Anthony Metivier's Blog, page 40

How To Increase Memory By Watching Movies and TV Series

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C’mon, admit it. You think that learning how to increase memory skill and ability is going to be a drag. You’ve seen all those pictures of memory champions with their sound cancelling headphones and nothing could seem more boring.

But the truth is that you can improve memory ability simply by using something you already do almost every week, if not every day.

That’s right: Merely by watching a movie and thinking about it in a few deliberate ways afterwards, you can exercise and improve memory by an impressive margin.

Here’s how:

Use The Power Of Intention

But intend to do what, exactly?

Intend to pay attention for the sake of your memory. Harry Lorayne makes the point again and again in his books that memory ability begins and ends with our attention. After all, you simply cannot remember anything to which you haven’t consciously attended.

Pay attention to the next movie you watch with the intent to remember more and you’ll already give yourself a cutting edge memory increase beyond belief.

Reconstruct The Story

You probably haven’t done this since you were a kid. You watch a movie and then immediately get on the phone and retell the entire story to a friend.

At least, I remember doing this as a kid and I loved hearing my friends recount what they had seen. Back then, after all, if you missed a movie at the theatre, it could be six months to a year before it appeared on videocassette. And even then, there was no guarantee that a video store in your town would carry it for rental.

“A Story Told Is A Story Shared”

The exercise here is to watch a movie and retell the story to someone. If you cannot find someone to relate the narrative to, tell it to a pet. Speak it into a recording device. Or even just write it down. Who knows? You could wind up becoming a great film reviewer and critic and memorizing what happens in movies for a living.

For bonus points, do both: verbally recount the film and write your description down. This will exercise more parts of your memory and improve recall in a deeper way, especially of you make this a regular affair.

And keep in mind, this description doesn’t have to be super-lengthy. When I recall the plot points of a movie in writing, I can usually squeeze it all on to a mid-sized index card, the kind that is about half the size of a sheet of paper. If you’re interested in more about memorizing plot points, you can check out this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

For extra extra bonus points, listen to someone else tell back the story of a movie they’ve seen. There will probably be some back and forth as they revisit the story from memory, but just let them talk it through. Commit to memorizing at least three major pieces of information.

Hold On To The Names Of Characters

My girlfriend and I have been watching Deadwood lately. If you like Westerns, this is a great series. Anyhow, in season two a new character showed up and we both immediately recognized the actress. “What was her name in Breaking Bad?” my girlfriend asked. “Skyler,” I said immediately, “Skyler White.”

How did I remember this character’s name so easily and my girlfriend did not – even though we had watched the entire series together, episode by episode?

I deliberately paid attention to character names, that’s how.

Now, to be fair to my girlfriend, she never liked Skyler much and doesn’t have the same ten year plus track record that I do as a Film Studies professor. Plus, she doesn’t work on memory development using movies the way I do. In this case, it’s not so much that she couldn’t remember Skyler’s name, but that she found it too unimportant to hold in memory. And perhaps her active dislike for the character (who is admittedly dislikable), actively deleted the information from her mind.

It would also be hard to say that I would have remembered her first name of I hadn’t actively paid attention to it. Her husband, Walter White, is easy. It’s alliterative, for one thing, which is a simple aid to memory. Plus, “Walter” brings so many character-associated traits to mind: he’s old-fashioned, conservative, cantankerous and it’s easy to see him becoming an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of The Walton’s. Finally, “White” makes you think of the white hat of the good cowboy and innocence is a constant theme throughout the series as Walter White transforms episode by episode into the monster Walter Black.

Anyhow, even though Skyler’s name is not as easy to place thematically and has no mnemonic alliteration like the W. W. in Walter White, it was still easy to instantly memorize.

How? By associating it with other information worth memorizing to build fast familiarity with the story and increase memory with this simple exercise.

For example, I noticed that the story takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There’s almost always a blue sky in this part of the US – at least as seen on the show. Thus, a simple memory association locked the name instantly into place. I also happened to have known a First Nations person named “Calm Sky” when I first started my higher education at Okanagan University College. Bringing this simple fact together strengthened the association even further.

Doing Your Homework Has Never Been So Much Fun

Your homework is to pay attention to character names in the movies you watch and create associations. Are the names obviously constructed to be memorable and thematically rich like “Walter White?” Or are they more abstract like Skyler?

You can also create a simple rhyme. For example, Skyler rhymes with Tyler, so you could see her kissing Stephen Tyler from Aerosmith and say it in your mind as you picture it: “Skyler kisses Tyler.” Maybe you’ll even hear an Aerosmith love song as you do this, strengthening the memory by adding color and emotion to the extended context.

Believe me, you can think about these questions, answer them and do rhyming exercises while watching a movie without skipping a beat of the story. And it’s great mental exercise that will show you how to increase memory while you’re doing it. It’s also a wicked amount of creative fun.

Pay Attention To Where The Characters Live And Where They Go

The mind has an incredible ability to map its surroundings, especially when buildings are involved. Although buildings in movies and series are less distinct than the ones you experience in real life, you can still use them to increase memory power.

For example, think of a favorite show or movie. The Lord of the Rings as a whole is fairly indistinct to hold in the mind, but you can probably reconstruct a fairly accurate image of what Bilbo Baggins house on the Shire looks like on the inside – assuming you’ve seen the Peter Jackson film.

Same thing for the home of Walter and Skyler White in the Breaking Bad house. You might not remember the exact layout, but in effect, there is the master bedroom, the baby’s bedroom, Walt Jr.’s bedroom, the heating closet where the cash is later hidden under the floor, the washroom, the kitchen, the dining area, living room, patio, pool, fence and driveway.

These are all clearly defined areas throughout the series. And if you think about it, you can probably reconstruct the different places that Jesse lived, Hank’s house, Mr. Fring’s

restaurant and laboratory and more.

And if you can’t bring all of these places to mind at even a superficial level based on the stories I’ve mentioned, then it’s easy to get started on using them to improve memory.

Do These Steps To Exercise Your Spatial Memory

* Watch a movie or series episode

* Pay attention to the layout of a main home or building

* After watching, reconstruct the building in your imagination

* Draw a quick floorplan to reinforce your memory of the location

And you can take all of this one step further by using the materials from this memory exercise and turning them into a Memory Palace for use with the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.

Also, if you go to movie theatre, you can use that location as a Memory Palace too. But that’s a topic for another time, so please do make sure that you’re subscribed to the Magnetic Memory Method for more training and ideas like these.

But Wait! There’s More …

In the meantime, there’s so much more you can do to improve memory by watching movies and series. For example, you can try to hold the clothing of a character in mind as you move them through the location you’ve mentally reconstructed. It’s almost like playing with Barbie dolls or GI Joe figurines to develop hand-eye coordination. Except in this case, you’re doing it entirely in your mind.

Throw drawing into the mix, and about 300 physical muscles will join the game, exercising your brain, your memory and small but critical parts of your body all at the same time.

And although there will be more work involved, you can extend all of the techniques you’ve learned to novels. You just need to fill in more of your own details, which as Stephen King talks about in On Writing, you’re probably going to do that anyway instead of following what the author says by the letter. And if you are going to use your own visual imagination as you please, why not do so deliberately and experience memory improvement as a result?

It all comes down to the same old truth. You make improvements by taking action. So get out there and watch some movies!

Further Resources

Complete lists of characters from Breaking Bad and Deadwood. Use them in your memory practice.

Cool plan for a movie theatre

8 Movies About Memory Manipulation And How They Inspired Real Neuroscience

How To Increase Memory Power With These 3 Fun Exercises

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

There’s a feeling of powerlessness that comes with failing to recall information, isn’t there? And the more important the information – be it a name, a mathematical formula or a word – the higher that feeling of having no power over your memory becomes.

But you really don’t have to suffer from this powerlessness. You can learn how to increase memory power. And the good news is that a meaningful transformation can occur almost overnight using these three simple steps.

1. Determine what “memory power” means to you.

Go ahead and get out a piece of paper or something to write on. Then, without thinking about it too much, write down everything that comes to mind related to your personal concept of memory power.

