Anthony Metivier's Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

Jonathan Levi is an insanely smart guy. Long before he founded SuperLearner, he had started and sold busineses. He had also learned multiple languages and traveled the world. Since Jonathan and I recorded this episode, he’s sold SuperLearner and moved on to other interests. But the information he shares in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast remain valuable. Plus, if have a personal reason for keeping this episode available. Even though Jonathan knows a ton about memory techniques, he still came to me for help when preparing to memorize his TEDx Talk. Of course, that chuffs my ego. But it also helps you know that when it comes to memorizing speeches, the Magnetic Memory Method is where even my fellow memory experts and mnemonists turn. Here’s Jonathan’s TEDx Talk, which is well worth watching: https://youtu.be/vtQzuwnyW6E Next, click play on the interview using the player above so you can learn: * The importance of developing your visual memory. * How the process of using a Memory Palace can change over time – and become even more powerful when you have the best practices under your belt. * How to create a powerful Memory Palace – even if it’s just minutes before giving a major presentation. * How to use the most shocking locations in your personal history to memorize anything fast (graphic content). * Why it’s never acceptable – and also never necessary – to have crappy grades in school. * How Jonathan deals with ADD, both with and without medication. * How to cope with listening to boring lectures. * Why traditional education needs to change and what the future of education will look like. * How to speed up the slow pace of learning as an independent learner on the road to autodidacticism. * How to use stories in order to memorize and make what you have to say memorable. * The magical power of tension and distress when learning, memorizing and recalling information. * How to deal with feeling uneasy about things you don’t want to do and why this kind of action creates such powerful results. * Why people don’t use memory techniques, even if they’ve mastered them. * The connection between slouching and bad memory habits. * How to build confidence in your memory for better conversations and social performance in practical situations. * How to shape the muscle of your mind in order to increase raw memory ability. * How to make using mnemonics second-nature. * How to safely do N=1 experiments on yourself (and why self-experimentation may be the most important activity you ever engage in). * The danger of doing exercises that aren’t optimized for endocrine. * The rampant evils of estrogen in everything from your food to your cologne. * Why there is no such thing as being in the “normal range” and why you need to go much deeper when exploring your own health. * How to be more attractive to the opposite sex – even if you’re a weird and introverted memory enthusiast. * Why you have a moral obligation to share what you know with the world. * Jonathan’s core values and why you shouldn’t waste your memory on appointments and other small details. * How to create deep knowledge in ways that create dense connections between the neurons in your brain. * How to harness the power of dual-coding in your use of memory techniques. * How to share your knowledge ethically as you navigate the changing educational landscape in the 21st century. * … and much, much more! Further Resources, People And Items Mentioned In the Podcast USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis On Memory, Tenacity, & Conquering Anything Extreme Memory Improvement: How Nelson Dellis Pushes The Limits Of Recall For The Good Of Humanity Ben Greenfield Fitness Rob Wolf of Eat Real Food Loren Cordaine of The Paleo Diet Kombucha N=1 Branding You: How to Make $1000 A Day Selling YOUR Knowledge

Let’s face it – you’re burned out. Work is killing you. Your Kindle app is bursting with unread books. Your credit card is melting from the heat of buying stuff you want but do not need. Worse, you’re constantly aware of how it all circles back to the job or entrepreneurial pursuits you need to keep the devil’s plates spinning. Here’s the good news: There are specific habits that can get you off of this endless wheel of unhappiness. They are all easy and mostly inexpensive to do. They give you insight into your situation and can spring you from the prison of burnout faster than you can imagine. The best part is that these seven techniques are also minimalistic. There’s almost nothing to them. And the “zen of almost nothing” is a great way to get started dealing with overwhelm.   1. The Shocking Truth About Meditation   Daily meditation feels good and creates many benefits ranging from stress relief to increased creativity and improved critical thinking. The only catch is that taking time for this simple practice can be difficult to remember. And that’s somewhat strange, given how good it can make you feel, even after only five minutes of practice. One way to make meditation a regular practice you won’t forget is to place a mat beside your bed. When you wake up, sit for even just a moment to connect with your surroundings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRZZEbX4w8 You don’t have a spend a penny on your mat either. Just fold up a blanket, and for extra comfort, place a pillow on top of that. In this way, you can keep your ankles off of the hard floor and give some balance to your spine. Many people think meditation is difficult. But it’s easy to do and gets even easier when you approach it without a lofty goal, like enlightenment. As Alan Watts said, the best way to approach meditation is “sitting just to sit.” If you can make this simple approach to meditation a regular practice, even with thunder and lightning jolting through your soul, you have a chance at developing better balance in your life within a week or less.   2. How Taking A Simple Walk Can Protect Your From Harm   Many hold walking as a form of meditation. But walking also releases regulatory chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals not only create pleasure, but can also help reduce any physical pain you might be suffering. And you can make walking even more soothing for yourself. Take some MP3s of calming music that you resonate with and focus on immersing yourself in the sound and rhythm as you walk. Match your movements to the music and pay attention to the feeling of the world around you. It’s only important that the music you choose reduces overwhelm – not increase it. And if you are interested in meditation, take a break and sit on a bench in a park. Just to sit.   3. How To Practice Vegging Out (In A Positive Way)   Well, not exactly “vegging out” in the traditional sense. Practicing Shavasana has a funny catch to it. You will always lose the game. No matter how good you get at the stillness, your body will eventually force you to move. But in this game, losing is a good thing. As you experience the relaxing feelings of stillness, you’re also studying your impulses and your need to react to the same thoughts and desires that lead to overwhelm in other areas of your life. As you practice Shavasana over the coming weeks and months, try extending the periods of stillness longer each time. You’ll find that by extending your reactions in Shavasana, you’ll also be able to slow how you react to overwhelming elements of life too.   4. Do This With A Pen And Paper Every Day   When life hands you a car crash, we tend to react to the overwhelm by piling on worry, concern and more stress. The way around this is to buttress yourself in good thoughts before tough things happen. That way, you’ll have a reference guide to which you can refer. To complete this simple exercise, get a notebook or dedicated journal and focus on writing down things you genuinely appreciate. Be specific. If you’re grateful to have a computer, list it. If you enjoyed the smile of a stranger on your walk, make a note of it. And commit to doing this every single day for at least three months. Add these 5 Brain Exercises for bonus points, if you like. Please don’t think this daily writing habit is silly or will itself contribute to your overwhelm. In 59 Seconds, a book by Richard Wiseman, the author gives scientific studies that demonstrate the validity of journaling gratitude. But you don’t take the word of science for it. Give it a try and you’ll find out on your own. Within as short a period as one or two days, you may find that you’re already feeling happier about your life and this new recognition of how things are for you will buttress you against future troubles that really can be overwhelming without a daily defense practice in place.   5. Have Two-Tiered Positive Goals You Can A

Check out this guest post by Camilla Hallstrom. She teaches you how to use powerful psychological tools to make finally crossing that language off your bucket list simple and fun. Take it away, Camilla! Have you ever started learning a language only to find yourself still no better than a beginner years later? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Learning a language is often considered extremely daunting and takes a long time. After all, you’ll have to cram all this information into your brain. For example, you’ll have to memorize new vocabulary, including regional variations, slang, cultural concepts, grammar rules, and numbers. If you’re not some sort of a memory prodigy, you’re in it for the long term – and who has time and energy for that? But here’s the thing: The conventional wisdom that learning a language is a long and arduous path is…   Just Plain Silly   As a native speaker of two languages, Swedish and Finnish, and fluent speaker of three more languages, English, French, and German, I can communicate in two other languages, Norwegian and Danish, and I’m a beginner in an eighth language, Italian. Am I a language prodigy? No way. Do I have superhuman memory skills? Not really. Is it in my genes? Nope. No one in my family speaks as many languages with the same fluency. The key to every language that I’ve learned is that I have learned how to motivate myself to keep on learning and memorizing. Being motivated to learn a language might sound intuitive, but still, this is one of the most basic things language learners struggle with. Motivation also applies to learning in general and learning memorization methods that can be applied to other things. For example, you know from Anthony’s Magnetic Memory Method that there are structured frameworks that can be applied to language memorization. And if you’ve used the Magnetic Memory Method, you know it works. Yet, it’s easy to fall back on the same old excuses – you don’t have time to create those Memory Palaces right now, you don’t have time to learn the techniques, etcetera. So how do you continue to motivate yourself to keep on learning? How do you master those Memory Palaces and learn a new language? Read on to learn exactly how you do this – once you’ve mastered motivation, there are no limitations to your learning. (Note: I’ve put together an eBook at the end of this post that will give you 19 actionable ways get motivated and achieve your goal.)   What Does Motivation Do to Your Memory?   Years ago, back in high school, I wasn’t very diligent. German was one of my least favorite subjects. Yet, I had to undertake a rigorous and important exam at the end of my senior year. Everything that I had ever learned in my German classes throughout school was going to be tested. I didn’t have very much time to revise. Also, I had to take three other exams at the same time. I pretty much gave up at the starting line. Instead of trying to frenetically revise grammar books and dictionaries a month before my test, I decided to do something unconventional. Quite simply, I watched my favorite movies, read my favorite books, and watched the news – all in German. I did this for a month and I enjoyed doing it. At the end of that month, the result for my exam took me by surprise – I scored nationally in the top 20% and was one of the best in my class. This success happened despite the fact that I had been one of the poorest performing students just a few months earlier. How come?   Don’t Overlook This Little Known Secret: It Supports All Successful Language Learning   The fact that I enjoyed the way in which I was revising for my test meant that I was motivated to do the tasks I did. And as it turns out, motivation can affect cognition. In fact, many of those who achieve success in learning a language are highly motivated. Of course other things play in as well. When learning a language, your success is – beside motivation – determined by your aptitude skills: Working memory. Your working memory is what enables you to both temporarily store and process information. Working memory is crucial for our language learning because it enables us to understand and communicate in our target language. Associative memory. Your associative memory helps you remember associations between unrelated items, such as the name of someone you just met and it helps you connect old and new information. For example, when learning a language, your associative memory can help you build links between words in your native language and your target language. How strong your mechanisms are for implicit learning. Implicit learning is what you learn without realizing that you’re learning. For language learning, implicit learning means that you unintentionally learn complex and subtle regularities in a language. Implicit learning is common for children, but for adults it can be more challenging. However, you’d think that my classmates were also motivated. Some of them

Have you ever thought about getting into marketing? Or perhaps you’ve just wondered … what on earth makes the people who write all those ads tick? If so, then today’s your lucky day, because on this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, the remarkable comic turned copywriter, Kevin Rogers of Copy Chief, holds the truth about …   How To Be Memorable On The Stage And On The Page   So go ahead click on the play button above, download the transcript for this interview or read Kevin’s many words of wisdom right here below. Anthony: Kevin, I’m really excited to have you on the podcast today. There are a number of reasons why I wanted to speak with you in particular. Maybe you could tell everybody listening to this a little bit about who you are and what you do. Kevin: Sure, thanks Anthony for having me. I’m really glad to be here. An interesting, I guess, resume, I am now a freelance direct response copywriter, which means I write the ads that force people to make a decision. Essentially, direct response compared to more sort or traditional advertising means that there’s always a call to action at the end of it. An extreme version would be an infomercial – buy now, buy now and you’ll get an extra set of knives and all that good stuff. We certainly have much more subtle ways to do all that, but that would be the one big distinction between what we do and other types of marketing. My story is that I was a stand-up comedian. I actually left high school a little early because I was restless and after doing some labor jobs that I didn’t feel were a perfect fit, I was dared by friends to do an open mic night at local comedy club. It turned out that was a better fit for me. I was fortunate to excel pretty quickly at that and actually won a contest to take over as the house MC at this club here in Clearwater, Florida. It was a really great opportunity because it meant that I was doing eight shows a week and stage time is everything to a comic. For instance, in New York City, there are so many comics there, and they will club hop. They might be taking cabs from club to club from 5:00 in the afternoon to 2:00 in the morning just trying to get on everywhere. It was a big deal to get that much stage time at a popular club here in town. Then I went on the road at about 19 and stayed on the road for almost 7 years as a comic. That was an incredible adventure.   How To Turn Your Hair Into A Calling Card   I knew at some point that I didn’t have any control over whether I succeeded or not in that business. Show business is one of those things where it takes a little bit of luck and some knowing the right people. For me, I had no business sense whatsoever. I do know a few comics who had marketing backgrounds and certainly used that to their advantage, Carrot Top being one really good example. Carrot Top was having stickers made of his image when he was still just a road comic. He really understood that his shock of orange hair was his calling card. I had none of that. I had no business sense. https://youtu.be/UQKpF_8hdN8 I just kind of knew that at some point I would need to make a decision that if I wasn’t getting signs from the business that this was going to pay off for me, somewhere around the age of 30 maybe, I did not want to risk becoming some of the older very bitter comics that I worked with. Because they were amazingly funny and talented, and, they were also really tortured. It was clear to me, and to them, that they had no alternatives. When you spend most of your life as an entertainer and that does not manifest into a big win, then what do you do? It’s a really sad state of affairs for a lot of people I have a lot of respect for. Anthony: We know the image of the tortured comic, or many of us do anyway because we see it again and again. What do you think it is that tortures them? Is it something that links to memories that they’re trying to deal with? What would it be maybe from your own experience? Kevin: Yeah, it’s absolutely that. I think there is an incredibly thin line between pleasure and pain when it comes to how we express ourselves. You know funny comes from pain, period. We laugh as a healing device. Comics – I can’t tell you about a stable person I’ve ever met who is like gut-busting funny. It just doesn’t equate. Not everybody grew up in some terrible condition, although that’s often the case. A very true statement is comedy is therapy for the comic. Very often, these people would be in dire straits mentally without that outlet. It’s funny because hanging out with them or being around them offstage is very often not what you would expect. People just assume a comedian is funny all the time and loving life and it’s nothing but laughter. There are parts of that which are true. For the most part, it’s a bit of – I don’t want to call it miserabl

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, USA Memory Champ Nelson Dellis teaches you how to win the USA Memory Championship. As a 5-time USA Memory Champion, it’s a delight to have Nelson’s take on excelling at your next national or international memory match. And he’s a great writer too. Since since he’s the author of several books, including the fantastic Remember It! and Memory Superpowers, I asked Nelson to share a written version of the lessons he shared on the podcast for those of you who want to win memory competitions. You can read each and every word below. Take it away, Nelson! So you’ve read a bunch of books on memory skills. You may have even listened to all the podcasts on this site. But although many of them have helped your memory tremendously, there might be some of you out there who want to use your techniques to compete in (and possibly win) the USA Memory Championship. As a 4x USA memory champ (and before you think I’m cocky, also a 3x USA Memory Championship loser), I know the ins and out to winning this competition. Surprisingly, becoming a memory champion is not necessarily all about memory. There are a lot of other subtle things that go into making it to the end and winning the USA Memory Championship. And I’m going to explain to you exactly how. Here we go. Step 1 – Sign Up This first point is dumb and obvious, but I’ve met a lot of people who talk about the competition as if it’s this Holy Grail that awaits them … … once they are truly prepared. To them I say, f*ck it. Just sign up and compete. There is nothing better than getting the experience of a full competition under your belt than actually competing. I hate to say this but, no one (well except for the very first winner, Tatiana Cooley) has won this thing on the first try. You could argue that Joshua Foer won on his first go, but technically he was there the year before as a journalist. Sure, he didn’t compete that first time, but he dug himself deep into the competition for his article. Scott Hagwood, Ram Kolli, Ron White, Chester Santos and myself, we all lost before we won. Even this year when I took first place, I honestly believe I won based on competition experience. There were some competitors with better-trained memories than me, but less competition knowledge and experience. So, bottom line, it’s about getting competitive experience. If you want that edge, just sign up and compete. It’s worth gold. Go for it! Step 2 – Make It To The Second Round The USAMC is split into two parts. The morning events: Names & Faces Speed Numbers Speed Cards Poetry The afternoon playoff events: Spoken Words Tea Party Double Deck O’ Cards Making it to this afternoon second round has a lot of parts, because you need to score well in each event to make it into the advancing top 8. Not as well as you might think, but decent enough. The scoring works like this: With each discipline you get a score based on how much you memorize correctly according to the rules. Then, that score is turned into a championship score, which is a weighted score based on a curve. The best score is 100 pts and then everyone scores comparatively. Statistically over the years, you need about 200-250 out of 400 pts to make the cut. But standards change over time and it is harder to get a score that high than ever before. But the nice thing is that even if there are a couple people hitting some awesome scores, there are a lot of people with mediocre scores. Until everyone in the USA is amazing at memorizing (which they’re not … yet), this fact will be your savior. The mediocre scores are there because it often ends up that there are one or two, at most three front runners who are in another league compared to everyone else in the top 8. The rest are good, and still better than the remainder, but not that impressive comparatively to the top. So the bottom line is that you need to score consistently mediocre (or better) across the board to make the top 8. You used to be able to pass to the second round by being amazing at just 2 of the events. But agian, that’s getting harder to do. And if you are great at only one event but none of the others, you’re chances are nearly zilch. In other words, sorry to say, but there is no real shortcut here. You gotta be “good” at all four disciplines: names, numbers, cards, and poetry. But the good news is, you don’t have to be that good. Step 3 – Play Strategically Through The Playoff Rounds Okay, you’ve made into the top-8. Maybe not top ranked, but you’re in there. The nice thing about the afternoon playoffs is that it is all strategy. The chances for anyone to win at this point are all pretty much even. You could be the worst of the 8 (i.e. Ram Kolli in 2013) and still end up beating 1st place (me) and become the champ. SPOKEN WORDS They take you backstage to memorize 200 words (or as ma

Absentmindedness sucks. You forget where you put your keys. Your car disappears from the parking lot. You left the stove on again. Well, guess what? There’s a cure for absentmindedness. It’s called focus, and you’re about to learn three ridiculously boring ways to develop it. The following techniques work best in combination, but obviously life changes work best when you add them one by one, so pick your favorite and dive in. But if you have to begin anywhere, I recommend that you start with establishing a basic framework by understanding …   The Stunning Magic Of Being Boring   Boring? Oh yes, and here’s why: Just about every successful person in history has lived a life of constraint. Check out the following video and beneath that, I’ll break out some of the key points. https://youtu.be/3rbVQNTzCh8 As you’ve just learned, highly boring people live exciting lives. They reduce everything they do to the essentials, including: Wearing similar clothes and eating repetitive meals every day to eliminate decision fatigue. Isolating tasks and remove distractions. You can do this by working in cafes without WiFi. Leave your smartphone at home and bring only a pad of paper and a pen and your laptop if you must. Wear earplugs if noise bothers you, or if you like music, try an app that features focus­friendly compositions, like focusatwill.com. Hammering away at carefully defined tasks without adding new things to do willy nilly. Keeping a journal to record their activities and track their time. You can even keep an attention span journal. The reason developing a life based on constraints helps develop focus and eliminates absentmindedness is because you give yourself far less about which to be absentminded. Not only that, but should you fall prey to absentmindedness, you’ll find your way back to focus. Why? Because the mountains you climb in your daily life won’t be hidden behind the fog of multitasking. Frankly, when you limit your activities and focus on the essentials, you’ll not only find and climb your mountains, you’ll move them entirely out of your life and move on to finer things. Even if you have a boss, it should be possible for you to isolate your most high margin tasks. Write a proposal, make a meeting and ask to redefine your activities. If your boss rejects your suggestion, either track your time on your own time to prove what you can do on your own, or …   Find Another Boss!   Speaking of which, if you want to bypass working for the man altogether, becoming an entrepreneur or self­-employed is a great way to develop focus. Placing yourself in a situation that forces you to get results or starve will rip absentmindedness from your life and leave it wriggling on the floor like a helpless insect. As you can see, developing a boring life really can add tremendous excitement to your days on planet earth. So get started. Time is ticking.   The Extraordinary Power Of Sitting Still For No Reason Whatsoever   One of the most regular activities you can add to your life involves one of the most boring ­ and yet tremendously exciting activities ­ ever invented by humanity … Yes, we’re talking about meditation. Would you like to know why so many people struggle to incorporate this simple activity into their daily routines? The answer is simple:   It’s Because They’re Trying To Meditate   Sorry, dear Memorizers, but that’s the wrong road to enlightenment and a quick path to suffering. But before we talk about how to meditate the Magnetic way, here’s what meditation can do for you. All of these features of the world’s oldest brain training technique are scientifically proven and should persuade you to add meditation to your daily routine. Meditation … Increases focus Creates emotional control Improves your working memory (luca link) Reduces “wandering mind” syndrome Lowers pain Each of these benefits of meditation reduces absentmindedness because when you’re not in pain, and you eliminate mind wandering, focus glides in to replace these distractions. To maintained your renewed focus, all you need to do is keep meditating. Boring, right? Not necessarily. Not when you know …   How To Meditate In A Buddha-­shaped Nutshell   Surprisingly, proper meditation is super easy to do. You need only chuck the idea that meditation is about experiencing so­called “no­mind” and sit just to sit. That’s it. Sit down and let your mind wander. When first starting out, don’t bother with breathing exercises or mantras. Sit just to sit. After a few moments, you’ll become aware of the fact that you’re sitting on the floor, completely lost in thought. When this happens, you’ll become present. You’ll be in the room, totally focused on the present moment instead of fantasizing about the future, playing som

