Page 63 - Use Your Memory

THE SECRET PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING A SUPERPOWER MEMORY
as an ordered filing system allows easier retrieval of information
than if that same information were simply dumped randomly on
the floor.
8 Number. To make ordering and sequencing easier, it is often
advisable to use numbers. Many of the memory systems
throughout this book will teach you simple and advanced methods
for memorising using number aids in different ways.
9 Dimension. Use your right-brain ability to see your memory
images in 3-D.
Key Memory Image Words
In each memory system there is a Key Word. This word is the
'Key Memory Word' in that it is the constant peg on which the
reader will hang other items he or she wishes to remember. This
Key Memory Word is specifically designed to be an 'Image Word'
in that it must produce a picture or image in the mind of the person
using the memory system. Thus the phrase 'Key Memory Image
Word'.
As you progress through the increasingly sophisticated mne-
monic systems outlined in the following chapters, you will realise
the importance of being sure that the pictures you build in your
mind contain only the items you want to remember, and those
items must be associated with or connected to Key Memory
Images. The connections between your basic Memory System
Images and the things you wish to remember should be as fun-
damental and uncomplicated as possible:
1 Crashing things together
2 Sticking things together
3 Placing things on top of each other
4 Placing things underneath each other
5 Placing things inside each other
6 Substituting things for each other
7 Placing things in new situations
By now it will be clear to you that the systems worked out by the
Greeks, and for nearly 2000 years discarded as mere tricks, were
in fact based on the way in which the human brain actually
functions. The ancients realised the importance of words, order,
sequence and number, now known to be functions of the left side
of the brain; and of imagination, colour, rhythm, dimension and
daydreaming, now known to be right-brain functions.
Mnemosyne was to the Greeks the most beautiful of all the
goddesses, proved by the fact that Zeus spent more time in her