martin mak - the mighty memory system

Dear friend,

The Ultim

ate Mem

ory Training

MMiigghhttyyMMeemmoorryy SSyysstteemmTTMM

• Improve your memory dramatically.

• Learn faster and remember more

• Get better grades

• Never forget people’s names and faces

• Eliminate absent-mindedness

• Better jobs, faster promotion, earn more money• Stave off Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia

Release Your Mighty Memory

THE MIGHTY MEMORY SYSTEM TM

Copyright ©2007, MightyMemory.com

Dear Friend, Thank you for purchasing this Ebook on the Mighty Memory SystemTM, a system for accelerated learning and enhanced memory. I’m very excited for you. In the course of your journey, your memory would have improved so much, it feels like you have literally grown another brain! By the end of the course, and following the daily exercises that just takes 5 minutes a day, your memory would have increased by 200%! You would have activated your natural “photographic memory” that has remained dormant. The principles here are timeless and can be used in any situation that requires pen and paper, yet it is so easy to learn that a 5-year old kid can learn it and have fun doing so. FACT: did you now that that the brain is made up of chemical and electrical signals which are transmitted and received by something called Neurons? There are more Neurological connectors in the brain than people living on earth! So lets take a look at how all these connectors work – they are a bit like pathways really, but it’s important to know roughly how they work so that you will be able to make the best use of any memory techniques you learn. The pathways in the brain can be best thought of as being like a small stream that is made in soft sand by a trickle of water. At first the stream is small, you can disturb the path of the stream very easily. However after a period of time the stream creates a more permanent path down which more water can flow without being disturbed until finally there is a river – solid and unswerving. In the same ways when a memory is first formed it can be easily lost. However, if the memory is recalled a surprisingly few number of times, then it is retained and cannot be disturbed. Most people believe that when they remember something once they will remember it for a long time. This is unfortunately untrue. The other error that is made is that if you remember something now you will easily forget it. Again, untrue. The methods taught in this course were adapted from learning technologies by Professor Bruno Furst . The methods and techniques have been tested and found to have profound effect in learning and memory enhancement. At the beginning, the methods would seem ludicrous, absurd or silly, but trust me, they work! Your mind and your memory would run like a supercomputer, releasing your perfect mighty memory! Imagine meeting over fifty new people at a party and being able to say good-bye using the first and last name of every person you’ve met. Make more money and get faster promotions at work by learning faster. Making a speech without notes, instantaneously recalling dates and appointments, things to do, directions, phone numbers, verses of the bible, facts and figures. Imagine being a student studying for the exams and being able to recall everything needed to ace the exam and studying in one-third the time to get great results. This is what I mean when I say you’ll release your Mighty Memory!

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You have to be patient and persevere just a little to reap the rewards later. We will work on the fundamentals in building your foundation. Once you have the tools, the software for your brain, you will experience a newfound freedom. Your friends will be amazed. Your grades will improve by leaps and bounds, by so much in fact, your teachers may even suspect you cheated. Not only that, but it has been shown that for those who are elderly, daily “mind gymnastics” which this ebook teaches are necessary to keep your memory strong and keep senility and Alzheimer syndrome at bay. Whatever your reasons for wanting a better memory, learning to learn is fun, productive and anyone can do it! During the course, we will be using our imagination on an extensive basis. We shall be using our imagination to generate stimulus for anchoring our memory. We shall see how research has shown the importance of stimulus in increasing recall dramatically, so we shall unashamedly use this fact to our advantage. Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. The more you apply your imagination to memory, the better your memory will be. It’s a fact that when Albert Einstein died they opened up his head to look at his brain – it was smaller than the average size! However, he used much more than most people. Doing memory stunts will enable you to retain larger amounts of information and genius is not so much about being clever, but seeing how one part of life fits with another part of life. The more you know, the more you can link them together. So start thinking like a genius! Once again, congratulations and I hope you will prosper by leaps and bounds once you’ve successfully completed the course. Remember, you set your own limits. Martin Mak The Mighty Memory System

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Contents Chapter 1 How Good Is Your Observation? Page 6 Chapter 2 The Basis Of Memory Page 10 Chapter 3 How The Human Brain Evolved Page 12 The Role Of Emotion In Memory Page 13 Chapter 4 Test Your Memory Page 19 Chapter 5 Link Method of Memory. Page 15 Chapter 6 The Peg System of Memory Page 25 Chapter 7 Uses of the Peg and Link Systems Page 32 Chapter 8 Training Your Observation Skills Page 35 Chapter 9 How To Remember Speeches, Articles, Scripts and Anecdotes. Page 37 Chapter 10 How to Remember Long-Digit Numbers 0 Chapter 11 Some Other Quick Pegs – Body List, House List, Flag Page 42 Pole List, Alphabet List, Rhyme List & Number Shape List Route Method Chapter 12 How To Learn A Foreign Language Page 53 Chapter 13 How To Remember States And Capitals Page 60

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Chapter 14 Remembering the Presidents of the United States Page 65

Chapter 15 How To Remember Names And Faces Page 69 Chapter 16 How To Remember Schedules And Appointments. Page 74 Chapter 17 Tips for absent-mindedness Page 76 Chapter 18 Learning The Books Of The Bible (and Biblical Verses) Page 77 Chapter 19 Remembering Directions Page 79 Chapter 20 Tips On Listening In A Lecture & Studying Page 80 Chapter 21 How To Review Effectively Page 82 Chapter 22

How To Remember Hard Facts From The Hard Sciences (I) Learning Chemistry Page 84 (II) Learning Mathematics Page 86 (III) Learning Physics Page 89

Chapter 23 How to improve your vocabulary Page 91 Chapter 24 How To Break A Bad Habit Page 92 Chapter 25 Using Your Trained Memory For Card Tricks Page 94 Chapter 26 Reconnecting With Lost Memories Page 98

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Chapter 27 Effective Study Methods In Memory And Learning Page 100 The Role Of Stimulus In Memory The Importance Of Relaxation And Breaks Page 101 The Importance of Scheduled Review For Long Term Memory Page 102 Chapter 28 Mind Mapping For Review And Creativity Page 105 Conclusion Page 121 Special Health Report On Factors Affecting Memory Page 123

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Chapter 1 How Good Is Your Observation?

“Begin to weave and God will give you the thread” - German Proverb

Everyone talks about how bad their memory is, but few people ever do anything about it. The problem is not so much about having a bad memory. There is no such thing as a bad memory, the distinction is whether you have a “trained memory” or not. That said, you are one of the few people in this world who acknowledge the problems an untrained memory brings and have taken the first step to do something about it. While at college I was the only person not to have post-it notes spread around the house and memorized some 100 important history dates and related information in just 2 hours ... While I sat in front of the TV! I am telling you this not to impress you but rather to impress upon you that having a trained memory is within reach of anyone. In school, I was a slow learner and developed the rudiments of a trained memory to help me with schoolwork. Later, while helping with youths coping with dyslexia and an organization helping the mentally challenged (retarded) people, I started to do serious research into how to have a trained memory. Later on, we’ll see a chapter on how a person with dyslexia can have a more powerful memory than a normal person. In fact a dyslexic person actually have an advantage over most of us. Many people have told me they wished they could have a trained memory like mine. Well you don’t need to pay a princely sum to have a monster memory, all you need is to pay a modest sum of money (which you have) and I’ll put the riches of your kingdom at your feet. I said “your kingdom” because how much you want to progress in life is all up to you, I can only show you the way, the rest is up to you. Once you’ve started on this system, you’ll be surprised how simple and powerful it really is! Psychologists and educators have said that we use only a small percentage of our brainpower. The system here will enable you to use much more than the average person. Just imagine what 5 minutes a day, 7 days a week, over a month, 3 months or 6 months will unleash your “monster” memory and you wouldn’t even know you’re doing it once you mastered the system. You can turn your mind into a limitless filing cabinet. Your memory will explode and as you engage and release your photographic memory. But here’s the kicker, you’ll have fun doing it. The key to this system is observation. Here’s a test. Which light is on top of the traffic light? Is it the Red or the Green? You might think this is an easy question. But let’s say you were in a quiz show and this question determines whether you win a million dollars or walk away with nothing. Now then, which light is on top, the Red or the Green?

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If you have been able to picture yourself in the above position, you are probably hesitating now, because you’re not really sure which light is on top, are you? If you are sure, then you’re one of the minority who has observed what most people only see. There is a world of difference between seeing and observing; proven, of course, by the fact that most of the people to whom I put the above question to, either gave the wrong answer or are not sure. This, even though they see the traffic lights countless times every day!

By the way, Red is always on top of the traffic light, Green is always at the bottom. If there is a third color, it is usually amber, for caution, and that one is always in the middle. Now, if you were sure that Red was the correct answer, let me see if I can hurt your pride a little with another observation test. Don’t look at your wristwatch! Don’t look at your wristwatch and answer this simple question. Is the number three on your watch dial, the Arabic 3 or is it the Roman Numeral III? Think this over for a moment, before you look at your watch. Decide on your answer as if it were really important that you answer correctly. You’re on that quiz show again and there’s a lot of money at stake.

All right, have you decided on your answer? Now, look at your watch and see if you were right. Were you? Or were you wrong in both cases, because your watch doesn’t have a numeral three at all? Does the date window occupy the space instead? Did you answer this question correctly? Whether you did or did not, you had to look at your watch to check. Can you tell me now, the exact time on your watch? Probably not, and you just looked at it a second ago! Again, you saw, but you didn’t observe. Try this on your friends. Although people see their watches many times every day, few of them can tell you about the numeral three . Don’t feel too badly if you couldn’t answer any of these questions; as I said before, most people can’t. Although the systems and methods contained in this book make you observe automatically, you will find some interesting observation exercises in a later chapter. The system will also make you use your imagination with more purpose than ever before. I’ve taken the time and space to talk about observation because it is one of the things important to training your memory. The other, and more important thing, is your imagination. We cannot possibly remember anything that we do not observe. After something is observed, either by sight or hearing, it must, in order to be remembered, be associated in our minds with, or to, something we already know or remember. Since you will observe automatically when using my system, it is association with which we will mostly concern ourselves withl.

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Association, as pertaining to memory, simply means the connecting or linking up of 2 or more things to each other. Anything you manage to remember, or have managed to remember, is only due to the fact that you have subconsciously associated it to something else. “Every Good Boy Does Fine” - Does this sentence mean anything to you? If it does, then you must have studied music when you were young. Almost every child that studies music is taught to remember the lines of the music staff or treble clef, by remembering, “Every Good Boy Does Fine”. I’ve already stressed the importance of association and I want to prove to you that you have used definite conscious associations many times before, without even realizing it. The letters, E,G,B,D and F don’t mean a thing.

They are just letters and difficult to remember. The Sentence, “Every Good Boy Does Fine” does have meaning, and is something you know and understand. The new thing, the thing you had to commit to memory was associated with something you already know. The spaces of the music staff were committed to memory with the same system; the initial system. If you remembered the word, “face”, you remembered that the spaces on the staff are, F,A,C, and E. Again you associated something new and meaningless to something you already knew and to something that had meaning to you.

You might have learned the jingle “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November, all the rest have thirty-one etc.,” but how many times have you relied on it when it was necessary to know the number of days in a particular month? If you were ever taught the nonsense word, “VIBGYOR” then you still remember the colors of the spectrum : Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet”. This again is the association and initial system. I am sure that many times you have seen or heard something which made you snap your fingers, and say, “Oh, that reminds me…” . You were made to remember something by the thing you saw or heard, which usually had no obvious connection to the thing you remembered. However, in your mind, the 2 things were associated in some way. This was a subconscious association. Right now, I am pointing out a few examples of conscious associations at work; and they certainly do work. People who have forgotten many things that they learned in their early grades, still remember the spaces and lines of the treble clef. If you have read this chapter so far, concentrating as you read, you should know them by now, even if you’ve never studied music. One of the best examples I know, is the one, which was a great help to me in my early grade spelling classes. We were being taught that the word, “believe” was spelled with the e following the i. In order to help us to commit this to memory, we were told to remember a short sentence, “Never believe a lie”

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This is a perfect instance of a conscious association. I know for a fact that many adults still have trouble spelling the word “believe”. They are never quite sure if the I is first, or if it is the E. The spelling of the word, “believe” was the new thing to remember. The word, “lie” is a word we all already knew how to spell. None of the students that heard that little sentence, ever again misspelled the word, “believe”. Do you have trouble spelling the word, “piece”? If you do, just remember the phrase, “piece of pie”. This phrase will always tell you how to spell, the word “piece” Can you draw anything that resembles the map of England, from memory? How about China, Japan or Sri Lanka? You probably can’t draw any of these. If I had mentioned Italy, 90% of you would have immediately have seen a picture of a boot in your mind’s eye. If you did, and if you draw a boot, you will have the approximate outline of the map of the country of Italy.

Why did this picture appear in your mind’s eye? Only because, at one time or another, perhaps many years ago, you either heard or noticed that the map of Italy resembled a boot. The shape of Italy, of course, was the new thing to remember, the boot was the something we already know and remembered.

You can see that simple conscious associations helped you memorize abstract information like the above examples very easily. The initial system that I mentioned earlier, can be used to help you memorize many things. However, the technology that will be taught in this course will be far more powerful. We will be using pictures conjured up by our imagination. In a way, we will be day dreaming a lot! We will be using pictures because that’s the way our mind works. It’s the software to program our minds. You might be skeptical and say, “Wait a minute” I don’t think in pictures, that is child’s play. Well then, try to think of an Elephant, did a picture of a huge beast with a long trunk and white tusks appear? Or did the word “Elephant” come to mind? Many years ago, Apple Computers introduced an icon driven operating system for its Macintosh home computers. The idea was a runaway success. Apple Computers understood how the human mind works, and introduced a paradigm shift, it taught the machine how the human mind works with a machine human interface that is icon-driven. We now know that Apple Computers Inc. have made billions of dollars from this idea. The system and methods in this book will show you how the principles and ideas of simple conscious associations can be applied to remembering anything. Yes, that’s right, remembering anything, including names and faces, items, objects, facts, figures, speeches, the multiplication tables, advance mathematical formula, anything. In other words, the systems and methods you will learn in this book, can be applied to anything and everything in everyday life, school, social or business life.

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Chapter 2 The Basis Of Memory An accurate and retentive memory is the basis of all business successes. In the last analysis, all our knowledge is based on our memories. A clear example is that you could not be reading this book right now, if you didn’t remember the sounds of the 26 letters of the alphabet. This may seem far-fetched to you, but it is true, nevertheless. Actually, if you were to lose your memory completely, you would have to start learning everything from scratch, just like a newborn baby. You wouldn’t remember how to dress, or shave, or apply your makeup, or how to drive your car, or whether to use a knife or fork, etc. You see, all the things we attribute to habit, should be attributed to memory. Habit is a memory. The question that people ask me most often, is, “Isn’t it confusing to remember too much?” There is no limit to the capacity of the memory. Lucius Scipio was able to remember the names of all the people of Rome; Cyrus was able to call every soldier in his army by name; while Seneca could memorize and repeat 2000 words, after hearing them once. I believe that the more you remember, the more you can remember. The memory, in many ways, is like a muscle. A muscle must be exercised and developed in order to give proper service and use; so must the memory. The difference is that the muscle can be over trained or become muscle bound while the memory cannot. You can be taught to have a trained memory just as you can be taught anything else. As a matter of fact, it is much easier to attain a trained memory than, say, to learn to play a musical instrument. If you can read and write English, and have a normal amount of common sense, and if you read and study this Ebook, you will have acquired a trained memory! Along with the trained memory you will probably acquire a greater power of concentration, a purer sense of observation, and perhaps, a stronger imagination. Remember please, that there is no such thing as a bad memory! This may come as a shock to those of you who have used your supposedly “bad memory” as an excuse for years. There are only trained or untrained memories. Almost all untrained memories are one-sided. That is to say that people who can remember names and faces, cannot remember telephone numbers, and those who remember phone numbers, can’t , for the life of them, remember the names of the people they wish to call. There are those who have a pretty good retentive memory, but a painfully slow one; just as there are some who can remember things quickly, but cannot retain them for any length of time. If you apply the systems and methods taught in this book, I can assure you a quick and retentive memory for just about anything. Anything you wish to remember must in some way or other, be associated in your mind to something you already know or remember. Of course, most of you will say that you have remembered, or do remember, many things, and that you do not associate them with anything else. That’s true!. But, if you weren’t associating knowingly, then you would already have the beginnings of a trained memory. Let me explain.

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You see, most of the things you have ever remembered, have been associated subconsciously with something else that you already knew or remembered. What you subconsciously associated strongly, will be remembered, what was not associated strongly, will be forgotten. Since this tiny exercise takes place without you knowing, you cannot help it. However, I am going to teach you to associate anything you want to, consciously. When you have learned to do that, you will have acquired a trained memory. Keep in mind that the system that I teach you is an aid to your normal or “true memory”. It is your true memory that does the work for you, whether you realize it or not. There is a very thin line between a trained memory and the true memory, and as you continue to use the system taught here, that line will begin to fade. That is the beautiful thing about using my system. After a while, it becomes automatic and you almost start doing it subconsciously! In the next chapter we shall discuss the methodology of using emotions as a brain stimulus to anchor our memory. It will be more of an academic discussion on why emotions are such powerful anchors for our brain due to the fact that our ancestors use the primitive brain as a means of survival and it continues to play a major part as our brain evolutes.

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Chapter 3 How The Human Brain Evolved Over millions of years of evolution, the brain has grown from the bottom up, with its higher centers developing and building onto lower, more ancient parts. As the story of the evolution of the human brain unfold, we see why the use of emotions as memory anchors play such an important role in primitive times and in modern times. The emotions of fear, pain, pleasure, happiness in primitive times and more subtle and complicated emotions of envy, greed, embarrassment and jealousy in modern times are built into our psyche. The most primitive part of the brain, shared with all species that have more than a minimal nervous system, is the brainstem surrounding the top of the spinal cord. This root brain regulates basic life functions like breathing and the metabolism of the body’s other organs, as well as controlling stereotyped reactions and movements. This primitive brain cannot be said to think or learn rather it is a set of preprogrammed regulators that keep the body running as it should be reacting in a way that ensures survival. This brain was very important in the Age of Reptiles. Picture a snake hissing to signal the threat of an attack. From the primitive root, the brainstem, emerged the emotional centers. Millions of years later in evolution, from these emotional areas evolved the thinking brain or “neocortex”, the great bulb of convoluted tissues that make up the top layers. The fact that the “thinking brain” grew from the emotional reveals much about the relationship of external stimulus and learning and memory; there was an emotional brain long before there was a rational one. The most ancient root of our emotional brain is in the sense of smell, or, more precisely, in the olfactory lobe, the cells that take in and analyze smell. Every living entity, be it nutritious, poisonous, sexual partner, predator or prey, has a distinctive molecular signature that can be carried in the wind. During primitive times the sense of smell meant the distinctive between life and death. When the new mammals arrived, there came new, key layers of the emotional brain. These, surrounding the brainstem, look roughly like a bagel with a bite taken out at he bottom where the brainstem nestles into them, Because this part of the brain rings and borders the brainstem, it was called the “limbic” system, from “limbus,” the Latin word for “ring.” As it evolved, the limbic system refined two powerful tools, learning and memory. These revolutionary advances allowed an animal to be much smarter in its choices for survival, and to fine-tune its responses to adapt to changing demands rather than having automatic reactions If a food led to sickness, it could be avoided next time. Decisions like knowing what to eat and what to reject were still determined largely through smell. The connections between the olfactory bulb and the limbic system now took on the task of making distinctions among smells and recognizing them, comparing a present smell with past ones, and so discriminating good from bad.

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This was done by the “rhinencephalon”, literally, the “nose brain”, a part of the limbic wiring, and the rudimentary basis of the neocortex, the thinking brain. About 100 million years ago the brain in mammals took a great growth spurt. Piled on top of the thin two-layered cortex, the regions that plan, comprehend what is sensed, co-ordinate movement, several new layers of brain cells were added to form the neocortex. In contrast to the ancient brain’s two-layered cortex, the neocortex offered an extraordinary intellectual edge. The Homo Sapien’s neocortex, so much larger than in any other species, has added all that is distinctly human. The neocortex is the seat of thought, it contains the centers that put together and comprehend what the senses perceive. It adds to a feeling what we think about it and allows us to have feelings about ideas, art, symbols, imaginings. The Role Of Emotions In Memory In humans the amygdala (from the Greek word for “almond”) is an almond-shaped cluster of interconnected structures perched above the brainstem, near the bottom of the limbic ring. There are two amygdalas, one on each side of the brain, nestled toward the side of the head. The human amygdala is relatively large compared to that in any of our closest evolutionary cousins, the primates. The hippocampus and the amygdala were the two key parts of the primitive “nose brain” that, in evolution, gave rise to the cortex and then the neocortex. To this day these limbic structures do much or most of the brain’s learning and remembering, the amygdala is the specialist for emotional matters. If the amygdala is severed from the rest of the brain, the result is a striking inability to gauge the emotional significance of events. This condition is also known as “affective blindness”. A person who has his amygdala removed will lose all recognition of feeling, as well as any feeling about feelings. The amygdala is the storehouse of emotional memory, and thus of significance itself. Life without the amygdala is a life stripped of personal meanings. Research by neuroscientists now seems to suggest that the hippocampus, which has been long considered the key structure of the limbic system, is more involved in registering and making sense of perceptual patterns than with emotional reactions. The hippocampus’s main input is in providing a keen memory of context, vital for emotional meaning, it is the hippocampus that recognizes the differing significance of, say, a snake seen on TV versus a snake in your backyard.

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The hippocampus remembers the dry facts; the amygdala retains the emotional flavor that goes with those facts. If we ride on a bicycle in the park and collide with the person we were trying to overtake, the hippocampus retains the specifics of the incident, like what stretch of path we were on, were there many people around who witness the incident, was it a man or woman we crashed into and so on. But it is the amygdala that ever after will send a surge of anxiety through us whenever we try to pass a pedestrian or another bicycle in similar circumstances. Put simply, the hippocampus is the crucial in recognizing a face as that of your classmate. But it is the amygdala that adds you don’t really like him or her. The Role Of Stimulus In Memory And Survival The brain uses a simple but clever method to make emotional memories register with special potency, the very same neurochemical alerting system that prime the body to react to life-threatening emergencies by fighting or fleeing also stamp the moment in memory with vividness. Under stress (or anxiety), or presumably even the intense excitement of joy, a nerve running from the brain to the adrenal glands atop the kidneys triggers a secretion of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which surge through the body priming it for an emergency. These hormones activate receptors on the vagus nerve, while the vagus nerve carries messages from the brain to regulate the hear, it also carries signals back into the brain, triggered by epinephrine and norepinephrine. The amygdala is the main site in the brain where these signals go, they activate neurons within the amygdala to signal other brain regions to strengthen memory for what is happening. This amygdala arousal seems to imprint in memory most moments of emotional arousal with an added degree of strength,. That’s why we are more likely, for example to remember where we went on a first date, or what we were doing when we heard the news the New York World Trade Center Twin Towers had collapsed. The more intense the amygdala arousal, the stronger the imprint, the experiences that scare or thrill us the most in life are among our most indelible memories. This means that, in effect, the brain has two memory systems, one for ordinary facts and one for emotionally charged ones. A special system for emotional memories makes excellent sense in evolution, of course, ensuring that animals would have particularly vivid memories of what threatens or pleases them.