This is Andrew Barr and today I’m sitting in for Anthony in this guest post. I’m from realfastspanish.com and over there I help Spanish students get a conversational level of Spanish using specific tactics and strategies to improve their effectiveness as language students. And in this post I’m going to teach you how you can apply some of these strategies to significantly improve your effectiveness when it comes to your memorisation challenges using the principles of the Magnetic Memory Method. Whether you are just starting out with memory palaces or you are a seasoned professional, today you will learn three ways you can improve your effectiveness with memory palaces in order to achieve your goals with less effort and in less time. If you are already using Memory Palaces and mnemonics you are well ahead of the curve. You already know that using memory techniques improves the efficiency of learning. But, it is still possible to get even more out of your approach to memorisation. It doesn’t matter whether you are using the Magnetic Memory Method for language learning, acing exams in school, vying for a memory championship title or trying to impress friends at a party. There are three steps you need to consider if you want to have even more success with your memory challenges. Memory Palaces Are a Means, But … What is the Goal?   “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question; I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” — Albert Einstein. “Begin with the end in mind” — Stephen Covey. Before you can start to maximise the potential of your memory palace training you need a clear vision of what you are a trying to achieve. A memory palace is a tool that you can use to achieve any number of outcomes with incredible efficiency. But the real power comes when your outcome is sharply defined. The problem is that, often, we don’t clearly define where we want to end up, which makes the path to get there a lot harder than it needs to be. Recently, I met a guy who works for an oil company and was telling me about his vision to become rich. He said he had his whole plan mapped out. His plan was to buy property after property and then subdivide and develop. He told me he wanted to have a few million in property, a few million in stocks and a few million in cash for those “just in case” moments. After mapping the whole plan out, I looked at him and said “Why? What is all this money for? If money is a means to an end, what is your end goal?” He said “I want to work with children”.   I Couldn’t Believe It   I said “why don’t you become a teacher?” He said “I want to work with disadvantaged children”. He then told me that he didn’t need the money to pay for programs for the children, he needed it so he could live without needing to work to free up his time. I told him he didn’t need millions of dollars to do that. I told him about a good friend of mine—a high school teacher who quit her job to work with disadvantaged children. She left her job here in Australia and moved to the Solomon Islands where she is working and living on a small allowance to cover her board and her food. She is working with the local teachers to develop a new curriculum in the school. As well as helping and teaching the children that live in the local area. She didn’t need millions of dollars, she was clear about what she wanted to do and she went and did it. After telling him the story, he just stared at me blankly. He offered a few excuses but it was obvious there was a disconnect between the goal and the means for getting there. Without a clear vision in mind, it is possible he will spend years trying to achieve a poorly defined goal. What if it takes him 30 years to meet his goal? Will it be worth it if he gets there in his 60s? Or worse, if he doesn’t get there at all?   Don’t Get Caught With A Poorly Defined Goal   He is not the only one, though, who got caught with a poorly defined goal. I too have found myself without a clear vision at times. Seven years ago I decided I wanted to be fluent in Spanish. I did some online research and found some resources for beginners. I printed everything off and got to work. I practiced for quite some time learning whatever I could about the Spanish language. Within two years, I organised my first trip to Spain. Before I got there I was so excited for the fun and adventure I was going to have with my new language skills. I was going to make local friends, I was going to go to interesting places only the locals knew about and I was going to experience Spain the way a typical tourist couldn’t.   Does Language Learning Overwhelm, Confuse And Frustrate You?   When I got there, the reality was a completely different thing. I was overwhelmed, confused and frustrated. My Spanish was hopeless. It was miles from

Do you get overwhelmed and frustrated every time you need to come up with new ideas when using memory techniques as part of your brain training? Especially when learning a foreign language? You know what it’s like struggling to come up with mnemonics. It can feel a bit like pulling nails out of dead wood with a pair of rusted tweezers. And what really makes the pain so bad is that you know that your brain is teeming with ideas. Great ideas … If only you could catch them. Here’s the good news. In this unconventional brain training post I’m going to teach you how …   You Can Catch More Great Ideas Than The Most Successful Fishing Fleet In The World (Catches Fish)!   Just pick and choose from these super simple brain training activities and start with the most appealing. We’re going to go deep into each one so that you’ll have the fullest possible understanding. Add one or more per month over a year’s time and you’ll enjoy an overflow of ideas so powerful it will take ten lifetimes and thousands of employees to handle them.   Just Kidding – Most Will Be …   Crap. Seriously. As awesome as having boatloads of ideas can be, the real power comes from the refinement brain training brings. How to get effective brain training? Here are 9 brain exercises that are fun, fast and easy to complete. We’ll talk about that too a bit further on so your ideas will always come out shining. But here’s the important thing for now: You can’t refine what you don’t have. And you can’t get more ideas to refine if you aren’t already producing a lot of ideas in the first place. That’s why you need an unending flow of ideas that you can turn on at will and focus into form with laser intensity whenever you choose. Here are 3 unconventional ways how brain training can make that happen.   1. Milk Your Mind For Ideas Each And Every Morning   Most people flush their most vibrant ideas down the toilet as soon as their feet hit the floor. It’s true. By the time you hit the head, you’ve forgotten most, if not all, of a valuable stream (pun intended) of ideas you’ll never get back. I’m talking about your dreams. Of course, most of what we dream makes little sense, at least not without practicing the art of dream recall. Even then, dreams remain fundamentally surreal and devoid of fixed meaning. But just because they may be meaningless, doesn’t mean your dreams can’t help you create meaning. Au Contraire!   Since the early beginnings of literature, for example, Daniel in the Bible, making dreams meaningful has been a practice powerful enough to direct the choices of kings. And with The Interpretation Of Dreams, Freud created an entire industry by empowering people to interpret their dreams and generate ideas about what to do and how to live in the world. You don’t have to use the dreams you remember to influence world leaders or deal with childhood trauma. You can simply jot down what you remember and then free-associate to the images and vignettes. Here’s a quick way to get started with this form of brain training: 1. Get a dream journal and pen/pencil. Make it exclusive to your dream capture practice. 2. Place the journal where it’s impossible to miss near your bed. You can even date it before you go to sleep and leave it open at the page you’ll write on. 3. Make the commitment to remembering your dreams. Just say your personal version of, “I remember my dreams. I write them down.” That mantra in itself will serve as powerful brain training. 4. Free-associate to one or more of your dreams. It helps if you get relaxed first. Let ideas come to mind and jot them down. Don’t think about it or try to guide them. Let them breathe. If you recall no dreams …   No. Big. Deal.   Write down, “no dreams” and perhaps a few notes about how you slept. Before you know it, you will start remembering your dreams with depth and intensity. And when you practice associating with these dreams, you’ll always be able to come up with new ideas. The best part is that you’re journaling your dreams. This brain training practice means that you don’t have to associate only with recent dreams for new ideas. You can go back through those pages for as long as you’ve been journaling. You’ll have a treasure trove of images, narrative snippets, and longer sequences as often as you please and always find some new angle on the material. To give you an example, years ago I dreamed about the pyramids. I saw them filled with a scented lava that poured down the sides, creating a river. When I finally got to visit Egypt, for some reason, I remembered the dream and started to explore it for ideas. I was there to research ancient Egyptian culture for its relationship to memory and reincarnation, past lives, etc. Th

Here’s a great question about how to memorize textbooks I received from a Magnetic Memory Method fan: What if I wanted to memorize a chapter in a textbook so I could ace a test on that subject? That would be cool, wouldn’t it? Good news: It’s 100% possible. No Joke When I was studying for my doctoral examinations and later for my dissertation defense (rigorous 2 hr. + grilling sessions in front of a committee of 4-7 accomplished professors), I read a total of over 500 books and articles. I’m not kidding. I almost broke my back at the library on several occasions! Here’s exactly how I used to operate – and still do when I’m conducting research or just want to memorize the contents of a book using memory techniques. It’s an ongoing memory improvement project to continue learning from textbooks and it all begins with this important step every time:   Leave Your Fear At The Door: These Details Will Show You How To Memorize Textbooks   Unfortunately, a lot of people get hung up on the details when learning how to memorize textbooks. For good reason: There are some operational factors in what I’m about to describe that might not seem to involve memorization. Trust me: Each step is essential as you learn how to memorize textbooks. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have included it. Before I take any of the steps that I’m about to describe, I always begin with a carefully defined Memory Palace. As I talk about in all of my trainings, I always make sure that each Memory Palace involves a location that I’m intimately familiar with. If you’re having a hard time finding good Memory Palaces, check out the MMM Podcast episode: How to Find Memory Palaces. It will help. Plus, make sure that you have the free Memory Improvement Kit so you can use the worksheets and videos as a guide.   Create Limited Set Memory Palaces Based On The Textbooks You Want To Memorize   I always chart out between 4-10 stations within each room of that Memory Palace. In the past, I usually made more (like 50 or so, often with between 30-50 stations within a single room). These days, I’m more focused on small sets of information. Why? Because I find that leads to more meaningful quantity over time with my current Mandarin Chinese learning project. For more information on how to create a Memory Palace, get my free memory improvement kit: Next…   Create The Right Mindset   This is important: Decide to work with the correct mental attitude. For example, when sitting with a textbook or journal article, I need to have the attitude that I will walk away with the most essential information firmly magnetized into my mind. You should do this too.   Then Chillax   Seriously. Take a moment to relax. I recommend that you adopt a traditional meditation pose on the floor, or lay down for awhile and do some progressive relaxation. Either way, I spend time practicing a bit of pendulum breathing and maybe even the Human Charger. With those operating procedures covered regarding how to memorize textbooks, let’s get into further detail.   1. Look At The Book And Read The Conclusion First   When approaching a new book, carefully examine the front cover and the back cover. Next, read: the colophon page the table of contents the introduction the conclusion Finally, scan through the index (if available). The scholar Gerrard Genette calls these parts of a book the “paratext,” (the text beside the text). This step takes about five minutes and effectively trains your brain to understand the scope and dimension of the book with respect to its topic. Why read the conclusion first? Part of the reason is to judge whether or not the author’s conclusion about his or her own subject was profound enough to warrant reading all of the steps needed to arrive at it. The introduction and conclusion also give clues regarding which chapters of the book might be the most important to focus on.   2. Manage Index Card Mania   It’s important to decide how much information you want to take away from a textbook in advance. That way, you don’t overwhelm yourself. And you can start in a structure manner. Like this: Take out an index card and write down the name of the author, the title of the book and all of the bibliographic information. Number this card “1” in the top left corner. Before starting with a book, I tend to decide in advance exactly how many pieces of information I want to retain from it. This is the principle of “predetermination” that I discuss throughout the Magnetic Memory Method training. Often, I default to three facts or details per chapter, but always keep enough index cards on hand in case I want more. The reason for deciding these matters in advance is because a) failing to plan is generally planning to fail (especially when it comes to structured reading), and b) pred

This Man Shows You How To Unlock The Extreme Power Of Your Memory   https://youtu.be/ESGEW_uK1Jg Interested? I thought you might be. The man in question is Nelson Dellis. He climbs mountains,memorizes playing cards underwater and works to solve Alzheimer’s by collecting data through the Extreme Memory Challenge. Take it now. https://youtu.be/cLER4epHBlM Not only does Nelson use his memory talents to create good in the world, he’s also on a mission to help and inspire you to do the same. Because the fact of the matter is, when you have improved memory skills, you won’t be able to stop yourself from contributing to the world at a higher level. Just remember … With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility Please enjoy this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast by downloading the MP3 and listening to it. You’ll find the full transcript down below with some links throughout to help continue your education into the world of Extreme Memory Improvement. Let’s get started and feel free to download the entire transcript as a PDF to your desktop for future reference. Anthony: Nelson, it’s great to be able to speak with you. I’ve been following some of the things you’ve been doing for quite some time. Maybe, just for people who don’t know you, give a brief overview of what got you interested in memory and how you came to achieve what you’ve done and take it to the level of basically bringing social good out of the achievements you’ve had with memory. Nelson: Yeah, you know this all started back when my grandmother was struggling with Alzheimer’s as she lived in Europe. I wouldn’t see her all the time but I think that made a bigger impression on me because I would go visit every six months to a year and she had drastically changed, deteriorated immensely. That made a big imprint on me. Then she passed away the summer of 2009. At that point, I had kind of dabbled in memory. I decided to take what I had read about and really drive it home and see if I could, at a young build a strong memory, a healthy brain, and I set the goal of myself winning the memory championship. That seemed like a good milestone to try to get to and to judge, test, and base all of my training scores on. I did, and I got very good at it and all motivated by my progress and eventually I ended up winning the U.S. Memory Championship four times. That’s now what I do. I teach people how to unlock their memories. Anthony: That’s very cool and you know one of the things that is so extraordinary is that you also turn it into social good, which we’ll talk about. Talk a little bit about the book that you’re working on and who it is for and why developing memory abilities is so important for the audience that you’re creating it for.   What If Memorizing Could Be The Most Exciting Activity In The World?   Nelson: You know I still get a lot of people who approach me and talk about their father, their mother, or grandmother has early onset or has Alzheimer’s, and they ask me if it’s something that I can train their parents to improve their memory. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about that. In my opinion, I think learning these memory techniques is a habit thing. You’ve got to learn it, I think, at an early age. That is something that just sticks with you. When you go into your higher education, you already know how to memorize. It is a skill that you were given in school. Right now, obviously, you see if you have a class or a teacher who gives you tips on how to improve your memory you just do it. Memorize this song. You go home. You struggle with it. You repeat it over and over and then you come back and you’re excited and it’s the most frustrating process. What if you lived in an age where your teachers actually had a class or spent some time teaching you memory techniques at a young age? When it would come to that poem or med school textbook that you’ve got memorize, you would have some toolbox in your brain to figure that out faster and more efficiently. I’ve been working on a book. I actually wrote a book, it’s not published yet for normal people of normal age. The one I’m really excited about is this one I’ve been working on for kids which is teaching them memory techniques at a very young age. It’s geared towards a first grader in a picture book style. Because I feel like if you can get that in the head of a kid who already has a fantastic imagination and memory, that those things could stick with them and help them be successful throughout life. Anthony: I think that’s fundamental because often adults feel that they have lost their creativity somehow. It’s pounded out of them through work or whatever the case may be. How do you think the people could resuscitate creativity if they felt that they have lost it?   The Truth About Memo

Wouldn’t it be great if you could experience memory improvement … … almost on auto-pilot? Here’s the good news: Even if you don’t use elaborate memory techniques and mnemonics, the following 5 ways will help you improve your memory almost without effort. They’re all based on the techniques and strategies I used to help completely my PhD at York University in Toronto, pass language exams, teach around the world and learn all about memory. Ready for some of my best strategies for improving your memory on that basis? Let’s dive in! 1. When Darkness Falls … Go to sleep with the sun. Seriously. What have you got to do after dark anyway? Netflix? How boring. Drinking in bars? How destructive to your memory! (I know because I’ve learned some hard lessons around that. Learn more about how perspective memory helped me remove alcohol from my life.) Playing Scrabble? Well … okay. That’s at least halfway good for your brain. But the reality is that we’re killing our memory by stating up late and waking up early. And when you kill your memory, you murder something else too: Your intelligence As with all acts of murder, you will get caught and you will be sentenced to life in the prison of stupidity and forgetfulness. Mark my word. Next to getting more sleep, it’s essential to … 2. Keep Your Brain Moist As The Soil Of A Mighty Rain Forest That’s a fancy way of saying, drink lots of water. All too often we forget to imbibe the world’s mightiest drink. Oddly enough, some people don’t even like it. This strange, but true fact is responsible for forgetfulness around the world. But it doesn’t have to be you. And if for any reason you struggle to remember to drink deep from the tap in your kitchen, the solution is simple enough. You can create a visual mnemonic by placing a big fat bottle of water on your desk. Or you can print out a picture of a bottle of water and stick it on the wall or window directly behind your computer. This is a great way to start establishing a memory that leads to positive habit change. In addition to this … Use Every Bit Of Technology You’ve Got To Remind You Smart phones … Dumb phones … Computer calendars … All of these of these come equipped with programmable alerts. Most of them can be set to repeat every hour on autopilot. It’s easy enough to ignore these alerts, however, so it helps to get theatrical. Instead of “drink water,” program in something like: Drink Water Or Else All The Cats On YouTube Will Suffer One Thousand And Seven Deaths! If that doesn’t get your attention, I’m not sure what else will! 3. Funnel Words Into Your Mind Like The Wind Shapes The Desert One of the beautiful things about living in Berlin is that they still have bookstores all over the place. Not only that, but you still see people reading books too. Here’s a quick guide on how to read a book: Buy a book. No, it doesn’t have to be a book by me. 😉 Whatever you read, by all means read on Kindle or some other digital reader, but I recommend also holding a physical book in your hands once in a while. As this article suggests reading books instead of Kindles can improve your memory, concentration and good looks. Reading in general helps improve your memory because you hold the details of a story in your memory over an extended period of time. You also retain and maintain details about characters, objects and locations. But you can also deliberately memorize elements of the books read by using memory techniques. For example, instead of relying on bookmarks or dog-earing pages, you can memorize the number of the last page you read before pausing. This provides you with delightful memory exercise. Speaking of which … 4. Get Your Butt Into Gear Exercise is one of the best ways to improve your memory. It sends oxygen rich blood to your brain and brings fitness to your entire body. Awesome, right? You can also use your exercise time to reminisce over the books you’ve been reading. If you’re not a reader, you can play movies you’ve seen beginning to end in your mind (link to breaking bad movie post). And if you use Memory Palaces (you do use Memory Palaces, don’t you?), then what better time to practice Recall Rehearsal than when you’re out and about, huffing and puffing and sweating up a storm? Exercise also improves your mood, and when you use memory techniques, your mood improves even more. Nothing feels better than combining jogger’s high (wiki link) with the edification of recalling foreign language vocabulary. Or mathematical equations, song lyrics, professional terminology, or whatever else wets your whistle. 5. Stop Rolling Like A Stone And Gather A Bit Of Moss For Once In Your Life Meditation makes everything in life better, including your memory. The problem is … most people have been misled by w

The ugly sister effect explains so many things when it comes to the memory blocks we all face. True, the scientists who came up with the term probably regret it now. After all, it can sound a bit insensitive if you don’t know why they chose the term or what memory problem goes with it. Unfortunately, there’s no brief and direct way to describe this effect, which is why I’ve written up a complete explanation on this page. I believe it’s worth a read, especially if you want to either speak more fluidly or become a memory athlete. I’m sure glad I knew about this problem and had handled it when lecturing at university and giving my TEDx Talk. So, are you ready for a deep dive into how to remove memory blocks and stop competing thoughts from messing you up while speaking? Let’s dive in! What Is The Ugly Sister Effect? The Ugly Sister Effect gets its name from the Cinderella fairy tale. In many versions of the story, every time Prince Charming tries to get hold of Cinderella for a smooching session (and perhaps a little more), her ugly sisters crowd in front of her. Not very cool of those ugly sisters, is it? Well, when you’re trying to remember something, competing thoughts sometimes crowd into your mind. It’s like many other memories are competing for attention – like the ugly sisters in Cindarella. Some people use a different name for this effect: tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. However, I don’t believe that’s quite correct. Here’s how the authors of Mnemonology: Mnemonics for the 21st Century put it: The retrieval of target information can be blocked by the related information—a situation referred to as an “ugly sister effect.” This definition is the key: the memory blocks occur due to the relatedness of the information. In other words, ugly sisters or unwanted information come to mind when you’re trying to remember a specific piece of information. It’s not at all the case that the right answer is really on the tip of your tongue (unless you’re experiencing what scientists call a “mind pop“). It’s that many other answers are competing for your attention. I experience this sometimes when searching for the name of an actor or musician. All kinds of people come to mind, just not the one I want. How To Handle The Ugly Sister Effect The first thing is to realize that experiencing this effect is perfectly normal. You could certainly get checked out by a doctor to rule out any issues, but chances are you’ll experience it many times in your life. To the best of my knowledge, the effect was named by Reason and Lucas in a 1984 contribution related to journaling. The named it in an essay called “Using cognitive diaries to investigate naturally occurring memory blocks.” You can find it in a book called Everyday memory errors, actions, and absentmindedness. When it comes to a method for dealing with it, here are some steps I recommend that you follow. One: Don’t Make A Big Deal Out Of It When I get blocked, I immediately relax. I’ve found that by turning my attention to my breath and physical state, it helps the memory I’m searching for arise on its own. A simple technique you can try comes from the world of concentration meditation. Put your thumb and forefinger together as you breath and bring your awareness to your entire body from your head to toes. Two: Run The Alphabet More often than not, changing the focus to your body for a few seconds, will pop the information into your mind. When that doesn’t work, I start by reciting the alphabet from A-Z. Although this technique is not bullet-proof, I’d say it works about 50% of the time. The problem is that, unlike turning your attention away from seeking the target information, in this case, you’re chasing after it. But if you’ve relaxed yourself first and aren’t needy, you’ll probably be okay. In case you’re wondering why running through the alphabet makes sense scientifically, it’s because you’re trying to find and trigger context-dependent cues. If the word or name you’re looking for starts with C, there’s a good chance that thinking of this letter will help you remember the information. Three: Avoid Re-Using Memory Palaces Sometimes mnemonists bring problems like the Ugly Sister Effect onto themselves. For example, they don’t know about my detailed training on How to Find Memory Palaces. The problem is that reusing Memory Palaces creates what some memory champions call “ghosting.” I prefer to call it “Magnetic fossilization,” but the point remains the same. You run into Ugly Sisters that compete with the information you’re trying to recall because the ground has been laid for them to do so. Don’t get me wrong. It is possible to re-use any Memory Palace. Especially when you use the tips covered in this video: https://www.youtube.co

