You are reading this book because you wish to develop all the potentialities of your mind, to acquire greater mental power, an increased ability to concentrate, more self-confidence. You have found that your memory is not reliable and you want to improve it.

After teaching courses in memory retention for a number of years, I have discovered that its study, far from being a matter of drudgery, can be made not only unexpectedly interesting but as entertaining as a parlor game. In fact, many of the exercises which are given in the following chapters have proved to be successful as parlor games. But while I want you to enjoy your work in improving your memory, you must not overlook the fact that work is necessary if you are to get any real benefit from the instruction given you.

Too many people have a tendency to complain of faulty memory without attempting to do anything to improve it, looking upon it as a handicap which must be borne and cannot be improved. And yet the rapid improvement in the memory after even a short effort is as startling as it is rewarding, and the importance of a good memory is beyond calculation.

What is the memory and how does it function? This morning, as you were drowsily shaking off the stupor of deep sleep, some sort of recollection rose immediately to the surface of your mind, a recent occurrence or some task to be performed during the day. In other words, at the very moment when your faculties became active, your memory began to function. To go a step further: Every human activity rests in some way on memory. It is logical to assume, therefore, that every piece of work can be accomplished more easily and more efficiently in direct proportion to the improvement in the functioning of the memory.

It isn't necessary to point out so obvious an example as the actor. His professional career depends almost entirely upon his memory and if that fails him he becomes unfit to perform. To a lesser degree memory plays an important role in the life of the average business man. The merchant who can call to mind immediately his wholesalers, customers, buying and selling prices, personnel and so forth is more efficient than the one who is uncertain about these factors in his business life, who makes mistakes because he cannot remember figures or information accurately, who wastes his own time and that of others in prodding a faulty memory or hunting for information which he should have had at his tongue's end.

Let us imagine there are two salesmen, one of whom has a good memory, the other a poor one. The former immediately remembers the buyer's name when he meets him; he recalls his family connections and personal hobbies and, as a result, is able to discuss them and break down the difficult first minutes of conversation and establish a personal contact with the buyer—an important result for the success of the business, as most good salesmen know. The man with the good memory has, of course, another advantage over the salesman with the poor memory. He is ready to give all the information that is required about his product without delay or hesitation, and he can keep in mind far more sales arguments than the untrained man.

Now let's see how memory affects the professional man the lawyer, for example. If you are fortunate enough never to have been involved in a law suit, you must at least have followed criminal or civil trials in the newspapers. But have you observed how often the outcome of a trial was decisively influenced by the fact that one of the lawyers could at the right moment refer the judge to a certain former ruling on a certain point of law? In such instances—in the midst of hearing the testimony of witnesses or the plea-there is no time to trundle out law books or commentaries, or to seek other decisions. The memory of the lawyer must not fail him.

The late Max Steuer, once considered "the greatest trial lawyer of our time," was famous for his extraordinary memory. Richard O. Boyer narrates the following story in his biography of Steuer: "The factory of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company had burnt down and the proprietors, who were defended by Steuer, were accused of causing the deaths of over a hundred of their girl employees by ordering that a certain exit be locked. One of the survivors took the stand as a State witness and told a story that moved the crowded courtroom to a frenzy. The jurors wiped their eyes and scowled at the defendants, Steuer's clients. It appeared that a verdict of guilty was inevitable.

"As Steuer approached the girl to begin cross-examination, no one could have been more gentle or courteous. 'Now, Katie/ he said mildly, 'just tell your story again. Speak right up so the jury can hear you.' Again the girl told her damaging story. Again the jury scowled at Steuer's clients. 'Katie, please tell your story again,’ Steuer said, as she finished the second time.

"'Katie, haven't you forgotten a word?' Steuer said gently, as Katie completed her narration the third time.

"Katie studied a moment. 'Yes, sir, I forgot one word,’
"'Well, tell the story again and put that word in it.'

"'Katie obligingly did so. It was now apparent to the most slow-witted that Katie had learnt her story by heart. So Steuer transformed a dangerous witness into one whose testimony resulted in the acquittal of his clients."

But in order to win an acquittal, or in other words in order to notice the omission of a single word in a long narration, Steuer had to rely on his prodigious memory. Therefore we must acknowledge the importance of Boyer's statement, "Steuer has a freak memory, one which is as accurate as a stenographic transcript. He has an ear for phrases and sentences and can almost always recall them verbatim without recourse to the court record."

This is only one of thousands of cases in which the good memory of a lawyer not only influenced the verdict in a trial but actually decided it.

And what is said about the lawyer holds true for the physician, too, especially for the surgeon, who has to act quickly and often with no time to prepare himself. If he is to apply the correct treatment, he must remember not only the exact history of the case in question but also similar cases. If he himself has handled similar cases, he may encounter no difficulty, since our memories easily retain things which we have perceived with our own eyes or which are connected with our persons. But to remember his own cases is not enough; he must also remember cases described in medical literature. And that is a much more difficult task. In addition, he must be able to recognize his patients and to remember their names, although it is an established fact that most physicians have a rather poor memory for names and faces.

