Imagine you are at a dinner party with a hundred other people, each sitting in different tables arrayed within a grand hall. As you find yourself admiring the marble facade, a butler informs you that there are two men waiting outside to speak with you. You step outside to see two familiar faces, but as you are about to invite them in to join the feast with you, behind you a sound emerges.
You hear a great crack, followed by crumbling, screams and a crash. By the time you dare to turn around, you see that the building collapsed, killing everyone inside. The next several hours are spent digging through rubble, trying to save the living, and what’s left of the remains for the bereaved. A firefighter looks you straight in the eyes “do you know whose hand this is?”
Can you answer?
Reportedly this is the story of Simonides, the lyric poet of ancient Greece. When asked, the artist managed to identify everyone who was lost in that catastrophe, based on a system of who sat where. This, reportedly, was the birth of the art of memory.
This week we will be looking at the ancient art of memory, which was far more common and far more powerful than you might think. It was said that Cicero had memorized his own private library, and whenever he travelled he would just re-read one of those books in his mind. With luck, maybe we can do the same.
If you want to speak more effectively, learn new information more quickly, study and ace examinations in half the time (or less), and, most importantly, remember where you left your car keys, you will want to develop your memory superpower - learn how at this week’s meetup!
Viewings
Say The Words - https://youtu.be/_xAGIqVzu6k
Memory Championships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKt58kuEnk&feature=youtu.be
Memorize an entire book in 20 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASl9Jg1xbPc
Build a memory palace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vlpQHJ09do
Memory, a treat? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tZXa4u8l88
Listenings
Rain Keeps Falling - https://youtu.be/CdqoNKCCt7A
More memory songs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VDXf56s87U
Readings
The importance of memory in Rhetoric: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2011/04/brett-and-kate-mckay/classical-rhetoric-101-the-five-canons-of-rhetoric-memory/
A few books to get you started: http://nextcloud.mikesautomata.net/index.php/s/zMPpm262iobYqta