Anthony Metivier's Blog, page 6

How to Overcome Learning Plateaus with Memory Expert Tansel Ali

Learning is a fascinating journey, but sometimes we find ourselves stuck in a rut.

When this happens, you’re lingering in what we sometimes call a learning plateau.

It’s not fun because you feel like your progress has stagnated. And the enthusiasm that once fueled your learning endeavors seems to fade away.

Don’t you worry.

With the right mindset and strategies, it’s possible to break through these plateaus and continue your educational growth.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Tansel Ali and I delve into the psychology of learning plateaus.

We explore effective techniques to overcome them and share our personal stories of learning everything from complex ideas in philosophy to getting our hands to perform difficult music.

Along the way, we empower you to reignite your passion for learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ3g9...

Understanding the Psychology of Learning Plateaus

Learning is not merely about acquiring information.

To truly learn involves complex cognitive processes and cognitive training that impact your ability to progress.

When it comes to understanding how memory works as you learn, everything comes down to optimizing how mnemonics and other memory techniques allow us to retain and retrieve information more efficiently than something like rote learning.

What’s the one of the biggest obstacles you face?

It’s not dealing with boring topics.

Usually, it’s cognitive fatigue that makes it harder to absorb new knowledge effectively. It typically haunts you when you fail to:

Eat food that improves memoryAvoid food that is bad for your brainConsistently read books that make you smarterGet sleep and exerciseUse spaced repetition effectivelyFulfill your cognitive needs

Optimizing just that small list will help improve your ability to overcome learning plateaus.

However, if you have a fixed mindset, you will impede your own progress. This kind of thinking is characterized by the belief that intelligence and abilities are fixed traits. The good news is that intelligence is not fixed, so you can change.

All you need is a growth mindset that embraces challenges, views failures as learning opportunities, and believes in the potential for personal development. Reflective thinking helps too, especially with the next step.

Identifying Signs of a Learning Plateau

One common indication is a lack of progress or improvement despite consistent effort.

You may find yourself struggling to grasp new concepts or unable to apply knowledge effectively. Additionally, a diminished interest or enthusiasm for learning can indicate the presence of a plateau. When your passion wanes, it’s crucial to address the underlying causes and reignite your curiosity.

You could also be suffering depression, which suggests you need to see a doctor. Always seek help if you think you might have this kind of issue.

Analyzing the Causes of Learning Plateaus

Usually learning plateaus come from simple issues, however.

Often, you just haven’t challenged yourself enough. Or, you’ve taken on a challenge too big and led yourself into frustration.

In The Victorious Mind, I talk about balancing the Challenge-Frustration curve.

Working on balancing it ensures that your learning journey will never become too routine and predictable. Your mind will never disengage and you will never be hindered while learning new skills.

What else?

Unfortunately, there are many charlatans out there teaching ineffective learning strategies. They think you’re naive, so they teach you pseudoscientific strategies that can impede your progress.

I’m talking about subvocalization, incorrect approaches to skimming and scanning techniques and rubbish like photographic memory.

Those ideas can be interesting to look at if you want to read faster. But usually they just lead you into the plateaus you want to escape.

You also want to take into account factors like chaotic learning environments instead of optimized study locations. Insisting on studying in suboptimal areas can also contribute to plateaus.

Overcoming Learning Plateaus: Strategies and Techniques

There are a number of powerful accelerated learning techniques to choose from.

Let’s examine some of my favorite.

Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice involves setting specific goals, breaking tasks into manageable chunks, seeking feedback, and making adjustments based on that feedback.

By focusing on deliberate practice, you will optimize the learning process and ensure steady progress. Joshua Waitzkin discusses how he mastered by chess and martial arts using this form of learning.

His book, The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance will help you set clear objectives, stay motivated and maintain a sense of direction.

Vary Your Learning Approaches

Monotony contributes to learning plateaus, so it’s essential to diversify what you learn and how you learn it.

Exploring different modalities, such as visual aids, audio materials, or hands-on experiences, stimulates engagement.

(Don’t worry if you have aphantasia. Some people disagree with me, but I’m convinced there’s an aphantasia cure).

When reading, I use interleaving every time. I literally switch between books normally every 15-20 minutes. It keeps my involvement high and it is a scientifically validated way to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U34n...

 

Cultivate a Growth Mindset

I cited a number of experts in my mental training post who promote working on a growth mindset. It truly is the foundation for continuous learning and personal growth.

Embracing challenges, setbacks, and failures as opportunities for learning is crucial to overcoming plateaus. By reframing failures as stepping stones toward improvement, you can adopt a resilient attitude and persevere through difficulties.

Nurturing a love for lifelong learning and understanding that abilities can be developed with effort and practice creates a positive environment for growth.

A lot of people don’t want to hear that they have to work on their “grit,” but it really is the case. If you need help, complete these mental strength exercises. Frankly, I don’t know where I’d be without them.

Become a “Metacognitive” Philosopher of Your Own Mind

Metacognition involves thinking about your thinking, reflecting on your learning process, and monitoring and adjusting your strategies accordingly.

I recommend you dive into this by spending some time learning philosophy. It’s probably the most important metacognitive practice out there.

By asking philosophical questions, you’ll be practicing metacognitive strategies. The process will make you a much more self-aware learner. Plus, you’ll read many fascinating philosophy books, and their challenges will naturally develop your ability to overcome plateaus.

Seeking Support and Accountability

You don’t have to deal with your learning plateaus alone. You can seek support and get accountability from others.

Your many choices include:

Engaging in peer learningCollaborating on projectsHiring a performance coachTaking a courseDiscussing on forumsStarting a group of your own and fulfilling the expectations of your membersCelebrating Progress and Milestones

Recognizing your achievements and providing yourself with rewards along the way is essential for maintaining progress. Celebrate each milestone, no matter how small. Every step signifies progress and growth.

Just be sure to choose your rewards well. Junk food will probably set you back and ruin the effort and dedication you’ve put into your learning journey.

Positive reinforcement with rewards that fuel your interests boosts confidence and propels you forward.

Can You Leave Your Learning Plateaus Behind Forever?

Ultimately, no.

Learning plateaus are a natural part of the learning process.

But as we’ve seen, they don’t have to hinder your progress indefinitely.

By understanding the psychology behind plateaus, identifying the signs, and implementing effective strategies, you can overcome these obstacles and continue your educational growth, just like Tansel and I have done.

If you want to know more about Tansel and his work, check out his homepage, his YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.

And if you need more help embracing your challenges, fostering a growth mindset, and practicing deliberate, varied, and metacognitive learning techniques, get my free course now:

Remember:

It is possible to stay consistent. There’s no shame in seeking support, and celebrating your achievements along the way.

Learning is a lifelong adventure, and plateaus always present opportunities to soar to new heights.

Spaced Repetition Is The Best Study Hack: How To Use It Perfectly

Spaced repetition learning has a great reputation for one simple reason:

It works.

But there’s a big “if” when using any spaced repetition system.

You have to use this form of rehearsal correctly.

The good news is that it’s not hard to make sure you’re bringing the most effective approach.

And the correct way of applying this spaced learning tactic is exactly what you’re going to learn on this page.

The best part?

There are some unique ways you can apply this scientifically-valid learning approach to many things you might want to learn.

Once you get it right, this memory technique will serve you well. It will be your go-to learning tool for the rest of your life.

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

https://youtu.be/2CthE_Napjg

What Is Spaced Repetition?

Spaced repetition simply means repeatedly exposing yourself to information and using active recall on an optimized schedule. In other words, “space” refers to the arrangement of time. And as a memory hack, it’s a legitimate alternative to cramming.

Scholars aren’t entirely sure, but the ancient poet Horace may have been the first to identify this principle when he reportedly said, “Repetition is the mother of learning.”

Here’s the problem:

People don’t like to repeat things over and over again. That’s called rote learning and it’s known to stunt critical thinking skills.

That’s why ancient memory techniques evolved: to optimize repetition in learning so repetition could be reduced.

But it’s not until Hermann Ebbinghaus released his study Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology that we get a scientific examination of just how many times you need to repeat information before it sticks. Basically, he memorized over 2000 nonsense syllables and worked out how much time it took him to forget them. There’s an online program you can use to try and memorize them yourself.

As Ebbinghaus put it, retention has a number, and this number can be increased by defeating what is now called the forgetting curve. Ebbinghaus first described this effect in 1885, and you can still read articles from scientists working to optimize how we repeat information.

Learning to use spaced repetition to defeat the Forgetting Curve started in earnest with the research of Hermann Ebbinghaus.

As Ebbinghaus tracked his rate of forgetting, certain principles emerged that enabled him to remember information for longer periods of time while at the same time reducing the required amount of exposure needed to retain the information. Spaced repetition thus entered its infancy.

How Spaced Repetition Learning Turns Your Brain Into a Powerful Memory Device

As Ebbinghaus and many other scientists have shown, looking at information you need to learn coupled with retrieval practice works to form neurochemical connections in the brain.

Scientists think that the majority of the bonds in your brain form while you are sleeping, a process known as memory consolidation. This is why you sometimes get the advice to study before you go to sleep.

Many people have worked out different repetition and retrieval patterns to try and optimize the system. Some people find that randomness works best, while other studies show that regular intervals provide much faster results.

Spacing the amount of time between exposure and recall is the core of the Pimsleur Method and learning software like Anki. It’s also at the core of the Leitner System and the similar Zettelkasten technique.

The Leitner spaced repetition system helps you manage your exposure by placing accurate and inaccurate flashcards in boxes.

Ultimately, scientists and memory experts don’t know exactly why spacing out our learning periods work. We just know that it does.

Even better, we know how to improve learning revisions sessions, which we’ll discuss soon.

How to Choose the Right Spaced Repetition Schedule for You

The first step is to choose how you’re going to engage in spaced repetition learning. You can do it by:

Manually setting the reviews times in your calendarFlashcardsUsing a spaced repetition softwareUsing a Leitner or Zettelkasten systemUsing a Memory Palace system

No matter what you choose, here are some suggested schedules.