Have You Ever Had A Past Life Experience? Do You Believe In Reincarnation? How Much Karma Do You Spread On Your Mummified Animal Crackers? If so, it’s time we had a little chat. And in this one-to-one between just you and me (sorry, no apparitions from times yore allowed), we’re going to talk about past life memories, past life regression and how regression is performed in a clinical setting. The emphasis being on how regression is performed to give people the feeling that they’re remembering past lives. And to accomplish all this, we’re going to see how the entire notion and the culture surrounding past lives fits into the larger context of our shared psychological needs around the globe. Oh … and I’ll even tell you about my past life experience too. Warning: Reincarnation Can Make You Fat A few weeks ago, we talked about The Surprising Truth About Hypnosis And Memory Improvement and some of the controversial issues surrounding the topic. For example, hypnosis can produce all kinds of memories, the quality and integrity of which vary. We looked at one of the most consequential ways that hypnotically induced memories play out: in courtroom testimony. Like memories produced by hypnosis, past life memory is a controversial and highly unlikely topic. At its worst, the ability to recall past lives is a sham sold in books, live or online courses and supposedly therapeutic past life regression hypnotherapy. Content creators direct these at the gullible. For example, in Many Lives, Many Masters, Brian Weiss makes the claim that exploring past lives can cure all kinds of ailments, phobias and anxieties. He suggests focusing on clinical results and forgetting about whether past lives are real or not. Easy to say when your wallet is bursting with fees from patients seeking relief and willing to try anything. Then There’s The Dark Side On the opposite end of the scale, people have reported bringing back ugly scars from their regressions, or later becoming obese thanks to things seen in visions of the past. But we certainly must admit that that past life regression and the memories it seems to produce may have some legitimate therapeutic value that goes beyond placebo and hypnosis. I’ll talk about my experience with descending into a previous life a little further on. Helpful or fraught with danger, to be ethical, the hypnotherapist or “regressionist” must make it clear that the techniques induce dream­like fantasies, not realities. Past life memories, no matter how clear or intense, are mirages produced by the mind, not HDTV memories based on anything that ever actually happened. How To Win A Million Dollars With Just One Of Your Past Lives! I see no reason to believe that past lives exist. And any value past life regression can probably acquired by other means without questionable sessions with a hypnotist. All the same, let’s look at the issue in detail and try to figure out why some people do believe in it. The reasons are fascinating, and we all stand to learn something from them. The first thing we need to realize is that … Past Lives Are Not About The Past! No, no and a million times no. Past life regression is all about the future. It’s about life after death and the fantasy that we never really die. As I’m sure you know, your mind has a hard time conceiving of the planet without you. So at its core, past life fantasies drive forward as much as they dive backward to ease the anxiety that when we’re gone … We’re Really, Really Gone! In case I haven’t convinced you that past lives are really about the future, consider Karma. Karma is an idea tied to notions of immortality and rebirth. Karma supposedly brings to the present attitudes, beliefs and actions from another time that you can “read” or interpret. Interpret these signs in just the right way, you stand to have an easier life the next time around. Screw up, on the other hand, and continuous living is not going to work in your favor. You will suffer the consequences of being bad in this life in your next one. Past lives and fantasies of reincarnation also fascinate societies around the world because these beliefs let people hunt for patterns. People Love Patterns! And there are certainly many patterns to find. Developing your objective reasoning skills will help you see them. Look at literature throughout history, for example. Archetypes are everywhere, and for more on that you can check out the research and writings of the delightful Canadian scholar Northrop Frye. (I prefer him to Carl Jung because he’s more scientific.) Patterns can make you feel transcendent because there is the oft­ cited saying that those who know the past aren’t doomed to repeat it. But is it really true? After all, haven’t all kinds of world leaders (both politicians and royalty) been schooled in history? Can Knowledge Of The Past Really Make The Fu

To celebrate the release of a course I put together with Jonathan Levi called, Branding You™: How To Build A Multimedia Internet Empire, we’re re-releasing an interview I gave on his Becoming a Superhuman podcast. So when you’re ready, hit play and learn … How To Outsmart Forgetfulness Forever With Superhuman Memory Skills! Jonathan: Hello Ladies and Gentleman, and welcome to the Becoming Superhuman Podcast. I am your host Jonathan Levi. For those of you who don’t know, I teach a course on a web platform called Udemy, which is one of the world’s largest online course platforms. It is through that platform and through that platform and through being an instructor that I met my guest today. Dr. Anthony Metivier is an experienced author, consultant and an expert in the field of memory and learning. Dr. Anthony is a fellow instructor on Udemy and he’s been a friend of mine since I originally appeared on his highly rated podcast, the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. Anthony’s innovations in the field of mnemonics helped him teach people all over the world to exceed in academics, learning languages, memorizing poetry and a whole host of other amazing skills. This podcast goes into a lot of different topics and Anthony and I cover a lot of ground from different mnemonics and memorialization techniques all the way to meditation. So now I am very excited to introduce you to Dr. Anthony Metivier. So Anthony, good evening, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for making the time. I had so much fun with you on your podcast, the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. It was one of the things that actually inspired me to do this show, and I want to thank you for that, and I thought it would be really fun to have you as one of our first guests. So welcome. Anthony: Well thank you for having and I know my audience of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast really responded well to your interview, and I know it sent some people to your course so it was fantastic. Jonathan: It did and thank you for that. It was such a blast and I think the audience picked up on that. You and I kind of having this mind meld, and we had a really good time and I’m sure we’re going to have a great time on this podcast as well. Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. I think people really respond to it too because it’s not really coming from MENSA or championship stuff, and nothing wrong with that, but it is more down to earth and real application to our studies and so forth from people who use it for those purposes. Jonathan: Definitely. Actually you have been involved in memory and accelerated learning for a long time. Before I was and also before it became kind of a really trendy topic. Maybe share with our audience the story of how you got into this field. Anthony: Well it was just happenstance and a very lucky one because I had been in graduate school in Toronto at York University and these hard Toronto winters and something wrong with my biology sent me into a real bad depression. I couldn’t think and I couldn’t concentrate. I had the weight of all these exams on my shoulders for my doctoral exams. For people who aren’t in a PhD program now or have been, then they would know that there is these committees you have to go and sit in front of and they grill you over hundreds and hundreds of books that you are supposed to have covered, and I could hardly get out of bed. So it was just a crazy time. To avoid life, to avoid facing all of this and to avoid the horrid pain of cracking another book of obscure French philosophy with terms like architectonic tautology and just things that rattle your brain, I was starting to play with cards and magic tricks. I could focus on that. I could watch these videos. I didn’t have to read a book or anything like that. You don’t get far in the world card magic without coming across one of the holy grails which is a memorized deck and most people to some kind of trick. It’s not really memorized but there is another class of people who actually memorize the deck. There is a whole bunch of different techniques. I thought no way this is crazy I thought I would never be able to do this because I can’t even read. I couldn’t even read Harry Potter which is one of the books I had to read for a course where I was a teacher’s assistant and barely able to get out of bed for that. I apologize to all of those students that I misdirected with showing up to class unprepared for Harry Potter. In any case, I tried it and it was incredible. It is like a light saber through all that fog and all the inability to concentrate. That is what really hooked me on memory techniques. It is irrelevant how bad you feel. It is irrelevant how tight you are. It is irrelevant how hungry you are. You can actually just go to this place in your mind and these images that you have created and they are bulletproof so long as you’ve created them correctly. That was real miraculous for me. It has actually helped with a lot of concentration issues and a lot

The days rush by, don’t they? And it can be hard to remember what exactly happened. Worse… Forgetfulness about your own life is not only frustrating, but it’s downright painful. You know what? It should be. Because if you’re not actively keeping a journal, then you’re missing out on a simple technique that is guaranteed to help you remember more. At least, that’s the attitude I’ve taken when I’ve mistakenly neglected journaling across my career as a professor and bestselling author. When I keep focused on journaling about the events of my life so I can remember them better, however, many benefits unfold. Let me cover some of them, including the scientific findings, before we dive into the exact process I recommend. The Benefits Of Memory Journaling Journaling is truly one of the simplest things you can do to remember more about your life. It’s not only fun and rewarding. It can also make you more productive on top of providing psychological, emotional and cognitive benefits. This might seem like I’m promising the moon, but researchers have validated these benefits. In this study, journaling the events of your life was shown to improve the immune system. Matthew Lieberman and his fellow researchers have shown that expressing feelings in your own words improves mood. It’s not just the scientists that have proven the benefits either. James Clear talks about it a lot in Atomic Habits – a book for which he has even released engraved pens to help encourage and inspire people to journal more. How to Keep A Memory Journal Now that you know the benefits, how exactly do you journal – specifically for memory? These are the steps I’ve followed for years. One: The Exact Journal Probably Doesn’t Matter Some people say that if you choose a quality journal, you’ll take the daily task of writing down your thoughts more seriosly. I belief there’s truth to this kind of framing effect. And when it comes to the “snapshot journals” I keep, I do use high quality journals. The Snapshot Journal I’m using But not always. In my experience, it’s the act of journaling itself that matters. Most especially that the journaling is done consistently. Don’t worry if that sounds hard. If you can get yourself over an initial period of daily journaling, you’ll develop procedural memory around the task. This means that you’ll find yourself journaling automatically, as a matter of habit. Two: Set Your Memory Journaling Goals Although I’m a firm believer in keeping my own memory journal every day, that might not be the right goal for you. I’m actually quite successful at it, but nothing is 100%. I would say that perhaps 5-10 days a year, I’m just not able to make it. For yourself, once a week might be best. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that less is more. If you think about memory journaling in terms of autobiographical memory, for example, you stand a chance to get more episodic memory exercise by challenging yourself to cover 3-5 days at a time. Again, it’s ultimately up to you. For best results, pick a goal, explore it for awhile and then try another. As experienced memory athlete Tansel Ali has pointed out, varying how you test your memory provides much stronger results. Three: Decide What You Will (And Will Not) Include Sometimes I wince when I read old journals. I wonder, “Why on earth did I ever want to remind myself of that?” Over time, I’ve learned to be more selective. In my case, rather than recording my emotional reactions, I stick more and more to the facts. That way, I can think objectively rather than subjectively about what happened after some time has passed. You might be different and wish to remember more of your specific emotions. That’s okay too. My point is to decide in advance the kinds of details you actually want to remember better and encounter later when reviewing your journals. Four: Structure Your Memory Journal Do you really have to journal from the beginning to the end? Not me. I’ve get many of my journals back-to-front. One reason is that I’ve practiced dual-handedness to see if I can become fully ambidextrous as a form of memory exercise. Other times, I use different sections of a journal to test my memory. For example, when memorizing poetry, I find it useful to test in my journal. To avoid cramming these tests into my daily flow, I put them in a separate section of the journal I carry with me. Five: Protect Your Privacy Did you know that people used to write their journals in code to prevent authorities from finding out what thoughts they were keeping? There’s even a medieval guide called the Stenographia which includes instructions on how to code your thoughts to keep them private. These days, you probably don’t have to go that far. If you’re journaling digitally, you can password protect t

The best reading technique is not necessarily one that gets you reading faster. It’s not even necessarily a single technique. Often, the best way to achieve your goals is to combine a number of active reading techniques. Particularly the kind that we’ll discuss on this page. I’ve used them all while studying for my PhD and as a bestselling author. The reading strategies we’ll discuss have also made the site you’re on now one of the most read memory improvement blogs in the world. Not to mention the reading and research I do for my YouTube channel, which has over 100,000 subscribers. I don’t tell you these things to brag. Only to underscore the importance of having a wide variety of reading techniques and strategies. The results this brings can be life-changing for you. Why Having Multiple Reading Techniques Matters Simply put, you need to have multiple reading techniques because there’s more than one kind of book. In fact, any given book can contain multiple types of content. For example, when I read Sir Roger Penrose’s ideas about memory related to his theory of consciousness, I encounter complex terms, physics equations and concepts. Each of these require a different reading strategy to handle. Then there’s the “depth reading” that can happen only when you memorize the details, skills I share with you in my post on How To Memorize A Textbook. With all this in mind, let’s now discuss the variety of reading techniques I recommend from my experiences as a grad student, professor and author working in the Internet age. 5 Reading Techniques For Every Kind Of Book As we go through these reading techniques, keep in mind that there’s no particular order of importance. They all matter. Just keep in mind that they don’t all apply to each and every kind of book. You’re about to become a Swiss Army Knife of reading skills. Let’s dive in! One: Priming Many people overwhelm themselves by starting new books at the beginning. They wade through long introductions, often tiring themselves out with the least important parts. Don’t get me wrong. Introductions can be very important. But they’re not necessarily the first part of the book to read. When I read books at university, I read books out of order, typically like this: Back cover Index Works Cited Conclusion Colophon page Table of Contents The most interesting chapters Introduction Now, if you’re wondering why I would read the conclusion before reading the introduction, that’s a good question. Part of reading faster, especially as a busy grad student, requires knowing two things: What big ideas does the author conclude on? Are those ideas worth the time it will take to read the entire book? Frankly, if the author’s conclusions are not intriguing or monumental, often the book can be set aside. That in itself saves a lot of time. Please note that “priming” is a term I learned from the world of speed reading. It’s not to be confused with previewing, which scientists disagree about in studies like this and this. Barbara Oakley, who co-created Learning How to Learn talks about a version of priming she calls the “picture walk.” It’s discussed in some detail in this video review of her excellent work: https://youtu.be/vAg7eN2SatI Two: Interrogate Everything You Read Many people struggle to read and remember because they read passively instead of using active reading principles. I suggest you question everything as you read. The exact questions you ask will depend on your memory and comprehension goals. Some valid approaches you can pursue include SQ3R: Survey Question Read Recite Review You can also look into using the KWL table, or something like Giordano Bruno‘s take on memory wheels for asking questions. The questions I usually ask while reading include: What is the claim the author is making? What is the evidence or what are the main points? If the claim is true, who benefits? I share more about this questioning process in this popular video tutorial: https://youtu.be/si0aTKs_cmQ At the end of the day, the quality of your questioning process will boil down to practicing it consistently over time. The more you use this reading technique, the better it will serve you. Three: Skim & Scan With Care Many people talk about skimming and scanning – including me. The problem is that these techniques typically only work when you’re already basically familiar with a topic. These are definitely techniques you can use, but make sure to deploy them only when you already enjoy basic comprehension of a topic. For developing that first, I suggest finding the most authoritative books you can find and read those materials thoroughly. We’ll talk about how next. Four: Supplement The Superheroes Sometimes you just have to read introductory textbooks in order to grasp a technique. But let’s face it. Sometimes

You’d like to have psychic powers, wouldn’t you?   Go on. Admit it. Life would be easier if you could read the mind of your friends and lovers. And you could be rich overnight by divining the insights of the best stock pickers alive. But the reality is that psychic powers do not exist. Or at least, there’s no meaningful evidence to suggest that they do. Yet the question is, why do so many people believe in psychic powers? Why are tarot readings and crystal divinations and all kinds of claptrap so attractive to so many people. Perhaps some of the answer to these questions involves working memory. So in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, let’s talk about how.   What is working memory?   Working memory is the system that is responsible for holding and processing new and already stored information – for a short time. Having working memory is important for reasoning, comprehension, learning and memory updating. As a term, working memory is generally used synonymously with short term memory. Yet, the two concepts are distinct and should be distinguished from one another. Whereas working memory is a theoretical framework that refers to structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information, short-term memory refers to the short-term storage of information, and does not entail the manipulation or organization of material held in memory. Given these facts about working memory, it seems clear that it plays a roll in why people believe the psychics and their readings. Here’s why …   First off, psychics overwhelm their clients with questions. By asking them to access so much about their past (sometimes including their past lives), it can be difficult, if not impossible to remember the questions the psychic asked. As a result, the person sitting for the psychic reading will only remember the hits and not the misses. “Hits,” just to define this term, is the word used to describe any time a psychic gets something right. “Misses” refers to any time the psychic gets something wrong. As we’ll see, talented psychics use language as a tool for increasing the recall of hits and obliterating our memory of the misses. Magicians know how to use this effect as well. For example, they use what is commonly called misdirection. But in reality, they use …   Focused Attention   Houdini, of course, noticed this and worked to debunk how psychics work. He was especially concerned because by using your focused attention, you are not misdirected as such. Rather, your attention is directed to the wrong things. The audience then remembers only the big moves the magician makes, and should they have spotted the small moves in which the dirty work is done, the cognitive overload of the big moves erases the memory of anything else. In fact, the most rewarding compliment a magician can hear is, “but he didn’t do anything.” In these cases, the big moves have been so natural or ordinary that they have no meaning for working memory to grasp onto. But “misdirection” isn’t the best word for this technique. A better term would be focused attention. To “misdirect” is to draw attention away from something. But sleight of hand works best when concentration is so focused on innocent movements that it cannot pay attention to the dirty ones. Psychics use the exact same process, but in this case, instead of calling it sleight of hand, we should call it …   Sleight Of Mouth   https://youtu.be/qKy8kCLPYR0 Psychics often hide their moves by asking questions that for most people will generate “yes” answers. Drawing from Ian Rowland’s excellent The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, here are some of those questions. Follow along and think about how many of these questions would generate a yes from you. Have you recently come across some old photographs, some in albums, some that still need to be properly arranged? Have you recently thrown out some medical supplies that had gone out of date or expired? Have you recently thrown out or donated some old books, toys or clothing? Is there a note on your fridge or by the phone that is no longer relevant but you haven’t yet thrown away? Are there any stuck drawers or drawers that don’t slide properly in your home? Do you have keys that you cannot remember what locks they belong to? Do you own a broken watch or clock you’ve been meaning to get fixed? Have you ever had an accident or near-accident involving water? Is the number 2 in your address or does someone significant in your life have the number 2? Do you have a scar on your elbow or knee? Is there a blue car or truck parked across the street from your home or work? Do you carry photos of a loved one in your wallet or purse? Is there a set of earrings that you’ve lost one half of? (For a man, the psychic can ask the s

How To Use Your Emotions To Memorize More Instead Of Letting Them Take Over Your Life And Make A Big Fat Mess Of Everything You’re an emotional person, aren’t you? Those uncontrollable feelings well up from time to time, perhaps even taking over the show. In other words, emotions replace the you that you know with someone quite different. At least, that’s one way of looking at it. Emotions are different versions of ourselves. The self that becomes overwhelmed by laughter is different than the self who drowns in sorrow and misery. But then eventually you find your way back. You become you once again. The Only Problem Is That You Don’t Become You! Strong emotional states change you, and I’ll bet you remember at least a couple of times that you’ve been changed so strongly by an emotional state that you’ve had no means of going back. You’re as chemically changed as toast is to bread. The question is, to what extent is this change due to memory? Has the experience of emotion changed you as such, or does it impact your memory so much that you literally remember to be a different person. Certainly, post traumatic stress disorder provides some examples of people affected by memories so strongly that constant recall of the traumatic event causes that new version of the person to hold fast. But that state does have to be renewed. Even if the person feels that the memories are coming back of their own accord, they must at some level be participating in the reconstruction. And such events don’t mean that trauma has improved memory in that instant so much so that the person remembers everything in sparkling detail. Traumatic memory in no way ensures accuracy and it can also lead to the repression of memory. The Return Of The Repressed Repression and suppression of memory is really intense because it is essentially an attempt to obliterate memories from the mind. But as Sigmund Freud made himself famous for saying, what we repress returns, usually in the form of a monster. Post-Freud, we have some interesting research about the suppression of memory. For example, test subjects asked to repress feelings of disgust while watching a horror movie remembered far less about the story and with much less accuracy than those not asked to repress their feelings. And plane crash survivors who remain calm have been said to remember more than people overwhelmed by hysterics. I’ve experienced this memory effect myself following a near miss trying to land in Toronto. I was going there from New York to sit for a field exam when the plane suddenly pulled up and circled over the city. We late learned that another plane had still been on the runway ahead of us, and thank goodness the pilot pulled us out of there in time enough to avoid a fiery collision. Although I didn’t go crazy in terms of screaming or crying out, my inner life went nuts, something that affected my memory for days and days after. While sitting for the exam, for the first time I felt a real disruption in accessing my Memory Palaces and mnemonics. All the more so because one person on the committee was in the warpath and doing her best to see me fail. But luckily, I had relaxation on my side and calmed myself. I reminded myself of the combined power of memory and relaxation and without suppressing or repressing the feelings of terror I remembered from the previous days’s adventure in the sky, I managed to handle that remembered stress and the current stress at the same time. And this is interesting because I could have broken down into tears or hysterics in that examination room because I was so fragile. But according to some theories, memories and the emotions tied to them don’t force us to act in particular ways. But these emotional memories do influence our actions. And that’s good news because with the exception of hungry lions and tigers and bears (like during that examination), most everything that influences us, we can influence back. Control: The One Advantage You Can Use When Your Emotions Get Really Crazy Emotions and memories share one major characteristic: they are both highly manipulable. Think of emotions and memory like blinking and breathing. Both blinking and breathing happen on autopilot. We don’t have to think about them in the least in order for them to happen. But we can think about them and control them – at least for a while. You can choose to have a staring contest, you can keep you eyes closed even though you are not sleeping or you can flutter your eye lids at anyone you fancy. You can do this entirely at will. Likewise, you can influence your breathing. You can hold your breath, cause yourself to gasp and deliberately sync inhalations with exhalations as you walk or jog. And so it is with memory. You can deliberately call up memories of your childhood. You can say, “I want to think about grade one” and deliberately call up – or try t

