Speaker 1: The subconscious record file. The old writers on the subject
were wont to consider the memory as a separate faculty
of the mind, but this idea disappeared before the advancing
tide of knowledge, which resulted in the acceptance of the
conception now known as the new psychology. This new conception
recognizes the existence of a vast out of consciousness region
of the mind, one phase of which is known as
the subconscious mind or the subconscious field of mental activities.
In this field of mentation, the activities of memory have
their seat. A careful consideration of the subject brings the
certainty that the entire work of the memory is performed
in this subconscious region of the mind. Only when the
subconscious record is represented to the conscious field and recollection
or remembrance resultults does the memorized idea or impression emerge
from the subconscious region. An understanding of this fact simplifies
the entire subject of the memory and enables us to
perfect plans and methods, whereby the memory may be developed, improved,
and trained by means of the direction of the subconscious activities,
by the use of the conscious faculties and the will.
Hearing says, memory is a faculty not only of our
conscious states, but also, and much more so, of our
unconscious ones. Kay says it is impossible to understand the
true nature of memory or how to train it aright,
unless we have a clear conception of the fact that
there is much in the mind of which we are unconscious.
The highest form of memory, as of all mental powers,
is the unconscious, when what we wish to recall comes
to us spontaneously, without any conscious thought or search for it. Frequently,
when we wish to recall something that has previously been
in the mind, we are unable to do so by
any conscious effort of the will. But we turn the
attention to something else, and after a time the desired
information comes up spontaneously when we are not consciously thinking
of it. Carpenter says, there is the working of a
mechanism beneath the consciousness, which, when once set going, runs
on of itself, and which is more likely to evolve
the desired result when the conscious activity of the mind
is exerted in a direction altogether different. This subconscious region
of the mind is the great record file of everything
we have ever experienced, thought, or known. Everything is recorded there.
The best authorities now generally agree that there is no
such thing as an absolute forgetting of even the most
minute impression. Notwithstanding the fact that we may be unable
to recollect or remember it owing to its faintness or
lack of associated indexing, it is held that everything is
to be found in that subconscious index file, if we
can only manage to find its place. Kay says, in
like manner, we believe that every impression or thought that
has once before consciousness remains ever afterward impressed upon the mind.
It may never again come up before consciousness, but it
will doubtless remain in that vast, ultra conscious region of
the mind, unconsciously molding and fashioning our subsequent thoughts and actions.
It is only a small part of what exists in
the mind that we are conscious of of. There is
always much that is known to be in the mind
that exists in it unconsciously and must be stored away somewhere.
We may be able to recall it into consciousness when
we wish to do so, but at other times the
mind is unconscious of its existence. Further, everyone's experience must
tell him that there is much in his mind that
he cannot always recall when he may wish to do
so much that he can recover only after a labored search,
or that he may search for in vain at the time,
but which may occur to him afterwards, when perhaps he
is not thinking about it again, much that we probably
would never be able to recall, or that would not
recur to us under ordinary circumstances, we may remember to
have had in the mind when it is mentioned to
us by others. In such a case, there must still
have remained some trace or or scintilla of it in
the mind before we could recognize it as having been
there before. Morrell says, we have every reason to believe
that mental power, when once called forth, follows the analogy
of everything we see in the material universe. In the
fact of its perpetuity, Every single effort of mind is
a creation which can never go back again into nonentity.
It may slumber in the depths of forgetfulness, as light
and heat slumber in the coal seems, but there it
is ready, at the bidding of some appropriate stimulus, to
come again out of the darkness into the light of consciousness.
Beatty says, that which has been long forgotten, nay, that
which we have often in vain endeavored to recollect will,
sometimes without an effort of ours, occur to us on
a sudden and if I may so speak of its
own accord, Hamilton says, the mind frequently contains whole systems
of knowledge, which, though in our normal state they may
have faded into absolute oblivion, may in certain abnormal states,
as madness, delirium, somnabulism, catalepsy, etc. Flash out into luminous consciousness.