Schedule #1: Irregular Spacing

When learning and coming back to the material, you can space out your exposure and retrieval in irregular doses. In other words, you can randomly choose to review material on an irregular pattern like:

After one dayAfter three daysAfter two daysAfter seven daysAfter five daysAfter one day, etc.Schedule #2: Regular Spacing

As cited above, some studies find that regular rehearsal patterns work better when you want to memorize something fast.

Dominic O’Brien, creator of the Dominic System for memorizing numbers, teaches what he calls the Rule of Five:

Once a day for five daysOnce a week for five weeksOnce a month for five months

There’s nothing magic about the number five, however. You could easily change it to two or seven. The point is that the intervals are regular instead of irregular.

I personally modify this approach for many of own learning projects by repeating new information 5 times a day for the first 5 days. I find this incredibly effective, especially for language learning or tough things like Morse Code.

Schedule #3: Blended Spacing

There are many kinds of information where you don’t have to choose irregular or regular spacing. You can combine the two for maximum effect.

Often, the blending will happen naturally. For example, if you’re using graded readers in language learning, you will naturally receive additional exposure.

A similar effect will happen when reading any book with terms you’re memorizing. You can revisit them on a regular pattern and also get random exposure as you study the topic over time. This kind of blended exposure is ideal whenever you can get it.

In other words, the best repetition schedule is really not one or the other, but both.

The Most Effective Way to Use Spaced Repetition

Once you’ve settled on how you’re going to use the spaced repetition method and decided on the scheduling, it’s time to optimize the entire process.

Many people make a huge mistake:

They simply expose themselves to the information they’re trying to learn. This activity is closer to rote learning, and although it can work, isn’t fun or all that interesting.

Here’s what to do instead.

Step #1: Elaborate While Learning

Never simply read the information. Always interact with it by using mnemonic imagery.

For example, if you’re learning a new word like “brachial plexus,” imagine stomping on brakes made out of plexiglass.

This process is called elaborative rehearsal and it makes information very sticky, very fast. To get better at it, give these elaboration exercises and visualization exercises try.

If you’re skeptical, Dr. David Reser and Tyson Yunkaporta have published research demonstrating that medical students who did this retained far more information than a control group.

In that study, participants used a journey method, which is like the Memory Palace technique. It’s well worth making mnemonic devices like that part of the elaboration process for best results.

And listen, if you can’t quite picture what I mean, here are some powerful Memory Palace examples for you.

Step #2: Let Your Chosen Amount of Time Pass

This part is simple. You really don’t have to do anything. You can go have fun with your friends, play games, music or check out a movie.

Or, as we discussed above, you can get some sleep to help your memories form faster.

Step #3: Recall Your Elaborations First

Here’s two errors a lot of people make:

They look at the information before trying to recall it during the next rehearsal, or…They try to recall the information without using their elaborations as part of the process

You can form memories faster by avoiding these two errors.

When it comes time to review your learning material, don’t look at your flash cards or spaced repetition software first. Instead, write out what you remember from memory first.

This challenge, which is part of active recall, will help you learn the material faster. It’s also a means of boosting your concentration as you study.

Even if you make a mistake, you will still benefit. In fact, making mistakes helps you learn faster because it causes you to think about what went wrong and how to fix the issue.

When writing out your answers, make sure it’s on paper. Research has demonstrated you will learn faster by using a notebook than a tablet or computer.

Step #4: Add Other Repetition Opportunities

I learned very fast in university because some of the places I used to study involved groups of my peers. We would talk about what we were learning and listen to each other. This simple act rapidly improved memory formation.

You can also seek out additional books, podcasts and video tutorials related to your topic.

Finally, write summaries as much as you can. You don’t have to build an elaborate blog to do this. You can leave comments on videos you’ve learned from or share in social media posts.

These are highly overlooked forms of spaced repetition that are very powerful. Please make use of them.

Step #5: Take Test Exams

No matter what you’re learning, you can find sample exams or come up with your own. Self-testing a fantastic form of spaced repetition that gives you rapid feedback.

In fact, you can manually schedule a bunch for yourself and automate reminders so you don’t forget.

Step #6: Visit Your Professor

One of my favorite unconventional memory strategies as a student was regularly taking advantage of office hours.

You might not naturally think of doing this as spaced repetition, but so long as you’re pulling what you’re discussing from memory, that’s what it will be.

And please don’t think this is weird. Teachers and professors regularly have refresher courses and go to conferences precisely because they too need repeated exposure to knowledge. They cannot keep it fresh in memory without themselves regularly visiting the topics of their expertise.

Start Using Spaced Repetition for Memory Recall

The truth is that we’re always repeatedly encountering different kinds of information that we already know.

Spaced repetition studying simply optimizes the process.

Please don’t worry about getting your first spaced repetition schedule 100% correct. It’s not a learning practice like that.

What matters is that you bring a decent amount of regularity to the process and that you use the specific steps we discussed above.

People who get poor results from this form of learning usually aren’t elaborating the material with mental imagery. Or they’re not recalling information in the flow you now know to use.

At first, you may find doing things this way a bit counterintuitive.

But don’t worry. Before you know it, you’ll feel like you’ve been doing it forever.

And you can apply it to rapidly learning many things in life. For example, I used it a lot when giving my presentations as a university professor. And it was an essential tactic for memorizing a speech I gave for TEDx in Melbourne.

Spaced repetition also has applications in the deliberate practice we use to learn music and choreography.

Wherever there is learning, there is space for highly optimized spaced repetition.

If you’re attracted to this process, check out how the ancient art of memory can help by grabbing your FREE Memory Improvement Kit now:

It will help you master the best spaced repetition system of them all:

The one you use purely in your mind thanks to the Magnetic Memory Palace technique.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to learn faster and remember more with the best that ancient wisdom and the contemporary science of learning has to offer?

Dive in and repeat with highly optimized spatial abandon!

What is a Mind-Mapping Method? The Ultimate Guide to Using This Powerful Tool

Do you ever wonder, “what is mind mapping” exactly?

Well, imagine you’re listening to a history lecture. Instead of taking notes, your fingers itch to make a mindmap of World War I events as you hear them.

But how do you draw mind maps?

And, can mind maps alone boost your memory, learning power, and creativity?

In this article, you’ll explore a complete guide to mind mapping, how to draw one, including multiple examples of mind maps. We’ll also examine whether mind mapping alone can improve your brainpower and creativity, and what else you can do.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

What is Mind Mapping?Benefits of Mind MappingWho, When, and How to Make a Mind MapTools You Can Use for Mind MappingCan Mind Mapping Alone Improve Your Memory?How to Combine a Mind Map with the Major SystemYours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What is Mind Mapping?

Mind mapping is a simple, visual way to organize your ideas for better clarity and recall. Mind maps focus on only one central concept or idea and are based on radial hierarchies and tree structures.

What does all that mean? Let’s get into the details.

A Brief History and Definition of Mind Mapping Methods

The practice of drawing radial maps to map information goes back several centuries.

Some people credit the first mind maps to the 3rd-century philosopher Porphyry of Tyros. Ramon Llull, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Isaac Newton also used mind mapping techniques. Much later, in the 1960s, scientists Allan Collins and Ross Quillian developed the semantic network into mind maps.

However, it was psychology consultant Tony Buzan who first popularized the term “mind map.” Buzan drew colorful, tree-like structures called radial trees where a central topic branched out to several sub-topics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgG8G...

The Tony Buzan Learning Center defines their Mind Map® as “a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain. It harnesses the full range of cortical skills – word, image, number, logic, rhythm, color, and spatial awareness – in a single, uniquely powerful manner.”

These pictorial representations introduced by Buzan are now being used by students, teachers, engineers, psychologists, and others in many ways.

So, what does a mind map look like?

Examples of Mind Maps

A mind-mapping exercise is colorful and engaging. And, the result looks analytical and artistic at the same time.

Here are some great examples of how fun and engaging mind maps can be. Some of them look messy — but look deeper and you’ll see they are examples of detailed trains of thought.

Source: Tony Buzan Learning Center

 

Source: MindMapArt

 

Source: MindMapArt

 

Source: BiggerPlate

These fascinating examples are colorful, though in some cases, also quite visually overwhelming.

That’s why I’ve pared down my own style, and am glad I got Tony Buzan’s seal of approval after doing so:

Anthony Metivier with a Buzan-style Mind Map

 

But you might be asking: aren’t these the same as spider maps, concept maps, and other such visualizations?

No. There are some key differences.

Why are Mind Maps Effective?

Nobel prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry’s research proved that visual forms of note making are more effective than written methods.

He showed that the brain is divided into two hemispheres that perform cortical skills like logic, imagination, color recognition, and others. These functions work in sync when you mindmap your thoughts, creating a lasting impression in your brain.

Mind maps are effective because:

They nudge you to ditch the usual, bullet-point style of thinking, which pushes you to use your creativity.They are presented in a brain-friendly format — and people can grasp the linkages quickly.They let you see the bigger picture.They keep you focused on key issues.They give you time for “diffuse thinking” as you pause to change colors and reflect on keywords and images.And, they help you retain and recall more information through patterns and associations.

Next, let’s look at why mind mapping can be beneficial.

Benefits of Using a Mind Mapping Method

Years of research have gone into testing the effectiveness of mind mapping.

In a 2005 study by G. Cunningham, 80% of the students agreed that mind mapping helped them understand science concepts better.

Paul Farrand proved the efficacy of mind mapping as a study technique and encouraged its use in medical curricula.

Mind maps are known to help you to improve your productivity at work, academic success, and even to manage your life.

Here’s how you could apply it in your day-to-day life:

Note Taking: You can map out notes from a podcast, a project discussion, or a seminar.Brainstorming: Helps in real-time collaboration with your team members to make informed business decisions.Studying: You can summarize books.Presenting information to an audience: Use it to get your team’s buy-in for anything through clear narratives.Problem-solving: Sometimes, it helps if you map out your current situation and your desired situation separately. This will help you come up with solutions easily.Increasing creativity: The words, images, and colors you use let you see the information from a very different perspective.Planning: Plan your holiday or your next sales strategy using mind maps.Language learning: Use a simple, 12-point mind map to combine 12 vocabulary words with the Major System. Here’s how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I7h9...

