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“...your memory is a peripheral device...You
use your brain to call up
images, but they appear on the periphery,
somewhere outside of your brain....”
3
How We Remember
If
you will accept the theory I am about to present to you in this passage,
you
will not have to take the painstaking steps involved in trying to
understand
the difficult process of where your memory resides, or even if it resides in
the anatomical structure of the brain. Take a look at past experience as in
Carol A. Turkington’s book, 12 STEPS TO A BETTER MEMORY, where she offers
some
insight into how memory works:
At present, the seat of memory
cannot be found in any one place in the brain.
Instead, scientists believe
memory actually functions on a much more basic
level: the level of synapses
scattered in web-like patterns throughout the
brain. In fact, scientists
don’t really make any distinction between how you
remember and how you
think. No one completely understands either process.
While people often think
of memory as a single phenomenon, in fact there are
two distinct mechanisms,
corresponding to different mental processes,
voluntary and involuntary
memory. The smell of your mother’s perfume may trigger an
involuntary memory
if the sensation comes by surprise, or your memory of her may
appear as a
voluntary memory if you choose to search for it.
The theory, or concept that
will give you immediate access to the
photographic memory you wish to enjoy
using right now (and which you already possess) can
be realized in the
following: your memory does not reside in the physical or
anatomical
structure of your brain; your memory is a peripheral device. You
use your
brain to call up images in your mind which is a very intricate process
involving neurological pathways and chemicals that, if I listed here, would
cause you to nod out and never open this book again. Accept my theory for
now
and you will be able to use your photographic memory immediately by
circumventing the rhetorical clutter. Understand that your memory is outside
of your brain
and on the periphery somewhere. Yes! Again I say: Contrary to
popular belief,
the memory does not reside in the brain, but is a
peripheral device to the
brain. You use your brain to call up images, but
they appear on the periphery,
somewhere outside of your brain. Just as a
computer calls up images by
searching its hard drive, then finding the
image and placing it on the monitor’s
screen, your mind operates the same
way: your brain allows you to search images
in your minds eye (on its hard
drive) and will then display them somewhere on
the periphery of your mind
(the screen). Try it for a moment. Attempt to see a
purple cat. Close your
eyes right now and see in your mind’s eye a purple cat.
Open your eyes and
determine where that purple cat appeared. Was it in your
brain somewhere?
Was it out in front of you six feet or so? Or was it in
another room in your
home, or perhaps in another location altogether?