If you like, you can also create a mind map. Mind maps are great because they free you from many aspects of linear thinking and let you see different connections that normally go unnoticed.

Make sure that you spend 5-10 minutes on this exercise before taking a break. Then come back to it, assess what you’ve written and add any more details that come to mind.

In particular, search your writing and/or mind mapping for three kinds of information that can be placed into different categories. These categories are “fears,” “opportunities” and “strengths.” (I’ve adapted terms from a coach named Dan Sullivan for use in your world of memory improvement, but if you’re an entrepreneur, check out his teaching sometime soon.)

Then, on another sheet of paper, put a headline on top that says something like “how to increase memory power.”

Beneath that, create three columns, one for each category. For example, when I completed the prose version of this exercise, I wrote:

Memory power means the ability to recall anything I’ve studied at any time and under any condition. Relaxation is always part of the process of memory power. It also means learning and memorizing information that will actually make a difference to the quality of my daily life. True memory power exists when I’m able to share the processes and results of how to increase memory power with others.

The mind map version (because I think it’s important to do both) looks like this:

I’ve give you this handwritten image because that’s exactly how I suggest you write out your mind map. It takes just a few seconds. But in case you can’t read my handwriting or interpret my short form, here’s the list of what “memory power” means to me. It’s the ability to:

* Memorize Facts

* Memorize Math & numbers

* Helping others do the same

* Feel great

* Recall anything

* Experience no stress during the memorization using relaxation

Next, on the three column sheet, map everything onto the three categories. Scroll to the Further Resources section of this post to download a worksheet if you prefer that to free writing on a blank page.

Again, this isn’t rocket science. Just a simple sheet of paper will do. So you can make out what I’ve written, here’s the words in type (and in more normal English):

Fears

Not being able to concentrate

Not being relaxed

Not being able to recall

Being frustrated

Worrying

Failure

Strengths

Creativity

Relaxation/Meditation

Ability to teach others

Writing books about memory

Opportunities

45 mins for memorzing vocabulary

45 mins for practicing recall

Writing an email to a reader

Drafting a new book

This Memory Power Exercise Eliminates All Fear

In sum, this exercise helps not only define what memory power means to you and how to improve it. The exercise also identified your fears. With awareness of these, you can eliminate them one at a time from your life before proceeding to the next exercise.

Some people may think this first step towards memory improvement is too involved. However, this should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. You might want to revisit it every so often to see where you stand, however.

In other words, your personal definition of memory power is not a “set it and forget it” thing. It’s living, breathing and subject to change as your memory power evolves into something much better.

2. Set a specific goal and study memory techniques.

Every body has heard of SMART goals. To quote from the Wikipedia entry, SMART goals are:

Specific – target a specific area for improvement.

Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

Assignable – specify who will do it.

Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.

Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

On the final note, it is often suggested that you add a deadline. However, the extent to which this matters (or any of the SMART goal conditions matter) is entirely up to you. In truth, even just having a goal in mind is better than nothing. But the more you can specify the conditions of the goal, the better.

That’s why it’s important to include research as part of any goal. Although this means adding an additional step to your goals, it also means you’ll be able to proceed towards your goal on an informed basis.

What does research mean when it comes to learning how to increase memory power? As we’ve seen in the previous exercise, it means starting by researching yourself and your memory improvement needs. But the next step is to do some research into memory improvement techniques themselves.

Brace yourself, because there are a lot of them – or at least, there are a solid core of different memory techniques that are taught in different ways by different people. This can lead to the impression that there are literally thousands. But as in card magic where there appears to be a zillion tricks, the reality is that magicians are presenting variations on a small set of themes.

To help you navigate the vast world of memory training, I’ve created the Memory Training Consumer Awareness Guide so that you can make an informed decision when choosing a memory training that’s right for you. Please take some time to go through it in either its Mp3 or PDF format and feel free to let me know if you have any questions at any time.

After you’ve researched memory techniques and started using them, it’s important to keep practicing. It’s kind of like the way a musician approaches an instrument or an actor approaches the craft. No matter how good you get, you keep playing and performing. It’s not just that the skills need to be maintained – it’s that they need to become a way of life.

And just as actors are called actors and musicians are called musicians, there is a name for people who take up memory techniques as a lifelong practice. They’re called mnemonists, though you can also just use the term Memorizer. No matter what you call them, these are some the most Magnetic people on the planet because they’ve taken the natural abilities of their minds – normal abilities that everyone has – and sharpened them.

How? Certainly by spending time in self-analysis, doing research and setting goals. So if you’re ready to join their ranks, here’s another exercise.

* Determine what exactly you want to memorize. List these down on the a piece of paper.

For me, the most important things are foreign language vocabulary, grammar principles, names and faces, facts and poetry (which includes the ability to memorize quotes, jokes and even entire speeches). For you, it might be math, programming languages and passwords. There are all kinds of needs, and better you can identify what your memory requirements are, the better the memory training you can seek.

My advice is that you concentrate on the memory needs that are going to help you the most right now. If memorizing poetry and all the things that go along with it (quotes, jokes, etc.) have no value to you, then save that for later. Focus on what will get you through school as an A+ student, get you a better job or whatever will bring you immediate pleasure first. Know what motivates you and then look for the memory training that will help you most directly. This will quickly boost your existing motivation even higher because you’ll suddenly see and feel just how quickly you can achieve your goals through memory improvement.

Obviously, there are a lot of memory trainings to recommend, but I think you’re best off doing some research of your own. And in addition to my consumer awareness guide, you can readily visit the Magnetic Memory Method resources section too. But because research is such an important part of self-development, do make sure to do some – you’ll learn what research is best by simply doing it, but in brief, here are some tricks of the trade I’ve learned over the years as a student, graduate student and research professor.

* Get off the Internet. Look, the Internet is awesome. No one is denying that. However, so little of all the print material has yet to appear online. There are books, magazines and articles, audio programs and even old videocassettes that still work that are not and probably never will be online. If you want the fullest possible range of knowledge, go to libraries, used bookstores and for older trainings, go to the Internet, but look at Ebay for old memory training materials. You’ll probably be amazed by what’s kicking around.

* Use the Internet intelligently. Most people run to Google and pop in a bunch of words. However, there are specific search terms you can add in order to radically narrow and improve your searching. Try, for example:

Intext

Inurl

Intitle

Filetype:pdf

More search parameters exist, but these are the ones I typically use.

* If you have access to a university library, read journal articles, dissertations and even entire books exclusive to these services. Some public libraries can grant you access to these as well, so ask a librarian. People who don’t physically go to libraries and many people who do don’t realize what a powerful resource a trained librarian can be. They literally search and organize material to be searched and found for a living.

* Read outside of the memory improvement genre. Not only do memory techniques appear all over the place in different kinds of books and personal development trainings, but such resources contain all kinds of techniques that you can build onto your approach to memory.

This is one of the many aspects that makes the Magnetic Memory Method unique. Relaxation, mindset and scientifically verified methods for generating greater happiness have been included. Of all the books I recommend on a regular basis, 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman is probably one of the best. The simple technique of writing down 10 good things that happened to you every day is worth more than a billion dollars, and I’ll probably repeat that simple lesson a billion times if I live long enough to do it. It’s been that valuable to me and I know it will be that valuable for you too.

And it’s ideas that you’ll come across when you read outside of the memory improvement genre. But don’t just rest on the ideas – act on them. You’ll never experience flight by reading about airplanes. At some point you’ve actually for to get on one and actually get into the sky.

This is totally an aside, but in writing this, I’m reminded of the poet Ezra Pound. When investigators brought him home from Italy to America to stand trial for treason, he strolled the aisle and whistled as the plane loped the sky over the ocean. This was used as evidence of his mental instability at his trial, but even though he would spend the next 12 years locked up in a mental hospital, the truth is that he was just happy. It was the first time he had ever flown.

As with the other exercises, all of this should be fun. Even just 10-15 minutes a week can expand your expertise of the world of memory in rapid order while making you a better researcher overall.