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Chapter 4 Test Your Memory I don’t think you’ll find the tests in this chapter quite as difficult. Even if you do, it doesn’t matter, since no one will know how badly you did on them. If I told you that you would never again be troubled by forgetting names or faces, or that you would be able to remember a shopping list of 50 items, or memorize the contents of an entire magazine, or remember prices and important telephone numbers without pen and paper you would surely think I’d gone mad. But read and study this book, and see for yourself! I imagine that the best way for me to prove it to you is to let you see your own progress. In order to do that, I must show you first how poor your untrained memory is. So take a few moments and mark yourselves on the tests that follow. In this way, you will be able to take the same tests after reading certain chapters, and compare your scores. I feel that these tests are quite important. Since your memory will improve with almost every chapter you read, I want you to see that improvement. That will give you confidence, which in itself is important to a trained memory. After each test, you will find a space for your present score, and a space that is to be used for your score after reading those particular chapters. One important point, before you take the test - don’t’ flip through the book and read only the chapters that you think will help you. All the chapters will help you, and it is much better if you read from one to the other. Do not jump ahead, of me, or yourself! Test#1 Read this list of 15 objects just once, you can take about 2 minutes to do so. Then try to write them, without looking at the book, of course, in exactly the same order in which they appear here. When scoring yourself, remember that if you leave out a word, that will make the remaining words incorrect, for they will be out of sequence. I will remind you to take this test again, after you’ve read Chapter 5. Give yourself 5 points for each correct one. Book, plate, bull, coat, match, razor, banana, wallet, curtains, pot, watch, sunglasses, key, cup, worm. Write your score here. __________ Score after learning Chapter 5 __________

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Test #2 Take about 3 minutes to try to memorize the 20 objects listed here, by numbers. Then try to list them yourself without looking at the book. You must remember not only the objects, but to which number it belongs. You’ll be reminded to take this test again, after you’ve read Chapter 6. Give yourself 5 points for every object that you put with the correct number. 1. Radio 6. Telephone 11. Dress 16. Bread 2. Airplane 7. Chair 12. Flower 17. Pencil 3. Lamp 8. Horse 13. Window 18. Curtain 4. Cigar 9. Egg 14. Perfume 19. Vase 5. Picture 10. Tea cup 15. Book 20. Hat Write your score here __________ Score after learning Chapter 6 __________ Test #3 Look at the 20-digit number below for about 2 and a half minutes, then take a piece of paper and try to write it from memory. Give yourself 5 points for every number that you put down in its correct place or sequence. Understand please, that the important thing here is retentiveness, which you cannot test until you have read Chapter 10. 74927129365837412749 Write your score here __________ Score after learning Chapter 10 __________ Test # 4 Take 7 to 9 minutes to look at this list of 10 people and their telephone numbers. Then copy all ten people onto a piece of paper, close the book, and see if you can write the telephone number next to each one, from memory. Remember that if you were to dial one wrong digit, you would get the wrong party, so, if only 1 digit in the number is wrong, you get no score on that particular one, I will remind you to take this test again, after you’ve read through Chapter 10. Give yourself 10 points for each telephone number that you list correctly.

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Baker 78639571 Lawyer 55623179 Tailor 19497849 Mr Ranjit Singh 49821357 Dentist 96942854 Doctor 71423185 Mr Goldstein 81423168 Mr Kerrigan 28322801 Write your score here __________ Score after learning Chapter 10 __________ Do not feel discouraged because of the poor marks that you may have received on the above tests. I have given them to you for a definite purpose. First of all, it is used to measure your progress as you read through this system. Also, to show you how unreliable an untrained memory really is. It does not take a lot of work and study to be able to get 100% on all these tests. I like to refer to the system in this book as the “lazy man’s” way of remembering! Memory and observation do go hand in hand. You cannot possibly remember anything you do not observe. It is extremely difficult to observe or remember anything that you do not want to remember, or that you are not interested in remembering. If you want to improve your memory immediately, force yourself to want to remember. Force yourself to be interested enough to observe anything you want to remember or retain. I say, “force yourself” because at first a little effort may be necessary, however in an amazingly short time, you’ll find that there is no effort at all required to make yourself want to remember anything. Without motivation, there can hardly be remembrance. Take for instance, how many parents complain that their children have terrible memories, because they can’t remember their schoolwork, and consequently get poor marks? Yet, some of these same children can remember the batting averages of every baseball player in the major leagues. They know all the rules of baseball or who made what great play in what year for which team, etc. If they can remember these facts and figures so easily and so well, why can’t some of them remember their lessons at school? Only because they are more interested in baseball than they are in algebra, history, geography and other school subjects. The problem is not with their memory, but with their lack of interest. The proof of the pudding is in the fact that most children excel in at least one particular subject, even though they have poor marks in all the others. If a student has a good memory for one subject, he is good student in that subject. This proves that the student does have a good memory for things that he likes, or is interested in.

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Many of us learnt a foreign language while in high school. But not many of us remember much of the foreign language. If you’d traveled to these countries that speak the language, you’d wish you had paid more attention in class. The trick now is to make up your mind that you will be interested in remembering names, faces, dates, figures, and facts-anything; and that you will have confidence in your ability to retain them. This alone, even without the actual system and methods of associations that will be taught in this system, will improve your memory to a noticeable degree. With the systems of association as an aid to your true memory, you are on your way to an amazingly remarkable and retentive memory.

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Chapter 5 Link Method of Memory. You can now immediately start to remember as you’ve been able to before. I don’t believe that anyone with an untrained memory can possibly remember 20 dissimilar items, in sequence, after hearing or seeing them only once. Even though you don’t believe it either, you will accomplish just that if you read and study this chapter. Before going into actual memorizing, I must let you know that your trained memory will be based almost entirely on mental images or pictures. The mental pictures will be easily recalled if they are made as ridiculous as you can possibly make them. Here are the 20 items that you will be able to memorize in sequence in a surprisingly short time. Curtains Book Cup Banana Table Door Pencil Bus Cake Hammer Television set Spoon Headphone Telescope Lamp Vase Ketchup Dog Shoe Cigar I’ll teach you now, what I call the Link Method of memory. I’ve told you that your trained memory will consists mostly of ridiculous mental images. So let’s make ridiculous mental images of the above 20 items. Don’t be alarmed! It is child’s play and as a matter of fact, it is almost like a game. The pictures or images that come to mind has to be vivid and crystal clear with lots of actions and emotions. Feel the feel and smell the smells.

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For example, if I were to tell you to imagine a lemon, you’d have to vividly picture a nice juicy yellow lemon. Imagine you’re holding it in your hand, feel its texture, take a whiff. Can you smell its fresh “lemony” citrus aroma? Now imagine taking a nice shining knife and cut it in half, imagine its juices trickling down your hand. Now take a bite out of one half. If by now, you have a mouth full of saliva, you have successfully imagined a vivid picture of the lemon. If not, try again with more details. Remember, more is better. Back to the list. The first thing you have to do is to get a picture of the first item, “curtain”, in your mind’s eye. Don’t just see the word but visualize in vivid pictures, curtains. You can either visualize the most gorgeous curtains money can buy or you can imagine or you can imagine the curtains in your own home. The 2nd item you want to remember is “book”. Now then, here is your first and most important step towards your trained memory. You must now associate or link curtains to, or with, book. The association must be as ridiculous, ludicrous and silly as possible. Remember, boring is bad. For instance, you might picture the curtains in your home is made out of many small books. See yourself drawing your curtains open and seeing a gigantic book outside your house . You can picture yourself reading a book with the words printed on curtain material instead of paper. Either one of these is a ridiculous picture or association. A book on how to make curtains would not make a good association. It is too logical. Your mental picture must be ridiculous or illogical! Take my word for the fact that if your association is a logical one, you will not remember it. You must actually see this ridiculous picture in your mind’s eye. Please do not just try to see the words. Close your eyes for a second, that might make it easier to see the picture, at first. As soon as you see it, stop thinking of it and go on to your next step. The thing that you already know or remember is “book”, therefore the next step is to associate or link, book to the next item on the list, which is, “cup”. At this point, you pay no attention to “curtains” any longer. Make an entirely new ridiculous picture with, or between cup and book. You might see a cup made of tiny books and leaking as you pour hot water into it and scalding you. Associating it with pain, emotions or sexual innuendoes would be helpful for later recall. Or imagine a cup filled with soup with tiny books instead of croutons or your favorite book right at the bottom of a tower of cups that come crashing down as you pull the book from the bottom Imagine the crash and the pieces all over the place. Thousands of pieces, more is better. Pick the association which you think is most incredulous and see it in your mind’s eye. I cannot stress, too much, the necessity of actually seeing this picture in your mind’s eye, and making the mental image as ridiculous as possible. However, please do not stop for 15 minutes to find the most illogical association; the first ridiculous one that comes to mind is usually the best to use. I’ll give you 2 or more ways in which you might form your pictures with each pair of the 20 items. You are to pick the one that you think is most ridiculous, or one you’ve thought of yourself. Link it with emotions, pain, in colorful vivid picture. See yourself in the picture.

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We have now linked curtains to book, and book to cups. We now come to the next item which is “banana”. You must make a ridiculous association between cup and banana. You might want to see yourself peeling a cup like a banana and cracking your tooth as you try to eat it… ouch! Try to associate pain. Or you might want to imagine peeling a banana and out comes tiny little cups that crash to the floor . See either of these pictures in your mind for a moment, then stop thinking of it. You’ll realize that we are always associating the previous object to the present object. Since we have just used “banana”, this is the previous, or the thing we already know and remember. The present object, or the new thing that we want to remember is “table”. So make a ridiculous association or link between banana and table. You could “see” a table with legs of bananas or using a gigantic banana as a table . See the picture you think is most ridiculous. Now ‘”table” and “door” - see your dining table top made out of a door with the door knob sticking out or a door with table legs sticking out. Door and pencil - You might imagine losing your keys to the door of your house and using a giant pencil to crash it down. Or you open your house door and out pours millions of pencils and they overwhelm you. Like an avalanche. Pencil and bus - See yourself boarding a bus in the shape of a giant pencil or see yourself scribbling on the back of a bus, the bus moves off and the puff of black exhaust blows into your face, choking you. See yourself coughing with a face covered in black soot. Bus and Cake - See your birthday cake in a shape of a bus. You blow the candles and the cake moves off like a bus. Or see yourself boarding a bus and you take a seat and squish, you sit on a cake… yuck! Cake and Hammer - See yourself hammering a cake and the cake and cream flying all over the room… what a mess! Or see yourself eating a large piece of cake and “clunk“, there is a hammer hidden inside! Hammer and Television - See yourself watching a football match and in frustration, you throw a hammer onto the screen… crash! Maybe you’re watching a TV program about giant hammers invading the earth and smashing the buildings and flattening them. Television and Spoon - See yourself watching television and eating cereal but you forgot your spoon. The actor on TV realize you are without a spoon and hands you one out of the TV screen! How weird is that? But weird is good. Spoon and headphone - See yourself wearing headphone shaped like spoons with the long handles sticking out. And everyone around you laughing at how ridiculous you look. Feel the embarrassment.

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Headphone and telescope - See yourself looking at the moon through a telescope and the moon is wearing headphones and smiling at you! See the moon grooving to the beat of the music. Telescope and lamp - You have just bought a new lamp shaped like a telescope with the light coming out of the lenses. Or the light switch is too high on a wall and you extend a telescope in order to turn the lamp on. Lamp and Vase - Imagine yourself making a bedside lamp out of a flower vase or the lamp crashing onto a vase and breaking it. Vase and Ketchup - Picture yourself pouring ketchup out of a vase. Or putting ketchup instead of water into a vase and putting beautiful bright flowers into the vase. Ketchup and Dog - Imagine your friend smearing ketchup onto his or her face and your friend’s pet dog licking it off your friend’s face. Dog and Shoe - Imagine a dog chewing your favorite shoe or a tiny dog sleeping in your shoe. Or a dog wearing 2 pairs of your favorite shoes and you running after it. Whichever is the more vivid picture. Shoe and Cigar - Imagine smoking a cigar shaped like a shoe. Or putting your foot into your favorite shoe and burning your toes because someone put a lighted cigar into one of your shoes or a shoe smoking a cigar! We have finished! If you have actually “seen” these mental pictures in your mind’s eye, you will have no trouble remembering the 20 items in sequence, from “curtains” to cigar. Of course, it takes many times the length of time to explain this than to simply do it. Each mental association must be seen for just the smallest fraction of a second, before going on to the next one. Let’s see now if you have remembered all the items. If you were to “see” the curtains, what would that bring to mind immediately? Books of course. You saw yourself drawing the curtains open and a giant book outside your window! Now, book brings cup to mind, because you saw yourself pouring hot water into a cup made of tiny books and the water spilling out through the gaps scalding your legs. “Ouch, ouch” - you yell in pain. You saw yourself peeling a cup like a banana and breaking your tooth as you tried to eat it. Then you saw a table with long bananas as legs and as you put your casserole on the table, crash! The legs couldn’t hold the weight. Try it! You will see that you will go through all the items without missing a beat. If you can’t remember an item, chances are, your association is not vivid or ridiculous enough, change it and imagine the colors and sounds that go with it. Have lots of action.

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You may realize that you have been brought up thinking logically and here I am telling you to be ridiculous. Some of you may have a problem with making ridiculous pictures However, with practice, your pictures will become ridiculous as you get in touch with the “inner kid” in you. Have fun doing it. Here are 4 rules that may help you come up with vivid and ridiculous pictures. 1. Picture your items out of proportion. In my illustration above, I use the word “gigantic” to make the items out of proportion. 2. Picture the items in motion whenever possible. Think action, action, ACTION! You may realize that it is often the most embarrassing or violent episodes in our lives that we remember. If you’ve ever been in an embarrassing situation or an accident, you don’t need a trained memory to remember it vividly. You may squirm whenever you think about that situation and can probably describe the details. 3. Exaggerate the amount of items. In my association between door and pencil, I told you that you might see millions of pencils coming out as you open the door to your house like an avalanche. If you imagine the pointed lead ends sticking into you, you have both action and exaggeration in your picture. 4. Substitute your items. This method can be used quite often. It’s a method of picturing one item instead of another for instance, peeling a cup like a banana or putting spoons on your ears as headphones. 1. Out of Proportion 2. Action. 3. Exaggeration. 4. Substitution. Try to get one or more of the above into your pictures, and with a little practice you’ll find that a ridiculous association for any 2 items will come to mind instantly. The objects to be remembered are actually linked one to the other forming a chain and that is why I call it the link method of remembering. The entire Link method boils down to this ; Associate the first item to the second, the second to the third, the third to the fourth and so on. Make your associations as ridiculous and/or illogical as possible, and most important, SEE the pictures in your mind’s eye. If you have trouble recalling the list, chances are, your pictures are not vivid and in detail enough. For example, did the pencil in your imagination have an eraser at the end? What flavor was the cake? Did it have icing ? … etc. You may notice the first time you visualize the list, you may have problems. However, as you review the list a second time, your mind works faster and the pictures come faster and are more vivid. The reason for this phenomena is that the memory is being engaged and your mind is starting to release its photographic memory. Try a few more times and you’d notice your mind thinks like a Japanese Bullet Train!

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In later chapters, you will learn how to apply the link method in a practical manner. How it can be used to help you to recall your daily schedule or errands, and how you can use it to help you remember speeches or scripts. The Link method is also used to help memorize long-digit numbers and many other things. You can now show off to your friends. Have them make out a list and you make vivid pictures of this list and call out to it. Your friends can test you a few hours later and you’ll still remember it. Best of all, you can recall the list backwards! By the way, why not try the Test#1 in Chapter#4 again, Compare your score now, with the score you had before you read this chapter on the Link method.

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Chapter 6 The Peg System of Memory A man was arrested and taken for a ride in a police car, He overheard the following conversation on the police frequency radio. “10-4, this is squad car alpha Zulu 28. 20-10 in progress and is hot. 40-9 is no longer in sight. I have sight confirmation of 20-15, 30-12 and 30-15, all are moving fast… real fast. Requesting back up of 40-7 instead. Please advise ETA and your numbers so that we can be ready when you get here. The reply came hard and fast, ‘Roger alpha Zulu 28, this is Bravo 2-20. We are 5 clicks from your position. Requesting for 30-5 with 20-10 instead. Roger and out.” The man was impressed with the police lingo and said, “You cops must be busy with all that crime happening in the city, why bother with a small time pick-pocket like me?”. The policeman turned around and said wryly, “What crime? That was one of our guys ordering a croissant with his black coffee instead of his usual doughnut with jelly… and it seems the cafe is running out of chocolate doughnuts… fast!” Although the above is just a joke, you must be thinking the law enforcement officers must spend most of their waking hours memorizing the felony codes as they converse over the police radio. Let me assure you that it can be both quick and fun, if you ever want to be a policeman or one whose profession depend on memorizing codes. First, however, you must learn how to remember the numbers. Numbers themselves are about the most difficult things to remember because they are completely abstract and intangible. It is almost impossible to picture a number. They are geometric designs and they mean nothing in our minds, unless they have been associated to something you know over a period of time. You may have memorized your own telephone numbers or address, but you need a method or system to associate numbers in any combination easily and quickly. I’m introducing to you, the peg system of memory. Like the Velcro on your shoe or piece of clothing, you need pegs for something to hang on to. The idea has been developed and modified many times so that it is now easily learnt. However, you must learn a simple phonetic alphabet which consists of only 10 sounds and with my help, it should not take more than 10 minutes to learn them. This will be the most worthwhile 10 minutes you’ve ever spent, since this phonetic alphabet will eventually help you to remember numbers, or numbers in conjunction with anything else, in such a way, you never would have thought possible. I will give you now, a different consonant sound for each of the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0. These, you must commit to memory. I’ll make this simple for you by giving you a “memory aid” for remembering each one. You can use your own body as a memory aid. Beginning from the foot to your head. Read them carefully and with your full attention.

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The sound for #1 will always be - T or D. Just remember T for Toes, and wriggle your toes. The sound for #2 will always be - N. Just remember kNee and lightly tap your knee or the lower case n with 2 down strokes. The sound for #3 will always be - M. Just remember M for muscle and squeeze your thigh muscle. Or lower case m with 3 down strokes. The sound for #4 will always be - R. Just remember R for your rear. And give it a pat. Or r is the last letter of the word four. The sound for #5 will always be - L. Just remember L for love-handles. Give your own love-handles above your hips a light pinch. The sound for #6 will always be - J, ch, sh, soft g etc. just remember your shoulder.

The sound for #7 will always be - K, hard c, hard g. Just remember your collarbone or two mirror image of the number 7, one on top of the other forms the letter K. The sound for #8 will always be - F or V. Just remember your face or veil across your face. The sound for #9 will always be - P or B. Just remember the top of your head or point. The sound for #0 will always be soft C or S or Z- Just remember the ceiling above your head. The sound for 0 (zero) will always be - S or Z. First sound of the word, “zero”. Please keep in mind the letters are not important; we are interested in the sound only That is why I call this a phonetic alphabet. With some of the digits, I’ve given you more than one letter, but the phonetic sounds of these letters are the same, in each case. Your lips, tongue and teeth are used in the same identical way to sound P and B or F and V, or J, sh, ch, etc. The sound of the letter G as in the word “gentle” or the exclamations “gee, this is easy” would be represented by #6, whereas the same letter in the word, “go” would be represented by #7. The letters Kn as in the word “Knife” or “Knee” would stand for #2 because the K is silent. The letter C in the word “cake” represents #7 but the same letter in the word “cease” would represent zero, since it is pronounced with the s sound. Now, take a look at the letters again.

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This completes the system of numerals and gives us the following:

I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

t n m r I y k ƒ P z d sh hard g V b sth ch hard c ph Soft c soft g ng tch, dg q

Close the book and see if you can remember the sounds 1 to 0. You must know them all before proceeding and out of sequence too. This simple phonetic alphabet is very important and should be practiced until it is second nature to you. Once they are, the rest of the Peg system should be a walk in the park. If you need practice, do it on a daily basis anytime you see a number for example, if you see the license number 3142, you should be able to read it as m, t, r, n. A bus number 962 should be seen as p j n. The word car is 74. The word couch is 76 and the word television is 15802 and so on. None of the vowels, a e I o u have any meaning at all. Neither do the letters, w, h or y. (Remember the word “why”) Before going any further, complete the following exercises. The first column of words should be changed to numbers, and the second column of numbers must be broken into sounds. Building _____________ 8276 _____________ Cloud _____________ 9187 _____________ Mountain _____________ 1937 _____________ Planet _____________ 2067 _____________ Computer _____________ 3987 _____________ See the end of the Chapter for the answers. You are now ready to learn some of the “pegs” I mentioned. I would suggest you know the sounds thoroughly before you go on to the pegs themselves.

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We now know a certain phonetic sound for all the digits from 1 to zero and we can make up a word for any number, no matter how many digits it contains. For example, if we wanted to make up a word for #21, we could use any of the following:- net, nut, knot, gnat, neat, note, knit etc, because they all begin with the n sound (#2) and end with the t or d sound (#1). For #16, we could use touch, dish, dash teach etc. They all begin with t or d for #1 and end with sh, ch sound for #6. Remember we are interested in the consonant sounds only. Do you know how I formed those words? If you do, then I can go ahead and give you the first few “pegs”. Each one of the peg words that I will give you has been specially chosen because it is easy to picture in your mind and that is important. Since the number 1 contains only one digit and that one digit is represented by the t or d sound, we must use a word that contains only that one consonant sound. So we will use the word “TIE”. Therefore “tie” will always represent the number 1 to you. As I said, it is important to be able to picture these objects, so I will give explanations of all those where I think an explanation is necessary. The word, “NOAH” will always represent #2. Picture an old, white haired man on an ark. The word, “MA” will mean #3. Here I suggest you picture your own mother. The word , “RYE” will always represent the number 4. You can picture a Rye Bread. Once you decide on a particular mind picture for this, or for any of the pegs, use that particular picture always. You can see how I arrive at these words. They all have only one consonant sound, and that one sound is the one representing the digit of the number. The word “LAW” will always represent #5. Here I suggest you picture a policeman or a judge because they represent the law. Number 6 is the word “SHOE”. Number 7 is the word “COW”. Number 8 is the word “IVY”. You can picture poison Ivy or ivy growing all over the your house. Number 9 is the word, “BEE”,

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Number 10 has 2 digits and must be made up of a t or d sound and an s or z sound. We’ll use the word “TOES” If you’ve read the 10 words once, with a little concentration, you probably already know them. Try it! When you say the number yourself, think of its sound first, then try to remember the peg word. Test yourself in and out of order. You should know that #3 is “ma”, without repeating, “tie,” “Noah”, ma. To show you how fantastic your memory can be with my little memory aids, you can do this until the words become second nature to you. If you come to a number, and you think you can’t remember it’s peg - think of the sound for that number, and say any words that come to your mind, starting with, and containing that particular consonant sound only. When you say the right one, it will sort of “ring a bell” in your mind, and you’ll know that that’s the right one. For instance, if you can’t think of the peg word for #1, you might say to yourself, “toy, tow, tea, tie” as soon as you say “tie,” you’ll know that that is the correct word. You can see, now, what I’ve done. I’ve built you up slowly with each item. First I gave you an aid to remember the phonetic sounds, now those sounds are your aid to remember the very important peg words and the peg words will help you to remember anything where numbers are involved,. Make sure you know them well. 1. Tie 6. Shoe 2. Noah 7. Cow 3. Ma 8. Ivy 4. Rye 9. Bee 5. Law 10. Toes Once you feel you know the first 10 peg words thoroughly, I’ll show you how to use them for remembering objects in and out of order. I’ll give you a list of 10 objects, out of sequence and prove to you that you can remember them after reading them only once. 9 --- wallet 5 --- computer 6 --- radio 2 --- ceiling fan 4 --- bottle 8 --- clock 7 --- soap 1 --- pencil 3 --- bulb 10 -- cloud The first one listed is #9. All you have to do is make a ridiculous and illogical association of the peg for #9, which is “bee” and wallet. If you have realized the importance of actually “seeing” these ridiculous associations in your mind, you’ll have no trouble. For this first one, you might see yourself opening your wallet and a swarm of bees coming out of it and stinging you. Just see the picture and try to imagine the painful sensation as they sting you.

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#6 (shoe) --- radio You can see yourself putting your shoes to your ear and listening to music broadcast. #4 (rye) ---bottle. You can see yourself putting a bottle in between 2 slices of rye bread like a sausage and trying to eat it. Crunch, ouch! That hurt! I am giving you one or more ways that each object can be associated ridiculously with its peg word. You are to use only one of these pictures for each one Use one that I give or one that you think of yourself. The first illogical picture that comes to mind is usually the best one to use, because that is the one that will come to mind later on. I’ll help you with the first 10. Later on, you should be doing it on your own. #7 (cow) --- soap. Picture a cow standing on its hind-legs taking a shower and using a bar of soap to wash itself. Or see a cow chewing on a bar of soap and as it moos, bubbles start to come out of its mouth. #3 (ma) --- bulb. You can see your mother with a bulb above her head. And every time she talks, it lights up. Or see your mother with a necklace of lighted Christmas bulbs around her neck going on and off. #5 (law) --- computer. You can see your laptop or computer with legs patrolling the streets like Robocop. #2 (Noah) --- ceiling fan. You can see Noah hanging onto a ceiling fan going round and round going “wheee…” , he is having fun. #8 (ivy) --Clock. Imagine ivy climbing up a grandfather clock. #1 (tie) --- pencil. Imagine yourself or someone wearing a pencil as a tie. Or imagine yourself scribbling something on someone white tie. #10 (toes) --- cloud . Picture yourself with super long legs reaching out and touching the clouds with your toes. Feel the ticklish sensation. Now take a piece of paper number it from one to ten, and try to fill the objects in order from 1 to 10 and try to fill in the objects in order without looking. When you come to #1, just picture your peg word, tie, and the ridiculous picture of you wearing a pencil as a tie, so you know #1 is pencil. Then picture Noah hanging on the ceiling fan having fun going around in circles with his white beard trailing as he swings and you know #2 is ceiling fan.

