Here you will learn How to develop, train and use your memory
Page 7 of
22.
CHAPTER V.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS RECORD-FILE.
The old writers on the subject were wont to consider the memory as a separate
faculty of the mind, but this idea disappeared before the advancing tide of
knowledge which resulted in the acceptance of the conception now known as The
New Psychology. This new conception recognizes the existence of a vast "out of
consciousness" region of the mind, one phase of which is known as the
subconscious mind, or the subconscious field of mental activities. In this field
of mentation the activities of memory have their seat. A careful consideration
of the subject brings the certainty that the entire work of the memory is
performed in this subconscious region of the mind. Only when the subconscious
record is represented to the conscious field, and recollection or remembrance
results, does the memorized idea or impression emerge from the subconscious
region. An understanding of this fact simplifies the entire subject of the
memory, and enables us to perfect plans and methods whereby the memory may be
developed, improved and trained, by means of the direction of the subconscious
activities by the use of the conscious faculties and the will.
Hering says: "Memory is a faculty not only of our conscious states, but also,
and much more so, of our unconscious ones." Kay says: "It is impossible to
understand the true nature of memory, or how to train it aright, unless we have
a clear conception of the fact that there is much in the mind of which we are
unconscious. . . . The highest form of memory, as of all the mental
powers, is the unconsciouswhen what we wish to recall comes to us spontaneously,
without any conscious thought or search for it. Frequently when we wish to
recall something that has previously been in the mind we are unable to do so by
any conscious effort of the will; but we turn the attention to something else,
and after a time the desired information comes up spontaneously when we are not
consciously thinking of it." Carpenter says: "There is the working of a
mechanism beneath the consciousness which, when once set going, runs on of
itself, and which is more likely to evolve the desired result when the conscious
activity of the mind is exerted in a direction altogether different."
This subconscious region of the mind is the great record-file of everything we
have ever experienced, thought or known. Everything is recorded there. The best
authorities now generally agree that there is no such thing as an absolute
forgetting of even the most minute impression, notwithstanding the fact that we
may be unable to recollect or remember it, owing to its faintness, or lack of
associated "indexing." It is held that everything is to be found in that
subconscious index-file, if we can only manage to find its place. Kay says: "In
like manner we believe that every impression or thought that has once been
before consciousness remains ever afterward impressed upon the mind. It may
never again come up before consciousness, but it will doubtless remain in that
vast ultra-conscious region of the mind, unconsciously molding and fashioning
our subsequent thoughts and actions. It is only a small part of what exists in
the mind that we are conscious of. There is always much that is known to be in
the mind that exists in it unconsciously, and must be stored away somewhere.
We may be able to recall it into consciousness when we wish to do so; but at
other times the mind is unconscious of its existence. Further, every ones
experience must tell him that there is much in his mind that he cannot always
recall when he may wish to do so,much that he can recover only after a labored
search, or that he may search for in vain at the time, but which may occur to
him afterwards when perhaps he is not thinking about it. Again, much that we
probably would never be able to recall, or that would not recur to us under
ordinary circumstances, we may remember to have had in the mind when it is
mentioned to us by others. In such a case there must still have remained some
trace or scintilla of it in the mind before we could recognize it as having been
there before."
