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  Generally, the left hemisphere is better suited for things like words, numbers, order, analysis, speech, linear sequence, and logic, whereas the right brain has more to do with spatial awareness, color, dreaming, overview, rhythm, dimension, and of course imagination.

  I don’t want to give the impression that both sides are isolated, but have you noticed that some people seem to be more inclined one way or the other? You might, for instance, say that someone left-brained, using logic, sequence, numbers, and words, could be an accountant or a lawyer. What about the right brain? Maybe an artist, musician, architect, or dreamer.

  Wouldn’t it be desirable to develop and engage both hemispheres, to be a good all-arounder, to have a powerful, balanced unison of both sides of your brain, like Leonardo da Vinci?

  Bearing in mind these skills of the left and right brain, think for a moment about which side of your brain you’re using to memorize a shopping list using the journey method. You’re using order throughout the journey, so that’s the left brain. Of course, you’re using your imagination, so that’s the right brain.

  You’re using spatial awareness: right brain again. What about words? Yes, you’re reading words and converting the words from the left brain into pictures in the right brain. You’re using color: right brain. You’re using logic—remember, I keep telling you to use logic. Make the journey logical, and use logic. Why is Madonna standing at the park gate? Give her a reason, so you’re using left brain logic.

  You’re using overview. You’re using serial processing. You’re taking information one bit at a time. You’re using parallel processing. You’re converting serially delivered information and putting that into an overall scene using many things at once.

  In fact, you should find you’re exercising all of those brain functions. In other words, you’re engaging both sides of your brain.

  How would these perfectly synchronized hemispheres manifest themselves? What might you expect by blending them? How about colorful logic, imaginative speech, spatial analysis?

  Now answer me this. After the first couple of exercises, did you feel that your brain was a little bit strained, a little bit overworked? Like any underused muscle, it takes a while to develop and loosen up.

  Was it slightly uncomfortable to begin with doing everything at once—to remember the stages of the journey, to think of an association, to turn it into an image, then exaggerate it and anchor it to the mental background?

  Of course it wasn’t easy to begin with. You’re summoning the whole of your brain. You’re asking for the whole of your brain to give you its undivided attention.

  If you drive a car, can you remember the first time you had a driving lesson? There were so many things you had to do at once. You had to put your foot on the clutch, into gear, apply your foot to the gas pedal, ease it off, watch the mirror, signal, and maneuver.

  Didn’t that hurt your head? It hurt mine. Didn’t you think to yourself, “I’m never going to master all this. It’s just too much to do”? But you did. Driving now is automatic for you.

  I believe that this style of memory training will make the act of engaging both sides of your brain become automatic. By doing simple exercises every day, you’ll be doing the equivalent of early morning push-ups, just like an athlete who prepares to run by stretching, exercising, and preparing the body. You’re preparing your mind, warming it up to deal with the day’s events and pressures.

  THE 4 TYPES OF BRAIN WAVES

  There’s more evidence for the balancing, harmonious effect of memory training. Let’s look at your brain waves. We use 4 types of brain waves: beta, theta, alpha, and delta. Beta is the fastest. If you’re having an epileptic fit, then you’re in very high beta, and you’re above 30 cycles a second.

  When I’m talking, I’m in beta, so in order for me to engage my thoughts and get the words out, my brain has to be operating around about 14 cycles a second. Hopefully, if you’re reading, you should be working around about half that speed, and you should be down around alpha, which is about 8 to 10 cycles a second. Alpha is for perfect concentration and for receiving information.

  Every so often your brain will slow down even more, down to theta, and theta is the memory wave. This is where you download information. When you’re going through the journey, recalling information, and picking up old memories, your brain should be dropping to around about 4 to 7 cycles a second.

  When you’re dreaming, you’re also down in theta. You’re having all those lovely dreams, you’re seeing images and pictures, and you’re this grand film director. You’re down around about 3 to 5 cycles a second.

  If you drop down to 1 cycle a second, that’s delta. That’s the lowest level you can reach, and you’re not even dreaming then. There’s just enough brain wave activity to drive your vital organs.

  Throughout the day, we go up and down like a yo-yo. We’re using our brain waves in automatic. In order to concentrate, I need alpha and theta rhythms.

  Why am I telling you this? Several years ago, I had the opportunity to have my brain waves recorded as I was memorizing a deck of cards, and the results were highly revealing. A few wires were attached to my head with electrodes. Armed with a deck of cards, I thumbed through 52 shuffled cards as I memorized the order in about a minute. Then I named every card in the exact order.

  Afterwards I was able to replay the EEG to see how fast or slowly my brain had been working. I used to think that people who could do things like this must have very fast brains, but as I saw from the EEG, my brain waves had actually slowed down, and I was working on a combination of alpha and theta waves.

  As I was dealing the cards, I was receiving the information, so I needed to be fairly quiet, down at the alpha wave, about 7 cycles a second, but every so often, I would need to download the memory of the sequence of the cards, so I needed to be in theta as well.