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You will not only remember the listed objects, the beauty of this system is that you can remember them out of sequence and backwards. You should now be amazed at you own memory. We will now proceed to remember peg words listed from numbers 11 to 25. You should learn them as you learn the first 10. You can use this method as a party trick by having friends list out 25 items and you remembering them in a heartbeat. Have your friends call out any number and you can list the item. See the shock on their faces! Please do not go to the next chapter until you’ve memorized the peg words from 1 to 25. 11 tot 15. Towel 19. Tub 23. nemo 12. Tin 16. Dish 20. Nose 24. Nero 13. Tomb 17. Tack 21. Net 25. Nail 14. Tire 18. Dove 22. Nun For “tot” it is best to picture a child that you know. For #12, you can see the object made out of “tin”. For “tomb”, picture a gravestone. For #23, you can see “nemo” the clown fish. For #24 (nero) you can picture a roman playing a fiddle. If you know the pegs from 1 to 25 thoroughly, you might want to take test#2 in Chapter 4 once again. Try it and then compare your present score with the original one. Answers for exercise in Chapter 5 Building 95127 8276 FNCJ Cloud 751 9187 BTVC Mountain 3212 1937 TPMC Planet 9521 2067 NsChC Computer 73914 3987 MBFC

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Chapter 7 Uses of the Peg and Link Systems The Link and Peg systems of memory are 2 of the 3 ways that your trained memory will be based upon. The 3rd system is a system of substitute words or substitute thoughts An example of how to use the Link system is to use it for your grocery list. Simply link the first item to the second item, the second to the third, so on down your list. You can memorize a different list the next time you go shopping without fear of confusion. The way our memory works is incredible. It is like a filing cabinet. You can memorize or forget a list at will. Retaining a list in your memory is one of motivation and desire. If you have a list with no immediate use but one which you feel will be useful in the future, simply go over the list in your mind the day after you memorized it and then again in a few days later. After a few times, the list will be etched in your memory to be used when you need it. The key difference between the Link and the Peg systems is that the Link is used to remember anything in sequence while the Peg is for anything in and out of order. The Peg system is extremely useful for remembering telephone numbers, catalogue numbers and long-digit numbers (e.g. Credit Cards) and addresses. We can now use the Peg and Link system or a combination of both to remember errands to be run for the day. Let’s say you have to have your car engine tuned; see your dentist; collect a parcel at the post office; buy a birthday present for your niece; buy dog food; repair your wife’s watch; collect your suit at the laundry shop and buy milk powder for your baby, buy flowers for a sick friend, buy beer for tomorrow night‘s football game. Using the link method, see a vivid picture of your dentist tuning your car engine with a tuning fork, out jumps a parcel and it explodes in mid-air raining confetti of postage stamps, a strong wind blows and the stamps get stuck to a nicely wrapped present with a giant red ribbon, along comes a dog which rips the ribbon apart, the dog gets entangle in the red ribbon and crashes through the window of a watch shop, out of the smashed windows comes giant walking watches wearing nicely pressed suits. Some of the walking watches take out bottles of milk to feed crying babies in prams that the terrified mothers have abandoned. The watches are ticking and they explode into flowers of different colors and hues. It then starts raining heavily, you taste the raindrops and it is beer! Of course, you don’t need to do the errands in the sequence. That might not be convenient, unless the errands are arranged in this manner (maybe they are all along the same route). Each time you complete an errand, go over the link in your mind. Go over the link to see if you’ve missed out on any errands at the end of your run.

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We can use the Peg system for the same thing. Just think of tuning your car engine with the peg word for #1 (tie). You might see yourself wearing a tie with a car engine tied to the bottom of your tie. Dentist to Noah (#2) Post Office to Ma (#3) Birthday present to Rye (#4) Dog food to Law (#5) Wife’s watch to shoe (#6) Your suit to cow (#7) Milk powder to ivy (#8) Flowers to bee (#9) Beer to toes (#10) Let’s begin your with your second errand. Vividly imagine Noah screaming in pain in his ark as the dentist pulls out one of his tooth. Picture your mother trying to slot her best home-baked apple pie into the mailing box at the post office. Picture yourself tying a red ribbon on a rye bread sandwich. Picture a dog in a white wig in a judge’s uniform. Imagine someone with a ticking shoe and taking off her high-heeled shoes to check the time. Imagine a cow wearing a neatly pressed suit and tie. Imagine an Ivy plant climbing up a gigantic towering milk bottle. Imagine a bee giving flowers to his lady bee and the lady bee blushing. Imagine soaking your tired feet and swollen toes in ice-cold buckets of beer. We’ll go further into remembering schedules and appointments in later chapters. Before going to bed or before your day starts, go through your errands as explained, that’s all there is to it. Before going on to the next chapter, please learn the pegs for #26 through to #50. They follow the rules of the phonetic alphabet as do all the pegs. 26. Notch 32. Moon 38. Movie 44. Rower 27. Neck 33. Mummy 39. Mop 45. Roll 28. Knife 34. Mower 40. Rose 46. Roach 29. Knob 35. Mule 41. Rod 47. Rock 30. Mice 36. Match 42. Rain 48. Roof 31. Mat 37. Mug 43. Ram 49. Rope 50. Lace If the item associated with #26 were cigar, you could see a giant cigar with a “notch” in it. For “mower” picture a lawn mower. For #41(rod), picture a fishing rod.

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Be sure you know the peg words for 1 through 50 One way of doing so is to write them on cards for each 10 words and practice them when you are waiting for someone or while in the queue for something. Then if you’re feeling lucky, do all 50 in one shot. You shouldn’t have problems remembering all 50 in a short time.

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Chapter 8 Training Your Observation Skills

TOURISTS

IN

THE THE

SUMMER *

Have you read the phrase in the box above. Read it again to makes sure you know what it says. Repeat what it says aloud. Now go back to it and check it to make sure it is right. Some of you may think this is a silly exercise but it’s important for you to be absolutely sure of what it says. Now if you’ve looked at it closely at least 3 times, what does it say? Does it say “Flowers in the summer”? Are you sure? Check it again. Have you looked at it again? If you still insist that it reads “Flowers in the summer”, guess what? Your observation is not as keen as it should be. If you check it out one more time, it actually says “Flowers in the the summer”! Yes there is one “the” too many in the phrase ! This little exercise goes to prove that our sense of observation needs to be sharpened. Although my system actually forces you to observe if you apply them, your sense of observation can be strengthened with a little practice. As a practice, try to list on a piece of paper, the stuff in your room. After you’ve finished, take a blank piece of paper and go around your room and write down the things you see. Compare the 2 lists and see what you’ve missed.

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If you’re sitting on a subway or a bus, take one second to glance at the person standing or sitting opposite you (don‘t stare as it is rude), then open your eyes again and take a quick glance and see what you’ve missed. Think of a colleague or a friend in school and try to imagine his/her face as vividly as possible. What are the colors of their eyes, complexion, which side is the hair parted, type of nose, lips, the color of their spectacle frames (can you remember if they even wear spectacles?). Do they have freckles? Then the next time you meet, see how much you actually “see” correctly. You’ll find that with practice, your observation skills gradually improve over time. If you need more practice, go to the supermarket and using the Peg or Link system, try to remember the prices of items. With time and with constant practice, you’ll find your observation skills are becoming sharper. Before reading any further, I would suggest that you memorize the Peg words from 51 to 75. 51. Lad 57. Log 63. Chum 69. Ship 52. Lion 58. Lava 64. Chair 70. Case 53. Lime 59. Lip 65. Jail 71. Cat 54. Lure 60. Cheese 66. Choo choo 72. Coin 55. Lily 61. Sheet 67. Check 73. Cam 56. Leech 62. Chain 68. Chef 74. Car 75. Coal For #63 chum, you can picture a close friend. For #54 lure, you can picture a bait. . For #73 cam, you can picture a camera.

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Chapter 9 How To Remember Speeches, Articles, Scripts and Anecdotes. Making speeches can be a frightening affair. Not only must the speaker know his subject well, he must also be able pace his speech, gauge the audience reaction, tell relevant jokes and stories to keep the audience interested , mind his diction, adjust his vocals and a lot of areas of concern. Taking all these into account, it is no wonder that most people fear making speeches. However, there are people who relish making speeches, they remember their speeches well, speak and look confident, and inject humor at the appropriate moment. It is no secret that the best speech-makers prepare well beforehand. But even with timely preparation, it is easy to forget what one is suppose to say or even falter due to nervousness and this can lead to awkward situations. Some people memorize their speeches word for word. But this can present a problem if the words are mixed up or somehow forgotten. Then there are those who get around the problem by reading from script. But somehow, you will lose touch with the audience as you continually look down on a piece of paper. And if you lose your place on the paper, it can be a few seconds of embarrassment. The best way to make speeches is to lay out you thoughts and ideas and link these thoughts or ideas. There are no words to forget since you’ve not memorized any. If you wish to memorize your speech, flowing from one thought or idea to the next, use the Link method and you would be forming a sequence. To prepare, you might want to write down your key thoughts by using KEY WORDS on a piece of paper. Then link sub-thoughts with arrows forming branches as they come into your head. By the time you finish, you just have a piece of paper (maybe 2) with KEY WORDS as your thoughts. You can start linking the key words by the methods already discussed. For example Let’s say you need to make a speech on how to invest in luxury watches. You have wrote down your key words on a piece of paper and the points you want to make. (1) Returns on Investment (2) Types of watches to invest in (3) The time frame to wait (4) Pitfalls to look out for (5) Safekeeping your expensive watches You have 5 key words, Returns, Types, Safekeeping, time frame and pitfalls. All these works are rather abstract so you may have to break up certain syllables in a word to something you can easily picture and sounds the same. For returns, it sounds like “rat turns“. For types, we imagine a “typewriter“. For safekeeping, we imagine a giant “safe“. For time frame we imagine a picture frame and for pitfalls, just think of a hole in the ground. We can now begin to imagine a vivid picture with lots of action in a totally nonsensical manner. Think of a giant rat turning and rolling a typewriter down a hill. Down it goes faster and faster, the rat runs after it yelling “Stop come back”, the keys

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from the typewriter starts coming off and the rat steps on them yelling “Ouch!”, the safe goes through a giant picture frame. The rat stops to admire the intricate carving on the frame before running through it and chasing the typewriter which finally falls into a deep pit, down and down it goes until it hits a safe at the bottom of the pit with a loud, “clunk”. And expensive watches pours out of the opened safe. You may have to start out with 2 or 3 key words for some thoughts. List as many of them as you need to remember the entire speech. As you progress with the idea, the amount of key words will be lessened. More importantly, the confidence you gain by knowing that you remember your talk will show as you deliver it. Just remember that you must take care of your thoughts and the words will follow. So just remember the main thoughts of the speech and the incidentals, the ifs, ands, buts , whys and wherefores will follow. The same idea goes when you read an article and want to remember it. Just take note of the main points. The main point of the article will link to the sub-point for which key words have been chosen. So like the tiny hooks of a Velcro, the entire article can be remembered. The same idea of linking Key Words can also be used for lyrics and scripts. Of course, it is usually necessary to memorize them word for word. You just have to go over them more often, but the key word idea will make it easier. If you have trouble remembering your cue in a play, you can remember the last word of the line prior to yours and make a link to the first word of yours? The same system can be used for remembering jokes. You can hear lots of funny stories and jokes and forget them the next day. Simply use the Key Word system to link the words in the punch line and the entire joke comes to mind. Before we proceed any further, let us learn the last of the one hundred peg words. 76. Cage 82. Phone 88. Fifi 94. Bear 77. Cake 83. Foam 89. FBI 95. Bell 78. Cave 84. Fur 90. Bus 96. Beach 79. Cop 85. File 91. Bat 97. Book 80. Vase 86. Fish 92. Bone 98. Puff 81. Fat 87. Fog 93. Bum 99. Pipe 100. Disease

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For #89 (FBI) -- Think of secret agents in trench coats. For #88 (Fifi) - Think of a French poodle named fifi. Now try to count from 1 to 100 with your peg words only. You can practice when you are in a queue, in a traffic jam, or commuting by bus or train. If you go over them just once in a while, they’ll soon be lodged in your long-term memory.

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Chapter 10 How to Remember Long-Digit Numbers Any number, whether they are telephone numbers, credit numbers, historical dates can be made to mean something and be remembered. Using the Peg and he link system, you are forced to concentrate on the numbers, it is simple and it can be retained for very long. For example, try to memorize 244682775865 24 46 82 77 58 65 Nero roach phone cake lava jail Think of the peg words as you focus on the numbers and move from left to right across the row of numbers. Think of Nero with his fiddle sitting on a giant roach. The roach is making a call on a phone and climbing on a large piece of cake. Suddenly a volcano erupts and hot lava comes flowing down and moves the giant roach into a jail cell. In about half a minute, you should be able to make this association. Go over it once or twice and see if it gets memorized. In repeating the number , all you do is change the picture back to peg words into numbers. You have just committed to memory, a 12-digit number linking 6 objects with your imagination. Intelligence experts tell us that the average adult should remember a 6-digit number forwards and backwards, after hearing or seeing it once. The superior adult does the same with an 8-digit number. You’ve just done the same with a 12-digit number! If you’ve grasped the concept of what I’m teaching, you can use your imagination and use 4 words to memorize a 12-digit number. Just make up words to fit 3 digits at a time and link them. Instead of using 2-digit words, we have 3-digit Peg words. 539 127 922 327 Lamp Tank Banana Monkey You can vividly imagine a street lamp in the way of a rolling army tank, it gets rolled over and crushed. The tank fires salvoes of bananas like shells at a giant monkey that gobbles up the bananas as they fly towards it.

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If you’re using this method to remember telephone numbers for example. Paul Smith 35-82-05-76 You might want to picture a Black Smith with a long pole (Paul) hitting a mule. The mule (35) runs to a phone (82) booth and calls the police (law-05). The police arrives and puts the Blacksmith in a cage (76). If you think you’d be confused with the sequence of the numbers, simply use a peg word for the last 2-digit which is not part of he list example Catch or Cash. However, I don’t think you would ever find it necessary to memorize a phone number that you didn’t intend to use for a great period of time. After making the call a couple of times, your natural memory will probably tell you which set of peg words come first. In this case you might not need to use the link method or think of a word for the last 2 digits that are not in the list. If a long digit number can be broken down into groups of 4 digits that can make up meaningful words, use them. A 20-digit number can then be broken up into 5 words. For example. 4952 7115 9514 7169 1204 aeroplane cattle boulder ketchup dinosaur You can now make up a ridiculous picture story of how an aeroplane flies over a herd of cattle, it drops a gigantic boulder on the cattle and flattens them. Ketchup oozes from beneath the boulder . A big dinosaur comes along and starts licking up the ketchup. Sometimes it is not possible to form words with 4 letters, in which case you can break it down to 2-digit, 3-digit, 4 or even 5 or 8-digits words. Let your imagination flow. Now try the test #3, in chapter #4 and see the progress that you’ve made!

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Chapter 11 Some Other Quick Pegs There are other great ideas thought up on how to devise peg lists. You may on occasion need a short list to help you recall. You can use the body list that I’ve mentioned earlier in the chapter. Body List 1. Toe 6. Shoulder 2. Knee 7. Collar 3. Muscle 8. Face 4. Rear 9. Point 5. Love handles 10. Ceiling House List Room 1 - Living room 1. Small Bench 2. Sofa 2. TV Set 3. Piano 4. Wine rack. Room 2. - Kitchen 1. Refrigerator 2. Oven 3. Microwave 4. Island 5. Kitchen sink Room 3 - Study Room 1. Book shelf 2. Study desk 3. Computer Station 4. Lamp 5. Showcase. Room 4. - Bedroom 1. Dresser 2. Full length mirror 3. Bed 4. Walk in wardrobe. 5. Side table.

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The house list is a powerful peg list as it links already known items in your house Since the items are known, all you need to do is review it 10 times during a 72-hour period to commit the sequence into the long term memory bank. It should not take more than a minute each time. That’s right, 10 minutes total over a 3-day period to lodge it into your long-term memory! All you need to do is go from room to room according to the layout of your house and identify items that are placed in its usual place to be used as pegs. For example, if I were to enter my house, the first room would be the living room, followed the kitchen, the study room and finally the master bedroom. In each room I then identify items that are in it’s usual place as I move my eyes across the room. In my living room for instance, there is a small bench where I sit to put on my shoes before I leave the house. Obviously, it will be the first thing I see as I enter the living room from the outside, followed by the sofa which I sit on to watch my favorite TV shows and the piano is near the TV followed by the wine rack nearby. The flag pole list 1 --- Flag pole 11. --- Chop Sticks 2 --- See Saw 12 --- Clock 3 --- Tripod 13 --- Witch 4 --- Car 14 --- Rose 5 --- Five point star 15 --- Rugby Team 6 --- Dice 16 --- Candy 7 --- 7-Eleven Store 17 --- Jackpot machine 8 --- Sexy woman 18 --- Voting Booth 9 --- Police car 19 --- Golf Club 10 --- Bowling Ball 20 --- Spectacles The above list is easy to remember and comes in handy when you need to remember things while on the move, like running errands, grocery list, to-do lists etc. Let me explain how I came up with the list. The #1 look like a flagpole with a flag flying in the wind. #2 is seesaw as it goes up or down, only 2 ways, 2 people sitting on each side. #3 is a camera tripod with 3 legs. #4 is a car with four wheels, 4 doors etc. #5 is a five-pointed star. #6 is dice as it has only 6 faces. #7 is a 7-Eleven convenience store. #8 is a sexy woman with a curvaceous, hourglass body. #9 is a police car as most emergency numbers start with 9 like 999 or 911. #10 is a bowling ball, 10 frames, 10 pins, a strike. #11 looks like a pair of chopsticks for Chinese meals. #12 is a grandfather clock as it has only 12 digits for the hours. #13 is often associated with being unlucky and here, I’ve used a witch to represent that. #14 - I link to Valentines day on February 14 where roses are given to the ladies. #15 - Rugby team as there are 15 players in a team. #16 - Sweet sixteen which is linked to candy. #17 is linked to a jackpot machine commonly

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called the “one arm bandit” and 7 is considered lucky. Picture yourself pulling the lever of one and an avalanche of coins start pouring out!. #18 - 18 years old is the age where most citizens are eligible to vote. #19 is linked to golf clubs - the inverted golf club looks like a 9, 19th hole. #20 is link to a pair of spectacles for 20/20 perfect vision correction. Let’s say your wife calls you up in the office and ask you to pick up 12 items before you come home. She needs ketchup, spaghetti, infant milk formula, lettuce, tomatoes, frozen minced beef, a loaf of bread, batteries, detergent for the laundry. She also needs you to pick up some dry- cleaning at the launderer and some photos that she wanted developed, and aspirin from the pharmacy. You can picture a flag that is covered in Ketchup on a flagpole or a giant bottle of Ketchup being used as a flagpole. Some kids sitting on a seesaw made of spaghetti, a bottle of milk taking photographs with a camera on a tripod, See yourself wrapping a toy car in a leaf of lettuce and eating it. Picture someone throwing tomatoes on a 5-point star and the tomatoes sticking on the pointed ends. See someone mincing meat in a meat grinder and out comes dice instead of minced meat. See a loaf of bread wearing a 7-Eleven uniform and greeting you behind the cash register. See a sexy young woman in a tight fitting dress and she is talking slower and slower until someone puts batteries in her mouth. See a police car chasing a giant box of detergent on wheels. See your neighborhood launderer pressing your dry cleaning with a huge bowling ball. Picture someone eating photos and negatives with a pair of chopsticks. See a giant clock going ding dong ding dong very loudly and your wife holding her head and yelling “Give me an aspirin!” Alphabet List You can also use the alphabet to make up a list of 26 Pegs. Just use ones that sound like the letter. A --- Ape N --- Ant B --- Beer O --- Oar C --- Sea P --- Pea D --- Dean Q --- Queue E --- Eel R --- Ark F --- F15 S --- Ass G --- Jeans T --- Tea H --- Edge U --- Ewe I --- Eye V --- Veal J --- Jail W --- Walrus K --- Cake X --- Axe L --- Hell Y --- Wine M --- Ham Z --- Zebra Instead of using the obvious Bee for “B”, I’ve used B for Beer so as to avoid conflict with the basic peg for #9. F15 is a premier fighter aircraft made in the US and used in many countries. For H, you can imagine the edge of a cliff. For R, you can imagine the

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biblical ark, a big ship holding 2 animals of every kind. W is the exception to the “sounds like” rule. You can use anything that starts or looks like W, like twin peaks. I’ve used walrus. The above alphabet list would come in useful for remembering Chemistry elements, physics and mathematical formulas using alphabets and are highly abstract. Incidentally, if you start linking the letters in the alphabetical sequence, you can link them to the numerical position, for example, #1(Tie) - Ape, #2 (Noah) - Beer or you can chain Ape all the way to Zebra. This way, you can recite the alphabet backwards, cool isn’t it? The Rhyme List IN 5 MINUTES TIME YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RECALL A 10 ITEM SHOPPING LIST IN ORDER, BACKWARDS, FORWARDS, AND INSIDE OUT! I know you can do it because I’ve taught this method to a group of youths with dyslexia and their memory recall improved TEN-FOLD! Take each number between 1 and 10. I will be using numbers in the text to make it easier for you to read. Now create rhymes for each of those numbers. You should do it yourself, but here is what I use. This is not exclusive and you may prefer your own rhymes. What is important is that they are memorable, and solid concrete ideas – emotions will not work. You are working with pictures not ideas! 1 Bun 2 shoe 3 tree 4 door 5 hive 6 sticks 7 heaven 8 gate 9 wine 10 hen MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STAGE ONLY WHEN YOU ARE SURE THAT YOU CAN REMEMBER YOUR OBJECT RHYMES. Now, when you say the word ‘1’, immediately you should have the rhyme of a bun (in my case). ‘5’ would make you think of a beehive. You will get quicker in time, like when a trickle of water becomes a stream, and it will take less effort. This is your peg system. Now I am going to give you another list – this time to remember Hat Coat Dog

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Mouse Car Jacket Sofa Light bulb Candle Briefcase Your task now is to join your RHYME to the appropriate object that you want to remember. For example the sixth item on our list is a jacket. 6 rhymes with sticks, so imagine the jacket being beaten up with some sticks or a similar image. Maybe the jacket is playing the drums. Do the same for each item on the list. Here is a simple table to help you. As you memorize each picture, try to make it move - have action in it, and keep it clear in your mind. Use the power memory booster tips of humor, larger than life etc. as mentioned earlier. Don’t worry about forgetting earlier items. They are still there. Just concentrate on each picture as you get to it. Now, close your eyes. Say to yourself ‘1’ and recall the rhyme. What was the rhyme linked to. Amazingly as you go through each object you will recall the number, then the rhyme, and finally the picture which includes what you are trying to remember. But perhaps what you will find most unnerving is that once memorized, you will find it hard to stop your memory from throwing out the information! Images will tumble out faster and faster as you get used to using your memory. Its very strange at first, but you will get used to it.

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Number Shape List A number has a shape all of its own, but needs a little interpretation. The graphics in this section will help you. 0 is an orange 1 is a paint brush 2 is a swan 3 is a camel 4 is a yacht

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0



5 is a hook on a fishing line 6 is a trunk of an elephant 7 is a cliff 8 is a snowman 9 is a golf club 10 is a bait

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Using the guidelines for number rhymes, this time memorize a new list of 10 items, but this time link the pictures of the SHAPES system to the objects. i.e. Link your first item with a paintbrush (for 1) the second with a swan, the third with a camel etc. So, if a car is at position 5, you might be imagining pulling a car from a river using a hook and line. How to turn 10 into 100! A bit clever this …. Firstly, you will need to decide which system you like best, rhymes or shapes. If it is rhymes, then that is the BANK, and the shapes become the PATCH. Vice versa if you preference the other. It works like this. Lets assume that you prefer rhymes. 1-10 is the same as a simple list. From No. 11 upwards you create COMBINATION IMAGES. Each image will always have a ‘bun’ in it, but the bun interacts with the 10 shapes lists. So for example number 11 would be a paint brush painting a bun a color. Number 15 would be a bun on a fishing line. All the numbers from 11 to 19 are the shapes, but the bun means it is HAS A 1 AT THE FRONT. In the THIRD 10 (21-30) then each ‘shape’ will interact with a shoe! So number 28, would be a snowman wearing a pair of shoes. See the table over for further clarity.

