MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING

IMAGINE yourself to be standing with a party of friends in some Oriental market-place, or in a palace garden. Enter, a conjurer with a magic box. The strange man spreads a square of cloth upon the ground, then reverently places upon it a coloured box of basket-work, perhaps eight inches square.
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MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING BY ERNEST E. WOOD FORMER PRINCIPAL OF THE D. G. SIND NATIONAL COLLEGE, HYDERABAD, SIND THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE, LTD., 68 Great Russell Street, W.C.1 ADYAR - MADRAS - INDIA WHEATON - ILL. - U.S.A. First Edition . 1936 Second Edition . 1939 Reprinted . . 1945 Revised Reprint . 1947 Reprinted . . 1956 Reprinted . . 1961 Reprinted . . 1974 7229 5126 4 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY FLETCHER AND SON LTD, NORWICH CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE V SECTION I THE MIND AND ITS MANAGEMENT CHAP. I. THE MAGIC BOX 3 II. THE ROADS O F THOUGHT . . . . 6 III. CONCENTRATION OF MIND . . . .11 IV. AIDS TO CONCENTRATION . . . . 16 SECTION II IMAGINATION AND ITS USES V. MENTAL IMAGES 23 VI. FAMILIARIZATION 29 VII. FAMILIARIZATION OF FORMS . . . - 3 9 VIII. FAMILIARIZATION OF WORDS . . . - 5 0 IX. PROJECTION OF THE MEMORY . . . - 5 7 X. SIMPLIFICATION AND SYMBOLIZATION . . 65 SECTION III THE ART OF THINKING XI. MODES OF COMPARISON 73 XII. A LOGICAL SERIES. . . . . . 8l XIII. FOOTSTEPS OF THOUGHT. . . . 89 XIV. THE POWER OF A MOOD . . . . 94 XV. EXPANSION OF IDEAS 100 viii CONTENTS SECTION IV A BAG OF TRICKS PAGE XVI. NUMBER ARGUMENTS A N D DIAGRAMS . . 105 XVII. NUMBER-WORDS 111 XVIII. PLACING THE MEMORY . . . . . 120 X I X . MEMORY-MEN OF INDIA 128 SECTION V THE MIND AT WORK XX. READING AND STUDY 137 XXI. WRITING AND SPEECH-MAKING . . . 148 XXII. MORE CONCENTRATION 151 XXIII. MEDITATION 158 SECTION VI SOME PARTING ADVICE XXIV. USES OF THE WILL 171 XXV. BODILY AIDS l80 INDEX 187 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING CHAPTER I THE MAGIC BOX IMAGINE yourself to be standing with a party of friends in some Oriental market-place, or in a palace garden. Enter, a conjurer with a magic box. The strange man spreads a square of cloth upon the ground, then reverently places upon it a coloured box of basket-work, perhaps eight inches square. He gazes at it steadily, mutters a little, removes the lid, and takes out of it, one by one, with exquisite care, nine more boxes, which seem to be of the same size as the original one, but are of different colours. You think that the trick is now finished. But no; he opens one of the new boxes and takes out nine more; he opens the other eight and takes nine more out of each—all with Oriental deliberation. And still he has not done; he begins to open up what we may call the third generation of boxes, until before long the ground is strewn with piles of them as far as he can reach. The nine boxes of the first generation and the eighty-one boxes of the second generation have disappeared from sight beneath the heaps. You begin to think that this conjurer is perhaps able to go on for ever— and then you call a halt, and open your purse right liberally. I am taking this imaginary conjuring entertainment as a simile to show what happens in our own minds. Something in us which is able to observe what goes on in the mind is the spectator. The field of imagination in the mind itself may be compared to the spread cloth. Each idea that rises in the 3 4 MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING mind is like a magic box. Something else in us which is able to direct the ideas in the mind is the conjurer. Really the spectator and the conjurer are one 'something' which we are, but I will not now attempt to define that something because our present object is not to penetrate the deep mysteries of psychology, but to see what we can do to make ourselves better conjurers, able to produce our boxes quickly —more boxes, better boxes, boxes which are exactly of the kind needed for the business of thinking which at any given time we may wish to do. Although all minds work under the same laws, they do so in different degrees of power and plenty. Some work quickly, others slowly; some have much to offer, others little. Several students may be called upon to write an essay on the subject of cats. Some of them will find their thoughts coming plentifully forward from the recesses of the mind, while others will sit chewing the ends of their pens for a long time bef ...