It may sound dramatic to say that my experiences with memory have overhauled my brain, but memory is so bound up with creativity – and the many aspects of brain function that involve creativity – that you’ll soon see this isn’t such an over-the-top statement at all. Most importantly, training your memory draws heavily upon the resources of your imagination. Even during my earliest adventures into the powers of my memory, while I was still trying to emulate the great Creighton Carvello, I realized that to memorize a string of unconnected data, such as sequences of cards, involves first coding them into images. In this way, the pieces of unconnected information can somehow become connected together. I now know that this process of using imagination brings into play a whole range of brain functions, including logic and spatial awareness.
Some people are concerned that they don’t have a strong enough imagination to make memory training possible for them. If you’re one such person, banish that thought! Don’t you sometimes sit at your desk at work imagining yourself in great detail somewhere more exotic or – if you’re having a stressful day – calming? If you let time slip, you may even find that you’ve created a whole imaginary world with precision accuracy. I believe that we all possess incredible powers of imagination – it’s just that often we’ve been taught or conditioned to suppress them. I want to reassure you that it’s never too late to unleash your imagination.
I certainly know about this – remember how as a child I was often criticized for being a daydreamer? My teachers did all they could to suppress the imaginative me. Now, however, I’ve learned to appreciate that my early tendency to daydream merely showed my powers of creative thinking. Yes, my daydreams were bizarre and skittish, but I think they were my mind’s way to express its infinite, random potential for creativity – a potential that I’m sure is the reason I’ve been able to excel in memory competitions. That potential is there in all of us, if we can learn (or re-learn, as I had to) to let it out.
Imaginative thinking is definitely something that comes naturally to me – today, more quickly and effortlessly than ever. However, if you feel that it’s not natural for you, I’m certain that the practical exercises and all the advice and tips you’ll encounter throughout this book will teach you how to tap in to your imagination in a variety of ways. The more you exercise your imagination in the ways I suggest, the easier it will become to think creatively – to generate images, ideas and thoughts – in all walks of your life. Furthermore, as your imagination becomes livelier, so will your brain power, including your memory, become stronger. You’ll find that you’re able to think faster and with greater clarity whether you’re deciding what to wear, how to memorize a deck of cards or how to pitch for a sales deal. All that’s required from you is to allow that dream-maker to come out to play.
The following is a true account of an incident that took place at a railway station on April 24, 1958. A young mother and her children had been visiting an aunt on the south coast of England and were returning home by train from St Leonards-on-Sea. As they were waiting at the platform, the mother decided to buy a magazine to read on the journey home and left her young son to hold on to the pushchair and in it his contented eight-month-old baby brother. As the mother walked into the newsagents, a train departed from the platform and headed toward a tunnel. At this point the young boy decided he, too, wanted something to read on the train and let go of the pushchair to follow his mother.
As the train headed out of the station, causing a backdraft, the pushchair started to move, found the platform slope and picked up speed. On its descent it collided with the very last section of the train, which then pulled the pushchair along with it. At this point, the mother, hearing the commotion, rushed outside and, screaming in horror, watched her baby being carried off to what she thought was certain death.
I was that baby. Miraculously, I am alive to tell the story – a bump on my forehead was the only outward sign of what had happened. However, I believe that that bump was to map out the rest of my life, because I think this single event could have accounted for the attention problems I had as a child. If it did, in a peculiar way I’m somewhat grateful to it, because without my tendencies toward daydreaming perhaps I’d never have discovered my own perfect memory.
This exercise is designed to loosen up your imagination so that you get used to the idea of making unconventional associations – not just by using visual images, but by engaging all your senses (this will prove essential for creating memorizations that will stick). Practise it daily if you can, until you’re really confident that you can make vivid, imaginative links between things that at first seem unconnected. Once you’ve read the instructions, close your eyes if this makes it easier to flesh out the images and sensations.
Imagine you’re holding a football in your hands. Imagine that it smells of freshly squeezed oranges. Take a few moments to bring those two thoughts to life in your mind. Now imagine the football has the texture of jelly. It’s ticking like a clock and tastes of chocolate. Don’t rush – dwell on the image for at least 5 minutes, making it as vivid as you can. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the first sensation of holding the football.
Once you’ve fully engaged with the first scenario, try this one: Imagine a yellow elephant with pink spots. It mews like a cat, tastes of ginger and has the texture of stinging nettles and the aroma of fresh coffee beans. Again, spend at least 5 minutes making all this come alive in your mind.
When you’re ready, test yourself by recalling the strange qualities of that football and of the elephant. The more detailed you made the visualizations, the easier you’ll find it to bring the images back to mind.