Patch Bank 1-

Brush 2-Swan

3 Camel

4 Yacht

5 Hook

6 Elephant

7 Cliff

8 Snow- man

9 Club

10 Bat & Ball

See Note

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Bun

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

2 Shoe

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

3 Tree

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

4 Door

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

5 Hive

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

6 Sticks

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

7 Heaven

71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

8 Gate

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

9 Wine

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Note: for the first bank it is not necessary to have a number, as the first 10 will stand on their own. However, you could have NIL = HILL. If you decide that your Bank should be the shapes system, and the patch should be the rhyme system then use the following table.

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Patch Bank 1

Bun 2 Shoe

3 Tree

4 Door

5 Hive

6 Sticks

7 Heaven

8 Gate

9 Wine

10 Hen

0 Orange

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Brush

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

2 Swan

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

3 Camel

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

4 Yacht

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

5 Hook

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

6 Elephant

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

7 Cliff

71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

8 Snowman

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

9 Club

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

The way to use this system obviously is to introduce the object to be remembered into this new composite image. So if you wanted to remember a clock at number 86 (IN THE FIRST TABLE), then you would have an elephant stood knocking (movement and sound) on a gate, and on his back is a giant clock. The reason for needing the idea of a BANK and PATCH system is that an image is just that, an image. So when you DECODE the image you will need to know which came first. Otherwise you would be asking yourself if your placement of the clock was at number 86, or 68. This confusion would create an unstable memory image that might be forgotten. In fact, in this version number 68 is sticks and a snowman. Look now at the second table – what would the image be for a car at number 73? Work out which system you prefer and then stick to it! How and why does it work? We can retain separate images in our minds quite easily, and by using this kind of system of combining different elements the images remain quite distinct from one another. Because they are sequence based with a system we are already used to – that of counting – we are sure that we have not missed anything vital. But there is one more thing which I will touch on now, but will be dealt with a little more later on, and that is the process of recall and long-term memory. The act of remembering creates the effect of strengthening the chemical bonds of a memory – or in the analogy of the stream, it widens it to a river. If you simply look again at the information to remind yourself then you are not actually remembering. There are optimum times for this process to be efficient, which will be covered later. But for now it is worth realizing that using a systematic approach you will be able to recall far more information without the need to recourse to the quick glance to

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remind yourself if you have forgotten anything. Such glances keep memories in the short-term area of your mind, and true power memory is information which goes into long-term memory. In fact the amazing thing is that once the memory has been firmly fixed in the mind, you will no longer need the system to recall the information as it will become part of your normal thinking, so do not be concerned that you are going to end up with 1000’s of elephants running around in your head because the systems covered here are simply a tool to help you 1) retain the information in the first place 2) get it into long term memory. What about erasing information? Now that is the really clever bit. You can either let your mind lose the information over time (around 4 days!) or you can erase it ‘manually’. All you have to do is to go through the images without their attached items and you are ready to start over – a bit like erasing a tape recording or recordable CD or disk which has just been re-formatted. One last thing as we move on. Hopefully you will be realizing that your memory is very impressive – in fact why not start impressing others now by doing a demonstration? It’s a strange feeling the first time you manage it because somewhere inside of you, you probably didn’t think that it would work without all the strain and effort that you used to, or still do, put in at school. In fact because it is all just about remembering pictures you probably will enjoy it! Using the objects or landmarks or a familiar route If you take a regular journey to somewhere, using the same route over and over, the chances are that right now you will be able to sit down and recall each individual step along the way. Whether you are walking, driving or a passenger, familiarity will mean that you have in your mind both sequence and unique images all ready to drop in your lists or other information that you want to store away. Imagine a train journey that you might take to work, you ride past stations that you can identify not only by sight, without reference to a sign, but you know which station is before it and which station is after it. All you need to do to memorize your information is place your key images on each station. Of course if you can identify other points in your journey – bridges, fields, office blocks and so forth – then you will have many more points of reference that will provide you with the building blocks and pegs for your memory system. What’s more, because of the flexibility of this system, and because it relies on nothing more than familiarity with the real world, it is very easy to drop in the other systems.

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Earlier you learned how to create a system of 1000 images, but if you had a journey of 10 stations, you could use each station in combination thereby increasing to 10 thousand separate images! Believe me, this is not impossible and you can search the Internet to find such record breakers! As you can see, although the above lists is easy to remember and highly effective. However, the phonetic list is probably one of the most versatile and unlimited in its use.

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Chapter 12 How To Learn A Foreign Language EVER since people began to engage in trade and commerce and thereby to come into contact with foreigners, they have had to learn the language of the country with which they wished to do business. Because acquiring a foreign language is one of the oldest branches of knowledge, one would think that during the many years which have passed a method could have been found for making the study-process easier and the learning-process more effective. In reality, however, only the last few decades have produced a small number of volumes based on a truly rational method. Most textbooks still prefer to follow the tradition sanctified by long usage. When we are learning a foreign language, the new words are the most important thing, and before we do anything else we must learn to translate them from our mother tongue to the new language. The further we progress in the foreign language, the further into the background this linking of words recedes until finally, when we can really speak the new language well, we think in it naturally, without translating. The average man applies the method which he uses in learning a vocabulary of foreign words; that is, he repeats the two words one after the other until he thinks he has them fixed in mind. What is the weakness of this method? It does not take long to find it. The human mind is so constituted that it is always looking for something new. If the vocabulary or words to be memorized are repeated one after the other in a more or less mechanical fashion, they offer nothing new for the mind to grasp. It wanders and busies itself with something else while the lips mechanically keep on murmuring the words. What happens is the exact opposite of concentration. It is a direct invitation to wool-gathering, for such absent-mindedness really ensues when we try to learn something yet at the same time let our minds be occupied by something else.

So how many words can you hope to retain? Well the average human being has a vocabulary of around 12 thousand words, though there is no official figure for to get a proper answer you would need to interview all people from all cultures and find the average. For a foreign language you may be talking around 5000. You can hope to learn competently around 20 to 30 words a day. That means that to get to a language that you can consider yourself fluent in you will be looking at around 6 to 12 months of daily work. That seems an awful lot, and the scary thing is that what happens if you forget all the preceding work? When I was younger trying to learn French that was often the problem - I would learn the vocabulary for the vocabulary test, and get full marks. But I would have forgotten it all by the time I got to the summer exam so flunked!

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That’s because I didn’t use a system but tried the repetition method. I was so good at repeating it that I found that I could recite it onto the test paper. The first thing to do is to recognize that a foreign word, unlike the words of our native language, are similar to numbers in the fact that they are sounds that don’t make a lot of sense to us. What we need to do is to turn those sounds into recognizable clues to the foreign word we are learning. This means finding substitutions. It sounds complicated and the instructions below may seem a little long winded, but your brain works at lightning speed and will get the hang of it soon enough. Lets take the French word for window, "fenetre". This is how you do it: break it down into its phonic (sound) parts .... Fan-ate-raw. Simply imagine a giant fan eating raw meat. Another french word - La tete - meaning head. Now I know that the tete is a gallery, so I put a head image, giant sized, in the tete gallery.

Next, I’ll present to you two ways to learn a foreign language. You can choose either one, depending on your preference, but there is no rule to say you can’t incorporate both. Method 1 uses a substitute word in English (or your native tongue) that sounds or looks as close to the foreign word as possible. I call it a “bridging word” as it bridges the original word in English to that in a foreign language. Poehlmann points out, quite correctly, that Latin textbooks for beginners usually introduce farmer-agricoía early in the course. The student must keep impressing this word on his mind by the usual process of repetition until it sticks. How much easier it is for the student to learn that acre is ager, aided by the similarity in sound of the two words. If in addition he has learned that to cultivate is colere, no extra time or thought need be spent on the compounded word agri-cola (ager colere). This example is but one of thousands which could be cited from foreign-language textbooks. It is more logical and to the point for anyone who wants to learn a foreign tongue to study first of all those words which are spelled the same, or nearly the same, in his own language. In English-German there are, for instance:

rose—Rose ring—Ring gold—Gold grass—Grass rust—Rost man—Mann

Then follow the words which, while differing in spelling, yet have a fairly similar sound:

steel—Stahl moon—Mond father—Vater come—kommen

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Whether such words are few or many depends upon the degree of relationship between one's own language and the particular foreign one.

If thought-associations like those given above cannot be made, that is, if the foreign word sounds entirely different from the same word in our own language, we can lighten our task of learning it by employing linking words. Naturally this plan again offers various possibilities. The simplest and most effective is to find a linking word in one's own language, a word which in meaning is similar to the given word but in sound resembles the foreign word to be learned. If we go back to the Latin, we find the following example: In Latin, hand is manus. In English, we have the word manufacturer, originally someone who made something by hand. If we therefore insert manufacturer as the linking word between hand and manus, we use this chain of thought: I am trying to think of the Latin word for hand. Hand reminds me of the man who makes something by hand or causes it to be made by hand, therefore manufacturer. If I know this word, I can easily recall the Latin word manus. Another example: To know is cognoscere in Latin. These are entirely different words, and there is apparently no connection between the two. But if I know someone I can say I recognize him. This word is so similar to the Latin term I am trying to think of that memorizing the latter offers no further difficulty.

There is a twofold advantage in learning words in this way: First, stupid, parrotlike repetition is done away with. The habit of endless repetition, as I have pointed out, tends to destroy concentration. Second, terms learned by the method I have outlined make a much deeper impression and remain in the memory much longer, once they are learned. The reader cannot check this assertion offhand; but try to learn foreign terms with the aid of a modern textbook or by inserting your own linking words and you will shortly see how astonishingly well you remember them. Now, of course, there are a great number of terms for which it is impossible to find linking words as closely related in meaning to the words in one's own language as the cited examples. In spite of this fact we need not discard our method. Basing my conclusions on an extensive study of many languages, I have found that in almost all instances it is possible to discover a word in our own language that is similar in sound to the foreign word. Once I know such a word, with a little practice in inserting linking words I can make a connection in my own language whenever a natural connection does not exist. The following examples demonstrate this point: The English word tomb is entirely dissimilar and has no relationship to the German word Grabmal. But it is easy to form a connection between tomb and grave, and the latter word sounds so much like the German word Grab, that remembering it presents no difficulty.

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Since actual practice is much more instructive than theory, I shall present a series of examples, emphasizing the fact that the etymology of the words is entirely beside the point. I assume that the etymology of the word is unknown to the reader, for if it is known, we can naturally dispense with mnemotechnical aids (bridging word). Examples for English-French: English Bridging Word French Top summit sommet women feminine femmes share part part danger risk risque insanity demented demence middle center centre busy occupied occupé death mortal mort house mason maison hot brilliant brullant noon midday midi mail post poste song chant chanson speed rapid rapidité food nourishment nourriture duty function fonction clock hour . horloge shadow umbrella ombre ear aural oreille

Examples for English-German: English Bridging Word German basement cellar Keller cloakroom wardrobe Garderobe tomb grave Grabmal merchandise ware Ware duty toll Zoll soft weak weich assist help helfen boy young Junge dog hound Hund savage barbarian Barbar

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letter brief Brief (a brief letter) flower bloom Blume flour meal Mehl enemy fiend Feind meat flesh Fleisch Road way Weg Carpet tapestry Teppich Table dish Tisch Shave razor rasieren Examples for English-Spanish: English Bridging Word Spanish Child infant infante Horse cavalry caballo Door portal puerta Heart core corazón Mind mental mente Neck collar cuello at once prompt pronto prize premium premio table mess mesa knife cut cuchillo scale balance balanza wages salary salario untruth false falsedad star stellar estrella Examples from English-Latin: English Bridging Word Latin Home domicile domus Big magnify magnus Peace pacts pax Chief principal princeps King reign rex Slave serve servus Life vital vita Light luminous lux Shelter protection tecta

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Method 2 of Learning a foreign language Using your vivid imagination to break up a foreign word to form pictures A word in a foreign language is nothing but a group of sound if you are not familiar with the language. That’s why they’re so difficult o remember. If you plan to learn a foreign language, you can use the system of Substitute Words. Substitute words or ideas are used whenever you want to remember something that is abstract, or unintelligible, it cannot be pictured, yet must be remembered. This method is important when you need to remember names, complex mathematical formulas or a foreign language. Make up a substitute word when you come across a foreign word that means nothing to you, or is intangible and unintelligible. The substitute word , phrase or thought sounds as close as possible, to the word you’re trying to replace, and it is tangible and can be pictured in your mind. Any word that you may have to remember, for example a foreign language that is meaningless, can be made to mean something to you by using the substitute word or thought. You can break down each syllable of the foreign word to something that sounds like something you know and can be pictured. The Spanish word for “cat” is “gato”. That sounds like “gate”. So you can imagine a cat hanging by it’s claws on a gate and the gate slams shuts on its paws and the cat falls off. The Spanish word for “rice” is “arroz”. This is easy, imagine going to a Spanish restaurant and ordering a rice dish and it comes on a big plate full of tiny arrows. The Spanish word for “room” is cuarto (pronounced quarto). Picture a room piled high with quarters. The Spanish word for “cup” is “taza”. Picture tarzan in his loincloth having a cup of English tea. Or tarzan swinging on a vine, the vine snaps and he falls into a giant cup. The Spanish word for “hello” is “Hola”. Picture yourself saying hello to someone down in a manhole. Now for some French words, The French word for “friend” is “amie” - You can picture all your friends in army uniforms. The French word for “news” is nouvelle. This sounds like “new veil”. You can picture a famous male Newscaster or Newsreader wearing a veil and reading the evening news on television. It wouldn’t work as well with a female newscaster as the former picture looks ludicrous and tends to stick.

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The French word for “shirt” is “liquette” - Picture someone pouring a colored liquid onto your shirt. The French word for “bread” is “pain”. Imagine yourself biting into a French loaf with a stone in it. It is pronounced as “Pun”. So you can also imagine yourself punting a loaf of bread over the Eiffel tower. So that’s it. When you are learning something that makes no sense to you, like a foreign language, make substitute words with similar sounds that you can picture in your mind and make it meaningful..

From experience I know that at first glance these methods of learning terms will seem odd to many of my readers. Put it to the test of actual practice, however, before forming an opinion. Just make the following experiment: In the next few days learn one or two hundred foreign words by the method you usually employ: in the following few days learn the same number in the same language (naturally different words) by the method I have outlined, that is, before the insertion of linking words of your own choosing. Then let the whole thing alone for a week or two, without even thinking about it. After about two weeks see how many words you remember of those you learned by the old method and how many you learned by the new method of employing linking words. I can tell you in advance that the using either Method 1 or Method 2 is sure to be 100 or 200 percent higher, that is, you will have remembered at least twice as many words, perhaps even three or four times as many as you learned by your old method. Do not form a hasty opinion, but wait until you have tried the experiment yourself. Practice is the only sure test of a workable method of study. Remember that everything new first meets with opposition and that every forward step is apt to be greeted with a headshake. That is only human. When railroad trains were invented and the first train was to swoop along at the then unheard-of speed of twenty miles an hour, the Prussian Academy of Medicine proclaimed that no one could suffer such speed without going crazy, and in all seriousness demanded that a high wooden fence be erected along the entire length of the track, so that innocent bystanders would not be scared out of their wits by the sight of the madly speeding monster. It took Gillette many years to convince men that his razor is safer than the old-fashioned blade. Dozens of illustrations come to mind, all proving that the new always meets with opposition. In the present instance, you have a great advantage over Gillette: You need invest no money, build no factories, nor the like. You have only to make an experiment with your own mind before you come to a decision on the matter.

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Chapter 13 How To Remember States And Capitals Our next problem is to learn how to master names which are especially difficult to remember and for which we cannot easily find meaningful words of similar sound. How shall we set about memorizing, by a simple method, a rather long, collective series of difficult names? As a concrete example, let us take the forty-eight states of the US. There are some people, of course, who visualize the map so clearly that they can name the states according to their geographical location, that is, reel off their names as though reading from an actual map. A person who can do this naturally does not need any mnemotechnical aid, since mnemotechny should be employed only when certain facts are hard or impossible to retain naturally. But even these persons will find it worth while to read the solution of this problem carefully, because the same method can be used for all sorts of other things difficult to memorize. First of all, write down the complete list of names serially —in this instance, the states of the United States. Beside each state write words of similar sound which have a sensible meaning. The degree of similarity in sound is an individual matter. For the person who relies greatly on aid the sound must be very like that of the word to be memorized. The relationship here resembles that of actor and prompter. The actor who knows his part pretty well needs to be prompted only occasionally, but the actor who is just beginning to learn his lines has to rely on the prompter during the whole performance. Taking the states in alphabetical order, we begin with Alabama. The word nearest in sound to Alabama perhaps is alabaster. Then there are allah, alas, alarm and all able. These rather exhaust the possibilities, although you may think of a few more. Going down the list of states in this way, we have something like the following: 1. Alabama Allah, alarm, alabaster, all able, alas, Alp 2. Arizona aristocrat, arithmetic, arena, area, arid arid zone 3. Arkansas ark, arc, archaic, architect, archives, archaeologist 4. California caloric, calibre, calico, calipers, call 5. Colorado color, college, colleague, collect, collision, colonist 6. Connecticut connect, connexion 7. Delaware delegate, delectable, deliberate, delicious, deliver, delusion

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8. Florida florist, florid, floor 9. Georgia George, geography 10. Idaho Ida, idea, idol, idle 11. Illinois ill, illness, illiterate, illogical, illicit, illegal 12. Indiana Indian, india-rubber, indicate, indigo, in direct, indiscreet 13. Iowa 14. Kansas can (verb), can (noun), candidate, cancel 15. Kentucky kennel, ken, Kenneth, Kent 16. Louisiana Louis, Louise 17. Maine Main 18. Maryland Mary, married, marriage 19. Massachusetts message, mass (a lot), mass (in church), massive, master, massage 20. Michigan mischance, misshapen, Michel, mission 21. Minnesota mineral, minister, minute, mingle, Minnie 22. Mississippi misses, misuse, miss, missed 23. Missouri Miss Urey, miserable, misrule, misuse, misunderstand, miss 24. Montana mountain, month, Monday 25. Nebraska nebulous, Neptune, nap

26. Nevada nephew, never 27. New Hampshire ham, hemisphere, hamper 28. New Jersey jersey, jerk, jerry, Jerry 29. New Mexico maximum, mechanic, new mechanism 30. New York York, yawn, yoke, yore 31 North and cars, carols 32. South Carolina cars, carols

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33. North and doctors, code, day coach 34. South Dakota 35. Ohio high road, Oh I 36. Oklahoma oak, o'clock 37. Oregon origin, original, or, oar, orange, ore, organ 38. Pennsylvania pencil, pen, paint, pensive 39. Rhode Island road, wrote, rode, rodent 40. Tennessee tennis, ten 41. Texas taxes, takes, taxi 42. Utah utter, to utter, utterance, you, utensil,

utopia 43. Vermont verse, vermin, vermillion, very 44. Virginia Virginia, virgin 45. W. Virginia 46. Washington Washington, wash, washing done 47. Wisconsin whisky, whisk, whisker, wish, wisdom

48. Wyoming why, wine, whine, why omit For the present we are not trying to memorize the states in any particular order. Our problem is merely to associate substituting words for the individual states, naturally one word for each state. The simplest way is to make up a story incorporating one of these key words for each state. Such a story might read: George and Louis, two doctors, rode with the Misses Mary and Ida in taxis on the special mission. The two cars came from the arid zone of Mexico over the nebulous mountains and took the main road connecting Kentucky and New York. George was an architect and the son of a minister. His business flourished, he drank whisky and wine to prevent illness and ate two Virginia ham sandwiches, which were delicious. He played tennis, had a daily massage, lived in a Utopian world and played the organ in his alabaster home. Louis was a vermilion Indian, who wore a colored jersey over a calico shirt, which he never washed. He wrote an I.O.U. with his pencil and canceled his 10 o'clock date with Miss Urey in Ohio.

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The names of all forty-eight states are in this story. Every boldface word was chosen from the key words previously given. Only forty-five words are given in boldface because the Carolinas, Dakotas and Virginias are introduced only once, but in every instance the word two appears with it (two doctors, two cars, two Virginia ham sandwiches). As you will see, this little story can be memorized merely by reading it through four or five times. It will take only ten or fifteen minutes if you have improved your memory steadily by doing our exercises. It usually takes hours to memorize the names of the forty-eight states, and anything learned so tediously and arbitrarily is apt to be forgotten in a few weeks or months. The little story quoted here is so easy to remember that you run no risk of forgetting it. Merely note: the first paragraph tells about the trip George and Louis made; the second describes George's personality; and the third, Louis's personality. But let me again remind the reader: one remembers best the stories he invents himself. If you would like to remember the states, I suggest that you make up a story yourself, using the key words given above or others of your own choosing. You will remember this story more easily because your own creative activity is involved. In order to show you that the story given above is not the only possible one, I cite a second, built on the same system and following the same rules. This example is better because it incorporates the states in geographical order. It begins with the Eastern states and progresses through the Middle West to the Far West. A man rode down to Main street where he bought some very delicious hams. Then he put on his new jersey and went in a pensive mood to hear mass in a New York church. In connection herewith he observed on the floor two paintings of the Virgin Mary by Michel, heard two carols and listened to the wisdom of a preacher. He met George and Louis, but alas he missed Kenneth. Outside under an oak he said to Miss Minnie: "Oh, I want to tell you, you can collect the ten dollars I owe for the new arc, since I was ill, but I never could understand why it takes so much new mechanism to put it up." When he got home, he said to Ida: "You call to that Indian hiding behind those two day coaches to wait for a nebulous day before washing the ore in those arid mountains.”

Now that you have memorized the states, suppose you take the next logical step and learn their capitals. Because we remember those things best which have meaning in themselves, we choose substituting words for the capitals as well as the states. The factors we have considered before hold true for these words too, that is, the more nearly they sound like the original word and the more simply they can be connected in meaning with the original word, the better they are. Let us begin with the first state in alphabetical order:

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The capital of Alabama is Montgomery. Montgomery reminds us of mountain (if one knows French, so much the better, for mont means mountain), and among the key words for Alabama we have Alp. Alp and mountain are closely connected in our minds. So we can easily impress the following on our memories:

Alabama—Alp—mountain—Montgomery. Here are some further examples:

Florida floor, tall house, Tallahassee Georgia Atlantic seaboard—Atlanta Idaho idle boys—Boise Illinois ill—spring fever—Springfield Iowa I owe money—Des Moines Maine May—August—Augusta Minnesota minister—preach—St. Paul

New Jersey jersey—cloth tent—Trenton New Mexico sandy—Santa Fe North Dakota Nordic—Bismarck Ohio high in history—Columbus Pennsylvania pencil—hurry—Harrisburg Texas taxi—car—Austin Wyoming O Ming—Chinese—Cheyenne Washington Capitol—seat of law—Olympia

The associations suggested here are so easy to formulate that further explanations are unnecessary. It is possible to learn and remember the names of the forty-eight state capitals by this method in about one half-hour, while memorizing them in the traditional manner would consume many hours and even then be unreliable.

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Chapter 14 Remembering the Presidents of the United States Every American should know the names of the Presidents, but the task becomes more involved when we attempt to remember names in a definite, unchangeable order. The. little stories in the preceding chapter illustrated how much easier the task of memorizing is when we are completely free in using our substituting words in a composition. In learning the Presidents of the United States we have no such freedom, for in this case a serial order is the most important factor. While this restriction makes composition of the story a little more difficult, it does not affect the system itself. First we list the Presidents and find substitute words for their names, a process which need not be explained again. Then we work out a story embodying these substitute words just as we did in the case of the states, except that in this instance we must use them in historical order. The story might run somewhat like this:

In Washington Adam was jeopardized by a mad monster. Adam and Jack ran to the bureau, but in their hurry they broke a tile or poked a tailor. They filmed more buildings, pierced by a cannon which was linked by John to a grand tree. The haze over garden and field sheltered Arthur, who cleaved his way in a hurry. He cleaved mockingly as he cried: "A rose taffeta dress will hardly be the right thing in a college; but whoever desires rose veils may truly wear them?

