I got the Memory Optimizer course and I'm not sure if I'm going to use it. I think it's cool and I think it's information that is not available in any other book or course, and I should know because I've read 'em all.

My problem is this: I know I have a partially photographic memory and a very strong auditory memory. The problem is I can't control it at all and I mean NEVER. If I close my eyes and think about something I want to know, I'll see it or hear it, IF I CARE ABOUT IT.

Here's an example: Someone told me on another internet forum that the Russian Military Pullup standard was 18 full range, full extend pullups with a Flack jacket on which was probably 40 lbs or so. I close my eyes and I can actually see the web page that I read that off of. WHY do I remember that and I can't remember my wife's birthday? I mean, I can remember my wife's B-day if I sit and wait for the info long enough but it's as if my head says "Who cares, I'm not getting that info now, however I'm gonna run that scene from HotShots again... "God I love soup, or is it Duck, which one do you shoot?" "Duck Sir..." [He ducks, and hits his head] "Are you OK, Sir?" "Of course I am, Why? What have you heard?"... "I said what is my wife's birthday?!?!" "Later, Here's some Dennis Leary...." "You know what I'm gonna do...."
On and on it goes. I can't do anything about it.

In school I would take tests and just sit and listen to the teachers tell me what they said in class before and I'd just write it down. But if I missed a class and tool someone's notes and repeated that stuff to myself I would be lost.

Dana, Paul, Pete, do you know of any book that covers developing a memory that's already good but just untameable? Thank you.

It seems to me that you have a busy mind. You need to learn to quiet it. Learn to meditate is an excellent way, just sit back and focus on your deep relaxed breaths, concentrate on your breath only! Shouldn't your wifes birthday be one of the most important things to remember. Although i guess to you she could be equally important every day. Is it that memory is strongly connected to emotions?? this seems logical to me. Try stilling the mind and becomming emotive with you what you want to remember.

Been meditating for 11 years. Takes about 15 minutes to quiet it which ain't bad. Once I'm in the day and going it's a free for all.

damnit answer my question

When my wife says "When's my birthday?" I see this huge calendar scrolling down and it stops on Oct 21'st then I say it. But if someone says to me "YOU ASKED FOR IT, YOU GOT IT...." I'll say "TOYOTA" No thinking, no visualization, no nothing.

Can someone tell us about the memory optimizer? A review? How is it different from the peg systems or associations? How can it help us in Photoreading? Thanks.

I've only been thru it once and I can say that it explains tons of things about memory and how it works BUT it does use pegs and associations along with other things. In the same way Photoreading used Speedreading techniques along with other things- this course does the same.

She gives you enough things to do with your mind that you'll never be bored again.

What I thought was interesting was that each time you did something you created another thread of your "web" which explains why someone does Photoreading for a while for 'nothing' and then WHAM, they "get it." If someone quits before they get to that point they're screwed, they get nothing out of it and they end up flaming PR on Amazon.com or something.

There are many parts of this MemOpt that SHOULD have been in Photoreading, it would have helped alot. (Hint, Hint...)

It's worth investigating. I'm not doing cartwheels over it like I was with PR though.

What parts of Memory optimizer can help photoreading? Thanks.

Mostly the explainations of how memory works. If they put that in the PR book I think alot of people would go "Oh, so that's why it takes so long." Or "That's why I got that initially boost followed by a period of nothing working."

Since there is a special forum for this I don't think LS wants too much of the cat let out of the bag so I won't say too much but I will say that everyone skipping the TRIGGER WORDS or QUESTIONS step is KILLING their Photoreading results.

Thanks for that last post, it gave me heaps to think about. Is the technique easy to do, can you feel any benifits?

Thanks Andy030. When you say trigger words and questions are you referring to Previewing and Mind probing?

Yep! trigger words that you obtain from the previewing or postviewing step. Then, crafting your mind probe questions from the trigger words.

andy030, allenhm, and others:

Do you always pick out trigger words and mind probe? Have you had success without it? I usually get trigger words from the chapters. Is this enough? Thanks.

Picking out Trig's is similar to making "ABC" lists from the Memory course only instead of jogging your memory you're seeing what' your'e drawn to in the book. I already knew about ABC lists from a Guy Finley book where he said to make them to increase your awareness of something.

Doing the trigger words and questions is what makes the reading active instead of passive, if you think about it. If you look at a page and say "what word is here that I'm drawn to?" then "why?" I'm sure you can skip it if you plan on rapid reading it anyway but if you want to avoid rapid reading you better do it.

I usually get triggers from the table of contents/glossary and then with a very quick scan. Writing them down with colored markers and making a Pre-mind map seems to slow you down but it helps remember things.

[This message has been edited by Andy030 (edited December 20, 2001).]

Back for a moment to the original question:

"do you know of any book that covers developing a memory that's alread good but just untameable?"

If the memory is untameable why bother trying to tame it? You've already served as judge, jury, and executioner. Your memory is untameable.

One of the points that Mrs. Birkenbihl makes on the Memory Optimizer course is that reconstruction happens 400 to 2000 times faster than your conscious mind can think. Consider that your other-than-conscious faculties are processing in excess of 12,000,000 bits of information per second and delivering you only 77 bits/sec. The problem of "memory" or reconstruction can always be traced back to the inadequacies of the original construction.

Moreover, on this same point, you determined that your reconstructions are going to be that way (ad infinitum), so you are locked into your life sentence. The problem becomes that with each "failure" of your memory (or reconstruction of an unrelated fact) you re-affirm your sentence rather than pulling out with Mrs. B's brilliant concept of "Intelligent Gap Management."

I love the Mem Opt's overall concept, but I honestly believe that more good will come from IGM than almost anything else in the course. Consdier that there are no failures of memory. And everytime you do not reconstruct what you want, the onus is on you to move into IGM and improve the original construction.

Is that a lot of work? Maybe. It doesn't need to be, especially if you'd remove the sword dangling over your head everytime your mind does something you didn't want it to do.

Train a dog sometime and you'll know what I mean. Our new Golden Retriever is amazing at remembering everything she's learned. Trying to correct her behavior requires consistent follow-through. When her tendency is to repeat what doesn't work for me, it's not her fault, and she isn't broken. It's my problem and I have to go through the new construction process again.

Lovely in its simplicity. Your brain is just doing its job.

Do I know a book? Yes. The Memory Optimizer course manual and any good dog training manual.

Thanks. Some things are cleared up.

For the most part everything I need to remember is something that I had no idea would be of any more or less importance than anything else in the time that I was first exposed to it. Let's say I put away 17 folders at work. A month later someone asks me where the "S-23" folder is. My only way to remember correctly in this situation is to consciously construct a memory for every folder I put away 100% of the time knowing that over the course of a year I'll be asked maybe 20 times where a specific folder is.

I'm not complaining in any way, trust me. It's just that with everything comming in I need to get things out that seemed unimportant enough to not construct specific memories for them in the first place because of the rate that things change in levels of importance. By "untameable" I didn't mean I was giving up, I just meant that I automatically remember some things at random but not others.

Thanks for your help!

The more I explore personal development techniques, the more I realize that it comes down to taking control over different aspects of your life. We're constantly reacting to life's situations instead of taking control, like an unmanned ship drifting with the ocean currents.

Memory is no different. If you want your memory to perform like a well-behaved dog(borrowing Paul's analogy), you have to train it. The biggest excuse is that it takes too much work. How much work does it
take to remember information currently? And then multiply that over a lifetime.

It comes down to accepting mediocrity and continue to drift, or to take control.

mediocrity?

i think i'm stuk....