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Robert Walker

Yes certainly.

The Guinness Book of Records of 1985 records the feat of a Buddhist monk who was first to memorize the entire Pali Canon in modern times:


BioMingun

He was able to memorize the entire canon - thousands of pages, millions of words. He was first in modern times to win the titles Tipitakadhara Dhammabhandagarika (Bearer of the Three Pitakas and Keeper of the Dhamma Treasure), in a stringent 33 day exam.

We also have texts far more ancient than the sutras memorized in the same way - the Indian Vedas.

In a culture with no writing, there would be a premium on memorization. And on doing so accurately, and passing on those memories, word for word perfect, for generation after generation.

The texts are structured in ways to help with memorization. But still, that's millions of words.

Nowadays we can write things down, so don't have to do this. But still have actors who often have to memorize long conversations for plays, or films.  For instance, it's not considered an extraordinary thing for a Shakespearian actor to learn their character's lines for an entire Shakespeare play.

Most of us never have to do this so don't realize what we are capable of, if we try.

As another example, musicians can memorize every note of their part, say as a solo in a concerto, for an entire piece of music. And not just one. A musician will often have many entire pieces memorized, dozens or hundreds of them.

As well as that, some composers have a much better memory for a piece of music after listening to it than most, just after one hearing. There are stories about Mozart suggesting he had near perfect memory for music, especially his transcription of  Gregorio Allegri's "Miserere" in the Sistine Chapel as a 14-year-old (which at the time was kept secret, nobody was permitted to publish it outside of the chapel). He only heard it twice, live, and based on that wrote the first unauthorized transcription of it.

About the Author

Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.
Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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