Making research part of your memory improvement goals also serves as several memory exercises at once because you’re expanding your knowledge of the field. Working memory processes information and you’re feeding yourself details about ideas and books that you can recall later from long term memory. If you want, you can even use a Memory Palace to memorize the titles of books and articles you’ve read for revisiting later or for your overall knowledge of memory techniques and memory improvement strategies.

3. Create a personal memory power improvement program.

Now it’s time to implement what you’ve been learning. But implementation without a plan is a dangerous business.

Why?

Because if you’re working and not getting results, you wind up frustrated. Frustration leads to inactivity. Inactivity leads to abandoning goals. Abandoned goals lead to more frustration, and before you know it, you’re far from where you could be.

Worse, you might never wind up coming back. And that would be a tragedy because success with memory techniques is always just around the corner. (Even if you’re already accomplished, the next level also awaits if you regularly implement, experiment and make modifications according to your carefully defined goals.)

As is clear to those who follow the Magnetic Memory Method, the Memory Palace is the be-all and end-all to your success with memory improvement. This doesn’t mean that it’s the only way, and this recent correspondence with a reader of How to Learn and Memorize Russian Vocabulary shows that.

However, for most people, a well-designed Memory Palace is easy to create and even easier to use. Everything you need is available in the free Memory Palace Mastery video series (click the registration link at the top of the page). It’s never to late to develop this simple skill.

Although the explanation is detailed and will take a little time to learn, the reason I go into such depth is because I want to ensure your success. I’ve seen it time and time again that most people experience the highest levels of success when they get the Memory Palace part of the memory improvement equation right the first time. Please don’t miss this special memory improvement opportunity available to you now for free.

Once you’ve got a Memory Palace prepared, it’s actually time to build another one even before you start using the first one. I know this probably sounds crazy (and in fact some people have told me that it is crazy), but the reality is that you need more than one Memory Palace and multiple Memory Palace construction is in and of itself an extraordinary memory development exercise. If you’re building Memory Palaces in a fully informed manner, each one should take approximately 5-10 minutes each.

Once you’ve got a couple of Memory Palaces under your belt using the Magnetic Memory Method free video training and worksheets you get when you subscribe, pick something that fits one of your goals as described above. There’s no point practicing memory techniques by memorizing a shopping list (the typical, boring exercise that most memory trainings start with) – unless you absolutely love shopping and this ability will improve your life immediately and/or bring you enormous joy.

Otherwise, pick something that interests you fiercely and will improve your life. Many people who are learning a language and have struggled a bit with the process will get an immediate boost from doing this.

If you’re a businessperson, you might opt for learning to use Memory Palaces for names and faces or numbers first and practicing these will be of the greatest benefit. If you’re a student, you might want to practice with a list of important facts that are bound to show up on a quiz or a test. The more aligned your practice is with your goals and ambitions, the more you’ll be able to lock them onto your opportunities and eliminate your fears.

It’s really that simple and really that fun. And the impact will move forward through time as you grow in life as an individual, as a learner and as a Memorizer (or mnemonist) if you prefer.

In sum, increasing your memory power is easy and fun to do. That doesn’t mean it’s not without effort, however, though as I always like to say, even chocolate and sex require effort – and they’re both fantastic, as are advanced memory abilities.

Don’t get scared off by the word “advanced.” It really means “forward,” as in moving forward. And as long as you’re moving forward, you truly are advanced. And that forward movement is the most important thing in the world. Without a doubt.

Further Resources

Download this worksheet so you can fill out your own Memory Power fears, strengths and opportunities sheet and start making massive improvements to your memory

Pure Genius by Dan Sullivan

Previous episode of the Magnetic Memory Podcast: Want Unlimited Memory? Get This Book!

Magnetic Memory Method article on Tony Buzan, a master of memory and deep thinker of how to make world class mind maps

Fabulous list post on Year Planning Mind Maps from mindmappingsoftwareblog.com

All of Richard Wiseman’s books on his blog.  Hint: The link to Night School points to Amazon.co.uk. If you replace the “co.uk” with “com” without changing any other part of the address, you’ll find this book on the U.S. store. This trick works for other Amazon stores around the world too. It’s magic.

Want Unlimited Memory? Get This Book!

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we’re looking in depth at the new book Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley. The pros, the cons and everything in-between.

Program Notes

Kevin Horsley’s recent book, Unlimited Memory is worth your time. If you’re a student and user of memory techniques, this written version of the podcast will tell you why.

There Are No New Memory Techniques Under the Sun … Or Are There?

As most people interested in the art of memory techniques know, there’s nothing new under the sun. The memory improvement methods were invented thousands of years ago and refinements have been slim.

But that doesn’t mean that innovations haven’t occurred. Not only that, but memory techniques improve every time someone takes up using them and feels the power of empowered recall. And that’s why no matter where you are in your journey as a memorizer, Horsley’s book merits your full attention.

Why?

Because if you’ve never learned memory techniques before, his straightforward and energetic manner will serve as a great introduction to memory improvement.

And if you’re already an old hat with using mnemonics but have lapsed, Horsley will inspire you to get back in the saddle.

New Ways To Think About Old Techniques

Plus, you’ll find new ways to think about the techniques. Fresh perspectives can be more valuable than the techniques themselves in some cases if they inspire you to keep going. And the book is filled with great quotes that place memory techniques in interesting new contexts. In fact, every single one is worth committing to memory.

Horsley’s quotable too. “Conflict,” he points out, “is the opposite of concentration,” and much of the book talks about removing everything that gets in the way of your progress so that you can focus on.

Horsley’s point about conflict in this context should be confused with having conflict in your associative-imagery, however. Although I’m not interested in being critical of the book, it is slim on how to include rigorous to help you

a) memorize information and …

b) recall it.

Mnemonic Examples On Almost Every Page

For those who feel the need for examples, you couldn’t find more to choose from. For each principle, you get tonnes of written illustration to imagine along with. From a pedagogical standpoint, this may be overkill and the book lacks some guidance on how to be creative and “see” those images in your mind.

In terms of visuals, there are a couple throughout the book, with the illustrations limited mostly to explaining number memorization using the Major Method. I personally like the limited number of illustrations because it is important to recreate what you see in your mind, not what others see. This is why the overkill on text-based images can help you so long as you work at recreating them in your mind.

Use These Powerful Visualization Exercises

If you would like some fast and easy exercises for developing your visual imagination, try looking at paintings and then recreating them in your mind. You can also verbally express them on paper in a short paragraph and use what you’ve written as the basis for recreating the imagery in your imagination.

And please realize that you don’t need to literally “see” the images in your mind in order to increase your memory power when using this memory technique. It doesn’t have to be high-definition television. Verbal expression in your mind (even without writing the words down) can be just as powerful.

But please do work on visualizing. And to develop the skill further, think about what being visual in your mind actually means to you. If you struggle in this area, you might be pleasantly surprised at how simply thinking through this issue and defining what imaginative visuality means to you can give you the basis for truly creating improvement.

How To Take Your Brain To The Gym

Think of this defining process as laser targeting what’s really going on. It’s kind of like the difference between going to the gym to reduce general flabbiness and getting no results and going to the gym with a trainer who knows exactly which muscles to develop so that you burn the most calories. And of course you need to eat the right foods to support this process, which in the case of developing your visual imagination means looking at art on a regular basis and mentally recreating it.

Horsely uses the gym metaphor himself when he talks about memory training. He points out that no one is born ripped out with big muscles. They must be trained. The same goes for memory power. Your mind is a muscle and you can develop it. Even just reading about memory techniques can help, but nothing beats getting into the gym and pumping the iron of actually memorizing information that can help improve your life.

The Most Interesting Practice  Items You’ll Ever Find In A Memory Improvement Book

And that’s a cool feature of Unlimited Memory. Unlike so many memory training books that guide you through memorizing lists of objects and food items for your next grocery item, Horsely is a bit more creative in his suggested practice items. You’ll have to check him out to see what I mean. You’ll be pleasantly surprised and Unlimited Memory is one of the strongest books you’ll find in the department of giving you great practice material that serves more than one purpose.