  Here’s the extraordinary thing: when we played back the EEG from when I recalled the cards, there was no visible alpha, but I had 52 separate theta peaks. In other words, every time I had a memory of a card, it showed up on the screen. For me that was proof that I had to slow my brain down to remember information—right the way down to somewhere between 3 and 5 cycles a second.

  PEAK LEARNING WAVES

  All this tells us a number of things. To learn at speed, you need to slow down your brain waves, which is a bit of an oxymoron. In any case, it’s not a good idea to be shouting or having an argument or being involved in a drama or getting hysterical if you want to study.

  It seems that the peak learning wave is the alpha wave. Ideally you want to be in a quiet room with no distractions—somewhere where you can be relaxed. If you want to recall information, you need to slow down even more, to the theta wave.

  Think about it. You’re more likely to remember events from the past if you’re sitting in a quiet room with your eyes shut than you are in the middle of a riot.

  By exercising your brain in this manner with any of the practices in this book, you’re promoting balance and harmony. As mentioned, you brain has approximately 86 billion neurons, which are its working parts. The combinations of connections between these brain cells give rise to memory.

  Every time you have a unique new thought, you’re making new connections between neurons in your brain. It’s estimated that we use barely 1 percent of our brain’s true potential. That’s a huge untapped resource.

  One question I’m always asked is, don’t all those numbers and playing cards just fill up your head? Actually, the more I memorize, the more space I seem to make available for storing new information. It’s amazing. You can actually grow your brain just by thinking new thoughts. New thoughts mean new connections, new pathways in your brain. Thus you have many more ways of solving problems.

  When you think of a blue tree standing on the right of the first tee at your local golf course, you’re making a brand-new pathway in your brain. Later on, you can use that new pathway to solve a problem. Think about it as a road leading from your house to the airport. If there’s only one road, and it gets congested, then you’re stuck. But if you have new pathways, you have alternatives; you have many different ways to get to your destination.

  That’s what’s going on in the brain every time you exercise it. That’s why I keep saying that not only are these exercises extremely practical, but they’re highly beneficial for exercising the whole of your brain.

  Why do we admire a quick wit? What is it about comedians that we find attractive? Why do people enjoy exhibiting humor? Perhaps it’s because humor indicates a rich mixture of connections in their brains. A politician who can display humor in a timely retort to a difficult or probing question is a vote winner. This politician has an answer for everything. A creative mind is a powerful mind.

  GETTING IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND

  Here’s a meditative exercise for getting in the right frame of mine. You can read these directions in full and practice them afterward, have someone read them to you, or record yourself and listen to the recording as you do this exercise.

  Lie down on your back, or sit comfortably in an armchair. With your eyes closed, focus your attention on every muscle in your body, starting with your feet. As you work your way up, let go of any tension in those muscles until your whole body feels like a heavy weight. Start with your toes, and work your way up—every muscle in your body. Feel the tension go as you work your way up.

  When you get up to your face, just feel the face muscles, release the tension in them, and let your jaw sag as it succumbs to gravity.

  Now, with the rest of your body taken care of, you can concentrate on your breathing. Think about your heartbeat and any feelings of nausea that may be caused by anxiety or stress.

  Breathe deeply and slowly, even though your he
art might be pumping away furiously. Using your imagination, translate whatever feelings of pain and nausea you may have into an associative, tangible images.

  For example, I feel the occasional sensation of nausea at the back of my throat, which I picture as a slow trickle of tiny, grayish pellets. Lower down, in my chest, they gather into a heaving mass of sticky, soot-covered ball bearings.

  Whatever representations you make of your tensions or discomforts, imagine a hand dipping into your body, grabbing the offending objects, and throwing them miles away. Continue the process until the stress has been removed.

  With your body relaxed, you’re breathing deeply, and your nausea is reduced, conjure up an image of a place or a person that gives you thoughts of peace, maybe a happy or relaxed feeling. This could be a scene from your childhood, a holiday location, or a loved one. Latch on to that image, and try to immerse yourself in those pleasant, warm feelings.

  Slowly superimpose that pleasant picture onto the image of your anxiety. You might, for example, visualize walking into the examination room in college or the boardroom at work and seeing your loved ones standing there.

  In my case, I use the scene of a quiet casino with a croupier standing at an empty blackjack table. That always gives me a good feeling. Sitting on the table is not a deck of playing cards, but a word processor, which normally represents work, deadlines, accounts, and other aspects of responsibility. By blending or mixing the images together, one of happiness, the other of anxiety, I’m in effect neutralizing the object of my fear.

  Having stared your worst fears in the face and removed any bad feelings associated with them, you can now approach the job at hand in a completely relaxed, positive state of mind.

  Try this method yourself. It really works for me, and it could help you too. We’ll continue with more advanced quantum memory power techniques in the next chapter.

