"If only I could remember his name." "It's on the tip of my tongue." "I know that I need to pick something up from the store but I can't remember what."
We've all had these moments. The times when our memories have failed us. Or is it that we have failed to properly understand and train our memories? That's the question that Joshua Foer sets out to answer in his 2011 book, "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything." After observing and interviewing "mental athletes" - yes, you read that correctly - Foer embarks on a year long journey of discovering the secrets of memory and eventually competes for the U.S. Memory Championship.
I was interested in this book after reading about in TIME Magazine last month. I feel that I am blessed with a good memory, and I wondered if this book could help me to further improve it. I can't say that my memory is better after reading this book or that I have memorized the order of a deck of cards recently (a memory competition staple). But I can say that I have a better understanding of how to remember things that I really want to recall. Its this new understanding that will help me to remember names more effectively, create more memorable sermon points and remember novel and completely useless facts and stats. Foer uncovers some valuable insights and tools such as utilizing a "memory palace." One of my memory palaces helped me to memorize the following shopping/to do list (found in the book) in a matter of minutes: pickled garlic, cottage cheese, salmon, 6 bottles of white wine, 3 pair of socks, 3 hula hoops, snorkel, dry ice machine, email Sophia, skin toned cat suit, Paul Newman film "Somebody Up There Likes Me," elk sausages, megaphone and director's chair, harness and ropes, barometer. Now I just have to worry about forgetting that useless list.
The tools and insights were valuable, but it was the journey that Foer embarked on that made this book a fun read. Foer found an English mental athlete who took him under his wing and trained him. Along the way, Foer met with some very interesting people such as the original Rain Main, Kim Peek. He also tracked down a few individuals with the rarest forms of amnesia to attempt to capture the reasons why we forget. Furthermore, he had himself tested for his memory capabilities and shared the mysteries of "chicken sexing" (not as bad as it sounds). These and other fine details helped to make a captivating story.
The great story and the valuable memory tools both served as a reminder that our brain is a magnificent creation. Even in this information age, most of us have only scratched the surface of what it can do. The fact that there is a man in England who has memorized and can recite the first 22,514 digits of pi is proof of that. The origin of our awesome brain, however, is where I disagree with the author. On more than one occasion he refers to the evolutionary process in how our brain has developed. But almost in the same breath, Foer concedes that science has yet to uncover all the secrets of how our memories function. This, of course, is problematic since it is impossible to prove that evolution is responsible for the current state and function of the brain if we cannot even explain everything about the brain itself. Obviously I am approaching this text from a faith perspective, but I still think the scientific and literary community would be well served if they began to embrace the beauty and mystery of God's creative genius.
Despite this hiccup, Joshua Foer's quest to answer the question, "is it possible that we have the capacity to remember everything" is wonderfully interesting and its a book that I would recommend. After reading this book, you will not only discover how Foer faired at the 2005 U.S. Memory Championship, but you will also be challenged and encouraged to test the seemingly unlimited power of your own amazing mind and memory.
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