Let’s talk supernatural. Better yet, let’s talk superhuman…
Of all the fictional superpowers in the history of literature, many would choose super strength, mind reading, or super speed. But what about memory as a superpower?
The word "superpower" is defined as power greater in scope than what is considered natural. There are people today who have superpowers, although some may not seem like the fictional superhero to you. Some of these people can be simply searched on Google, but what grasped my attention were the ones being practically advertised through a competition on a show that recently aired called Superhuman.
The attention-grabbing, jaw-dropping competition features ordinary people having their superhuman ability pushed to the limit as they compete for the title of Superhuman and the grand prize of $50,000.
A contestant by the name of Luis Angel has memory as a superhuman ability. He remembers almost everything. He rises to the challenge of remembering things after only growing hearing and seeing them after a few moments, like 200 names for instance.
Do you realize that your new iPhone and earphones you lost after about a day wouldn’t have had to be replaced? That instead of pouring hours of your life into studying for that exam, you need to pass the class could be reduced to mere seconds, at most a couple of minutes?
As a high school graduate and college freshman, the latter is where my interest lie. Think about it. We generally don’t do very well in subjects we don’t necessarily like and in the subjects we do like, we still struggle. Now although your memory does not seem like a superpower, it is amazing how beneficiary training your memory can be.
You may ask “How can you save someone's life with your memory?” For one, having a superpower or ability does not necessarily mean being a superhero and rushing to save innocent bystanders. However, it could lead to saving everything else.
Remember that time you didn’t back up that essay you did completely online because you told yourself you would never become a part of that small percentage of people it happened to? You know, right before the power cut off suddenly, erasing the work that is due the next morning?
Or what if you misplaced those files your boss needed the next morning to seal a huge deal that would mean the difference between you being evicted and you buying that new car you’ve needed but could never afford? If you had read that file when first given to you and you had an enhanced memory you gained purely from a little training, then this would not be a big deal at all.
There are various scenarios where a natural (meaning no electronic influences involved) enhanced memory could save careers, lives, and, especially, yourself. Just start small. For instance, take a mental snapshot of your phone sitting on your desk next to the hazardous pile of papers or of the bullet point note card containing information that is mandatory to know.
Daily practice could build up to years and lead to an enhanced memory, maybe even a photographic one! Think. How convenient would that be?
