The Memory Palace

"And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses."

St Augustin, Confessions

"Please do not move. Take the time to imagine the movement with as many details as possible."

I can't count how many times I have heard this indication during Feldenkrais ATM classes.

I often imagine a microscopic pair of scissors running through my nervous system, thinning out the jungle of neuronal connections. They clear the path, as an internal preliminary work to create the mental representation for a more efficient and economic action.

Thinking about exercise strengthens your muscles, even if you don't move an inch. Mental imagery not only activates the same brain regions as the actual movement but also can speed up the learning of a new skill.

Mental imagery, mental practice, or visualisation is a technique that has been used by sports psychologists for years to improve athletic performance on the playing field. Many successful Olympic athletes, basketball players, golfers, tennis players and other sports people credit the technique for their competitive edge, mental awareness, well-being and confidence

Professional musicians commonly rehearse difficult parts of a musical passage by performing the piece of music in their mind. The mental rehearsal activates the same motor, somatosensory, auditory, and emotional circuits as playing the actual instrument.

Surprisingly, visualisation can even strengthen muscles. The visualising brain sends electrical signals to the muscles, which makes them stronger, even if you’re not moving.

Inspired by the writings of Saint Augustin, I pay a visit to the inner maze of my "Memory Palace", where kinaesthetic experience resonate, as a limitless phantom choreography.

"In the memory, all the various things are kept distinct and in their right categories, though each came into the memory by its own gate. By the eyes: light and all the colours and shapes of bodies; by the ears: all the kinds of sound; by the nose: all scents; by the mouth: all tastes. And by a sense that belongs to the whole body: what is hard and what is soft, what is hot or cold, rough or smooth, heavy or light, whether outside the body or inside. All these things, the vast recesses, the hidden and unsearchable caverns of memory receive and store up, to be available and brought to light when need arises."

Saint Augustin, Book X, Confessions

Gilbert Garcin, Tracer sa route