For those who have some medical knowledge, the word synesthesia must inevitably evoke some specific elements. If, on the other hand, like me, your knowledge in the field is limited to what is useful to you on a daily basis, a brief explanation is needed so that this article can be helpful.

First of all, it is not a disease. There is nothing pathological about that. This concerns a neurological phenomenon that affects less than 5% of the population, which results in the involuntary association of 2 or more senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell).

Imagine that every time you read a word, series of sounds and smells submerge you, that each number represents for you a particular position in space, that each month of the year is accompanied by a colour…. How could this help you?

Among this small percentage of our fellow human beings who are subject to this phenomenon, one person clearly stood out. He was a Russian journalist who lived until 1958 and whose name was Solomon Veniaminovitch Shereshevsky. He was not a man considered particularly intelligent, but the fact that he never took notes, especially during the daily briefing with his boss, drew attention. While everyone had imagined him lazy, he demonstrated a phenomenal memory, first to his professional entourage, then later, when his case was entrusted to the good care of Alexander Louria, a famous Russian psychologist, to everyone: list of many words, associations between places, clothing of the interlocutors, complex equations of which he probably understood nothing…

Moreover, with regards to the latter, do not go back to the beginning of this article. Take a sheet of paper and try to find back as many elements as possible of the mathematical formula that your eyes necessarily crossed when you started reading this article.

What percentage of information are you able to find? Solomon Veniaminovitch Shereshevsky was not only able to remember 100% of the elements, he was even more surprising others when he remembered this equation and all its details, without having been warned, 15 years later.

When he was asked to explain how he was able to remember chains of numbers, words and many other things, in both directions, he shared his « secret »: the art of telling a story to himself. And in this, he was helped by his abilities related to synesthesia, that of associating sounds, smells, images to what he was led to retain. In other words, it was in the encoding of the data that his incredible talent layed. He had always exercised it and had made it an ally, without even realising it until he met Alexander Louria.

If it could be a fair phenomenon, his prodigious memory knew limits linked to this deep encoding like grooves in the powder: his difficulty in recognizing people whose features changed over time. These almost indelible marks were positioned in the foreground, disturbing any new encoding for the same element.

Like some other wonders, he went through a succession of more or less happy periods that led him to abandon journalism, to devote himself to « shows » from which he extracted very limited satisfaction, to end up as a taxi driver, whose virtuosity can easily be imagined (knowledge of the plans, the names of the streets, the roads to pass from one place to another…), before blending into the immensity of oblivion, which was the height of it all for this man who retained everything.

What can we learn from these elements?

That the way we encode what we learn is essential to our ability to remember: story telling and chunking are, among other things, 2 methods that facilitate this stage of memorization.

In a previous article called « Sparrow or elephant » (you can find it at the following address: https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/6571744260767518720/) we already concluded that both the beginning and the end of a presentation are strategic moments and places to express key messages, if we want them to be remembered. We then wondered, with a smile, wether or not, the rest (the body of the discourse) was useless. Of course not! We also identified the one logical use of this part of a speech: developing key messages.

We still have to figure out how to take advantage of it although we know this is the most challenging part to remember. So, we need powerful ideas in order to encouraged people to take this information into account.

We have already discussed a first idea in the explanation of the prodigious memory of « S », a very fashionable and effective way of proceeding by using images, using sensory cues and reaching emotions and feelings. By telling stories, we will contribute to becoming more memorable.

A second idea is surprise. The more you trigger surprise, the better you will get people’s attention. Exactly as ancient people had their attention drown on unusual noises, smells, tastes and images. This is linked to the way our brain works: always ready to react to dangers.

A third idea comes from marketing and sales. If you want to persuade somebody, you need to address what’s most important to him/her: himself/herself! What’s in it for the person? By expressing key messages in terms of benefits (of doing something) or risks (of not doing it), you necessarily use magic words.

Very briefly, chunking consists of a division of a sequence of words, letters, numbers… into small subsets that are easier to memorise. Example: 0032475441463 is more complicated to remember than 0032 475 44 14 63 or 00 32 475 441 463.

In conclusion, we can all improve our ability to use our memory or to help people use theirs. Repetition, chunking, story telling, benefits, risks are some of the ways.

By the way, would you be able, without going back up in the text, to write the full name of this Russian natural prodigy?