The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

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! 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. 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 more auditory or kinesthetic or conceptual. Is there any advice you would have who would feel they do not have the visual capacities that many of these exercises seem to call for? Dr. Small: That gets down to a common princi

A lot of people suffer from a "bad memory." Me too. If I don't use the simple memory improvement techniques I've learned, my memory has about the same chance as a dog hearing "sit" once without a shred of repetition. It doesn't do much good for improving memory. But we're not dogs. And we have memory techniques. We can hear something once and memorize it forever. And without being dramatic or theatrical (a rare thing for me, dear Memorizers), I can tell you that I think that not developing the skill to do so is a crime against humanity. Failing to memorize using the simple techniques I teach robs not only yourself, but many others of the benefits of this powerful skill. Plus, you get to share information that you've placed in your mind. Valuable knowledge that you can produce at will. Change the world kind of stuff. Or it can be the memorize of simple things that makes a huge difference. Like when you're boarding a plane and you keep forgetting your seat number, holding up the line to look at your ticket for the umpteenth time. Or when your child asks you what year some important event took place for his or her exam at school (major). Or when you're playing Blackjack and you have no idea how many cards are out (could be major, could be minor depending on your pot). Or when you're talking to someone and you have to ask them for a second time what their name is, sometimes just 30 seconds or less after the first time you heard it … This final point is a real doozy. Memorizing names is a moral obligation because it tells the person you're meeting that you care about who they are, that they're someone worth knowing, that their name has value. Some names are easy. You don't need a special method to memorize Tom, Dick or Harry (at least most of us probably don't). But the world is becoming more and more internationalized. We're meeting more and more people with name structures that we're not familiar with. And we need to be able to remember them in to be more sociable and to ensure that people know we value them in the daily interactions we make. It's not that difficult. Hear a name, make a bizarre, exaggerated, big and bright picture filled with zany action and you'll have that name memorized in a Magnetic second. That's the basics of one of the techniques. As you know, there are many others. And a lot of fine details that structure each. It makes a huge difference if you know what they are and how to use them. That's why I'm making the crazy offer of joining the Masterclass for the trial price of $1. For just a buck, you get 7 days access to the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. That's seven days to work on improving your memory. Seven days to feel the power of memory improvement. Click here for more info and a lesson on 8 Important Memory Principles You Should Follow. The post Improving Memory And The Moral Obligations Of Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Guest post and podcast narration by Tor Refsland. You've finally made the decision. You are going to improve your memory by building a Memory Palace and learn how to memorize things fast using memory techniques. You are so excited! You know that learning how to memorize things fast will give you the unfair advantage compared to the rest of the world. So you close your eyes and start to dream of your new future. The feeling of being able to impress your family and friends by reciting stored information as if you were a super computer can only be described with two words … Freakin' Awesome! Perhaps your friends will be so impressed that they will insist on buying you drinks every time you go out. And your parents might finally realize that you are the prodigy among your siblings and make you the sole inheritor of your family`s legacy. There is only one problem. You are a victim of one of the biggest success crushing myths… You THINK you don't have time. But if I could prove to you that you actually have more than enough time to learn memory techniques, would that be interesting to you? If so, then read every single word of this post, because it could really change your life. Let me show you how to find time to create a Memory Palace and start using it in record time. How To Create More Time Since we all only have 24 hours per day, time is our most important asset. But you already know that from reading Time Management Chef, right? The real issue is that you are super busy and your schedule is packed, right? Welcome to the club! That is why creating more time is the most important skill you will ever learn. But before I move on and tell you how to create more time, let me start by explaining my definition of productivity. This Productivity Formula Will Double And Even Triple Your Free Time For Using The Magnetic Memory Method Time period x Goals achieved = Productivity Your productivity is the total sum of the goals you achieve in a certain period of time. There are only two ways to improve your productivity: – you can achieve the same goals in a shorter period of time – you can achieve more goals in the same amount of time If you want to become a productivity superstar you can dramatically increase your own productivity by shortening the period of time and increasing the amount of goals you achieve. That is the exactly what I did when I increased my own productivity by 200%. 200% is insane. If you could experience the same boost, that means you would increase your productivity by four times! Using this formula, I now do in 2 hours what I normally used to do in 8 hours. Even better, you can take this free memory improvement course first: The Surprising Tip That Will Free Up Your Time – Fast! So how do we actually create more time? Let me give you a quick crash course. There are 3 components that will help you create more time: 1. Planning and prioritizing The experts say that every minute spent in planning will save you 10 minutes in execution. In my article at Successful Blogging I talk about planning and prioritizing. For example, you can use the ABCDE method to prioritize your tasks: A: Tasks I must do – serious consequences if it doesn't get done B: Tasks I should do – mild consequences if it doesn't get done C: Tasks I could do – no consequences if it doesn't get done D: Tasks I delegate E: Tasks I never do Never do a B task before you have done all the A tasks. Likewise, never do a C task before you have done all the B tasks, etc. And apply the 80/20 rule: you need to identify each day, which 20% of the tasks on your to do list will give you 80% of the results. By starting to implement the tactics above, you can literally increase your productivity with 100 % over night. 2. Focus One of the most important skills when it comes to becoming more productive and achieving your goals in a shorter period of time, is the ability to focus. As I talk about in my article on Blogging Wizard, true focus comes with some requirements. In order to be able to laser focus, you have to: - knowing what to do (work from a plan – to do list) remove all distractions (mute your cellphone and turn off Internet connections) no multitasking - focus on only one task until it`s done 3. Increase productivity Increasing productivity means that we are able to increase our results in a shorter period of time. Becoming more productive is key when it comes to freeing up more time in your life, so you can spend it on practicing memory techniques. On Skip Prichard's site, I've talked about one important factor – a factor that can change everything once you understand it. Studies have shown that most people are most productive the first 2 hours after they get out of bed in the morning. Some people are most productive in the evening or perhaps during the night. What does this mean? It means you have to identify at WHAT time you are the most productive. Then you have to reserve that period of time for your most important tasks. This will liter

To Everyone Who Secretly Believes That The Powers Needed To Increase Memory Will Magically Fall From The Sky … It's true. Some people believe that you can get something for nothing. But luckily not everyone. Some people grab the Magnet by the poles and take action. Not only that, but they take the right action. What is the "right action"? you ask. That's what this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast is all about, so please be sure to listen to every word because it may be the most important episode you ever hear. Then build your first Memory Palace and start using it. And for your convenience, here's the letter I received in writing. It forms the basis of the episode. Give Me A Bit, I'll Be Swimming Soon Enough I received your postcard. Thank you very much for that. It means a lot and says a lot about you. It was a very nice surprise and seemed to add a sense of realism to you, your efforts and products, and support. It basically makes you a human and not just some guy on the internet. So, for that, thank you. I will use it accordingly, when I learn that part. I have learned much so far and it has been some serious amounts of work and I'm trying to think of it as good work.Right now, I am still creating memory palaces and moving through them. My approach to just about everything is the same. I infuse some knowledge with confusion, then repeat it to the point of clarity. I liken it to going swimming here in the cold Michigan lakes. Even on the hottest of days, all anyone has to do in order to cool off, is walk, jump or run, into any one of the 11, 500 lakes located here. There are also five, enormous "Great Lakes" that are much more preferable for swimming. Anyhow, rather than jumping in and cooling down immediately, I tend to go: "Now, is it really that hot? I mean, really??? Ok, let's go to the beach." Then I have to grab towels, apply sunscreen, get a couple bottles of water from the gas station, and of course fill my gas tank which is usually low. Get to the beach, find a place among hundreds of other people yet still inconspicuous. Then, finally approach the water. If it is too cold, I have to go in several times but only up to my ankles. Meanwhile, the rest of me is burning hot, nearly sun – scorched and screaming "you got everything you need, just get in the water and splash around." But … I don't! I wait and double check the water because cooling down cannot possibly be as simple as just going in. After about a dozen times of working my way up to thigh level water and retreating back to shore, I have exhausted my patience and just run and jump in and realize that I should have done so all along. Right now, I'm about up to my ankles in confusion and repetition in your Magnetic Memory Method, but I have my towels, swim trunks, and sandals. Give me a bit, I'll be swimming soon enough. For me, I have have doubts, as to whether or not I'm doing something correctly or not. I know a lot of that uncertainty stems from "having a bad immediate memory", as I call it. Basically, I tend to forget the initial reasoning behind a particular idea or course of action and thus have trouble following through with the initial intended results as my needs, views and reasoning, all change along the way to the intended goal. It's not as ADHD as it may sound. I think it is just simply not remembering enough general information to justify the actions needed to move forward in life (or progress in a particular field of study). I have been blindly moving about, normally…job, mortgage, family and some other "normal" things. That, mixed with time constraints, have led me to minimize expectations for myself, again forgetting to do more. With that, I have learned a lot from assisting my wife in her collegiate studies and have relaized this lack of memory use has been such a waste, and quite frankly, lame. So, once again, your methods and information are exactly what I needed and I thank you for all your help. Sorry, for the long winded rant. In my defense, I did just have two cups of coffee. Alright, I'm off to do some memory work. Thank you again for taking the time to hand write and send a postcard. The Only Way To Get Results So as you can see, taking action is the best action. It's the only way to get results if your goal is to increase memory.And if you'd like to get some of my Magnetic postcard goodness, registration info for the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass is waiting for you right here.Further Resources: How to Escape the Prison Of Memory And Create The Future You Desire The post Increase Memory By Taking Action The Magnetic Memory Method Way appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

