It Pays To Oxygenate Your Brain

Ankur Gupta answers readers’ queries and suggests tips

I hope the past few columns on memory enhancement were useful to many readers. You had several interesting questions: are we born with a good memory? Can memory power be enhanced? What is its real potential? Does it have any limits?

Here are two incidents that will serve as answers. In the mid-nineties, scientists predicted that no human could memorise a spoken number of more than 30 digits. But at the 2005 edition of the World Memory Championships in the UK, Clemens Meyer remembered a 188-digit spoken number, and could still recite it five hours later. Backwards.

Memorizing a pack of cards in less than 30 seconds was seen as the memory equivalent of beating the four minute mile in athletics, until, at the 2007 UK Memory Championships, Ben Pridmore memorized a single shuffled deck of playing cards in 26.28 seconds, beating the previous World Record of 31.16 seconds set by Andi Bell.

And now for some questions.

Mohammed Farooq, doing a part time diploma in management studies, complains that he finds it difficult to reproduce what he had read when its exam time. After reading for 10-15 min, he feels sleepy and cannot recall what he’s read even 15 minutes later.

Mohammed, it should come as no surprise to know that our memory power has been on the decline. New technology has been blamed for making us lazy, and thus, forgetful.

But the basic reason why people forget, is that they did not pay attention in the first place.

Unless you have an interest or develop an interest in the subject you are reading, your mind is bound to behave erratically. My previous articles on thoughts and meditation should be of help to you while you work towards taking charge of yourself.

Rohit Mishra - a bridge player, says that with 52 cards in four different colours and various ranks in a deck, he finds it difficult to remember the cards that his opponents discard during a game. How can he do this efficiently, he asks.

Most accomplished bridge players have their own methods of remembering card sequences. In addition to their playing prowess and skills, their memory certainly becomes an important factor in their performance.

In fact, it would interest readers to know that the world memory championships (an organized competition of mental sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time) are based on remembering random card sequences.

For one such specific technique, please check out http://www.thememorypage.net/cardbase.htm. Readers might also be interested in the technique popularised by Andi Bell (world memory champion for several years) caught on video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xl7_hdWZo.

Nakul Kohli, who studies law, finds it impossible to do rote learning. He does not underestimate himself when he says he is not able to get high marks as he used to get in his school days. He feels that his concentration levels have gone down. He wants to know if medicines can help.

Nakul, before you even try brain tonics and medicines, think about this famous quote by Voltaire: 

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease”. 

The very fact that you did so well in school could mean that you are going through a temporary phase. Accept that and then work on ways and means of oxygenating your brain better through various pranayam techniques. Keep your brain active through puzzles like Sudoku and the impact will be felt in your learning abilities too.

Vikram Gite, an IT professional, appreciates the various memory improvisation techniques covered in Open Mind, but confesses that he has a problem - he’s simply lazy. If anyone asks him to do some work, personal or official, he feels no interest in doing so. Though he performs the task assigned to him on time, the willingness to do so is not there, he says.

Vikram, many of us experience burnout in whatever we do at some point or phase on our lives. It could be an early warning signal for you to ask yourself whether you are really interested in doing what you are doing and whether your real interests lie elsewhere. And do remember the old adage that says whatever you like doing is never work!

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Thought for the Week

“There is no such thing as a truly photographic memory - 
there are only people with exceptionally good memory techniques.”
Dr. Gary Small
(Ageing & Memory Expert)
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times