How Cool Would It Be If You Could Hypnotize Your Way To A Better Memory?   Well, good luck. As you’re about to learn, there’s no scientific basis or reason to believe that hypnosis can cause memory improvement. But to look at this issue, it will be helpful to focus on one area where hypnosis has been used in the attempt to improve memory: court cases. So our question is, can hypnosis really improve the memory of witnesses? Read every word of this post if you want to learn several key ways that you can still make strides with your memory improvement goals even if hypnosis turns out to be a dud when it comes to enhanced memory.   Would You Believe That Hypnosis For Memory Improvement Goes This Far Back?   Hypnosis in the courts has a long history. If we can focus solely on America, I’ve read that hypnosis to improve the memories of witnesses was first rejected in 1897 by the Supreme Court of California. After that, there’s a dark spot until after World War II. Given all that happened during this war, officials wanted reliable ways to enhance the recall of witnesses. But despite all kinds of testing, to this date, no meaningful evidence supports hypnosis as a reliable means of improving memory. Especially not for providing testimony in a court of law. Let’s break this issue down into parts so we can get both a broad and specific perspective.   This Is The Truth About Memory And Hypnosis The TV Shows Don’t Want You To Know About   First off, hypnosis of this kind sets itself up for failure. Why? Because you can’t improve something that mostly doesn’t exist. Think about it. You’re walking down the street and you see a crime. You weren’t expecting anything would happen, but then something does happen. The memories you do form are based on information that you have learned incidentally. For example, I was riding my bike last Sunday to the Mauerpark. There’s a wonderful Flea Market and I was going to look for some cool postcards to send new members of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. I usually find something cool there, often old cards with interesting buildings are memorable art that helps stimulate creativity. Anyhow, I was stopped at a light when all of a sudden two guys ran into the street in front of a car. They asked a group of maybe three people, “This one?” and the group of people said yes.   Rage-Fuelled Vengeance On The Streets Of Berlin!   Then the two guys approached the doors of the car. One went to the passenger side, the other to the driver’s side. I think the car was blue, but I don’t quite remember. It may have had four doors. What I do remember is that the guys opened the doors and started yelling. The driver and the passenger were clearly in shock and didn’t know what to do. Finally, the passenger pulled out a wallet and in a Russian accent, the guy standing in the street said, “Give it me!” He ripped the wallet out of the guy’s hand and slammed the door. As the other guy slammed the driver’s door, the colliding air created a puff of ash from the ashtray. After the two men got back onto the sidewalk, the light turned green and the car sped off. It might seem amazing that I remember all these details, but actually stress and memory can fuse together to help you remember more in certain circumstances.   Which Of These These Facts Prove That Hypnosis Has No Chance When It Comes To Improving Memory?   What I’ve done just now is to recall an event that I “learned” incidentally. As I’m telling it to you, there are oodles of things I’m not telling you because there aren’t enough words in the universe to explain: * The urgent voice in the back of my head telling me to get the hell out of there. * The fact that the two guys in the car were either Turkish or Syrian. * The hot girl on the bike in front of me with people who may or may not have been her brother and father. * My thoughts following the event, such as the concern that someone could have been shot, questions about the crime rate in Berlin and other images and concepts rolling around in my mind. Shortly thereafter, I forgot about the whole thing until it came time to put together this podcast. In fact, I had already outlined the entire episode before this event happen, and only when I started writing it did I remember this event. And if I were asked to give testimony about it, my testimony would be deeply flawed because I wasn’t expecting such an event to happen. As memory expert Harry Lorayne points out in all his books, you cannot remember what you haven’t paid attention to in the first place. That’s why I couldn’t tell you: * Anything about the clothes any of the people were wearing (except for the clothes on the girl on the bike, because I was definitely paying attention to those). The hair color of the Russian guys. The color of th

How To Memorize Even The Most Difficult Words In The World Using World Class Memory Techniques Hey everybody, this is Daniel Welsch. And I’m here today as a special guest host for the Magnetic Memory Method podcast. Anthony invited me to do the podcast today about using memory techniques for Basque and it’s a great pleasure and enormous honor for me to do so, also in Spanish in a general way: https://youtu.be/g9iH-GYthKw I’ve been following Anthony’s work for about a year and I’ve been corresponding with him for nearly the same length of time and he’s been a great inspiration to me, not only in my memorizing ventures but also in my own work as a teacher and writer here in Madrid, the beautiful capital of Spain. So when he offered me the chance to do an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast on memory techniques, of course I jumped at it… So first I’m going to tell you a bit about my language learning journey. And then I’m going to tell you how I became acquainted with Doctor Metivier and his work with memory techniques for developing language mastery. And finally, I’m going to take you through one of my Memory Palaces to show you exactly how I memorized some very difficult material from a language that’s like no other language in existence. Now… A little bit about me. Aprende Más Inglés You probably don’t know me, because most of the work I do is in Spanish. But I have my own website called Aprende Más Inglés, which you can find at aprendemasingles.com. There I teach English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation—and now, learning memory techniques and how to be a more effective student and person in general. You might want to know a bit about me. Well, I was born in the US, specifically in Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the middle of the Sonoran Desert a couple of hours from the Mexican border. Filling In Blanks On Worksheets Has Never Been One of My Passions In school I learned Spanish but never took it too seriously. After that I ended up working in a kitchen with some guys from Mexico and found that speaking languages was a lot more fun than learning them in school. Filling in blanks on worksheets has never been one of my passions. When I was 21 I moved to Madrid, Spain, which is kind of a long story, and ended up, one way or another, teaching English. And at the same time I was learning more and more Spanish. I was doing it organically, for the most part. I had some free Spanish classes, which I barely ever went to. And the rest of the time I was walking around, talking to people, reading the newspaper, watching TV, things like that. At the same time, at work I was teaching English. And I was kind of startled by how ineffective language learning in Spain was. Of course, back in the US it wasn’t any better, but in Spain learning English is just hugely important for a lot of people. Now that Spain is in the European Union and with the massive amount of international business and tourism that goes on, almost everybody needs to learn English. It should almost be a strategic objective for all of Spain, to get the general level of English up to the level where they could compete with any country in Europe. But unfortunately, the system wasn’t very effective at actually creating bilingual Spaniards. And after a few years I started to discover why. But we’ll get back to that… Couldn’t Speak, Or Even Worse, Refused To Speak While I was teaching, I had a website where I was writing about grammar and vocabulary. And in the meantime, my Spanish was getting better and better. I eventually got the highest level diploma in Spanish offered by the Instituto Cervantes, which is an international organization that teaches Spanish like the British Council teaches English. And the thing about it was that I never felt like learning Spanish was a chore or an effort. I did the minimum possible in school, and later learned working in a kitchen with some guys from Mexico. And my Spanish really took off when I moved to Madrid and discovered that I could use it to meet girls. Meanwhile, a lot of my students had studied for years and couldn’t speak, or even worse, refused to speak. They were terrified! I decided that maybe more grammar wasn’t what people needed. And after a couple of weeks on vacation in Italy, with my girlfriend at the time, I realized that everybody was going about it all wrong. A Sort Of Exotic Dialect … What happened in Italy is that I was in contact with a sort of exotic dialect of Italian that doesn’t sound anything like “standard” Italian. As far as I know there are no textbooks for this sort of thing. They don’t even really have a literature in this dialect—it’s a small-town thing, and if you want to leave the town and do big things in Italy as a whole you need to learn proper Italian. So I had been there surrounded by this dialect, and I had found that the book I had read to learn some Italian before going had been pretty useless too, since the pronunciation was so different than what I was hea

Looking to improve your memory? How about in a way that makes you more visual so you can memorize more information faster and with greater accuracy? And in a way that makes you more creative at the same time? You would? Great. Then this may be the most important post you ever read. Here’s why: I’m going to give you two simple ways to become more visually creative so you can use your imagination to memorize anything. Of course, you’ll need to use a Memory Palace. Ideally you’ve already created several. If not, you can listen to previous episodes of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast for help. Suggested episodes include How to Find Memory Palaces and movie and How to Enhance Your Memory With Virtual Memory Palaces. There’s also a full memory improvement course designed for mature adults interesting in improving memory in all areas of life. But for now, here’s … How To Improve Your Memory By Legally Stealing Information That Already Exists Using Direct Analogy The first way to become more visually creative involves creating “direct analogies.” To use direct analogy, you need only follow five fun steps. 1. Identify an issue or problem. For people interested in using memory techniques for accelerated learning, this step should present no problems. Chances are that you need to memorize: Facts for school Mathematical equations and other number-based information (link to math book) Information about historical figures Professional terminology in fields like medicine or law (am links) Music Names and faces Poetry and speeches Learning foreign language vocabulary and grammar rules And this list is just for starters. Pilots, teachers, restaurant staff, police officers and a whole host of other people need memory techniques to make them better professionals. The more specific you are about the problem you need to solve, the more dedicated you can be about shaping memory techniques as your go-to solution. 2. Find similar problems. You might think it’s crazy to leap from your problem to other problems that only tangentially relate, but trust me. This second step is critical for developing your visual imagination. We’ll explore this point more completely in the next section. 3. Explore the analogy. Once you’ve picked an example, dive in and start charting out the territory. For example, doctors need to memorize a lot of terminology relating to the body, diseases, medicines and the instruments of their trade. Precisely how to get that large variety of terms and definitions into long term memory can be hard to visualize. A similar problem that might come to mind could involve computer programmers. They need to teach computers to store terminology and make it accessible to users with intuitive ease. You could then create a picture in your imagination of a doctor programming his mind as if it were a computer. Maybe he’s opened his skull and attached some wiring to his brain. And maybe the wires run into a keyboard so he can type the words and definitions, sending them exactly where they need to go. Every Cell In Your Brain Has The Power To Help You Create Powerful Memories By finding an analogy, you help yourself create an image. It’s great exercise and simply achieved. To take another example, you could think of a painter who needs to place shapes and colors in just the right places. For example, you could see a doctor painting terminology onto a patient. Or you could think about how novelists observe people in cafes to create portraits of them in prose. How could you use the needs of a doctor to create a visual analogy for comparison with the observation process of a novelist? Whatever you choose for this part of the exercise, see the computer programmer-doctor or the painter-doctor or the writer-doctor in your mind. Focus intensely on creating that visual image. If you can’t see a picture using your mind’s eye, take a few seconds to write out a description in words. Or access your other senses. What would it feel like to paint terminology on to a canvas, for example? Whatever you do, don’t overthink the exercise. Just get started. You’ll learn by doing. 4. Repeat the process and prime yourself for better results Now that you’ve found and explored an analogy, it’s time to start all over. Do it again. Just do it again. And up the ante. Here’s how: Keep giving your mind material that will make you more creative. To become more visual, use the material as a kind of “paint” to spread on the canvas of your mind. Or, if you don’t feel particularly visual, combine mind mapping with the method of loci so you can experience the process visually using pen and paper. In sum, you need to feed your mind the materials that make up paint. The good news is that filling your paint factory with raw materials is easy and fun. You can: Read novels and poetry Look at art Go to a museum Watch movies Sit

How To Win Any Language Learning Contest On this week’s episode of The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Sam Gendreau talks about what it takes to develop the right mindset for learning a language, developing solid pronunciation and using mnemonics the right way. You’ll find the full transcript of the interview below. And check out part of Sam’s award-winning entry to the KBS World Korean Speaking Contest. Transcript Anthony: Sam, thank you for being on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast a second time. It was really great the first time. I am grateful for the opportunity to catch up with you again. Not so long ago you won something called the KBS World Korean Speaking Contest. What is the story behind how you got involved with that? Sam: Well first of all, thanks Anthony. It is a pleasure to be here for a second time. Indeed, I won the KBS World Korean Speaking Contest in 2014 so it’s been a couple months now. The reason why I got involved in the first place is in fact I was just following an organization on Facebook. I saw that they were advertising this new contest organized by KBS. For those of you who might not know, KBS is the largest broadcasting corporation in Korea. It’s the equivalent of CBC in Canada or the BBC in the UK. I just looked at that, and I thought that maybe I could have a good chance of winning if I were to apply to that contest. The contest was split into three different parts. The first stage was essentially all of the applicants were submitting a video of themselves speaking in Korean for about three minutes and you had a particular theme around which you had to structure your video. Following this phase, I essentially made it to the top ten. The second phase entailed the ten participants having separate interviews with a professional Korean radio announcer. You essentially had to talk over Skype with this announcer in Korean. They were testing your speaking abilities just to see whether, as opposed to just recording yourself, in a more natural setting you are able to hold a conversation. I made it to the top three. The third phase was to submit another video in Korean. I finally made it to the first prize. I was invited to spend a week in Seoul, Korea. I was on the national radio. I visited the KBS headquarters. It was quite an experience and certainly a memorable one. This year there is going to be a second KBS World Korean Speaking Contest so I encourage people who might be interested in participating this year to certainly register. There is a Facebook page so you can have a look at it and it should be a popular contest this year. Anthony: What interests you in Korean in particular, and at what stage were you already when you entered the contest? Sam: My interest in Korean was sparked when I was living in Australia over 7 years ago because I met some Koreans there for the first time actually. I really had never had any interest in Korean in particular, but then I made a couple of friends there in Australia. That is basically just how it got started. I got to know about Korean food, about some Korean culture and eventually I started to learn the language very gradually. I just purchased one of these little phrase books that you find on the shelves of bookstores. Slowly I started to learn the language, the script Hangul and after a couple of years, I registered in classes in university. For the most part, I really just learned on my own. When I applied to the contest last year, I mean it is always a subjective thing to gauge your own level, but I guess I was probably at a C1 level, so a fairly advanced level at least in terms of speaking abilities.   How To Use The Key Learning Strategies To Develop Fluency In Any Language   Anthony: Given that level you reached primarily on your own, what have been some of the key learning strategies that you have used with Korean and specifically with respect to speaking at that level? Sam: That is a very good question. I think, first of all, what is more important even than any strategy or technique is really to keep yourself motivated. I think the primary reason why most language learners do not reach an advanced level of proficiency in a foreign language is usually just because they just give up after a few months or years. The question is how can you keep yourself motivated and I think it boils down to curiosity, pure interest and really being curious about the culture and about the people who speak your target language. That is what has really been able to keep me going for that many years. I have been really fascinated by the culture. I have been really interested in movies and music, and the history of the country. I am also a fan of international affairs and international relations. That is my major. I am also very much interested in the international relations of Northeast Asia.   The Secret Of Using “Massive Input” To Build Build A “Self-Propelling Language Learning Engine   Studyin

Have you ever wanted simple memory improvement tips that you can use straight out of the box? If so, then you’re in full a real treat. On this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Dr. Gary Small offers you some of the best ideas from his book, 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain. It was such a pleasure speaking with memory training and brain health fitness expert Dr. Small that I’ve had the interview transcribed. You can read it below or download a PDF version of the interview using the link at the bottom of the transcription. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsfg3nNW53g Why Even The Young Can’t Avoid Memory Loss   Anthony: Dr. Small, what is your first memory of being interested in the subject of memory?   Dr. Small: Well, I think I got interested in it when I started studying Alzheimer’s disease and geriatrics. When I got into the field of gerontology, I realized that one of the biggest problems we face is cognitive decline as we age. (Here are some cognitive activities that can help.) Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of that decline. It turns out, before people get Alzheimer’s disease, they have milder memory complaints. There is just so much worry and concern among millions of people about these age-related memory slips and what we can do about them. That’s really how I got started.   Anthony: You mentioned in the book that memory can start decaying or getting worse even younger than we think. What is one of the typical ages that memory loss can start to occur?   Dr. Small: Usually people begin to notice it in their 40s and studies of neuropsychological testing, pencil and paper tests done on many, many research subjects, has found that for the average 40‑year-old a decline in memory performance can be detected. However, we have done some recent studies, collaborating with Gallop Poll, where we find that people even in their early 20s begin to start complaining about their memory. Now, their complaints are probably different from those of somebody who is in their 70s, but still the methods we’ve developed for the book apply to people of all ages.   Anthony: Given this wide age range, is there a common so to speak anti-memory activity that people are engaging in every day and if so what are those things and how can they be treated or how can people go about their daily activities differently so that they are honoring their memories and their brains?   Dr. Small: That is really what the book is about and it takes the latest science of the brain and explains it in a way that people can understand. It then translates that science into practical strategies that people can begin using.   In the 2-week program, we introduce them to these exercises, strategies and they gradually build up their mental strength, and memory power over that 2-week period and it is just long enough for those exercises to become habit-forming. It involves physical exercise, it involves mental stimulation, stress management, nutrition and learning techniques to compensate for any age-related memory challenges people are experiencing.   Can We Really Trust Memory Exercises To Ward Off Alzheimer’s?   Anthony: You mentioned a lot of different memory exercises in the book. I am wondering if you have a personal favorite out of them all that addresses some of the prevention of Alzheimer’s and just longevity in general that you enjoy the most that you do yourself?   Dr. Small: Let me just clarify. I do not know that the memory exercises will prevent Alzheimer’s, but I think that physical exercise very well may delay the onset of symptoms as will general mental stimulation and proper diet. What the memory exercises will do is to compensate for the decline so people can have a stronger memory longer even as their brains age.   If you look at all of these different exercises, it really boils down to two methods that we now call focus and frame. We need to focus our attention because the biggest reason people do not remember is they are simply not paying attention, they are not getting the information into their brains.   Frame is shorthand for trying to frame the information, providing a framework so that it has meaning. If something is meaningful, it will become memorable and we do that by using visual images. Our brains are hardwired to remember visually very effectively.   We can take a very common memory complaint like names and faces, forgetting names and faces, and teach people how to create visual images to link the name to the face. Therefore, if you meet Mr. Foreman, you might notice that he has a prominent forehead. You notice that distinguishing figure and that links it up with the name in a visual way.   The Shocking Truth About Visual Skills And Memory   Anthony: Many of the memory exercises do involve some sort of visual imagination, and one thing I hear from a lot of people is that they are just not visual. They are maybe