People around the world wish they could remember their dreams. And not just remember them. They want to remember their dreams with clarity, consistency and in ways that change their lives. Profoundly. And although I don't do lucid dreaming myself all that often (and try to avoid it), remembering dreams can help you feel more lucid during your waking life. Here's what I mean with props to my friend Stefan for his incredible lucid dreaming and memory questions: Even with this powerful information, I wonder how many people will ever develop the skills needed to recall their dreams consistently? If the number is low, I find that incredibly sad. Because here's the consequence: Now being able to remember your dreams means you will never develop fluency in one of the world's most prominent languages: the language of dreaming. Worse, you will never experience the nuances and layers of experience made possible by advanced dream recall. Why Is Remembering Dreams Just As Difficult As Lucid Dreaming? Why is dream recall such a struggle? Many would-be dreamers blame a lack of sleep time. They don't have enough time in bed for effective dreaming. But with proper training in dream recall, you can learn to notice yourself entering the dream world even before you've fallen "unconscious." Don't believe the REM myth that dreaming begins at some special hour after you're in deep sleep. The notion that dreaming only occurs during REM has never been true. In fact, you are dreaming right now but have not yet learned to see and experience it. In short, dream recall begins by changing your definition of what counts as a dream. Then try some of these tips: But even with an improved definition (you're always dreaming), some still claim that dream recall is too hard. And no doubt. Authors on the top don't make it easy. They teach that you should draw symbols on your hand, practice "reality checking" and engage in other tedious methods. The truth is that you don't need to artificially create "triggers." There are better ways, more enlightening and elucidating ways, and ways that can improve all aspects of your life. So what helps with dream recall? 1. A Dedicated Memory Strategy For Remembering Your Dreams Strategy starts with motivation, so before you start, please make sure that you really want to remember your dreams. It's an important consideration because you learn a lot about yourself when you recall dreams at an advanced level. And you motivation requires method if you're going to experience real gains as you stretch your memory muscles. 2. Believe That Dream Memory Strategies Will Work For You People often tell me that they cannot remember any dreams. They never have and never will. But such statements usually come from disbelief. Dream recall has been going on for thousands of years using different techniques. If you can accept that you're not different than anyone else, your memory will amaze you with what you can achieve. Try out the main technique discussed in this episode of the podcast and you will marvel at the progress you'll make. 3. Stop Thinking That Memory Strategies Are Too Much Work You will need 1-5 minutes every morning to practice the dream recall technique talked about in this podcast. There's nothing to it. You only have to do it over a period of two or three days to get results. Often, you'll get results as soon as the next day. The best part is that once you start, dream recall will serve your life in many ways. So I have a suggestion for you before you finish the podcast and start your journey toward advanced dream memorization skills. Believe in yourself. When I started working on dream recall, I told myself it wouldn't work. I wasted a lot of time with this false belief. But once I settled into the practice, dream recall hooked me. Now I've got a YouTube playlist all about the practice: The ability to remember your dreams with near-100% accuracy creates wonderful things for you. And it opened the world's doors for me. It also healed me in many ways and changed how I view reality. As a result of dream recall, I am more a positive, productive and contributing member of society. And I'm confident that becoming an effective dream memorizer will do the same for you. Please note that I'm not talking about anything "New Agey" or "NLP-ish." I base the dream recall techniques and related approaches I teach on scientifically demonstrated principles known to increase the happiness of individuals. Dreams remain essential to the human experience. And those with an advanced ability to engage with their dreams experience greater pleasure and more interesting lives. So I hope that you will take the time to practice dream recall after listening to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. And if it changes how you think about lucid dreaming, let me know. You can also check out the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass for more information about advanced dream recall. Further Resources Lucid dream article on Wikipe

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 taking no notes and recording the lecture. Some nice 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 intently and deeply when doing this. 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. Here's What To Do Next Go home and listen to the lecture again with a Memory Palace prepared, and a stack of index cards as described in the How to Memorize a Textbook episode of the podcast. And remember, there are only 4 Memory Improvement Systems You Need to be successful every time you study. If you've been given additional reading as part of the lecture, you might want to do that reading first before returning to the lecture. Again, the most important information is going to be the stuff that leaps out at you as the most interesting first. Why? Because you're more likely to remember this information without the assistance of mnemonics an

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 a 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. 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 highwater. The more voluntary teaching while eating rice and tuna and being stressed out over every dime wore me down, the weaker my conviction grew. And because money was running out, I started seeking a job. Any job. Because I had worked as a store detective as one of my ways to pay for university the first time around, that's the route I went. But I couldn't get anything better than a uniformed security guard position. There's nothing wrong with

How To Build Memory Palaces – Even If Your Home Is Microscopic! It's true. Housing in Japan is notoriously tiny. And that can make it challenging to use them for effective Memory Palace construction. As always, however, I've got a solution to suggest. Today's podcast Q&A 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 read the entire episode right here too! 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 administrative buildings. There were also not any unusual distances between the buildings. But if I were to face long distance issues, I would consider creating multiple journeys and labeling each accordingly

You're standing in the Kitchen with the refrigerator door open. You know you're not hungry, but for some reason you're staring inside. You think to yourself, "What was the reason again I'm here?" But nothing comes. You're mind is blank. You can't remember why you went into the kitchen at. "Curse this short term memory of mine!" you say. "If only I had a better memory…" Do You Make This Epic Mistake About Your Memory? Many people give up on trying to learn a foreign language because they have this notion that they don't have the memory for all of the vocabulary words involved. We're here to dispel that myth. Many believe a strong memory is something you are either born with, or are lacking and are doomed for all of eternity. People watch the World Memory Championships and think "Man … I could never be like that". The truth is, improving your memory is a coachable skill that like any coachable skill, can be improved upon by proper training. We're not talking about training through rote memory, which is simply the process of memorizing through repetition. We're talking about the use of Mnemonics. How To Understand UnderstandWhy You Remember And Why You Forget Before we explain what Mnemonics are, let's try and understand why we remember certain things, and forget others. The mind takes in information through any of our five senses during the day. It has the chance to accept or reject thousands of stimuli at any given point. Right now, while you are sitting and reading this article, pay attention to all of the external stimuli to which your mind can pay attention. Where are you? What are you staring at? How do you feel? Are your shoes too tight? Do you smell anything? Are your taste buds still active from the last meal you had? In order retain that which is important, the mind needs to filter out that which is not. This brings us back to our earlier question: Why do we pay attention to some items while discarding others? The answer lies in the significance that we place on the external stimuli. The Blazingly Obvious Truth About Organizing Information In Your Mind What did the 13th person you saw today look like? Can't remember? What if you saw a clown walk by you today holding 6 puppies while crossing the street. Would you remember that? I bet you'd remember that not only today, but for many years to come. The reason for that is because it was a unique experience in which you attached significance to. Training your mind to remember anything at any given time is a simple task once you are prepared to attached significance to the item you are trying to remember. Here's a quick question: What is easier to navigate? A large filing cabinet with forty index cards containing one word on each of them, randomly dispersed in the cabinet; or a small filing cabinet with 1,000 index cards containing one word on each of them, each set up alphabetically? The key to training your mind to memorize any content is to attach significance to each item and organize the information in your brain effectively. While there are many ways to train your mind to do so, we are going to focus on association. Big yellow balloon. What are the first thoughts that come to your head? Birthday party? Children? Celebration? The mind is constantly associating new information with information we are already familiar with. The key to organizing information in your brain effectively is to use association to link items together. Rubber band, keychain, eraser, river, drum, jelly, magic wand, mud, dart, ice cube. How To Take Charge Of Information Using Linking And Stories How can we apply what we just learned to remember the items listed above? Let's start with associating and linking the first two items to each other. Now, we could just imagine a rubber band on a keychain, but remember, in order to remember something we need to make it unique. Add some significance to it. A rubber band on a keychain is too ordinary for us to find any uniqueness and attach significance to it. What if we imagine shooting a rubber band and it landing in someone's pocket, attaching to their keychain. That would be a unique event that you would probably remember, would you not? Now what if we took that keychain, and imagined getting rid of it entirely by erasing it with an eraser? and what if the friction from rubbing the eraser was so strong that your hand caught fire, and you had to put it out in a river? But while you were in the river, someone threw you what was supposed to be a lifeboat but was instead a drum? So you took some jelly, but rather than sliding the drum off of you with it( that would be too plain), you broke off a piece of the drum and made a drum and jelly sandwich? And as you did that, you got some jelly stuck in your teeth and had to use a magic wand to pick the jelly out. Now, instead of picking the jelly out, you just turned it from jelly to mud. So you asked a friend to throw a dart at the speck of mud in between your teeth. When your friend threw the d

It's no secret and certainly no shame about it. People get depressed. Ain't nothing new. Before depression, was melancholy. Some called it "deprimare" (Latin). Some called it "melas" (Greek). Manic comes from the "manikós" and "manía" (Greek) and means inclined to madness. Latin later turned the word into "mania." The names may change, but the states remain the same. Mania and depression are the sorts of thing that can happen to anyone, at any time, for any reason … or for no reason at all. I hope these states never happen to you, dear Memorizers. But if they do, I highly recommend that you supplement your medical treatment with mnemonics. I'm not a doctor (at least not the medical kind), so I'm not qualified to offer medical advice. I can only tell you that when the black bile of melancholia hit me during my graduate studies, it hit hard, it hit bad and it did its best to sink my Magnetic ship into the rough seas of depression. Anyhow, the inspiration for today's episode and sharing these memory improvement tips for students suffering from Manic Depression comes from a listener of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. He wrote: Thanks for sharing your story. I also have bipolar. It's a tough thing to deal with and I appreciate your willingness to share your story. I have always wanted a doctorate degree. But for reasons you are well acquainted with, it has been a massive struggle. Another one of my life goals is to learn Russian and be fluent. I feel skeptical that the methods outlined here can help someone like me to accomplish these goals, but I'm willing to take a deep breath, and give it 100%. Honestly, what's the worst that can happen? It either works or it doesn't, right? I'm going to try hard to make this work, and I will be in touch to let you know how I've progressed, but for now I wanted to just thank you for bringing the possibility to me, and for sharing your struggle with bipolar. In today's episode of the podcast, I address this letter in detail, giving you the reasons why you should feel the mania and depression and do it anyway. There is nothing that you cannot achieve just because you have this emotional dis-ease. Concentration Zen For Students With Brains Bipolar Medication Has Turned To Mush I've talked several times before about my personal history with concentration issues, so you're not alone. I was thrown into a severe depression as a grad student and that's one of the things that led me to memorization techniques. And of course, no sooner than I emerged from the depression, I found myself riding back up to the sky. And it's hard to focus when you've got the wind blowing hard in your face as you blast towards the moon. But even with memory techniques to guide me during these torrential states, they didn't completely eliminate the concentration issues. One practice that I found helpful (though not always) was to read out loud. Narrating books can put strain on the voice and requires a lot of water, but it also helps generate focus during especially difficult passages. When narration wasn't possible, I found audiobooks whenever I possibly could. This is usually easy for novels, but not so easy for dry theoretical texts – hence reading out loud. But the point is not to "read" the audiobooks while walking around or cooking bacon. For the purposes of serious study, you want to have the actual text in front of you and read along with. That's why I always listened and read at the same time. And If I had to, I recited the book myself and then listened to my own narration while following along with the book in hand. How Memory Techniques Saved The Lovely Voice You Hear Today On The MMM Podcast Next, I studied memorization techniques (you knew that was coming). These are great because they sharpen the mind and improve concentration. I think it's because practicing with Memory Palaces and related techniques sends more oxygen to the brain. It also helps improve recall (of course) because it's a simple matter to store key points in a carefully prepared and predetermined Memory Palace. Along with memorization techniques, meditation is incredibly helpful for avoiding all of the 17 student fails I've talked about elsewhere on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.. Nothing fancy. Just sitting, breathing, watching your thoughts. 3-5 minutes is good, 10 minutes is very good and 15 minutes is exceptional (that's a loose quote from a meditation training I heard once upon a time). Three 15 minute sessions a day works gangbusters for me. Then there's the matter of diet and exercise. Sorry to spread the bad news, but eating processed foods and anything wrapped in plastic or bolted into a can is probably not going to help concentration. I'm not a doctor (well, I am, but not the medical kind) so I can't give any dietary advice. But you know the drill. Eat well and keep fit. While You "Treat" Manic Depression With Memory Palaces … Look At What Else They Can Do … And then read these … Further Resources Memorizing V