For example, there are cases in which the extinct memory
of whole languages were suddenly restored. Lecky says, it is
now fully established that a multitude of events which are
so completely forgotten that no effort of the will can
retrieve them, and that the statement of them calls up
no reminiscences, may nevertheless be so to speak, embedded in
the memory, and may be reproduced with intense vividness under
certain physical conditions. In proof of the above, the authorities
give many instances recorded in scientific annals. Coleridge relates the
well known case of the old woman who could neither
read nor write, who, when in the delirium of fever,
incessantly recited, in very pompous tones, long passages from the Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew with a distinct enunciation and precise rendition. Notes
of her ravings were taken down by shorthand and caused
much wonderment, until it was afterwards found that in her
youth she had been employed as a servant in the
house of a clergyman who was in the habit of
walking up and down in his study, reading aloud from
his favorite classical and religious writers. In his books were
found marked passages corresponding to the notes taken from the
girl's ravings. Her subconscious memory had stored up the sounds
of these passages heard in her early youth, but of
which she had no recollect in her normal state. Beaufort,
describing his sensations just before being rescued from drowning, says,
every incident of my former life seemed to glance across
my recollection in a retrograde procession, not in mere outline,
but in a picture filled with every minute and collateral feature,
thus forming a panoramic view of my whole existence. Kay
truly observes by adopting the opinion that every thought or
impression that had once been consciously before the mind is
ever afterwards retained, we obtain light on many obscure mental phenomena,
and especially do we draw from it the conclusion of
the perfectibility of the memory to an almost unlimited extent.
We cannot doubt that could we penetrate to the lowest
depths of our mental nature, we should there find traces
of every impression we have received, every thought we have entertained,
and every act we have done through our past life,
each one making its influence felt in the way of
building up our present knowledge or in guiding our everyday actions.
And if they persist in the mind, might it not
be possible to recall most, if not all, of them
into consciousness when we wish to do so? If our
memories or powers of recollection were what they should be.
As we have said, this great subconscious region of the mind,
this memory region, may be thought of as a great
record file, with an intricate system of indexes and office boys,
whose business it is to file away the records, to
index them, and to find them when needed. The records
record only what we have impressed upon them by the attention,
the degree of depth and clearness depending entirely upon the
degree of attention which we bestowed upon the original impression.
We can never expect to have the office boys of
the memory bring up anything that they have not been
given to file away. The indexing and cross references are
supplied by the association existing between the various impressions. The
more cross references or associations that are connected with an idea, thought,
or impression that is filed away in the memory, the
greater the chances of it being found readily when wanted.
These two features of attention and association, and the parts
they play in the phenomena of memory, are mentioned in
detail in other chapters of this book. These little office
boys of the Memory are an industrious and willing lot
of little chaps. But like all boys, they do their
best work when kept in practice. Idleness and lack of
exercise cause them to become slothful and careless, and forgetful
of the records under their charge. A little fresh exercise
and work soon take the cobwebs out of the brains,
and they spring eagerly to their tasks. They become familiar
with their work when exercised properly, and soon become very expert.
They have a tendency to remember on their own part,
and when a certain record is called for, often they
grow accustomed to its place and can find it without
referring to the indexes at all. But their trouble comes
from faint and almost illegible records caused by poor attention.
These they can scarcely decipher. When they do succeed in
finding them, lack of proper indexing by associations causes them
much worry and extra work, and sometimes they are unable
to find the records at all from this neglect. Often, however,
after they have told you that they cannot find a thing,
and you have left the place in disgust, they will
continue their search, and hours afterward will surprise you by
handing you the desired idea or impression which they had
found carelessly indexed or improperly filed away in these chapters.
You will be helped if you will carry in your
mind these little office boys of the memory record file,
and the hard work they have to do for you,
much of which is made doubly burdensome by your own
neglect and carelessness. Treat these little fellows right, and they
will work overtime for you willingly and joyfully. But they
need your assistance and encouragement, and an occasional word of
praise and common daytions