Who, When, and How to Make a Mind Map

Now that you have a fair idea of mind maps, let’s understand who should use it, as well as when and how.

Who Should Use Mind Maps?

Mind maps are particularly helpful for those who:

Remember a visual image or a diagram better than written pieces.(Or need practice becoming more visual.Deal with lots of information or a project that needs more clarity.Need to brainstorm for ideas from others to build a bigger project or solution.

Mind mapping has also proven useful for dyslexic students and those with ADHD.

When Should You Use Mind Maps?

Create mind maps when you need to achieve some goal — to understand your course material or project better, or to assess the ideas from brainstorming sessions.

Remember — mind mapping isn’t the end goal by itself.

And don’t spend too much time perfecting it. If it takes too long, it may hamper your creative thinking.

How to Make a Mind Map

Drawing a mind map is pretty straightforward.

For example, if you want to prepare a meeting agenda take a blank page and follow these basic steps:

Draw a bubble in the middle of the page with the title of your meeting.Branch out with new bubbles from the central theme, with each branch representing the topics you want to address.Draw lines to connect each of them to the middle bubble.Add new ideas starting from the general to the specific.Repeat this for each subtopic branching out from the topics.Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What are the Rules for Mind Mapping?

Mind maps are meant to be hierarchical and show relationships among pieces of the whole.

What are the guidelines you can use?

Tips for Drawing a Mind Map

Here are some mind mapping rules to make your mind map project expressive and compelling.

Use colors, illustrations, and pictures: Some of the most effective mind maps have more doodles and symbols than words.Keep the topics and sub-topics brief: Stick to a single word each, or just a picture instead of long phrases or sentences.Keyword for branches: Name your branches or lines using a keyword each.Use different text sizes and alignment: Provide as many visual cues as you can to emphasize important points.Use symbols: Draw symbols like arrows and shapes to classify your thoughts.Space it out: Leave enough negative space between your idea bubbles.Highlight important stuff: Highlight important branches or bubbles with borders or colors.Create linear lists: You can create linear hierarchies using bullet points and numbered lists.Mix up word sizes and fonts: Add in hierarchies of words using different font sizes to highlight their importance.Use varying cases: Use lower and upper cases to highlight the importance of ideas.

Every little effort you put into your mind map project will engage your brain. And, all these visual aids will make your mind map more memorable and easier to recall.

Now, do you draw mind maps on paper, or is there a diagramming tool to do it?

The answer is: both.

Tools You Can Use for Mind Mapping

You can draw mind maps by hand, just like note-taking during a lecture.

Or you can use websites or mobile phone apps to do it.

Traditional Mind Maps

Nothing is as comforting as putting pen to paper when an idea strikes you. This is, in fact, the simplest way to map your ideas.

It is your personal project — your thoughts, handwriting, and your doodles. You can create it yourself or in groups on a whiteboard during a brainstorming session.

The pen-and-paper method works perfectly most of the time, but it does have limitations:

You may not have enough space on the paper to expand your thoughts.You can’t make too many corrections.And, it may not always be presentable enough to share in a formal meeting.

The other option is to use mind mapping software — websites and apps.

Mind Mapping Software

Mind mapping apps and websites help you organize your ideas and store large amounts of data in a single location.

What makes for great mind mapping software?

The best mind mapping tools…

Allow you to create a wide network of ideas, facts, and connections.Let you make quick changes through automatic spatial organization and hierarchical structuring (particularly useful while brainstorming).Let you play with fonts and colors, and even drag and drop files into the mind mapping program.Which are the Best Mind Mapping Software Tools?

Here are three of the best online mind mapping tools available today:

1. MindManager by MindJet: This tool is for business users — a professional mind map maker with MS Office integration. You could even pick a mind map template in the tool to get started.

Source: MindManager

2. XMind: This mind mapping tool has a simple interface and is mainly for enterprise-level users. It lets you convert your mind maps to a Gantt chart that shows the start and end dates and progress of each task.

You can even use a countdown timer to time your sessions on this mind mapping software (this will keep you focused and will stop you from spending too much time mind mapping and brainstorming).

Source: XMind

3. Scapple: This mind mapping tool was built for writers by a writers group called “Literature and Latte.” It is easy to use and comes with great features (minus embedding audio and video).

With this mind mapping application, you’re not limited to starting with a central theme. You can begin with a small idea, then work backward to reach the main idea.

Source: Scapple

You could also experiment with an open-source free mind mapping tool like FreeMind or Coggle.

The point is this: there are a lot of options. For an example of one teacher who uses software and teaches with a specific focus on personal develop is Joseph Rodrigues. Here’s one of his best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvDcP...

Mind Map + Memory Palace = Magnetic Memory

A mind map is an excellent non-linear visual representation of your ideas that mimics the way your brain thinks.

Once you master it (whether you use a notebook or a mind mapping software), you’ll never go back to linear note-taking ever again. But, mind mapping alone may not boost your brainpower as much as when combined with the Magnetic Memory Method. If you need more mind map examples, we have plenty.

Ready to use this combination to fire up your memory, creativity, and learning? Sign up for my free memory improvement kit today!

The 8 Best Memory Palace Books to Supercharge Your Brain

Are you looking for the best Memory Palace book to help you keep your memory razor-sharp?

Ask any search engine, and it will throw up plenty of memory improvement book recommendations with techniques that may or may not work for you.

Which one do you choose?

And, could there be any alternative ways to train your brain to remember and recall everything you want to?

In this article, I’ll give you eight Memory Palace book recommendations to make your search easier. I’ll also show you three alternative ways to sharpen your brain.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

8 Best Books to Learn Memory Techniques and Improve Your Memory3 Better Ways to Improve Your Memory

Let’s get started.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.8 Best Memory Palace Books

Several authors – including Mira Bartok, Dominic O’Brien, and Joshua Foer – dive deep into the concept of Memory Palaces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqZ8x...

Here’s my pick of 8 excellent books on memory improvement for you to read. A compilation of these could create a treasure trove of memory improvement ideas, including the art of building memory palaces.

Let’s get right to it with my first recommendation.

1. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

First published in 2011, Joshua Foer’s bestseller debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for eight weeks.

In his engaging writing style, Foer will take you on a fascinating journey through how the mind of a memory champion works. He goes in-depth about the mnemonic techniques they use to store memories.

A freelance science journalist, Foer learned the technique of memory training while researching the US Memory Championship. At the contest, Foer observed how people would memorize an entire deck of cards in just a couple of minutes.

This fascinated him and got him thinking whether the skill could be learned. Foer discovered that individuals who aced memory contests used special strategies handed down from the ancient Greeks to visualize things.

Most people use Memory Palaces by visualizing a structure (such as their home) in their mind — these Memory Palaces usually have several different rooms and people inside who represent what they are trying to remember.

He decided to test his own memory power.

A year later, he won the US Memory Championships against champion ‘mental athletes’ who could memorize the exact order of ten shuffled decks of cards in less than an hour.

The book draws on thorough research, the history of memory studies, and various tricks of mental champions.

2. The Art of Memory by Frances A. Yates

Published in 1966, this book is still referenced in influential memorization guides and books today.

The author, France A. Yates, traces the development of the mnemonic systems from the Simonides of Ceos era through the Renaissance until the 17th century when scientific methods were initiated.

This is the oldest mnemonic strategy and is also known as the method of loci.

The book narrates the story of Simonides, who was hired by a nobleman to read poems during a banquet. After the reading, he was asked to go outside to meet someone. Before he could re-enter the banquet hall, it collapsed, killing everyone inside.

All the bodies were mangled beyond recognition. The story goes that Simonides used his memory to of every person that was killed. He realized the importance of recalling facts based on their locations or the method of loci.

These ideas hold good even now.

For example, if a defense lawyer needs to recall evidence during a trial, he can first create mental images of a place familiar to him – maybe his home – and peg each piece of evidence to a room. During the trial, he can then recall those pieces of evidence by mentally walking through his house.

But there’s more to it than memory stunts for winning court cases. Witness…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3GGc...

3. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan Spence

In this book, the author explores the story of a Jesuit priest named Matteo Ricci who lived during the 16th century, and how he used special mnemonic memory techniques to convert the Chinese to Christianity.

The priest joined the new Catholic order, the Society of Jesus, in 1571 and studied law in Rome. At that time, the order was quite young and needed to widen its influence. To ensure this, it would send young priests into the world to convert people to Catholicism.

The story goes that Ricci became a willing member of that mission and sailed to China as a missionary. For more than three decades, he used his vibrant personality to convert the Chinese to Catholicism. I imagine he knew a lot about how to memorize speeches.

During his efforts, the Jesuit priest believed he could convert more people by impressing them with his learning. That was when he started to use mnemonic devices to memorize huge amounts of information.

One of his key tasks was to convey basic Christian principles to the Chinese people in a manner they could appreciate and learn from. So he turned to memorization techniques for help.

He taught the Chinese people the art of creating memory palaces through images in their heads, helping them store several pieces of information in their mind and be able to recall it later.

The images acted as a narrative or a story helping the Chinese understand the Bible and its teachings through their own cultural and spiritual norms.

4. How to Remember Anything by Mark Channon

In this book, memory grandmaster and author Mark Channon focuses on how a radically improved memory can add more value to anyone’s personal and professional life.

It is filled with memorization techniques that teach you how to recall numbers, dates, and facts, as well as ideas on how to remember them by using different processing strategies.

This makes the book one of the most practical ones on the art of memory improvement.

It comes with innovative exercises that can build the confidence and vocabulary of readers. It also includes core strategies that can make memories and mental images more ‘magnetic’.

5. Unlock Your Amazing Memory: The Fun Guide That Shows Grades 5 to 8 How to Remember Better and Make School Easier by Brad Zupp

If your children are struggling with learning in school, this book has plenty of ideas you could use.

It outlines powerful strategies that can improve memorization skills while making it a fun activity. The techniques teach them to remember what they see, read, and hear – three traits that can result in better grades and more confidence in classroom settings.

These strategies are scientifically proven and claim to have helped thousands of students — those who want to improve their grades, who are forgetful, lack motivation, prefer some subjects over others, feel stressed out or bored in class, and those who have a hard time completing their homework on time.