But aside from the importance of memory in one's professional and business life, it is of more immediate interest in its effect on our daily, personal life. How many times a day do you rack your brain for the name of a person which "is just on the tip of your tongue/' or find yourself in the embarrassing position of introducing your best friend and finding his name has slipped your mind? Or perhaps you had a number of errands to perform and discovered when you got home that you had forgotten the most important of them. The exasperation, the duplication of effort and the needless annoyance resulting from so poorly functioning a memory are familiar to all.

Equally familiar is the remark which would have dazzled the company and which you remember only after you are home and alone, too late to be of any use. And of more serious consequence is the telling argument which might decide favorably a business problem, or land you a job, or effect an important result, but which slips your mind at the time when you most need it.

A poor memory, as the foregoing illustrations will show you, is more than a mere annoyance. It is a serious handicap, but one which, with perseverance and intelligent effort, can be overcome.

Every advance in civilization and every step in cultural progress rests in the last analysis upon memory. The Curies would never have discovered radium and the wonders of its potentialities if they had not kept in mind the radioactivity of all minerals containing uranium. So every step forward in human achievement, every step forward of the individual as well as of humanity in general, depends upon memory. Our cultural heritage would be impossible if we could not recall what our fathers and forefathers thought, developed, and brought to fulfilment.

"People always talk about the weather/' said Mark Twain, "but nobody does anything about it." And that is true too of the memory. You know that to maintain your health and general fitness for sports you must train your muscles, and consequently you go through your daily dozen or at least take extended walks to exercise your muscles and fill your lungs with oxygen. But you overlook entirely the fact that your memory is also a functioning part of you, and that it must be exercised and trained if it is to work in a satisfactory manner.

Of course, individuals differ widely in their inherent powers of memory, just as they do in other respects. But there are many instances that prove that even those least favored by nature can, through zeal and effort, overtake the gifted. There is no real excuse, therefore, for accepting a poor memory as something which must be endured.

During my school days I had a very bad memory. It was obvious to me that my classmates could retain facts longer and more accurately than I could, and for some time I accepted this as a natural and unchangeable situation, for young students are slow to learn that it is more important to retain facts in their mind than to continue to acquire further information which they aren't able to remember.

At the university I heard for the first time of courses in memory training and plunged into the subject with great enthusiasm. In a short time I was able to train my memory to such a point that it has never since failed me! And yet the methods by which my memory was trained were faulty and rather crude. These faults I recognized more and more clearly later on in training my own classes, and during the course of many years and through the experience of working with thousands who have attended my lectures I have gradually eradicated them.
While this memory course has been prepared with a view to making it as entertaining as possible, do not overlook the fact that the goal ahead is twofold: First of all, I want to give you keys to memory training which you can apply to any situation. Second, I want to improve your memory and, in time, strengthen it to such an extent that you will need to resort to the keys to memory training only in the rarest cases.

The attainment of this goal is a cooperative undertaking in which your part is indispensable—and that consists in more than merely reading the chapters of this volume; it requires actual study on your part. But you will be encouraged to discover that you do not need to wait until the end of the book to develop a better functioning of your memory. After a few chapters you will be able to undertake experiments in memory retention that would now seem utterly impossible to you. When you have once made a beginning and learn not only that improvement in your memory is possible, but that it is actually taking place, you will find a new pleasure and new inspiration in your work. For my own part, I shall endeavor to explain each step clearly as I go along. If, however, any point arises which is not clear to you, write to me in care of the publisher and I shall be glad to answer your questions.

There are several points that should be made clear in the beginning:

1. Wherever mention is made of experiments, it is not sufficient for you to read about them; you must actually try them out in practice. Only practice will bring you any practical benefit. Doing a thing is of infinitely more value than merely reading about it. Your muscles, for instance, are not developed or strengthened by looking at the pictures of physical exercises or reading how to perform them. Only by carrying out the exercises yourself will they do you any good. The same is true with experiments in memory retention. Your powers of memory will not be improved by reading about these experiments and then forgetting them; only if you attempt to do them yourself, and practise them, will they be of any worth to you. But, in compensation for the effort you put on these exercises, you will find that your interest and pleasure in doing them will steadily increase.

2. A man who goes to a prize fight must know the technique of boxing if he is to understand it. A man who wishes to improve his memory must know the technique that will develop it, a technique which we call mnemonics.

There are some rules for mnemonics which have been tried for several hundred years and found good, so that there is no reason for discarding them. Others serve special purposes and aims and their application depends on the requirements of the individual. Take as an analogy an engineer who is commissioned to build a bridge over a river. If he does not want his entire structure to collapse, he must adhere to the basic and time-proven fundamental principles of construction. But he may choose his ornamental designs to suit his own tastes.

When these individual instances arise I will point out where it is advisable to make use of one set of rules and where to follow the other.

3. Do not make any experiments in mnemonics when your brain is tired. While the human memory-capacity can be exercised and trained, the ability to absorb new facts has its limits, beyond which it is pointless to press. Whenever you begin to feel tired, interrupt your study and take a little rest.

