Thinking in Pictures: The mind is an art gallery

I read a book about a month ago called "How to Develop Confidence and Influence People Through Public Speaking," by Dale Carnegie.  I got a little more than halfway through the book when I read a section about improving one's memory.  

 Mr. Carnegie explained that we think in pictures and if we could create pictures in our minds that depicted our speech then we would be able to remember it in detail and give it without notes!  As soon as I read this I decided to test the concept.  I looked at the notes I had taken from the first part of the book.  There were eight points had been impressed me and I quickly sketched them; associating a number in each picture so I could remember the order.  

 As soon as I was done, I surprised myself when I could recite them from memory in order and in great detail.  It has now been a month or so since I sketched those pictures. I have since read several books and given a number of speeches.  However, I can remember the original points in detail and I will relate them here below without notes (although you will have to take my word for it since you are not here!). 

 

Point 1 (I drew a picture of a horse running with a speaker in the saddle.... One rhymes with Run): Giving a speech is like a journey.  You should get there quickly and without any detours.  Try to get to your point quickly and effectively.

 

Point 2 (I drew a picture of a monkey holding a tape recorder at the ZOO…rhymes with Zoo):  In order to improve your speaking ability you should record yourself often and critique your talks.  You will learn a lot about your speaking style and see what you can improve.

 Point 3 (I drew a TREE with note paper hanging from half of the branches instead of leaves while the other half was bare… Three rhymes with tree):  If you give a speech with notes you will lose half of your credibility with your audience.  Your audience expects you to be an expert on the subject you are talking about.   

Point 4 (Sketch of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a chair with a Boar Head mounted to it… Four Ryhmes with Boar):  Abraham Lincoln draped his leg over a chair every morning when he came into his law practice.  There he would read the paper out loud.  It drove his partners crazy but he claimed that if he could see the words and hear himself reading them, he had a much better chance of understanding it and recalling it later.  The point is that as many of our senses we can engage in learning the better the chance of us retaining it is.

 Point 5 (sketch of a beehive and a bee has stung someone in the eyeball… Five Rhymes with Hive).  We have 22x as many nerves running from the eye to the brain as the ear to the brain.  We think in pictures and if we can burn those pictures into our minds we will remember them more readily.  If we can create a picture in someone’s mind with our words we can achieve the same result.  

 Point 6 (Mark Twain licking ink spots off of his finger nails and it is making him sick… sick Rhymes with six):  See my post called "eye socket messaging" for the story of mark twain.  But the point is that Mark used to write reminders for his speech on his fingernails in ink. Once he delivered that point he would rub off the ink so he could remember where he was in his speech.  Later, he drew six pictures of his speech and never needed notes for his speech again.  25 years later he claimed he could still give that speech again from memory because he had the pictures engraved in his mind.

 Point 7 (picture of Heaven and I was trying to remember a secret password to get into heaven…Seven Rhymes with Heaven):  Our memories tend to forget things pretty fast unless we use them.  There was a study done that showed that when we learn new things, we will forget more in the first 8 hours than in the next 30 days!  In another experiment, subjects were asked to memorize a number of "made up" syllables over a certain period of time.  Those who reviewed the material 60 times in one sitting remembered less than those who reviewed the material 38 times over a course of several days.  Conclusion: it takes less energy to memorize something when spread over time than it does when trying to do it all at once.

 Point 8 (sketch of a Giant Gate with GOOGLE written across the front of it…. Eight rhymes with gate):  Google is the gateway to the internet for many people.  Google is like a search engine that weaves a web of related information together and then searches for it.  However, you have to tell google what to look for.  Just like our mind…. If you tell someone to “remember” they will not know what to think about… But if you tell someone to “remember little league baseball,” then they will be flooded with memories.  The more intricately we associate objects and events in our minds with related objects and events, the better our ability to recall and retain information will be.

 It is a very interesting concept. I used it to teach a sunday school lesson for my church the week after and used a similar method.  I think I could re-create that lesson from memory if I was called upon to teach it again!  Your mind is an art gallery! Start using pictures in it!  Decorate it with the best artwork you can!