The book is based on The Feats of Memory show which is an assembly program that was created by the author, Brad Zupp himself. Teachers who have used his techniques say that it transformed the way their students processed their lessons and made tremendous improvements.

The guide also dives into the main issues that affect our attention spans – our memory and focus. This makes it especially useful for students in grades 5 to 8. Children in grades 3 and 4 can also benefit from it with some help from parents and teachers.

6. The Victorious Mind: How To Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being by Anthony Metivier

So maybe it’s cheating a little bit to include your own book, but if you’re looking for the best books to help you learn memory techniques it’s one I highly recommend!

The Victorious Mind tells the story of how I overcame the mental distress that imprisoned me in a “highly functioning manic-depressive” identity and almost took my life. I used just three practices to do so: self-inquiry meditation, memory training, and “biohacking.”

But more than a story of self-transformation, it offers detailed guidance through the techniques I used to release myself from the haze of lithium along with the illusion of self.

This book is ideal not just for those struggling with mental illness but for anyone suffering mental malaise – whether it’s digital amnesia and scatterbrain, depression, or “control freakism.”

Apart from these six, you could also read any other book on memory improvement you may find interesting.

One additional example is The Memory Palace: A Memoir by artist and children’s book author Mira Bartok, which talks about her traumatic brain injury after an accident, finding her mother who suffers from schizophrenia in a women’s shelter, and a poignant comment Bartok hears at her mother’s memorial service. Here, Bartok uses a Memory Palace as a metaphor.

7. Mnemonic Methods by Robert Fludd

Like Giordano Bruno, Robert Fludd believed it was possible to know and understand everything. That said, he also included a twist on the notion of “everything” by suggesting that we need to also know how to contend with two other things:

NothingnessIncoming information

The nothingness part is a bit complicated because he basically says that nothing is always a something. Philosopher Eugene Thacker has explained how this concept works in more detail than we need to get into here.

In Mnemonic Methods, translator Paul Ferguson has cut out everything from Fludd’s The Metaphysical, Physical, and Technical History of the Two Worlds, the Major as well as the Minor that doesn’t have to do with memory.

This helps us as readers focus only on Fludd’s mnemonic ideas, and they are powerful.

In brief, Fludd helps the reader establish:

Memory Palace systemsAlphabet pegwordsA number shape system

These days most of us memorize numbers with the Major Method and build that mnemonic system out to a PAO System. Nonetheless, Fludd’s mnemonic examples are great to go through and can help you arrive at ideas of your own.

8. The Hermetic Art of Memory

I was delighted when Lewis Masonic sent me The Hermetic Art of Memory. Here’s a full video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArFTg...

I will endeavor to get a written version of that review up soon, and can tentatively announce that some of what I’ve learned from it will appear in my own next book.

But for now, let’s talk about…

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.What To Do Next

All these books on memory are sure to give you a wonderful insight into the art of brain training using mnemonic techniques, including Memory Palaces.

However, let’s face the facts:

Learning something by reading a long book may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Unless you diligently make notes and push yourself to try out the instructions, your chosen Memory Palace book will end up being just a dusty one on your bookshelf.

What could be more achievable is this:  Make a few small lifestyle changes, or learn from online videos and courses that you can re-read quickly or listen to any time.

Here are three alternative ways to improve your memory based on lifestyle that could be far easier to implement. Work with these and you almost certainly will be able to read more books, more often and get more out of them.

3 Better, Alternative Ways to Improve Your Memory

A few lifestyle changes, and creating Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method regularly will help you sharpen your memory with just a little daily effort from you.

Let’s look at three ways you can do this.

1. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is about listening to your mind and body, being aware of your surroundings, and being completely present in the moment you live in. Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn calls it “moment to moment non-judgmental awareness”.

Practicing mindfulness meditation for just 10-20 minutes a day can work wonders on your memory. You can also do it while doing your daily chores – just by stopping for a minute to take in the sensation of whatever you’re doing – eating a meal, walking to work, or driving down a busy road.

Mindfulness is known to increase blood flow to the brain. It can strengthen the network of blood vessels in your cerebral cortex and reinforce memory capacity.

Meditation reduces stress on your brain and can be effective in improving memory — even after a brain injury.

A recent study proved that mindfulness improves your working memory. A few participants spent a few weeks learning to focus on breathing and body sensations, being aware of what was happening around them, and redirecting their attention when they were distracted.

After this, they took memory tests that clearly showed an improvement in short-term memory and a slight increase in hippocampus volume.

And just so you know that I walk my talk on this one, here you see me recite 32 verses of Sanskrit in front of a live audience while meditating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgNQ9...

It is really fun and made so much more powerful when you combine meditation with a Memory Palace strategy!

2. Try Word Puzzles and Games

Word puzzles like crosswords, word association games, and Scrabble can stimulate your brain. They activate parts of the brain that deal with vocabulary and word finding, forcing the brain to stay active. It can delay any cognitive decline due to aging and mental illness.

Research proves that using crossword puzzles to teach a second language is an effective strategy of vocabulary instruction. Paper-based and interactive puzzles are used frequently in language teaching, to make learning interesting for teaching spelling rules, lexical meanings, and synonyms.

Opt for the old-school way of doing it — use newspapers or puzzle books you can scribble on, rather than mobile apps that pop up distracting ads or tempt you to switch away to social media.

Remember to vary the type and difficulty of word puzzles frequently. Once you’re an expert at simple crosswords, go for more cryptic ones.

3. Build Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method

Memory Palace is a powerful mnemonic tool to develop and use your spatial memory in a way that unlocks the power of autobiographical memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and more. You can also move information into long-term memory faster for years to come.

Building Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method will provide you with the ultimate organizational system for learning, committing things to long-term memory, and recalling anything.

The trick is to associate information to parts of a location you’re familiar with. This helps your brain file things to remember them easily.

So if you’re learning a new language, peg all words related to travel on your living room sofa, words related to the weather on your dining table, and so on. You could use familiar locations so that you spend your time in quickly memorizing a lot more information, and reduce cognitive load.

The more you practice mnemonic methods for learning and recalling vocabulary, routes, names, and so on, the easier the process becomes.

Improve Your Memory Magnetically with These Books on Memory Improvement

The six books on memory recommended above (and any others like the one by Bartok) will give you a good understanding of the history of memory improvement techniques and ideas on how to build Memory Palaces.

But, creating memory palaces regularly using the Magnetic Memory Method can be the quickest and most effective way to learn, memorize, and recall anything.

If you’d like to get started (for free), sign up for my memory improvement kit.

And before you go, please let me know:

What are your favorite memory improvement books?

Does Reading Make You Smarter?: 14 Books to Boost Your Brain

Does reading make you smarter?

Obviously “yes,” right?

In reality, the answer is more nuanced and quite surprising:

Reading always has an effect on your intelligence. But not always a positive one.

Today, we’re going to focus on the positive ways that reading boosts your intelligence, but one point will help us frame the discussion correctly.

And it’s an important one because history shows that dictators with dark agendas have used reading to make people duller.

For example, George Orwell wrote 1984 to highlight how propaganda worked in Stalinist Russia. Winston Smith works at the “Ministry of Truth” where his job is to remove the truth from newspapers.

As a result, citizens are subjected to rote learning en masse and their intelligence is harmed.

We need to keep Orwell’s allegory in mind when we think about how to improve our intelligence through reading.

With so many people glued to their devices and battling digital amnesia, it can be hard to know whether your reading choices are going to make you smarter or not.

That’s why today we’re going to look at exactly how reading can make you smarter. I’ll share some of the books that are most likely to do it.

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

Does Reading Make You Smarter?

Generally, consistent reading has been shown to improve cognitive ability.

And as Keith Stanovich famously showed with his Matthew Effects, children who we start off with strong reading skills develop stronger vocabulary and comprehension skills over time. Those who don’t, may have a hard time catching up. It’s like the old saying, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” but applied to reading. It’s worth reading his original paper on the matter.

But is Stanovich right?

Not necessarily, and that’s because reading isn’t just about young people. And reading to increase your intelligence is never just about reading.

Reading is just one part of a larger project. And it’s one you can start to help become smarter at any age.

In fact, one long-term study found that older adults enjoyed better cognition, critical thinking and verbal intelligence by reading consistently.

How to Read Consistently – At Any Age

When I was a kid, we used to have U.S.S.R.

(An ironic acronym, I know, given what I warned us about regarding Orwell’s allegory about Stalin in the intro.)

The teachers at my school used this term for:

UninterruptedSilentSustainedReading

No matter how distracting the modern world gets, U.S.S.R. remains one of my key ways to keep focused while reading.

Key point: taking the time to schedule time for uninterrupted reading is itself intelligent.

All you need after that is to make sure you have a solid note taking strategy and books that actually have the ability to boost your intelligence.

In a book called Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, Maryanne Wolf makes the point that you also need to “think beyond” reading itself. And I agree.

7 Ways Reading Books Makes You Smarter

What does it mean to go beyond reading?

Simple: good books that improve your smarts always get you to take action. Even if that action is nothing more than thinking about what you’re reading.

Here’s a list of things that books do to make your smarter and why additional action is always involved.

One: Exercise Your Imagination

I first read Orwell’s 1984 in grade 11. I don’t think my imagination had ever been stretched quite so far.

Imagining the scenarios described in a novel like that can’t help but make you smarter because they involve counterfactual thinking.

Many non-fiction books stretch the imagination too. Gödel Escher Bach, although quite old, still has many relevant things to say about math, self-reference and Artificial Intelligence. It uses images and short stories to help you imagine very difficult concepts and was so successful that it won a Pulitzer Prize.

Two: Increase Your Vocabulary

In my writing on how to read faster, I’ve shown the most likely way to pick up speed and still understand what you’re reading: More vocabulary.

The good news is that it’s fast and easy to memorize vocabulary.

That said, memorizing vocabulary comes with some conditions (each of which will make you smarter).

As Stanislas Dehaene makes clear in Reading in the brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention, kids and language learners also need to learn syntax and morphology.

Three: Connects You to Others

Even if you never talk to another person about what you’re reading, you’re still connected to the author.

