super memories?!

[Bluegazer]

Assalamu Alaikum [Peace be unto you],


On the cover of the November 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine, you'll find the title "Memory; Why We Remember, Why We forget." The cover refers to the feature article entitled "Remember This". It was written by Joshua Foer.


It deals with how some people have an extraordinary memory while others suffer diseases that leave them with extremely short memories.


The following parts really caught my attention. Please read them carefully, especially the phrases I set in bold type:

There is a 41-year-old woman, an administrative assistant from California known in the medical literature only as "AJ," who remembers almost every day of her life since age 11. There is an 85-year-old man, a retired lab technician called "EP," who remembers only his most recent thought. She might have the best memory in the world. He could very well have the worst.

"My memory flows like a movie—nonstop and uncontrollable," says AJ. She remembers that at 12:34 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, 1986, a young man she had a crush on called her on the telephone. She remembers what happened on Murphy Brown on December 12, 1988. And she remembers that on March 28, 1992, she had lunch with her father at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She remembers world events and trips to the grocery store, the weather and her emotions. Virtually every day is there. She's not easily stumped.

There have been a handful of people over the years with uncommonly good memories. Kim Peek, the 56-year-old savant who inspired the movie Rain Man, is said to have memorized nearly 12,000 books (he reads a page in 8 to 10 seconds). "S," a Russian journalist studied for three decades by the Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, could remember impossibly long strings of words, numbers, and nonsense syllables years after he'd first heard them. But AJ is unique. Her extraordinary memory is not for facts or figures, but for her own life. Indeed, her inexhaustible memory for autobiographical details is so unprecedented and so poorly understood that James McGaugh, Elizabeth Parker, and Larry Cahill, the neuroscientists at the University of California, Irvine who have been studying her for the past seven years, had to coin a new medical term to describe her condition: hyperthymestic syndrome.

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text


And:

AJ remembers when she first realized that her memory was not the same as everyone else's. She was in the seventh grade, studying for finals. "I was not happy because I hated school," she says. Her mother was helping her with her homework, but her mind had wandered elsewhere. "I started thinking about the year before, when I was in sixth grade and how I loved sixth grade. But then I started realizing that I was remembering the exact date, exactly what I was doing a year ago that day." At first she didn't think much of it. But a few weeks later, playing with a friend, she remembered that they had also spent the day together exactly one year earlier.

"Each year has a certain feeling, and then each time of year has a certain feeling. The spring of 1981 feels completely different from the winter of 1981," she says. Dates for AJ are like the petite madeleine cake that sent Marcel Proust's mind hurtling back in time in Remembrance of Things Past. Their mere mention starts her reminiscing involuntarily. "You know when you smell something, it brings you back? I'm like ten levels deeper and more intense than that."

"My brother used to say, 'Oh, she's the Rain Man.' And I was like, 'No I'm not!' But I thought, what if I really. . . . Am I? Is there something wrong with me?" At one point AJ considered setting up shop on the nearby boardwalk as the Human Calendar and charging people five bucks to let them try to stump her with dates. She decided against it. "I don't want to be a sideshow."

It would seem as though having a memory like AJ's would make life qualitatively different—and better. Our culture inundates us with new information, yet so little of it is captured and cataloged in a way that it can be retrieved later. What would it mean to have all that otherwise lost knowledge at our fingertips? Would it make us more persuasive, more confident? Would it make us, in some fundamental sense, smarter? To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing not only more about the world, but also more about oneself. How many worthwhile ideas have gone unthought and connections unmade because of our memory's shortcomings?

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text/8


And:

The dream that AJ embodies, the perfection of memory, has been with us since at least the fifth century B.C. and the supposed invention of a technique known as the "art of memory" by the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos.

Simonides had been the sole survivor of a catastrophic roof collapse at a banquet hall in Thessaly. According to Cicero, who wrote an account of the incident four centuries later, the bodies were mangled beyond recognition. But in his mind, Simonides was able to close his eyes to the chaos and see each of the guests at his seat around the table. He'd discovered the powerful technique known as the loci method. If you can convert whatever it is you're trying to remember into vivid mental images and then arrange them in some sort of imagined architectural space, known as a memory palace, memories can be made virtually indelible.

Peter of Ravenna, a noted Italian jurist and author of a renowned memory textbook of the 15th century, was said to have used the loci method to memorize the Bible, the entire legal canon, 200 of Cicero's speeches, and 1,000 verses of Ovid. For leisure, he would reread books cached away in his memory palaces. "When I left my country to visit as a pilgrim the cities of Italy, I can truly say I carry everything I own with me," he wrote.

It's hard for us to imagine what it must have been like to live in a culture before the advent of printed books or before you could carry around a ballpoint pen and paper to jot notes. "In a world of few books, and those mostly in communal libraries, one's education had to be remembered, for one could never depend on having continuing access to specific material," writes Mary Carruthers, author of The Book of Memory, a study of the role of memory techniques in medieval culture. "Ancient and medieval people reserved their awe for memory. Their greatest geniuses they describe as people of superior memories." Thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas, for example, was celebrated for composing his Summa Theologica entirely in his head and dictating it from memory with no more than a few notes. The Roman philosopher Seneca the Elder could repeat 2,000 names in the order they'd been given to him. A Roman named Simplicius could recite Virgil by heart—backward. A strong memory was seen as the greatest of virtues since it represented the internalization of a universe of external knowledge. Indeed, a common theme in the lives of the saints was that they had extraordinary memories.

After Simonides' discovery, the art of memory was codified with an extensive set of rules and instructions by the likes of Cicero and Quintilian and in countless medieval memory treatises. Students were taught not only what to remember but also techniques for how to remember it. In fact, there are long traditions of memory training in many cultures. The Jewish Talmud, embedded with mnemonics—techniques for preserving memories—was passed down orally for centuries. Koranic memorization is still considered a supreme achievement among devout Muslims. Traditional West African griots and South Slavic bards recount colossal epics entirely from memory.

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text/9


And:

But over the past millennium, many of us have undergone a profound shift. We've gradually replaced our internal memory with what psychologists refer to as external memory, a vast superstructure of technological crutches that we've invented so that we don't have to store information in our brains. We've gone, you might say, from remembering everything to remembering awfully little. We have photographs to record our experiences, calendars to keep track of our schedules, books (and now the Internet) to store our collective knowledge, and Post-it notes for our scribbles. What have the implications of this outsourcing of memory been for ourselves and for our society? Has something been lost?

To supplement the memories in her mind, AJ also stores a trove of external memories. In addition to the detailed diary she's kept since childhood, she has a library of close to a thousand videotapes copied off TV, a trunk full of radio recordings, and a "research library" consisting of 50 notebooks filled with facts she's found on the Internet that relate to events in her memory. "I just want to keep it all," she says.

Preserving her past has become the central compulsion of AJ's life. "When I'm blow-drying my hair in the morning, I'll think of whatever day it is. And to pass the time, I'll just run through that day in my head over the last 20-something years—like flipping through a Rolodex."

AJ traces the origins of her unusual memory to a move from New Jersey to California that her family made when she was just eight years old. Life in New Jersey had been comfortable and familiar, and California was foreign and strange. It was the first time she understood that growing up and moving on necessarily meant forgetting and leaving behind. "Because I hate change so much, after that it was like I wanted to be able to capture everything. Because I know, eventually, nothing will ever be the same," she says.

K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, believes that at bottom, AJ might not be all that different from the rest of us. After the initial announcement of AJ's condition in the journal Neurocase, Ericsson suggested that what needs to be explained about AJ is not some extraordinary, unprecedented innate memory but rather her extraordinary obsession with her past. People always remember things that are important to them. Baseball fanatics often have an encyclopedic knowledge for statistics, chess masters often remember tricky gambits that took place years ago, actors often remember scripts long after performing them. Everyone has got a memory for something. Ericsson believes that if anyone cared about holding on to the past as much as AJ does, the feat of memorizing one's life would be well within reach.

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text/10


And:

I mention Ericsson's theory to AJ, and she becomes visibly upset. "I just want to call him on the phone and yell at him. If I spent that much time memorizing my life, then I really would be a boring person," she says. "I don't sit around and memorize it. I just know it."

Remembering everything is both maddening and lonely for AJ. "I remember good, which is very comforting. But I also remember bad—and every bad choice," she says. "And I really don't give myself a break. There are all these forks in the road, moments you have to make a choice, and then it's ten years later, and I'm still beating myself up over them. I don't forgive myself for a lot of things. Your memory is the way it is to protect you. I feel like it just hasn't protected me. I would love just for five minutes to be a simple person and not have all this stuff in my head. "Most people have called what I have a gift," AJ says, "but I call it a burden."

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/memory/foer-text/11


Why is the above information important to us Muslims?


The reason is simple.


Over many years, many Orientalists and others have tried to attack the Sunnah [the reports of the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad -peace be upon him-]. One of the points on which they based their attacks was their assertion that people such as Abu Huraira, Aisha bint Abi Bakr and other Companions [may Allah be pleased with them all] could not remember and therefore relate to others what the Prophet [peace be upon him] said or did.


By reading the above mentioned article, you'll see that these attacks could be easily refuted. As I mentioned above, Professor "Ericsson believes that if anyone cared about holding on to the past as much as AJ does, the feat of memorizing one's life would be well within reach."


If this could be done even in today's world with all the information we're drowning in, could you imagine how much simpler and easier it would have been in Arabia 1,400 years ago, when life was much more simple?


Joshua Foer [the author of the above article] was interviewed on the radio program "Talk of the Nation" on March 14, 2006. This interview was aired on NPR [National Public Radio] in the United States. Please click on the following link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=5280031&m=5280032


If the above link doesn't work, then click on the following link and then click on "Listen Now" near the top left hand side of the page:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5280031

But, there are people putting these techniques to useful ends. There's a teacher in the South Bronx [in an] inner city school, who teaches his students essentially how to memorize their entire textbooks using these techniques. And his students also compete in the U.S. Memory Championship.

From 4:46 to 5:11


This teacher's name is Raemon Matthew and this school is Samuel Gompers High School. There's a photograph of him and his students on page 50 of the November 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine.


What also struck me in this interview was that Joshua Foer is just a regular guy. He didn't have this super memory like the lady AJ in the above article. And here he was winning the U.S. Memory Championship in 2006 because he learned certain techniques.


Regards,

Bluegazer

Wassalamu Alaikum [and Peace be unto you]

 

[Mohsin]

JazakAllah !

JazakAllah Brother Bluegazer for the great information.

P.S. Do you mind activating your PM's ?

 

[nozima_uk]

salam, i have read that forgetfullness comes from shaytan, and the first one who was forget was Adam alayhissalam.
and in other places it says that the bad memory is the result of sinfullness. If you abstain from sins inshAllaah you will have good memory.

 

[TheHumbleWun]

Salaam brother Bluegazer,

Thank you for sharing the interesting article.

These is also a good article to support your point as well:

http://www.mindpowernews.com/WorldsBestMemory.htm

Today memory supplements like Ginkoba are used to help improve memory, concentration, and to remain focused. I use to take it when I had to study for an exam.

More info on Ginkoba can be found here:

http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-19966-Ginkoba+Oral.aspx?drugid=19966&drugname=Ginkoba+Oral

 

[Bluegazer]

Assalamu Alaikum brothers Mohsin and TheHumbleWun,


I apologize for my late reply, and I thank you for your kind words.


In post #5 on this thread, the first link led to quite an interesting article. However, I just have this uneasy feeling about the second link [the memory supplement Ginkoba]. I mean no disrespect to you TheHiumbleWun, but I just feel it's better to depend on techniques rather than pills to improve one's memory. I could be wrong and not acquainted with modern developments, and [to be fair] the WebMD website is a very famous and [according to my limited knowledge] trustworthy source of medical information. Just notice the paragraph "Important Note" found under the title "Ginkoba Oral". I think that's pretty good advice.


Thanks again to both of you, and may Allah guide us all to what is right and forgive us our sins.


Aameen.


Best regards,

Bluegazer

Wassalamu Alaikum

 

[TheHumbleWun]

Salaam,

I thought to post another related article I came across to this thread:

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (AP) -- For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life.

News anchor Brad Williams is believed to have a "superior autobiographical memory."

For example, he can tell you it was August 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was 8 years old at the time. And he had a burger, of course.

"It was a Wednesday," recalled Williams, now 51. "We stayed at a motel that night in Clare, Michigan. It seemed more like a cabin."

To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events -- and especially dates -- is a regular source of amusement. But according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are now studying him, and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.

Williams, a radio anchor in La Crosse, Wisconsin, seems to enjoy having his memory tested. Name a date from the last 40 years and, after a few moments, he can typically tell you what he did that day and what was in the news.

How about November 7, 1991?

"Let's see," he mused, gazing into the distance for about five seconds. "That would be around when Magic Johnson announced he had HIV. Yes, a Thursday. There was a big snowstorm here the week before."

He went on to identify correctly some 20 other events, including the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978, the toxic-gas leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Billie Jean King's victory over Bobby Riggs in tennis's "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973.

"I've always been this way," Williams said. "Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasn't like everyone else."

So how does he do it?

"You want the Nobel Prize right now? Tell me that answer and I'll publish it," said Dr. James McGaugh, who has studied Williams since last summer. "We don't know. We do know that he carries this information with him, that it's detailed, that it's just there. That's what we want to know -- why is it there?"

Williams' brother first contacted McGaugh, a research professor at the University of California, Irvine, after the neurobiologist published a case study of a similar person in the journal Neurocase in 2006.

That woman is in her mid-40s and was identified only by the initials A.J. She told McGaugh that whenever she hears a date, memories from that date in previous years flood her mind like a running movie. The phenomenon, she laments, is "nonstop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting."

"Most have called it a gift, but I call it a burden," she wrote. "I run my entire life through my head every day and it drives me crazy!!!"

McGaugh and his colleagues subjected A.J. to a battery of psychological tests. Given a date at random, she was nearly flawless in recalling the day of the week and what she did that day. The details she provided invariably matched what she had written in diaries decades earlier.

Scientific literature documents people who could memorize a series of 50 to 100 random letters or digits. Another person read a 330-word story twice, then reproduced it nearly verbatim a year later.

But those research subjects remembered meaningless information. What distinguishes Williams and A.J. is their "superior autobiographical memory" -- an above-average ability to remember dates and details from their distant past, McGaugh said.

"In subjects we regard as having this ability, they do better than 90 percent on the tests we provide," McGaugh said.

The tests typically involve reproducing personal information that can be corroborated with old scrapbooks, yearbooks and diaries, sources that McGaugh often tries to obtain from family members without the subjects' knowledge.

Other tests involve naming a notable public event and asking for its date, or vice versa.

Williams and A.J. both performed better on topics that interested them. Williams excels at pop-culture trivia such as Academy Award winners, but he stumbles on sports.

A lifelong bachelor and self-described Scrabble addict, he finished second when he appeared on "Jeopardy!" in 1990. He says he went 5-for-5 on "1984 movies" but tripped up on categories including "snakes" and "words that begin with 'kh'."

Because a person's interest in the information is a key factor in recall ability, some researchers doubt that Williams and A.J. are unique.

"If it's a truly amazing memory that just sucks things up, it shouldn't be based on how interesting something was to you," said Stephen Christman, a neuropsychologist at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Christman, who wasn't involved in the research, pointed to baseball fanatics who remember obscure statistics because of their passion for the game. Perhaps, he speculated, A.J. obsesses so much over past events and relives them so frequently in her mind that it's now effortless for her to recall countless dates and events.

The number of people with comparable memory skills has been hard to pin down. After publishing his research with A.J., McGaugh heard from about 50 people claiming they had the same skill or, like Williams' brother, knew someone who might.

Of them, McGaugh and his colleagues have identified a third person -- a 50-year-old Ohio man -- who shows similar promise.

Ever since pointing his elder brother in McGaugh's direction, Eric Williams, 45, has been recording Brad's adventures for an upcoming documentary. The movie, to be titled "Unforgettable," is scheduled to be completed later this year.

"The human brain is the most complicated and important machinery in the known universe," McGaugh said. "My aim with this research isn't to cure Alzheimer's. It's to decrease the mystery of this marvelous machinery."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/22/memory.man.ap/index.html