Page 259 - Use Your Memory

REMEMBERING NAMES AND FACES
Using the Etiquette Method, the Mnemonic Method and your
standardised name/image system, you will now be well on the way
to becoming a master in the memorisation of names and faces.
One more magic ingredient can be added to your ability, and it
is summarised in an event that changed my life and that largely
initiated my own interest in the art and science of memory. The
event took place in the first class on the first day of my first year at
my university. It was an eight-in-the-morning English lecture,
and even the excitement of this first day had not quite managed to
shake off the sleepiness in some of our heads. Our lecturer did.
He strode into the room with no briefcase, no writing materials, no
notes and no books, stood in front of the class, announced his
name, and then said he would call the roll. Standing in front of the
podium with his hands behind his back, he started calling out our
names in alphabetical order, going through Adams, Alexander,
Barlow and Bossy, in response to which he got the usual mumbled
'yes, sir' and 'here, sir'. When he came to Camburn, however,
there was no reply. He paused for a moment and then said, 'Mr
Barry Camburn.' There was still no reply. Without change of
expression, he then said: 'Mr Barry Camburn, address 29 West
Street, phone number 272-7376, born 24 June 1943, father's
name Frank, mother's name Mary.' The only reply he got was the
widening eyeballs and opened mouths of everyone else in the
class. Our lecturer continued calling the roll, and every time he
arrived at the name of a person who was absent, he called out the
person's Christian name, address, telephone number, date of
birth, and parents' names.
It was obvious to us that he could in no way have forelearned
who was absent, and therefore he must have all of that data on all
of us totally memorised. When he had completed the roll and
everyone was sitting amazed, he repeated very rapidly the names
of the students who were absent and said, with a wry smile on his
face, 'I'll make a note of that sometime.'
Though he had never seen any of us, he managed to remember
our names and our personal data in perfect order. Using the
knowledge you gain from this book, see if you can work out how he
did it, and when you have worked it out, apply it.

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