Morell says: "We have every reason to believe that mental power when once called
forth follows the analogy of everything we see in the material universe in the
fact of its perpetuity. Every single effort of mind is a creation which can
never go back again into nonentity. It may slumber in the depths of
forgetfulness as light and heat slumber in the coal seams, but there it is,
ready at the bidding of some appropriate stimulus to come again out of the
darkness into the light of consciousness." Beattie says: "That which has been
long forgotten, nay, that which we have often in vain endeavored to recollect,
will sometimes without an effort of ours occur to us on a sudden, and, if I may
so speak, of its own accord." Hamilton says: "The mind frequently contains whole
systems of knowledge which, though in our normal state they may have faded into
absolute oblivion, may in certain abnormal states, as madness, delirium,
somnambulism, catalepsy, etc., flash out into luminous consciousness. . . .For
example, there are cases in which the extinct memory of whole languages were
suddenly restored." Lecky says: "It is now fully established that a multitude of
events which arc so completely forgotten that no effort of the will can revive
them, and that the statement of them calls up no reminiscences, may nevertheless
be, so to speak, embedded in the memory, and may be reproduced with intense
vividness under certain physical conditions." In proof of the above, the
authorities give many instances recorded in scientific annals. Coleridge relates
the well-known case of the old woman who could neither read nor write, who when
in the delirium of fever incessantly recited in very pompous tones long
passages from the Latin, Greek and Hebrew, with a distinct enunciation and
precise rendition. Notes of her ravings were taken down by shorthand, and caused
much wonderment, until it was afterwards found that in her youth she had been
employed as a servant in the house of a clergyman who was in the habit of
walking up and down in his study reading aloud from his favorite classical and
religious writers. In his books were found marked passages corresponding to the
notes taken from the girl's ravings. Her subconscious memory had stored up the
sounds of these passages heard in her early youth, but of which she had no
recollection in her normal state. Beaufort, describing his sensations just
before being rescued from drowning says: "Every incident of my former life
seemed to glance across my recollection in a retrograde procession, not in mere
outline, but in a picture filled with every minute and collateral feature, thus
forming a panoramic view of my whole existence."
Kay truly observes: "By adopting the opinion that every thought or impression
that had once been consciously before the mind is ever afterwards retained, we
obtain light on many obscure mental phenomena; and especially do we draw from it
the conclusion of the perfectibility of the memory to an almost unlimited
extent. We cannot doubt that, could we penetrate to the lowest depths of our
mental nature, we should there find traces of every impression we have received,
every thought we have entertained, and every act we have done through our past
life, each one making its influence felt in the way of building up our present
knowledge, or in guiding our every-day actions; and if they persist in the mind,
might it not be possible to recall most if not all of them into consciousness
when we wished to do so, if our memories or powers of recollection were what
they should be?"
As we have said, this great subconscious region of the mindthis Memory
region-may be thought of as a great record file, with an intricate system of
indexes, and office boys whose business it is to file away the records; to index
them; and to find them when needed. The records record only what we have
impressed upon them by the attention, the degree of depth and clearness
depending entirely upon the degree of attention which we bestowed upon the
original impression. We can never expect to have the office boys of the memory
bring up anything that they have not been given to file away. The indexing, and
cross-references are supplied by the association existing between the various
impressions. The more cross-references, or associations that are connected
with an idea, thought or impression that is filed away in the memory, the
greater the chances of it being found readily when wanted. These two features of
attention and association, and the parts they play in the phenomena of memory,
are mentioned in detail in other chapters of this book.
These little office boys of the memory are an industrious and willing lot of
little chaps, but like all boys they do their best work when kept in practice.
Idleness and lack of exercise cause them to become slothful and careless, and
forgetful of the records under their charge. A little fresh exercise and work
soon take the cobwebs out of their brains, and they spring eagerly to their
tasks. They become familiar with their work when exercised properly, and soon
become very expert. They have a tendency to remember, on their own part, and
when a certain record is called for often they grow accustomed to its place, and
can find it without referring to the indexes at all. But their trouble comes
from faint and almost illegible records, caused by poor attentionthese they can
scarcely decipher when they do succeed in finding them. Lack of proper indexing
by associations causes them much worry and extra work, and sometimes they are
unable to find the records at all from this neglect. Often, however, after they
have told you that they could not find a thing, and you have left the place in
disgust, they will continue their search and hours afterward will surprise you
by handing you the desired idea, or impression, which they had found carelessly
indexed or improperly filed away. In these chapters you will be helped, if you
will carry in your mind these little office boys of the memory record file, and
the hard work they have to do for you, much of which is made doubly burdensome
by your own neglect and carelessness. Treat these little fellows right and they
will work overtime for you, willingly and joyfully. But they need your
assistance and encouragement, and an occasional word of praise and commendation.
Our
featured links related to How to develop, train and use your memory