Ever Felt That Skull Melting Stress When Preparing For An Exam? If so, this may be the most important information you ever hear and read. Download the episode and keep reading this post all the way to the end so that you never struggle with passing an exam again. And if your schools days are over and you’re the parent of a student, be their hero and pass this information onto them. These techniques work for everything you need to learn, even difficult topics like memorizing human anatomy. How The Regeneration Of Your Cells Can Set The Stage For Making Your Memory Razor Sharp Wanna know why you forget so much of the information you read? It’s because we miss so much detail when we only listen or read a book once. Not only that, but you’re a different person the second time around. I learned this from my Uncle Walter. Unfortunately, he died in a train wreck, but he told me something I’ve never forgotten: Read the most important books you’ve encountered at least once every seven years. Every cell in your body will have been replaced, and you’ll be coming to it as a completely new human being. Of course, if you’re re-reading memory improvement books, be careful. Even the best memory improvement books are sometimes wrong. No amount of rereading will fix that. In any case, I’ve taken Walter’s advice to heart, but when it comes to podcasts and audiobooks and learning how to enhance memory, it’s possible to revisit them much sooner. And I love using Audiobook Builder by Splasm in conjunction with my iPhone so that I can get in all that info super-fast without affecting the sound quality. And today’s Q&A gives us the opportunity to talk about how to use this software in combination with the regeneration of your cells to learn and memorize everything you need to pass any exam: Schoolwork Can Be A Ball ———- Dear Anthony, When memorizing textbooks, is there a good general guideline as to what key points to place in memory palaces? Only focusing on the most relevant information is a great way to save time when studying, and I am curious if you have a strategy as to what information is placed in a memory palace using your index card method. Are these key ideas derived from what is taught in lectures, or are they based on what is most interesting to you? I have downloaded your video course Memory Secrets of an A+ student as well as read many books on memory, and your methods make learning and memorizing more fun and effective. I discovered that schoolwork can be a ball no matter what the subject is, all thanks to me stumbling upon you website. ———- This question is great. And there are a lot of ways to answer it. For example, How To Memorize A Textbook remains the most popular episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. But for now, the first thing I would say is that … A Good Lecturer Will Make It Clear To You What Key Ideas Are Coming For example, I used to write down all the “keywords” on the side of the chalkboard in a column. Students could literally “read” what I was saying and match them against the keywords. It seemed really effective because when the final quiz arrived, hardly anyone had trouble getting 98% or higher. Not all lecturers do things like this, or even present structured talks. Sometimes I don’t follow a plan myself because I like to use tangents and ask questions in the middle of a lecture. In cases like these, it’s a matter of listening for what jumps out at you. I also recommend some people take few notes and recording the lecture instead so they can pay attention to the speaker. Some professors will even allow you to place your recording device on the podium. If not, you can still get a decent recording if you sit in the first row. And what are you going to do instead of taking notes? Harness The Secret Power Of Doodling Seriously. Give it a try. Your mind will “scan” what’s being heard, and when something strikes you as a key point, write down one or two words in the middle of your doodle. You can mindmap too if you want, but I like doodling. Or sketching. I find that I can listen more intently when doing this, especially since my learning goals are very clear to me. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that I’m paying far more attention than anyone else in the room precisely because I’ve got more than one representation center of my brain operating. At least, that’s my speculation. And that speculation is a key part of learning how to enhance memory in many respects. However, please note that a recent research study found that doodling does not help many students. Doodling has helped me and I believe it’s worth experimenting with if traditional note taking doesn’t work for you. This is especially important because the connection between stress and memory is real. In fact, reducing stress is why I needed

Have you ever found yourself caged in the prison of memory? I know I sure have … In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, I’m not talking about being trapped in a Memory Palace or anything about memory techniques. I’m talking about how memory can hold you back and keep you down. Like when it leads to avoiding doing new things because someone you know frowned upon it. Or you hold on to an unwanted behaviour because you can’t shake the memories surrounding how you learned it. A myriad of consequences result. These include avoiding new experiences. Treating others poorly because your parents burned certain responses in your mind. Repeating destructive behaviors. Yes, memory can be a terrible jailor.   The Good News Is That There Are Ways To Break Free   In case you’re foggy on what I’m getting at, let me tell you a story about a friend of mine. Sadly, he died a few years ago from cancer. And I miss him. He had a fierce personality, incredible intelligence and acidic wit that that burned impressions into your mind. Although the cancer killed him, these aspects of his personality went untouched until almost the end. The disease got into his brain and then the friend I had known for so long was suddenly no more. It is a strange thing to wait for a body to die after the person him or herself is already gone. “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero But that’s the power of memory. Because even though my friend was gone, one thing stuck with me. It shaped my behavior, and although “prison” is perhaps too strong a word, these remembered things helped me act as my own jailor. During my friend’s long and valiant period of chemotherapy, I had finished a research and teaching grant in Film Studies. I had moved back to Canada from Germany and had no idea and struggled with finding a new teaching gig. I had three promising interviews at universities, and was almost hired at one of them. But when that didn’t pan out, I was lost. I didn’t know what to do. Even through all his pain and suffering, my friend held fast to his conviction that I was a teacher. We’d gotten our BA degrees together. I had watched him go through law school and start a practice as he watched me soar to the heights of a PhD and major research grant. And although I couldn’t offer a solution for his cancer, he tried to help me during his darkest days. Together, we came up together with the idea of getting a teaching certificate for high school. I rejected it the second I said it, but he encouraged it. More than encourage it, it sometimes seemed that he lived through my experiences. We talked so much and had been so close for so many years that it was often as if I was not acting alone. So as I accepted the idea and made preparations for going back to school, it became more about him than me. If You Have To Lower Your Standards, You’re In The Wrong Place   Eating on the remaining funds from my research grant while housesitting to get by, I volunteered in local high schools. Not because I wanted to volunteer, but because you need to teach under observation on a voluntary basis in a high school to apply for a teaching certificate in Canada. Even though I had taught at universities for years, I still needed to get the proper letters of recommendation from high school level teachers. Otherwise, I could not apply for the education program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. These were strange experiences because I was expected to treat the young students far below their obvious abilities… just one of many reasons why teachers fail. They have so many hoops to jump through that have nothing to do with teaching! Whereas I had been used to challenging university students to stretch beyond their comfort zones, I was now expected to spoon feed Victorian era education to young people living in the age of the Internet. It was a false portrait of how I understand the world, but I still worked at painting myself into it. In case you’ve never been, it’s at the top of a large hill, surrounded by the beautiful mountains of British Columbia where I’m from. The buses huff and puff to reach the top and every trip feels like a cross-country adventure. And it was a painful place to visit. I had no office, no classroom to teach in and no classroom to learn in.   “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” – Friedrich Nietzsche   I made the journey many times to submit registration papers and pay registration fees. I often spoke with my friend on the phone during these trips. Each time our discussions reinforced the importance of me being a teacher come hell or high water. The more voluntary teaching while eating rice and tuna and being stressed out over every dime wore me down, the weaker my convictio

How To Build Memory Palaces – Even If Your Home Is Microscopic! It’s true. Housing in Japan is notoriously tiny. Just have a look at this video demonstrating the extremely small size of one person’s home: https://youtu.be/Y0AHffBPBCI No doubt about it. Tiny locations can make effective Memory Palace construction challenging. However, I’ve got a solution to suggest on today’s podcast Q&A. It will give you plenty of ideas that will boost your success no matter how small your abode may be. And the best part is that you can also read the entire episode right from this page. Your Cramped Home Is Bigger Than You Think Hello Anthony, I am just having a few obstacles come up with completing the worksheet and building the foundations of the Memory Palaces. For example, I know that I have been living at various spots throughout my life, but maybe I am not so confident about the layout of say, the school I attended, or the shopping mall I visited, etc. How vivid and detailed do these locations have to be in order for them to qualify as a Memory Palace? Obviously, these places are in my memory, but it has been years since I have been physically there, and in other cases as much as 10+ years since I visited them. Another question would be about distance. What if I cannot remember in detail where things are in my journey of the Memory Palace? For example, walking around campus in my University. Things that I do remember are sometimes far apart from each other. Also, I am just naming spots, like the library, the parking lot, etc. I can probably go online and look at a map and that would most likely jog my memory as I mentally walk through the campus, and it would have the proper names of the buildings and the locations. How do I not get crossed up in a cramped area like my apartment? I live in Japan, and things are unbelievable tight in these apartments. This could be a real challenge. Are there strategies for not getting crossed up when memorizing the layout of a memory palace. Do we stay on one side of the wall or walkway and exit through the other side? For example, the school I work at now. How would I navigate this? (I could also pdf you a map of the layout). Imagine a Square with one side missing. And classrooms go down to the end of each side. How do I not get crossed up walking over the same path here? This has me a bit confused. Also, are we walking or are we flying / floating through our Memory Palaces since walking through large spaces like a Shopping Mall, or a University Campus, or an Amusement Park would take too much time to navigate? Thank you so much for your help and support. How To Wake Up Your Imagination And Make Even A Fishbowl Seem Like A Football Stadium In Your Mind Thanks for this question! Ultimately, a lot of these questions will be answered by experience. But based on my own experience, I can tell you this and then expand on some ideas: I personally don’t need my Memory Palaces to be so vivid. However, when I take the time to go through various exercises I’ve created (or heard about from Magnetic Memory Method readers and course participants), each Memory Palace becomes more vivid. And the effects are more immediate, intense and long-lasting. The exercises are simple, but depend upon being relaxed. In fact, all of the technical strategies aside, the number one piece of Magnetic Magic underlying the Magnetic Memory Method is relaxation. The Surprising Techniques That Makes Everything As Easy As Whip Cream So here’s what to do first: Get yourself in a relaxed state. Use mediation, Pendulum Breathing, progressive-muscle relation and any other principles you know. Everything will come together. Once you’re in a relaxed state, all you need to do is wander through the Memory Palaces. Figure out if you can take a journey through the Memory Palace in a way that follows the Magnetic Memory principles of not crossing your path and not trapping yourself. The journey can be simple or relatively complex so long as these principles are in effect, and you can make a natural journey. I also recommend that you don’t try passing through walls like a ghost or jumping out of windows, etc. Why? Because these activities use mental energy and take the focus from simply going from one station to the next. You need that so you can quickly decode the imagery you’ve created and placed at the station. Can you proceed to memorize using a network of Memory Palaces without following each of these? Of course … but you risk spending mental energy on remembering where to go next. And this prevents you from focusing on what comes next during recall practice. Very Private Matters That Only You Can Tackle Again, personal experimentation is key. Dealing with distances is an interesting issue, but it is again solved by personal experimentation. I use the campus of one of the universities I studied at extensively, but always focusing on individual college or

It’s okay. You can admit it. Your years in the traditional educational system were painful and boring, weren’t they? But even though you may have hated wasting all those hours away, I’ll bet you also wished that you had learned more. It’s a terrible irony, and yet you’re not to blame. And neither is your memory. Although there will always be problems with state education, just imagine what it would be like if learning could always be fun and interesting and that young people could remember everything they learn. Wouldn’t that be cool? Get Ready For The Good News About Memory Improvement Techniques For Kids In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Imogen Aires and her father Kevin talk about the powerful role memory techniques have played in her life as a young student. Even in a short period of time, Imogen has used a Memory Palace based on her school and another based on the home of a relative to memorize the names of royalty and the titles of Shakespeare’s plays. But the amazement doesn’t end with memory pyrotechnics. Kevin tells us about his surprise when he found that these memory stunts had an unexpected side effect: Getting Imogen – and the rest of the family – interested in the history of kings and queens. Even better, soon Imogen was reading abridged editions of Shakespeare’s plays. Kevin talks more about this in his recent TEDTalk: https://youtu.be/s_DrOglHtSk Tune into this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and you’ll also hear about: * One of the best books for helping kids learn memory techniques (and adults too). * Why kids are perfectly capable of using memory techniques … and how this can lead to incredible “fluency” in Shakespeare’s plays. * How you can help your kids build and use a Memory Palace. * Why Imogen thinks that memorizing a deck of cards is going to be fun, even if they aren’t a huge priority for success in other areas. * Why Imogen finds that exercising her memory is anything but boring. Kind of like how Kevin Richardson turned his memory into the perfect Learn Japanese App. * Exactly why the mnemonic images you create need to be funny and weird so that they “stick” in your brain. * The kinds of information that kids find the most interesting to memorize and why. * How using memory techniques can serve as a “gateway drug” for developing interest in education. * Why kids have more than enough locations in mind in order to build many Memory Palaces, including schools they no longer attend. * The one thing that everyone has that makes creating your first Memory Palace incredibly easy and fun. * How you can practice what you’ve memorized simply by talking with other people by teaching them these incredible techniques. * How Imogen’s father turned what he thought would be a simple party trick into a moving TEDTalk about teaching memory techniques to young people. * Kevin’s “edge-ucation” concept and how to apply it to your exploration of memory techniques and any subject of interest. * Why mnemonic associative-images are like theatre plays and how that “restaging” them is the best path to getting the most out of your Memory Palace (and Memory Palaces if you’re using more than one). * Why you’re never too young and it’s never too soon to become a “memory consultant.” * … and much, much more. Further Resources Brad Zupp on Memory Techniques And Memory Improvement For All Ages 3 Powerful Memory Training Techniques From Around The World Remember, Remember: Learn the Stuff You Never Thought You Could by Ed Cooke The Memory Palace by Lewis Smile Tap The Mind Of A Ten Year-old Memory Palace Master on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast Unlimited Memory Book Review

Even if you’re not an actor, you’ve probably wondered what it would be like to get up on stage and completely forget your lines. Or maybe you’ve just asked yourself what that would feel like … To go completely blank in front of a crowd. Probably not very good. The closest I’ve come to blanking out involved an anxiety attack while delivering a lecture. And I’ve experienced unexpected issues when delivering my TEDx Talk. For example, people failed to laughed at a spot where I’d made a joke. Later, they laughed on a line where I wasn’t expecting laughter. Thanks to some of the tips I’m about to share, I caught myself in time. The performance went on to great success and I lived to deliver another day. Ready to discover these tips from serious actors and gain some inspiration for what to do when you lose your lines? Let’s get started with this example of how Christopher Walken responded after forgetting his next line. It’s a fascinating example of how he tried to cue himself: https://youtu.be/rJP1m8XfXqA So as you can see, forgetting lines does happen, even to the best. During my research into how actors deal with forgetting like this, I was quite surprised by the range of activities actors use. I was surprised to find that not all actors use conventional mnemonics, making each of the following memory tips interesting in their own right. 1. Don’t Memorize Your Lines Sounds weird, right? After all, Peter O’Toole famously said that he and most of his colleagues get paid to memorize lines. The acting they do for free. But in reality, many actors forgo memorization, at least at first. Instead of committing the lines to memory, they read their scripts again and again. Anthony Hopkins, for example, talks about reading his scripts several hundred times. But if they’re not memorizing the lines, why all the repetition? It’s because they’re looking for the intentions of their character. They try to find the motivations and the emotional experiences their characters go through. As we know from how we can use mnemonics to remember complex information, emotions can provide very memorable triggers and build many durable connections quickly. That’s why I continually point out just how important emotion is when using mental imagery. And if you think about it, the most memorable scenes from movies all feature hugely exaggerated reactions based on emotional states. https://youtu.be/5j2F4VcBmeo In sum, the repetitive reading some actors do while preparing for their roles builds associations at a microscopic level. The smallest detail in the dialog can make the lines much more memorable to the emotional being of the actor who must react from feeling just as much as from memory. And it’s the smallest twitch of a facial muscle that can make the difference between a blockbuster flop and an Oscar-winning movie. To make those facial twitches happen, a deep emotional understanding needs to be there and re-reading is the key. Wondering how you can get yourself to read and re-read texts in similar ways? Check out my personal re-reading strategy here. It’s a bit different than what Anthony Hopkins talks about, but will help you get in at least a little repetition to boost your memory in a more organic way. 2. Use Location and Movement Acting takes place in time and space. It is an art of change, and as Plato and Aristotle pointed out about memory, change is always movement. And just as actors link their lines to emotional states, they also link them to movement. Knowing where a character says something, in which emotional condition and in response to what context all provide powerful cues. This cool technique resembles Memory Palace work in many ways. But instead of using a familiar home as a Memory Palace, the film set or theater stage becomes a specific-purpose Memory Palace designed to accomplish a specific task. World Memory Champion Mark Channon Both Mark Channon and Scott Gosnell have talked about different ways of making Memory Palaces like this on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast before. As an actor himself, Channon has used the technique just described. And Scott told us about going to an examination room before you take a test to install your imagery. This “immersion” technique works extraordinarily well because you’ve got a real representation of your Memory Palace in front of you. This immediacy lets you focus on the memory triggering power of your associative-imagery with great immediacy. And if you’re an actor or want to perform well on an exam, you need immediacy. In fact, you need the target material to leap into your mind like mice on cheese in a world free from cats and barriers. https://youtu.be/XVFj358waK8 3. Focus on Emotions We’ve already talked about emotions in the first part about mentally processing the lines of a play again and again. The idea here is that the more you

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Grand Master of Memory Mark Channon talks about memory improvement from his perspective as an actor, personal trainer and game show host creator. As you can already tell, Mark has an incredible background that brings special qualities to his status as a memory expert and trainer. As the author of How to Remember Anything, Channon takes the value he has for you one step further. In this epic memory improvement book, Channon presents us with stimulating ideas and actionable techniques you can get started using right away. And in this interview, Mark demonstrates just how profound his “Total Memory Blueprint” will be for you. Click play above to listen and you’ll learn: * How to build your memory skill set, even if you’re a busy person. * How to memorize the streets of London using a Memory Palace, a bit of 21st Century technology and a memory technique Mark calls mnemonic chaining. * How to create powerful reference stories that you can refer to months and years later to recall information. * Exactly how it feels to compete in the World Memory Championships. * How to deal with the occasional “effort” involved in the fun and games of using memory techniques by discovering your purpose. * How to develop concentration, even if your brain is busy as a beaver. * How to let go of your inhibitions and remember more without even using any memory techniques whatsoever. * The secrets of being present and active listening and the three levels of communication to focus on. * How to memorize lines for a Stephen Spielberg audition when the film in a foreign language – even if you’ve never learned a word of that language before! * The best mindset to develop for memorizing long texts or monologues verbatim. * How to create visual (and yet invisible) cue cards. Use these during a presentation to recall a memorized speech without taking yourself out of the moment. This is great for people who “skip a beat” while searching through Memory Palaces. It’s also great for people with aphantasia. * What you can learn about mnemonics from Iron Man in the Avengers. * How to use relaxation to create focus and energy without putting yourself to sleep. * How to harness the power of “tiny habits” to be more present, remember more information and deal with information overload. * How to use memory techniques to get tips if you work at a bar or restaurant and one crazy party trick that will amaze your friends – and make them wonder if they can trust you! * The importance of incorporating the fun of play into your memory improvement efforts. * Why you should focus on memorizing “anything” rather than “everything.” * … and much, much more. Amazing Clip From the Pilot Of Mark Channon’s Memory Masters https://youtu.be/n-bBnJ0-c-I Mini-MMM Review Of Mark Channon’s How To Remember Anything As you know, books on memory skills are a dime a dozen. And few are memorable. But what makes Mark Channon’s treatise and training on the art of memory so unique is its blend of unique ideas and Channon’s emphasis on sharing the sources of his learning and inspiration. And you’ll want to be following up on many of those sources. Ranging from training for actors to ideas drawn from psychologists, Channon not only helps you take control of your memory. You learn to take control of many other aspects of your life too, including better note-taking. How to Remember Anything highlights the paradox of memory. It is both absolutely central, yet at the same time, peripheral to much that we do with it. Channon talks about the power of forgetting – or at least allowing ourselves to align so completely with the present that the ego steps out of the way. And when that happens, you can let memory fulfill its natural role of providing exactly what we need at exactly the right time. Channon compliments the book with brain science, but not to the point of overwhelm. He has many stoic secrets you’ll benefit from. If you’re interested in how and why the brain works, Mark’s book presents a snackable primer and all the resources you could ask for if you want to explore further. Each chapter of the book is well-structured and the exercises pack a punch. Many have value apart from raw memorization as well. You can use them to learn more, develop creativity, think critically at a higher level and elevate your communication style. In sum, How to Remember Anything gives particular understandings of the classic memory techniques that will widen your perspective of how they can be used. And there is plenty more for those interested in memory improvement that you won’t encounter in other books on mnemonics, so be sure to check this one out. Resources Mentioned In The Podcast And More Powerful Tips! Mark Channon’s free resources on his Memory School website Mark Channon’s World Memory Championship stats How to Remember Anything on Amazon The Memory Workbo