If you’re looking for in-depth training on Memory Palace construction, you may be a little disappointed, however. The Method Loci is covered, but the instruction lacks the nitty-gritty matters of making sure the path is linear and not crossing your own path. Following these principles will limit confusing yourself and spending unnecessary mental energy while maximizing your attention on decoding the associative-imagery you have no problems finding.

Criticisms completed, let’s return to the good stuff – but please don’t let my nitpicking dissuade you from reading Horsely’s Unlimited Memory. It is a powerful resource and I intend these comments to supplement the book rather than poke a stick at it. You can, in truth, never read enough books about memory improvement even if not all of them are created equal.

Learn How To Eliminate All Your Negative Memory Beliefs

And Unlimited Memory excels in teaching the cost of negative beliefs and replacing them with constructive ideas that propel you into positivity. For example, Horsley encourages you to keep your mind open while showing you all of the little thoughts that are constantly working to shut your open mindedness down. This will help keep you on the path towards experimenting with memory techniques and getting results.

Unlimited Memory Is Also An Amazing Research Memory Resource

Horsely is also tremendously generous in sharing the books he’s read and the fruits of his research. Not just what he’s read about memory, but self-development books too. You’ll want to supplement your reading of these as well.

And this such a powerful area that really makes the difference in a memory book. Without pointing you to other resources, so many books on memory development rob you of the chance to take the next steps in this field of specialization, which will always involve reading one more book. After all, the best books on memory are always yet to come.

As Phil Chambers says in this podcast interview, the limits of memory improvement have yet to be reached. And as we push forward into new frontiers, new books documenting and teaching the processes will emerge. I hope Horsely will be there to write again.

In sum, Horsely’s Unlimited Memory is a powerful introduction to memory techniques and you cannot go wrong because he points you to other reading and gives you much more interesting examples to start off with. And if you’re already on the path, you’ll find a good review and interesting perspectives. You simply cannot lose by reading Unlimited Memory.

Further Reading & Listening

Kevin Horsley’s website

Remembering the Presidents by Kevin Horsley

Moonwalking with Einstein on Amazon

The Art of Memory on Wikipedia

 

Photographic Memory: Scams, Fallacies And The Woman Who Can’t Forget

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

Photographic memory techniques, sometime confused with eidetic memory, are usually connected with a scam. Photographic memory is always scammy because …

Photographic Memory Doesn’t Exist!

Not only that, but it’s really not even something any sane person wants.

Think about it:

Why, unless you’re a painter, would you want to memorize every single detail of, say, a room or landscape? Even then, most serious artists would still want to make a quick study sketch, if not take a legitimate photograph.

Thus, in most cases, the ability to clearly memorize only what you need always serve you much better than cramming it all in. That’s why spending some time clarifying exactly what you want to memorize is so important.

For example, a lot of people ask me about memorizing an entire book, specifically textbooks. But I caution against spending time on this. So much so that I created an entire podcast episode about how to memorize a textbook the right way.

In reality, you need only memorize the most critical pieces of information needed. The fear so many people have that makes them wish they had a photographic memory is that they don’t know what information will be critical.

There’s a few solutions to this, the first of a few steps that will make the phoney notion of photographic memory techniques weak in comparison.

Your Memory Can Be Better Than Photographic. It Can Be Magnetic.

The first thing to do is examine your textbook as a physical object. How many chapters does it have? What does it say on the front and back cover? What are the chapter titles? How long is the index? What are some of the other books listed in the bibliography?

Going through this exercise will prime your mind for knowledge in many ways while giving you a sense of what might be important in the book.

Next, read the introduction and conclusion. Although a teacher or professor might never refer to these parts, they will tell you a great deal about what information is important. They’ll also place the subject in context and give you more clues about other books in the field you should read.

You can also simply book an appointment with your teacher or professor and ask them what information you need to focus on. They may have already made this clear, but that doesn’t mean you can’t glean more clues by speaking in person. You’ll also stand out more as an individual to them, which is usually a good thing. Of course, a good teacher won’t show you any kind of favouritism if your tests and assignments lack vigour, but you will open the door for additional help later.

Anyhow, there’s more information about these matters on the podcast episode I mentioned, so please do check it out. It could change your life for the better if you’re a student or someone responsible for reading a lot of books and need to have that information at the ready.

Beware!

Back to photographic memory techniques, beware of memory trainings that sell you on this idea. Maybe they’ll have some good tips (even a broken clock is right twice a day), but they are in essence lying to you. And as I said, photographic memory is far from desirable.

Take the case of Jill Price, for example. She’s the author of The Woman Who Can’t Forget. If you’ve ever had the fantasy that you wanted to remember everything, think again. As she talks about in the book, her inability to forget creates ongoing anguish. Although she claims she would never trade this ability for the world, it’s clear that it hasn’t been an easy life for her.

Plus, although she discusses many different kinds of memory, she doesn’t use the term “photographic memory” except in an excerpted passage from the chatroom where she met her husband. Nor is it included in the glossary of terms at the end of the book (though it makes for an interesting memory exercise to memorize those words using a Memory Palace).

Instead, Price has “flashbulb memory” as a term, but this has more to do with recalling moments of tragedy and the like. For example, remembering where you were on the morning of 9/11 may well be vivid, but chances are that it’s far from photographic in the manner meant by this suspect term.

Far From Photographic

One could argue, in fact, that Price has a memory that is far from photographic. For example, without being autistic, she can recall the exact day of the week a certain event took place – assuming that she knows of the event. She could, for example, relate the news of every April the 18th for ten years in a row with accuracy.

Although this ability astonished scientists – and it truly is astonishing – its use is limited. Price struggles, as it happens, to learn and memorize simple things. Worse, her constant recall of emotional traumas from the past interfered with her scholastic performance.

Even if you’re interested in techniques to develop photographic memory and still believe that it’s possible and desirable to develop this skill, I recommend that you read The Woman Who Can’t Forget.

Are There Jobs That Require Photographic Memory?

There are some interesting angles related to photographic memory techniques that we can talk about, however. For example, when I was younger and needed a job to get through my B.A., I applied to work for Customs Canada. Had I been successful, I would have worked at an airport inspecting bags and scanning people for signs of suspicious behaviour.

One of the exams I took involved looking at faces in disguise and then some moments later, without their disguises. In many cases, it proved very difficult to make a match.

Would having a photographic memory have helped?

Of course.

But the reality is that I did well on this part of the test despite not having trained my memory to be photographic. The reason is that I paid special attention to easily recognizable parts of the faces, rather than trying to photograph them as a whole.

It’s a trick I picked up in psychology class and later prepared for the how to remember names and faces portion of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.

How To Memorize Faces

In brief, I had learned that the brain tends to recognize the shape of the nose and some of the circularity around the eyes. Everything else either fills in or it doesn’t, but you increase your chance that these details will fill in by deliberately paying attention to the upside-down seven of the nose and the eight-shaped infinity symbol of the eyes.

It was cool to have this knowledge for the test because, had I focused on the chin of people wearing sunglasses and on the foreheads of people with faked noses, I would have failed. I wouldn’t call focusing on the nose and eyes foolproof, but if you complete some of the Masterclass exercises and concentrate on these areas the next time you meet a nee face, I’m confident that you’ll find it much easier to recall these faces.

But is this photographic memory? Absolutely not, but it is close. And developing this skill will help you in many ways beyond just remembering how faces look. It increases creativity, for one thing, meaning that many other great things in life increase too.

Another little story I should mention involves the NLP training I took while researching my dissertation on friendship (it’s a long story how I wound up finding a link between hypnosis and friendship, and one best saved for another day.

One day during the training, we worked on widening our fields of visual perception. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t actively try to memorize the exercise, but it basically involved having a person hold out their arms while standing close enough that you couldn’t quite make out their fingers. This meant that you also couldn’t count how many they were holding out. But after stretching your eye muscles by looking up down and all around, you could extend your field of vision just enough to count their fingers.

