A Personal Note from the Author

According to the Oxford Concise English Dictionary MATRIX means:
‘An environment in which something is developed’.

For the last seven years I have been working as a PhotoReading Instructor and noticed that over the two days that I ran the courses I would often use a number of memory techniques that I was practicing myself, to demonstrate and illustrate how various parts of the PhotoReading worked. I started to think that actually, the practical memory techniques that I was using, as illustrations, warranted a memory course in its own right; The Memory Course was born.

The Memory Course has been developed over a four year time period, during which I had been both the scientist and the guinea pig. The techniques in this book have emerged from my own enquiry, research, and observations about why some things are so much more memorable like: birthdays, nursery rhymes, films, songs, holidays, adverts and why detailed academic information are so easily forgotten. And, what I have distinguished is that there are certain criteria that have to be put in place consciously and actively in order for a piece of information or learnt subject to be easily retrieved from memory, this book will transform how you use your memory in the future.

The Memory Course uses some of the worlds most innovative techniques and technicians from NLP, Tony Buzan’s MindMapping, Vera Birkenbihl / Paul Scheele’s Alphabet Diary, Dawna Markova’s Learning styles, to the Greeks memory code (Mnemonic) technique creating a simply explained step by step exercise program that if practiced regularly can and will improve how you recall any important information effectively.

The Approach

The Memory Course approaches the subject of memory through the eyes of how children learn. Have you ever wondered why children up to the age of seven have such good memories and are such brilliant learners! One of the reasons why is because children experience life and learning both physically, mentally, and emotionally through playing and when they make a mistake they do not have the conversation called ‘I better not make a mistake or forget, because I do not want to make a fool or idiot of myself in front of anybody.’ Another reason is that when children are playing they are relaxed, and when you are relaxed anything you do and learn becomes easier. Children, also, approach everything pro-actively so challenges become a game and are fun.

One of the other approaches I looked at was instead of working on your own, work with a least one other person. This allows for the possibility of experiencing or learning from another perspective and will create a more positive and successful outcome to the learning process. Our most vivid and innovative recollections of an event, information, and learning happen when other people are and have been involved.
This book contains a tool kit of practical techniques to practice before, during and after the course. There is not just one technique that will help improve your memory’s recall and performance, a dynamic array of methods and practices are required to improve your memory’s performance.

The memory course does not just deal with what you already know and are able to recall easily. The course deals with what you do not know and cannot recall and how to manage remembering any new information and experience creatively.

Mykal Pinder MA
PhotoReading and Memory Course Instructor