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we’re looking in depth at the new book Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley. The pros, the cons and everything in-between. Program Notes Kevin Horsley’s recent book, Unlimited Memory is worth your time. If you’re a student and user of memory techniques, this written version of the podcast will tell you why. There Are No New Memory Techniques Under the Sun … Or Are There? As most people interested in the art of memory techniques know, there’s nothing new under the sun. The memory improvement methods were invented thousands of years ago and refinements have been slim. But that doesn’t mean that innovations haven’t occurred. Not only that, but memory techniques improve every time someone takes up using them and feels the power of empowered recall. And that’s why no matter where you are in your journey as a memorizer, Horsley’s book merits your full attention. Why? Because if you’ve never learned memory techniques before, his straightforward and energetic manner will serve as a great introduction to memory improvement. And if you’re already an old hat with using mnemonics but have lapsed, Horsley will inspire you to get back in the saddle. New Ways To Think About Old Techniques Plus, you’ll find new ways to think about the techniques. Fresh perspectives can be more valuable than the techniques themselves in some cases if they inspire you to keep going. And the book is filled with great quotes that place memory techniques in interesting new contexts. In fact, every single one is worth committing to memory. Horsley’s quotable too. “Conflict,” he points out, “is the opposite of concentration,” and much of the book talks about removing everything that gets in the way of your progress so that you can focus on. Horsley’s point about conflict in this context should be confused with having conflict in your associative-imagery, however. Although I’m not interested in being critical of the book, it is slim on how to include rigorous to help you a) memorize information and … b) recall it. Mnemonic Examples On Almost Every Page For those who feel the need for examples, you couldn’t find more to choose from. For each principle, you get tonnes of written illustration to imagine along with. From a pedagogical standpoint, this may be overkill and the book lacks some guidance on how to be creative and “see” those images in your mind. In terms of visuals, there are a couple throughout the book, with the illustrations limited mostly to explaining number memorization using the Major Method. I personally like the limited number of illustrations because it is important to recreate what you see in your mind, not what others see. This is why the overkill on text-based images can help you so long as you work at recreating them in your mind. The book could also include more Memory Palace examples, but it certainly does more than enough to help you get started with your own. https://youtu.be/lmbpCUrCWdI Use These Powerful Visualization Exercises If you would like some fast and easy exercises for developing your visual imagination, try looking at paintings and then recreating them in your mind. You can also verbally express them on paper in a short paragraph and use what you’ve written as the basis for recreating the imagery in your imagination. And please realize that you don’t need to literally “see” the images in your mind in order to increase your memory power when using this memory technique. It doesn’t have to be high-definition television. Verbal expression in your mind (even without writing the words down) can be just as powerful. But please do work on visualizing. And to develop the skill further, think about what being visual in your mind actually means to you. If you struggle in this area, you might be pleasantly surprised at how simply thinking through this issue and defining what imaginative visuality means to you can give you the basis for truly creating improvement. How To Take Your Brain To The Gym Think of this defining process as laser targeting what’s really going on. It’s kind of like the difference between going to the gym to reduce general flabbiness and getting no results and going to the gym with a trainer who knows exactly which muscles to develop so that you burn the most calories. And of course you need to eat the right foods to support this process, which in the case of developing your visual imagination means looking at art on a regular basis and mentally recreating it. Horsely uses the gym metaphor himself when he talks about memory training. He points out that no one is born ripped out with big muscles. They must be trained. The same goes for memory power. Your mind is a muscle and you can develop it. Even just reading about memory techniques can help, but nothing beats getting in

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, Scott Gosnell, the translator of two books by the mnemonist Giordano Bruno talks about the man, his writings and the application of his memory techniques to everyday life. Since recording this interview, a lot of people have asked if they should read Giordano Bruno. My answer: https://youtu.be/GZv4IDNaDhA My opinion aside, listen to Scott’s knowledge on this Magnetic Memory Method Podcast interview. You’ll learn: * How to use Star Wars (or any movie you’re familiar with) as a Memory Palace. * Why Scott’s translations of Giordano Bruno are the product of perhaps the best form of procrastination you’ll ever hear about (and maybe even be inspired to do some similar procrastination of your own for the good of humanity). * Scott’s amazing Memory Palace technique for students, possibly the most amazing technique you could add to your studies that I’ve ever heard! * Bruno’s idea that an intelligible system exists behind the world and how this connects to memory. * How to use memorized objects as Memory Palace locations. * How studying Bruno’s systems could help you coordinate your knowledge while learning to retain it. * Why Francis Yates’ interpretation of Bruno’s activities in The Art Of Memory and Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition may not be the best way to think about his memory improvement projects. * Why Bruno was really interested in the psychology and neuroscience of the human mind – not magic. * Why Bruno thought his memory system could give you an internal representation of the entire universe … or did he? * Why Bruno felt it was a practical concern to keep your Memory Palace well lit and not place your associative-imagery on a background of the same color. * How context sensitive cues can either help or harm your memory. * Why Bruno likens Memory Palaces to writing so that you can scan a Memory Palace for memorized information the way you would scan a page looking for a particular word. * Why Bruno’s execution probably had nothing – or at least very little – to do with his mnemonic systems. * Thoughts on Bruno as a “marketer” of memory techniques. * Why memory techniques were a very useful talent for a king to have (and still are even if you’re not a king). * Why Bruno most likely wasn’t a spy – but probably would have made a good one had he been. * Why Bruno thought that the Memory Palace was the best and most effective memory method available, even though he also used smaller methods like linking, lists and poetry. * … and much, much more. Further Resources De Umbris Idearum by Giordano Bruno, Translation and Introduction by Scott Gosnell On the Infinite, the Universe and the Worlds by Giordano Bruno, Translation and Introduction by Scott Gosnell A follow-up interview with Scott about his translation of Bruno’s Composition of Images Another interview on Scott’s follow-up translation project of De Umbris Idearum Scott’s De Umbris Idearum website Scott on Twitter Scott’s Windcastle Venture Consulting Bottle Rocket Science Giordano Bruno on Wikipedia Giordano Bruno: Philosopher Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland Hermes Trismegistus Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Novels Featuring Bruno Giordano: Heresy by S. J. Parris (one of many in a series of books structured around Bruno) John Michael Greer on Bruno Tony Buzan On The Paradise Of Multiple Intelligences 2018 Giordano Bruno Memory Techniques Update!   Miskatonic Books has released a new translation by John Michael Greer. Please visit their store to order one of the limited editions of On the Shadows of the Ideas by Giordano Bruno. Or if you’d just like to learn more about my initial impressions of the book, check out this replay of my recent YouTube Live Stream about On the Shadows of the Ideas by clicking play on this video: https://youtu.be/qcDgpIogjTo  

Wanna Know Exactly How To Master Any Language?   I got good news for you. The amazing polyglot Luca Lampariello showed up in Berlin and we had a good long chat about language learning. And the best part is … We’ve got it on video! https://youtu.be/ujV3lsY2PH4 Anthony: Hi, this is Anthony Metivier. I’m here with Luca Lampariello, and we are doing a very special interview. We are here in Berlin. I live in Berlin but Luca is visiting. Luca: Yes. Anthony: We thought, “Well I’m the memory guy and he’s the language-learning guy.” We both operate in the same sort of industry so to speak, because his business is memorizing words and my business is helping you memorize them. It’s really not a business. It’s more like a passion. Luca: Yes. Anthony: For people who don’t know you, you’ve got dozens upon dozens of videos on YouTube that train people in a particular brand of language learning, but for people who do know you, which I think probably many, many people who are watching this already do, one thing I’ve noticed is that we have never heard much about your personal life and I mean I don’t even know if you have a ‑ Luca: You meant to pry. You want to know the real secrets. Anthony: The real stuff, like the dirt; for one thing, I’ve never asked you if you have a middle name. Luca: Yeah, actually my name is Luca, everybody calls me Luca, but my other name is Vittorio because my grandfather, that’s my grandfather’s name. The Italian tradition is to call a son or a daughter after your grandmother. It’s an old tradition coming from the south. I don’t know if it’s the same thing in Canada. He is actually my father’s mother. His name was Vittorio. He was a physician, a doctor who used to be in World War II unfortunately, and he was in Africa. Unfortunately, I never got to meet him. My mother told me he had very interesting stories to tell about World War II. Because one of the things I like the most, apart from language, is history. Anthony: Did any of those stories survive that you remember from your grandmother? Luca: Yeah, I remember a lot of things that my mother told me. Not only my grandfather actually, my other grandfather as well and my grandmother, I got to know my two grandmothers and they were telling us about what happened in World War II. One is from Calabria which is deep south. The Americans and the Allies invaded Sicily and then went up to Calabria, and my other grandmother actually comes from the north of Italy. I’ve got the whole family from everywhere in Italy. So I have all these different traditions and also dialects. One thing that I never say is that my grandmother when I was a little kid just talked to me in Calabrese dialect. I learned that as well. Anthony: Well that’s a lot of different parts of Italy but I know you are living in Rome at the moment. Is that where you were born? Luca: Yes, that is exactly where I was born and I’ve been living there for 34 years almost because I’m turning 34 actually in two days. Anthony: Thirty-four in two days. Luca: Thirty-four, I’m an old man. Anthony: Well happy birthday in advance. Luca: Thanks. Anthony: But you’ve also lived in Paris? Luca: I lived in Paris for three years. I lived in Paris and Barcelona. Anthony: Okay so the three places. What strikes you as being some of the major similarities and major differences? Luca: That’s a very interesting question. Barcelona is very similar to Italy – the weather, the people, the traditions. I always say that Spaniards are a little bit like our cousins in a way because I believe that the language is like part of the culture and our languages are very, very similar and that reflects a certain kind of mentality. Paris on the other hand, the French are similar to the Italians in so many ways but at the same time they’re different. Paris is like a northern European city and the weather is kind of different. It’s a little bit chilly there, like here in Berlin. Actually Berlin is not as cold as I thought. It’s like 6. Anthony: Plus 6. Luca: Plus 6 you know. So I’m kind of liking it. A month ago I was in Russia and expected to be minus 20 and it was plus 8 and now it’s plus 6 so I might bring good weather or maybe I’m just lucky. I tend to lean towards the second. I have to say that the French and the Spaniards and the Italians are very similar in so many ways. It’s not easy to pin down these things because you have to live to understand, but basically I also believe that the language plays a huge role, and obviously history. We’re all Latin peoples so to say so there is a common trait to our culture and the way we eat food and etc. Anthony: You mentioned history as one of your interests. What interests you about history? Luca: Well everything interests me. The thing that interests me the most is that if you

One of the most common questions I receive is… how do I find Memory Palaces? What if I don’t have a car? What if I live in the forest? What if I can’t get out much? Never fear. No matter who you are or where you live, you can use the Method of Loci. All you need to do is keep an open mind and experiment. And it’s with these principles in mind that I can tell you I especially admired this recent letter I received from a member of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. What Do I Do If I Don’t Have Enough Memory Palaces? It’s a good question, and we’ll look at the nuances in depth on this page. And in this video, I will introduce you to the Infinite Memory Palace technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn05eskjIFg Here’s a variation on the question I often receive, followed by a number of suggestions: I’m going to apologize in advance, this email is going to be a bit long, and… I am very sorry for that. I would be, however, very grateful for your help. I have to say this… I watched a lot of your videos, listened to a lot of podcasts, and…I honestly am pumped to get started really seriously learning Japanese vocabulary. However… At the risk or sounding like I’m obfuscating things…I just have a few quick and simple questions, involving the “Art of Association” itself, so to speak. Should one prefer memory palaces, or images? If you have looked at Japanese before, you probably have noticed that its spelling is in no way similar to western languages, so I came up with two possible ways to memorize vocabulary, but, I’d rather do things the right way, the easier and more efficient way, right from the get-go. So, in idea one, I thought of treating each kana as a sentinel, to give each one a specific image that will be tied to vocabulary. I’d create 26 memory palaces, a-z, and store words based on their first letter when transliterated. Then tie the actual first kana image, to the rest of the word. That way I can have words like yasai and yokoshiro in the same palace, with distinct “sentinel” images attached to them, to give away the first kana itself. This idea uses less palaces, but more images. And is, as I think of it, “Palace-Conservative”. The second idea, (Don’t worry, there is only two), is “Image-Conservative”, and, the general idea, is to use a single palace for each kana. Now, there are variations to this, really, in variation 1, I only looked at the hiragana, (because katakana uses the same sounds but different symbols), and would store words based solely on the first kana in the word. (no transliteration). Including the Datuken, I would require 70 palaces. If I included “Combo-Hiragana”, I’d require 106. (Roughly). To blow this up even more, in variation 2, if I were to treat the katakana and hiragana separately, to remember the proper spelling of words (Like, which kana syllabary to use), I’d need roughly 212 palaces. I’m brand new to Memory Palaces, and the Magnetic Memory Method, and really, the “Palace Conservative” idea sounds more intuitive to me, but, haha, this is coming from a guy who thought rote learning and spaced repetition systems like Anki were the only way to go. And I really, really didn’t like them. Memory Palace Acquisition, a problem? For me, yes. Let me explain: I’m 21 years old. I live in a town of 5000 people. Nearest town has maybe 500 people. Nearest city, of 250,000, is 400km away. I have no car. I have no drivers license. I also have a night job, and sleep during the day. I have spent 13 years of my life here, about 8 years of my life in that small nearby town, and 4 months in Barrie. I don’t remember those 4 months very well, I was only 7, and…well, I was extremely depressed, and in short, that’s the reason I ended up back in this town to begin with. Anyways…during the Palace Recitation exercise I was only able to come up with about 60 palaces. And I really thought about this, with a lot of time and effort. Occasionally, 1 more might pop up, but…I believe I have pretty much maxed out now. And I really don’t want to sound pessimistic, I love this method thus far, and I can see myself using it forever, and ever…and ever. But, until I’m able to move out to a city, where I can actually just “go memory palace hunting” so to speak, I’m stumped about what to do. I don’t know if you ever lived in a small town before, but just going out and getting new friends and doing all that, is really…it’s very hard to do. For example I can’t just, you know, burst into the little high school we have and start socializing with a bunch of the kids there. It’d be…inappropriate, to say the least. I played one of my favourite video games, Ocarina of Time, as remade for the 3DS back in 2011, an

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we discuss mental imagery, science and a new book on memorizing numbers and math. Episode Note: The book I mentioned is available under the title, How to Learn and Memorize Math, Numbers, Equations and Simple Arithmetic for Kindle. If you prefer video courses, please check out the premium version of this book in video course format. I want to thank you kindly for visiting and look back to this page soon for a full discussion of the episode, the Method of Loci, mnemonics, creating a Memory Palace network and more topics related to memorizing math. All that said, here is the correspondence I received as referred to in this episode of the podcast: Hi Anthony, I have a question I would like to ask. Using mnemonics what have you committed to memory? I’m interested in using mnemonics to educate myself, to learn and be able to remember a vast sum of knowledge, that I find enjoyable, and I find it inspirational to hear, what others have achieved using such techniques. Kind regards. This is a great question, and answering it helps me describe just how versatile the Magnetic Memory Method – and mnemonics in general – happen to be. Over the years I have memorized a wide variety of information types. This TEDx Talk is perhaps the most memorable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtYjdriSpM Here’s a tutorial on how to memorize a speech or presentation yourself if you’re interested in that skill. I’ve also used memory techniques to learn: * Foreign language vocabulary in a variety of languages including a bunch of Chinese characters * Musical notation like the bass clef, key signatures and the Circle of Fifths * Dates and facts * Seat numbers on airplanes and trains * Poetry * Famous quotes * Randomized decks of cards * To-do lists (which as Derren Brown points out, Memory Palace to-do items are for more likely to get done) * Philosophical concepts * Names of people I meet * Street and city names * Addresses * Phone numbers * Film and book titles * Recipes * Call numbers at the library * Appointment times * The steps involved in learning something new * … and I’m sure there’s much more. For me, the ultimate trick has always been to use locations (spatial memory). Some people toss their visual associations “into the void” of their minds without locating them some place. And for some people, that’s just fine. But I’m an advocate for localized organization. Why? I’ve talked about this a lot before in other editions of the Magnetic Memory newsletter, the key idea being that we have an unconscious fear of losing things (objects, certainly, but especially losing our minds). Thus, when we create a visual image to help us remember something and then stick it in a clearly visualized mental location based on a familiar location, we eliminate the fear and anxiety we naturally have a losing things and can focus on embedding that information instead. Just a theory? Perhaps. But theory is irrelevant when it comes to real life applications of these techniques. This stuff works. And there’s science behind it too. And incredible teachers of memory like Barbara Oakley of Learning How to Learn who also stick to the science. Anyone who knows me knows that I have very limited patience for anything that can’t be empirically demonstrated in front of a council of disinterested men and women in lab coats. That’s just the way my Magnets roll. Further Resources: In Praise of the Mnemonic Peg System How to Memorize Numbers with the Major Method Method of Loci article on Wikipedia List of mnemonic Devices

The Peg System is an alternative to the Method of Loci and the Memory Palace technique. Or is it? The reality is a Memory Palace is itself a collection of pegs. When people don’t realize this fact, they miss out on the power of both memory techniques. Just so we’re on the same page, here’s a brief rundown of what a Peg System is and when you might want to use one: The Peg System (sometimes called the pegword method) is just what it sounds like: The exercise of “pegging” (or linking) one thing to another. It assumes that you know the first thing, so it’s just a matter of Magnetically connecting the next in your mind. I’m going to be giving some examples of how this works, and I want you to follow along. But here’s an important caveat: Following my examples or the examples of any mnemonist is not the best way to learn memory techniques. As you read, treat these examples and demonstrations only. Immediately create your own images in your mind. Only in this way will you be accomplishing two things: 1. Learning the link system 2. Exercising your imagination Let’s get started.   How To Hang Information On A Number   Have a read through the following list of rhymes: 1 is a gun 2 is a shoe 3 is a bee 4 is a door 5 is a hive 6 is a stick 7 is heaven 8 is a gate 9 is a line 10 is Ben 11 is heaven 12 is a shelf Etc. … This number-rhyme technique is related to these other 3 powerful techniques for memorizing numbers. How To Attach A Number-Rhyme Peg System To A Memory Palace If you really think about it… wouldn’t it be easy to number each Magnetic Station in a Memory Palace and give it the rhyme peg you created? Illustration of the Peg System built into a Memory Palace Notice in the image above how this works. The couch serves as Magnetic Station #1 in the Memory Palace. The gun for the number rhyme is always there, always ready to be used for the purposes of elaborative encoding when you want to memorize something. On Magnetic Station #2, you have the shoe and on Magnetic Station #3, a bee. To make these associations clear to your brain, I recommend that you make your pegs concrete and specific. For example, instead of a generic bee, think of the Jerry Seinfeld character in The Bee Movie. Instead of the idea of a shoe, think of your favorite shoes from high school and use those. Specificity makes everything in the world of mnemonics work better, even better than flashbulb memory. What On Earth Is This Memory Technique Really All About?   To be clear: This memory system is about mentally “hanging” one piece of information onto another. In this case, you are hanging a rhymed word onto something you already know and will probably never forget (the numbers 1-12). You’re associating them. There are some problems with the rhymes I just gave you, however. Here’s the major issue: Although all of the items that rhyme with the numbers (something that is in and of itself part of creating memorability), not all of the words I’ve given you are directly visible. For example, what does heaven look like? Clouds? Angel wings? Fields of grass as shown in Gladiator as Maximus makes his way to Elysium? Who can say? And that lack of specificity can be a problem. But not usually if you know your system and always use it … religiously.   Here is why:   What we’re going to do with these rhymes is use them to memorize more information. For example, let’s say that you’re going to an important business meeting and you’ll be meeting twelve new people. The 11th person you meet is named Ralph. How are you going to associate Ralph with 11? Well, you could see him floating on a cloud (heaven). Or you could see him with angel wings bursting from his back (heaven). Or you could see him on the roof of the Sistine Chapel flirting with God’s finger (heaven). The important thing is to be consistent. And include wild, exaggerated action in a visual way. It’s great if you can make it absurd too. So instead of seeing wings bursting from Ralph’s back, you could have them bursting from his chest, perhaps even poking through the “Ralph” name tag on this chest.   A Concrete Alternative   Personally, I never use “heaven” for 11 the rare times I use the Peg System. It’s too abstract and vague and there are too many possibilities. I use my friend “Evan.” I’ve known him for years and can see what he looks like in my mind (he’s almost always got a goofy smile). And if I were to meet a guy named Ralph and wanted to memorize him as part of a list of names, I would have him interacting with this new dude Ralph in a weird and interesting way. Or better yet, I might include some other Ralph I already know to “peg” Ralph even deeper into the connective tissue of my mind. For example, Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid might sho

