acquired. If everysensation, thought, or emotion passed entirely from the mind the momentit ceased to be present, then it would be as if it had not been; and itcould not be recognized or named should it happen to return. Such an onewould not only be without knowledge,—without experience gathered fromthe past,—but without purpose, aim, or plan regarding the future, forthese imply knowledge and require memory. Even voluntary motion, ormotion for a purpose, could have no existence without memory, for memoryis involved in every purpose. Not only the learning of the scholar, butthe inspiration of the poet, the genius of the painter, the heroism ofthe warrior, all depend upon memory. Nay, even consciousness itselfcould have no existence without memory for every act of consciousnessinvolves a change from a past state to a present, and did the past statevanish the moment it was past, there could be no consciousness ofchange. Memory, therefore, may be said to be involved in all consciousexistence—a property of every conscious being!"
In the building of character and individuality, the memory plays animportant part, for upon the strength of the impressions received, andthe firmness with which they are retained, depends the fibre ofcharacter and individuality. Our experiences are indeed the steppingstones to greater attainments, and at the same time our guides andprotectors from danger. If the memory serves us well in this respect weare saved the pain of repeating the mistakes of the past, and may alsoprofit by remembering and thus avoiding the mistakes of others. AsBeattie says: "When memory is preternaturally defective, experience andknowledge will be deficient in proportion, and imprudent conduct andabsurd opinion are the necessary consequence." Bain says: "A characterretaining a feeble hold of bitter experience, or genuine delight, andunable to revive afterwards the impression of the time is in reality thevictim of an intellectual weakness under the guise of a moral weakness.To have constantly before us an estimate of the things that affect us,true to the reality, is one precious condition for having our willalways stimulated with an accurate reference to our happiness. Thethoroughly educated man, in this respect, is he that can carry with himat all times the exact estimate of what he has enjoyed or suffered fromevery object that has ever affected him, and in case of encounter canpresent to the enemy as strong a front as if he were under the genuineimpression. A full and accurate memory, for pleasure or for pain, is theintellectual basis both of prudence as regards self, and sympathy asregards others."
So, we see that the cultivation of the memory is far more than thecultivation and development of a single mental faculty—it is thecultivation and development of our entire mental being—the developmentof our selves .
To many persons the words memory, recollection, and remembrance, havethe same meaning, but there is a great difference in the exact shade ofmeaning of each term. The student of this book should make thedistinction between the terms, for by so doing he will be better able tograsp the various points of advice and instruction herein given. Let usexamine these terms.
Locke in his celebrated work, the "Essay Concerning HumanUnderstanding" has clearly stated the difference between the meaning ofthese several terms. He says: "Memory is the power to revive again inour minds those ideas which after imprinting, have disappeared, or havebeen laid aside out of sight—when an idea again recurs without theoperation of the like object on the external sensory, it is remembrance ; if it be sought after by the mind, and with pain andendeavor found, and brought again into view, it is recollection ."Fuller says, commenting on this: "Memory is the power of reproducing inthe mind former impressions, or percepts. Remembrance and Recollectionare the exercise of that power, the former being involuntary orspontaneous, the latter volitional. We remember because we cannot helpit but we recollect only through positive effort. The act ofremembering, taken by itself, is involuntary. In other words, when themind remembers without having tried to remember, it acts spontaneously.Thus it may be said, in the narrow, contrasted senses of the two terms,that we remember by chance, but recollect by intention, and if theendeavor be successful that which is reproduced becomes, by the veryeffort to bring it forth, more firmly intrenched in the mind than ever."
But the New Psychology makes a little different distinction from that ofLocke, as given above. It uses the word memory not only in his sense of"The power to revive, etc.," but also in the sense of the activities ofthe mind which tend to receive and store away the various impressions ofthe senses, and the ideas conceived by the mind, to the end that theymay be reproduced voluntarily, or involuntarily, thereafter. Thedistinction between remembrance and recollection, as made by Locke, isadopted as correct by The New Psychology.
It has long been recognized that the memory, in all of its phases, iscapable of development, culture, training and guidance throughintelligent exercise. Like any other faculty of mind, or physical part,muscle or limb, it may be improved and strengthened. But until recentyears, the entire efforts of these memory-developers were directed tothe strengthening of that phase of the memory known as "recollection,"which, you will remember, Locke