The underlined words mean: Washington Washington Adam Adams jeopardized Jefferson mad Madison monster Monroe Adam Adams Jack Jackson bureau Van Buren hurry Harrison tile Tyler poked Polk tailor Taylor filmed more Fillmore pierced Pierce by a cannon Buchanan linked Lincoln John Johnson grand Grant haze Hayes garden and field Garfield Arthur Arthur

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cleaved Cleveland hurry Harrison cleaved Cleveland mockingly McKinley rose Roosevelt taffeta Taft will Wilson hardly Harding college Coolidge whoever Hoover rose veils Roosevelt

This story is somewhat harder to learn than the one about the states, because of its prescribed order. Nevertheless, one can learn this list without special effort in half an hour, while to learn the Presidents without such aid takes much longer. Every American is expected to know not only the names of the Presidents in chronological order but also the dates of their terms. The latter, too, is considerably lightened by mnemonics, but before we attempt it we need further preparation. The following interesting version of the list of Presidents was worked out by Mr. Edwin C. Silvey. It is excellent in that it avoids many connecting words. This series, a master-piece in phonetics, is also easy to learn: Washing done, a dame gave her son medicine. We know Washington Adams Jefferson Madison Monroe at times that son, a wine bum, had his son dial (telephone) her: Adams Jackson Van Buren Harrison Tyler broke; tell her fill my purse By cannon and gun Polk Taylor Fillmore Pearce Buchanan Lincoln John's son groaned to haze our field. Are they Johnson Grant Hayes Gaiñeld Arthur gleeful and merry, son? Cleve and Mack when they rose felt Cleveland Harrison Cleveland McKinley Roosevelt tough. Well, son, Hearty! College over. Who's fooled. Taft Wilson Harding Coolidge Hoover Roosevelt However, if you are not a poetic person you can always fall back on the peg system. Below is an illustration of using the peg system and arranging the Presidents according to their term in office using selective words.

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Now, in learning the dates, we must be careful to select words which have a close connection with each President or with the substituting words in the story. Since it is taken for granted that anyone would know the centuries of the respective presidential terms, we need substituting words for the last two figures only. And as we need concern ourselves only with two figures in each case, it makes no difference how many consonants there are in the substituting words in addition to the initial two. Here are the key words, with explanatory notes in case they are not clear:

1. Washington 1789 Washington — fable (there are many fables about George Washington) 2. Adams 1797 Adam — epoch (with Adam and Eve began a new epoch in world history) 3. Jefferson 1801 — statement of rights (Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence) 4. Madison 1809 mad — spiteful (both words have a similar meaning)

5. Monroe 1817 monster — attack 6. Adams 1825 Adam — knowledge (the apple from the tree of knowledge) 7. Jackson 1829 Jack — unbending (Andrew Jackson was unbending) 8. Van Buren 1837 bureau — mocha (on the bureau is some coffee) 9. Harrison 1841 hurry — ready 10. Tyler 1841 tile — hard 11. Polk 1845 poke — relent or relax 12. Taylor 1849 tailor — robe 13. Fillmore 1850 film — lucid or illustration 14. Pierce 1853 pierced — limb (a limb pierced by a bullet) 15. Buchanan 1857 cannon — lock 16. Lincoln 1861 — shot (Lincoln was shot) 17. Johnson 1865 John — jolly (similar to John in sound) 18. Grant 1869 grand — chap 19. Hayes 1877 haze — coke (smoke from coke makes haze) 20. Garfield 1881 — Garfield the cartoon cat is Fat 21. Arthur 1881 Arthur — feat (King Arthur's feats) 22. Cleveland 1885 cleave — fly or flay 23. Harrison 1889 hurry — evaporate (moisture evaporates hurriedly) 24. Cleveland 1893 cleave — boomerang or bomb (it cleaves the air) 25. McKinley 1897 mockingly — beguile 26. Roosevelt 1901 rose — sweet (the rose is the sweetest flower)

27. Taft 1909 — supreme (Taft was on the Supreme Court) 28. Wilson 1913 will — tomb (Unknown Soldier's Tomb) 29. Harding 1921 hard — nut 30. Coolidge 1923 college — name or number 31. Hoover 1929 — unhappy (the 1929 crash) 32. Roosevelt 1933 rose — give mama a rose 33. Truman 1945 true — ruler

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34. Eisenhower 1953 flower — bloom 35. Kennedy 1961 can — shot (in a different century as Lincoln) 36. Johnson 1963 john — Little John is a Chum 37. Nixon 1969 nick — chip or nick 38. Ford 1974 ford — car 39. Carter 1977 cart — cart 40. Reagan 1981 ray gun — fad (Star Wars program never took off) 41. Bush 1989 Bush — He was fabulous in defeating Iraq. 42. Clinton 1993 — the economy boom in his time All of these auxiliary key words have been chosen to be remembered after one or two readings. Thus you can learn the dates for all Presidents in from five to ten minutes; a task which might take you hours in the old-fashioned way of memorizing. And, as a rule, memorized dates vanish from one's mind soon. If you try this out on your circle of friends, you'll find very few who remember their Presidents, even though they must have memorized them for school.

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Chapter 15 How To Remember Names And Faces How many times have you bump into someone on the street who you recognize but fail to remember the name? I would say most of us The reason for this is quite simple. Most of us are what we call “eye-minded” In other words, what we see register in our brains more than what we hear. You always see the face, but usually only hear the name. That’s why most of us have to say “I recognize your face, but I can’t remember your name”. Not only can this be embarrassing, but can sometimes hurt in business and may cost you money or a promotion. Where I come from, they can be 2 or 3 shops selling the same things or have similar services. In such a situation, wouldn’t it be great if you could remember all your customers’ names and rise above the competition? What if you were working as a waiter or waitress to pay your way through college? Think of the extra tips you can get by remembering your customer’s name and what they ate the last time. If you were a valet at a swanky hotel, think of the extra tips you can get by remembering people’s names. Think of the impact you would have made on the first day of your job by remembering the people you were introduced to . There is nothing more pleasing or sweeter sounding than someone hearing his own name or having it remembered by someone. The main reason that most people forget a name is because they never remembered it in the first place. You may have been engrossed in other areas, like what food you’d like to have for lunch or did you answer the email from your boss. You may be thinking that you’ll never meet this person again, so why bother as you give a courteous smile and say “Nice to meet you”. Therefore, rule #1 for remembering names is BE SURE YOU HEAR THE NAME IN THE FIRST PLACE”. If you didn’t hear the name right, ask the person or the introducer to say it again. Trust me, the person being introduced would not feel offended but would be happy you take an interest in his or her name. If the name sounds interesting, you may wish to ask the person being introduced how to spell it. That would generate interest in your mind and helps you to remember better. Try to use the person’s name when you say good-bye or if the person is being led off. Say something like, “Good-bye Mr Goodrich, it was nice meeting you”. This rule alone will boost your chances of remembering names by 25% or more. The method which we are going to use to remember names, especially last names is to make silly pictures to help us remember. No matter how strange a name sounds, how long it is or how difficult to pronounce, you can always find a substitute word or thought for it. For example, if you’re introduced to a Mr Donohue, you can picture a hill made out of donuts. If you’re introduced to a Mr Wilson, simply imagine a giant tennis racket with a “W” on the strings.

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How to remember faces Whenever you meet someone new, look at his face and try to find one outstanding feature. We call this the “see” peg. It is a place for us to put down the information. The information is turned into a picture and mental glue to hold the picture to the peg. The “see” peg can be anything; small eyes, large eyes, thick lips, thin lips, high forehead, low forehead, lines or creases on the forehead, long nose, broad nose, wide nostrils, narrow nostrils, large ears, small ears, ears that stand away from the head, dimples, clefts, warts, mustache, lines on the face, large chin, double chin, type of hairline, jutting chin, small mouth, large mouth, teeth, anything. It could be something the person is wearing or an accessory. For example, a big red tie, a flower in the hair, a crazy hair do, colored hair, a loud sweat shirt, etc. The “see” peg forces you to focus on the person and to engage your memory. Someone else may choose something else outstanding about the person that is different from you, it does not matter. The thing that stands out to you is the thing that will be obvious and outstanding when you meet this person again. When you have decided on the outstanding feature, you are ready to associate the names to that particular part of the face. For example, Mr Wilson parts his hair at the center, imagine a tennis net in the middle of his head and 2 tiny persons playing tennis on his head. Or Mr Roberts has a large mole on his left cheek, picture a Robot trying to yank the mole off his face. Mr Morwick has busy eyebrows, picture tiny lawn mowers trying to trim the wicks sticking out of his brow. The thing is this, the substitute word and the outstanding feature chosen is an individual thing, the things you choose are the right ones to use. Aside from finding an outstanding feature, there are other things that can be taken into consideration such as manner of speech, speech defects, character, type of walk, manner of bearing etc. Some people may think it’s too cumbersome and rude to stare at a person’s feature and trying to find a substitute word, but trust me, it only takes a moment. After just a little practice, you’ll find that you’ve found a substitute word for the name and have associated it to an outstanding feature on the person’s face in less time than it takes to say “hello”. The same goes for remembering a person’s first names, for example for Mary, you can picture a person getting married or a little lamb. For Sebastian, you can imagine a Sea Bass, a big fish. For Justin, you can picture a dustbin. Some people have other titles like doctors, judges or a rank in the military. The other person may be offended if you do not address them by their titles, like Dr John Howard. So to help you remember, you can use their names in conjunction with something you’d associate with their profession like a stethoscope, a needle or white doctors uniform. For a judge this would be a white wig or a gavel. For a military person you might want to remember a captain by a pilot’s uniform, a colonel with a fried chicken in his hands (Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried

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Chicken), a General with stars across the person's forehead etc. Remembering a right person’s name at the right time may mean a lot in the future. It may mean a job promotion, a business opportunity or a big sales contract. So please try to remember people’s names for your own sake. Let’s begin with a example Let’s say were invited to a party of 50 very influential people and you need to remember ALL their names before leaving the party. Below are a sample of six which I’ll use as an example.

From left is a top Chinese heart surgeon Dr Lee Yung Jin, leading ceramic composite researcher Stephanie Steinburg, NASA Propulsion engineer Craig Hanson, Indian Astronomer Hema Sanjay, German millionaire Helmut Koeller and Californian businessman Jose Sanchez. Starting from the left, the Chinese gentleman is wearing spectacles and with small eyes. Chinese, spectacles and small eyes, these are our “see” pegs. We’ll substitute his name into something we can picture like “Lee” jeans and “Yung Jin” sounds like “engine”. So picture him at the top of a pagoda, he can’t see far as his eyes are too small, to get a bird’s eye view, he puts on his Lee jeans which are strapped to rocket engines. He flies high into the sky in a thunderous roar. Suddenly his engines give up and he falls back to earth. He quickly takes off his spectacles to be used as a parachute. You can hear his heart beating very loudly as he glides down.

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The second person is wearing an olive green sweater which we’ll use as our peg, Her name Stephanie sounds like “Stepping on an elephant” and for her last name, Steinburg, Stein sounds like “shine” and “burg” sounds like a ice berg. Picture her wearing a sweater made out of green olives, a small elephant comes along and starts plucking the olives off her sweater. She runs into a dark room and shines a torchlight and finds an iceberg. She climbs on top of the iceberg, jumps off and steps on the baby elephant. The baby elephant gets angry and starts smashing plates, cups and bowls (ceramics) into pieces. Third from left is a gentleman with a crew cut which we’ll use as our “see”peg. His name Craig sounds like “crate” and “Hanson” sounds like “Hen” and “son”. Picture him opening a crate and out comes baby male chickens wearing bow ties (sons of Hen). The male baby chicks climb on top of his head and start pecking and pulling on his hair giving him a crew cut He gets angry and starts launching small rockets at them to scare them off. Next to him is a pretty young Indian lady with a toothy smile, our “see” peg is therefore “Indian” and “toothy smile”. Her name Hema sounds like hammer and “Sanjay” sounds like “sun” and “jay” as in jay bird. Picture yourself coming out of your house with a hammer at into bright sunshine. You see this Indian lady starts dancing , bollywood style and flashes a toothy grin at you. The reflection from the sun on her teeth blinds you and you throw your hammer to try to stop the glare which hits a Jay bird in flight. You can see stars (astronomy) circling the Jay bird’s head. You may think this Indian lady is pretty and if you meet her at a party, you might want to have her phone number. But who carries a pen and paper to a party? With my system, now you can memorize phone numbers on the fly! Fifth from left is a gentleman with a moustache and a beard which we’ll use as our “see” peg. His first name is Helmut which sounds like “helmet” and “Koeller” sounds like “Curler”. Picture the person with a helmet on his head. You have a hot curling iron in your hand and you try to curl his hair but he is wearing a helmet. You then start curling his beard and he takes off his helmet to hit you and he starts throwing bales of money at you. Last is the Californian businessman Jose Martinez who deals in exotic fast cars. We’ll substitute his first name with “Hose” and his last name with “martini”. He is slightly tanned and wears a T-shirt inside his shirt which we’ll use as our “see” peg. Picture this man bringing in a large fireman hose and starts filling up glasses with martini, the Martini gushes out and the floor is wet. He takes of his T-shirt to try to dry the place but in vain as the Martini keeps flowing out. He quickly zips off in his Ferrari and comes back with tanning beds to try to dry the place.

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You may think the above information as daunting to remember. But go through it one more time and the pictures become more vivid. Now look at the picture again. You’ll be surprised at your recall. That’s because of a phenomena of the brain . Thinking in pictures happen at the speed of light. If you still have problems recalling, make your picture more detailed, engage more emotions and actions. Soon you’d get a hang of it. Here are some sample first names and similar sounding picture words. Alan - A lion Pauline - Pole on a line Brandon - Branding Quinton - Queen weighing a ton Cecilia Silly ear Rachel - Ray shining on shell David - Star of David Samuel - Uncle Sam on a mule Dennis - Dentist or tennis Teresa - Trees Ernest - Ear Nest Ursula - Urn in the cellar Frank - Frankfurter Victor - Viking Gerard - Giraffe Wendy - Windy Hank - Handkerchief Yvonne - Yellow van. Isaac - Eye sack Zach - Zebra with a sack Jeffrey - Jet on a tree Karen - Current (Electricity) Leroy - Leaves on a toy Marsha- Marshal Natalie - Net with leaves Oliver - Olive Now go back and attempt Test#4 in Chapter 4

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Chapter 16 How To Remember Schedules And Appointments. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to remember your schedules and appointments in your head rather than relying on a Palm Pilot? Well you can with Peg word system and it‘s easy. Every hour of every day of the week can be associated with a Peg Word. Assuming that your Monday is the 1st day of the week for you, you associate the #1 to Monday, #2 to Tuesday, #3 to Wednesday and so on. You will therefore associate a 2-digit number and its Peg Word to every hour of a weekly schedule. For example, Monday 2pm would be #12 (Tin), Wednesday 9am would be #39 (Mop) and Thursday 5pm would be #45 (roll). The only exception is 11 o’clock and 12 o’clock that are made up of 2 digits. With 11 and 12 o’clock as the exception, you can form 3 digit Peg Words. For example Friday at 11 o’clock is 511 (Latte) and Saturday at 12 o’clock is 612 (show down). The alternative is to use the regular peg words for 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock and new peg words for 11 o’clock and 12 o‘clock. For example Tuesday at 11 o’clock would be a new peg word, “nut“. The word “net” is reserved for Tuesday 2 o’clock., Wednesday at 12 o’clock shall be “Man”, “Mane” or “Mine”, the regular word “Moon” is reserved for Wednesday at 2 o’clock. Thursday 11 o’clock can be “Red”, “Ride” , “Rude” or “Rat”. The word “Rod” is reserved for Thursday 2 o’clock. So let’s say on Thursday at 12 o’clock you have a lunch appointment with your “significant other” and at 2 o’clock, you have to go to the dentist. Just picture your significant other wearing a thick red fur coat (if it is summer) or a red skimpy outfit (if it were winter). Then picture your dentist trying to yank your bad tooth out with a long rod. #10 escapes this problem as it is thought as a zero. Let’s say you have an appointment to see your optometrist to have your eyes checked on Wednesday 10am. You will then associate #30 (mice). You can then imagine a giant white mice testing your eyes. Don’t worry about the confusion caused by whether the appointment is A.M.or P.M. You’ll know by the event, for example a dentist appointment cannot possibly be at 10pm or a lunch date cannot possibly be at 12 midnight! When you wake up each morning or if you’re a night person, the night before, go over all your pegs for that day or the day after. As the day progress, you might want to check the Peg list of schedules in case you miss one out. With time and with practice, you can throw away your note pad or your Palm Pilot.

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Remembering Anniversaries, Birthdays and Historical Dates If you want to remember people’s anniversaries or birthdays, just associate the people or substitute words for their names, to the date. For example if your friend Stephanie’s birthday is on June the 9th, picture and Elephant climbing up steps (Step ‘phant) and the peg word for 69 and entering a ship at the top of the steps. Of course some dates cannot be associated with a Peg word, for example, June 17th , in which case you can use 2 Peg words, one for the month and one for the day. Let’s say your friend Jeannette has her birthday on June 17th, then think of your friend wearing Jeans made out of nets wearing over-sized shoes (06) and stepping on tacks (17) Dates of history can be remembered in a similar way using the letters system. Break the number down into two groups of two, or else keep it as a 4-digit number (unless it is below 1000 of course!) Create your object from this to remember, and then link it to the key event in history. In college we often had to learn more than 30 dates for exams. I had problems until I was taught this method by a history professor who had number dyslexia, called dyscalculia. How could he remember such things, they were meaningless? For weeks before the exam all my friends had sticky notes all over their rooms with the dates and key events on. I knew from experience I could garner about 30% into my memory, if I was lucky. It was two nights before the exam I finally sat down, and tried the new technique. An hour later I had the lot. It does seem at the time to take a long time, but if you were to compare the accumulative time that most people spend on rote learning, revision and checking, the systems are much faster - you also retain information for longer. It is a useful point to make however that if you need to learn a lot of dates, then it is also wise to learn them as you would any other list and make sure that they are organized. Think of it like a shopping list where you also memorize the best-before date as well. This will enable you to revise your list accurately whether or not you are near your source material – in fact this is crucial for learning techniques I have discussed earlier. If you wish to remember historical dates like when did Columbus landed in America, 1492 you can imagine Columbus’ ship made out of tires and bones or just think of Columbus blowing a Trombone. The Battle of Britain took place between July and October 1940. We can use the numbers 7, 10 and 40. (Our natural memory would tell us in was in the 19th century). You can imagine a picture of cow, toes, rose. You can see Spitfires shooting at cows holding roses in their toes. I know that cows do not have toes but this makes the picture more ridiculous.

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Chapter 17 Tips for absent-mindedness Do you constantly misplaced your things? Do you waste precious time looking for your car keys, your glasses or the pencil that is stuck behind your ear? Ladies, do you drive your husband up the wall when you can’t find that lipstick that goes with your dress? Men, do you drive your wives crazy when you’re late for that important dinner and can’t locate your cuff-links? If so, you’re in the ranks of millions of people who are absent minded. Please don’t confuse absent-mindedness with poor memory. They are entirely different. People who have good memories can also be absent-minded. I believe you can solve this problem with just a little effort and with tips I’m giving you . But please realize that like all exercises, it has to be practiced. Actually, absent-mindedness is nothing more than inattention. If you were to pay attention where you put your car keys, naturally you’ll be able to find them when you leave the house. Therefore if you put things away without thinking or doing things “mechanically”, you’ll forget where they are, because you never remembered in the first place. For instance, when you leave your house, you sometimes worry whether you’ve locked the door simply because you locked it unconsciously, without giving it a thought. The solution to the problem then is to consciously associate the action with vividly imaginative action. For example, if you put your car keys on top of the TV set. Then consciously imagine something ridiculous, like the TV set exploding as soon as the keys are placed on top. Or the TV set swallowing your car keys with a gulp. Another way is when you put your keys down link them to where you are putting them. So, if you put them down on the sofa enlarge those keys to huge size, and imagine them changing into a person, who looks like a key. Give him a name. Next time you will know where they are. What happens if you put them down in lots of different places – how will you know where you are up to? Well the chances are that you will not have this confusion, its quite amazing. However, at least you will know the places where to look first. Let’s say you need to put a letter in the mailbox before you catch your bus to school or work. For most people, the last thing they do is to lock the door or gate. If so, then imagine as you close the door, the door is a giant envelope or as the door to the lift open, inside is a giant envelope. For some petty actions, simply thinking of the action as you do it should suffice. For example, when you turn off the iron, simply see yourself turning it off. When you set the alarm clock, simply close your eyes and see yourself setting it. Your natural memory will take over and you don’t have worry about whether you’ve turned off the iron when you’re out of the house or get out of bed to check on the alarm clock. Of course the key to remembering these petty actions is to practice at it, it may take some willpower but when you see the results, you’ll want to do it more often and before you know it, you’ve acquired a habit.

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Chapter 18 Learning The Books Of The Bible (and Biblical Verses) If you’re one of those who have to look at the contents page of your bible whenever a verse is quoted in Church, it’s time to learn the books of the bible in sequence. And all it takes is a few minutes! Let’s take the New Testament as an example I’m substituting the chapters with words of my own, you can use yours if it’s easier to picture or remember. For the first 3 books of Matthew, Mark Luke, I’m replacing with the letters, MML which seems like the acronym for Marmalade. Next comes the books of John, Acts, Romans or Jar. I now have Marmalade in a jar. Corinthians sound like “Coring Indians”. For Galatians, I’m replacing with “Gals”, Ephesians with “Efficient”. Philippians with a “Phillips screw driver”. Colossians with “Colossal”. Thessalonians with “Dress“. Timothy with “time“, Titus with a “Swiss-made Titus watch”. Philemon with “lemon”, Hebrews with “brew” as in brewing tea. James with “Jam”. Peter with a “pit”. John with a “toilet”. Jude with the actor “Jude Law” and revelations with “revving” an engine on a Harley Davidson motorbike.. Here’s my story. Red Indians are making the marmalade in jars. They are also making other kinds of jams. A group of Indians are coring apples and they are girl Indians (gals). They seem to be very efficient as they use Phillips screwdrivers to core the apples. Along comes a colossal red Indian woman wearing a pink polka dot dress. She checks the time on her big Titus watch on her wrist. She squeezes some lemon juice into a tea she is brewing with the jam. She doesn’t notice a big pit and falls into it. The other red Indian girls see this and knock excitedly on the door of a toilet and out comes Jude Law on his motorcycle. He throws a rope into the pit and ties the other end to his big Harley Davidson and revs the engine loudly and pulls out the big red Indian lady. Go through this story a couple of times and make the picture more vivid as you do. In a few minutes, you would have remembered the books of the New Testament. You even know the books backwards! So you’ll never lose your place in the bible in church when the Pastor refers to the other books. You can practice with the books of the Old Testament. They are a lot more fun.

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Remembering Biblical Verses Let’s take Romans Chapter 12 Verse 21 which says “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Let’s picture a Gladiator with Armour of tin (12), you can picture your favorite can food labels still stuck on his Armour. He is fighting a ferocious monster and tangles it in a big net (21). When he has the monster in the net, he offers the monster some candies (with goodies)

Psalm 119:114 “You are my hiding place and my shield. I have put my hope in your word” For Psalm we can picture a Palm tree. Picture a tot (11) being chased by a bee(9) he hides behind a Palm tree. The tot takes out his Rye (4) bread sandwich which he uses as a shield and then traps the bee between the 2 slices. He then hop (hope) on the sandwich and throws a thick heavy book (word) at it to try to kill the bee inside. Tip : For the chapter and verse numbers, you can use either the peg list or the flag pole list or you can create a new word from the numbers. This is useful if you have many verses to remember and to avoid confusion between the verses.

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Chapter 19 Remembering Directions Let’s say you’re driving into a city or town that you’ve never been before and you got lost. You decide to ask for directions. You stop your car and ask someone how to get to the hotel you want. The directions may go like this “Turn left at the second intersection, then keep driving till you come to the First State bank, then make a right turn, keep going until you see the gas station and make left. The hotel you want is just after the library. You thank the person and turn to your traveling companion and say, “I hope you remember what he said.”. Instead of irritating your mate, here’s a way to remember directions using your imagination. First we turn the abstract terms left and right into something we can picture. For left, we picture a leaf. For right we picture a Rat. Now, when you ask for directions, remember to always ask for landmarks and what the landmark look like. This way, it’s easier to make a picture or a movie in your head. So let’s say the person said “turn left at the 2nd intersection”. You can ask, “Is there something I should see at the 2nd intersection”. The person may reply, “Oh yeah, there’s a yellow mail box”. So you know you can picture Noah which represents 2 trying to shove a big leaf into a yellow mailbox. You can also ask what the First State Bank looks like. If it looks like a building with a lot of glass windows, then picture a big Rat throwing rocks at the windows and breaking them and shards of glass come raining down. Ask the person what kind of gas station is it, is it an Exxon, Mobil etc. Then picture a big mountain of dry leaves catching fire at the gas station and the gas pumps start exploding and there’s a huge ball of fire. You can then ask for a description of the library and you should be able to get to your destination. So when your traveling companion asks “Did he say turn left or right at the intersection, you can say “I don’t know but I’ll know when I get there”. This may be a bit discomforting to your companion but you know you’ll get to your destination.

