Page 64 - How to Develop A SUPER-POWER MEMORY

68 How to Train Your Observation
not observe to begin with. Educator Eustace H. Miles said
about the same thing, "What one has never properly
realized, one cannot properly be said to remember either."
If you haven't observed, then you haven't realized, and
what you haven't realized you can't forget, since you never
really remembered it in the first place.
If you want to take the time, it is a simple matter to
strengthen your sense of observation. You can start right
now! You're probably reading this at home, sitting in a
room that should be thoroughly familiar to you. Take a
piece of paper, and without looking around you, list every-
thing in the room. Don't leave out anything you can think
of, and try to describe the entire room in detail. List every
ashtray, every piece of furniture, pictures, doodads, etc.
Now, look around the room and check your list. Notice all
the things you did not put down on your list, or never
really observed, although you have seen them countless
times. Observe them now! Step out of the room and test
yourself once more. Your list should be longer this time.
You might try the same thing with other rooms in your
home. If you keep at this, your observation will be keener
no matter where you happen to be.
You've all heard, I'm sure, of the little experiment that
a college professor tried with his students. He had a violent
murder scene enacted in front of them, without letting them
know that it was just an act. All of the students were told
that they must act as witnesses, and were told to describe,
in detail, what they saw. Of course, all the descriptions
varied, even down to what the murderer looked like. All
the students in the class had seen the same thing, but their
observation and their memories were faulty.
This was proven again quite recently by popular enter-
tainer, Steve Allen, on his TV show, "Tonight." Some