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn about how to get fat off of all the free donuts you can stuff in your Magnetic little belly (or big belly as the case soon shall be …) Plus, I want to show you a number of Memory Palaces created by Magnetic Memory Method readers and course participants. Incredible Images That Show You Exactly How You Can Build Your Own Rome Of Memory In A Single Day! So read every word on this page, watch each and every video from beginning to end and listen to the entire podcast. First up … A Killer Resource For Becoming A SuperHuman! Not so long ago, I interviewed the great Jonathan Levi, a fellow instructor over at Udemy and now podcaster extraordinaire. He interviewed me in an hour long session that covers all kinds of memory topics that you're going to want to listen to right away and then subscribe to the Becoming Superhuman Podcast. What you'll learn in this special Magnetic Memory Method interview includes: * How to reduce stress with mnemonics … * Fundamental principles of memory and how I improve my memory every day … * How to increase memory power simply by understanding what noripinephrine is … and then acting according to its whims! … * Memory improvement tips for overcoming the "primacy effect" like a sabre-toothed tiger glides through the jungles of forgetfulness … * How to improve short term memory by understanding the Method of Loci and creating top-notch, bulletproof and 100% Magnetic Memory Palaces … * … and much, much more! Next up … The Unbelievable Secret To Getting Free Donuts While You Relieve Boredom At Work And Get Really, Really Fat! It was just another Magnetic day here at the Magnetic Memory Method headquarters until I opened my email and a subject line leapt out at me … Thanks for the Donuts! And so I asked myself … What manner of spam chicanery is this? No chicanery at all. Check it out! Good Morning Anthony! I am emailing to thank you for the donuts. As a fun activity and to help take our minds off of work, I made a wager with my fellow office coworkers that I could memorize – verbatim – a chart of makes, submakes, model numbers and letters, RV types, sub-types, and the 2-digit VIN identifier of 83 RVs as produced by our company. Again, this was for fun and by no means a testament to memorizing things "verbatim." If I lost, I would buy the office donuts. If I won, the office would by donuts and I could have as many as would be considered gluttonous. Though this apparently seemed to them a silly bet that I could never win, I did warn the office that I was quite confident in my ability to do this. So, after a 2-week study window and a 20-question "test" (plus many shouts of random VIN IDs from the non-believers) I received enough donuts to move my belt out a notch. Again, !!THANKS!! For the donuts and I'm sure you will be happy to know I passed your information out to everyone as a gift for their participation. Sincerely, Matt Simon Memorizer-in-Training And because this email comes with an amazing graph of what Matt memorized … I made a video for you so you can see it! Next up … A Memory Palace Made Of BEAR MACE! Okay, not really, but check this Memory Palace sent to us by the amazing actor Matt Newby who has a hilarious produce spoof over at Famousoldie.com. He writes: Hey Anthony! Wanted to share with you some things! First when I started keeping a memory journal I found myself not wanting to open it because well I guess it just looked boring to me … nothing to exciting about a green composition book. So I printed out of retro futuristic designs and things this resulting in Now I want to open it! Second I've been doing cards using the Person Action Object method and an 18 room Memory Palace I built in Minecraft. Between Dec when it started and today I've done it 17 times with an average time memorized 12min and an average time recalled 9min missing about 4 on average. I feel like I've hit an "OK plateau". Do you think I haven't done it enough times to feel that way yet? I've done a lot of work with the PAO method. I got your book last night about cards and I feel like I've done so much work with the PAO I don't want to switch methods just yet. I did however love the idea of breaking it down into 4 sets good way to make it seem easier! I will get this down to 1 minute! Do you have any drills I could do? Should I try other methods? You da main man with da plan! Matt PS I'm an actor I loved your last podcast! Having come this far, I thought … Why Not Show You Some More Amazing Memory Palaces Created By People Just Like You? Why not, indeed? Here's one by a young person in grade school sent to me by her teacher (with the permission of the parents, of course). Here's another presented by a Magnetic Memory Method course participant down in Australia: And to close off this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, let's look inside one of my very own Memory Palaces! So, I hope you enjoyed this episode. But even if you hated it

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: 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 The post Memory Improvement Techniques For Kids appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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. It does happen, even to the best. For example, Matthew Broderick once had to call for his lines many times during a play. In this case, it was due to multiple dialog changes shortly before the performance. But just imagine the pressure one tiny slip up must bring! And think of how much energy it must take to hold all those lines in the mind, sometimes for months if it's for a play. It must be mentally and physically draining. Unless of course you've got top-notch memory techniques. Doing my research, I was quite surprised by the range of activities actors use. And yet not all actors use straight-up mnemonics, making each of these 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 many actors forgo memorization, at least at first. Instead, 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 intentions. Motivations and the emotional experiences their characters go through. As we know from mnemonics, emotions are very memorable and build a lot of connections. And if you think about it, the most memorable scenes from movies all feature hugely exaggerated reactions based on emotional states. In sum, all of this repetitive reading 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. 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. 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. 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 read the lines, the more dimensions of the character in the context of their narrative world you'll understand. But the actor also needs to feel those emotions at a legitimate level. And theoretically, by making oneself feel the emotions in a genuine way, the lines should be more memorable. And if you think about it, you've probably had more than one experience in your life where you could remember parts of an argument word for word. Maybe you've experienced arguments so intense that you can still remember things you've heard and said. And it's this power of supercharged emotions that actors use to help them remember their lines. They hunt for that same spike in feeling in real life that people use to win arguments and memorizers use to make information more memorable. Those are the three main ways actors remember their lines and they can all add something to your practice as a memorizer. And you don't have to go to your high school or college examination room to get results with real location projection. Try using your home as a Memory Palace sometime. Take lyrics from a song or a poem and stand at or beside or on a station. Create associative-imagery for the first line and with eyes both open and closed, burn that imagery into place. Do this with a couple of lines, physically moving from station to station. Then, looking back, see or reconstruct

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 the author of How to Remember Anything, Channon presents us with stimulating ideas and actionable techniques you can get started using right away. This interview truly demonstrates just how profound his Total Memory Blueprint will be for you. And in this interview, 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 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 body 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 an addition for a Stephen Spielberg 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 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. * 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 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. How to Remember Anything highlights the paradox of memory. It is both absolutely central and 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 fulfil 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. If you're interested in how and why the brain works, this 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! 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 Workbook on Amazon BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits Phil Chambers (Chief Arbiter of the World Memory Championships) Talks About The Outer Limits Of Memory Skills The post Memory Improvement Fun And Games: Mark Channon Talks About How To Remember Anything appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

C'mon, admit it. You think that learning how to increase memory skill and ability is going to be a drag. You've seen all those pictures of memory champions with their sound cancelling headphones and nothing could seem more boring. But the truth is that you can improve memory ability simply by using something you already do almost every week, if not every day. That's right: Merely by watching a movie and thinking about it in a few deliberate ways afterwards, you can exercise and improve memory by an impressive margin. Here's how: Use The Power Of Intention But intend to do what, exactly? Intend to pay attention for the sake of your memory. Harry Lorayne makes the point again and again in his books that memory ability begins and ends with our attention. After all, you simply cannot remember anything to which you haven't consciously attended. Pay attention to the next movie you watch with the intent to remember more and you'll already give yourself a cutting edge memory increase beyond belief. Reconstruct The Story You probably haven't done this since you were a kid. You watch a movie and then immediately get on the phone and retell the entire story to a friend. At least, I remember doing this as a kid and I loved hearing my friends recount what they had seen. Back then, after all, if you missed a movie at the theatre, it could be six months to a year before it appeared on videocassette. And even then, there was no guarantee that a video store in your town would carry it for rental. "A Story Told Is A Story Shared" The exercise here is to watch a movie and retell the story to someone. If you cannot find someone to relate the narrative to, tell it to a pet. Speak it into a recording device. Or even just write it down. Who knows? You could wind up becoming a great film reviewer and critic and memorizing what happens in movies for a living. For bonus points, do both: verbally recount the film and write your description down. This will exercise more parts of your memory and improve recall in a deeper way, especially of you make this a regular affair. And keep in mind, this description doesn't have to be super-lengthy. When I recall the plot points of a movie in writing, I can usually squeeze it all on to a mid-sized index card, the kind that is about half the size of a sheet of paper. If you're interested in more about memorizing plot points, you can check out this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on memorizing plot points. For extra extra bonus points, listen to someone else tell back the story of a movie they've seen. There will probably be some back and forth as they revisit the story from memory, but just let them talk it through. Commit to memorizing at least three major pieces of information. Hold On To The Names Of Characters My girlfriend at the time and I had been watching Deadwood. If you like Westerns, this is a great series. Anyhow, in season two a new character showed up and we both immediately recognized the actress. "What was her name in Breaking Bad?" my girlfriend asked. "Skyler," I said immediately, "Skyler White." How did I remember this character's name so easily and my girlfriend did not – even though we had watched the entire series together, episode by episode? I deliberately paid attention to character names, that's how. Now, to be fair to this former girlfriend, she never liked Skyler much and doesn't have the same ten year plus track record that I do as a Film Studies professor. Plus, she didn't work on memory development using movies the way I do. Or learn how to enhance vocabulary with a Breaking Bad Memory Palace like you see in this video: In this case, it's not so much that she couldn't remember Skyler's name, but that she found it too unimportant to hold in memory. And perhaps her active dislike for the character (who is admittedly dislikable), actively deleted the information from her mind. It would also be hard to say that I would have remembered her first name of I hadn't actively paid attention to it. Her husband, Walter White, is easy. It's alliterative, for one thing, which is a simple aid to memory. Plus, "Walter" brings so many character-associated traits to mind: he's old-fashioned, conservative, cantankerous and it's easy to see him becoming an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of The Walton's. Finally, "White" makes you think of the white hat of the good cowboy and innocence is a constant theme throughout the series as Walter White transforms episode by episode into the monster Walter Black. Anyhow, even though Skyler's name is not as easy to place thematically and has no mnemonic alliteration like the W. W. in Walter White, it was still easy to instantly memorize. How? By associating it with other information worth memorizing to build fast familiarity with the story and increase memory with this simple exercise. For example, I noticed that the story takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There's almost always a blue sky in this part of the US

There's a feeling of powerlessness that comes with failing to recall information, isn't there? And the more important the information – be it a name, a mathematical formula or a word – the higher that feeling of having no power over your memory becomes. But you really don't have to suffer from this powerlessness. You can learn how to increase memory power. And the good news is that a meaningful transformation can occur almost overnight using these three simple steps. 1. Determine what "memory power" means to you. Go ahead and get out a piece of paper or something to write on. Then, without thinking about it too much, write down everything that comes to mind related to your personal concept of memory power. If you like, you can also create a mind map. Mind maps are great because they free you from many aspects of linear thinking and let you see different connections that normally go unnoticed. Make sure that you spend 5-10 minutes on this exercise before taking a break. Then come back to it, assess what you've written and add any more details that come to mind. In particular, search your writing and/or mind mapping for three kinds of information that can be placed into different categories. These categories are "fears," "opportunities" and "strengths." (I've adapted terms from a coach named Dan Sullivan for use in your world of memory improvement, but if you're an entrepreneur, check out his teaching sometime soon.) Then, on another sheet of paper, put a headline on top that says something like "how to increase memory power." Beneath that, create three columns, one for each category. For example, when I completed the prose version of this exercise, I wrote: Memory power means the ability to recall anything I've studied at any time and under any condition. Relaxation is always part of the process of memory power. It also means learning and memorizing information that will actually make a difference to the quality of my daily life. True memory power exists when I'm able to share the processes and results of how to increase memory power with others. The mind map version (because I think it's important to do both) looks like this: I've give you this handwritten image because that's exactly how I suggest you write out your mind map. It takes just a few seconds. But in case you can't read my handwriting or interpret my short form, here's the list of what "memory power" means to me. It's the ability to: * Memorize Facts * Memorize Math & numbers * Helping others do the same * Feel great * Recall anything * Experience no stress during the memorization using relaxation Next, on the three column sheet, map everything onto the three categories. Scroll to the Further Resources section of this post to download a worksheet if you prefer that to free writing on a blank page. Again, this isn't rocket science. Just a simple sheet of paper will do. So you can make out what I've written, here's the words in type (and in more normal English): Fears Not being able to concentrate Not being relaxed Not being able to recall Being frustrated Worrying Failure Strengths Creativity Relaxation/Meditation Ability to teach others Writing books about memory Opportunities 45 mins for memorzing vocabulary 45 mins for practicing recall Writing an email to a reader Drafting a new book This Memory Power Exercise Eliminates All Fear In sum, this exercise helps not only define what memory power means to you and how to improve it. The exercise also identified your fears. With awareness of these, you can eliminate them one at a time from your life before proceeding to the next exercise. Some people may think this first step towards memory improvement is too involved. However, this should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. You might want to revisit it every so often to see where you stand, however. In other words, your personal definition of memory power is not a "set it and forget it" thing. It's living, breathing and subject to change as your memory power evolves into something much better. 2. Set a specific goal and study memory techniques. Every body has heard of SMART goals. To quote from the Wikipedia entry, SMART goals are: Specific – target a specific area for improvement. Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress. Assignable – specify who will do it. Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources. Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved. On the final note, it is often suggested that you add a deadline. However, the extent to which this matters (or any of the SMART goal conditions matter) is entirely up to you. In truth, even just having a goal in mind is better than nothing. But the more you can specify the conditions of the goal, the better. That's why it's important to include research as part of any goal. Although this means adding an additional step to your goals, it also means you'll be able to proceed towards your goal on an informed basis. What

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

Photographic memory techniques, sometime confused with eidetic memory, are usually connected with a scam. Photographic memory is always scammy because … Photographic Memory Does Not Exist! Not only that, but it's really not even something any sane person wants. Think about it: Why, unless you're a painter, would you want to memorize every single detail of, say, a room or landscape? Even then, most serious artists would still want to make a quick study sketch, if not take a legitimate photograph. Thus, in most cases, the ability to clearly memorize only what you need always serve you much better than cramming it all in. That's why spending some time clarifying exactly what you want to memorize is so important. For example, a lot of people ask me about memorizing an entire book, specifically textbooks. But I caution against spending time on this. So much so that I created an entire podcast episode about how to memorize a textbook the right way. In reality, you need only memorize the most critical pieces of information needed. The fear so many people have that makes them wish they had a photographic memory is this: They Don't Know What Information Will Be Critical There's a few solutions to this problem (also covered in the textbook memory training I linked for you). But the biggest step of all is this: Give up the phony notion photographic memory techniques exist. Even better, get my free memory improvement course and Memory Palace kit: After registering for this memory training material, understand this: Your Memory Can Be Better Than Photographic. It Can Be Magnetic. The first thing to do once you've learned how to create a Memory Palace, is develop a memory ritual. I recommend using the P.E.A.C.H. Memory Palace Principle as a guide: Next, when you want to remember all the most important information in a book, examine your textbook as a physical object. Ask simple questions that prime your mind and memory for paying attention to the book at a higher level: How many chapters does it have? What does the information say on the front and back cover? What are the chapter titles? How long is the index? What kinds of information does this index list? What are some of the other books listed in the bibliography? Going through this exercise will alert your mind for knowledge in many ways while giving you a sense of what might be important in the book. Exactly When And Why To Skip Parts Of A Book Next, read the introduction and conclusion. Although a teacher or professor might never refer to these parts, they will tell you a great deal about what information is important. They'll also place the subject in context and give you more clues about other books in the field you should read. You can also simply book an appointment with your teacher or professor and ask them what information you need to focus on. Your teachers may have already made this clear, but that doesn't mean you can't glean more clues by speaking in person. You'll also stand out more as an individual to them, which is usually a good thing. Of course, a good teacher won't show you any kind of favouritism if your tests and assignments lack vigour, but you will open the door for additional help later. Anyhow, there's more information about these matters on the podcast episode I mentioned, so please do check it out. It could change your life for the better if you're a student or someone responsible for reading a lot of books and need to have that information at the ready. But if there's a better way to take a "snapshot" of a book … I don't know what it is. Beware! Back to photographic memory techniques, beware of memory trainings that sell you on this idea. Maybe they'll have some good tips (even a broken clock is right twice a day), but they are in essence lying to you. And as I said, photographic memory is far from desirable. Take the case of Jill Price, for example. She's the author of The Woman Who Can't Forget. If you've ever had the fantasy that you wanted to remember everything, think again. As Price discusses in the book, her inability to forget creates ongoing anguish. So much so that doctors invented an entirely new term to describe her condition: "hyperthymestic syndrome." Although Price claims she would never trade this ability for the world, it's clear that it hasn't been an easy life for her. Plus, although Price discusses many different kinds of memory, she doesn't use the term "photographic memory" except in an excerpted passage from the chatroom where she met her husband. Nor is it included in the glossary of terms at the end of the book (though it makes for an interesting memory exercise to memorize those words using a Memory Palace). Instead, Price has "flashbulb memory" as a term, but this has more to do with recalling moments of tragedy and the like. For example, remembering where you were on the morning of 9/11 may well be vivid, but chances are that it's far from photographic in the manner meant by this suspect term. Far From Photogra

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn the connection between Robin Williams and the most unusable Memory Palace in the world. At least, the most unusable Memory Palace for me. And you'll hear about why and how I'm trying to change it so that, even if it can't be used, I can at least reduce the unhappy memories associated with it. Program Notes This week's episode is based on a somewhat crazy email I sent out to Magnetic Memory Method Newsletter subscribers. For these program notes, I'm providing you that letter in its entirety. What I'm referring to at the beginning of the newsletter doesn't really matter. Let's just say I wrote something a bit harsh and some people rightly called me out on it. But there was madness behind my methods, and so I took the opportunity to explain the context behind the disruption. And I think it's a nice way to begin 2015 on a positive note. Because when you listen to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll find an idea about how to eliminate negative associations you may have with places that you would otherwise find impossible to use for the Method of Loci in a Memory Palace or any other mnemonic technique. So without further adieu, here is that newsletter: Dear Memorizers, The following newsletter won't teach you anything about memory skills. But it will tell you about the one place that I will never, ever use as a Memory Palace. If that's of no interest to you, now would be the best time to stop reading. If you're curious, I'll tell you a little bit about it. First, though, a note about the message from the day before yesterday. Some people found it cool and said so. Others found it uncool. And said so. I'm not going to bandy around the bush with apologies and the like for those who felt offended. I'll say only that you have a Bipolar operator at the helm of this ship – or at least that's the label I given me in the Memory Palace I'll never use. What does this mean? It means that when people say that I'm unprofessional … They're right. Not that being professional was ever my intention. I'm just some dude who writes about memory skills. The same memory skills that without exaggeration saved my life. Since Robin Williams died, I've been trying to find a way to say something about it. And what some people considered yesterday's meltdown (others heroic), finally provides an avenue. Of sorts. You see, Robin Williams crushed me, and more than a little. Taking his own life crushed a lot of people, but perhaps the Bipolar more than most. Not that he self-identified. Carrie Fisher, another nut enjoying the all-too brief blasts of sun here at Club Manic, wrote that he doubted he was Bipolar. Only, the way she recounts it, he doubted it in a rather Bipolar way. Anyway, Robin Williams factors into the development of the Magnetic Memory Method in an important way. I've talked lots about how I discovered Memory Palaces during a deep depression. I've share how this lucky enabled me to keep going through grad school and in the end succeed. And it's an important part of the original of the MMM. What I haven't talked about much, if at all, is how this "Bipolar" journey got started in the first place. In truth, who knows, but in the most evident way, I once upon a time wrote a poem. A really long poem. I still have it. It was even published in a good old fashioned book. Eventually. Anyhow, I stayed up for 5 or 6 nights with almost no sleep writing this epic poem. When finished, I ran around campus with an armful of copies and gave it to friends and strangers alike. I also emailed it to all my professors and their teaching assistants. Some of those professors expressed concern. One of the teaching assistants took it upon himself to catch me after a lecture. I had a face full of tears, beading at the brim from learning a bit too much about Keats' Ode to a Nightingale. It's a beautiful poem. Enough to tear your soul apart. If your soul's Magnetic, that is. The assistant told me he'd read the poem. He said it was good in parts, but also extremely sexual. And violent. Of course it is, I told him. I quoted Shelley. "I fall upon the thorns of life. I bleed." What else did he expect from a young punk stuffing Romantic poetry down his maw like a butcher grinds pork? The assistant wasn't buying it. He thought I was sick and drew a map on the pack of this 30 page poem. A map leading straight to a hospital. A hospital in which I would remain for 3 months. And it would have been longer if the doctor hadn't mentioned the name "Robin Williams." I'll bet it was part of the doctor's schtick. He said it to everyone who refused to take their meds. And yet the name that seemed to be little more than a therapeutic tool to this doctor proved useful. It was an extraordinarily persuasive way to convince me to pull out the poetry blocking my throat and start pouring the pills in. Here's exactly what he said: "If Robin Williams had diabetes, do you think he'd refuse to t

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: 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 Startup Geometry by Scott Gosnell (Forthcoming) Scott's De Umbris Idearum website Scott on Twitter Scott's Windcastle Venture Consulting Bottle Rocket Science Giordano Bruno on Wikipedia Giordano Bruno: Philosopher Heretic by Ingrid D. Rowland Hermes Trismegistus Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Cool Documentary Featuring Animated Bruno Giordano For About 10 Minutes: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey – Episode 1 "Standing up in the Milky Way" Novels Featuring Bruno Giordano: Heresy by S. J. Parris (one of many in a series of books structured around Bruno) The Solitudes (The Aegypt Cycle) by John Crowley (also know as Aegypt) 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: The post Scott Gosnell Talks About Giordano Bruno appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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! Take a look on YouTube or download the full MP4. You'll find the full transcript below and can also download it as a PDF for future reference. 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 know history, I feel that if you know history you know the world you're living in right now, because w

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn how to find more Memory Palaces, even if you live in a small town and … … don't want to appear creepy to the locals. You can use the Method of Loci anywhere for language acquisition, and yet, what if you don't have access to a big city? What if you live in the boondocks? What if you're a prisoner and haven't seen daylight for a hundred thousand hours? Well, I haven't got answers for all of these questions, but as I talk about in this episode, often the questions are more important anyway. Why? Because questions open up the mind. Questions trigger the search for solutions. Throw experimentation into the mix and the next thing you know, life changes. And usually for the better. That's why I especially admired this recent letter I received from a member of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. Give it a read as a supplement to this week's episode, followed by a basic prose version of my answer. As always get in touch if you have any questions. I'd love to help you if I can. The Magnetic Questions Of The Week I'm going to apologize in advance, this email is going to be a bit long, and…I am very sorry for that. I would be, however, very grateful for your help. I have to say this… I watched a lot of your videos, listened to a lot of podcasts, and…I honestly am pumped to get started really seriously learning Japanese vocabulary. However… At the risk or sounding like I'm obfuscating things…I just have a few quick and simple questions, involving the "Art of Association" itself, so to speak. Should one prefer memory palaces, or images? If you have looked at Japanese before, you probably have noticed that its spelling is in no way similar to western languages, so I came up with two possible ways to memorize vocabulary, but, I'd rather do things the right way, the easier and more efficient way, right from the get-go. So, in idea one, I thought of treating each kana as a sentinel, to give each one a specific image that will be tied to vocabulary. I'd create 26 memory palaces, a-z, and store words based on their first letter when transliterated. Then tie the actual first kana image, to the rest of the word. That way I can have words like yasai and yokoshiro in the same palace, with distinct "sentinel" images attached to them, to give away the first kana itself. This idea uses less palaces, but more images. And is, as I think of it, "Palace-Conservative". The second idea, (Don't worry,there is only two), is "Image-Conservative", and, the general idea, is to use a single palace for each kana. Now, there are variations to this, really, in variation 1, I only looked at the hiragana, (because katakana uses the same sounds but different symbols), and would store words based solely on the first kana in the word. (no transliteration). Including the Datuken, I would require 70 palaces. If I included "Combo-Hiragana", I'd require 106. (Roughly). To blow this up even more, in variation 2, if I were to treat the katakana and hiragana separately, to remember the proper spelling of words (Like, which kana syllabary to use), I'd need roughly 212 palaces. I'm brand new to memory palaces, and the magnetic memory method, and really, the "Palace Conservative" idea sounds more intuitive to me, but, haha, this is coming from a guy who thought rote learning and spaced repetition systems like Anki were the only way to go. And I really, really didn't like them. Memory Palace Acquisition, a problem? For me, yes. Let me explain: I'm 21 years old. I live in a town of 5000 people. Nearest town has maybe 500 people. Nearest city, of 250,000, is 400km away. I have no car. I have no drivers license. I also have a night job, and sleep during the day. I have spent 13 years of my life here, about 8 years of my life in that small nearby town, and 4 months in Barrie. I don't remember those 4 months very well, I was only 7, and…well, I was extremely depressed, and in short, that's the reason I ended up back in this town to begin with. Anyways…during the Palace Recitation exercise I was only able to come up with about 60 palaces. And I really thought about this, with a lot of time and effort. Occasionally, 1 more might pop up, but…I believe I have pretty much maxed out now. And I really don't want to sound pessimistic, I love this method thus far, and I can see myself using it forever, and ever…and ever. But, until I'm able to move out to a city, where I can actually just "go memory palace hunting" so to speak, I'm stumped about what to do. I don't know if you ever lived in a small town before, but just going out and getting new friends and doing all that, is really…it's very hard to do. For example I can't just, you know, burst into the little high school we have and start socializing with a bunch of the kids there. It'd be…inappropriate, to say the least. I played one of my favourite video games, Ocarina of Time, as remade for the 3DS back in 2011, and spent about an hour, really visuali

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about how to use Memory Palaces to memorize foreign language vocabulary. In fact, one of the most important questions around memorizing vocabulary without struggle is raised and answered in-depth. Program Notes Today's question involves your language of focus. When memorizing foreign language vocabulary using a Memory Palace it can be hard to settle on which language to feature along your journeys. These considerations combine a location you're familiar with and the Method of Loci. The inspiration for the podcast came from a reader of my book on how to learn Spanish vocabulary and memorize it. Focusing on Spanish words first and then finding the English definitions confused him, so I answer the issue in this episode. In brief, you should always focus on the target language and use images to memorize both the sound and the meaning. How To Remember What You Learn This is important because you want to train your mind to think in the target language by using imagery. Although you are connecting the images to your mother tongue in a real way, the stronger the images, the faster the meaning will come to mind. This effectively skips thinking about the meaning your mother tongue and drives you directly to the concept. As I talk about in the podcast, you want to think about memory techniques as being a kind of bicycle. They involve universal principles that touch everyone the same way, but we still need to adjust them to our own uses. The Method of Loci and the Memory Palace you use for this or that language learning project will need to be adjusted to your needs and learning style. As ever, the most important thing is to get started. Build a Memory Palace using all the tools provided by the Magnetic Memory Method. Then get started memorizing the foreign language vocabulary you've selected with care. Choice Is The Ultimate Language Learning Memory Enhancer There are lots of different ideas about how to focus on the right vocabulary. Some of the different opinions can be downright controversial. But there are also good discussions about word frequency lists and how to compile them using existing resources. Or you can create your own. Luca Lampariello is one of my favorite polyglot teachers who focuses on what it really takes to master the art of language learning. And the good news is that he has been a guest on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast twice before! These episodes are called: Luca Lampariello On Working Memory And The Oceans Of Language Luca Lampariello On Language As A Net Speaking of Luca, I'm looking forward to meeting with him soon for his birthday and some discussions about language learning. He also gave a great suggestion for the translation of my book, The Ultimate Language Learning Secret. Originally my translator gave me the following choices: Il Segreto Ultimo Per Imparare Le Lingue Imparare Le Lingue: Il Segreto Ultimo Imparare Le Lingue: Il Segreto Svelato The first two are more or less literal translations. The third is roughly "Learning Languages ​​: The Secret Revealed" in English. However, part of the trickiness of the situation involves the structure of the book. I can't discuss more about why here, but it's likely that each of these titles will be misleading in the end. That's why I'm so grateful for Luca's suggestion, which is (drum roll, please) … Il vero segreto di imparare le lingue This translates more or less to: "The Real Secret To Learning Languages." Due to the nature of how the book discusses the secret, this truly is the best title. Thanks Luca! Further Memory and Language Learning Resources How to Memorize Concepts (with video) Kirsten Hammes talks about the Real Meanings of Fluency Olly Richards Talks About Technology and Language Learning The post A Magnetic Little Tip On Memorizing Foreign Language Vocabulary appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast, you'll learn how to make changes to a Memory Palace you've already created (and when not to do this at all). Please supplement the podcast episode with this video on re-using Memory Palaces: You'll also likely encounter ghosting or confusion, often referred to in memory science as The Ugly Sister Effect. Use that episode of the podcast and the blogpost to make sure you never have trouble with it. Episode Notes On This Podcast Today's episode features a question about making changes to a Memory Palace to add new information. There are at least 3 options that we discuss in detail in the podcast. These are: 1) Creating Virtual Memory Palace elements. These can include imaginary bookshelves other types of invented or imaginary stations. You place these between pre-existing stations and the information memorized at/on/beside/in or under them. This technique will be most useful for those Memorizers who already have some experience using Virtual Memory Palace elements in combination with the Method of Loci. 2) Create a mnemonic palimpsest. Although not recommended, you can use Memory Palace stations twice. But as discussed in the episode, it's much better to add new phrases to words. That way you're preserving the original station and adding new material without having to add Virtual Memory Palace elements or shift things around. 3) Create new Memory Palaces. Instead of modifying existing Memory Palaces, create new ones. For example, create 3-4 Memory Palace per letter of the alphabet. You could have: A1 A2 A3 … and so on. Then, when you have new words to memorize, you place them in a new Memory Palace altogether. This technique works well if you want to maintain old Memory Palaces and still add new words to your vocabulary. You can also use the Principle of Word Division with multiple Memory Palaces. Thus, you would have: A1 = Words that start with "al" A2 = Words that start with "an" A3 = Words that start with "at" … etc. … Although multiple Memory Palaces for each letter of the alphabet may have limited appeal. But once you give it a try, you'll find that it works a charm. The worst that can happen is that you wind up not using some of the Memory Palaces you create. But that's hardly a problem. It will give you a lot of practice in Memory Palace construction and you can always go back and use those Memory Palaces later. Your mind loves this kind of exercise and the experimentation involved. You just need the mindset, the willingness and the determination to succeed and you'll find more success than you imagined possible. Multiple alphabetized Memory Palaces also work wonders when you're memorizing vocabulary around themes. For example, if you're memorizing words based on the theme of restaurants, instead of having one Memory Palace with 50 words, you could have 5 with 10 words each. In fact, you could think of 5 restaurants that you've enjoyed and use these. This will create a nice connection between the theme you're working on and the actual Memory Palaces you're using. As always, please let me know if you have any questions. And if you want more detailed training, over 20 hours of videos and dozens of PDFs and Worksheets await you in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. Further Resources 7 Ways To Make Your Memory Swiss Army Knife Sharp Method of Loci article on Wikipedia The post How To Renovate A Memory Palace appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Program Notes As you all know, I focus on memorizing vocabulary. I also share some ideas about memorizing poetry and decks of cards. And other ways to awaken the possibilities of your mind. Lots of other ways. But above all, my goal is to help people succeed in their target language studies. Or within their profession so that can excel with sophistication and ease. The method I teach involves creating many Memory Palaces based on the alphabet. Each Memory Palace features a journey, some long, some short. But memorizing vocabulary isn't the whole story when it comes to becoming fluent in a language or profession. So in this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about 5 other ways you can get a superboost of fluency. So let's get started: 1. Expand your fluency by studying the background of your language or profession. If you're studying French, turn to books on the history of the language. Read up on the countries where French is spoken or its influence has been felt. Look at how it has shaped cultural customs, political structures and its speakers. The same is true for reading about, say, medicine. Look at the history of the field and its cultural impact. You can look at how medicine has influenced art, theatre, literature and other aspects of culture. 2. Read within the language itself. This means not only children's books. In fact, as discussed in the episode, these can be more destructive than helpful when learning a language. They often have non-standard words that can be hard to find in a dictionary. Try online magazines and newspapers instead. You can find a breaking news story in your mother tongue and then look for it in the language your are studying. Write down some of the words and phrases you'd like to learn and use the Magnetic Memory Method to memorize them. 3. Test what you've memorized. This is critical. Recall Rehearsal not only tells you how accurately you've memorized the material, but it also does at least two things: a) It improves your memory abilities b) It depends your familiarity with the target information In sum, the Method of Loci and Memory Palaces are best used by … Using them. 4. Seek, develop and use motivation. As discussed in this episode of the Podcast, motivation is a slippery fish. You don't want to visualize goals that you can't achieve. At the same time, you don't want to encourage yourself to be an underachiever. It's kind of cliche to suggest this, but choose SMART goals. But the fact of the matter is that they work. From Wikipedia, courtesy of Peter Drucker, SMART goals are: * Specific. This means that they target a specific area for improvement. * Measurable. You need to be able to quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress. * Assignable. You have to be able to assign the goal to yourself. If you can't do it, who will? * Realistic. If it's impossible to achieve, the goal will be of limited use. * Time-related. You should specify when you expect the results. Using SMART goals will help you a great deal as you continue your fluency development. 5. Teach. As people often say, something taught is something learned twice. And it's true. If you haven't externalized a subject you've learned, you haven't really internalized it. Without teaching it, you haven't fully processed it. Like good coffee, knowledge needs to be percolated and then shared. The same goes for everything, including mnemonics and other work with memory techniques. into place and the theories lose their complexity. As always, thanks for listening to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. If you're looking for information about the Masterclass, it's currently open. If you're already a member, please login now to continue learning about how to improve your memory and the quality of your mind. You really can learn and memorize anything. The post 5 Ultra Fun Ways To Super Boost Your Fluency appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn the 7 best ways to make your memory sharper than a Swiss Army Knife. MacGyver, in case you've never seen the show, is a secret agent with a background in science. He's always building bombs and troubleshooting problems. His favorite tools? Duct-tape and a Swiss Army Knife. He also had a cool boss who was also his best friend. How many secret agents can say that? But what has MacGuyver got to do with the Magnetic Memory Method? A lot, actually. When you use the Magnetic Memory Method, you're transforming your mind into a Swiss Army knife and duct-tape at the same time. Your mental Swiss Army knife extends just the right associative imagery at the right time. And your mental duct-tape (your Memory Palaces) makes those images stick. They stick for as long as you want to keep the information memorized. And there are a lot of tools that go along with it. Here are just 8 of those tools in your Swiss Army knife-brain that you might not have spent enough time on yet. Listen to this episode of The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and read the following to learn how. 1. Sensory Whether you're building your Memory Palaces or filling them, it's important to be aware of your five senses. The more of the main senses you activate when working on your language learning goals, the easier it will be to recall your vocabulary. 2. Intensity Your mind has the amazing ability to make its contents more vibrant, hilarious, and strange. This will help you memorize and recall information. And it's easy to do. You need only focus on the associative-imagery you've created and then amplify it. Make it even more colorful, large, vibrant and strange. 3. Distinction This point relates to intensity. But the difference here is that you focus on differentiating the images in your mind. One way to do this is to focus on the borders of the images you create. For example, let's say my image has Fred Flintstone kissing a frog in a tutu. I can make the image more outstanding by taking a few seconds to really see the edges of the image and strengthen them. You can pretend that you are tracing over them with a black marker like you might do in a coloring book if it helps. It's kind of a weird thing to do, but once you try it, you'll find that your images are at least 10x more memorable. All because you've focused on making them distinct. It doesn't have to be black lines either. Try silver, gold, red, the color of duct-tape – any color will do. 4. Emotion Believe it or not, there's a little pea in your brain called the amygdala. It deals with emotional content, both positive and negative, and … You can hack it. Just by presenting it with crazy imagery. This works because the amygdala is designed to sense emotions and literally scream, "pay attention to this! It's important!" And so you can supercharge your associative images, and the Memory Palaces themselves, by giving them strong emotional elements. 5. Survivalist impulses Our brains come with some heavy duty wiring to ensure that we have the necessary drive to survive. And it's not just a physical thing. We need to survive – and thrive – emotionally, mentally, financially, nutritionally, etc. In other words, if you want your memory to work better, make sure you're well-fed, well-watered and well-rested. 6. Personal connections I've had some people tell me that their life histories interfere with their Memory Palace language learning work. I find this surprising, because I think it would be just the opposite. Part of the mnemonic principle that underlies the Magnetic Memory system is association. Normally associations to things that you're already familiar. Things that need zero memorization (because they're already in memory). To each a zone, of course, but do experiment with increasing the personal importance of the images you use. It will make everything more memorable. And it only stands to reason that your favorite TV shows, actors, musicians and movies are personal connections that you can draw upon with ease. It doesn't just have to be family and friends. 7. Repetition A lot of people have told me that because I'm against rote learning, I'm against repetition. This is absolutely not the case. There's smart, useful and results producing repetition that takes less time and effort. Like using Memory Palaces and the Method of Loci in your work with mnemonics. And then there's the other kind. I call this the .. Blunt Force Hammer Of Rote Learning The fact of the matter is that the Magnetic Memory Method lets you recall on demand based on associative imagery. But you perform the repetitions based on what you've memorized, not as an attempt to memorize in the first place. Sounds like a winning formula to me. That's all for this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, dear Memorizers. Until next time, get out the duct-tape and then teach someone else what you've learned about Memory Palaces. Teaching a skill is one of the best ways t

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we discuss visuality, science and a new book on memorizing numbers and math. Note: If you are visiting by no later than Sunday, October 27th, then How to Learn and Memorize Math, Numbers, Equations and Simple Arithmetic is free on Kindle. If you don't own a Kindle, you can get a free app for most devices on the US Kindle Store. 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 all of that good stuff that we tend to talk about. 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 system – and mnemonics in general – happen to be. Over the years I have memorized: * Foreign language vocabulary * Musical notation * 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 * … and I'm sure there's much more. For me, the ultimate trick has always been to use locations. 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 (especially 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 an actual location with which we are intimately familiar, 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 the theory is irrelevant. This stuff works. And there's science behind it too. 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 The post On Math, The Science Of Mnemonics And Memory Modalities appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

I'll bet you feel horrible when you procrastinate. You do? Good. That means that this podcast may be the most important episode you ever hear. Look, procrastination is a reality. And falling prey to it is understandable. Especially if you're a doer. Here's what happens: Many times when we start a new activity, we experience an initial rush. And everything seems not only possible, but nothing can go wrong. A feeling erupts that says you can conquer the world in a single day. But before you know it, that energy drops off. And then the resolve drops off. And before you know it, you start sabotaging yourselves by finding excuses that take you away from moving forward. Again, it's understandable. But it doesn't have to be this way! Especially not when you're using the Magnetic Memory Method. But even then some people fall off the path. For example, you might come across a challenging word. But instead of popping it into a well-designed Memory Palace … it's time to do the dishes. Or attend to the laundry. Or play games. Or check email. Anything but the work of memorization. Yet we all know one important fact. That fact is this: If you want to memorize a lot of vocabulary, terminology, math equations, or whatever it is that floats your Magnetic boat … You've got to actually engage in the key activity of using the Method of Loci in your Memory Palaces. Luckily, this isn't work as such (more like play), but it still trips a lot of people up. The question is why. The answer is often simple. It's fear. People fear a lot of things when it comes to success. There are two in particular: 1) The fear of failing 2) The fear of succeeding People usually address the first fear by never getting started. Crazy, but true. And in some ways, it's a pretty rational approach to avoiding failure. After all, if you never take action, you cannot fail. Only problem is that not taking action is the biggest failure of all. Fear of success is its own kettle of fish. It's connected to the fear of change. After all, if you achieve one of your goals, you'll have power. Great power. And with power, as the comic books and Superhero movies tell us, comes great responsibility. Think about it. If you were to use the Magnetic Memory Method to gain massive boosts in French fluency, for example, you would have to use the language. You're not going to be fluent in a language you're not using, after all. No matter how much you use a Memory Palace or general mnemonics. And just imagine what would happen if you aced all your exams? You'd be morally and ethically obliged to study even more and even teach so that others could enjoy your knowledge. You'd have to become a superhero. Success has consequences. And that's why so many fear it. Here's another weird reason that people fear success: They don't believe they deserve it. And without self-worth, even bigger negative believes sail in. They are the seeds of weeds that start growing and distributing even more seeds. Before you know it, no machete will get your through the jungle. What are some of these beliefs? That other people are: * Faster * Smarter * Better Could be true. In fact, it will almost always be true. But it doesn't matter! There's always room for another drop in the ocean. And the next time you're by the shore, take a drop away and see what happens. (I'll leave that as a riddle for you to think about.) Finally, some people fear that success is impossible. A lot of this comes from the fact that they haven't defined what success means to them. If you don't know were to find Eden on the map … Good luck finding it on the ground. Look, there's a Golden Rule when it comes to what is achievable and what isn't. That rule is this: If someone else can do it, you can do it too. And if that's the case, then there's no reason to fear that it's impossible. So long as the evidence behind it having been done is solid, then it can be done. And as I talk about in the podcast, you can even achieve impossible things without being the doer. Like if you're a sports coach, for example. You can be the conduit, the strategist, the inspiration. And perhaps in this case, it might be true that some things are impossible. Because without you at the helm, they would never get done. So, now that we've got all these issues cleared up, make sure that you listen to the podcast episode. This will help ensure that you understand how to overcome these fears and turn procrastination into a tool. There's simply no reason to let procrastination get in the way of using mnemonics, your dedicated Memory Palace strategy and all the ways you approach the Method of Loci in combination with the memory techniques you know. So be sure to check out the resources mentioned in the podcast before you memorize another single unit of the valuable information that will bring meaning, value and positive change to your life. Because if you're going to procrastinate, these resources will be a powerful diversion indeed. Talk soon! Sincerely, Anthony

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, I mention the Peg System as an alternative to the Method of Loci and the Memory Palace method. Do you really need an alternative? Probably not, but giving you options is so central to what we do here on the site and the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. So here's a brief rundown of what a Peg System is and when you might want to use one. The Peg System 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. … What On Earth Is This All About? It's about hanging one piece of information in the other. 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" nametag 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 show up and do some fancy footwork in a fight between Evan and my new business associate Ralph. It would be large, bright, vivid and filled with zany action. Go One Step Further To make this process truly Magnetic, you can add a Memory Palace component to your pegs. In fact, as I suggested in this episode of the podcast, pegs are perfect for use within Memory Palaces as much as possible. Why? Because having a location increases your chances of recall and reduces that anxiety we were talking about. Not only that, but you also use and strengthen your spatial memory. And the more you do this, the more you'll become a Memory Palace fanatic and get the massive results that only Memory Palaces make possible. In Conclusion … Let me leave you with three fuller examples from the list above, but this time with examples of names and how they could be memorized. Again, make sure to come up with your own examples so that you can learn this method by doing instead of just running the examples through your mind. Don't make the mistake of hoping that they'll work for you next time if you've only just read this over. That's activity. Go for accomplishment. 1 is a gun. Memory Palace station: My bed. Target name: Kirsten. Associative-imagery: My gun shoots a gun made from pillows and the curtains where Kirsten is standing. Notice the similarity between "Kirsten" and "curtains" in terms of sound. This is the principle of comp

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 just about anything. * Why improving your mind is like putting advanced cabling into a house. * 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. The post Jonathan Levi Talks About Becoming A Superlearner appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we're going to talk about how to memorize numbers. More specifically, we're going to talk about memorizing numbers using the Major Method. And even more specifically than that, we're going to talk about doing this in a way that will get the numbers you memorize into long term memory. But if you want to jump over to how to apply the Major Method to music mnemonics, that's cool too. Just make sure you know how to memorize numbers with letters, as discussed in my Get Good at Remembering Numbers playlist on YouTube: With that covers, here's more information, inspired by a very nice letter I received from a young high school student who takes Advanced Placement courses. As you can read in his letter, he is a very advanced young man indeed! Dear Anthony, I'm proud to report the success of my first memory palace! I've been reading your newsletters daily since summer back in June and I haven't been able to take your Masterclass lessons or fully read any of your books yet, since being a high school student in a magnet program, taking college level classes, I don't have any time to get a job to make a little money, so my only money comes from my birthday and Chanukah in December. I have though read previews of many of them, and in December, I plan on trying to take the Udemy course or buy the medical terminology book you wrote. I've been reading your newsletters daily and each day I find myself wanting to use the Magnetic Memory Method more and more, but frankly, I've never gotten around to experimenting with it yet because of school work and studying for tests. Also, I've been a little apprehensive of using the Magnetic Memory Method before taking any of your courses because I don't want to make a flawed Memory Palace. I was able to check in on a small portion of the live streaming you did awhile back for free, and took some notes. Couple months go by, I've been continuing to read your newsletters, emailing you ideas about using the music in Memory Palaces and using the same memory palace but with different conditions, but still haven't created my own Memory Palace. Last Friday, on the hour bus ride to school, I listen to your podcast, Hindi Alphabet Memory Palace Secrets, and on the way back home I listen to a majority of your podcast, How to Memorize 50 Spanish Provinces On Your First Go, and they get me excited thinking of the possibilities of the Magnetic Memory Method. The weekend goes by working on school work and essays I had due today, and this afternoon on the bus, I searched around for a way just to test out the Memory Palace. I just wanted to try it and use it successfully, I wanted the short term success, he was talking about that he had on his first memory palace, even if it was minuscule compared to the 50 provinces he remembered. I took a list of ten items and wanted to memorize them: fish, margarine, a chess set, milk, light bulbs, a football, a ladder, a clock, measuring tape, and a dog bowl. My "journey" was short and simple and went like this: I get on the bus and my bus driver has a chef hat on sitting in the drivers seat with a black steel cooking pan containing a grilled fish, he then smiles at me and throws a thin square of margarine butter on the finish and it sizzles, I then say good morning and turn to walk to my seat when I notice the back half of the bus has been turned into a limo like setup with a huge chess table like lounge, with sophomores sitting around it playing chest, one invites me over after taking a sip of milk from a glass and accidentally spilling it on herself, she laughs and invites me over, all the sudden the bus turns dark, and rainbow light bulbs light up my way to the lounge around the chess table, just as I sit down comfortably, a shout of victory comes out from another student as he wins, and out of the roof of the bus a disco football comes out of the ceiling, and it then flies out onto a ladder laying built into the back of the bus window, and jumps each set of the ladder leading up towards a clock, when hits the clock it buzzes like a hockey buzzer, and two measuring tapes shoot out across the bus from the roof, and out from the ceiling of the bus bowls of dog food plop randomly landing on the strong measuring tapes holding them up. I created this journey little over two hours ago on the bus, and I was thrilled to have recalled the list perfectly, in increasing time intervals, started the timer on my iPad 5 minutes, recalled the journey, 15 minutes later, recalled the journey, 30 minutes recalled the journey, now a hour later and I was able to recall the journey and the list. It did take me awhile to create the short journey and for only memorizing ten random items does make the success feel a little minuscule but I know once I'm able to take or read one of your products in about three months time, I'll learn how to apply this method to bigger feats like learning Spanish. I also want to learn how to apply it t

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 that) to just flip through the pages

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: Download 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 The post How To Memorize 50 Spanish Provinces On Your First Go appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast … The Truth … The Facts … And the Lies about … Memorizing Facts with Mnemonics Program Notes Dear Memorizer, This podcast episode is based on a note I received recently. It goes like this: Hello Anthony! First of all, congratulations for these great methods that you have developed, they really work and have been very helpful for me to memorize a lot of stuff. I have read some of your books, heard all of your podcasts and understand very well how to memorize by using memory palaces and "crazy" associations. However, I study advanced economics and I have found it very difficult to memorize certain concepts and theories due to the fact that there are several variables which correlate with each other in many different ways. Also I find it difficult to create vivid and colorful images of interest rates, change rates, investment and other things like that. Every time I try to imagine weird things, I end up making up complicated stories in my mind which add complexity to the memorization process. Could you give me some advice on this please? Thank you very much in advance for your reply!! Have a great day! Thanks for your message and for entrusting me to answer your question. First off, you might want to watch what is probably my most popular video on the topic addresses concept memorization. With respect to variables and correlations, I recommend not focusing on these. Instead, focus on core information and then experiment with building Memory Palaces just for correlations and just for variables. Without knowing your subject, it's difficult to tell you exactly how, but even if I did, your experimentation will do more for you than my instruction now that you know the techniques. The thing to go for is what I call the "rhizomatic" effect. We often use the term "building knowledge," which assumes that it's a bottom up process. But what if we could build knowledge laterally? And in a way that goes up and down? In a way that little bubbles of new knowledge spring up spontaneously as we proceed? That's what multiple Memory Palaces will do for you. And the more strategically designed they are, the better for creating these kinds of connections. So again: I personally don't think fussing too much about the variables etc. will bring much unless you treat them as individual units (as such). So, let's so that: Core information x has 25 variables. You could either: 1) Build a Memory Palace for storing all kinds of core information and then have secondary Memory Palaces for variables. 2) Build a Memory Palace just for one piece of core information and then include all of the variables and correlates you need along that journey. I would suggest experimenting with both. Why? Because … You never lose by experimenting. In fact, you create that rhizomatic effect I'm talking about even if things don't work out. Because the Memory Palaces and procedures that didn't work still exist. They've taught you something. They might even have a bit of information in them that can be salvaged.Finally, complicated images and stories are a trial by fire that we all need to go through at the beginning. With experience, you'll learn to streamline the process. You'll stop throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. But this "economy of means" can only be achieved by experience, experimentation and doing. And like I said, all experiments will be valuable.Just don't overthink the process. Don't fall prey to doubt. Think of it like exercise: How do you learn to execute a properly formed pushup?By feeling your way into it. By experiencing the consequences – even if only a little – of a poorly formed pushup. It's really that simple. Keep me posted on how you fare and let me know if you have any further questions. Further Resources Earlier post on how to memorize concepts referred to in this episode of the podcast. How to Create a Large Memory Palace by Florian Delle. About the author: 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. The post Memorizing Concepts Made Easy (And Magnetic) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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. Super-scientific PDF article called Building a memory palace in minutes: Equivalent memory performance using virtual versus conventional environments with the Method of Loci. The post Mnemonics, Language Learning And Virtual Memory Palaces In Discussion With Timothy Moser appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about recalling things from your deep past in order to write autobiography and fiction (and throw Jung, Lacan and Freud into the mix for good measure). Program Notes This Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode was inspired by the following question I received from a participant in my video course How to Learn and Memorize Poetry. Denver writes: While listening to the interview in Lecture 23, I wondered whether the Magnetic Memory Method is likely to aid in recall of past old memories. What thoughts anybody? One of the excuses I use for not getting round to writing the books in my head, is lack of confidence in recalling past details. I'm always staggered as to how writers do this. I know that note-taking is probably one of the keys, but "wow!", if you could just remember things, how great that would be! This is the original answer I wrote in response that forms the basis of the podcast, most of which is ad lib and goes into some rich areas about using wax tablets in your Memory Palaces, Nietzsche, sailboats and more. This is an interesting question, Denver. I could only offer anecdotal evidence, which is that, yes, practicing memory techniques can improve your overall recall. A caveat, however. The accuracy of that recall may not be adequate even if your Memory Palace work and work with other memory techniques and mnemonics is involved. Thus, I would exercise caution if and when claiming this material is the truth. I suspect that most writers and audiences realize this anyway, but it's an important point to keep in mind. Something related that comes to mind just for fun: Carl Jung used the word "cryptomnesia" to describe writing things and not realizing that you're "copying" something you've read before. He accused Nietzsche of being a plagiarist, for example, but a plagiarist suffering from this condition (through somehow I don't think Jung's diagnosis means that Jung forgave him). The problem with this accusation is that it would lead people to believe that the creators of The Matrix had read the 7th book of Plato's Republic (the "Allegory of the Cave"). This is quite likely, but it's not necessary that they did. What matters is that there is a core, universal story that has reverberated throughout history. What is being "remembered" or recreated is the echo of the narrative undertow and its deep structures. You don't need to have come across something before in order to "fall prey" to reconstructing it. This doesn't, by the way, relate to the idea that a thousands monkeys with typewriters would eventually come up with all of Shakespeare. As far as I know, they don't perceive culture, so that randomness could never attain to such meaning. Not only that, but what counts as "Shakespeare" has always been and will always be in question as new scholarship discovers new things and we continue to contend with the fragments of writing that were left behind and mostly unsigned by whoever wrote them. Back to writing the "truth" of one's past, another psychologist, Jacques Lacan, said that "there are too many words" to accurately reflect the truth of a situation after the fact. Try it out some time. I'm about to go to the grocery store and I can guarantee you in advance that so many things are going to happen, so many shapes and colors are going to be seen and so many people encountered, all of which will contain conscious and subconscious thoughts … There will be too many words available in English and every other language to ever describe it except by eliminating, or rather focusing possibility towards the construction of a possible rendition of what happened. Put another way, there aren't words enough. You could fill twelve telephone books trying to describe what will take place on that simple journey and never make an accurate description. You'd have to be me taking that short trip, and even I won't absorb even a tenth of it. Thus, I would suggest that it's not what one can remember that is important when writing about the past. It's the impressions that you shape from what you do remember that count. And the words you use to choose them will always come from a pool of too much to create too little based on the pounding of stimuli from what Freud called the "oceanic." There you have it. Three psychoanalysts in one answer. How's that for fearful symmetry? Further Resources and Nifty Things That Only An Internet Can Provide: Freud on the Oceanic in Civilization and its Discontents (probably better translated as "its discomfort") Wiki on Cryptomnesia Plato's Allegory of the Cave Previous MMMPodcast Episode: Tap the Mind of a 10 Year-Old Memory Palace Master Cool song that mentions Freud's "Oceanic": About the author: 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. The

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, 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 (I recommend the Magnetic Memory Method). 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. As I teach in the book, 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 these symbols 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 and by "leaning" on Ezra Pound throughout the journey, I was able to do fifteen 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. As I talk about in the book, there will need to be corrections and there will be the need to rehearse the material. 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 and he also had a connection to Chinese and Japanese, so he works really well in this connection. In Latin, you could use Derek Jacobi or some actor you like who you've seen prancing around in a toga to keep things interesting. (Or an actor you've never seen in a toga, for that matter, to keep things extra memorable). The point is that it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with zany images if you take familiar things and put them in unfamiliar situations. 3) Make sure to rehearse the work that you do in order to ease the material into long term memory . 4) Enjoy! I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions or if there is anything more I can do for you. About the author: Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Cent

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 the local art gallery. 31 July 2014 Geography, poetry and the in

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. 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 Olly on how you can learn to speak Thai YouTube documentary on Olly by Jan Van Deraa: Olly's video on using Excel as part of your language learning: The post Olly Richards Talks About Language Tech And Real Communication appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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. * … and much, much more! Further Resources: Interview with Kerstin Hammes on Language Boat 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 Kerstin's amazing French Grammar course on Udemy About the author: 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. The post Kerstin Hammes Talks About The Real Meanings Of Fluency And Memory appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Stephen Turnbull talks about Memneon, a fast-paced, exciting and tense memory game released by his company, Alchemista. 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 gaming, 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, back by a history in making short films has 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: 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. About the author: 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. The post Memneon Creator Stephen Turnbull Talks About the Metaphors Of Memory appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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: UK Memory Trainings by Phil Chambers in 2014 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. The post Phil Chambers Talks About The Outer Limits Of Memory Skills appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Subscribe to the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Dear Memorizers, As you learned about back in the post, What If I Wanted To Memorize 3000 Words?, there's really no memorization challenge that cannot be overcome. That said, there are a number of "painful truths" about memorizing that many people let get in the way of their progress. Let's look at some of these. 1. You will make mistakes. It's a basic fact that not only will we make mistakes when memorizing material such as foreign language vocabulary, names, faces and even our dreams, but we need to make mistakes in order to identify problem areas and grow. It's an old cliche but a stubbornly correct one: we learn by failing. Or better put, it's only failure if you refuse to learn from the mistakes. I think we've all probably had that experience of knowing that we're doing something wrong, but going ahead and doing it anyway. The trick is to stop, correct and then proceed along the newly corrected basis. And in doing so, we make the practice artful. And, of course, I'm always talking about projects for memorizing stuff that's important to you, like foreign language vocabulary, names and faces and poetry. But the same principles apply even if you're into competition and feats of extreme memory. And yes, even memory champions make mistakes when their skills are on display. 2. You will be tempted to show off. Showing off is not such a bad thing, but the reason that it's a painful truth when it comes to memory skills is that … you're going to make mistakes. For many people, this is enough to turn them off of using memory skills or a dedicated Memory Palace network forever. This is a shame because failure, slip-ups and all kinds of foibles happen all the time. And you can learn from them, simply by grabbing hold of yourself, letting yourself relax, apologize if necessary and then start again at a convenient place. Just like Alica Crosby did in the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode, Tap the Mind of a 10-year Old Memory Palace Master. She made a tiny little error, caught herself and then corrected. Like it was nothing. Which it was. So if you are showing off (and I hope that you do), don't let a tiny little mistake shame you out of continuing with memory development. And here's a tip: demonstrate your skills to others in low stress environments. For example, do card drills in front of your dog or cat. Your pets don't care if you get it wrong, but you will have the feeling that you're demonstrating your memory skills in front of a sentient being. Then scale it up to your mom, your dad or a friend you know will be chill if you slip up. You can even tell them that you're a bit nervous about making a mistake, which is a cool trick because when you don't make any mistakes, they'll probably forget that you said that or just think that you were being modest before unleashing the miracle. From there, you can increase the "social difficulty" as you please, always knowing that you can correct mistakes with a quick, "oh sorry," like Alicia did on the Podcast and carry on. 3. You have to learn to relax. I include this amongst the painful truths of memory skills because, at least in my experience of helping many, many people build either their first or their one hundredth Memory Palace, usually the number one problem they have with memorizing information and recalling it is that they aren't relaxed. There are a number of reasons why relaxation not only helps, but will completely take things to a new level for you. The first is that it helps over come the objections in the mind. I'm talking about that voice that says, "this is stupid," or "this is crazy," or "this will never work." Many a person has this voice turned away from the gift of mnemonics. But if you memorize in a state of relaxation, you can dampen, lessen or outright eliminate this voice and work on improving your memory in peace. The second is that relaxation enhances creativity. I don't know if this is because you enter a more dreamlike state, but there's a lot of scientific research which demonstrates a link between, for instance, meditation and creativity and I'm sure that your personal experience will demonstrate that this is true for you as well. Meditation is a pretty simple affair. As Alan Watts put it: sit just to sit. The rest will take care of itself. A third reason why relaxation is such a powerful tool for a memorizer is that it conditions you to associate relaxation with memorization and recall. This means that when you're tempted to show off, you can tap into that state of relaxation you used to memorize the stuff in the first place and use it in the moment in order to avoid getting flummoxed or embarrassed or otherwise feeling discouraged if you make a mistake. It's really cool, but also a painful truth of memory skills and it saddens me that so many people skip this step and then claim that mnemonics don't work for them. They do work and they will work for even the most re

In this episode of the podcast, I tell you about the memorization process behind the writing of Lucas Parks and the Download of Doom, my first novel to feature a Memory Palace. Apparently it's mesmerizing! Tune in now and you'll learn: * How to turn a movie theater into a Memory Palace. * How to use your dreams to create stories for novels and screenplays (it's easy: just wake up and start writing down everything you remember and then use the plot points discussed in this podcast to structure a story around those narrative fragments). * Why Stephen King's 2000 word a day rule is not nearly as important as he makes it seem (and how to be relaxed about it while still getting massive amounts of writing done). * The plot points I consider to be the most important when writing a story (like the conflict between conscious desire and unconscious need, dilemma, the visit to the underworld and the battle). * How to get a copy of Lucas Parks and the Download of Doom for free (no catch whatsoever). * My story as a young scholar reading Plato's Republic while also working as a janitor in a movie theater (crazy times indeed). * … and much, much more! Frankly, if you've ever wanted to write a short story, screenplay or novel, there's no better way to do it than to memorize the major plot points that have been with us since stories first became popular. I've been studying screenwriting gurus like John Truby and Robert McKee along with general ideas from narratology for ages in order to get insight into how stories work and have even served as a story consultant myself on several unproduced films and even Assault on Wall Street. Here I am on the set of that film with director Uwe Boll and the actors Dominic Purcell and Edward Furlong (yes, he played young John Connor in Terminator 2): I got my story consulting gigs partly because of two kind of strange and mysterious books I've written on screenwriting: Disaster Genre Secrets for Screenwriters and Horror Genre Secrets for Screenwriters. These are based on my lectures on American Film Genres that I gave at the Universität des Saarlandes in Germany and talk about things that really no other screenwriting books discuss using weird words like "abjection." Since we're on the topic of memory skills, you might find it interesting to know that I rarely gave my lectures from memory. Why? There was no time! Between preparing for the lectures and writing my dissertation while also running the short film club at the Uni, not to mention keeping up with my bass guitar studies … I was swamped! But I know Film Studies so well that I didn't really need to memorize anything. All I had to do was draw up a few notes based on my research and preparation for the lectures and press the go button on my mind once I reached the podium. The notes guided my lectures so that I kept on track and the rest came from a different kind of memory: long term memory. There are different ways that material gets into long term memory, and a lot of my knowledge about film that allowed me to lecture from notes got into my long term memory through Memory Palace work, particularly using the combined index card/Memory Palace method. I talked about this procedure in detailed a previous podcast episode called "How to Memorize a Textbook." Anyhow, I'm really happy to be able to talk about not only the various plot points I used to structure Lucas Parks and the Download of Doom, but also about how I memorized them for visiting again and again in order to deeply contemplate how to apply them to the stories I write. If you're a writer and found this episode useful, please share it with your friends. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time. Update: Film Studies is back in my life with this YouTube playlist all about the genres: Enjoy and let me know if you have a chance to check it out and find anything memorable! The post How To Memorize Plot Points (For Writers Only) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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." 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 The post Luca Lampariello On Working Memory And The Oceans Of Language appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Dear Memorizers, In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn about using a Memory Palace even while suffering the crushing side effects of medication. Program Notes: Following from Magnetic Memory blog posts like The Dyslexic Memorizer Who Aced All His Exams and Memory Palaces vs. Alzheimer's, another question about using mnemonics, Memory Palaces and other memory techniques to help overcome mental "problems." In this case, it's the negative effects of taking medication on memory has come in. Have you worked with anyone who was working against medications and/or an illness that randomly scatters chunks of memory? I'm on an anti-seizure med for some fairly extensive nerve damage, and since I've been on it, my already compromised memory is suddenly like trying to catch butterflies with a hula hoop. Now I'm wondering if I'm just a hopeless case. Thanks for any advice/thoughts! I don't want to prattle on about myself, but I am one such person. In fact, my whole adventure into memory, something I've only recently started talking about, came from the devastating cognitive effects of lithium, which I was taking at the time to control Bipolar Disorder. Now I take something else that has less extreme effects, but back then, there seemed to be no alternative … Until I found mnemonics. In truth, I have only anecdotal evidence that mnemonics helps bring clarity into the mind, and I was also discovering a whole lot of other things at the same time, so the clarity that came into my mind through the use of Memory Palaces was assisted by things such as self-hypnosis, meditation and a better diet combined with fitness, improved sleep, writing down my dreams each and every morning, and spending some time writing down my goals and things that I'm grateful for on a daily basis. I learned a lot of these "hacks" from Richard Wiseman's 59 Seconds, as well as from taking hypnotherapy certification which was part of my doctoral research into friendship (sounds like a stretch, but it turns out that we do hypnotize each other in a certain way as we become friends). But in terms of Memory Palaces strictly speaking, one of the biggest things that being able to command my memory brought was confidence. The stress and negativity that surrounded me as I worked to read some of the strangest and most obscure books of philosophy and cultural studies almost caused me to drop out of graduate school. And that's not counting the fogginess and poor concentration that made it very difficult for me to read in the first place. And in truth, I still experience all of these things today. The difference is that Memory Palaces cut through all of it, provided that I use them and use them in the right way. For me, the right way is the Magnetic Memory Method and it applies to just about everything I – or you – could ever want to learn. Of course, as I teach it, the MMM is a "method" and not a "system," which enables users to adapt the basic principles to their own learning style. Most people don't need to change much, but the whole purpose of how I designed it for myself was to make what really is impossible for a person with my frenzied brain possible. These techniques are an almost fool proof means of getting things into my mind so that I can find them whenever I want. Think of it like this: The Magnetic Memory Method is like a wheelchair and a ramp. Without the ramp, the chair cannot be wheeled up to the next level. Without the wheelchair, the person cannot be moved anywhere. Put them together, however, and there's no level that cannot be reached. The Magnetic Memory Method is a structured means by which both the chair and the ramp can be built in stages in order to bring the material in the chair to wherever in the mind you want it to go. But it's not about wheelchairs and ramps … It's about Memory Palaces. Mental constructs based on familiar places. That's the key: familiar places. When you get more advanced, you can use less familiar places from deep in memory and even invented Memory Palaces or Memory Palaces based on video games, TV shows, etc. Thus, instead of trying to catch butterflies with a hula hoop, see if you can't just catch one Memory Palace in your mind. Start with your own house. Using the Magnetic Memory Method principles of not trapping yourself and not crossing your own path, create a linear journey through the Memory Palace. Then, spend some time just traveling that journey. Make it really vivid in your imagination. If you can't actually see it in your mind's eye … Stop trying. Feel it instead. Feel it as a structure, a series of squares that are connected. You can also feel the journey in terms of time. How long would it take you to move from the bedroom to the kitchen? Approximately how many steps? When done with eyes closed, even a non-visual person can begin to attribute visual elements to this inner sense. Because the journey is known in real life and has now been recreated in the mind, you can move on t

Let's face it… We've all suffered from nightmares. Sometimes they come out of nowhere, sometimes they're deeply connected with a rough passage through life. And yet… Since first starting with dream recall, I've never had what I'd call a "nightmare." My childhood was littered with them, however. I think these terrible nocturnal experiences were tied to all the surgeries I needed thanks to a ruptured eardrum. As a result of this problem, I needed tubes. These were taken in and removed repeatedly over several years … But I'm not going to fill your ears with these tales of nighttime woe or the images they involved. I don't even particularly want to hear descriptions of your nightmares. I'm not a dream therapist, after all. What does interest me, however, is what you've done to deal with your dreams when they haven't been nice. Do you just let it go and get on with your day? Do you carry a feeling with that takes time to subside? Do you tell a loved one or friend? Ideally, if you're practicing dream recall, you'll write it down. It's part of creating that nighttime portrait I was telling you about. It's like creating a graph that lets you see spikes of activity over time. Form becomes as important as content, especially when you hit an earthquake or volcano. You can relive it in the safety of paper as you externalize and study your nighttime seismograph. And over time, with a dedicated dream recall practice, you can bring balance to your nighttime life. The other thing I would suggest to speed up the process of healing nightmares is to place your disturbing dreams in Memory Palaces. Yes, I know that Memory Palaces are precious things. You almost don't want to get them involved. But the fact of the matter is that Memory Palaces can serve as neutral territory. