Ultramemory - The Secrets of Mentalists.

What if your brain were capable of memorizing every card in a deck, completely and in just a few seconds?

Hypermnesia is an exceptional ability to memorize, possessed by very few people. A hypermnestic person is able to retain several pieces of information within a very short period of time because their brain is in a state of overactivity. It transfers this information from short-term memory into long-term memory.

According to Sébastien Martinez, French world champion of memory, “to memorize is to summon our five senses; the art of memorization consists of making memorable—and therefore extraordinary—what we wish to remember.” This specialist from La Seyne in mnemonic methods represented France at the World Memory Championships in Rome on March 21, 2015. Today, he holds six French records, including the ability to memorize, in order and in five minutes, a list of random words. He trains his memory for several hours a day and makes great use of his imagination.

We are going to give you four keys to effective memorization. They will be very useful to you in practicing mentalism.

Translate the key elements to be remembered into images
We unconsciously use our brain in an unbalanced way because we do not call enough upon our imagination, which is characteristic of our right hemisphere. We memorize images more easily than abstract things such as series of numbers, multiplication tables, or long texts.

Make associations
As soon as we see an image, everything we have experienced or felt in the past is naturally brought back to us by our brain through our neurons, because the brain is associative by nature. Information can only be memorized in the long term if it is associated with something else.

Express these associations verbally
It is not enough to create mental images in order to memorize them. You must also “tell and repeat” out loud what you want to remember so that the information becomes engraved in your brain.

Use emotion and humor
Emotion is one of the most important elements of memorization—laughter, fear, sorrow, encouragement, and so on. The audience will be all the more receptive if the mentalist associates strong words and gestures with his performance.

With this method, anyone can acquire an exceptional memory in the areas that stir emotion within them. The goal, therefore, is to make boring moments intense by associating them with ideas, smells, and why not music? It is essential, however, for human beings to work on this memory regularly so as not to sink into intellectual stagnation.

Our memory is our gain in self-confidence and an inner power that never stops evolving. An “ultramemory” is not acquired overnight, but through exercise. The important thing is to accumulate knowledge, experiences, encounters, and to set oneself challenges in order to make the brain work.

In mentalism, repetition and association are the two keys most often used for memorization. Yet there are also other methods for remembering an incalculable number of figures, lists of words, vocabulary, or even the order of a fifty-two-card deck. These techniques are called the “art of memory.” It should be known that most arithmetic operations can be simulated—that is, replaced by others that resemble them only in appearance but differ from them in nature. These are the secrets of prodigious calculators.

In the time of ancient Greece, people learned everything by heart. Since not everyone had access to writing, human beings had learned to memorize.

Take the case of ants, which are equipped with antennae that give them a highly developed sense of smell. These antennae replace their eyes, because their vision is so weak that one might say they are blind. They are therefore endowed with an incredible memory, especially hereditary memory, which sometimes persists for up to three years. Add to this the inevitable mixtures and overlaps, especially the electrical, magnetic, and perhaps psychic role, and you will see what incredible complications the slightest investigations into this little world can lead to.

It is certain that a small incident in an anthill spreads at lightning speed, and this can only be attributed to a cellular and unanimous reaction of which this ultramemory is a part.

And now, it is your turn to put your neurons to work!