mensanthropist [ men-san-thruh-pist ] noun
a person, who actively participates in fulfilling one of Mensa’s objectives by fostering and utilizing intelligence for the benefit of humanity
Michaela Karsten, née Buchwald, could hardly have fulfilled the mission of the mensanthropist more literally. Already while studying medicine, she got interested in the human brain. Soon after her studies, she came across a demonstration of memory sports, and was so captivated by it that she began to devote herself to it full-time. She has won several world championships at international competitions, entered the Guinness Book of World Records, and has been teaching people not only to work effectively with memory, but to develop their mental abilities in general ever since.
Míša, what did you want to be when you were a child?
I definitely wanted to accomplish something, and I guess I was most drawn to teaching. I used to put all my stuffed animals next to each other and tended to teach them, tell them things. My mom is a teacher and my dad is a doctor, so I guess I inherited that desire from my mom. Following my dad’s example on the other side, I went to a medical school. Then it kind of came together.
Did you have a memorable teacher or mentor yourself?
Yes. I had a fantastic math teacher in elementary school. She was one who could show love, but she demanded a lot on the other hand. Most of all, she was wonderful at explaining math. Patiently, clearly and with enough motivation (I’ll never forget her chocolates she threw at us when we solved particularly difficult problems). She made numbers my great love.
How did you get into memory techniques?
It was once shortly before New Year’s Eve in Spindleruv Mlyn. I was there with a group of skiing friends. In one of the cultural centres I had the opportunity to overhear my now husband talking about some bet. They were speaking in English and I needed English professionally at that time, so I listened to see if I could understand. I suddenly realized they were talking about memory and some memory techniques. That was totally far from my mind, so I focused. Then I saw a practical demonstration and I couldn’t believe the results. I was looking for a trick behind it. But I was told, in a completely relaxed way, that memory techniques were everything and that it could be trained. I also learned that there are competitions, championships and cups for memory skills. It was an unploughed field for me, but absolutely fascinating.
Was that while you were still in college or after you graduated?
That was after graduation. Too bad, I could have made my studies easier. In medical school I learned that it was possible to increase memory power, but only by a few percent. But practice showed me something else. It was a challenge for me to see how much a person can develop. We are reaching physical limits nowadays thanks to the Olympics and so on. That was the idea of Tony Buzan, the Englishman who organised the World Memory Championships. His goal was to see if there were any cognitive limits, specifically in the area of memory. It is admirable that after so many years, the results from the disciplines at the world competitions are still improving. So do we have some memory limit at all?
Where was the turning point from just being interested to saying I’m going to do this professionally?
The very beginning of my decision was a test of my natural memory, in which my mentor said I performed well. This of course motivated me. So I started considering to go down that path and try to improve myself. After learning the first memory techniques, I started testing myself every day, always under the same conditions. I recorded my performance in a spreadsheet, which then gave me a growth curve of my memory performance. What was very motivating and crucial was that my memory performance began to increase rapidly. This also confirmed the memory techniques work.
However, before I got into my current profession as a memory coach, I first worked in a clinical setting for the American company Merck Sharp & Dohme. At that time, my current husband (originally from Hamburg) came into my life, so I was faced with the decision to either go to Germany or stay in the Czech Republic. In the end, we both agreed that there was a better chance for me to develop this focus deeper in Germany, so I went to Munich. There I faced another obstacle. I had to master German. So those first years I left medicine altogether and took up German language studies under the Goethe Institute. In parallel, however, I started preparing for memory competitions. At the same time I also started working with gifted children, where it was confirmed to me that teaching and passing on knowledge is something that fulfills me, something I love to do. So I decided to stay on that path. And it was the right decision.
Memory techniques are something that I think should be taught in primary schools. Maybe even in kindergartens.
– michaela karsten
Many Czechs think of Mireček’s grandfather from the How Poets Lose Illusions movie in connection with medicine and memory. Have you tried to remember his name? [In the movie Mireček is nickname of a medicine student from Bujumbura, full name Numira Cassa Tomba, whose grandfather’s name had 104 letters and 62 syllables.]
When I saw the film back then, I didn’t know memory techniques yet. But I really laughed at the name of Mireček’s grandfather. The first question I always ask myself when I’m working with information is, „Do I need this or do I not need this?“ This decision also influences my storage process. At the time I thought the scene was funny, but I evaluated it as unnecessary information. If my answer had been yes, I want to remember it, I would have used some memorization techniques today. In practice, when someone comes to a meeting with disinterest, lack of motivation, when they evaluate that they don’t want to remember this or can’t remember this, that’s actually the first block in the learning process and their memory will have trouble retaining the information.
Maybe the medicine studies could be flipped, so that you learn how to manage memory first, and then everything else…
These are topics that aren’t discussed much in schools yet. That’s why I was involved in the founding of MemoryXL, which aims to bring the knowledge of memory sports into education in as many European countries as possible. In some places it has already succeeded, in others it has failed due to lack of money. But it is certainly something that I think should be taught in primary schools. Maybe even in kindergartens.