It went something like that …

Again, it’s not photographic memory, nor even particularly useful except as an interesting exercise, perhaps also as a technique for extending your awareness.

At the end of the day, the best way to develop your memory is to learn how to build and use a Memory Palace. It’s the beginning and end of memory techniques because you can use nearly every other technique that exists inside of a Memory Palace.

The Magnetic Memory Method approach to Memory Palaces uses ancient art of memory, particularly the Method of Loci, in a completely new way. If you’re interested in learning this amazing technique, then I encourage you to take the 4 free video series “Memory Palace Mastery.” You can subscribe by clicking the invitation at the top of this page. Or you can read this special letter I’ve written just for you about the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions about making your memory Magnetic and we’ll talk soon!

Further Resources

Eidetic Memory on Wikipedia

Are Photographic Memories Real? on i09

A movie called Photographic Memory on the Internet Movie Database

Wikihow article on the topic

Weird photographic memory game

Bonus Resource

I mentioned the very memorable stop-motion animations by filmmaker Jan Švankmajer in this episode of the podcast. You can learn more about him on this Wiki page. And here’s my favorite short film he made. Check it out!

Robin Williams And The Most Unusable Memory Palace In The World

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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn the connection between Robin Williams and the most unusable Memory Palace in the world.

At least, the most unusable Memory Palace for me. And you’ll hear about why and how I’m trying to change it so that, even if it can’t be used, I can at least reduce the unhappy memories associated with it.

Program Notes

This week’s episode is based on a somewhat crazy email I sent out to Magnetic Memory Method Newsletter subscribers. For these program notes, I’m providing you that letter in its entirety.

What I’m referring to at the beginning of the newsletter doesn’t really matter. Let’s just say I wrote something a bit harsh and some people rightly called me out on it.

But there was madness behind my methods, and so I took the opportunity to explain the context behind the disruption.

And I think it’s a nice way to begin 2015 on a positive note.

Because when you listen to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll find an idea about how to eliminate negative associations you may have with places that you would otherwise find impossible to use for the Method of Loci in a Memory Palace or any other mnemonic technique.

So without further adieu, here is that newsletter:

Dear Memorizers,

The following newsletter won’t teach you anything about memory skills.

But it will tell you about the one place that I will never, ever use as a Memory Palace.

If that’s of no interest to you, now would be the best time to stop reading.

If you’re curious, I’ll tell you a little bit about it.

First, though, a note about the message from the day before yesterday. Some people found it cool and said so. Others found it uncool.

And said so.

I’m not going to bandy around the bush with apologies and the like for those who felt offended. I’ll say only that you have a Bipolar operator at the helm of this ship – or at least that’s the label I given me in the Memory Palace I’ll never use.

What does this mean?

It means that when people say that I’m unprofessional …

They’re right.

Not that being professional was ever my intention.

I’m just some dude who writes about memory skills.

The same memory skills that without exaggeration saved my life.

Since Robin Williams died, I’ve been trying to find a way to say something about it.

And what some people considered yesterday’s meltdown (others heroic), finally provides an avenue.

Of sorts.

You see, Robin Williams crushed me, and more than a little. Taking his own life crushed a lot of people, but perhaps the Bipolar more than most.

Not that he self-identified. Carrie Fisher, another nut enjoying the all-too brief blasts of sun here at Club Manic, wrote that he doubted he was Bipolar.

Only, the way she recounts it, he doubted it in a rather Bipolar way.

Anyway, Robin Williams factors into the development of the Magnetic Memory Method in an important way. I’ve talked lots about how I discovered Memory Palaces during a deep depression. I’ve share how this lucky  enabled me to keep going through grad school and in the end succeed. And it’s an important part of the original of the MMM.

What I haven’t talked about much, if at all, is how this “Bipolar” journey got started in the first place.

In truth, who knows, but in the most evident way, I once upon a time wrote a poem.

A really long poem.

I still have it.

It was even published in a good old fashioned book.

Eventually.

Anyhow, I stayed up for 5 or 6 nights with almost no sleep writing this epic poem. When finished, I ran around campus with an armful of copies and gave it to friends and strangers alike. I also emailed it to all my professors and their teaching assistants.

Some of those professors expressed concern. One of the teaching assistants took it upon himself to catch me after a lecture. I had a face full of tears, beading at the brim from learning a bit too much about Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale.

It’s a beautiful poem.

Enough to tear your soul apart.

If your soul’s Magnetic, that is.

The assistant told me he’d read the poem. He said it was good in parts, but also extremely sexual. And violent.

Of course it is, I told him. I quoted Shelley. “I fall upon the thorns of life. I bleed.” What else did he expect from a young punk stuffing Romantic poetry down his maw like a butcher grinds pork?

The assistant wasn’t buying it. He thought I was sick and drew a map on the pack of this 30 page poem.

A map leading straight to a hospital.

A hospital in which I would remain for 3 months.

And it would have been longer if the doctor hadn’t mentioned the name “Robin Williams.”

I’ll bet it was part of the doctor’s schtick. He said it to everyone who refused to take their meds.

And yet the name that seemed to be little more than a therapeutic tool to this doctor proved useful. It was an extraordinarily persuasive way to convince me to pull out the poetry blocking my throat and start pouring the pills in.

Here’s exactly what he said:

“If Robin Williams had diabetes, do you think he’d refuse to take insulin? The only reason he survives the same condition that you’re in now and has become so successful is because he takes medication. The same medication we’re recommending to you now.”

I remember the scene well. I was high. Superman-high. I had every explanation in the world for why I could see the alphabet in everything. I knew the code that would unify the world if only the city of Toronto would evict its pigeons. I could break apart the number zero itself if only someone would recognize that I was the One.

Stuff like that.

Reams of it.

Scattered over pages.

Streaming from my mouth.

But with the name of Robin Williams in my ear, came the image of reason.

Because as the doctor carried on, his point was that I could still be crazy, and yet be sane.

I didn’t have to lose the energy, the rollercoaster rides along the rails of sloping ideas. And I could do it all without the piercing knife of dark that always landed.

Sooner or later, the knife of depression always returns to your heart. Picks at the front lobes just behind your eyes.

When you’re high, it’s impossible to remember.

When you’re low, it’s impossible to forget.

Well, the good doctor abused the name of Robin Williams that day, but I guess it’s a forgivable sin. I started taking their fancy little pills, after all, and soon after, they let me leave. Leave the one place I’ll never, ever use as a Memory Palace.

You can mark my Magnetic word on that.

Once out, I didn’t return to university for an entire year. I wanted to avoid the shame of seeing those same people before whom I had danced, inviting them to gaze upon the shores here at Club Manic.

But I got myself back on campus. And there I stayed, going up and down and up again. Superman one day, bumbling Clark Kent the next, never knowing when the super powers might return again.

Until I found Memory Palaces and memory techniques.

Mnemonics have never replaced the pills. Mnemonics never will.

But along with a lot of the other things I’ve connected with memory and tell you about from time to time, Memory Palaces provided a system. It’s faulty, as all systems must be from time to time. But it provides a decent set of checks and balances.

But then a week like last week comes along, and it’s hard.

It’s always hard to lose a giant.

A zany giant, but a gentle one.

Deep, deep sadness in his eyes.

Even when smiling.

Of course, none of this is an excuse or an apology for why I sometimes wind up sending weird editions of the Magnetic Memory Newsletter.

But more and more I’ve become outspoken and public about Manic Depression as much as I am about Memory Palaces.

Why?

Look, it’s a stupid term.

Not even Jimi Hendrix made it sound convincing. (Sorry, Jimi).

But the fact of the matter is that there are positive and negative ions that flow through the synapses between the neurons in the human brain.

Sometimes these go fast.

Sometimes they go slow.

In some of us, they go way too fast and then too slow.

Sometimes several times in the course of a single day.

And if there is one thing I can do – and am ethically bound to do – it’s to say something about it.

No, Memory Palaces aren’t the cure.

But they are a form of preparation.

As I’ve been reading post after post about Robin Williams, the advice to the afflicted is to “get help.”

Such advice couldn’t be more right and wrong at the same time.

