MMR- Mental Map Recall
When we wake up naturally, normally in the end of a sleeping cycle, we tend to be flooded with several memories. They usually represent fragments of a dream (or dreams) that we may have had during the night, and especially in the last cycles. We then quickly try to organize the puzzle and form a coherent story with all those small pieces, but unfortunately that’s not how our brain works. It doesn’t process the information in a sequential manner, but instead it fires in several directions, through a huge neuronal maze, accessing memories by principles of connectivity. This applies not only to when we try to remember where we went last vacations, but also when we try to recall our dreams.
So how does this apply to dream Recall?
Dream Recall (the one that the common Lucid Dreamer does) can be divided into 3 stages:
1. Memory recollection (where we remember pieces and images of our latest dreams)
2. Memory organization (where we join those bits and pieces and try to merge them into a story, or a collection of mini-episodes)
3. Dream Journaling (where we note the dream down)
Many onironauts have but one goal: to wake up, quickly run to their notebook/notepad or whatever they use to record their dreams and note down the biggest number of details that come to their mind, trying to write as fast as they can, as much as they can, in order to form this dream tale. Now, in my opinion, this might present 2 issues:
- Dreams are prolific in scenario transitions. What this means is that it’s not always easy to the dreamer to determine if this memory belongs to this part of the dream, or another complete distinct dream, so trying to remember everything and noting it down might just make the exercise harder when later he is trying to make sense out of it.
- Even though it’s nice to remember every single bit, the memories of our dreams are formed by a vast array of long-term/short term memories, emotional processing and other events produced by our subconscious. It doesn’t matter much if you can describe what color was the ground if you can’t remember why you were there. Performing dream recall in a sequential way may cause you lose the most important details, or end up with a mess of a text when you want to organize your notes.
- Sequential Dream Recall is boring and hard-working for many. Many people consider Dream Journaling to be one of the most painful tasks in lucid dreaming routine. While it is important not to assume that only some parts of the dream are important, it’s much easier to reach good recall by quickly constructing the several scenarios (actions, feelings, context) that form the episode, then to describe each physical detail (floor was green, 3 cars parked outside, I was wearing red shoes and white sockets). Maybe that’s something you would like to avoid when you’re improving your dream recall.
The bottom line is that some ideas that wander through the common knowledge of lucid dreaming support a recall that relies in remembering the last thing, then the thing before, then the thing before, like you were actually describing one thing after the other. We know very well that that’s not the way we retrieve memories, but instead we make connections between one concept and another, and bit by bit, we tend to form the big picture. The dreams storyline is even more volatile of that of our waking life, so the best way to recall is that where you reach the big “chunks” of memory by simples associating, without a strict path. Wouldn’t it be great if you could work in the whole picture at the same time? Then keep reading.
Mental Maps: a universal model to organize ideas
The Mental Maps are a organizational system to take notes created by Tony Buzan. They serve multiples puporses like:
- Present ideas in a clear and simple way
- Simplify concepts and more easily expose information
- Define objectives
- Improve and organize memory(ies)
http://presscafe.eu/wp-content/uploa...Tony-Buzan.jpg
Tony Buzan, the creator of Mental Maps, and author of several books regarding intelligence and memory
The reason that Mental Maps are so effective is because they work just like the human brain: they shoot spontaneously in several directions at the same time, they make constant connections, and they ramify continuously. Due their high effectiveness, they are used in governmental agencies, educative systems, and even business areas.
But enough with this talk, let me talk about I converted this concept to the technique of Mental Map Recall:
How to create a Mental Map for Dream Recall?
The primary idea is to define an image, or keyword that can define your dream. You can either put the day, or the dream title, whatever suits you best. For example if you are recalling several dreams, you can put something like “Dream Recall 5/10/12”. This element is meant to be placed in the center of the page, which should preferably be white and big, because you’re going to use several colors and expand it quite a bit. This first step can be done just a few minutes before you lay down to bed, in order to give you that extra boost of intention of recalling your dreams.
Now comes the fun part: Dream Recall!
When you wake up, simply start recalling all the details that come to your head and start distributing them on the page, linking them to the main concept (which once again, can be something like the dream title), like if you were mapping a street. To each significant element (like the appearance of a dream character, a specific action, or a scenario transition) write along the line and draw a dot so you can define that element as significant. Don’t just write it with any words: use the most suggestive and uncommon ones you can find, in order to establish a memory that’s easier to retrieve later. The goal is to form a network of ideas (or in this case, dream memories) in a fast and efficient way, but without being suck to the sequential path. Here’s a very short model of MMR made by me in the first night:
The goal is not understand what I wrote (especially because it’s in Portuguese) but to see how the image looks like in a small dream. Every dot is a particular and relevant dream event (or character) and my brain just breezes through all those dots making a story and a deep connection which makes it easier to remember later.
Some tips of Tony Buzan itself, exposed in his book “The memory book”
- Use pens or pencils with different colors in order to transform your mental map into a much more visual stimulating version;
- Draw curve lines instead of rectilinear, since your brain finds those more attractive;
- The goal is to keep filling the map in a relaxed and spontaneous way, that way you will be much less likely to get “stuck”;
- A personal tip from me, be as flexible as you are in Dream Recall: questions like “What was I doing here” or “Who was with me” work amazingly well if they help you recall a certain aspect or element. If you don’t recall something related, then just skip to another part of the map. The exercise is much like a brain-storming, and not a listing of X words. Feel free to use images too, since the design of MMR makes it so you never run out of space and need to stop to make room for them.
- For last, have fun! This is in my view a much less stressing and more fun way to dream recall and journal, since it focus way more on firing memories all over the map than to form a story (many times in a far-fetched way). Imagine it as forming a painting!
After all, our dreams are wonderful experiences that make us amused just by simply recalling them. So why make them mere blocks of text when we can turn them into something as flexible and spontaneous as they are?