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Chapter 20 Tips On Listening In A Lecture & Studying Before we begin on our introduction on how to study cold hard facts in school, I’d like to briefly outline the correct way of writing notes during a lecture or class. Some of us would scribble notes feverishly as the lecturer speaks on a topic. Unfortunately, you may not be able to remember much because the mind is too focus on the writing to make any tangible connection between what was said and what the memory is associating with. I would suggest you invest in a variable playback speed tape recorder with a pitch adjuster to record the lecture. As the lecturer speaks, write down key words instead of long grammatically correct sentences. Use symbols freely, like arrows or pictures, no one is going to grade you on your notes or your handwriting. Imagine that the speaker is talking to you directly and you are the only person in the lecture. If you ask questions on something you do not understand or ask the lecturer to rephrase something you do not quite understand, like “Excuse me, do you mean to say this and that, is my understanding correct?“ this will. boost your memory recall by more than 50%. If you’re someone who is prone to drifting off in a daydream, these tips will help you focus on what is being said. The reason why we daydream is because we have this supercomputer in our head, that is our “brain”, and it is not being engaged in a meaning full way. It is thinking at the speed of light and the information that is coming through is too slow. It therefore needs something to occupy itself and therefore it starts to daydream. Another reason is that you do not feel connected to the topic. Using the above tips, even if it is a boring subject, you can boost your attention span 5 times! When you get home, you can playback your recording at twice the speed. If the audio sounds funny, use the pitch adjuster. When you come to a part where you think you might be tested, write it down on your notes, in red and in exclamation marks, whatever that draws your attention when you revise your notes You now have keywords from your lecture, which you can break it down to similar sounding words that can be pictured. You can start using the linking and chaining method on the words. And you now know the important parts of the lecture, which may be tested. At this point, you probably remember more than the person who is too busy writing down chunks of notes. And you’d probably do better in the tests. Tips For Studying When you have the right techniques, studying actually becomes fun. You need to be aware that memorizing as you read seems to be a slower process than the traditional way of read, take notes, analyze, learn. But the ACCUMULATIVE time is far shorter, and this should be kept in mind. Following is the suggestion for more effective studying.

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Overview: Take a moment to read the contents list. Give yourself time to form an opinion of what might be in the contents of those chapters. What questions do the titles raise? Next, read through all the subheadings and continue to form your thoughts. Also at this stage create links with any information that you are already aware of, even if it is a completely different subject or topic. This will give you links to areas that you are already familiar with. It is not memorizing as such but you are creating a mental environment where you can build information bridges later. The overview stage is very important. It is a little like when you are traveling some distance and would need a map to work from. You don’t just set out but instead look where you are going, create reference points along the way and understand your route. Study is not like reading a novel in that novel writing is about unveiling a hidden plot for pleasure: an academic work is communicating a concept by careful explanation using preceding argument or explanation to get to a final point. To know the final point is therefore preferable. From this overview stage you can now begin to build your virtual mind map. Put in the key central area, and position in your virtual world areas of the town that you will need in which to store the information. It may take a couple of study sessions to get to this stage, but it is worth it. Next is how you study the text itself and keep your interest at a maximum. An effective way is titling. As you create your images from the headings and subheadings, you need to connect in the text itself. To do this, for each paragraph find a word or phrase from that paragraph that you feel best summarizes the text around it. This is your key thought and you attach it in the correct place in your mind map -. Create a mental picture. For example, say the phrase you were trying to remember was ‘the medium is the message’; I would imagine 3 men stood before me, one is short, one is medium sized, one is tall, and the middle medium sized on is giving me a letter. You will find that when you recall it later you will be able to bring forth the main thrust of the idea.

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Chapter 21 How To Review Effectively Right at the beginning of this book I talked about the mind being like a filing cabinet, and about short term and long term memory. Short-term memory is useful for those day-to-day tasks, such as getting ready in the morning. You need to remember those things that you have just done, such as cleaning your teeth, so that you don’t keep going back to do them over and over again. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to remember every time in your whole life that you have cleaned your teeth! Unfortunately, you can’t decide when something goes into your memory where it will go – into short term or into long term! In fact, it will ALWAYS go into short-term memory first and it requires further work to get it into the long-term memory area. Its like having a filing tray and a filing cabinet. You can store only so much in the filing tray and you need to get it into the cabinet. Rote learning appears to work because you are using familiarity, but in reality you are putting materials directly into your long-term memory, and this is not how the mind was designed to work. It’s the difference between building a guide path and then strengthening it into a path, road, carriageway and finally a motorway/freeway; and trying to build the freeway from scratch with no guide whatsoever. It is my belief that this, coupled with boredom (the brain doesn’t like doing things over and over; it stagnates and STOPS learning) makes it very hard work and makes you tired. But there is more... When you RECALL a memory there is a much more profound chemical change going on which establishes stronger memory links much quicker. Rote or familiarity-based learning does not create the same strong chemical changes. This being the case it stands to reason that you should form images, and then recall them once they are in your head so as to create the stronger memories. But again, just doing it over an over isn’t only boring but unhelpful (too much keeps it in short term memory) and will not give you space to learn more. The secret is the timings of when you study, and when you recall, and giving your mind the physical time to create the chemical bonds. The feeling is that you are recalling it just before you have forgotten it. This is how you do it. Study for just 20 minutes, forming your images and image links as you go. Immediately at the end of the 20 minutes recall all the information. Then take a break for 5 minutes.

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At the end of the 5 minutes, recall the information once more. You can now continue studying for another 20 minutes. Repeat with this block of information – recall immediately. Then after 5-minute break, recall ALL the information so far. Do this as many times as you like for new sections of information - it helps if before you sit down to study you decide what one section is, find your own balance. Leave half an hour at the end of your study period for rest. Do something else completely different, don’t study or read. A manual hobby perhaps, listening to music etc.. You will find that the information in your head wants to be thought about. Try not to, as doing so will keep some of the information in the short-term memory. After half an hour recall as much information as possible. Walk around your virtual town. You will get a feeling if you miss anything. At this point you can very quickly read over your text to make sure you got everything – don’t reread it in detail, perhaps just headings, as it will put the information back into short term. If you missed anything, use power memory boosting techniques to get it firmly established. An hour later recall the information one more time. Next day recall again. Do not look anything up even to remind yourself before you recall it. If you can’t remember something then come back to it. It is the act of recall which builds the bonds, and a struggle for memory will be made all the more firm. If at any point you want a quick review, don’t decode the information, keep it in picture format. Say waiting for a bus or the kettle to boil - its amazing how quickly you can flip through the images. This is a useful technique to practice just before falling asleep at night as your subconscious will continue to process the information. Recall the information weekly for 3 more weeks, and then monthly after that. As more information is tied into the original you will discover that you will find recall is easier. If you are studying a book, each time you recall any information you should make sure that you also recall the basic structure that hasn’t yet had further information attached to it. This will enable you to place newly learned information as part of a pattern for the whole rather than in isolation. Build into your study pattern this time for recall, as it makes revision much easier, if not completely unrequired as the information becomes familiar.

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Chapter 22 How To Remember Hard Facts From The Hard Sciences Learning Chemistry Element Symbol Atomic Number Atomic Weight Iron Fe 26 55.847 Sodium Na 11 22.989 Potassium K 19 39.098 Gold Au 79 196.966 You may be able to get by memorizing the above facts by rote learning. But doing it for the entire periodic table would be mind-numbing. Here are some suggestions on how to go about it using the memory system. Iron (Fe) - You can picture a normal household iron. F - F15 fighter jet. E - Eel. 26 - Notch. 55-Lily 847 - frog Now let’s engage your photographic memory using your imagination with lots of action. You’re a new rookie pilot and they are ironing your call sign on your brand new F15 fighter jet. You take off and fire missiles at your first target. But instead of missiles, slippery eels start to fly from the wing tips. As the eels zoom towards the target, you notice they have deep notches on them. The eels hit a lily pad and a frog sitting on a lily pad and it explodes into pieces. Sodium - Let‘s break down the syllables into similar sounding words. So sounds like Sew, dium sounds like dime. (Na) - Ant and ape. 11 is tot. 22 is nun. 98 is puff and 9 is bee Let’s begin. Let’s imagine you sewing dimes on an ape. Giant ants are carrying the dimes to you as you sew them. A tot comes up and kicks the ape. A nun who is puffing on a cigarette tries to stop the tot and she is stung by a bee and she let’s out a big yelp of smoke. Potassium. The syllables sound like pot+ass+yum. K is represented by cake. 19- tub. 39 -mop 09 is soup and 8 is ivy. You can think of a big pot on the ground and in it is a cake. An Ass comes along and kicks it and starts eating the cake that is inside. “Yummy” the Ass exclaims. The Ass notice there is a tub nearby. He takes a mop and stirs the contents of the tub and realizes its soup of Ivy bubbling inside. And the Ass starts drinking the soup.

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Gold. Symbol Au -Ape and ewe. 79 is cop. 19 is tub, 69 is ship and 66 is choo choo. Imagine a golden Ape riding on an Ewe like a mythical creature on a busy road. It is stopped by a cop who is riding in a tub with wheels. The cop puts both animals on a ship but the ship runs on a track like a train and moves off like a train going “choo choo“. If you remember that atomic number of the elements is about half of it’s atomic weight, you do not have to worry about where the decimal point lies and your natural memory should guide you.

To remember elements with Valency 1. Picture a sharp flagpole shooting into the sky and it punctures an air ship filled with hydrogen, the hydrogen catches fire and explodes. On board the air ship is a girl named (Lina) wearing a gigantic ruby ring (Rubidium). She grabs the cake she is eating (K) and jumps off. But she falls into the sea (Cesium). She notices the Eiffel tower and swims towards shore to France (Francium) To remember elements with Valency 2. Picture an old man (Noah-2), and he sees a large ripe berry (beryllium) on top of a hill Noah is hungry and decides he wants to eat the berry. He takes a large horseshoe magnet (Magnesium) and tries to pull the berry off the hill with magnetism. Strangely enough, the berry is magnetic and comes rolling down the hill. Noah panics and uses his mobile phone to call (Calcium) a strong (Strontium) muscular man to help him. The man comes with a long bar (Barium) and hits the berry with the bar as it comes down like a baseball bat. The giant berry flies into the sky and lands on a radar (radium) station. Using this method, if someone were to ask you, “what valency is Potassium, symbol K?”, you can immediately picture the girl Lina jumping off the hot air balloon with the Cake”, Valency 1.

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Learning Mathematics Learning The Multiplication Tables The Easy Way Do you remember trying to memorize your times (multiplication) tables? Most people do it by rote learning repeating the times tables over and over again. However, you can make it fun for your kid and your child will WANT to do the times table the fun way. Think of a crazy picture like your mother trying to catch a cow with a net. She is running all over the place with a net trying to snare a cow. And there you have it, your child has just memorized; 3 (ma) x 7 (cow) = 21 Simple isn’t it? Let’s do another one. 9 (bee) x 8 ( Ivy) = 72 (Coin) Imagine a bee on a poison ivy. The bee starts to itch from the poison and starts to fly in an erratic manner and finally crashes into a tall tower of coins. Imagine the sound of the coins crashing down on the bee. How about trigonometry functions? The cosine function of an angle is defined as the adjacent side of a triangle divided by its hypotenuse. Cosine sounds like cousin., adjacent can be broken up to 3 syllables that sounds like “add“, “jar” and “cents“. Hypotenuse sounds like hippopotamus. So let’s picture your cousin sitting on a hippopotamus adding cents into a jar.

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The sine function of an angle is defined as the opposite side of a triangle over its hypotenuse. Imagine yourself singing off key opposite a hippopotamus. The animal gets angry and starts charging at you and you run as you sing. Or you can imagine Oprah (Opposite) Winfrey sitting on top of a hippopotamus and singing.

The Cosine Rule The cosine rule states that, for the triangle ABC in Diagram 1, a2 = b2 + c2 - 2bccosA

Diagram 1

For complicated equations, you can replace the equal symbol “=“ with similar pictures like the parallel bars used in gymnastics, goal-posts, British double-decked buses, a pair of stilts, railway tracks etc. For the addition sign, you can use images of things that attaches to other things like handcuffs, Velcro, safety pin, superglue, lasso, paper clips, etc The minus sign can be replaced with a flying object like a spear, a flying bullet a dart or the action of pushing something away etc. You can replace the square symbol with anything that ordinarily exists as one, like you only have one head, a belly button or a nose. If you picture an animal with 2 heads or 2 noses, etc, that should stand out! For multiplication, you can use things that become or comes in “many” like confetti, a swarm of locusts, a herd, a flock. Or imagine putting an object into a machine that multiplies like a photocopier machine or imagine something that multiplies itself like bacteria. A square root sign looks like a house or a slide to me, use your imagination for the picture that suits you best. The divide sign ÷ looks like a “see saw” or you can picture something that is underneath another picture.

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Here, for a2 I’m picturing an baby ape with 2 heads, b2 is represented by a giant baby with 4 eyes, c2 is represented by a 2-tailed cat etc. Let’s start with our story. Picture in your mind’s eye, in vivid detail, an ape with 2 heads kicking a football over a goalpost, the heads are talking to each other as the ball flies, the ball hits a giant 4-eyed baby that is walking it’s pet, a 2 tailed cat (C2 )on a leash (+). The giant 2-headed baby gets angry and throws its giant rattle (-)which hits a hive. A swarm of bees (multiply by b) comes out of a hive that stings Noah (2) who throws confetti (multiply by c)to try to get rid of them. Out of nowhere many 2 headed apes who are cousins of the original ape including a giant mama ape comes along and takes the baby 2- headed ape in her arms (multiply by cosine A) You may want to accentuate the parameters that are important like picture the baby 2-headed ape with red fur as distinct from the other apes, the 2-tailed cat having striped tail, Noah throwing colored confetti and the bees with bright yellow and black stripes on their bodies and big stings and a giant mama ape wearing an apron. Look at the formula itself and go through the story a few times. In less than 2 minutes, the formula should be committed to memory by your natural memory. Try the formula again a few hours later to check if you can still remember the ridiculous picture you’ve made. Tip: Write the formulas you wish to remember with its accompanying story on cards and carry it with you. Review them 10 times over a 72-hour period. You can do it anywhere, on a bus, queuing at the bank or post office, waiting for food to arrive etc. Each formula should take about a minute or less to review. The formulas should be lodged in your long-term memory for easy recall later.

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Learning Physics Newton's First Law of Motion: I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

You can use the flag post peg list for this one. Picture a flagpole with an apple attached to it with a string. The apple is moving round and round the flagpole. Along comes Newton draped in a Jedi costume and he stops the apple in mid flight using the “Force” as seen in Star Wars. Newton's Second Law of Motion: II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. Picture two very fat (F) mamas (ma) on a see saw (2nd Law).

Newton's Third Law of Motion: III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Picture your ma (3rd law) holding 2 sumo wrestlers at bay. One of her left and the other on her right. Here’s an example of a physics equation dealing with motion and acceleration S = ut + ½ at² Where S is the distance traveled, U is the initial velocity, t is time in seconds, a is acceleration. S - Ass U - Ewe A - Ape T - Tea

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Picture an Ass walking on long stilts as it needs to travel a long distance. It sees an Ewe frolicking in tea leaves (multiply by t). the Ewe is leashed to an Ape (+) and drinking 2 cups of tea (one in each hand) while standing on 1 leg (½).

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Chapter 23 How To Improve Your Vocabulary Quickly It is important for a person to have a varied vocabulary to stand out in a crowd. A person who is able to articulate well will, all things being equal, be able to get a better job, find a better mate or be more persuasive in their arguments. For instance, there are few things which bore an audience more and make a lecture more thoroughly monotonous than the constant repetition of words. An address is always more effective if the speaker can vary his vocabulary as well as his sentence structure. The good speaker employs a vocabulary of 10,000 to 15,000 words, whereas the average vocabulary embraces only 2,000 or 3,000 words. The other terms either are theoretically familiar to the student of public speaking but not freely used, or else they remain unknown to him. In order to enrich his vocabulary he should pay attention to unfamiliar words when he runs across them in books or newspapers or in his attendance at lectures, and even in his daily intercourse. He should impress them on his mind and, if need be, write them down. He should, as a further step, accustom himself gradually to use them and so in time widen his vocabulary. But if he reads or hears words whose meanings he does not know, he should never neglect looking them up in a dictionary or an encyclopedia. Let’s say you just come across a new word Flamboyant which means “showy in appearance or manner. You can break down the word in 3 syllables Flame, boy and ant. Picture a boy in a circus show in colorful costume, blowing flames from his mouth to kill some ants. Orate – To speak, often pompously. Orate sounds like orange or a crate. So imagine a person speaking very loudly on top of a crate of oranges. And then imagine people throwing oranges at him. Convoluted, which means “coiled or twisted“. We’ll replace “con” with a convict and “voluted” sounds like “electrocuted with volts” . Picture a convict trying to escape from prison by climbing a high voltage fence, he gets electrocuted and lands on the ground, his body twisted like a pretzel. Amorphous, which means “without definite shape or form”. Like clouds or spilled milk for example. The word sounds a lot like “more furs”. You can picture the clump of furs from a shedding cat or a dog , all without definite shape or form. A picture that is thought out by yourself is more likely to be remembered and with practice, it should take just a few seconds to imagine and to make it stick.

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Chapter 24 How To Break A Bad Habit We have at our disposable, a supercomputer like nothing else that has been created by man, that is our subconscious mind. Together with the thinking or conscious mind, it is a complex and lightning fast network of thought and association that powers our daily lives. As the brain processes information, one thing reminds you of another, which reminds you of something else. By training our mind in a particular way, we have learn how to manage the information in an order that is linked to other bits of information which we can retrieve and juggle with whenever we need them. However, as we go through life, our unconscious mind makes certain associations that may be harmful to us and which we don’t think about, until it’s too late. This leads to erroneous associations leading to bad habits like smoking, drinking and overeating. It may be in the past, we’d some stressful situations that made us respond in a way that spawned our bad habits. These habits, through bio-chemical associations, have lodged itself into our neural network of association. Such bio-chemical factors like nicotine in cigarettes, the fats and the sugar in our food and the alcohol in vodka or whiskey that gives us the temporary pleasure to take us away from the stressful situation at hand. So powerful are these associations that it makes our bad habits tough to break. To this end, I’d like to share with you one of my own bad habits, which is overeating. I grew up in the part of the world where cuisines from any country is readily available. Coupled with a busy lifestyle, my weight ballooned and I was overweight by 20 pounds in no time. The turning point for me came when I went for my medical examination and was told my cholesterol level was off the charts and my blood pressure was too high. I decided to try the techniques discussed in this book to help me overcome my weight gain. The first thing to do was to associate massive pain to my weight problem. I imagine the cholesterol clogging my arteries and giving me a cardiac arrest. I imagined the blood pressure being too high for my blood vessels to handle and they were weakening. I imagined myself being hook up to one of those dialysis machines I see on Fund Raising Shows on TV when my kidneys failed. When you change any associations of food and the pleasurable feelings, the mind can’t tell that which is real and that which is imagined. So I decided to create an alternate state of reality for myself. I linked tremendous pain with the food I like most. The sweet stuff like cake and ice cream, the fried stuff like chicken and French fries. I started my exercise program, and boy was it tough at first!

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I woke up an hour earlier each day to begin a morning walk or jog. I started lifting weights at the gym. Every time someone offered me a piece of cake or every time I see a fried chicken commercial, I would tell myself how many miles it would take to burn off the calories if I ate that stuff. I started to drink fruit and vegetable juice and imagined it giving my body the life force it needs. Every time my wife and I ate at a restaurant, we would ask the waiter for an extra plate so that we can share some of the food instead of ordering the large portions. And there was always salad at our table. I associated pleasure with my morning jog and walk. I bought an MP3 player to listen to those songs that I would otherwise not have time to listen to, due to my busy schedule. I imagined getting admiring looks from people who appreciate a fit taut body. I bought nice clothes a size smaller and imagined myself in them. My weight started coming down, slowly but surely. It’s not an easy process if the bad habit is deeply ingrained but if you associate massive pain with the habit you’re trying break and massive pleasure to being successful, you’ll succeed. Use your vivid imagination and picture yourself getting rid of your bad habit. How much healthier you would become if you gave up smoking. Imagine yourself with clean teeth without the tobacco stain and the bad breath. Imagine yourself breathing easier without coughing. Imagine yourself conversing closely with an attractive member of the opposite sex because you no longer have “smoker’s breath”. Imagine yourself drinking fruit juice instead of whisky, vodka or brandy. Imagine how much healthier you can become when you give up alcohol. Imagine the alcohol killing your brain cells the next time you feel an urge to down a glass. Make your imagination work for you and don’t give up! Remember vivid with feelings is the key.

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Chapter 25 Using Your Trained Memory For Card Tricks This is another neat trick, but is fairly simple in operation. Cards are of course somewhat ambiguous (you will by now be getting used to the fact that this is true for much in our world being like that) and so you will have to give them some sort of solid imagery Thankfully with our technique, we have an established system. Because they are so simply and logically created you will find that you will be able to hold the information with around 30 minute of study. The system combines the phonetic letter and number system together with the first letter of each of the suits to create a new word and therefore memorable object. Just a word of note before I divulge this secret: the court cards. The jacks are simply pictured as the card suit that they are. So the jack of hearts is a heart. The queens. Apart from the queen of hearts (which is simply a queen) the letter of the suit has been substituted for the first letter of the word queen, and then the closest rhyme used. Its clubsy but it works! The kings Similar to the queens, the only anomaly is the king of clubs, which again is the word King. See below for the full details. AC cat AH Hat AS Suit AD date 2C can 2H hone 2S sun 2D dune 3C comb 3H hem 3S sum 3D dam 4C cote 4H hare 4S sore 4D door 5C coat 5H hail 5S sail 5D doll 6C cash 6H hash 6S sash 6D dash 7C cock 7H hog 7S sock 7D dock 8C cuff 8H hoof 8S safe 8D dive 9C cap 9H hub 9S soap 9D deb 10C case 10H hose 10S suds 10D dose JC club JH heart JS spade JD diamond QC cream QH queen QS steam QD dream KC king KH hinge KS sing KD drink As usual, decide for yourself as to your own imagery. So here are a couple of fun things to do with this. First you can memorize whole lists of cards, but to really do well you must do this in under 5 minutes, which is considered average, and under 3 minutes to stand any chance against the grand masters. But hey, 5 minutes is still good! It is quite simple, go through your favorite peg list, and associate each card in shuffled order with the peg word.

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But how about card counting - that is remembering what cards have already been played in a game so that you are more readily able to calculate the odds of a certain hand being possible. It is not as hard as remembering every card in play, instead a bit of reverse psychology is used. When a card is played you imagine it ‘destroyed’ in your mind. Now you can do this with imagery - for example run over it in a steam roller, burn it, eat it, tear it up, freeze it, feed it to a tiger, or stamp on it. Just so long as you distort the card each time. Now, if you are waiting for a certain card to appear instead of having to go through the whole deck or remember a long list of cards, just ask yourself if it has yet been destroyed. If your card is still clear of damage then you perhaps have a winning hand. If you play a number of hands, you may find that it would get confusing to use the same distortion method. So the recommendation is that you should use a different distortion ‘method’ over the course of 7 hands, before returning to the first method. This way you will keep most information in your scratch memory. A similar trick would be for the audience to remove 5 cards from a shuffled deck. Now go through the whole deck and mentally destroy the cards. Once done lay the cards to one side, and simply go through the deck in SORTED order in your head. Each time you come to a card that you have not mentally ‘destroyed’ you can shout it out. If however you can get this last stage to below 20 seconds (which is doable - the imagination can work quick and sift images rapidly) then it is possible to go through the cards, identify and place the unburned cards into a simple 5 place peg system, and then after 20 seconds reveal all cards at one time. In this way you could claim that your mind has organized the cards and then ‘thrown out’ the results in one go. Heighten the tension with some suitable clock countdown music. There are other various things you can do with this. For example if you use a stacked deck you can create your own individual stack, and no one would be the wiser. Here is a nice trick. Work with a partner on the other side of a stage who knows the system, perhaps even blindfolded. Ask a volunteer to shuffle your deck. Then proceed to switch (using your favorite method) the deck for your own stacked deck. Have someone in the audience call out a number between one and 52. You could do this with a thrown ball, which bounces around a bit. Make out that this is so that it is a truly random selection and that you could have had no influence on the deck at all. The volunteer on stage then counts down the cards to that number. They are asked to look at the card, concentrate on it. You will not look at it so that you can not be seen to be cheating. On the other side of the stage your blindfold partner calls out (after the usual strain!) the card. They know the card of course because it was the number called out by the other volunteer from the audience.