But for maximizing the benefits, you’ll have conversations about what you’re reading. This will give your verbal memory a great workout while deepening your relationships.

Not only that, but people will be able to share their reading experiences with you. Often the best book recommendations come from conversations that spark memories and ideas in the minds of other readers.

Even if you don’t have a large circle of friends, there are local bookshop owners and librarians who love speaking about books. Don’t be shy.

Four: Improved Comprehension

Reading improves understanding in a couple of ways.

First, if you work on developing your vocabulary, you’ll recognize more words and the connections between them.

But reading consistently is also a form of spaced repetition that builds pattern recognition.

I mentioned Gödel Escher Bach, for example. When I later started reading The Road to Reality by Sir Roger Penrose, I noted similar ideas emerging. Without having done the previous reading, I probably would have gotten quickly lost.

Now, taking on challenging reading raises a “chicken or the egg” problem: When should you start taking on challenging reading and which are the best books to start reading?

For myself, I push myself a little to take on books I think are too hard for me. If I find myself understanding little or nothing, I then scale back and find a simpler introduction.

But usually, I’m able to keep moving forward, and Penrose thinks so too. He mentions the problem of people talking themselves out of continuing to read in The Road to Reality, and he’s right. At some point, you’ve got to read so that you might understand in order to break free of the chicken vs. egg loop.

Five: Epic Critical Thinking

One major reason people don’t think critically involves passive reading instead of active reading.

But the Renaissance memory master Giordano Bruno taught active reading using questioning – and he suggested we question literally everything. It’s a simple thing, but his ars combinatoria (technique of combinations) included a consistent pattern of asking what you read:

WhoWhatWhereWhenWhyHow

These questions are well known, and they will improve your intelligence – and that’s because intelligence is dynamic, not fixed. But only if you ask them while reading. So not asking questions like these is just one of several critical thinking barriers to avoid. Now that you know to keep asking these simple questions, you’re able to benefit a lot more from your reading.

Keep in mind that critical thinking also needs to be done when you’re not reading. As Bacon said:

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Many philosophy books need more digestion, so don’t be afraid to take your time. I’ve had many times when insights suddenly connected years after reading a book.

Six: Boost Concentration

When using the U.S.S.R. model, a key benefit is how reading without interruption improves your focus while reading. There are a number of tactics you can add, such as the “Thor’s Hammer” technique and the “Pinch technique.” I demonstrate both in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAsBO...

Seven: Self Esteem

There are many other benefits to reading. But one of the smartest that makes reading worth your time is how reading can make you feel better about yourself.

As in all things, what you read needs to be considered.

And let’s face it, if something you read makes you feel badly about yourself, you might have dopamine issues or other problems that reading can’t fix.

But generally, a wide variety of reading will help you encounter the many aspects of humanity, good and bad.

The more you extend your field of reference, the more you’ll see yourself in the larger context of humanity. Even just picking up seemingly trivial facts can help you discover new ways of thinking and activities to try and it’s hard for your self esteem not to go up.

With all that in mind, let’s look at some of my favorite reads for increasing intelligence.

14 Books to Read to Increase Your Intelligence

Before we get into this list, it’s important to understand that finding the best books comes down to your goals.

Ask yourself: “What do I want to get smarter about?”

From there, reading on any topic is pretty much a win-win, provided that you’re consistent. You’ll quickly learn who the leading experts are. And even if you read something poor in quality or depth of understanding, you’ll start developing the pattern recognition needed to spot that.

In other words, there are no bad books. Only opportunities for reflective thinking after reading anything on your list.

Okay, enough advice. Here are some books I think anyone will benefit from on the quest to be smarter in a variety of areas.

Happiness Beyond Thought by Gary WeberMastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock HolmesThe Brain that Changes Itself by Norman DoidgeLearning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley and Terence SejnowskiIntellectuals and Society by Thomas SowellPrinciples by Ray DalioMemory Craft by Lynne KellyInfinity by Brian CleggPlato’s RepublicThe Evolution of Modern Metaphysics by Adrian MooreCreating Great Choices by Jennifer Riel and Roger L. MartinHow Enlightenment Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newberg and Mark WaldmanInquiry into Existence by James SwartzThe Knowledge Illusion by Steven Sloman and Philip FernbachHow to Use chatGPT To Get Great Book Recommendations

I could list many more books that have made me smarter, but let me suggest this in the age of chatGPT. Create a template for the topics you want to know more about. Like this:

Please ignore all previous instructions. You are an expert researcher who finds books to help keep the world’s smartest professor keep getting smarter.

I want you to find 20 of the best books on [insert your topic] in the [insert your preferred] language. Please make sure that 10 of the books are less common, but still come from respected sources. In other words, what are the books recommended by the best [insert your topic]? Make sure the recommendations come from experts with substantial credibility and a proven track record of making ideas accessible to the public

Do not self reference. Do not explain what you are doing.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find some books I didn’t know about when using this template for a variety of topics.

Common Questions Answered

Now let’s have a quick Q&A to help us sum up.

How Does Reading Make You Smarter?

Reading specifically makes you smarter when you set goals and seek books that help you fulfil those goals.

It’s really that simple.

After that, it comes down to improving your vocabulary, increasing your pattern recognition and using reading to help you connect with others better.

Reading also helps you set more goals in the future, usually with more focus and specificity thanks to the compound value of continuing to read based on specific goals in a consistent manner.

How Often Do I Have To Read To Get Smarter?

Technically, you can get smarter by not reading at all. For example, we know from deliberate practice studies that you can improve your intelligence about painting simply by painting more in more environments.

Speaking of painting, I watched videos on both Photoshop and AI image generators to collaborate with the Internet itself to make the image at the top of this blog post. Some reading was involved, but the learning cycle needed a lot more in order for me to develop the necessary skills and abilities.

So there’s no “cookie cutter” answer to this question. You either want to read as much as possible with consistency towards a goal (including the goal of pleasure). Or you want to figure out the minimum doses you can take and use a technique like interleaving.

When I use interleaving, I read in blocks of 15-20 minutes before switching to another book or another task altogether.

Other than that, I make sure to read daily. As much as I possibly can.

Does Reading Increase IQ?

I believe that reading could well increase IQ.

The problem comes down to your willingness to establish a baseline and then take IQ tests repeatedly.

Is this the best way to test whether or not your reading has improved your intelligence?

I personally could not be bothered because having discussions with others and applying my reading to completing specific goals is a much better testing method.

If I read a book about writing and produce a better book, does it really matter if it increased my IQ? I think not.

What Kinds of Books Make You Smarter?

This again comes down to choosing the right goals to complete a particular goal.

Generally, you want books written by:

Good researchersClear communicatorsWriters with credibilityWriters with unique perspectives

All of these qualities are fulfilled by a variety of publishers, both on the mass market and amongst independants.

For example, I recently read The Nomads at Large by Monte Dwyer. He’s an Australian journalist who started his own publishing outfit and does what you might call immersion journalism for some of his books. I saw his table in a shopping mall, chatted with him for a few moments, and knew he was a writer I wanted to read.

Just one of his books made me smarter about a specific group of people in Australia, about Australia overall and about his career as an indie author. I’m especially impressed by his ability to write so well and produce such nice looking books on his own – so I also learned through observation how I can do better myself. Heck, I even got smarter about what kinds of companies exist in Australia by reading his colophon page.

All of which is to say that books perfectly suited to make you smarter are everywhere around you. Having goals is always great, but if you keep your eyes open and talk to indie authors, you can find yourself getting smarter about topics you didn’t even know existed.

Why Does Reading Make You Smarter?

At the end of the day, writing makes you smarter for the same reasons it can possibly threaten your intelligence:

Connection.

I used to reject the idea “garbage in, garbage out.”

But there’s truth to it.

Just as your body and mind react poorly to foods that are bad for your brain, if you constantly read poorly researched books filled with poisonous ideas, you might “know” more and remember that kind of content. But you won’t be smarter, even if memory bias makes you feel like you are.

When you read a variety of materials to build your pattern recognition and stretch your critical thinking muscles, you’ll be able to discern what’s good and what’s bad. And just as someone who maintains their diet can tolerate the occasional junk food from time to time – and even enjoy it – you can intelligently enjoy even those books that are filled with toxic ideas.

And if you’d like help remembering more of what you read, please consider getting my free memory improvement course:

These are the tips I use day in and day out to remember more of what I read. That way, I’m able to not only retain the information, but also think about it in a reasoned manner.

Our species still needs to read intelligently (because memory and intelligence are connected), and also listen and view with our best critical capacities switched on. I hope these suggestions help you out and I wish you much more pleasure and positive outcomes as you continue to read in this fascinating world of ours.

Secrets of the Massively Distributed Memory Palace with Richard Rubin

Imagine memorizing seven decks of playing cards.

Now imagine knowing the location of each card in each deck by number. In other words, if someone names the 2 of clubs, you know how far down in the deck it is, such as the 27th card from the top.

Now, you might be thinking…

How the heck is that going to help me pass an exam, get a raise or learn a language?

Magnetic Friends, I believe that memorizing cards will help you in multiple ways that directly relates to each of these goals.

In fact, it’s one path towards what Richard Rubin calls the Massively Distributed Memory Palace.

And that’s exactly what we talk about in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, amongst other topics of interest:

Harry LorayneBruno FurstThe implications of AI for mnemonistsMemory Palace books and linguistics booksAncient memory techniques and more modern approachesMnemonic imagery in the context of phonics, reading and the implications for comprehending mnemonicsMemdeck considerations, including the Tamariz stack

And of course, Richard’s take on the Memory Palace technique.

Who is Richard Rubin?

Richard is a memory athlete with impressive stats.

He also creates incredible and fun memory demonstrations, often based around magic and mentalism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8onV...

I think his ideas are fantastic and his insights into memory improvement profound, so I suggest following him on YouTube. And check back here for a link to his forthcoming website when it’s ready.

The Massively Distributed Memory Palace

I’m going to let Richard explain this himself, so please enjoy the conversation.

And the cool thing are the connections to other mnemonic strategies I’ve seen before. For example in Giordano Bruno’s writing and especially the mnemonic writings of Robert Fludd.

What I love so much about this conversation, is that Bruno himself once said that those who think enough about mnemonics will reach similar, if not the same conclusions. It’s a lot like how magicians independently arrive at various moves and wind up calling essentially the same thing a different name.

This point is important because the more teachers we have, the more people will discover the fundamental logic that supports all learning assisted by elaborative rehearsal, properly optimized spaced repetition and tactics like chunking.

My belief is that the Mnemonics Renaissance given full steam by Tony Buzan with the memory competitions and massively supported by books like Moonwalking with Einstein is only going to continue growing.

So my hat is off to Richard and I hope you’ll support him along with all the other great memory athletes and teachers who are out there doing great things to inspire and encourage others.

The 4 Stages of Learning & How To Speed The Important Ones Up

William Shakespeare famously compared the stages of learning to acts performed in the theatre of life.

For example, in As You Like It, the second stage involves going to school, whether the child likes it or not.

But what are the four levels of learning we use today?

I’m talking about stages like:

Concrete experienceReflective thinkingAbstract thinkingPersonal experimentation

That’s one model given by Kolb in Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development.

Is this really the best way to describe the stages of the learning process?

Or should we look to other models that describe the various levels of learning we go through? Ones that include the notion of “unconscious competence”?

On this page, we’re taking a deep dive into the topic.

Ready?

Let’s go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Epy...

What Are The Four Stages Of Learning?

As mentioned above, Kolb presents a version of the four levels that involve processing at concrete, abstract and reflective levels of thinking.

Usually, however, people are looking for the four levels of competence. These originally come from Martin M. Broadwell who intended them for teachers in need of a model for their students.

As a learner, you can also use these levels of learning to help navigate your way through complex topics. Following this model can also help ensure you meet your cognitive needs in a structured manner as you go about your learning.

Let’s have a look at each level in detail.

Unconscious Incompetence

Have you ever started learning something you’re basically familiar with only to realize how little you know about the topic?

I’ve had this with music. Although I’ve played in bands for decades and toured the world, when I hang out with much better musicians, I realize how little I know. My skills lead to all kinds of incorrect intuitions as I play simply because I don’t know the key signatures as well as some of the trained jazz musicians I know.

Memory expert Anthony Metivier performing at a concert in Germany.

Still, I sometimes find myself trying to play in ways I don’t understand, only to hit notes that don’t sound great. It doesn’t happen to me anymore, but when it did, it was like I was suffering the musical version of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

This point is important to understand. You don’t have to be completely unfamiliar with a topic to experience unconscious incompetence.

Captain Edward J. Smith provides one of the most famous examples. As the captain of the Titanic, he certainly knew a thing or two about sailing boats.

But that didn’t stop Captain Smith from following the wrong intuitions. Although he received multiple warnings about the dangers ahead, he still failed to take action and the Titanic wound up sinking.

Conscious Incompetence

I’ve become much more modest over the years in music, and am now much more conscious of my incompetence with certain genres of music.

To become more competent, I study the specific areas where I’m weak and patch in deliberate practice to turn incompetence into skill.

A more famous example of conscious incompetence is someone like Elon Musk using first principles to figure out what he doesn’t know. Then, by adding knowledge and competence, he was able to purchase various companies and improve them.

Of course, the court is still out on whether or not his conscious incompetence about Twitter will improve.

Conscious Competence

At this level of knowledge, you’re in the sweet spot.

You can think about people like Stevie Wonder. Many people think he’s a musical genius – including me.

Although blind from birth, he learned not only how to play piano and sing, he also learned how to compose and perform.

You might think of these as one task, but they’re actually different things.

For example, I’m consciously competent when it comes to playing concerts with bands in my preferred genre. I can also compose relatively well and even sing to a certain degree.

But I’ve never developed conscious competence as a studio musician.

This is not uncommon. Many of your favorite bands aren’t actually playing on the albums you buy. Their record companies have hired consciously competent musicians, leaving them to do what they do best: perform.

Then there are musicians who don’t even write their own songs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Many creative industries rely on detailed knowledge of conscious competence. That way, each person can focus on just their part and shine.

Unconscious Competence

At this level of competence, the individual barely has to think about what they’re doing.

Shakespeare, for example, was thought to be able to run circles around other playwrights when it came to writing incredibly powerful plots and individual lines of dialogue.

Or you can think about virtuoso musicians. They don’t even need to see a score or rehearse. They just hop on stage with musicians they’ve never met and produce pure musical magic.

Theoretically, they have highly trained procedural memory skills.

Why You Might Have Trouble Learning New Information Quickly

The answer is simple:

Many people put the cart ahead of the horse.

I once heard musician Joe Satriani answer a guitar student’s objection that they did not know what to learn next to overcome a plateau. They were trying to do advance soloing but kept getting stuck.

Satriani asked if they knew the name of every note on the fretboard. The person did not.

“Then you do know what you need to learn next,” Satriani insisted.

He wasn’t particularly patient in his response and it was partly because the student clearly had Dunning-Kruger Effect. (This happens when people are unaware of how little they know about something, but nonetheless suffer memory biases that make them think they do.)

So what’s the solution:

Always analyze what you want to learn, chunk it down, and start with beginner’s mind.

Being humble, developing foundational knowledge and not being afraid to repeat certain levels of knowledge is almost always the key.

How to Remember the Stages of Knowledge

As we’ve seen, there’s more than one “four levels of learning” model out there.

So if you want to be able to whip out the stages of learning process from any source you’ve found interesting or useful, here’s what I suggest:

Develop unconscious competence with memory techniques.

They will help you rapidly absorb lists like these and add on examples like the ones we’ve discussed today with everyone from captains to musicians.

How to get started?

I share the best ways I’m aware of in my free memory improvement course:

These ancient memory techniques are still in use today for one simple reason:

Our ancestors found them helpful when it comes to moving through a lot more than the four levels of learning.

We’ve been using them to help us learn languages and every topic you can imagine.

All you have to do is avoid the perils of unconscious incompetence and they will you avoid learning struggles.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to learn with greater competence?

Make it happen!

 

Master Maslow’s Hierarchy By Fulfilling All Of His Cognitive Needs

Did you know that nearly every discussion of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is missing an essential piece of the pyramid?

It’s true, and today we’re going to restore that piece.

On top of that, we’re going to dive deep into how you can fulfill each tier in your life.

Even better, I’m going to help you remember each of the needs.

That way, as you work on improving your life and the lives of others, you’ll be able to rapidly access a mental database packed with examples of psychological needs.

And you’ll be able to fulfill your full potential.

Perhaps you’ll even be able to go beyond that because there’s one need in particular that Maslow wasn’t able to publish before he died.

I’ll share what it is, show you how to experience it and give you tips on maintaining this missing piece of the pyramids of needs once you’ve got it in place.

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

https://youtu.be/H9Wi_hvKeRc

What Are Cognitive Needs? The Forgotten Tier In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

As the term “cognitive needs” suggests, we have cognitive awareness of things we want and need from life.

We’re not the only species that has such awareness, but our cognitive abilities are so developed that we seem to be especially sensitive to things we don’t have.

Abraham Maslow got very interested in humanity’s special sensitivity to a set of human requirements that led to him developing the hierarchy of needs.

Often, you see Maslow’s needs placed within a pyramid.

The wider needs are basic and as you move up the pyramid, you get psychological and fulfilment needs. All together, the needs in the basic pyramid of needs are:

Physiological needs (food, water, warmth, rest)Safety needs (security, safety, predictability)Belongingness and love (intimate relationships and friends)Esteem needs (prestige, sense of accomplishment)Self-actualization (creativity, fulfilling your potential)

Maslow first presented these needs in a paper titled, “A Theory of Human Motivation.”

Solving the “First Glance” Problem With The Pyramid of Needs

One mistake that people sometimes make is thinking that you can move up the pyramid and leave earlier needs behind.

But this isn’t the case. You always need to balance the needs, which is why an alternative, dynamic visualization can help understand Maslow’s hierarchy as something that plays out over time:

Others have interpreted the hierarchy of needs in terms of a circle.

For example, my friend Arthur Worsley used the “Wheel of Life” format in his “Faster to Master” Tracktion Planner:

In this case, the “needs” are modernized to include cognitive needs examples like:

Health and vitalityThoughts and emotionsFamily and friendsLove and partnershipsProductivity and performanceGrowth and learningBusiness and career

As you can probably see, “productivity and performance” are basically the same as Maslow’s original esteem needs.

In truth, there’s no perfect way to visualize the hierarchy. The best thing is to find a model that works for you so you can bring balance to all of the needs in your life.

The Missing Cognitive Need

As great as Maslow’s original hierarchy can be, he ultimately wasn’t happy with it.

Towards the end of his career, he wrote The Farther Reaches of Human Nature.

In this book, he described a very special cognitive need he called self-transcendence.

Basically, it’s like the “karma yoga” concept we talked about in my post on mental strength. The idea is that you ultimately put your own needs aside as much as possible, if not entirely.

Many people who have sought to master their memory share this concept. For example, Giordano Bruno described a kind of nondual experience where you would experience a kind of oneness with the entire universe.

Sound weird and raise your skeptical hackles that a psychologist like Maslow would suggest such things?

Well, here’s Maslow in his own words from The Farther Reaches of Human Nature:

Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos.

I myself have suggested something similar in my book The Victorious Mind. Fulfilling the cognitive need to give to others without expectation of return is hard, make no mistake. But this “karma yoga” is indeed far more fulfilling than I ever imagined possible.

In fact, fitting it into your life is highly recommended.

Why It’s Important to Fulfill Your Cognitive Needs

We’re all on this planet together.

That’s the ultimate reason why you really should spend time every week working on your personal hierarchy or “wheel of life.”

The more people who self-transcend, the better it will be for everyone. Eckhart Tolle makes an excellent argument for increasing the number of transcended people in his book, A New Earth.

A similar point is made by John Danaher who focuses on the positive outcomes technologically is likely to bring when it comes to freeing humanity from work.

Let’s take another example. The reason you want to make sure you’ve fulfilled every example of physiological needs specifically comes down to your ability to learn faster, focus and remember things.