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Jonathan Levi talks about how to become a SuperLearner using speed reading and memory techniques. Tune in now and learn: * Why speed reading is not snake oil and Jonathan’s amazing bucket, hose and water metaphor for understanding your memory. * Why long term memory functionally has no limit and how to maximize what you can place inside your mind. * The precise meaning of what a “superlearner” is and how to achieve this ability not just in your mind, but in your body too. * Why you must change how you digest and interact with information in order to improve how you learn and memorize information. * How to get more done in less time when it comes to learning and memorizing just about anything fast. * Why improving your mind is like putting advanced cabling into a house. * How to reduce your resistance to learning new things. * The bottleneck effect that comes from using Duolingo, Spreeder and other rote repetition programs and how to use your mind to gain an advantage over those who limit themselves to these tools. * Why the memory tool “chunking” may not be good for learning every single topic and why you need to have multiple tools. * The relationship between driving manual transmission in your car and using your memory. * Why adults learn differently and how to make sure that you can fulfill this requirement throughout your life. * Why Jonathan prefers the term “Memory Temple” rather than “Memory Palace,” “Roman Room,” “House of Memory” or “Method of Loci.” * Why Jonathan doesn’t use the word “mnemonics” and why it caused all kinds of suffering and even made him resent learning. * The “kinesiology tape” phenomenon and how it relates to memory competitions and the culture of memory games discussed in Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking With Einstein. * The Daniel Tammet issue and how it relates to psychics, mentalists and magicians (and why you should never fraudulently represent your advanced memory abilities once you’ve developed them). * Jonathan’s amazing story of demonstrating exactly how someone who thought she had a bad memory easily memorized a phone number using memory techniques – without even realizing it! * The two dominant ways to memorize huge strings of numbers and the kind Jonathan relies upon predominantly – including the reason why the Major Method is not his go-to method. * How to use association to memorize pronunciation (using a fatty example from Russian). * How Jonathan used Superlearning to solve his knee pain and restoring himself to health. * SMART goals and why using them will help you become a Superlearner and maximize your time. Resources Mentioned On The Podcast: Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury and Optimizing Athletic Performance. The Tyranny of Experts. The Adult Learning Theory – Andragogy – of Malcolm Knowles. About Jonathan Levi: Jonathan Levi is an experienced entrepreneur and angel investor from Silicon Valley. After successfully selling his Inc 5,000 rated startup in April of 2011, Levi packed up for Israel, to gain experience at Rhodium, a Venture Capital Firm specializing in New Media and Mobile. While in Israel, Levi enlisted the help of speed-reading expert and university professor Anna Goldentouch, who tutored him in speed-reading, advanced memorization, and more. Levi saw incredible results while earning his MBA from INSEAD, and was overwhelmed with the amount of interest his classmates expressed in acquiring the same skill set. Since acquiring this superlearning skill, he has become a proficient lifehacker, optimizing and “hacking” such processes as travel, sleep, language learning, and fitness. He’s also managed to improve his ADD and has gone on to give a great TEDx Talk on memory.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, MMM practitioner Rose goes into detail about how she memorized the Hindi alphabet using the most potent memorization tool known to humanity: The Memory Palace. Even if you don’t want to learn Hindi, you’ll learn a lot from this podcast, so be sure to tune-in. And in case you prefer to read, here’s the … Prose Version Of Rose’s Guest-Podcast! I did it! I did it! I am so excited to learn Hindi! And I’m having a blast doing it! You’re right Anthony! You can learn an unknown and many-charactered alphabet in an hour and a half using the Magnetic Memory Method! For me it was actually an hour and 40 minutes for 48 distinct characters of the Hindi alphabet (There’s actually 60+ but I’ll get into that in a moment). My name is Rose and I am on the edge of my seat, so to speak, with so much enthusiasm and ‘can’t wait to do more’ kind of energy. I am recording my initial experiences for you in case it is of some benefit to another person who’s thinking about learning this outrageous method. I hope any background noises from a roaring monsoon filled river and many singing birds outside my window here in the foothills of the Himalayas won’t interfere with hearing this. To be clear I am able to start anywhere in the alphabet, go forward or backward, jump around, etc. I recognize and remember the symbols and stories and locations of where I ‘planted’ them; I can retrieve them quickly and it’s all vivid and hilarious. That is astounding! Yet even more amazing, which to me is nothing short of a miracle, I thought I’d see how well I’d do at writing the symbols. I figured that would require more sessions of practicing, practicing, practicing. To my astonishment I was able to easily draw them all correctly just by remembering the image/ picture/story I had given it, and I did that in less than 5 minutes! I am truly blown away by this! Recognizing something visually and then taking pen to paper to draw it are two very different mindset applications. I can understand why you would love to see more and more people using this astounding method!!! And I see what you mean when you say building Memory Palaces does a lot more than help memorize vocabulary, poetry, names, concepts or whatever. Once I started coming up with images it became easier, just as you say. It was as if the rusty cogs in the brain machine were getting oiled. But even better, I was having a blast coming up with more and more outrageous images and stories. Feeling more creative? Trusting my imagination and what it brings forth? Laughing out loud while memorizing a foreign language? Are you kidding? Wow! I’m 62 and I now know I can learn Hindi and have fun doing it. This should be taught in all schools!! Can you imagine kids being excited about learning? So let me back up to how I arrived at this – The preparation required to even begin the actual memorizing part was enormous, but what a fantastic learning experience. You recommend to just get started. Just do it and see how it unfolds. I figured if I waited to read everything you’ve written or listen to all the podcasts before actually doing anything, I’d never get around to doing anything. So I took your advice and your course and just dove in…. and nearly drowned….but your Excel spreadsheet idea was my life preserver. Here’s why. The first thing was determining how many letters there are in the Hindi (Devanagari script) language. That was an adventure unto itself and my first challenge. Depending on which source I looked at there are 11-13 vowels and 33-40 consonants (I won’t get into all the whys and wherefores of this). So anywhere from 44- 53 distinct symbols. Add to this the fact that 10 of the 11 vowels have two forms, two distinctly different symbols depending on what positions it holds in a word. So you have to learn 10 more distinct symbols. Then there are many conjuncts but 6 have unique symbols that don’t look anything like their individual parts along with making a new sound. So those must be learned. Now we’re up to what number? I’ve lost count. I’m saying all this just to point out how important it is to know where to begin, what you’re dealing with. I began with pencil and paper. I thought I knew how many stations I’d need, etc. Then I’d check one of my resources and there’d be another variation. Okay. Cross that out, start over. New piece of paper…..this happened several times. This is when I thought I was going to drown, going a little crazy, saying well, what the heck is the alphabet then? I just want to build a darn memory palace!! Using your Excel spreadsheet idea (another learning curve for me) I was able to make changes and adjustments more easily. I also went out and purchased a 1,000 page Hindi to English dictionary (no English to Hindi in it!). This was a great investment. I figured the Oxford version should be reliable. It was actually a great exercise and very enjoyable (I can’t believe I’m saying

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Daniel Welsch discusses in detail how he memorized all 50 Spanish provinces using his first Memory Palace in one go. Amazing results anyone can achieve any place, at any age and at any time. Yes, even if you’re a Spanish speaker: https://youtu.be/g9iH-GYthKw Listen to this interview now and you’ll also learn: * How to make great leaps towards fluency even without traveling to a new country. (Though you should definitely experience as many different countries as you possibly can!) * The facts about how people have always been holistically and organically learning languages (and how you can put these simple principles to work for yourself). * The importance of looking at art in order to improve your visual memory. (This simple discussion is worth the time you’ll spend listening to this podcast on its own). * How to visualize for success during a job interview – especially when the interview is not in your first language! Daniel’s thoughts on this will raise your game. * How Daniel memorized all 50 of the provinces of Spain using a simple Memory Palace. * How to “think” visually even if you can’t “see” in your imagination. * The specific time investment he needed to accomplish this feat of memory – which was surprisingly little! * Detailed notes on exactly how much work is involved in using the Magnetic Memory Method – and the painful alternative. * How Daniel memorized hundreds of years of monarchs using a new Memory Palace. * Why memorization is nothing more than a confidence game and how to get a quick victory in order to build your belief in yourself along with determination, tenacity and the daring courage we all need to develop new skills. * Why you need to start your journey as an advanced Memorizer with things that interest you before diving into complex and abstract information. * Why visualizing spelling is a great introduction to the technique. You’ve been looking at printed letters your entire life, after all! * Why the most powerful writing you can do takes less than 59 seconds – assuming you do the recommended exercise by hand (no typing). * Daniel’s immediate discouragement with using the Magnetic Memory Method, the joke surrounding it and how he overcame the frustration using a codfish and blood sausage. * Why using a Memory Palaces is really no different than playing a game. * The controversy with mnemonic examples and why even things that make no sense for you can still teach you how to use the Magnetic Memory Method (and any form of mnemonics) so long as you take action. * Why everyone has imaginative ability and why you’re doing it whether you realize it or not. * Why you should stop worrying about the sex and violence elements of memory skills and start loving the results of memorizing and recalling just about anything you want. * How working with a Memory Palace according to the Magnetic Memory Method will defeat the serial positioning effect, the primacy effect and the forgetting curve each and every time that you properly use Magnetic Recall Rehearsal. * How memory skills relate to the fear of losing your time, money and sanity and how to ease this unconscious fear using Memory Palaces. * Why focusing on vocabulary can give you amazing advantages in terms of guessing what’s going on while traveling – though there is no getting past the “Tarzan stage” without grammar. * The number one reason why “poor learners” fail to improve and what to do in order to overcome any negative thinking you may have about your abilities to pick up new knowledge and skills. * … and much, much more. Tune in now to this special episode of the Magnetic Memory Method and learn just how little it takes to experience massive success with your memory. Further Resources Daniel Welsch dressed in flannel as if it were 1992 Daniel Welsch on Amazon Helpful videos by Daniel Welsch If you need more help learning Spanish, you can also check out Olly Richards’ Fluent Spanish Academy (highly recommended) If you’re a Spanish speaker learning English, check out: Curso de inglés básico – 25 artículos ¡Gratis! 6 Claves Para Aprender Inglés by Daniel Welsch 31 Phrasal Verbs For English Business by Daniel Welsch Wikipedia article on the forgetting curve – not that you need to worry about it ever again! Olly Richards’ Free Video Series For Learning Spanish

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Timothy Moser of Master of Memory, Accelerated Spanish and Ace Productivity joins us for the second time. If you haven’t heard that first interview, check it out. Timothy’s ideas will make you more productive, especially when it comes to using memory skills. In this episode, we open the discussion further by talking more specifically about mnemonics and language learning. From there, we move into speculative areas about virtual Memory Palaces and the realities of teaching mnemonics to others. You’ll also learn about: * Timothy’s emphasis on stressing syllables in order to gain recall boosts when studying foreign languages … and even your own mother tongue. * Alphabetized Memory Palaces and journeys, including thoughts on how to mix these with Timothy’s Memory Palaces for memorizing parts of speech. * Why you need to sit down and plot your Memory Palaces in order for them to fully effective. * The importance of relaxation in using mnemonics. * The relationship between Mad Libs and language learning. This is an excellent metaphor and way to think about your approach to acquiring new vocabulary using memory skills. * Why mnemonics are almost always fun (and the main reason they sometimes aren’t). * The specific way Timothy uses location-based memory strategies from a “functional standpoint” * Timothy’s patterned Recall Rehearsal and how he reduces revision over time. He’s all about getting the most out of the minimum and he tells you exactly why so you can model the approach. * How to arrange words for the concept of time in Spanish using a single, theme-based Memory Palace. * How talking about mnemonics with other people will improve your understanding and use of the techniques. * The dangers and benefits involved in sharing associative-imagery with others. I’ve written about why mnemonic examples rarely work before, but Timothy has a fresh take on this. * Why professional mnemonists are opposed to giving examples – and why they are both right and wrong about their resistance in this area. * Ideas about music mnemonics and different approaches to using them. This is an area where people interested in mnemonics can definitely experiment more and stretch the limits. * The truth about “virtual” Memory Palaces and how to experiment with them in an informed way. There may not be a right or wrong way when it comes to success with imaginary places to store information in your mind, but certainly some ways are more realistic than others. * Why real locations are almost always better than invented Memory Palaces and why you should never discount the power of the places you know. * Why none of us will ever run out of Memory Palaces in our lifetimes and how to overcome Memory Palace “scarcity” (it’s easy). * The relationship between sex, death, memory skills and video games. * The right and the wrong way to use rote repetition and the truth about spaced-repetition. * Why you need to be open to new ideas if you want to succeed with mnemonics. * Why those who learn about learning leverage the greatest results. * Why you shouldn’t treat your education as entertainment and why you need to take action in order to get results (we tell you what you should do and it’s probably the only way). * Own struggles and current projects with memorizing large amounts of information. * … and much, much more. This episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast gives you a fascinating look behind the scenes as two thinkers and action-takers in the world of memory skills show you exactly what it takes to get started, keep going and get amazing results. You’ll hear from people actually in the trenches of memory who not only get great results for themselves, but for thousands of other people too. Further Resources Timothy has a number of memory courses you can study for free. These include lessons on memorizing a book of the Bible and using mnemonics to help you learn Spanish. I have several posts on memorizing music. This one was mentioned during the podcast. It’s called Memorize Bach On Bass. How to Enhance Your Memory With Virtual Memory Palaces. Scientific article called Building a memory palace in minutes: Equivalent memory performance using virtual versus conventional environments with the Method of Loci.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn how to make sure that your associative-imagery is doing the work it needs to do: Recall the information that you need to succeed when using a Memory Palace strategy. Click play above and read the article below for more nuance. Program Notes This episode is a response to emails that I often receive like this one: I am new to memorization as detailed as you propose and am trying to justify learning it. I have bought and read two of your books, the one about Memory Palaces and am currently reading Magnetic Memory Mondays. I am 76 years old and have set a goal to reteach myself Classical Latin and from their progress to other Roman languages. I want to use your Memory Palace idea but am not a very visual person and thinking of a preposterous image for each vocabulary word seems over-whelming. I like the idea of using current and past homes or places but want the right one to begin with. Any suggestions? Can you send me a list of your other books on this topic? Listen, it was hard for me in the beginning too. If you look through all of the newsletters starting with Volume 1, you’ll encounter dozens of ideas in addition to those in the book. It basically boils down to getting relaxed and getting started. Surrendering to the feeling of overwhelm is very dangerous, but taking action is always a benefit. Also, you can experiment with not actually seeing the images but just thinking about them. I’ve done this for years until I started to develop my imagination by drawing, looking at lots of art, paying attention to the visual aspects of movies I was watching and doing creative memory exercises like looking at an apple and then trying to “rebuild” it in my mind. One of my most difficult challenges right now as a primarily non-visual person is the Hiragana for Japanese. If you’re not familiar with the Hiragana , they are these crazy little images that indicate sounds. You need to use your visual memory a lot to learn and read them. As I teach in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, to ease the “cognitive load,” I use “Bridging Figures,” characters that go along the journey. Because they can be used for more than one word or letter or piece of information at a time, that’s one less aspect of the crazy image that I’ve got to come up with (or that you’ve got to come up with). Here’s just three images with Ezra Pound as my bridging figure that I’ve created to help me both “see” and “hear” what the following hiragana mean: あ (a) Ezra Pound standing in Jesus Christ pose with a Christian fish symbol attacking his legs. He shouts Ah! い (i) Pound with two eels in his mouth, squirming, one long like an upside down seven, one short. They are squealing eee eee eee. う (u) Pound leaning on a stick with a beret cooing ooh as the weight is relieved by the stick.   This process works great thanks to a fuller understanding of mental imagery. Simply by “leaning” on Ezra Pound throughout the journey as a highly dynamic Bridging Figure, I was able to memorize fifteen hiragana in fifteen minutes. I’ll soon be making more time from Japanese and expect that I can do between 40-60 characters in 1.5 hours with reliable recall. I have high confidence that I’ll do very well because students of mine like Sunil Khatri have done fantastic with Japanese. Kevin Richardson is another of my students who has shared his knowledge about wild and zany images on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. Plus, I keep a positive mindset when it comes to the work involved. As I talk about in the book, there will need to be corrections along the way and I will need to rehearse the material using proper spaced repetition. But hey: it beats fussing around with index cards when you can turn the stations of your Memory Palace into amazing and vibrant indexes for silly little images to remind you of the sound and meaning of words, or in the case of the example I just gave you, the sound of certain typographical images and how they look. I really wish you the best with the experience and want you to know that I’m here to help as best I can, affording that I get lots of questions so can take up to a week to answer. But that’s why the Magnetic Memory Newsletters are available from Kindle. I’m 100% confident that after writing 1000+ pages answering questions just like these that you’ll find all the answers you need. My Amazon page is easy to find. I’ve also got some video courses if you like to learn by that medium. But really I think in this email you have all that you need, which in sum is: 1) Mindset. Toss worry aside and get started. Fear is the mindkiller. 2) Create a bridging figure when ever possible to reduce the cognitive load. If it’s someone that you care about, all the better. I’m deeply fascinated by Ezra Pound a

Dear Memorizers, Richard Gilzean, long time friend of the Magnetic Memory Method and the man behind the delightful blog peeleye, recently shared with me some great writing he has done to chronicle his adventures in using memory techniques and related skills like juggling. How are memory techniques and juggling related? Read on to find out. And a Magnetic thanks to Richard for not only sending this to me and allowing me to post it on the site. I’m proud to make it the first Magnetic Memory Method Guest Post ever and know that you’re going to love reading these reports from a memorizer making great strides with the techniques. Richard is an inspiration to us all. Hanging Out With My Magnetic Memory By Richard Gilzean 28 July 2014: Where to start with this recollection on what I have learnt about myself over the past 12 months? The idea came to me this morning on the train as I was commuting in to work. While passing over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and looking out over the harbour, I was listening to the podcast interview between Anthony and Kerstin Hammes. Just after Anthony had explained what a “John Henry” was to Kerstin, she suggested that language learners can benefit from keeping a journal of their efforts in order to better see and appreciate where they have come from in their respective journeys. What a cool idea, I thought. I’ve been on my own personal development journey for almost a year and it is as good a milestone as any to take stock and recount what has happened. (Although in reality it is a process I have been undertaking with varying degrees of application for many years). In my case a whole bunch of factors came into play, not one particular flash of inspiration. I had wanted to get back into studying German language, but in a way that was different from my past efforts of going to classes, studying stacks of flash cards and reopening the German text books which had taken over a shelf in my study. There had to be another way. It was around this time that I came across Anthony’s book How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary: … Using a Memory Palace Specifically Designed for the German Language (and adaptable to many other languages too) on Amazon. 29 July 2014 In embarking on this quest for self-improvement, mastery, getting-my-act-together, call it what you will, I found myself quickly inundated with information and opportunities to explore this open-ended field of inquiry. I browsed the websites and purchased a bunch of e-books on memory improvement/training. Last October I watched the television documentary series Redesign my Brain on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). From within the topics explored, including visualization, mnemonics, magic and memory training, I became interested in the art of juggling. After a few weeks of tossing and catching and dropping I became a reasonable 3 ball juggler. But more importantly I was reminded of the values of concentration, regular practice, focus, relaxation and keeping it simple. More recently, in one of his newsletters, Anthony disparaged that hoary notion “If something is worth doing it is worth doing well”; rightly noting that it is a load of old cobblers. Juggling tells me that something worth doing is invariably preceded by failure and persistence. Embrace failure people, because failure gets you closer to what you’re good at. 30 July 2014 Slow Hand. Did I want to memorize a couple of packs of playing cards in under two minutes like those described in Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein? Not really. But I did like the idea of impressing family and friends by being able to shuffle a pack of cards and casually rattle them off one by one. So I followed the tried and true mnemonic system of associating each card in a deck to an image, rehearsed it a couple of times and now I have all 52 cards locked in – plus the joker for good measure. I’m still pretty slow at it after almost a year and so I still need to keep up the rehearsal – keeping my hand in, so to speak. I find using a deck of cards a great way to remember places that I have visited and spent some time in and which I want to use as Memory Palaces. The other day I went to the local Austrian Club – Community Cultural centre for a birthday lunch with a bunch of friends and their kids. While tucking into my Schnitzel and Weissbier and with an acoustic backdrop of yodeling music on a stereo loop, I made a mental note of the large hall which included a “Herzlich Willkommen” reception, Stammtisch, dance floor with band stage, drinks bar, maps and flags of the Austrian regions, air rifle trophies, several mounted animal heads and a painting of people sitting at a table that looked like it had been knocked out by one of the locals after one too many ales. With my pack of cards I have spent an enjoyable half hour recreating such Memory Palaces, as well as holiday houses, places from my childhood, museums, cafes and

In this very candid interview with polyglot Olly Richards, we’re getting a look behind the scenes into the workings of one of the hardest working, most effective and interesting language learners on the scene. He’s the creator of the Teach Yourself short story books amongst many other accomplishments. These books have helped many language learners find intermediate and advanced reading material in a variety of languages that had been previously difficult to find. Tune in now and you’ll learn: * The difference between the desire to communicate and the desire to learn a language and how bringing these two distinct quests together can give your study efforts a boost. * Why consuming a lot of information will not enable you to suddenly speak the language. * Why even self-directed learners will need to use some of the same techniques used in traditional language-learning classrooms. * How to escape the prison of blaming grammar for your language learning troubles and what to focus on instead. * Why “context is king” in language learning. * Why perfectionism is your worst enemy and how to overcome it. * The relationships between learning languages and learning music. * Why studying jazz enabled him to be able to hear the auditory elements of the languages he has learned at a deeper level and react quickly in his mind even at the early stages in order to create greater conversational flow (improvisational jazz, as my virtual bass teacher Scott Devine has described, is the art of correcting yourself as you go). * How to know if the particular language aspects you’re studying have a “high surrender value” so that you’re spending your time in the right areas that will serve you the most over the short and long term. * Exactly when (and why) Olly resorts to mnemonic devices instead of relying on spaced-repetition alone. * The importance of knowing when to stop forcing a learning step and how to come back to it later with a more receptive mind. * What Olly does to break the monotony of flash cards and get started using the new language he’s studying (this technique may surprise you!) * The amazing benefits of incorporating Excel files into your language learning. Check out Olly’s amazing video about this below. * An in-depth analysis of what the term “language hack” means and how best to use this concept to approach your language learning efforts. * How to focus on your methods in order to focus better on the content of the language. * The “language mediation” phenomenon in which people in your target language will make it easier for you to converse with them instead of launching into idioms and expressions that won’t make any sense (just one of many reasons why you should never fear just getting out there and speaking). * Olly’s fascinating definition of “fluency” (one of the most powerful we’ve ever heard on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast in addition to what we’ve heard from Luca Lampariello and David Mansaray). * Olly’s personal feelings about losing a particular level of fluency in a language, but why there is never any reason you can never go back and achieve even greater heights if you treat learning multiple languages as a revolving door. * … and much, much more. Further Resources Olly’s “Remote Learning” Guest Post on Benny Lewis’ Fluent in 3 Months. Olly’s I Will Teach You A Language YouTube Channel Olly’s “Learn Kanji the Smart Way” Olly on the Actual Fluency Podcast YouTube documentary on Olly by Jan Van Deraa: https://youtu.be/5slVHy2JmcQ Olly’s video on using Excel as part of your language learning: https://youtu.be/wkddc5gubf4  