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Another trick. First, use a fan or other method, cards face up, to show that all the cards are different, but personally you are memorizing the 3 cards, and order, BENEATH the top card. Palm off by any lift technique these 4 cards and pass the deck to a volunteer for a good shuffle. Take the pack back replacing the cards on the top of the deck. Place the deck on the table and have the volunteer cut the deck into 2 smaller decks, then tell him that you will take one deck and ask that they touch one. If he touches the deck containing the top 4 cards thank him for choosing the deck and allow him to keep it. If he chooses the other deck then remove it from the table. However you do this, the volunteer must end up with the portion that contains the top 4 cards Now ask your volunteer to remove the top card and place it in the middle of the pack of cards. Finally, ask that they carefully remove the next three cards and place them on the table. As you know these cards you can use them in another illusion, or else reveal them in whatever way you prefer. Next trick. Pre-order a packet of any 20 cards and memorize the order of the cards - in this case it is important to use a CIRCULAR STORY METHOD to memorize the order of the cards in that the last card image links back to the first. Now you are ready. Place a pack of cards on the table and ask a spectator to cut the cards, but not to complete the cut. Next to remove the card they have cut to and place it to one side. Next, they should complete the cut. What this does is to keep the order of the cards still in the story order, except for the one removed. Have the volunteer look at the card and remember it, and then without you touching the pack to place the card back anywhere in the pack. Because you memorized the pack in a circular story, it doesn’t matter where the first cut is made because the order of the cards will, in a circular sense, remain the same. The removed card however should have fallen to the top of the pack in the story, but of course it will now be out of order. So, to identify the chosen card simply go through the memorized pack in order from the first card and see which card doesn’t fit the story. The quick way of course is to realize that card, IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE CARD NOW ON THE BOTTOM in the memorized sequence of the cut deck is the missing card. If you wish you can just glimpse the base card to name the missing card. Try this trick out with a simple deck of all the hearts in order backed onto all the clubs in order, and watch the movements of the missing card. So in this example if the bottom card is the 2 of hearts, you will know that the moved card is the ace. AND YET ANOTHER .... Palm any 3 cards from a deck and place them in your pocket (though you can do this without the palm and simply place 3 cards in your pocket before the show starts). Ask a volunteer to shuffle the pack as much as they want to and then to deal 4 cards face up onto the table. Ask them to look with you at the cards on the table and to choose just one card, but not to touch it or to give the game away in any other way. As they are doing this take some time to explain that Derren Brown uses suggestion methods to make people choose the card he wants them to, or else is able to ‘read’ the choice of a person by their body language - they must do all they can not to move and you will not influence their choice of card at all. Secretly however during this time of ‘drivel’ you are memorizing the order of the cards top to bottom.

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Once they have made their choice you should collect the cards IN THE ORDER IN WHICH YOU HAVE MEMORISED THEM and place them in your pocket ON TOP OF THE CARDS YOU SECRETLY PLACED THEIR EARLIER. Now ask the volunteer to concentrate on their card ... As they do so remove one of the originally placed cards in your pocket - one of the three - and look at it, then place it back in the center of the pack saying, ‘not that one’. Do the same for the next two cards. Everyone now thinks that you have just one card in your pocket whereas in reality you have the 4 cards dealt by the volunteer, and of course one of them is the choice of the volunteer. Now, with a mystical grin (or a knowing one if you can’t do mystical!) ask the volunteer for their choice of card. As soon as they tell you count down to the correct choice in your pocket and reveal it with a flourish. 3 cards done like this is pretty good .... But how about trying 9 cards in the pocket and asking for 10 to be dealt! The hardest part is not the memory of the cards, but rather the counting of cards in your pocket. To aid counting, makes sure all the cards lie long edge upwards in your pocket, and each time you place your hand in your pocket pause, as if feeling for the right card. In reality you rotate the 3rd card of the volunteers choices in your pocket by 90 degrees lie up wards) - on the second ‘dip’ count a further 3 from this rotated card and rotate the sixth card, and on the third time count 4 and rotate the 10th card. This makes identification of the spectators card smoother than counting through all 10 as you will be able to quickly identify your marker cards. This will hopefully be of interest and will point you in the right directions for further development of your memory skills

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Chapter 26 Reconnecting With Lost Memories Here is a simple technique on how to retrieve lost memories. Let’s say you’ve lost something valuable, it may be valuable in money terms or you have an emotional attachment to it, like a ring or pendant. You should pick a quiet or relaxing moment, just before bedtime and after a relaxing bath would be ideal. Then tell your body to relax. You can use a technique often times used by hypnotists. Here is a variant of it. Lie down on a couch or in your bed. Imagine every part of your body to be like a tightly wound bunch of rubber bands, and you gradually unwind. As you do so, start tensing up the body part and relaxing. Starting from your toes, start to curl up your toes and then relax, followed by your ankles, up your calves, your knees, your thighs, your buttocks, abdomen and then chest. Then clench your fist and relax, followed by your forearm, upper arm, shoulder, neck muscles, your facial muscles and then the your forehead. Imagine as you tense and release each body part, a warm sensation flows over it as you relax. As you go into a calm and relaxed state, focus your thoughts on the memory you’re trying to retrieve. When was the last time your saw the item or use the information? Then gently tell your subconscious mind “Dear subconscious, you know and see all things, I trust that you know where is the ____________ . Let me know the answer.” Keep repeating the phrase “Let me know the answer” like a lullaby as you focus on the problem. Vividly imagine the last time you were using it. Vividly imagine how relieve or happy you would be if you found it. You have to make the feelings as real as possible. If you awaken and you do not have the answer, get busy about something else. When you are preoccupied with something else, the answer will come to your mind like toast pops out of the toaster. Years ago, a good friend of mine dropped by my house for tea. She remembered that I used to teach her young daughter how to remember her schoolwork which worked very well for her. My friend asked me if I’d any techniques for lost items. She had lost her wedding ring a few weeks ago and it meant a lot to her. Her husband had promised to buy her another, but she felt an attachment to it. At first I said I couldn’t help because my techniques dealt with how to organize and process new information for later recall, not lost information. Then it hit me. A few years earlier, during a psychology class, I was taught the basics of hypnotism and the power of suggestion. I then taught her basic relaxation techniques and how to communicate with her inner self.

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A few days later, I received a phone call from her and she was thrilled to inform me that she’d found her ring. As she tried my suggestion, a few days later, she had a strong intuition and a small voice that kept telling her to ‘Ask Sarah”. So she ask Sarah, her daughter, if she’d seen the ring. Her daughter replied that she had found it in the driveway as her mother was taking groceries out of the car. She took it and placed it on her study desk. My friend had not previously notice it as it was beneath some notes and letters on her desk. Somehow, her subconscious had heard the tinkle as the ring hit the driveway and linked it to the fact that her daughter was with her in the car. So for example, if you’re trying to recollect where you put an important letter, as you follow the relaxation technique, try to imagine when was the last time your were reading the letter. When you receive it and what time was it, was the TV on? What program was on? Was it a documentary or a comedy? Was there anybody else in the room? Was there music playing? Try to vividly recollect the last moment before the item went missing. Were you in good mood or bad? Did you receive a phone call from someone? How was your health? Did you have an ailment acting up, a headache or cold? These questions may seem unimportant but your mind is an associating machine and every bit of information is linked to some other bit of information. By asking these tiny questions, we’re trying to recreate the background and trying to find a link back to the information we’re trying to retrieve. Sometimes it may take 1 session and the lost memory pops right back in your head. But depending on how long the item is lost or what are other memories are blocking it, it may take several sessions. But keep trying and trying and in most cases, your mind will reveal to you what you’ve been looking for. Remember to stay relax, focused and keep asking yourself those background questions. Tip You are encouraged to listen to the 10-minute Mighty Memory Alpha StateTM mp3 file to help you with trying to retrieve lost memories. It contains more than 100 subliminal memory affirming messages which encourage your subconscious to release lost memories to your conscious mind. Just keep trying, playing the mp3 file a couple of times everyday, especially before sleeping. Use the above methods to “talk” to your subconscious to program it release the lost information when the time is ripe.

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Chapter 27 Effective Study Methods In Memory And Learning The Role of Stimulus In Memory The role of stimulus in anchoring memory is an important one. As we’ve already seen, we can use humor, vivid imagination, sexuality, symbolism, color and exaggeration as our stimulus. The graph below indicates that we recall more from the beginning and ends of a learning period. We also recall more when things are associated or linked (Peaks A, B and C) and more when things are outstanding or unique. From the graph, it is clear that under normal circumstances and with understanding fairly constant, we tend to recall more at the beginning, gradually decreasing our recall and more at the end of learning period; (Green curve) From the graph it is clear that under normal circumstances and with understanding fairly constant, we tend to recall; more of things which are outstanding or unique (the psychologist who discovered this characteristic was Von Restorff, and such a memorization event is know as the Von Restorff effect), and considerably less of things from the middle of learning periods.

Graph showing how stimulus can increase memory recall

100% A B C 75% 50% 25% 0% Point in time where Point in time where Learning starts learning ends If recall is going to be kept at a reasonable level, it is necessary to find the point at which recall and understanding work is greatest harmony. For normal purposes, this point occurs in a time period of between 20 to 50 minutes. A shorter period does not give the

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More Stimulus

Less Stimulus



mind enough time to appreciate the rhythm and organization of the material, and a longer period results in the continuing decline of the amount recalled. The Importance Of Relaxation And Breaks If a period of learning from a lecture, a book or the mass media is to take 2 hours, it is far better to arrange for brief breaks during these 2 hours. In this way the recall curve can be kept high, and can be prevented from dropping during the later stages of learning. The small breaks will guarantee eight relatively high points of recall, with four small drops in the middle. Each of the drops will be less than the main drop would have been, if there were there no breaks at all. Breaks are additionally useful as relaxation points. They get rid of the muscular and mental tension which inevitable builds up during period s of concentration 2 of 8 High points recall curves when Of recall when planned breaks are taken 100% 75% - 50% - 25% - 0 % -

1 hour 2 hours Point in time where Point in time Learning starts learning ends Blue curves represent when periodic breaks (gaps) are taken during 2 hours learning Red curve represent recall curve when no breaks are taken for 2 hours or more.

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The Importance Of Proper Scheduled Review For Long Term Memory One of the most significant aspects of proper review is the accumulative effect it has on all aspects of learning, thinking and remembering. The person who does not review is continually wasting the effort he does put in to any learning task, and putting himself at a serious disadvantage.

Graphs Depicting Memory Enhancement After Scheduled Reviews 2nd review 4th review 1st review 3rd review 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% 10 minutes 24 hours 1 week 1 month

The red graph shows maintained knowledge without review The orange graph shows maintained knowledge with 1st review after 10 minutes The green graph shows maintained knowledge with 2nd review after 24 hours The brown graph shows maintained knowledge with 3rd review after 1 week The blue graph shows maintained knowledge with 4th review after 1 month

The red graph shows a typical learning session where no review of the knowledge has taken place. The graph shows memory recall rises for a short while after learning but plunges steeply thereafter. (80% loss of detail within 24 hours)

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The initial brief rise takes place at the very moment the learning period has ended. But the brain needs a few minutes to complete and link firmly all the interconnections within the new material i.e. “sink in”. If review is done after 10 minutes, this will allow time to assimilate the new information. If no review takes place, the decline within 24 hours will be rapid and 80% of information can be lost. The enormous drop must be prevented with proper notes review. If review is organized properly, recall can be kept at a high point shortly after learning. In order to accomplish this, a programmed pattern of review must take place, each review being done at the time just before recall is about to drop. The first review should take place 10 minutes after a one-hour learning period and should itself take 5 minutes. This will keep the recall high for about one day, when the next review should take place, this time for a period of 2 to 4 minutes. After this, recall will probably be retained for about a week, when another 2-minutes review can be completed followed by a further review after about one month. After this time the knowledge will be lodged in Long-Term Memory. This means it will be familiar in the way a personal telephone number is familiar, needing only the most occasional nudge to maintain it. The first review, if notes have been taken, should be a fairly complete note revision, which may mean scrapping the original notes and substituting for them a revised and final copy. The second, third and fourth review sessions should take the following form; jot down on a piece of paper, everything that can be recalled. This should be checked against the final notes and any connections or additions to what has been recalled should be made. Each time a person approaches a new learning situation, his recall of previous knowledge gained will be at a very low ebb, and the connections, which should be made automatically, will be dismissed. This will mean that his understanding of the new material will not be as complete as it could be, and that his efficiency and speed through the new material will also be less. This continuing negative process results in a downward spiral that ends in a general despair of ever being able to learn anything – each time new material is learned, it is forgotten, and each time new material is approached it seems to become more oppressive. The result is that many people after having finished their formal exams, seldom, if ever, approach books again.

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Failure to review is equally as bad for general memory. If each new piece of information is neglected, it will not remain at a conscious level, and will not be available to form new memory connections. As memory is a process which is based on linking and association, the fewer items there are in the “recall store”, the less will be the possibility for news items to be registered and connected. On the opposite side of this coin, the advantages of reviewing are enormous. The more you maintain your current body of knowledge, the more you will be able to absorb and handle. When you study, the expanding amount of knowledge at your command will enable you to digest new knowledge far more easily, each new piece of relevant information. The process is much more like that of the traditional snowball rolling, where the snowball gets rapidly bigger the more it rolls and eventually continues rolling under its own momentum. This will enhance your confidence, your work and your life.

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Chapter 28 Mind Mapping For Review And Creativity In dealing with the subject of memory and accelerated learning, the topic of Mind Mapping has to be mentioned. However, I would recommend that you don’t try this system until you have grown confident using all the other systems, and that you are able to create strong images in your head in under 5 seconds. If you can’t do that yet, don’t worry. With only a couple of days practice you will be able to, and when you can, return and have a go at one of the most powerful uses of the memory system I can imagine. Also, it’s fun. Invented by Tony Buzan, Mind Mapping creates colors and images on a piece of paper which by their very nature are more memorable. They are also fantastic tools for being able to pull together information and cross-reference it, without the restrictions of the linear page. The tool of mind mapping is particularly useful as a replacement of note taking during review of a subject after a learning session or as a tool of creativity to brainstorm a problem. As discussed in the previous chapter, the importance of scheduled review of learned material cannot be over emphasized for long-term memory building. We are predominantly operating in left mode not long after we have started school, and take this preference into adulthood. The common belief is that the left mode will develop our intellectual skills, while the right mode is comparatively unimportant. This is not true. The right mode is equally important, and “creatively”, in it’s purest sense, is born from the interaction of both modes with each other. If teachers operate in left mode, and students think in right mode, we get disharmony. If two heads are better than one, then two brain hemispheres are better than one, much better. The dominance of the left mode is commonly perceived as being responsible for spawning intellectuals whereas right mode dominance produces artists. This is not entirely accurate, because true intelligence or artistry depends upon the active interaction of both left and right modes of thinking. Creativity, in it’s purest sense is the balanced participation of the left and right hemispheres constantly communicating with each other via a bridge of between two and three hundred million nerve fibers known as the corpus callosum, the interstate highway which transports us from mediocrity to genius. One extremely powerful and enjoyable way in which to achieve such communication is through the practice and application of Mind Mapping, which calls upon both hemispheres, and thereby dramatically boosts one’s ability to recall immense quantities of data. The technique of Mind Mapping is as close as one can presently get on paper to reproducing the natural thought processes of the human brain. Amazingly simple to learn and strikingly powerful in application, it calls upon your brain’s innate desire to perform swiftly, extensively and in natural harmony with it’s own physiology. The skill of Mind Mapping allows an individual to not only access his or her own intelligence, but also to accelerate it greatly.

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This is a technique that very quickly shows you how to learn with total effectiveness, how to record information dramatically, and how to remember that information for whatever length of time we need to retain it, for purposes of later recall.

By using the left and right attributes of our brain hemispheres, such as colors, images, words, dimensions, lines, order, structure, imagination, and so on, within the same Mind Map, we are able to rapidly expand and explore an idea in either note form, or as a verbal presentation, and convert it into a graphical “picture”. This comes as close as one can to taking a photographic snapshot of our thought process on that topic. But since we cannot install a camera inside our brain, this skill is indispensable for anyone in any profession, of any age or sex, equipped simply with the desire to maximize their brainpower. The radiant structure of a Mind Map follows the natural architecture of the human brain. It is very easy to learn the laws associated with this skill, and the following pages take you step by step over the entire process. A Mind Map reflects the natural radiance of our thought processes. Harmonize with nature and you harmonize with genius. 1. Start out with a blank sheet of white paper. The size can be A4, letter or A3 or any size large enough to expand your thoughts on. Blank paper lets you have total freedom for writing and drawing. It allows you to use both hemispheres of your brain. White paper is initially recommended as it is user-friendly for a new skill being learned. Paper with lines and margins is not always brain-friendly and does not help in making your thoughts flow.

2. Use the paper on its side, like this It is in the “landscape” format as as oppose to “portrait”. Words and images have lots of room to spread out, and are thus never confined to space between lines and margins.

3. Begin at the center Every thought is born as a central speck somewhere within the brain. Ideas then hook onto the initial thought, and radiate outwards, like the

sun 4. Draw a central image that is your very special, own idea, about your story, subject, topic or thoughts. A picture is worth a thousand words. It frees up your mind to remember and think of many more ideas and things. Your thoughts focus much better, your memory improves like never before, and the whole exercise is simply great FUN! Use at least three or four colors for the central image. Color tickles the right side of your brain’s cortex and helps you greatly with your imagination and memory. It is also much easier and more enjoyable to pay attention to material when it is in color.

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Keep the size of the central image to approximately between 5 cm to 5.50 cm for the size of writing paper commonly used. This size has been proven to be just right and allows the Mind Map to develop without any worries about running out of space. If the image is too big, it won’t let all your thoughts fit on the page; if too small, you will find it difficult to develop when you have a rush of ideas, i.e., your central image will not have enough area to accommodate all the main branches.

Do not enclose and trap the central image in a frame or border. Let it remain open. Every image is unique in shape as well as in appearance. A frame imprisons the image, robbing it of its freedom. A free image is easier to remember and much more enjoyable to play with. 5. The central image is attached to a few main themes radiating outwards. These are somewhat equivalent to the chapter headings of a book, except that we can use either words or images to represent our thoughts, not just words alone. The main themes emphasize their prominence by being connected to the central image. They are cupped within and on the main branch, thereby permitting their relative importance to be highlighted through direct association with the central theme. If a word is being used, it must be printed in CAPITAL letters. Printing (as oppose to joined-up, cursive writing) makes it very easy for the brain to capture snapshots of the words. It helps us to read and remember much better and faster. However, lower-case letters can be used as you branch outwards, indicating relatively decreased priority. It must be placed on a line (Main Branch) of the same length. Remember word length = line length, as longer or shorter lines interrupt and break the flow of thoughts, whereas words written to match the line length helps to make the connections easier to remember!

The main branches are thick, curved and organic, i.e., thicker at the central image, tapering outwards. Curved lines look beautiful, graceful, and flowing. They reflect nature, and are therefore “natural”. They are more fun to do, and therefore are easier to remember! They are connected directly to the central image. Connections dramatically emphasize the relationship between the main themes and central thoughts. The brain works best through associations; separate, disconnected fragments are “brain-hostile”

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Remember, write only one word per line (branch). See examples below.

Because each word and image has millions of possible associations. Therefore, if you give it its own freedom, you will get many more ideas from it, and be able to remember it more clearly. 6. Add more main theme branches to the central image. This will make your main themes easily recognizable, and help to set off more and more thoughts in motion. (Of course, all the different main themes are still connected with each other, simply because they all connect to the central image). 7. Start adding second, third, fourth levels of thought. These words or images sit on their own branches, but are very much linked to the main branches that triggered them. The words and images you started with, make you think of so many other words and images, one connected with the other. Attach them, to whatever word or image triggers them. Let your thoughts flow freely; it is not necessary to “finish” one branch before proceeding to the next. Remember: Lines (branches) are connected, and thinner. Connected lines create relationships and a structure. They also show levels of importance, as from a branch to a twig. So, the main branch would be the first level, the next one the second level, the next the third, and so on. Words should again be printed, but may be lower case (i.e., not capitals) if you want to show them to be less important; this is usually done towards the outer sections of the Mind Map. The typeface, size, style, and versatility of the letters and words convey information about their importance and meaning. Script merged with images or symbols are fabulous for provoking creativity. Use images wherever possible, instead of, or in addition to words. Mix them up with words if you wish. Thoughts have a natural capacity for athletics. By this I mean they move around very fast. Let them bounce around freely; hop, skip, jump and slide around the Mind Map as the links, connections, and associations occur to you. Your brain has an infinite capacity for generating and receiving a multitude of ideas, at varying speeds. Like a trillion-tentacled mega octopus, it is able to pluck out and chuck out ideas at random. The Mind Map allows you to catch them and put them into a formidable format for action.

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8. Add new dimensions to your Mind Map. Use different colored highlighter pens. Add arrows, symbols, and codes, and different styles for each. Sometimes enclose branches of a Mind Map with cloud-shaped outlines in colors, so that they hug the shape of the branch. The unique shapes of these, cloud outlines serve as powerful memory anchors. All these items help to make important points stand out, so you can remember better. The outlines will create unique shapes (as you find in clouds, or in maps); the arrows, symbols, and codes, can show the connection between different branches. This will save you having to repeat writing the same information, unless of course, you wish to do so for a particular reason such as for placing added emphasis on a point. Let us begin with an example on the next page. Our topic is TRANSPORTATION. We will develop it according to the Laws of Mind Mapping. Just as nature grows through nourishment, so does a Mind Map. You will soon learn to appreciate the beauty of your brain blossoming.

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Step 1

Start With The Central Image

The paper should be ; The central image should :

• Blank - illustrate what the topic is all about • In landscape (placed sideways) - not be enclosed inside a frame or box.

- have at least three or four colors - be approximately 5 cm high and wide for A4 paper and approximately between 6.5 cm and 7.5 cm for A3 paper.

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Step 2

Add A Main Branch To The Central Image

The main branch should be:

• Touching the central image, anywhere • Filled with color • Shaped with graceful, curved lines, thicker at the central image, tapering to a point outwards.

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Step 3

Add A Word Or Image On The Main Branch

The main branch should have the word or image:

• Sitting on the branch, and should represent one of your main ideas about the topic. • Of the same length as the branch. If words, only one word per branch. • Written in capital letters, of a reasonably large size (if it is a word) • In colors of your choice

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Step 4

Add Words Or Images Off The Main Branch And Then Off The Next Levels Of Branches

The words or images should be;

• Sitting on thinner branches, and should represent your ideas about the sub-topic • Of the same length as the branch • Shaped to follow the curvature of the branch • It must be written in capital letters, but smaller than the sub-topic if it is a word • In colors of your choice Note : The image here is located on the third level of expansion, and represents a type of boat (dinghy) associated with the previous level, ‘Boats’, itself a development from ‘Water’. The word ‘Boats’ as well as the image for ‘boat’ have been depicted here for showing the options, but only one need be selected.

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Step 5 Add Further Main Branches And Expand Them As You Did In Step 4

The symbols placed over ‘Land’ and ‘Water’ respectively, of the ‘Historical’ main branch serve the as cross-reference. This saves you having to repeat the same information, if it comes crops up in the other branches, for example, the main branch ‘Present’. Later, from the ‘Present’ main branch, the second symbol placed on a second level branch coming off ‘Water’). This means that all information related to ‘Historical’ branch is also relevant here.

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Step 6 Keep On Going, As You Did In Step 5

You can play with the Mind Map and add empty branches to provoke new ideas. Put them onto the branches as they occur to you. The use of the curly arrow (any shape will do) to create or move into additional space is a very useful device, as it does not restrict you in an area where you might be feeling trapped.

