The Memory Code

The Traditional Aboriginal Memory Technique That Unlocks the Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Ancient Monuments the World Over

By: Lynne Kelly

Narrated by: Louise Siversen

In the past the elders had encyclopaedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across the landscape and the stars in the sky, too. Yet most of us struggle to memorise more than a short poem.

Using traditional Aboriginal Australian songlines as the key, Lynne Kelly has identified the powerful memory technique used by indigenous people around the world. She has discovered that this ancient memory technique is the secret behind the great stone monuments like Stonehenge, which have for so long puzzled archaeologists.

The stone circles across Britain and Northern Europe, the elaborate stone houses of New Mexico, huge animal shapes in Peru, and the statues of Easter Island all serve as the most effective memory system ever invented by humans. They allowed people in nonliterate cultures to memorise the vast amounts of practical information they needed to survive.

In her fascinating audiobook, The Memory Code, Lynne Kelly shows us how we can use this ancient technique to train our memories today.

©2016 Lynne Kelly (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

So much to offer

Found it inspirational, terrified about what might already be lost and what will be lost if we don’t value what oral cultures around the world have to offer

thoroughly enjoyable, practical and enlightening

Would you listen to The Memory Code again? Why?

This book was thoroughly enjoyable in both is revelations around memory devices used by both neolithic cultures and indigenous cultures around the world (they may have been understood by others but this is the first account of them that made sense to me). The book was beautifully read by Louise Silverson. I had heard of the oral histories of the indigenous cultures of New Zealand and Australia but had never conceived any notion of how they achieved their incredible feats of memory. Lynne beautifully outlines some of these methods and more importantly, for me, helps me understand how country and songlines become so important to telling that story for indigenous groups - a concept I knew about but couldn't quite comprehend previously. It also occurs to me that so many 'libraries' were destroyed by our forebears inability to understand the impact of taking children away from their countries and cultures and displacing whole groups - how much knowledge have been lost because a generation wasn't taught these histories. We still ache as a culture when we think about the great libraries of Alexandria and the Serapeum being burnt and lost and the vast amount of knowledge that was lost as a result - even more so when one considers the hundreds of years (thousands in some cases) being lost by wilful ignorance and prejudice on the part of a culture that was arrogant enough to consider the indigenous cultures as inferior or uneducated. Thank you Lynne Kelly for a wonderful book written for the lay person like me to understand.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Lynne Kelly and Epsi - I can just see them on their walks

Which scene was your favorite?

Lynne walking us through her songline journey

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

'we were once google' - unfortunately a quote

A great chasm of stored knowledge.

I can now never doubt the stories of yore. Unbelievable how she followed ancient humans & the earth itself through prehistory, using their same tools.

The common thread to solve all of times' mysteries lies within the Memory Code.
I loved the book, the narrator's delivery was perfection. She followed so many trails that I had traveled.

Good book, a bit repetitive

I purchased this book because i am very interested in developing my memory and memory techniques. I really enjoyed the book, since it gave me new ideas on how to expand my memory systems, mix different techniques and develop more ways of storing information. It is definitely worth the read. Having said that, the descriptive part on archeological sites is a bit too similar and dense in my opinion. A bit too much like reading the PHD dissertation than a leisure book. I would much rather have the author expand on how & why she chose to create her different memory journeys, as well as the troubles and tips she found while making her different mnemonic devices and how she thinks we could apply these techniques it in today's world.