In today’s episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Kerstin Hammes talks about the real meanings of fluency and memory. Kerstin provides us with a number of fresh perspectives on what is really involved in learning a language and is a very inspiring figure in the language learning world. Tune in now to learn: * Exactly what it feels like to know multiple languages. * How learning a language can be just like putting up a little shelf to place books on. * Kerstin’s thoughts on the one-upmanship in the polyglot community and why it is often more destructive than it is useful. * Why language learning is sometimes like entering an discouraging gym ad how to overcome some of the more prominent challenges. * Why “fluency” is a funny word and not something one should really aim for because it is a mostly “meaningless” goal – and what you should be shooting for instead. * Exactly where the title of Benny Lewis’ title “Fluent In 3 Months” come from and why it isn’t sales pitch flim flam. * The various personality aspects that can create barriers to your language learning experience and how to overcome them. * Why spaced repetition learning software most likely cannot teach you a language. * “Vocabulary curation” and how to maximize your efforts in gathering the most useful and important words quickly. * How to play “Sherlock Holmes” while learning a language and use other people to effectively speed up your learning process. * Why most of the problems people face with language learning really have nothing to do with the languages themselves. * The relationship between time signatures and culture and how the way we learn our culture effects our ability to understand others at a deep level. * Why language learners need a structure to follow and usually do not benefit from “random acts of learning” like watching foreign language films from time to time. * Why Kerstin finds mnemonics helpful and why they are one of the best ways to experience contextualized learning (as opposed to decontextualized learning and semi-contextualized learning). * Why leaving stickers around the house to the label your furniture with what these items are called in your target language is a kind of Memory Palace and how Kerstin uses the physical layout of the objects in her home to “see” words she wants to recall in her mind. * Why Kerstin finds spelling to be a “visual” aid to recalling vocabulary. * Why Bon Jovi might be the best way to learn English in context because they are a “piece of reality.” * The specific benefits of blogging about your language learning experiences. * The relationship between memorizing names and foreign language vocabulary and how the stems and origins of words can help you draw connections between your mother tongue and the target language. * Why grammar is more like a map, rather than a set of rules. * The four skills you need to achieve language competency and how they will build your confidence and move towards greater fluency. https://youtu.be/bR15aAXv-F0 * … and much, much more! Further Resources: Books by Kerstin Hammes Post by Kerstin Hammes on the question of “hard languages” and “easy languages” Kerstin Hammes on Twitter Creative Language Learning Podcast by Kerstin Hammes How To Stop Information Pollution From Poisoning Your Memory

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Stephen Turnbull talks about Memneon, a fast-paced, exciting and tense memory game. Tune in to the Podcast now and learn: * Exactly how and why games like Memneon and Rubik’s Cube involve memory. * The role of pattern recognition, how this relates to memory as well as to the controversial concept of right and left brain cognition processes. * How the London Tube map and Scrabble relate to the complexity of location-based memory strategies. * The relationship between brain games, memory and education. * Why you can learn from games even if the specific objective of a particular game itself is not focused on education you about something, (i.e. like Minecraft). * The potential dangers of a world in which the raison d’etre of learning has become completely tied to gaming. * Why the actor, polyglot and author Stephen Fry went “delightfully dotty” after playing Stephen Turnbull’s Memneon game. * The relationship between the spatial-location memory challenges of Memneon, chess and the World Memory Championships in terms of high-value memory training and memory drills. * How Bubblingo (currently in development) will use interactive, tagged video to help you learn a language. * The different metaphors that have been used to describe memory and how the brain does and doesn’t function like a computer when it comes to concepts like neuroplasticity. * How memory champions are working to use a Memory Palace and other mnemonic strategies to give them a competitive edge on the game. * … and much, much more. As the CEO of Alchemista, Stephen Turnbull has demonstrated with Memneon that something as simple as an idea can truly be turned into gold. His background in Media Studies and Teacher Training, also includes a history of making short films. Combined, these experiences have enabled him to combine logistical creativity with a strong visual game that brings a riveting user experience together with learning. Have a look at the Memneon game here in this great YouTube video: https://youtu.be/AL74doDu2AY Further resources and reading: Memneon on iTunes Wikipedia page on Memory Minecraft homepage – and for more on the use of Minecraft in memory work, be sure to check out the previous Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode, Tap the Mind of a Ten Year Old Memory Palace Master.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, we have a special interview with Phil Chambers. Phil is a World Mind Mapping Champion who works closely with the World Memory Championships as a scorer and statistician who does not believe that memory competitors have even come close to reaching their limits. As a memory skills trainer, Phil is also the founder and managing director of Learning Technologies and author of Brilliant Speed Reading. Amongst other co-authored books, he has written with James Smith How to Remember Equations and Formulae. Tune in to this episode with Phil Chambers now and learn: * How Tony Buzan‘s Use Your Head program and Use Your Head Society introduced Phil to Dominic O’Brien and how this led to him competing in the third ever World Memory Championships. * Why accelerated learning is a “framework” that allows you to learn faster and deeper. * Why anyone (including you) can use the same techniques that memory champions take to competitive extremes and use them to increase your productivity and social success in every day life. * The two major aspects of learning and studying that most students get wrong … and how to get both of these right. * How to build a structural foundation in your memory when studying for exams. * Why the non-linear thinking possibilities of mind maps can revolutionize how you learn, remember and recall information while also creating new insights and knowledge. * How Phil recommends students use index cards in combination with mind maps in order to see connections in powerful ways that will advance your success in high school or university beyond your wildest dreams. * Why Phil prefers journeys based upon real locations rather than fictional Memory Palaces – and an explanation of exactly why Memory Palaces and journeys are both the same and different. * The exact difference between semantic memory and memories based on experience and how memory techniques allow you to transform semantic memories into experienced memories with ease so that even the most abstract material becomes much more memorable. * How an understanding of the psychology of memory can help you come up with your own memory techniques – or at least hack the classical principles so that they suit your own personal learning style with greater precision. * Phil’s thoughts on the “upper-limit” of exactly how much we can remember and how Memory Champions are constantly pushing themselves to reach new heights and achieving new levels year after year as the national and global memory competitions continue offering memory athletes the opportunity to stretch their skills. Phil Chambers with Tony Buzan * How competitors like Ben Pridmore have changed the Major Method so that it can compress three digits and are working now even on four digits to increase the amount of information that can be memorized. * Why the only real limit to card memorization is how quickly you can move your hands and how this memory skill will move beyond the matter of physical dexterity using technology to increase the speed of card retention and recall in what is now being called an “extreme sport.” * A range of techniques that people who feel non-visual can use to increase their ability to use memory techniques grounded in associative-imagery. * Why Dominic O’Brien‘s habit of daydreaming provided the source of him becoming a World Memory Champion eight-times over. * A quote from Leonardo Da Vinci that will deeply improve your imagination within seconds. * Why even in our age of technology, we can still benefit from having improved memory skills. * Why the human brain scores way greater in the creativity department than what a computer will likely ever achieve. * The two major mistakes that would-be memorizers make that causes them frustration to the point of giving up – and exactly how to overcome both of them. * How to overcome any difficulties with memory techniques by starting with those strategies that give you an instant ability to memorize material without hassle (you’ll learn exactly what these are). * Why someone with a “bad memory” who uses memory techniques will still have a better memory than even someone who seems to have been born with superior memory skills. * … and much, much more! Further Resources: Mind Map Mastery: 10 Tony Buzan Mind Mapping Laws You Should Follow Books by Phil Chambers on Amazon.com Books by Phil Chambers on Amazon.co.uk Mind Map article on Wikipedia World Memory Championships Website Phil Chambers moderating the 2013 Algerian Memory Championships on YouTube Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Luca Lampariello treats us once again to a focused array of language learning secrets that you can put to use today in your foreign language study efforts. Tune in now and you’ll learn: * Why you need to train your working memory (and exactly what working memory is) so that you can make use of the best parts of your mind when working with languages. * How to link your ideas together so that they flow naturally together. * Why you should never drink the night before translating a speech by Obama. * The amazing reason why people fail at the study of new languages and how to avoid it. * How to develop competence in your own native tongue in order to achieve elegance in another language. * Why it’s not about what you “know” in your mother tongue, but what you can “do” with it that matters. * Why a deep knowledge of the culture and country of the language you’re studying helps you with learning the language. * The importance of understanding irony, puns and jokes and why this can be much more critical than having piles of vocabulary and grammar rules in your memory. * The absolutely best conditions for language learning. * The difference between internal and external motivation and how to use this understanding to excel with language learning. * Why rote learning is the number one mistake that language learners make (and what to do instead). * How to build a network that will let you see how the syntax of a language works so that you can build sentences with greater ease. * When to add quantity to your pool of foreign language vocabulary. * Why building a language core is like building a spider web to which new vocabulary sticks (even if you’re not yet a polyglot). * Some of the exact ways that Luca makes his mind learn languages much more quickly, the exact same techniques you can adopt for yourself. * Why you should never be prejudiced about a different culture or be seduced by generalizations such as “the French are snobbish.” * Why languages belong to no one and are only ever used, never owned. * Luca’s feelings about how English sounds to him from his perspective as a polyglot with Italian as his mother tongue. * Exactly what the “bucket effect” is and how to use its power in your language learning efforts. * The “combinatory logic” behind syntax and how to use this to understand the “gist” of what other people are saying as you build towards to fluency. * The relationship between vocabulary, circles and layers that move between objective, subject and literate levels of language learning. * Why building “language islands” is the best way to prepare yourself for exploring the depths of the “language oceans” that characterize all of the world’s many modes of speaking. * Why even a highly established English-speaker like Luca always watches English movies with the English subtitles on (and why you should too). * How to give your brain points-of-reference using a simple notebook. * The real reason why second-language speakers have accents. * How to understand the “jogger’s high” effect when it comes to language learning and how to avoid its opposite, “jogger’s depression.” * Why fear is one of the hugest problems that language learners face and how to overcome it. * … and much, much more. After listening to this interview, please be sure to go back and listen to the previous interview with Luca, titled “Luca Lampariello Talks About Language As A Net.” Here’s also Luca talking about how to master any language. I’d also like to recommend that you check out Luca’s website, The Polyglot Dream. There you can find links to Luca’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offerings, all of which offer you amazing language learning ideas, inspiration and dedicated training. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, and … Keep Yourself Magnetic! For More Language Learning Resources … Check Out: 15 Reasons Why Learning A Language Is Good For Your Brain How Motivation Affects Your Memory When Learning A Language

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, I follow up on the “How to Memorize a Textbook” podcast with “How to Write a Dissertation” (or any article or essay). Tune in now and you’ll learn: * The best ways to use index cards to create a “skeleton” that you can use again and again for other writings or to memorize material for a public presentation. * Why index cards are better than Evernote and Anki. * How to make writing a dissertation as interesting as writing a screenplay for television or the movies. * How to use the floor of your apartment to organize an entire dissertation into multiple chapters so that you can present the evidence in the best possible order simply by sitting and writing. * The best conditions to create and maintain a writing space for composing your writing. * The need for syncing to Dropbox or some similar service while you’re writing. * How to avoid the need to re-read your dissertation before the defense. * How to know almost exactly where in your dissertation you’ve made various points. * The best way to keep your research material “mobile.” * How to apply the techniques in this podcast and “How to Memorize a Textbook” to memorize and write blog posts about gardening, cooking or whatever area of interest you might want to write or present about. * … and much, much more. I also invite you to an upcoming webinar titled Memory Secrets of an A+ Student, which I highly encourage you to sign-up for and attend. I’ll be talking more about using memory techniques as part of scholastic success with an eye to making sure that the techniques can also be used by everyone. As a student, as you may know, I was pretty foggy in my mind most of the time for various reasons I’ve talked about before. Memory skills and the index card research technique that I talk about in the podcast were key to my success and although paper and pen seem like ancient technology to students today, I still highly recommend using them. Handwriting uses, rather obviously, the hand, and there are good, scientifically grounded reasons that explain why that handwriting creates higher levels of cognition. Couple this with a Memory Palace, location-based memory technique and you’ll quickly experience much larger results than typing. It’s not entirely clear to me why typing differs from handwriting, but the effects are plain and the practical benefits evident. As I talk about in this episode, it’s easy to lose or accidentally delete a computer file, but so long as you have an ordered stack of index cards, you know the order of points you talked about in the writing and can re-write it relatively easily. You may even be able to dictate directly from the index cards, which is a point that I neglected to address in the podcast itself. If you have dictation software and are able to verbally respond to index cards off-the-cuff, then the writing processes can go even more quickly for you, making your job simply one of editing. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, please add a comment here, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher and feel free to share it with anyone you know who is currently writing a dissertation or writing in general. Talk soon! Sincerely,   Anthony Metivier   Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll hear from Timothy Moser, the man behind www.masterofmemory.com. The major theme of the interview is how memory techniques relate to productivity and in addition to Timothy’s fascinating thoughts about the history of mnemonic strategies and memory techniques, you’ll learn: * Why mnemonics is neither cheating nor a cheap trick. * How memory skills can help you deal with the massive amounts information on the Internet. * Why Timothy hates Qwerty keyboards and how mnemonics might have a competitor when it comes to learning a new keyboard system. * Timothy’s history with graduated intervals (and what graduated intervals are). * The difference between learning and association and why the latter may be a more powerful way to think about education. * The best way to learn and memorize song lyrics. * Why the mind “likes” to remember music and how to use music to memorize foreign language vocabulary. * How to get a “compound effect” when using music to memorize information and information to memorize music. * Why everyone can be a “grand” master of memory (even if you have to take the “grand” part away). * How to be proactive about the things you naturally remember so that you can link them to pieces of information that your brain doesn’t latch onto so easily. * Why you should engage in all your activities based on results, rather than on the time you spend. * Why mnemonics allow you to spend more time reading and thinking instead of losing time on rote learning. * Why you should pay attention to stressed syllables when memorizing foreign language vocabulary so that you mind can take care of the rest (kind of like letting it “fill in the blanks” so that you don’t have to work so hard). * Timothy’s simple, three-part solution to the problem of teaching mnemonics through examples and how to find the right “starting point” so you can smoothly sail through the seas of mnemonics and other memory skills. * How to get the “bigger picture” when memorizing textbook material so you don’t have to worry about memorizing every little detail verbatim. * The best foods to eat so that your mind is clear and your memory is ready for mnemonic activity at the highest possible level. * Why Memory Palaces can be used by everyone, no matter how rich or poor your are and no matter where in the world you live. * Why both the deep history and the recent past of memory techniques are an important part of your journey into enhanced memory abilities as you learn new things. * Why memory tactics fell out of favor in the 18th century, but are coming back to help us all as part of a Mnemonic Renaissance thanks to the Internet. * Why education and fun can be one and the same thing so that people of any age can enjoy the learning process and use the natural abilities of their minds to enjoy their lives and their minds at a very high level. * Why you are unlikely to drop your brain on the sidewalk, but should be prepared with memory skills for the day that your smart phone crashes. * How you can use memory skills not just to memorize a bunch of facts, but connect those facts to a larger picture of knowledge so that you develop critical thinking skills as part of your memory improvement project. * Why you need to be willing to test out new mnemonic approaches and test them to find out which ones work best for you. * Exactly what to do if you’re not a visual person and still want to use mnemonics by “segmenting” pictures. This is an exciting interview packed with ideas that you can use immediately to start using your mind with greater productivity starting today. Before you go, check out this additional interview with Timothy here on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast: Mnemonics, Language Learning And Virtual Memory Palaces In Discussion With Timothy Moser

In this week’s episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you’ll learn: * Why David Mansaray’s Language is Culture Podcast (now sadly defunct) is one of the finest language learning resources you’ll ever find online. * Why the idea that mnemonics are artificial is a dangerous meme (and how to stop worrying about the natural/artificial division and start loving all learning methods). * Exactly how and when to use rote learning to achieve your goals in ways that won’t bore you to death and fritter away your energy when you could be using lightning-fast memory techniques. * Why Memory Palaces are the ultimate solution for memorizing foreign language vocabulary if nothing else works. * The most powerful way to think about context and language learning and how to unleash its power. * Why the number 13 is so awesome for overcoming any fears you might have. * The REAL reason you need to go to the library and stop trying to learn everything online. * Exactly why “natural” language learning involves more artificial means than any other language learning technique. * Why NOT using index cards and paper for rote-learning and using memory techniques instead can reduce emissions and save the planet. * The precise relationship between memory techniques and martial arts and how to make sure you can find the balance between them (even when you’re not in a fighting mood). * Why using the associative-imagery involved in mnemonics will never confuse you or make you juggle your thoughts any more than you’re already juggling them anyway. * Why you never need to spend time on “renovating” Memory Palaces. * How to assess critical comments and book reviews you read online and think for yourself about language learning and mnemonics. * Why you need to fly in the face of authority in order to make strides in your language learning efforts. * Why authority is a thing of the past and how to make sure you’re listening to the right people who are teaching the right things. * … and much, much more. Further Resources Olly Richards On Crazy Language Learning Goals And Mastering Motivation

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Dr. Jim Samuels talks about how to use mnemonics to lower stress and eliminate negative memories from your life. As the author of Re-Mind Yourself: Better Memory, Lower Stress, Dr. Samuels is the inventor of Re-Minding™, a mnemonic method for releasing stress. In this compelling interview, you’ll learn: How to make sure that your memory serves you reliably, accurately and for the long haul. How to enhance your memory so that it gives you an advantage over your former self. The connection between memory, stress and depression and how to use memory to eliminate these negative states from your life. Dr. Samuels’ take on Harry Lorayne and the most important contribution Lorayne has made to the field of memory techniques. The theory of “time binding” and how the context in which statements are made can add to the power of your mnemonic linking and visualization efforts. How to develop a “mobile Memory Palace” that will last for as long as you live. How to use the numbers 1-12 as a special kind of Memory Palace where numbers are represented by objects (something you can also use to memorize spellings. An amazing way you can use mnemonics to reduce any stress you may be feeling about your daily to-do lists. How to use a simple act of measuring to improve the results you get when using the power of your mind to memorize information. How and why confidence in your memory can protect you from stress, and possibly even stress-induced memory loss. The three “dramatic” stages of fatigue and exactly how deadly they can be to your memory. How to use the moon to remember anything you need to do on Monday and apply the principle to every other day of the week. Why you need to use the first mnemonic images that “spring” to your mind so that they’ll “spring” back in when you need them later. The amazing power of “reframing” to change the quality of your memories so that you can increase the quality of your experiences. How to overcome “rogue” or disturbing memories using mnemonics and remove the trouble they bring into your life. How to use “cartoon level” images to completely erase negative memories, release stress and improve performance in everything you do. (This is kind of like a guided visualization you create on the fly, exclusively for your own personal use.) The important power of becoming the “cause” of your memories, instead of the “effect” of your memories. Exactly how to get yourself to “play” with mental imagery in order to create mnemonics, even if you’re a “serious” adult who normally doesn’t spend time making crazy and exaggerated images in your imagination. How to use mnemonic devices, even if you’re not a visual person. When to know that memory training is nothing you should be bothering with (it’s rare, but possible that you simply don’t need to improve your ability to recall information). Dr. Samuels’ views on memory competitions and why we need to get past the idea that these people are extraordinary beings so that we can all experience the benefits of mnemonics. Dr. Samuel’s take on the history of Memory Palaces and why we learn the alphabet as a song. Why rote learning trains your brain to detect unpleasant patterns and reject boring learning experiences. How to use the “Clear-Capable-Confident” formula in order to master any subject or area of expertise. How to use memory techniques to get out of any argument – or at least feel tremendously relaxed so that the feeling of conflict just melts away. Why Dr. Samuels says that using mnemonics is “breathtakingly fast” compared to writing. “Evidence-based confidence” and why you need to develop it. The techniques, tactics, strategies and philosophy behind both Martial Arts and mnemonics. The importance of remembering your goals and memorizing your new year’s resolutions. Why stress comes primarily for memory and how to use memory to reduce it. And much, much more … Please enjoy this valuable interview and get in touch with either myself or Dr. Samuels if you have any questions. Further Resources Jim Kwik Speed Reading Course: Legit or Not? Insights To Remember Before Starting Over