3 Bring Information to Life

Many people dream of having a photographic memory. They define it as the ability to take a quick mental picture of information (without effort), and then describe it in detail from memory. In this case,

your mind would be like a camera taking photos of anything you need to know. Unfortunately, all

perfect memory takes some conscious effort and photographic memory is a myth.

Memory is a creative process and not a photographic process. Many people who are thought to have a

photographic memory are just using all the methods that you will learn in this book on some or other

level. If you take these methods into your life you will be tapping into your natural memory power

too. Perfect memory is a skill and not some special gift.

Have you ever had this experience? You are in an exam, and you know exactly what page the

information is on but you don't know what is on the page. Or, you are reading something and you get

to the bottom of the page and you think to yourself, "What have I just read?" The reason this happens

is because you never brought the information to life.

Think about it... what happens when you read a novel or a story? You make a kind of movie in your

mind, don't you? You can remember all the names of the characters, places, and events because you

can see it and you are creating pictures all the time while reading. You are using your imagination and

your natural creative ability.

However, when people start to learn textbook material they try to make a mental photograph or

recording of the page but leave their creative abilities out of the learning process. People that learn

quickly or have a so-called photographic memory apply their creativity to everything they learn. They

may have either learned how to do this in the past or they have been using the principles naturally and

unconsciously.

Most people try to remember information with their sense of sound. They repeat the information over

and over again, hoping it will somehow stick. Sound is very limited because it doesn't attach easily

to other memories. A sound is also always sequential; if you want to remember something with sound

you have to start at the beginning and work your way through the information. However, when you see

information as an image in your mind you can jump in and out of the information, and therefore

improve your understanding too.

Any book that you really enjoy normally activates your imagination and brings the information to life.

You naturally get engaged in the book and you battle to put it down because you don't want to turn the

'movie' off.

Your mind is like an internal movie screen on which you can ask it to produce information. This is

how we think and learn effectively. Your brain creates miracles everyday by converting lifelessinformation into pictures and ideas. When you become aware of this, every word becomes a picture

drawn with letters because words are only symbols of three-dimensional images. Arthur Gordon said,

"Isn't it amazing how we take them for granted? Those little black marks on paper. Twenty-six

dif erent shapes known as letters, arranged in endless combinations, known as words, lifeless,

until someone's eye falls on them."

If your brain was unable to make images out of symbols, all learning and reading would be worthless

and incredibly boring. Your brain likes pictures and we are really good at remembering them. As

neuroscientist John Medina says, "Hear a piece of information and three days later you'll

remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%."

Some people say, "I can't make pictures in my mind." We all make pictures in our mind. If you were

unable to create or remember visual images, you would be severely handicapped. Learn to use your

imagination; it is a learned skill and not a natural talent.

Reading and understanding is also a creative imagination process. It is a power that can be compared

to magic. We succeed in this area when we produce images in our mind. When we don't, we feel

confused or ignorant. If I tried to explain to you how a car engine works but you don't know what an

engine looks like or if I didn't have one for you to look at or a drawing to represent it, it would be

really difficult to understand.

The more we turn information into images or mind movies, the more we will remember and

comprehend. We can learn to make all our learning more creative and memorable if we use our

unlimited imagination.

You can learn to enhance your memory imagination system by making your mind movies exciting and

sticky.👉👉