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Mind Map On The Sense Of Touch ( An Illustration) Our sense of touch comes initially and largely from our skin, which has an outer, dead surface, constantly being ‘eroded’, but never wearing out. This micro-thin layer covers two main layers which are alive. The top half-millimeter or so is called the epidermis, beneath which is the dermis, about two millimeters thick. New cells are constantly being pushed up, where near the surface, they get squashed flat and die. But the constant regeneration of the skin’s outer surface is necessary as the simple acts of bathing, washing our faces, and scratching result in the removal of dead skin. This flexible platform of dead cells is waterproof, and is constantly being renewed via ‘touch’. Approximately every two weeks, the epidermis gets completely renewed. The dermis provides the skin with its strength and ability to stretch. In this region, vital glands, nerves, hairs and blood vessels are located. Skin conditions millions of sensitive nerve-endings and sensory receptors (mechanoreceptors) which signal the brain with information about light touch, temperature, pressure, pain, vibration and sensations. An interesting phenomenon called stereognosis (Greek: stereos, solid, three-dimensional’ gnosis, knowledge) refers to the ability to identify unseen objects by handling them. This ability depends upon the sensations of touch and pressure, as well as on the participation of sensory areas in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex. Our Mind Map contains additional information on this subject, and can be transcoded into written form in the notes below; Proceeding from main branch to main branch, we have Sources The main sources of raising awareness within ourselves about the sense of touch come from the skin (the body’s largest organ, with an area of about 2 square meters, and weighing approximately 3 kg). The areas of greatest sensitivity are at the tips of your lips, tongue, teeth and fingers (of course, this is directly proportional to the thickness of callus, the thickened, dead, outermost layer of our skin). The skin essentially responds to the sensations of temperature and pressure, with the latter accommodating the perceptions of texture and weight, which actually depend upon how much pressure is being applied as any moment on the surface of your skin on different parts of your body. The normal body temperature, which would correspond to the inside temperature of your skin, ranges between 36.1oC and 37.8oC, regardless of the external temperature. The temperature of your skin on the outside is approximately 33oC though the temperature of your earlobes under those conditions, would be in the region of 27oC (due to the low volume of blood present there, and it’s relatively slow movement).

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You will lose consciousness if your inside body temperature rises above 41oC or falls below 33oC. The exact location of the temperature sense receptors on our skin has not yet been determined, but it is suspected that they may be a part of, or in the same location as, the pressure receptors. Sense Of Touch Your sense of touch is developed through the interaction between your brain and your body. They link up due to the existence of memory which exists not just in your brain, but also in your muscles and joints via the myriad sense cells. So this sense of touch would be related to a ‘body-sense’; the scientific name for it is ‘kinaesthesis’ (Greek:kinesis or motion + aesthesis or perception), also known as ‘position-sense’. Your body is a complex mechanism with numerous maps of its functions and ‘response-abilities’. These maps work in connection with your vision, that is, what you see, and sense of touch, what you physically feel. Nevertheless, the maps are constantly changing, purely because we never stay exactly the same size and shape in the course of our lives. The sense of touch is the earliest one developed, and is felt in a foetus as early as the seventh week of pregnancy. Of all the senses this sense has the broadest range. The skin has eight types of sensors (as categorized here, but this could be further expanded). They respond to light touch, pressure, heat, cold, pain, vibration and tickling. The high concentration of light touch receptors in the fingertips gives them enhanced tactile sensitivity, allowing for the presence of callus, of course. Pain is a vital element among the sensors because it awakens us to the presence of injuries, if we were say, bleeding, we could stanch the flow of blood or perhaps, suffer from a fatal infection. Hence, pain helps us to record, remember,and avoid those places and circumstances which may be dangerous to us. It is for these reasons that pain receptors are the most numerous. Benefits The benefits of having a sense of touch are obvious from the point of giving and receiving care, love, and affection. This results in physiological growth, creates bonding, as say between a baby and mother, or any two people, and in fact, can be synergetic with regards to establishments of harmony in society. Touching can also reduce stress levels in people, if it is done with pure, genuine, good intentions. For people who are blind, a sense of touch is vital for ‘reading’, and therefore, in learning, thanks to the existence of Braille which is read with the fingertips. The Braille alphabet consists of raised dots which form letters and words. An experienced reader can ‘read’ up to 50 words a minute. Cortex The cortex is the uppermost (cap) part of the brain. It is where we perceive the sensation of touch. The somatosensory cortex is the region where we sense our awareness of body position, pain, heat and cold. The motor cortex recognizes and controls our voluntary movements, such as winking.

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Review On The Sense Of Touch Mind Map 1. What are the main sources from where we perceive the sensation of touch? 2. Where is the greatest sensitivity to touch perceived? 3. What is the largest organ in the human body? How heavy is it, what is the approximate area it covers? 4. What is the range for normal body (inside) temperatures? 5. What is the standard temperature for your earlobes? 6. Above what temperature will one lose consciousness? 7. What is the scientific name for your sense of touch? 8. How many types of touch sensors does our skin have? Can you name them all? 9. Why can pain be a good thing? 10. Name four benefits of touching 11. What is the speed in words per minute for a good Braille reader? 12. Where is the brain’s cortex located? 13. Which category of touch receptor is the most numerous in the human body? 14. In which cortex do we sense our awareness of body position, pain, heat and cold? 15. What is the approximate temperature of your skin on it’s outside surface?

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Conclusion Researchers at Northwestern University, US, believe that we think with the same parts of the brain that we use to perceive objects, and that a vividly imagined scene or event can leave the same ‘brain trace’ as a real or experienced event. We all know just how easy it is to remember experienced events, and if we recall that event on an even vaguely regular basis the result is that we will remember it. But what exactly is going on with remembering ? Well certain memories are just that - real engrained chemically strong bonds that operate at a purely subconscious level. Driving a car would be good example - or even talking. Talking and reading are interesting because they use iconic memory, and iconic recognition. It’s almost like the working memory of a car. Usable data is brought out of long-term memory and into short-term memory, and then used in whatever the task is required at the time. For example reading. Each word is recognized as a whole, and translated into data, and then the word goes back into long-term memory. This happens automatically but only because of years of practice. It has been found by researchers that children with speech difficulties also have memory problems, and this iconic memory may be the victim. Researchers have also found that recognition is infinitely more powerful than simply recall alone. What we are doing with a memory ‘system, is not recalling information in its truest sense of the word. What we are doing is attaching an easily recognizable systematic key to ambiguous lists and items. As soon as you come across a word, it enables a recognition attachment to another object. That information alone should help you in the development of your own systems. Having a good memory though could in the end save you time. An experiment was conducted in America between two sets of first graders - American and Chinese. In a timed test the Chinese children completed 3 times more problems than did the American children. It seems that the reason for this was that they repeat basic skills more often, which meant that they knew the answers to basic problems without needing to recalculate them each time. This frees up space in the brain for sorting through the other areas of the problem, which makes the brain overall more effective. This principle is how a genius would think, as they would learn to apply solved problem from one area of life to another area with little thought. If you practice your memory, some mnemonists suggest, you will find that you are able to encode and decode almost at a subconscious level - all information you hear, see or read. I have yet to meet the person for whom this is true. Oh, and those 1st graders? By the third grade they were so way behind that they never caught up! You now have the basis and foundation of a trained memory. The system is so far reaching and applicable than what has been stated above. It could literally run into thousands of pages if all applications where a trained memory is needed, is listed. You are only limited by your imagination.

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I do hope I have given you a glimpse of what can be done with my system, the rest is up to you. I urge you to spend 5 minutes a day reviewing the peg lists and practice what you have learned. If you do this for 5 minutes everyday, for a week, a month, 2 months… it all adds up and you’re on your way to a perfect, million-dollar memory. You can practise with the newspaper you are reading, look at the faces in the news and look at their names and make a “see” peg and change the persons name into pictures. Read a magazine and breakdown the article into key words and link the key words to form a story. Try to recall the article a few hours later, when you’re at lunch, waiting for a friend, brushing your teeth, anywhere. Just practise.. This course is really designed to bring forth the power you already possess. The power that you have and the abilities that you possess just needed to be released. These techniques really can turn your life around. May you never be the same!

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SPECIAL HEALTH REPORT ON FACTORS AFFECTING MEMORY In this report, we shall be examining some physiological reasons why we can’t think clearly and why it can affect our memory. Stress has been known to affect memory. Here I’d like to discuss 2 kinds of stress Emotional and Physical. Emotional stress is an elevated level of a particular type of emotion; it can be a positive emotion like happiness or negative like fear, anxiety or anger. Physical stress is caused by factors that overstrain the body’s physical limit. For example strenuous physical activity like weight lifting, running a marathon, childbirth or even a mundane activity like reading can cause physical stress. Although both emotional and physical stress is part of everyday living, we need to balance it out so it does not overwhelm us If you are facing great emotional stress in your personal or work life, there are several ways to deal with it. Learn to view things in a positive light or what lessons can be learned from it. I like the story of a man who was stranded on a deserted island. One day, the hut he was living in caught fire and burned to the ground. It was his most precious possession, keeping him dry in wet weather and cool in hot weather. Despondent, he dropped to his knees and cried out to God, “Why, God, why!?”. Soon his tears of anguish turned to joy when he saw in the distant horizon, a ship heading straight for his little island. After he was rescued, the captain of the ship told him, “We have sailed this route many times for years and always thought the island was deserted, until we saw your smoke signal”. If it’s a matter of great personal loss, learn to move on and see the brighter side of life. I know this is sometimes easier said than done, but think about it, what choice do you have? Thinking positive thoughts may not be the only solution, you just got to move… mentally, physically and spiritually. You can learn a new hobby or make new friends, anything to get your mind of whatever is bothering you. Learn to relax and let go, take a vacation or do something more affordable like take a hike to the nearby hills or forest, sit by the sea, go fishing or do some gardening You’ll be surprised how being close to nature can calm your senses. You can also give your time as a volunteer to people less fortunate than you. That way, your problems don’t seem so big all of a sudden. Just remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Sometimes just the very act of trying to remember something causes you stress. Usually, the harder you try, the worse it becomes, just like when you’re trying to remember someone’s name or a solution to a problem. Learn to let go, take a long walk, take a long

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bath, knit a sweater, bake something or watch something funny on TV. Sometimes the solution just pops right into your head in the midst of doing a relaxing activity. If it’s a question of stress brought about by poor health, you can cleanse your body by fasting, exercising and taking plenty of fruit juices. I cannot over emphasize on 2 factors that are the elixirs of life, exercise and fruit juice. Fasting cleanses your body inside out, exercise (even a leisurely daily stroll) just gets your body cranking and sends oxygen to the cells of your body and fruit juices flushes out the toxins from your body and rejuvenates it with precious enzymes from within. Invest in a good fruit juicer, it’ll be the best investment you’ll ever make, trust me on this. I have found that doing simple basic Yoga exercise balances everything out. If you have not tried it before, you can find out where you can learn it in your community or you can borrow a book from the library to learn a few basic movements. It is not necessary to bend yourself into a pretzel to gain benefits. Just keep it simple. Don’t be intimidated by the pictures of lithe bodies bent in impossible positions, do the simple exercise in your own degree and it becomes yours. Nutrition and memory The body and mind are intertwined and work synergistically, each affecting the other. If you are feeling bad physically, your emotions are affected as well which in turn affects your memory. On the other hand, if you are physically healthy, you feel better emotionally and the same problems don’t seem so pressing. You feel more dynamic and vibrant and your memory capacity improves in tandem. The best way to make sure that you stay physically healthy is by the food you eat. As you are doing the exercises in this book or any other heavy “brain work”, be aware of the digestive times of certain foods. You are advised not to take heavy meals prior to “brain heavy” activities. After a heavy meal, blood goes to the digestive organs. It’s not only the quantity of food that affects your concentration. Certain foods take longer time to digest than others. For example, Pork takes longer to digest than other meat. Beef takes less time, then comes poultry and fish. When it comes to complex carbohydrates, whole-wheat pasta is healthier but tend to take longer to digest than regular pasta. Vegetables and fruits are digested very quickly. If you must have a filling meal before an important meeting or class, have a meal with more vegetables and fruits, salads would be a good choice. You won’t feel lethargic and will be more mentally alert because the digestion won’t slow you down. Foods to avoid. Turkey is rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes sleep. Think about the meals where turkey is served, were you feeling mentally slow and lethargic? Were you sleeping at the couch, if it’s after a family Thanksgiving dinner? Keep away from turkey if it’s an important business deal, meeting or school test that comes after.

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Sugar can affect the memory because it makes the pancreas secrete insulin, which is the hormone needed to break down sugar so that it can be used by the body. A sudden uptake of sugar makes the pancreas produce more insulin to deal with the sugar load and you get a “sugar rush”. You get “high” for an hour or so but “crash” after that and your mental processes slow down. When I talk about sugar, I’m referring to the processed sugar found in coffee, soda, candy or baked foods Fructose, which is the sugar found in fruits is absorbed faster into the bloodstream, and affects the pancreas in a smaller degree. White flour is a simple carbohydrate. There is a difference between simple and complex carbohydrate. Simple carbohydrates like white flour have a high glucidic rate and are therefore high in sugar and that makes the pancreas work overtime to produce high levels of insulin to break it down. White-flour products like bread are hard on the digestive tract as well. If you need to be convinced, mix white flour with water and you get a white paste. This paste is what lines your intestinal tract. You get slightly constipated and blood rushes to your digestive organs to help with the digestive process. As a result, less blood is available for your brain and your thinking slows down. If you take whole-wheat flour and mix it with water, nothing happens and it will not harden. Whole wheat is a complex carbohydrate that has a relatively low glucidic rate. Your pancreas doesn’t have to work as hard and you don’t have that much of a sugar highs or lows. Coffee and alcohol. Some of us just needs that cuppa in the morning to kick start our day. It is the caffeine in the coffee that makes the neurotransmitters fire rapidly away and as a result, we feel mentally alert. However, the slowdown comes pretty quickly and last longer. Until you take another cuppa, that’s why coffee is also addictive. Alcohol on the other hand works the opposite way, by slowing down the neurotransmitters, which in short, makes you dumber, faster. Aspartame and MSG (monosodium glutamate). Although the research is mixed on these 2 ingredients in found in colas and snacks, its effect on individuals who are allergic to them are a cause for concern. They just make the neurotransmitters fire in a random manner and people who are allergic to MSG for example, are known to just collapse and remain unconscious for a few minutes, so approach with care.

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Memory Boosters Magnesium helps to build bones, make proteins, release energy stored in muscles and regulate body temperature. They also help maintain memory function in middle age and beyond. The adult daily nutritional requirement for magnesium, a trace mineral found in foods such as dark green, leafy vegetables, is around 400 milligrams. But studies show that as many as half of us do not consume enough. Magnesium helps regulate key brain receptor important for learning and memory. Strong evidence suggests that magnesium deficit may lead to decreased memory and learning ability. Maintaining proper magnesium levels in the cerebrospinal fluid is essential for the maintaining the brains ability to learn and remember. Lecithin has also been found to be beneficial for memory. If you want to increase your memory power, eat foods rich in lecithin. Lecithin is a phospholipid, which is a class of fats. Lecithin contains choline, a building block of the many neurotransmitters in the brain that form the basis of thought and memory. If you have high levels of lecithin in your brain, you think quicker and faster. Geniuses who have IQ s in the region of 150-200 have high lecithin in their brains. Foods rich in lecithin are soybeans, organ meats, eggs and wheat germ. You can also take in lecithin in the form of supplements and can be easily found in most pharmacies or health stores. If you have to take lecithin as a supplement, read the recommended dose on the outside. Also check the PC concentration, which refers to the purity of the lecithin you are buying. It should be in the 30-35% range. Gingko biloba, extracted from the leaves of the ginkgo tree improves oxygenation to the brain. It makes you more alert mentally and substantially improves your brain power and memory functions. Guarana is a herb with properties like caffeine without the side effects, like the jittery feeling some people have on drinking strong coffee. It is also found in health stores. Water And Fats It might not be too surprising to note that there is a significant link with good nutrition and a powerful memory. After all, the building blocks of the brain are organic, the electrical signals are produced from the body. The results are that the better you eat the better you are able to perform. This goes the same for water. Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., in Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head; says that the brain is between 75% and 90% water! Which means that if you get dehydrated your memory and attention will suffer. And don’t wait until you are thirsty - by that time it is too late! If you want to be at peak fitness, drink 6 pints minimum a day.

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In a controlled study co written by Gordon Winocur, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto and a psychology and psychiatry professor at the University of Toronto, rats who were fed a diet consisting of 40% fat--similar to what many Americans eat, showed reduced cognitive function. "[The reduced ability] was widespread, and it ran the spectrum of cognitive functions--memory, spatial ability, rule-learning and so on," says Winocur, whose study was published recently in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Rats that ate a diet high in saturated fat suffered more impairment than those who ate mainly unsaturated fat. (psychology today, July 2001) Nutrition List Fruits Vegetables Blueberries Blackberries Cranberries Strawberries Raspberries Plums Avocados Oranges Red grapes Cherries Red apples - Kale Spinach Brussels sprouts Alfalfa sprouts Broccoli Beets Red bell peppers Onions Brewers or nutritional yeast Nuts and seeds Legumes Wheat germ Dairy products Lean meat and poultry Seafood Eggs Whole grains Spinach and leafy greens Carrots Asparagus Broccoli

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Salmon Sardines Bluefish Herring Mackerel Tuna Cocoa A nice cup of the right kind of cocoa could hold the promise of promoting brain function as people age. In an age increasingly ageing world, medical researchers are seeing more cases of dementia and are looking for ways to make brains work better. One potential source of help may be flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that can increase blood flow to the brain, researchers disclosed at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Ian MacDonald, of Britain’s University of Nottingham, reported on tests given to young women who were asked to do a complex task while their brains were being studied with magnetic resonant imaging. Among the women given drinks of cocoa high in flavanols, there was a significant increase in blood flow to the brain compared with subjects who did not drink the cocoa, he said. This raises the prospect of using flavanols in the treatment of dementia, marked by decreased blood flow in the brain, and in maintaining overall cardiovascular health, he said. The next step, Dr MacDonald said, is to move from healthy subjects to people who have “compromised” blood flow to the brain. Dr Norman Hollenberg, of Harvard Medical School, said he had found similar health benefits in the Cuna Indian tribe in Panama. They drink cocoa exclusively. But the cocoa typically sold in markets is low in flavanols, which usually are removed because they impart a bitter taste, Dr Hollenberg said. But he added, a lot of fat is removed from the chocolate used in cocoa, “I see a bright future for cocoa,” he said.

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Sleep, Learning And Memory It is a well-known fact that a restful night's sleep is vital to a healthy mind and memory. Disrupted sleep or insomnia can affect brain function. A chronic lack of sleep will even force the brain the take “micro-naps”. The dreams that we have while sleeping are the pathways through which our unconscious mind communicate with our conscious mind. A lack of sleep appears to disrupt the functioning of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that forms new memories. The latest of the medical journal Nature Neuroscience reported on Harvard Medical School investigators who recruited 28 volunteers who were either randomly deprived of sleep for two days and a night or who were allowed to sleep normally. They looked at and tried to remember a large set of pictures while a scanner screened them, mapping their blood flow, and hence cerebral activity. The subjects were then allowed two full nights of sleep before a second test in which they had to spot the original slides in a batch that included new pictures. The sleep-deprived group did worse in the first test than those who had slept. But in the second test, those who had been sleep-deprived did much better than those who had earlier slept. The scanner showed that in the first test, hippocampus activity among the sleep-deprived was far lower. Previous research had found that sleep after learning is vital for consolidating memory, but hard evidence has, until now, been lacking as to the effects of lack of sleep before a memory is created. “These results demonstrate that an absence of prior sleep substantially compromises the neural and behavioral capacity for committing new experiences to memory,” said the study. “It therefore appears that sleep before learning is critical in preparing the human brain for next-day memory formation.” In a separate study work on rats, by a team from Princeton University found that a lack of sleep affected the hippocampus. It found that the stress hormone corticosterone caused the effect. The researchers compared animals which were deprived of sleep for 72 hours with others which were not.

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Those who missed out on rest had higher levels of corticosterone and produced significantly fewer brain cells in a particular region of the hippocampus. When the animal’s corticosterone levels were kept at a constant level, the reduction cell proliferation ended. This may explain why people who experience lack of sleep face concerntration problems and other difficulties. If you're having trouble falling asleep at night, head to the kitchen and reach for some kiwifruit. A study by Taipei Medical University has found that eating two kiwifruits an hour before going to bed can improve your sleep quality by as much as 40 percent. And here's a handy tip; If you find it a hassle to peel the kiwifruit, simply cut it in half and scoop the contents out with a spoon.

A cup of Chamomile tea before bed is now as commonplace as a nighttime milky drink. The fragrant flower has been used for centuries to treat frazzled nerves, skin complaints, digestive disorders and period pain. It’s effects have been confirmed by a study that found German Chamomile tea boosts levels of compounds in the body that relieve muscle spasms and increase antibacterial activity. Exercise Your Mind The more you work your brain, the more likely you will stave off Alzheimer’s disease Just a modest amount of mental stimulation can go a long way towards warding off Alzheimer’s disease. This is the opinion of researchers who created mice genetically modified to get a condition similar to it. Researchers at the University of California-Irvine studied hundreds of mice altered to make them develop abnormalities known as plaques and tangles in brain tissue that are considered hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in people. Writing on Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience, they said periodic learning sessions-swimming in a tub of water until finding a submerged platform to stand on-slowed the development of those two abnormalities in the mice.

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“The remarkable thing was that just by learning infrequently, they still had a very dramatic effect on the Alzheimer’s disease pathology, “ said Kim Green, one of the researchers. “So it suggests that in humans, if you learn more and more and more, it’s going to have a huge, beneficial effect,” Green added. The findings highlight an idea that also has emerged in other research-that exercising one’s mind is important to staving off Alzheimer’s disease, the degenerative brain malady that is the most common form of dementia among the elderly. Smart link Green noted that other studies have found that highly educated people are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than people with less education. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s, which gradually destroys a person’s memory and ability t o learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry out daily activities. “What we have shown is that by learning by stimulating your mind, you’re able to protect against the development of the pathologies associated with the disease,” Green said. “Crossword puzzles reading books, learning a new language-anything you can do to stimulate the brain is going to be beneficial, we think.” The mice were given “a very mild learning experience”-essentially figuring out a maze but in the water - for a week at a time every three months. The sessions were four times daily for a week at two, six, nine, 12, 15 and 18 months of age. The mice that performed the task experienced slower development of the protein beta amyloid clumping in the brain and forming plaques, gooey build-up that accumulates outside nerve cells, the study found. These mice also experienced a slower build-up of another protein in the brain. Hyperphosphorylated-tau, that can lead to the formation of neurofibrillary tangles-twisted fibers in brain cells. Green said the researchers are looking into whether more frequent and intensive learning sessions might provide bigger and longer-lasting benefits. Alzheimer’s disease first affects parts of the brain controlling memory and thinking. As it advances, it kills cells elsewhere in the brain. Eventually, if the patient has no other serious illness, the loss of brain function will prove fatal.

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Learning Two Languages Slows Down Dementia Researchers find that probable Alzheimer's patients who speak two languages get dementia four years later than their peers. Speaking two languages delays the onset of memory lapses, neural dysfunction in the brain, in particular dementia, a study found. Researchers in Canada, where the official languages are English and French, examined 132 patients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease. It appears that having learnt and speak two languages or more may delay the onset of neural deterioration as compared to those who did not, the researchers wrote in a study published in the February issue of the journal Neuropsychologia. The patients spoke 25 different languages, including Polish, Yiddish, German, Romanian and Hungarian. Previous studies have shown that lifestyle factors such as physical activity, social involvement and education may improve overall brain health. Bilingualism may help the brain build what is called a cognitive reserve, which may provide protection against the onset of dementia, the Canadian researchers said. "There are no pharmacological interventions that are this dramatic," said Dr Morris Freedman, director of the Memory Clinic at Baycrest Research Center for Ageing and the Brain in Toronto, in a statement today. The difference in dementia onset remained even after the researchers factored in the possible influence of culture, immigration, formal education, employment and gender on the results, the study said. "The data show a huge protective effect," said co-investigator Fergus Craik in the statement. The research so far is consistent with that of other countries where speaking two or more languages in the population shows less people in the population have problems with dementia. Asian countries like Singapore where the Chinese citizens are not only fluent in English and Mandarin, they are also adept at the other dialects of the Chinese languages (of which there are four main Chinese dialects), in addition to the Malay and Indian languages. Most if not all on this tiny island can speak at least two languages. it is therefore not surprising that such countries have comparatively lower rates of dementia per capita population.

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So do take the time to exercise your mind, all the exercises and tips in this book will help you keep a sharp mind for a long, long time.

END OF REPORT

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NOTES

martin mak - the mighty memory system

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