CURIOUS FREAKS OF THE MEMORY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XVIII, 6 May 1899, Page 597

CURIOUS FREAKS OF THE MEMORY.

The queer freaks of memory are a constant puzzle to those who study psychical phenomena. Who has not been driven to the verge of distraction by the total inability to recall a name when an effort was made to do so, and when the occasion ror such remembrance was past had the missing name flashed into the mind apparently of its own volition ? The year 1898 recently closed, but how many of ns can recall readily the chief incidents of the last twelve months, and say accurately in what month they occurred? Try it and see.

Great minds have wrestled to find an explanation for the pranks that memory plays, and have had to give up the effort. In the eours of a systematic atttempt to arrive at some understanding with regard to the wonders of memory a very valuable and unique body of testimony has been obtained. i..e following questions have been put to two hundred American university students and professionla persons, 151 being men and 49 being women. The answers are here given with the questions : — Question 1. When you cannot recall a name you want, does it seem to come back spontaneously without being suggested by any perceived association of ideas? To this eleven per cent, answered ‘No ’ and eighty-one per eent. ‘ Yes.’ Q. 2. Does such recovery ever come during sleep? To this seventeen per cent, answered ‘ No,' and twenty-eight ‘ Yes.’ Some examples given : —

1. This morning 1 tried to recall Ihe name of a character I had read of the night before in one of Scott's novels and failed. I taught a class, and walking home in the afternoon all the names recurred to me without effort. 2. 1 tried to recall the name of a hook. Gave it up. Half an hour later, while talking of something else, blurted it out without conscious volition. Q. 3. On seeing a light or hearing a sound for the first time have you ever felt that you had seen (or heard) the same before? Fifty-nine per eent. answered ‘ Yes.’ The action of uneonscius memory during sleep is illustrated by' further fineries:' — Q. 4. Do you dream? Ninety-four per cent, answered ‘ Yes.’ Q. 5. Can you wake at a given hour determined before gqing to sleep without waking up many times before? Fifty-nine per cent, answered ‘ Yes.’ Thirty-one per cent, answered ‘ No.’ Q. (>. If you can, how about failure? Sixty-nine per cent, seldom fail, twenty-five per cent, often. Q. 7. Do you come direct from oblivion into consciousness? Sixty-four per cent, answered ‘Yes’ and sixteen per cent. ‘ Gradually.’ Examples : — 1. I had to give medicine exactly every two hours to my wife. I am a very sound sleeper, but for six weeks I woke up every two hours and never missed giving the medicine. 2. I am always awake five minutes before the hour I set the alarm. 3. I had had little sleep for ten days and went to bed at nine, asking to be called at midnight. I fell asleep at once. I rose and dressed as the clock

struck twelve, and could not believe I had not been called. A strange phenomenon has come to light in the course of the inquiry into ihe mystery of memory. It has been discovered that by gazing steadily at a. crystal consciousness is partly lost. Into the void thus produced those who have practised crystal gazing find that there enter, unbidden, forgotten incidents and lost memories. To give a few instances :—A lady in crystal gazing saw a bit of dark wall covered with white flowers. She was conscious she must have seen it somewhere. but had no recollection where. She walked over the ground she had just traversed, and found the wall, which she had passed unnoticed. She took out her bank-book another day. Shortly afterward she was gazing at the crystal and saw nothing but the number one. She thought it was some hack number, but. taking up the bank-book, found, to her surprise, it was the number of the account. At another time she destroyed a letter without noting the address; she could noly remember the town. After gazing at the crystal some time she saw * 321 Jefferson avenue.' She addressed the letter there, adding the town, and found it was right.

A lady sat in a room to write where she had sat eight years before. She felt her feet moving restlessly under the table and then remembered that eight years before she always had a footstool. It was this her feet were seeking. Psychical research brings to light many cases of similar strange tricks of memory. It is easy to find instances that serve to deepen the mystery. It is not so easy to give an explanation. The cleverest men who have attempted to do so have had to admit defeat.