Why?

Because when you’re in the high, you don’t need help. And you make sure everyone who tries to tell you otherwise knows it. The list of proofs in Club Manic are exceedingly long.

And when you’re down, sometimes it’s hard even to speak. It’s easy to paint the mouth, but impossible to paint the scream going on inside.

You’ve got to prepare.

I recommend adding things like the Magnetic Memory Method to the mix.

Not just because Memory Palaces are a great means of keeping yourself centered.  Keeping yourself in the now by paying attention to this things you want to memorize in a whole new way. A way that bleeds out into everything you do when you’re watching the world for new Memory Palaces. In this way, Memory Palaces are a healthy part of creating presence in the moment.

The other reason stems from the emphasis in the MMM is on adding relaxation to the mnemonic mix. Meditation if you can. Chilling out, not taking everything so seriously. Letting your imagination be what it wants to be without judging it.

And that message is worth climbing up trees for. It’s worth tossing Magnetic coconuts into your inbox for.

Every day.

Unprofessional?

Not really.

More like anti-professional.

Just the kind of stuff you’d expect from some dude who writes books about memory skills because he knows they can change the world.

I’m hardly the first (yes, there have been crazier!)

I definitely won’t be the last.

But until next time, I remain Magnetic.

Until next time, help someone else learn about Memory Palaces. Teaching a skill is one of the best ways to learn a skill and helping people improve their memory is one of the best ways we can make the world a better place. The more we remember, the more we can remember. And the more we learn, the more we can learn.

Sincerely,

Anthony Metivier

P.S. If you know people who might benefit from memory improvement, feel free to use this Twitter link to send them the good news about Memory Palaces and exactly how to build them.

Scott Gosnell Talks About Giordano Bruno

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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, Scott Gosnell, the translator of two books by the mnemonist Giordano Bruno talks about the man, his writings and the application of his memory techniques to everyday life.

You’ll also learn:

* How to use Star Wars (or any movie you’re familiar with) as a Memory Palace.

* Why Scott’s translations of Giordano Bruno are the product of perhaps the best form of procrastination you’ll ever hear about (and maybe even be inspired to do some similar procrastination of your own for the good of humanity).

* Scott’s amazing Memory Palace technique for students, possibly the most amazing technique you could add to your studies that I’ve ever heard!

* Bruno’s idea that an intelligible system exists behind the world and how this connects to memory.

* How to use memorized objects as Memory Palace locations.

* How studying Bruno’s systems could help you coordinate your knowledge while learning to retain it.

* Why Francis Yates’ interpretation of Bruno’s activities in The Art Of Memory and Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition may not be the best way to think about his memory improvement projects.

*  Why Bruno was really interested in the psychology and neuroscience of the human mind – not magic.

* Why Bruno thought his memory system could give you an internal representation of the entire universe … or did he?

* Why Bruno felt it was a practical concern to keep your Memory Palace well lit and not place your associative-imagery on a background of the same color.

* How context sensitive cues can either help or harm your memory.

* Why Bruno likens Memory Palaces to writing so that you can scan a Memory Palace for memorized information the way you would scan a page looking for a particular word.

* Why Bruno’s execution probably had nothing – or at least very little – to do with his mnemonic systems.

* Thoughts on Bruno as a “marketer” of memory techniques.

* Why memory techniques were a very useful talent for a king to have (and still are even if you’re not a king).

* Why Bruno most likely wasn’t a spy – but probably would have made a good one had he been.

* Why Bruno thought that the Memory Palace was the best and most effective memory method available, even though he also used smaller methods like linking, lists and poetry.

*  … and much, much more.

Further Resources

De Umbris Idearum by Giordano Bruno, Translation and Introduction by Scott Gosnell

On the Infinite, the Universe and the Worlds by Giordano Bruno, Translation and Introduction by Scott Gosnell

Startup Geometry by Scott Gosnell (Forthcoming)

Scott’s De Umbris Idearum website

Scott on Twitter

Scott’s Windcastle Venture Consulting

Bottle Rocket Science

Giordano Bruno on Wikipedia

Giordano Bruno: Philosopher Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland

Hermes Trismegistus

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Novels Featuring Bruno Giordano:

Heresy by S. J. Parris (one of many in a series of books structured around Bruno)

http://youtu.be/2BblAyqO6CM

The Solitudes (The Aegypt Cycle) by John Crowley (also know as Aegypt)

Online Biography of Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno by J. Lewis McIntyre

Luca Lampariello On How To Master Any Language

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

In this week’s episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we have our third interview with language learning expert and polyglot, Luca Lampariello. And this week we’ve got something extra special because, instead of just recording the audio …

We’ve got it on video!

Take a look on YouTube or download the full MP4.

It was truly amazing to speak with Luca live in person and to offer you both the audio and the video version of our talk. For the first time ever, you’ll have a chance to learn a bit about his background, his interests outside of language learning – and even his middle name!

Of all the things I like about Luca, it’s his passion for helping people with language learning that impresses me the most. And to help people even further, he’s got a free video series for you called Master Any Language. I highly suggest you check it out and avail yourself of his fantastic approach to language learning.

As for this interview, whether you decide to watch the video or listen to the podcast version, here’s just some of what you’ll learn:

* How to find the best resources for language learning.

* The keys to competence when it comes to learning words when using the chaining technique.

* The special connection between language learning, exercise and sleep.

* How to find and place yourself in the absolutely best conditions for language learning.

* The power of cultural differences and how they can be useful for learning multiple languages at once.

* Exactly how Luca would train an actor to convincingly portray fluency in a film.

* The number one problem language learners face when first approaching a language (and its solution).

* Luca’s thoughts on memory and memorizing words.

* How to get yourself to “sit down and do it” when it comes to the key language learning activities.

* The only language learning “talents” you’ll ever need to develop and exactly how to identify and nurture them.

* How to find the small clues in words so that you can gain deep familiarity with a language rapidly.

* Luca’s special brand of spaced-time repetition.

* Why every brain is different and how to identify how yours works so you can find the best ways to learn.

* … and much, much more!

Special thanks to George for letting us use his apartment for the interview while Luca was in town!

Further Resources

Luca Lampariello on Language as a Net

Luca Lampariello on Working Memory And The Oceans Of Language

A Magnetic Little Tip On Memorizing Foreign Language Vocabulary

Kerstin Hammes Talks About The Real Meanings Of Fluency

Olly Richards Talks About Language Tech And Communication

How To Find Memory Palaces

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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn how to find more Memory Palaces, even if you live in a small town and …

… don’t want to appear creepy to the locals.

You can use the Method of Loci anywhere for language acquisition, and yet, what if you don’t have access to a big city? What if you live in the boondocks? What if you’re a prisoner and haven’t seen daylight for a hundred thousand hours?

Well, I haven’t got answers for all of these questions, but as I talk about in this episode, often the questions are more important anyway.

Why?

Because questions open up the mind. Questions trigger the search for solutions. Throw experimentation into the mix and the next thing you know, life changes. And usually for the better.

That’s why I especially admired this recent letter I received from a member of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. Give it a read as a supplement to this week’s episode, followed by a basic prose version of my answer. As always get in touch if you have any questions. I’d love to help you if I can.

The Magnetic Questions Of The Week

I’m going to apologize in advance, this email is going to be a bit long, and…I am very sorry for that. I would be, however, very grateful for your help.

I have to say this… I watched a lot of your videos, listened to a lot of podcasts, and…I honestly am pumped to get started really seriously learning Japanese vocabulary.

However…

At the risk or sounding like I’m obfuscating things…I just have a few quick and simple questions, involving the “Art of Association” itself, so to speak.

Should one prefer memory palaces, or images?

If you have looked at Japanese before, you probably have noticed that its spelling is in no way similar to western languages, so I came up with two possible ways to memorize vocabulary, but, I’d rather do things the right way, the easier and more efficient way, right from the get-go. So, in idea one, I thought of treating each kana as a sentinel, to give each one a specific image that will be tied to vocabulary. I’d create 26 memory palaces, a-z, and store words based on their first letter when transliterated. Then tie the actual first kana image, to the rest of the word. That way I can have words like yasai and yokoshiro in the same palace, with distinct “sentinel” images attached to them, to give away the first kana itself. This idea uses less palaces, but more images. And is, as I think of it, “Palace-Conservative”.

