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while this is interesting, it would be good to know if the memorizing of other texts - say, the works of Shakespeare, or Encyclopedia britannica, would have a s

while this is interesting, it would be good to know if the memorizing of other texts - say, the works of Shakespeare, or Encyclopedia britannica, would have a similar effect. It is perhaps not the mantras, but the act of memorization perhaps?

deleted 9y ago
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lr4444lr 9y ago
Strong oral traditions still exist, or did until recently, in the Balkans around their lengthy epics and wedding hymns. There may be some traditions in northern Europe clinging on for dear life as well. In the classical tradition, it was a hallmark of leaning to memorize long blocks if not whole works of Homer, Vergil, and various Elegiac poets. Part of the problem in teasing out the effect is that there is an inherent selection bias in the type of people who receive this type of education (or any education, in the not too distant past) to conclude from population analyses to what degree the particular task of literary memorization confers this benefit. Someone's going to have to ferret out the mechanism or do controlled longitudinal studies, which will be costly and fraught with difficulty. Even Socrates (i.e. Plato) was attuned to the idea that memory was under attack with the advent of writing[0] and a culture that has other information retrieval technology, so it's debatable whether we could really plumb the depths of what human cognition could be under different pressures. It's also unclear how early this kind of training has to be started too in order to have an effect. [0]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/on-writing-memory-and-forgetting-socrates-and-hemingway-take-on-zeigarnik/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/on-wr...
spraak 9y ago
As a Hindu, it feels very much inherent in Sanskritam and the works themselves, but I recognize that it is just my opinion based in my world view.
mannykannot 9y ago
I think there is some evidence that singing can help people with dementia, and also that recall is as much of an issue as memorization.
kilpikaarna 9y ago
In a pre-literate society these kinds of works (including much of Shakespeare) would've been composed in verse form to aid with memorization. So if you intend to recite from memory for six hours straight, like in the article, you probably want that rather than Britannica or the phone book. I do find it plausible that certain (combinations of) language and verse metre might have mantra-like qualities, conducive to achieving trance states that could affect the brain. India has been on the case for a looong time, so it wouldn't surprise if Sanskrit + Vedic poetry present a particularly sophisticated example.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

lr4444lr 9y ago

Strong oral traditions still exist, or did until recently, in the Balkans around their lengthy epics and wedding hymns. There may be some traditions in northern Europe clinging on for dear life as well. In the classical tradition, it was a hallmark of leaning to memorize long blocks if not whole works of Homer, Vergil, and various Elegiac poets. Part of the problem in teasing out the effect is that there is an inherent selection bias in the type of people who receive this type of education (or any education, in the not too distant past) to conclude from population analyses to what degree the particular task of literary memorization confers this benefit. Someone's going to have to ferret out the mechanism or do controlled longitudinal studies, which will be costly and fraught with difficulty. Even Socrates (i.e. Plato) was attuned to the idea that memory was under attack with the advent of writing[0] and a culture that has other information retrieval technology, so it's debatable whether we could really plumb the depths of what human cognition could be under different pressures. It's also unclear how early this kind of training has to be started too in order to have an effect. [0]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/on-writing-memory-and-forgetting-socrates-and-hemingway-take-on-zeigarnik/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/on-wr...

spraak 9y ago

As a Hindu, it feels very much inherent in Sanskritam and the works themselves, but I recognize that it is just my opinion based in my world view.

mannykannot 9y ago

I think there is some evidence that singing can help people with dementia, and also that recall is as much of an issue as memorization.

kilpikaarna 9y ago

In a pre-literate society these kinds of works (including much of Shakespeare) would've been composed in verse form to aid with memorization. So if you intend to recite from memory for six hours straight, like in the article, you probably want that rather than Britannica or the phone book. I do find it plausible that certain (combinations of) language and verse metre might have mantra-like qualities, conducive to achieving trance states that could affect the brain. India has been on the case for a looong time, so it wouldn't surprise if Sanskrit + Vedic poetry present a particularly sophisticated example.