ClearRiver: переводы

→REMEMBERING THE SUBLIME
If, like me, you found the first exercise a little depressing, revealing more
about the ordinariness of your life than about your memory, you should enjoy
this experiment. Try to imagine a day. Exaggerate and distort your normal
routine...
Wake up in an enormous, feathersoft bed to the sound of birdsong; a beautiful
lover is lying asleep beside you; pull back the curtains to reveal sunsoaked
hills rolling down to a sparkling sea. An enormous schooner is at
anchor in the bay, its fresh, white linen sails flapping in the Mediterranean
breeze. Breakfast has been made; the post comes and, for once, you decide
to open the envelope saying 'You have won a £1 million.' You have! etc, etc.
Your dream day might be quite different from mine, of course. But if you were
to put this book down and I were to ask you in an hour's time to recall the fruits
of your wild imagination, you should be able to remember everything you
dreamt up. Imagined events are almost as easy to recall as real ones, particularly
if they are exaggerated and pleasurable. (No one likes to remember a
bad dream.) This is because the imagination and memory are both concerned
with the forming of mental images.
Returning from the sublime to the ridiculous, you are now in a position to
remember the ten items on our shopping list, armed with the results of these
two experiments. Keep an open mind as you read the following few
paragraphs.

→REMEMBERING THE FORGETTABLE
Think back over what you have done so far today. What time did you get up?
What was on the radio or television? Can you remember your journey into
work? What mood were you in when you arrived? Did you go anywhere on
foot, or in a car? Who did you meet?
Frustrating, isn't it? Your memory has no problem at all recalling these
everyday, mundane experiences (ironically, the forgettable things in life) and
yet it can't recall a simple shopping list when required. If you were to take this
exercise a stage further and write down everything you could remember about
today, however trivial or tedious, you would be amazed at the hundreds of
memories that came flooding back.
Some things are undoubtedly easier to remember than others, events that
involve travel, for example. When I think back over a day, or perhaps a holiday, the most vivid memories are associated with a journey. Perhaps I was on a
train, or walking through the park, or on a coach; I can remember what
happened at certain points along the way. A journey gives structure to the otherwise
ramshackle collection of memories in your head; it helps you to keep
them in order, like a filing cabinet.

→A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
A list of ten items, whatever they are, should not present a challenge to our
memory, and yet it does. Take a simple shopping list, for example. Try
memorizing the following, without writing any of it down, within one minute.
• fish • football
• margarine • ladder
• chess set • clock
• milk • tape measure
• light bulb • dog bowl
Most people can remember somewhere between four and seven items. And
there was I announcing in the introduction that you have an amazing memory.
It wasn't an idle boast. By the end of this chapter, you should be able to
remember any ten items perfectly in order, even backwards in under one
minute. To prove my point, try doing the following two simple exercises.

→PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
No method, however, produces results unless you are prepared to put in a little
time and effort. The more you practise the techniques I describe, the quicker
you will become at applying them. And remember, an image or a thought that
might take a paragraph to describe can be created in a nanosecond by the
human brain. Have faith in your memory and see this book as your instruction
manual, a way of getting it to work.

→REASSURING PRECEDENTS
During the course of writing this book, I have discovered that my method bears
many similarities with the classical art of memory. The Greeks, and later the Romans, possessed some of the most awesome memories the civilized world
has ever seen.
There are also some striking resemblances between my approach and the
techniques used by a Russian named Shereshevsky but known simply as S.
Born at the end of the nineteenth century he was a constant source of bewilderment
and fascination for Russian psychologists. To all intents and purposes,
he had a limitless memory.
I can't help thinking that there must be validity in my method when such
similar techniques have been developed independently of each other by people
from such different cultures and times.

→WHAT I HAVE DONE, YOU CAN DO
Some people have asked me whether they need to be highly intelligent to have
a good memory, sensing that my achievements might be based on an exceptional
IQ. It's a flattering idea, but not true. Everything I have done could be
equally achieved by anyone who is prepared to train their memory.
I didn't excell at school. Far from it. I got eight mediocre O levels and
dropped out before taking any A levels. I couldn't concentrate in class and I
wasn't an avid reader. At one point, my teachers thought I was dyslexic. I was
certainly no child prodigy. However, training my memory has made me more
switched on, mentally alert, and observant than I ever was.

→BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE
I have a stubborn streak, which kept me going through the long hours of trial
and error, and I am pleased to say that my method is all grounded in personal
experience. Those techniques that didn't work were altered until they did, or
thrown out. In other words, the method works, producing some remarkable
results in a short space of time.
The most dramatic change has been the improvement in the overall quality
of my life. And it's not just the little things, like never needing to write down
phone numbers or shopping lists. I can now be introduced to a hundred new
people at a party and remember all their names perfectly. Imagine what that
does for your social confidence.
My memory has also helped me to lead a more organized life. I don't need
to use a diary anymore: appointments are all stored in my head. I can give
speeches and talks without referring to any notes. I can absorb and recall huge
amounts of information (particularly useful if you are revising for exams or
learning a new language). And I have used my memory to earn considerable
amounts of money at the blackjack table.

→Throughout this book, you will be asked to create images for everything you
want to remember. These images will come from your imagination; often
bizarre, they are based on the principles of association (we are reminded of one
thing by its relation to another). Don't worry that your head may become too
cluttered by images. They are solely a means of making information more
palatable for your memory and will fade once the data has been stored.
It is essential, however, that you form your own images. I have given examples
throughout the book, but they are not meant to be copied verbatim. Your
own inventions will work much better for you than mine.