The second idea, (Don’t worry,there is only two), is “Image-Conservative”, and, the general idea, is to use a single palace for each kana. Now, there are variations to this, really, in variation 1, I only looked at the hiragana, (because katakana uses the same sounds but different symbols), and would store words based solely on the first kana in the word. (no transliteration). Including the Datuken, I would require 70 palaces. If I included “Combo-Hiragana”, I’d require 106. (Roughly). To blow this up even more, in variation 2, if I were to treat the katakana and hiragana separately, to remember the proper spelling of words (Like, which kana syllabary to use), I’d need roughly 212 palaces.

I’m brand new to memory palaces, and the magnetic memory method, and really, the “Palace Conservative” idea sounds more intuitive to me, but, haha, this is coming from a guy who thought rote learning and spaced repetition systems like Anki were the only way to go. And I really, really didn’t like them.

Memory Palace Acquisition, a problem?

For me, yes. Let me explain: I’m 21 years old. I live in a town of 5000 people. Nearest town has maybe 500 people. Nearest city, of 250,000, is 400km away. I have no car. I have no drivers license. I also have a night job, and sleep during the day. I have spent 13 years of my life here, about 8 years of my life in that small nearby town, and 4 months in Barrie. I don’t remember those 4 months very well, I was only 7, and…well, I was extremely depressed, and in short, that’s the reason I ended up back in this town to begin with.

Anyways…during the Palace Recitation exercise I was only able to come up with about 60 palaces. And I really thought about this,  with a lot of time and effort. Occasionally, 1 more might pop up, but…I believe I have pretty much maxed out now. And I really don’t want to sound pessimistic, I love this method thus far, and I can see myself using it forever, and ever…and ever. But, until I’m able to move out to a city, where I can actually just “go memory palace hunting” so to speak, I’m stumped about what to do. I don’t know if you ever lived in a small town before, but just going out and getting new friends and doing all that, is really…it’s very hard to do. For example I can’t just, you know, burst into the little high school we have and start socializing with a bunch of the kids there. It’d be…inappropriate, to say the least.

I played one of my favourite video games, Ocarina of Time, as remade for the 3DS back in 2011, and spent about an hour, really visualizing and exploring one of the “Dungeons” in the game, both as a visualization exercise, and because I may use it as an imagined memory palace. I was thinking of using many, many more buildings I have found in video games as well, but…recalling these structures adds a layer of complexity on top of storing the images…so, I wanted to know how “practical” it would be, in general, to save up a bunch of imagined memory palaces?

What about large imagined memory palaces?

Okay, so, recalling large, real buildings, is fairly easy. Our brains are tuned for that. But what about…large, imaginary buildings? I know it sounds like a no-brainer, like, “it’s imagined and it’s large and so there’s more to try and remember about the layout, so of course it’ll be harder to remember!” But, I was wondering if it’d be more practical to memorize a large imaginary palace, (Take Ocarina of Time’s Shadow Temple or Spirit Temple for example), versus, trying to memorize the layouts of say, ten or fifteen small or medium sized imaginary buildings? I suppose it depends on the volume of related information I’d want to store in it, but…if I wanted to learn about multi-threaded programming, and store it all in imagined palaces, should I store all the info across several imagined palaces, or contain it in a single, large one?

Not crossing your path, and long hallways…

On the note of not crossing your own path in memory palaces. During my “Virtual tour” of the “Shadow Temple” in ocarina of time, I realized there are many hallways and, “leaf” rooms. Or, really, a hallway that leads to a room, and that room leads to 5 more connected rooms, but the only way to get back, is to go down that hallway again. Does that…count as crossing my path? Or does it only really count, if there are stations in that hallway?

Okay I’m done bombarding you with questions for now! I hope you can answer, and…I hope they are good questions (Well, there’s no such thing as a bad question, really) but, I hope they are at least…entertaining questions or…something positive. I love you videos, your method, your website, (I also love that it is mobile-friendly), and your podcasts. I listen to them while I’m at work!

Prose Version Of My Answer

Thanks for your questions!

First off, I apologize for the lateness in my response. I was on a research trip in Italy so that I can bring more valuable ideas to the Masterclass and Mastermind. Do you know of Giordano Bruno? He had some great memory systems and I’ve been able to look at some archival documents and will be putting together something special over the coming year based on his work.

But I also fell ill and should have seen a doctor while I was there. So I am on a lot of antiobiotics now and haven’t really been able to get to the computer until yesterday and am struggling to catch up. I had seen your email and apologize for not answering it, but I was shivering in bed with fever and all manner of nastiness and really could only do the minimum. I haven’t even had a podcast up for almost three weeks and though I’ve been blessed by having lots of emails asking if I’m okay, I feel terrible about getting behind. This is my biggest passion in life and it sucks to get ill. Maybe one day I’ll have an assistant who can at least send out an email that I have to be away. But hopefully I won’t get this sick again, and no matter where I might be in the world, I will make sure to see a doctor one way or the other.

All that said, I’ll do my best to address your questions with respect to using Memory Palaces for language acquisition and we can carry forward from there if you have any more. I really appreciate them and am dedicated to helping you in every possible.

It’s great to hear that you’re excited for learning Japanese. And I like what you’re thinking.

The honest answer is that you should try both. At first glance, I think your sentinel idea is going to work better, but I still think the only way to know is to at least give a percentage of the 212 Memory Palace version you are thinking of a try.

Why?

Because it might open the floodgates in your mind in a way that will never happen if you opt for just the one. I’m going through the same experimentation phase with Kanji and I simply have to do the extra steps of trying different approaches I come up with or risk never knowing what will

a) Work best

b) Stimulate new ideas and results I could not anticipate without at least giving it a try

There’s a third way, however, and one that I don’t think you should take because you’re obviously advanced enough not to need it. And that’s to either use Romanji or the principle of homophonic transliteration to create your own Romanji. Ultimately, this can create more problems than it solves and I only recommend it to people who need to get their foot in the door in order to at least have speech recognition and the ability to speak, but since you want to read, spell and have such a high order of thinking already working for you, go with these two options and settle on the one you like best. You’ll figure it out in short order.

With respect to life north of Barrie, Ontario, I lived in Toronto for 10 years, so know your neck of the woods quite well. I’ve driven through at least 5 times throughout my life. I’ve also lived in places smaller than you, though admittedly Silver Creek is within 20 minutes of Salmon Arm by car. Of course, I had to hitchhike a lot to get there, but it was still not that big of a deal and I did wind up walking more than a few times too.

In other words, I think I understand your situation and have to say that 60 is an impressive number given the circumstances. But I think you can probably stretch it out further.

About using the school you mentioned, often schools have evening programs and public events. It’s Christmas time, so maybe you can go to the Christmas concert or take a one-day seminar. There’s probably a community events calendar available online that you can look into.

Failing that, you could just go to the principal’s office during the day, tell him about the Magnetic Memory Method and say that you need a new Memory Palace. Tell him that you know it sounds creepy, but if you could make an appointment a 4 or 4:30 after you’ve woken up and all the students are gone home to have a guided tour, that would be great. If you’re upfront with people, they’re usually very helpful, no matter how strange your story may be.

Have you tried the local hospital? You should be able to walk around in there without anybody even asking about your presence and get lots and lots of stations.

I don’t know if you’re a religious person or not, but there are often tasty snacks after the Sunday service and churches make for great Memory Palaces. I have several.

Have you covered the gas stations and restaurants? Admittedly, these aren’t the greatest, but a gas station with a restaurant can work wonders just by sitting for a cup of coffee.

Finally, when I used to walk those long stretches, I encountered many barns and I can still remember them. Even without seeing the inside of them, I know that they all have four corners and have used these corners to memorize information.

