Living Without Chaos

The Recollection of Isolated Fact

The subconscious action of Association may sometimes be employed effectually in the effort to recall an isolated fact, the remembrance of which cannot be awakened easily by any other means. The method is to return to the surroundings in which you last were aware of the fact you wish to remember. For example, if you have mislaid bunch of keys, you may remember where you placed them if you go back to the place where you know you last used them. If you have “forgotten” the funny story told you by a friend, it may recur to you if you think of what preceded it. The reproduction of some of the component elements in a situation tends to revive in the mind the impressions made by other component elements which may not be actually reproduced without such stimulus. It is, of course, impossible to classify these purely arbitrary associations, depending as they do chiefly upon propinquity of time and place.

So-called “Systems of Mnemonics”

Various systems of so-called “Mnemonics” are founded upon arbitrary associations of locality. In some of these, the pupil is directed to imagine a square sheet of paper, ruled into nine or sixteen squares, and then to imagine that he sees in each square a word or picture indicative of the fact to be remembered. ‘It would be appalling to contemplate the chaotic state of a brain subjected to such a tax through several weeks of diligent study. A somewhat similar system instructing the pupil to locate and picture in imagination all the facts he wants to remember, as being present in some room familiar to him. There would be obvious impediments in the way of applying this method to the memorization of a list of the Presidents of the United States, or the mountains of Europe, or the Emperors of Rome. In a later lesson we illustrate fully the correct manner of dealing with such facts.

Originality of ideas is a fascinating subject. And not only fascinating but really, important. “New ideas” in commerce, in literature, art, and the other professions, mean progress. The next lesson will therefore appeal to you very forcibly.

Don’ts

1. Don’t allow your resolutions to crumble; just continue in the spirit with which you began the Course.

2. Don’t complain that you are a “born mind-wanderer.” You may be, but conquer the habit by discipline. Hundreds have succeeded before you.

3. Don’t skim this Lesson. Go over it until you know it.

4. Don’t fail to test your knowledge by self-questioning.

5. Don’t be satisfied with a half-knowledge of anything. Be thorough.

6. Don’t forget that the formal exercises we prescribe, will, if practiced, enable you to do consciously what was, at first, a conscious effort.

Do This

1. In all mental training, effort should be carried out in a rational manner. Therefore, however diligently you work at mental connection see to it that your mind has its periods of “play.”

2. The four words in this lesson which should be mastered in all their ramifications are: Connection, classification, definition and standard.

3. Decide what classifications you need in (a) your calling, and (b) for your private studies.

4. Begin to use the principles of mental connection as an aid in the evolving of new ideas.

5. Make it a matter of conscience, of pride, if you will, to work for certain prescribed periods of time without allowing your mind to wander.

6. Remember that mental training involves moral training. The virtue of perseverance in really the power of concentration in one of its many forms of expression.