If you have worked during the day to the point of exhaustion be sure to take at least an hour of complete rest before you begin your memory training course. The fact that you are changing from one kind of work to another will be a great help. A complete change in mental activity is less wearing on the mind than extensive preoccupation in the same field.

4. Do not overlook the importance of diet in relation to brain work. The mind should not be greatly exerted on an empty stomach nor on one overloaded. When your stomach is empty, the brain refuses to function; on the other hand, the processes of digestion and cerebration are incompatible. Therefore, after a heavy meal it is essential to take a rest period.

5. The best time for study will vary according to your occupation and daily schedule. If you are busy all day with your work, you will naturally study at night. Otherwise, where time is at your disposal, there is no categorical answer as to the "best time." It depends entirely on your habits and inclinations. Science has for some time acknowledged the fact that the mental receptivity of the individual at specific hours of the day differs as radically as the soundness of his sleep during various periods of slumber.

Some people fall into a deep, sound sleep in the early hours of the night, but sleep so lightly in the morning hours that they are awakened by the slightest noises. If you are one of these you are a morning worker who can easily accomplish in the mornings work that would call forth great efforts at night.

The contrary, of course, holds equally true. People who find it difficult to fall asleep at night but sleep so heavily in the morning that they must be awakened by cold water are the evening or night workers. If you belong to this group you probably catch up in the evening, in intellectual pursuits, the time you idle away in the forenoon.
Up to a certain point it is possible to train one's natural inclinations by habit and discipline, but for this purpose it is unnecessary. Choose the hours which in your experience have proved to be most productive.

If you are parents of school children, this point is important in supervising their hours of study. It is often a mistake to force your son John to study his lessons at a particular time because his older brother or his friends study at that time. A knowledge of the psychological differences among individuals prevents many mistakes in disciplining children and also facilitates their learning processes.

6. Work as much as you can in the open air, instead of indoors, particularly if you must share a room with others. In working out some of the exercises which follow, it will help to be alone, or at least free from interruption. But whether you can be alone or not while you are studying, merely opening the window will be sufficient in providing fresh air so the brain may be stocked with new concepts and stirred to greater activity.

7. Repetition. The latest research findings in the domain of memory development have revealed that mere repetition in study is not so important as the time factor involved in the repetition. For instance, the research experiments of Professors Ebbinghaus, Duerr, Meumann, etc., have resulted in the following data:

The majority of experiments proved, as a general rule, that material which required 68 repetitions in one day could be mastered with only 38 repetitions if these were spread over three days. This proves, by the way, that the student who waits to the last day to "cram" would actually save half his time if he learned his subject gradually over a period of several days. The same is true for the adult. A subject which is hastily glanced over in one day can be retained for a longer period of time if a night is allowed to intervene before rereading.

The reason for this is that our memory, like all other functions of the consciousness, is not entirely inactive during the hours of sleep; it works on and on, in a more restricted sense, and for this reason impressions received on the previous day can impress themselves more deeply and register in the mind.

At some time or other you have probably worried desperately over some problem just before falling asleep, unable to find a solution. But on awakening the next morning, the solution was ready for you. Folklore about the brownies who do the work during the night which was left uncompleted the preceding day is no doubt based on the experience of the race that this "dream work" is an actual fact.
One of the most interesting and credible examples of this dream work manifesting itself, not only intellectually but physically as well, is told by the well-known French writer, Mme. d'Espérance, in her book, In the Kingdom of the Shadows, which purports to be an autobiography.

She relates that when she was a schoolgirl she had to write, as a lesson assignment, a theme on "What is Nature?" Writing themes was her weak point, and the assignment was particularly difficult for her. She postponed writing it from day to day until the evening before the day her composition was due. Still she could not write it. At last, she took her paper and pencil to bed with her and tried in despair to get on with her task. Finally, however, drowsiness overcame her and she fell asleep without having written a word.

In the morning she found, to her great surprise, many pages of written matter. The assignment was not only complete but the composition was far beyond her usual ability in content and style. She would have believed that the brownies did it if she herself, as well as the teacher to whom she told the whole story, had not recognized the handwriting as undeniably her own.

The genuineness of the story we must leave to Mme. d'Espérance. But even though such a case is extremely rare, it is by no means unique. Such occurrences, moreover, furnish us with excellent proof of the matter in hand; namely, that the apperception, and with it the memory, of mankind is not entirely obliterated during sleep.

And now we look forward to the goal we have set ourselves. Through the application of the method and exercises which have been developed for you, you will discover —aside from the actual improvement of your memory—that you have acquired an increased ability to concentrate so that distraction of attention will no longer disturb you.

You will be able, too, to overcome inhibitions which have prevented you from being a good speaker, and you will develop an increased ability to influence the actions and decisions of those about you as well as to overcome your own inferiority complex.

Here, then, if you are willing to give the following pages earnest study, is a road leading to increased achievement, with unexpected entertainment along the way, and a good memory as the goal.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...