Читать книгу The Pelman System of Mind and Memory Training - Lessons I to XII - Анон - Страница 28

24. The second stage in the process of memory is retention. This is automatic, and, if taken by itself, beyond the control of the student. Whenever a vivid impression is made, an absolutely permanent retention is assured. Of course, if no impression has been made upon the brain, no impression can be retained. When people say they have “forgotten,” they frequently suppose that their retentive power has broken down. The failure, however, is not in the retentive power, but in the third stage, which is the power of recollection.

That the mind has immensely strong retentive powers, acting unconsciously for the most part, is proved by the experiences of many men and women who have been saved in the nick of time from a watery grave. After resuscitation, they have recorded the fact that during the moments preceding the loss of consciousness, a train of mingled insignificant details and important crises of their lives, has passed before the mind’s eye in panorama. A majority of these details or occurrences would ordinarily be described as “forgotten,” but what has been lacking in normal conditions has been, not retention, but a sufficient stimulus for recall. If the stimulus be of the right character, it need not be of great intensity, and often a mere passing odour of violets will instantly bring back to us the picture of the peaceful country of our early days, even though we may never have had a thought of our native heath for months, perhaps years.