Super Memory It Can Be Yours by Shakuntala Devi

Book Review of Super Memory It Can Be Yours Ageless Memory in 12 Practical Lessons by Shakuntala Devi

The book Super Memory It Can Be Yours by Shakuntala Devi starts with a sci-fi story written by one of her acquaintances. I read the story and wondered ‘How this anti-technology, stone-age-was-so-much-better story found its way into this book?’ And I completely lost interest. Eventually Shakuntala Devi explained how the technology is actively working against human competence. Then I remembered how I used to save all the numbers and names in my mobile till one day while going to office it was stolen.  ‘Oh yes,’ I thought, ‘I know what she meant.’

In her book Super Memory It Can Be Yours, Shakuntala Devi doesn’t teach you any magical trick. Instead, she tells you how years of practice and right habit can release the memory power that remains underutilised. First, she discusses the factors that directly or indirectly prevents you from remembering things. Emotional clutters – she calls them. She suggests we develop a positive mindset. Optimism optimises memory – she says. Super Memory It Can Be Yours also tells you how to increase your concentration.

Then Shakuntala Devi classifies the remembering process based on the dominant organ that is used in the method. Some people react more to visual stimulants whereas some other may use their auditory skills. Some remembers movements better than anything. Again some may use a mix of all the above. The majority of us use a little bit of all the above, though any one of the three is always the dominant. Several tests are provided to identify which particular class you belong to.

Subsequent chapters in Super Memory It Can Be Yours are devoted to remembering numbers, names etc. For each of them there are a number of methods to choose from. Shakuntala Devi emphasizes on using imagination to associate things. The stronger the association the longer the impression will stay. Let the imaginations be absurd. No one is there to criticise. It’s for your own good, so have a go with it.

Investing a personal meaning in a name  makes remembering it effortless – because the reference already exists in your memory.

Now as for the association, the whole thing depends on what’s best for you to imagine. It can be a celebrity, a river, a mountain range or a movie. All that’s important is to create a picture around it – a picture that is vivid and stimulating. You can also associate silly, absurd words. Association, according to Shakuntala Devi is a personalised thing. One should always feel free to make them any way one likes.

There are methods discussed in Super Memory It Can Be Yours to remember long numbers, but I will discuss here only two. In first method, you break a long number into manageable groups.

For instance, 2963452561 is a ten-digit number. So break it down thus:

1       2      3     4 





296    345    25     61

Also we can pronounce the groups in a rhythm. Sometimes we use this method spontaneously without actually being aware of it. In second method, Shakuntala Devi suggests we substitute each number with an alphabet resembling it. For example, 1 looks like a T, 2 can be replaced with N, 3 with M and so on. Alphabets are visually more stimulating than numbers. Besides for long numbers like a year, we can make words with each number and then construct a sentence, which is always easier to remember than the number itself.

In Super Memory It Can Be Yours, Shakuntala Devi covers several other aspects like the best ways to take notes. There are also an entire section devoted to common misconception people have regarding the memory techniques.

I found this book by Shakuntala Devi fascinating. I learned a great deal about memory enhancing techniques. There are exercises at the end of each chapter. I found them particularly useful. They are like math games, puzzles that you can use at parties to impress others. However the real aim of Super Memory It Can Be Yours is to build a set of habits that not only improves your capacity to remember stuffs but also guides on how and where to implement those strategies.

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