SubscribeToday I received an email from someone who runs a memory and learning improvement internet business. It was the kind of email that gets blasted to thousands of inboxes simultaneously. Although I’ve never purchased any of their products, I always got the impression it was fairly reputable.
Advertised, however, was a new memory improvement program by a Los Angeles, CA doctor who has “perfected the best, easy to use techniques…” that promises to show you how to develop a “photographic memory”.Suspect most people know this already, but just for the record:
You can not develop a “photographic memory”. No matter how hard you try. No matter what techniques you’re taught, you can’t develop anything close to a “photographic memory”.
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Why?
I am extremely intrigued with the topic of a photographic memory. If I ever fulfill my dream of becoming a neurologist and studying the mind and brain of humans with special abilities, this is where I would do most of my work, if not all. I’m not entirely sure that the development of a photographic memory is possible or not, I’m leaning toward “no” and since your the doc, I’ll agree, for now. But answer this, why do the people with autism and no other mental disability seem to show amazing abilities in auditory and visual memory, except for that girl named Elizabeth that was completely normal but was able to mentally fuse two random-dot stereograms together, each shown a day apart, in one eye one day and the other eye the next day, and find the hidden picture? Kim Peek has what many consider to be a photographic memory, he can recall any page from any book he has ever read (over 9,000) instantly at will, and recalls every tune he’s ever heard, and was born with perfect pitch. My guess is he doesn’t ever read the books, he just “photographs” each paragraph and knows what’s on the page because he reads each page within 12 seconds. Another amazing savant with a truly photographic memory is Stephen Wiltshire. He draws everything he sees down to the smallest detail you can imagine. Now if these two (possibly three) people never developed a mind and a memory when they were just 1-3 years old like the rest of us normies, why can I not develop a photographic memory like them?
Hi Kyle,
it all boils down to brain architecture. The people you mention above are born with markedly different brains. The wiring is very different.
All brains are malleable to a certain degree, but the vast majority of us can not willfully change the underlying architecture to that extent.
Someday, however, I suspect there will be technological advances( i.e., neural chips) which will enable "photographic memories".
Ah, I see, thanks for the input.
I know that disciplined people have more alert minds that regular people, but do you think it can improve memory too?