  15

  Your First Advanced Test

  Are you in the right frame of mind? We’re going to have your first advanced test. I want you to prepare a journey of 30 stages. If you already have a route around your house, say of 10 stages, then just extend it further to 30. If it helps, write down the stages on a piece of paper so that you can get used to them and go through them a few times.

  Make the stops interesting. Use a tree stump or a newspaper stand. Don’t have too many stages that are all alike. If your journey takes you on a train, don’t have more than 1 compartment. Make each stage unique. When you have all 30 stages, we’ll begin the test.

  Again, you can have someone read these directions to you, or record yourself and listen to the recording as you do this exercise.

  I want you to get in the zone. You should be sitting upright, feet squarely on the ground, with a straight spine, head faced forward, hands on legs, and with a good, seated poise and a nice, straight back. You’re feeling relaxed, and your breathing is smooth.

  Close your eyes and picture yourself floating along your prepared journey. How should you see each stage? Try to take the same vantage point each time. Get a feel for each stage. It’s not easy to explain the feelings you get from a room; it’s a mixture of things. Associations from the past blend together to give you a unique feeling about a particular room. See if you can sense that.

  Check your breathing. Make sure it’s relaxed, but take in healthy breaths, in and out. Oxygen is vital for both your memory and your well-being. It promotes the growth of dendrites in the brain.

  Progress along the journey, and feel your body relaxing all the time. Your mind shouldn’t be racing. It should feel as if it’s ticking over at a steady rate. It should be relaxed but focused.

  If you noticed your eyelids are fluttering just slightly, that’s a sign of the alpha wave. If you have that, you’re in the perfect mode for concentrating, listening, and receiving information.

  Once you think you know the route backwards and forwards, I’ll start to give you the 30 objects in sequence. Here’s what you should do: with your eyes closed, you should already be in position at the first stage. You’re waiting for something to happen.

  Again, use logic, but this time, also use slight exaggeration. You don’t have to exaggerate the images too much, because they should already have become natural to you. Use color if you like. Make the picture instant—the first image that comes into your head, the first association. I’m not going to give you any help from now on. As you read each word or phrase, close your eyes and picture the object.

  Here’s the list:

  Yellow balloon

  Tape measure

  Roses

  Blue pen

  Guitar

  Briefcase

  Teapot

  Umbrella

  Fluffy dog

  Statue

  Painting

  Milk

  Bus

  Computer

  Sandals

  Wedding cake

  Ice cream

  Giraffe

  Mirror

  Pair of skis

  Palm tree

  Rope

  Fishing rod

  Golf bag

  Hat

  Sparkling dress

  Hammer

  Diary

  Bag of diamonds

  Fountain pen

  Keep thinking all the time. Keep your eyes closed. Review the scenes. Return to the first stage, and work your way through. Keep calm; relax. Just let the images wash over you as they return. Don’t force the memories. If you’re not sure, just let it happen. If it doesn’t come through, skip to the next stage.

  SCORING YOURSELF

  OK, do you have those images? Now write them down in order, and compare them to the list above. A score of 10 is excellent. If you can remember the first 7 in sequence, then you’re in the top 1 percent of people with the best memories in the world.

  If you’ve been practicing these techniques, then I’d expect a score of 10 to 20, which is excellent, particularly if they’re in sequence. If you got a score of 20 to 25, then you are way above average. If you scored all 30, then you have me worried. Who are you? You could potentially be a major player in a national memory competition.

  If for any reason you scored very badly, don’t worry about it. Help is at hand. You just need to work on the visual side of your imagination a bit more.

  People ask me, “How long does this information stay in your head?” Now you can be the judge. See how long that information stays in your head.

  DEVELOPING YOUR POWERS OF VISUALIZATION

  Here’s an exercise to help you with your powers of visualization. Don’t worry if you can’t draw or if you’re not very good at art.

  Get hold of a vase of flowers or something similar. Get a piece of paper. Just study the vase of flowers for about 2 or 3 minutes, taking in as much detail as you can.

  Then look away and just draw. Try to reproduce that vase of flowers in as much detail as you can. Spend a few minutes trying to do this. When you’ve run out of recollections, look at the vase of flowers again; this time you’ll notice a bit more. You’ll pick up maybe a shadow or the shape of the leaves.

  Take in a bit more information. Study the vase of flowers again for another couple of minutes.

  Then return to your drawing, and add those details in. Keep repeating this until you really run out of ideas. Try to remember as much detail as possible.

  You should try this exercise on a regular basis. It really does help your observation as well as your powers of visualization.

  16

  Time Travel

  If you’re frustrated by your inability to recall scenes from your childhood, this section is for you.

  I suspect that we’ve all experienced that moment when happy memories of a previously forgotten part of our lives comes flooding back. It’s an exciting feeling, but it can also be extremely frustrating. We can remember only bits of the past, little glimpses that rapidly fade into nothing.

  I call this exercise “Time Travel,” or “How to Remember Lost Chapters of Your Life.” It’s about returning to a particular time and location from your past and trying to recall everything in as much detail as you can.