15 - Re-Remembering — Remembering What You Have Forgotten
I recently sat down to a relaxed and delightful dinner with some business associates who included the newly elected president of a training and development organisation. He announced at the beginning of the meal that he had to get something off his chest or he'd explode: his car had just been broken into, the front windscreen smashed and his briefcase stolen. He was particularly frustrated because the briefcase contained his diary and a number of other items important to him.
As the pre-dinner drinks were downed, and the hors d'oeuvres completed, we began to notice that our friend was not really participating in the conversation and that he seemed to have a faraway look on his face as he very occasionally jotted notes on a scrap of paper.
He eventually burst into the conversation again, announcing that he was ruining the evening for himself because he could remember only four items that had been contained in his stolen briefcase, that he knew there were many more, that he had to give a full report to the police within two hours, and that the more he tried to remember the more blocked he became.
Consider what you would have recommended that he do in order to recall.
Several of us at the table who were familiar with Memory Principles then took him through the following exercise: instead of continuing to allow him to concentrate on what he could not remember (what he in effect was doing was concentrating more and more on the absence of memory), we took him through what I call Reliving the Immediate Relevant Past. We asked him when he had last had his briefcase open.
It turned out that it was at the office just before he left work, at which point he suddenly remembered that he had put two important magazine articles on the top of the pile in the briefcase. We then asked him when he had last had the briefcase open before leaving home for work. It turned out to have been the previous night after dinner, and he remembered having put in two more articles plus a tape recorder and a calculator, in preparation for the following morning.
Finally we asked him to describe the interior design of his briefcase, and as he went through a detailed description of each compartment and section, he remembered pens, pencils, machines, letters and a number of other items that he had previously completely 'forgotten'.
Within twenty minutes of what turned out to be a delightful and playful reliving of his previous twenty-four hours, in which his frown gradually turned into a broad smile and his physical poise improved, he recalled eighteen additional items to the original four he had recalled after a painful and unpleasant one hour and twenty minutes.
The secret in re-remembering is to allow the full power of your memory to flow freely without 'trying' to remember any one specific thing. The secret within the secret is to 'forget about' whatever it is you are trying to remember and to surround the absence (what you have forgotten) with every possible association or connection available to you (see diagram below). Usually the best way to do this is to 'relive' all experiences that connect in any way with the item you are trying to remember. This technique works immediately in practically all cases.
In those rare instances where there is not an immediate recall, complete the reliving exercise in exactly the way outlined, and then give your brain the instruction to forget about it on the conscious level but work it out on an unconscious level. You will find that within a few hours or days of this 'programming' you will suddenly be taken by surprise — at a meeting, while driving your car, in the shower, on going to sleep or waking, in the bathroom, etc., when your memory supplies the item you have forgotten.
This memory technique, like the others, improves all other aspects of your memory as well as your creativity, and in addition gives you a special boost of confidence when you realise that, no matter what you have forgotten, you have within the left and right hemispheres of your brain an unconscious Sherlock Holmes who will solve any memory mystery you choose to give him!