But you can’t do that if you’re clogging your mind with foods that destroy your memory and create brain fog.

The same goes for your career, study needs, family and personal rituals around sleep, meditation and the quality of your memory.

The good thing is that if you start working with your memory first, you’ll be able to better remember to focus on all the other parts of the hierarchy.

With that in mind, let’s talk about a powerful memory technique that will help you do just that.

How to Use a Memory Palace to Satisfy Your Cognitive Needs 

Along my personal journey, I found it useful to go beyond merely reading about Maslow’s hierarchy.

I also memorized it while completing journaling exercises that use the Wheel of Life.

The best technique for getting all of the cognitive needs into memory? The Memory Palace technique.

Let’s say you memorize Maslow’s original hierarchy.

All you have to do to memorize it is mentally layer it on a wall in a room of your house, your school or where you work. Like this:

By placing the pyramid in a familiar space, you give your mind an anchor point it can refer back to when you want to recall each tier.

If you need more “stickiness” you can add a memory technique like the number rhyme or other forms of mnemonic imagery.

With practice, you can memorize information like this often within minutes.

Once in memory, it will be much easier for you to remember to focus on each tier as you go about your life.

Memorize The Pyramid Of Needs And Succeed

I’m so glad I took time to really understand Marlow’s formula. And not just the original form, but the enhanced format he wasn’t able to fully promote before he died.

Luckily, people have expanded the concept since his time with alternative versions like the Wheel of Life.

But as I hope to have made clear, it’s important for you to experiment with multiple versions. Even if you find one that feels “right,” I suggest you continue to study and experiment.

Many cultures have interesting variations and the more you can consider them both through study and application, the more you’ll benefit.

And who knows?

Perhaps one day you’ll transcend and become so selfless that you’ll enjoy a life of giving.

That’s certainly my goal, and to paraphrase the playwright Howard Baker put it, “because it is hard, I feel honored.”

Not everyone agrees that humans need to take on challenging projects to feel fulfilled, but it’s certainly worked for me.

One of those projects is to give this free course away to as many people as possible:

Is it really free?

Yes, but it does “cost” your time, attention, focus and energy.

However, complete the exercises and you will emerge with a memory system that allows you to learn faster and remember more.

And you’ll have practice fulfilling one of the biggest cognitive needs of them all:

The esteem need to feel a sense of accomplishment.

I enjoy that sense every time I memorize something new and know that you will too once you have some Memory Palaces set up and in use.

So what do you say?

Are you ready to get out there and make the cognitive needs your own by committing them to heart and practicing fulfilling each and every one (including the lost tier)?

I wish you a great journey and hope to meet you some time and place along the way!

How to Learn Faster and Remember More: 4 Easy Techniques to Learn New Skills

Have you ever sat down to learn faster with some new accelerated learning technique and thrown your hands up in the air?

No, not to catch a balloon or give a salute.

But because you were furious and frustrated?

And have you felt that a learning process was so hard that you just wanted to give up?

I hear you!

After all, I’ve put some of the toughest learning challenges in front of myself all the time.

Languages like Biblical Hebrew, German, Chinese, over 100 verses of Sanskrit.

Then there are the musical instruments I’ve learned like trombone, sitar and bass.

Plus I’ve used my ability to learn new skills at laser-fast speeds to help me run the memory website you’re reading now:

Hands-on mechanical tasks like figuring out how to spread the good news about memory techniques with videos, blogs and podcasts.

And in all cases, it takes grit and mental strength.

It takes tenacity.

Above all, success with learning quickly takes these…

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.

 

4 Secret Ways To Make It So Easy
You Can Run Circles Around Everyone Else!

 

If you’re interested, I’d like to share these 4 secrets with you, plus another 4 in this video:

https://youtu.be/Z3XmgggSDsY

All I ask is that you read everything carefully and give at least ONE of these insights from my experience a serious try.

But let’s be clear:

Trying just one would be good. But …

50% would be great.

100%? …

Why that would be downright Magnetic!

1. The Most Powerful Question Any Learner Can Ask

 

One of the reasons some people find learning new skills so painful is that they don’t ask simple questions.

It’s a question that, when applied often, can unlock the nuclear power needed to drive you through some of the hardest missions in life.

It’s a question almost no learner asks.

Probably because it’s a bit tough for most people to wrap their heads around.

It sounds kind of selfish, after all.

The question is:

“What’s in it for me?”

But even if it has a selfish angle to it, this question is so important.

Why?

 

Because So Many Learners Are Trying To
Accomplish Outcomes For Everyone But Themselves!

 

Think about it:

You go to school and learn things to please the machine …

You get a medical degree to appease your family …

You study a language because it’s part of a degree …

Nothing wrong with any of that, unless …

 

None Of It Has To Do With What
You Authentically Want In Life!

 

And so it’s little wonder learning feels hard. If you’re the last person who gets a kick-back for all that effort, it’s always going to feel like you’re trying to chew through a brick wall.

Make it easier on yourself by learning something that has a definite payoff for the number one person that matters: You.

Because here’s the plain truth:

You’re a good person.

You want to serve others.

And you can change the world.

But it will never happen if you secretly hate the learning process because it just doesn’t serve your needs first.

Want a fast and easy way live authentically? Practice gratitude:

 

https://youtu.be/xc4_W7nrb2Q

2. Why Comatose Zombies Can
Outlearn The Flash Any Day

 

Okay, that sub-headline might be a bit misleading.

What I mean to say is that you need to relax to learn.

Because here’s a fundamental truth:

Information flees from tension. But it’s Magnetically attracted to relaxation.

Let me say that again:

Information flees from tension. But it’s Magnetically attracted to relaxation.Click To Tweet

And the more you know how to relax your brain, the more information will want to stick around. You’ll be able to slosh it around the mouth of your mind like fine wine and actually enjoy it for a change.

And what you enjoy… ?

 

Pleasure Is Instantly Easier To Remember!

 

The trick you need to understand when it comes to relaxing your mind is this:

Your mind is produced by your brain.

Your brain is a physical entity.

And that’s what makes the Memory Palace technique so powerful:

It’s something physical out in the world being used physically inside your material brain.

Don’t know how to make a Memory Palace? No problem…

And to get the most of the training, relax your mind each time before you use your memory.

That said, never try to relax your mind without relaxing your body first.

In fact, it’s very likely that the only way to truly relax your mind is by relaxing the body first.

So the next time you sit down for a study session, stretch a little first.

One way I like to do that is by mind mapping. My friend Joseph Rodrigues is a great source for learning how to use the technique to get into a state of flow.

 

Meditate.

 

Focus on your breathing. Just 5 minutes a day, 4 times a week is scientifically proven to create better memory.

Attention paid to breathing will lower most of your resistances to learning and make everything easier.

You can also use your meditation time to walk through the Memory Palace Networks you create. As memory expert Boris Konrad has explained, active recall is essential for memory formation. What better way to practice it than when you’re already using meditation to stack the chips in your favor?

 

3. Understand That The Map Is Never The Territory –
But Maps Sure Do Help!

 

When I created this Infographic and Podcast episode giving you a deeper understanding of how to realistically memorize a textbook, I had no idea people would find it so practical and useful.

 

 

After all, everybody asks me for “tips and tricks” that will let them memorize entire books.

But the truth is that this feat is rarely necessary. In fact, it’s probably never necessary.

But if you use the techniques I teach in that podcast to get a global overview of the book you need to read, you’ll have a map. This map will set the stage for your experience of the territory.

And that will give you laser-targeted tools for remembering the parts that matter. Proof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIQRi...

When you can do that, you do better than just learn and remember. You also create new knowledge.

And when you create knowledge, the speed at which you can learn grows exponentially. It feels good, creates energy and encouragement and keeps you on the path of continual growth.

Nothing difficult or painful about that.

 

4. The Magnetic Magnifying Glass Method

 

Have you ever heard the phrase, “you don’t know what you don’t know”? Tony Buzan mentioned it during our conversation some time ago on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

If you want to make learning faster and easier, make sure to get yourself in orbit with that concept.

Why?

Because when you hold a magnifying glass to your own ignorance, you get real clear on what it is you need to learn. Without that clarity, it’s nearly impossible to make progress as a self-directed learner.

In other words, learning truly is hard and slow when you’re stumbling around blind in a cloud of unknowing.

But when you ask questions about what you know and don’t know about a topic, suddenly a lot of that fog is whisked away.

Want a simple exercise you can use for each and every learning project you ever undertake? I promise:

It’s easy, fun and speeds up everything.

 

It’s called:

Writing summaries.

Every time you take a class, attend a study session, read a chapter, watch a video or even use an app, take a quick second to jot down everything you can remember.

Then beneath that, start asking questions about what it is you think was covered … but mysteriously can’t remember. This will help train your selective attention abilities.

Then make two plans:

One plan for how you’re going to continue to remember what you remembered.

Another plan for what you’re going to do to fill in the gaps so that you can remember the information you think flew over your head.

Simple. Elegant. Easy and effective.

 

Why Most People Prefer A Life Based On Excuses

 

A lot of people will go through a post like this, nod yes to each and every point and then carry on with their lives of learning desperation.

The reason why this happens, beyond just a bad way of drawing from their episodic memory, is simple:

It’s all contained in point number one.

If you missed it and care about the life of your memory and your mind, go over it again.

And if you feel like you’re resistant to any of the wisdom contained in this post, review the second point I’ve made.

If anything on the planet raises your hackles, a few simple brain exercises that take just a few minutes of your time could be a game changer for you.

And if you’d like a realistic way to remember everything of importance in any book or posts like these you encounter in the world, here are 7 more powerful tips that show you how to improve memory for studying.

For the true Magnetic Knight, point four will be the most precious of all. There’s a little comment section below where you can complete this part of the exercise. I’ll be around to help you fill in any gaps I may have missed.

I look forward to hearing from you, and until next time, keep learning and keep yourself Magnetic! 🙂

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.

Aphantasia: Develop Your Memory Even If You Cannot See Mental Imagery

Aphantasia.

Sounds like a magic word a magician would say before conjuring a rabbit from his hat, doesn’t it?