That leads me to the question of whether to use these memory techniques a lot, a little, or just for something. Is there a limit to what’s too much?
Logic and understanding always come first. When I’m handling a piece of learning material, I start with whether I understand it and try to read it until I find the context, including the information I already have. By doing this, I activate many more neural connections and increase the chance that new information will end up in my long-term memory. But then there are topics or information, perhaps abstract, phone numbers, technical terms, words, surnames, which our memory tends to dismiss. Some of my clients are lawyers. They repeat a definition many times and just don’t remember it. Or I have accountants who have very demanding exam preparation. That’s when it’s appropriate to reach for some other avenues of learning, such as memory techniques.
I’ve come across this view or popular excuse: I deliberately don’t want to remember this because I’m saving my brain capacity to solve complex problems. Do memory, logic, and other brain functions really share the same capacity?
That’s a very difficult question I can’t answer exactly. We already know a lot about memory, but still not everything with absolute certainty. For example, it is known that there are various cleansing processes in the brain. Information that has not been used for a long time moves from an active form of storage to a passive form. But we no longer know whether this information ever disappears completely or remains in a weak form of storage. We also know that our short-term memory filters information. All this suggests that memory capacity is probably limited. But it is certainly large enough to hold enough information.
If our memory didn’t filter information and there was no limit, I guess the size of our heads should increase with each future generation. But that would be a problem from an obstetrician’s point of view.
And briefly to your second question – our memory is made of interconnected brain cells that form a large associative network. And logical thinking is also part of it. Logical thinking uses information stored in long-term memory. So it’s probably using the same capacity.
Does memory deteriorate with age, or does it just depend on how we work with it?
Age has a big effect on our memory performance. However, if a person is mentally active into old age, the breakdown of neural connections in memory may not be associated with memory lapses, called age-related dementia. In neuroscience, the name cognitive reserve is associated with this topic.
There is a lot of mention of sleep hygiene and that most storage in long-term memory takes place during sleep. Do you do any targeted work on this?
At night, a so called information consolidation takes place. This is the consolidation of information into long-term memory. What we have dealt with several times during the day or what was unusual and attractive to the memory, our brain evaluates as important for long-term storage. This can be used beautifully in learning. For example, I recommend that students review at least in bullet points what they have learned that day towards the evening before going to bed. This repetition is a signal to the subconsciousness that we probably currently need this information for survival, and so it is important to store it.
How about a midday nap? Is it useful?
I’m a proponent of it. It shouldn’t be long, twenty to twenty-five minutes is excellent for recovery. From my own experience I can say that if I take a nap, or even just an afternoon autogenic training for 25 minutes, I have a more active memory and stronger concentration in the afternoon. The brain is simply sharper then.
If I don’t exactly want to work as a spy, what other practical use is there for remembering more? Especially nowadays when I can write everything down on my phone.
I’ll admit that I also write down a lot of information on my cell phone. But I try to remember the most important data using my own memory. The brain is ingenious in that it wants to save energy. So if I don’t activate certain neural connections with information to remember, they start to break down and I start to lose that ability. We’re seeing this in today’s generation with the use of technology. The ability to remember numbers or orient in space is being lost. In the tests I conduct in my seminars, I observe that it is already a superhuman feat for someone to remember even one telephone number.
This brings me back to the decision-making process. Do I need it or do I not need it? A lot of people evaluate that they don’t need it. But the thing to remember about this decision is that we’re handing over responsibility to the technology. How far do we want to hand over our abilities as human beings to technology and technical progress? This is something where we as humanity need to take notice.
Do you feel that the enormous capabilities of today’s technology are making people lazy?
Young individuals, for example, when there are discussions and they don’t know the answer, the first thing they do is open their cell phone and look up the answer. They read that answer and very few of them take it actively. If we don’t have enough knowledge, then combinatorial thinking is limited, i.e., the ability to find a great solution to a problem is also limited. In his book Digital Dementia, Manfred Spitzer provocatively draws society’s attention to this issue.
The advancement of technology is certainly a great boon, but for many people the overabundance of information that they cannot choose correctly produces stress. The stress itself then blocks neural connections at the level of short-term memory in the hippocampus. These individuals learn less well as a result. This is a very complex topic, but it is primarily something that should be considered by parents who have control over their children’s access to technology. There’s not enough supervision there anymore. Some people treat the internet well, and try to reflect on the information they find, but a purely passive approach is counterproductive. I can see the potential benefit of Mensa here, which should show the other side of the coin, what the eventual dangers may be.
When did you get into Mensa?
That was a long time ago, I think it was around the turn of 1997-1998. I had a friend from the airline, and he said one day at lunch, „Hey, you told me about the intelligence test. Why don’t we go take it together?“ I thought it was sort of a prep test, that I would go in and try it out, and then just go to some main admissions round. Then there was an evaluation and I was congratulated and offered the opportunity to be a member of Mensa. That was kind of a funny story. So I decided to go for it and I’m still very happy in Mensa to this day.
