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Page 2 of 8 Memory Facets
Memory is far and away the most remarkable of all your mental
functions. Were your mind unable to store up an enormous part of all the
information fed it by your senses, each new moment of existence would bring with
it the necessity of "starting from scratch" in everything you think and do.
You'd have to wear a little tag with your name on it, on the chance you might
meet someone to whom you'd like to introduce yourself; every time you picked up
a book you'd have to examine it to see how the pages turned ... and you wouldn't
be able to read it anyway, because the letters and words would be meaningless to
you!
Everything you do is made easier for you by your memory ... each activity is
simpler because in the past you've had experiences which told your mind and body
what to expect and how to act in certain situations. Your life is a continuous
lesson, because the countless things you do prepare you for doing them again ...
because experience eliminates travel on the trial-and-error route by teaching
you the right or wrong way.
Even if you were to leave your memory completely alone, without ever giving a
thought to using it more efficiently, it would continue to serve you loyally and
well ... but, why settle for a meager pension when, by investing just a bit of
consideration, you can reap a vast fortune? While attending a lecture you're
sure to pick up a few tidbits of information, just in hearing the words.
But if you could know how to prepare all those facts for more efficient
remembering, if you were able to multiply your chances of remembering tile
information, think of how much more knowledge you'd be able to absorb!
The first step toward strengthening your memory is to find out exactly what
it is. There's much more to it than a bunch of assorted facts and ideas swimming
around in the gray matter of your brain ...as you'll discover when you read tire
next few pages.
Your Entire Memory
It should be made clear, right about now, that in this book the term "memory"
means more than merely the mind's retentive abilities: it means, to freely adapt
the dictionary's assertion, all means by which one can recall or make available
to tongue-tip any information or knowledge one feels like using. This will
include every trick, gimmick and short cut that we can devise; anything we can
do to avoid being caught in the mental cold.
Suppose we take a look now at your memory's total make-up ... for our
purposes, its parts can be classified into two basic categories: "natural"
memory, or your own mind's function of remembering, and "artificial"
memory--devices for retaining information outside the framework of your mind.
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