But let me ask you this:

Can you visualize the magician pulling out the rabbit by his ears?

For most of us, it will be easy to recall images inside our head, using our mind’s eye.

However, if you could NOT see any image in your mind’s eye – no colors, no sounds, no smells, no textures, no flavors, nothing at all – you may have a condition called aphantasia or a blind mental eye.

Don’t freak out, though. Many people have aphantasia, even magicians.

Familiar with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame)?

He is a famous magician and entertainer, and, he is an aphantasic(!). This was according to his own words on his Sunday School podcast, Episode 174.

By his own admission, Penn says he cannot conjure a mental image of a person or a place to save his life.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.

 

What Is Aphantasia? A Detailed Definition

The term ‘aphantasia’ comes from the Greek words a, meaning “without”, and phantasia, meaning “a capacity to form mental images”.

The phenomenon was first described by the controversial psychologist Francis Galton – one of the pioneers of eugenics – in 1880.

The interest in the phenomenon was renewed after the publication of a study conducted by a team led by Dr. Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology, at the University of Exeter.

Zeman’s team published a paper in 2015 on what they termed “congenital aphantasia”, now known simply as aphantasia.

For Firefox co-creator Blake Ross it was a surprise revelation that other people could visualize things in the mind’s eye while he couldn’t. “I can’t ‘see’ my father’s face or a bouncing blue ball, my childhood bedroom or the run I went on ten minutes ago,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

According to Craig Venter, the biologist who created the first synthetic organism: “It’s like having a computer store the information, but you don’t have a screen attached to the computer.”

 

Can You Dream With Aphantasia?

 

It depends on what you mean by “dreaming”.

For example, I just told you about Gerrard. He’s never seen Mt. Everest, and yet he’s climbed it. He had to have a dream to do it.

Some people with this condition do report that they dream. Others say they don’t. But even people without this condition also report they don’t recall their dreams.

The only way to really know is take it case by case and visit a dream lab.

Personally, I dream very vividly, but not particularly visually. I never see faces, for example. Strangely, I tend not to see technology either, such as cellphones or computers.

I know this because I have journaled by dreams for many years. I made them more “visual” over time by placing them in writing so I could cross-index the dreams, chart patterns and observe the workings of this mind at rest.

Some people with aphantasia also report that they can lucid dream. I’ve had similar experiences, and the sensations all culminate as physical, rarely visual. For example, I am often piloting a space craft, balancing on a tight wire or even levitating as I write in my dream journal.

And that’s a trick for you if lucid dreaming interests you: By keeping a journal consistently, you’re likely to start dreaming about it. When it appears in your dreams, you may become aware that you’re dreaming. It’s quite wild!

Also, you can think verbally throughout the day about your dreams. You don’t have to approach them from a visual angle at all in order to explore the wonderful world of dreaming as an aphantasic.

Yours Free: A Private Course With Cheat Sheets For Becoming A Memory Master, Starting From Scratch.

>>> Click Here For This Special Free Offer.

 

How Common Is Aphantasia?

 

How many people have aphantasia? While research on the subject is still in its nascent stages, neurologists believe approximately one in 50 people or 2-5% of the population are non-visual-imagers.

Sounds like a big number?

Don’t be surprised. Being an aphantasic is nearly as common as having a food allergy.

Neuroimaging has shown that mental imagery, although strongly associated with the left temporal lobe, requires the use of large networks of brain pathways. This means that aphantasia could potentially occur in different ways in different individuals.

 

The Two Likely Causes Of Aphantasia

 

However, the exact cause of aphantasia is still unknown. According to Dr. Zeman heredity and environment both are likely to be relevant causes.

Interestingly, an aphantasic may have a visual memory which means they may be able to describe in detail about how things looked – the cat had blue eyes, the umbrella was pink and matched the skirt – even though they cannot see these visual images in their mind’s eye.

Moreover, many people who cannot form mental images can think in sounds, while others can remember physical sensations.

Penn says, when he dreams, he’s not sure if he sees visual images but has the sensation of knowing that “ideas wash over me”.

 

How Aphantasia Affects Memory

 

Our brain stores information in at least two different ways – verbally and visually.

Both these types of storage are independent of one another, and each can be used alone.

Therefore, even people with aphantasia can complete the “tests of visual imagery” without too much difficulty. They can also often (but not always) complete these non-visual sensory memory exercises.

Here’s a quick test:

Count the number of windows in your house.

Quick #memory improvement exercise: Mentally count all the windows in your home.Click To Tweet

Even if you can’t see a “mental” image of your house and locate each window in that image, you would have an awareness of being there and recall from factual information the number of windows in your house.

While aphantasics can remember things from their past, they experience these memories in a different way than someone with strong imagery. They often describe memories as a conceptual list of things that occurred rather than a video playing in their mind.

As Ross says, he can ruminate on the “concept” of a beach, but cannot flash to beaches he has visited.

“I know there’s sand. I know there’s water. I know there’s a sun, maybe a lifeguard. I know facts about beaches. I know a beach when I see it, and I can do verbal gymnastics with the word itself…But I have no visual, audio, emotional or otherwise sensory experience.”

The brain has many unique ways of storing visual information than just as a picture.

 

Multiple Ways To Create Visual Imagery In Your Mind

 

Neuroscientists believe that the brain constructs visual imagery in more than one way. There are separate circuits for things like shape, size, color and spatial relationships, and when these are accessed together, we form an image of a memory.

As AphantasiaMeow and I suggest in these videos, it might have to do with how the brains of some people develop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA0ZU...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0F9g...

 

There are still a lot of unknowns, that’s for sure. But it’s great that someone is doing such good work to help people create a mind’s eye.

Back to the source of the problem:

Experts think that aphantasics piggyback on neurons involved in controlling physical movements rather than using the visual brain circuitry to “visualize” or recall information.

For instance, you can trace the letter B of the alphabet in your brain to know it has curves or you can use your mind’s eye to see its image.

 

Does Aphantasia Hamper “Visualization” Memory Techniques?

 

Not in the least.

Tansel Ali and I talked about your multiple options in a recent interview.

In sum:

Memory techniques involve more tools than just visualization. You have many options.

Memory techniques involve more tools than just visualization. You have many #mnemonic options.Click To Tweet

When you use a memory technique like the Memory Palace use all the Magnetic Modes, you can memorize a very large amount of information relatively quickly without necessarily seeing the Memory Palace in your mind.

Here’s an infographic that tells you all about the different ways that your brain perceives information:

Personally, I don’t have aphantasia.

However, I am low on the visual threshold.

As a result, it took me a long time to understand techniques like mind mapping, let alone developing mind map mastery (which is still a work in progress, to be honest).

Most of what I do in the world of memory techniques involves thinking about strange combinations of images in words and sounds, not high-definition imagery. I would call this being audio-conceptual.

So, if you are worried that the inability to see visual images in your mind will stop you from using the Memory Palace technique…

Don’t be.

Over the years, I’ve invested in myself so that I can “see” something like visuals in my mind.

But even to this day, the best results I get from memory techniques don’t require constant streaming of high-definition images in my head. I’m not trying to develop eidetic memory, after all. I just want to remember more.

Here’s my discussion on this issue:

https://youtu.be/2l1DJXZyHmM

In any case, if you want to visualize bright, vivid pictures in your mind’s eye, you can try image streaming.

 

Image Streaming Vs. Aphantasia?

 

Image streaming is a simple process that enables you to open up your mind’s eye to visuals.

Here’s how it works:

Close your eyes and describe what you see.If you don’t see anything (which would exactly be the case if you have aphantasia) help your brain start seeing visual images.Start by gently rubbing your closed eyes like a sleepy child. Then describe the bright sparkly light that you see behind your closed retina.Or look at a bright light like a candle for a half minute, or a window which has strong light/dark contrast. Then when you close your eyes, you should be able to see after-images, like a blob of light or color, at back of the eye. Describe that blob of light.You can also describe a memory that you cannot “see” but remember from the past.The important thing is to use all senses to describe your bob of light or memory: sight (vision), hearing (audition), taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and touch (somatosensation).While you are examining and describing your after-images or visual memory events, keep a look out for experiencing some other kinds of image. It could be a momentary face, landscape, or whatever. Notice when this happens, and switch to describing that new image.Remember to describe all images to an external  focus – quickly and loudly. The external focus can be a friend or a dictaphone (voice recorder), anything or anyone you can talk to.Practice image streaming for only 10-20 minutes a day to enable your mind’s eye to see pictures. Then move on and try these multi-sensory brain exercises.How to Use A Memory Palace With A Blind Mind’s Eye?

 

Here’s the basic idea behind the Memory Palace Technique, something you can use without actually seeing anything in your mind:

You associate pieces of information with a location you are familiar with, like placing a new word in a house.

The technique does not require you to visualize your house. You can “know” factually where your bedroom is in your home or where to find the kitchen window or the attic. You then use this knowledge to imagine that a funny or interested association is located there, such as using a statue of the magician Penn Jillette weighed done with small silver trees. Thinking about this concept in this location of your home can help you remember that Pennsylvania means “Penn’s small forest.” (Silva means forest in Latin.)

Keeping the full range of your Magnetic Modes in mind, you can use any home or location with which you are familiar. You can also explore different ways of navigating your Memory Palaces with these 5 examples.

The effectiveness of the Memory Palace technique is based on the scientific fact that your brain and spatial memory perceive space as a kind of image.

Check out this lecture for more information about how that works:

https://youtu.be/FkhU7i8hRK4

If you’re interested in this “Magnetic” technique, click on the image below:

 

 

Memory Is More Than Just Visual Memory

 

Memory is many things. It includes facts, figures and figments of information stored in various regions of your brain.

But more than that, memory is the ability to communicate these kinds of information to others and recognize them when they are being communicated to you.

When it comes to how you get information to play with in the first place, there are many ways. Some are faster than others.

Using an effective, dedicated memory strategy system like Magnetic Memory Method you can easily retrieve those memories faster and with predictable and reliable permanence.

Add to it a balanced diet, meditation, and sleep and you will be able to enhance your memory, concentration and focus in a way that improves your entire life.

Doesn’t that make a pretty picture?