Do you keep in touch with other Mensans? Do you participate in any Mensa activities?
I am in very close contact. My husband is a member of Mensa, but in Germany. Even in memory sports, many people were Mensa members. I worked with gifted children at the Hochbegabtenförderung e.V., where children with an intelligence quotient of 125 and above are accepted. This is how I later got into Mensa for children in Germany. The Germans praise the Czech Mensa as far as the children’s category is concerned and take it as an inspiration. Of course I am proud of that. I also like to read both the Czech Mensa magazine and the German one, because there are often interesting and useful articles.
Is there anything you would change about Mensa?
I myself try to give every human being I meet the impulse to actually use intelligence for the benefit of society and not for self-destruction. For example, Mensa plays an important role with gifted children and does quite a lot for them in the Czech Republic. It would be great to give them the opportunity to get into some companies and participate in projects there. I experienced this in Germany, where children were offered a summer camp where they went to a company, had a mentor and then did an evaluation of that week, which they presented to the rest of the camp. That way they could develop and also be an asset to the others.
You’re training other things than just memory. How far does that overlap go, what other brain skills do you help train, and how does memory relate to intelligence?
Primary to good memory is having enough vital energy. So, I look for its sources with my clients and I also teach them different techniques to relax the mind. Second is the topic of concentration. And besides that I deal with optimizing the learning process, increasing mental resilience, and communication and presentation abilities.
What about the cerebral hemispheres? It’s commonly said that the left one is responsible for logic, whereas the right one is more responsible for emotions, creativity and so on.
That’s a myth. Yet it’s still being passed on to the population. In terms of, for example, functionality and memory, the left hemisphere has been the one that’s been looked at the most recently, and only now neuroscience is seeing that verbal memory is more related to the left hemisphere and the non-verbal part goes more to the right. When we’re trying to creatively solve a problem, we try to combine from all areas of the brain, we don’t just use one part of the cortex or just one hemisphere. But it hasn’t been explored enough yet.
In one interview I was intrigued by the idea that the ability to recall things has an effect on stress. Does that mean that by training my memory I can help reduce it?
A well-functioning memory adds to self-confidence and this reduces the perception of burdensome situations as stressful. And vice versa. An individual who is stressed may experience blockages at the level of short-term memory, making it harder for that individual to remember things and also to recall things from memory. Therefore, in addition to the topic of memory, I also deal with the topic of stress reduction.
Where do memory skills stand alongside other disciplines such as popular speed reading?
I try to activate critical thinking as much as possible in the intake of information. In terms of speed-reading, my critical thinking tells me that the faster I read, the less chance I have of still understanding it. I believe that one can read faster, and there are a number of techniques for doing so, but from a certain speed onwards I no longer believe that everything can be memorized and understood. It’s a skill that also helps in the learning process, but one has to question: how much I understand, how much I take away?
Sometimes the phenomenon of so-called photographic memory appears in films. Is this a myth, or does anyone really have this ability?
If we were to go into a definition, it would be the ability to scan some text and then represent it exactly as it looked in its original form, even after some extended period of time. Indeed, the population describes people who probably have impaired filtering at the level of short-term memory and they store everything. Yet the people who have been followed for a long time have been found to make errors as well. That was one of the interesting questions at the memory competitions, if any of us competitors had a photographic memory. And the contestants responded that if there was someone like that, they’d just pack their suitcase and leave, because they probably wouldn’t have a chance.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement in life so far?
Probably the biggest achievement is that I am in the place and in the life conditions where I wanted to be many years ago. That I have a family with children, that I have beautiful relationships, that I have a profession I enjoy, and that I live with a loving partner. What more could one ask for? I can wish, of course, that humanity would be sane, that common sense would prevail, that there would be no wars, that we would be healthy. But I think I’ve made my life the way I wanted it so far. And I consider that a success.
What else do you want to achieve?
I imagine a house of some kind with a lake view, with a huge giant library behind me full of books I’ve read, with a big chair. That’s kind of my biggest dream in life. I know it may be off the subject of Mensa and what we’re talking about, but it’s one of those big life wishes of mine.
How important is it for you to make your being here relevant to humanity as a whole?
When I go to my being as a whole, not just my profession, I have certain moral principles. I always try to play fair with everybody, and I try to pass on those principles and my morals. I would really like people to treat each other fairly, not to lie to each other and to be able to stand behind their mistakes, to help each other and to be positive. That what they do in life and how they live is for the benefit of society and the planet, not against it.
Where would you like to move humanity?
The absolute best thing would be for words like war to disappear completely. It’s a hot topic right now, so maybe that’s why it’s probably the most intense in my mind somehow. But I think that the times have also shown us a lot now that a lot of people want to live in peace, want to move forward, want to educate themselves. Probably the most valuable thing that humanity could achieve is that we actually use our abilities to benefit society and that we don’t let artificial intelligence take our lives.
Web links:
michaela-karsten.cz
www.michaela-karsten.com
mindkarat.de
www.brillantbrain.com
www.topvision.cz
www.memoryxl.de