About virtual Memory Palaces, I really don’t find them practical for most things for the precise reason you’ve expressed: they add a layer of complexity. More than that, you have to rebuild them while you’re staging and decoding the associative-imagery. It makes no sense in most cases.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with it. You most certainly should. I’ve had some interesting successes with them, especially with memorizing poetry and other verbatim texts. This is because the text itself serves as a kind of aid to memory because it’s a chain. So one thing you can do is practice Virtual Memory Palaces based on video games using poetry first and then adapt them for other purposes such as vocabulary.

This represents an extra step, but I think you’ll find that it pays off in the long run. You get good with using Virtual Memory Palaces with something relatively trivial first and that lends itself to the practice and then switch the ability you’ve gained over to something more difficult. It’s kind of like how a baseball player practices swinging with 3 or 4 bats in hand so that they have more power and agility when they gear down to just one bat during the game.

About crossing your own path, the solution here is to not enter the rooms. Just glance into them. I call this at certain points in the Masterclass the “Peer vs. Enter” technique. And it literally is just that: peering in through the door and casting your mental eyes around either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the nature of your journey and then moving on. It helps a lot of people a great deal.

The other alternative is not to travel your Memory Palace at all. You don’t have to be a figure that moves along the journey. You can be like a god who lifts up the roof and then peers down at the layout, looking from room to room and station to station. There will be path-crossing issues with this too, but it is another way to think about travelling through a Memory Palace.

Back to Virtual Memory Palaces – I do have a full video about this that I haven’t uploaded to the Masterclass yet. It goes through some of the more advanced techniques and will give you some ideas. Please extend me some patience with getting it in there. There are other videos coming too that I know you’re going to love.

And to thank you for your questions, I’m going to feature them on the podcast. With any luck, I’ll be able to get that out today. I’m really glad that you enjoy it and hope that you won’t mind that I make your letter and this response the basis for an episode. But I think it would be of tremendous value to people and maybe I’ll get some more ideas as I’m talking through the material.

You’ve also given me some ideas of illustrations that I can make to better demonstrate the Peer vs. Enter technique. I’ll work on these and make them exclusive to the Masterclass.

I hope that these notes answer your questions. Please do be in touch if you have any more and let me know when that something special I put into the mailbox for you the other day arrives.

Talk soon!

Sincerely,

Anthony

P.S. Visiting this dude nearly killed me. LOL!

Further Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Previous episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast: A Magnetic Little Tip On Memorizing Foreign Language Vocabulary.

Giordano Bruno on Wikipedia

Scott Gosnell’s translation of Bruno’s De Umbris Idearum: On The Shadows Of Ideas.

Difference and Repetition by Gilles Deleuze

What is an Author? by Michel Foucault

A Magnetic Little Tip On Memorizing Foreign Language Vocabulary

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about how to use Memory Palaces to memorize foreign language vocabulary. One of the most important questions is raised and answered in-depth.

Program Notes

Today’s question involves your language of focus. When memorizing foreign language vocabulary using a Memory Palace it can be hard to settle on which language to feature along your journeys. These considerations combine a location you’re familiar with and the Method of Loci.

The inspiration for the podcast came from a reader of my book on how to learn Spanish vocabulary and memorize it. Focusing on Spanish words first and then finding the English definitions confused him, so I answer the issue in this episode. In brief, you should always focus on the target language and use images to memorize both the sound and the meaning.

How To Remember What You Learn

This is important because you want to train your mind to think in the target language by using imagery. Although you are connecting the images to your mother tongue in a real way, the stronger the images, the faster the meaning will come to mind. This effectively skips thinking about the meaning your mother tongue and drives you directly to the concept.

As I talk about in the podcast, you want to think about memory techniques as being a kind of bicycle. They involve universal principles that touch everyone the same way, but we still need to adjust them to our own uses. The Method of Loci and the Memory Palace you use for this or that language learning project will need to be adjusted to your needs and learning style.

As ever, the most important thing is to get started. Build a Memory Palace using all the tools provided by the Magnetic Memory Method. Then get started memorizing the foreign language vocabulary you’ve selected with care.

Choice Is The Ultimate Language Learning Memory Enhancer

There are lots of different ideas about how to focus on the right vocabulary. Some of the different opinions can be downright controversial. But there are also good discussions about word frequency lists and how to compile them using existing resources. Or you can create your own.

Luca Lampariello is one of my favorite teachers on the topic. And the good news is that he has been a guest on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast twice before. These episodes are called:

Luca Lampariello On Working Memory And The Oceans Of Language

Luca Lampariello On Language As A Net

Speaking of Luca, I’m looking forward to meeting with him soon for his birthday and some discussions about language learning. He also gave a great suggestion for the translation of my book, The Ultimate Language Learning Secret.

Originally my translator gave me the following choices:

Il Segreto Ultimo Per Imparare Le Lingue

Imparare Le Lingue: Il Segreto Ultimo

Imparare Le Lingue: Il Segreto Svelato

The first two are more or less literal translations. The third is roughly “Learning Languages ​​: The Secret Revealed” in English.

However, part of the trickiness of the situation involves the structure of the book. I can’t discuss more about why here, but it’s likely that each of these titles will be misleading in the end.

That’s why I’m so grateful for Luca’s suggestion, which is (drum roll, please) …

Il vero segreto di imparare le lingue

This translates more or less to: “The Real Secret To Learning Languages.” Due to the nature of how the book discusses the secret, this truly is the best title.

Thanks Luca!

Further Memory and Language Learning Resources

How to Memorize Concepts (with video)

Kirsten Hammes talks about the Real Meanings of Fluency

Olly Richards Talks About Technology and Language Learning

How To Renovate A Memory Palace

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method on iTunes or Stitcher.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, you’ll learn how to make changes to a Memory Palace you’ve already created (and when not to do this at all).

Episode Notes

Today’s episode features a question about making changes to a Memory Palace to add new information. There are at least 3 options that we discuss in detail in the podcast. These are:

1) Creating Virtual Memory Palace elements. These can include imaginary bookshelves other types of invented or imaginary stations. You place these between pre-existing stations and the information memorized at/on/beside/in or under them.

This technique will be most useful for those Memorizers who already have some experience using Virtual Memory Palace elements in combination with the Method of Loci.

2) Create a mnemonic palimpsest. Although not recommended, you can use Memory Palace stations twice. But as discussed in the episode, it’s much better to add new phrases to words. That way you’re preserving the original station and adding new material without having to add Virtual Memory Palace elements or shift things around.

3) Create new Memory Palaces. Instead of modifying existing Memory Palaces, create new ones.

For example, create 3-4 Memory Palace per letter of the alphabet. You could have:

A1

A2

A3

… and so on. Then, when you have new words to memorize, you place them in a new Memory Palace altogether. This technique works well if you want to maintain old Memory Palaces and still add new words to your vocabulary.

You can also use the Principle of Word Division with multiple Memory Palaces. Thus, you would have:

A1 = Words that start with “al”

A2 = Words that start with “an”

A3 = Words that start with “at”

… etc. …

Although multiple Memory Palaces for each letter of the alphabet may have limited appeal. But once you give it a try, you’ll find that it works a charm.

The worst that can happen is that you wind up not using some of the Memory Palaces you create. But that’s hardly a problem. It will give you a lot of practice in Memory Palace construction and you can always go back and use those Memory Palaces later.

Your mind loves this kind of exercise and the experimentation involved. You just need the mindset, the willingness and the determination to succeed and you’ll find more success than you imagined possible.

Multiple alphabetized Memory Palaces also work wonders when you’re memorizing vocabulary around themes.

For example, if you’re memorizing words based on the theme of restaurants, instead of having one Memory Palace with 50 words, you could have 5 with 10 words each. In fact, you could think of 5 restaurants that you’ve enjoyed and use these. This will create a nice connection between the theme you’re working on and the actual Memory Palaces you’re using.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. And if you want more detailed training, over 20 hours of videos and dozens of PDFs and Worksheets await you in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass.

Further Resources

7 Ways To Make Your Memory Swiss Army Knife Sharp

Method of Loci article on Wikipedia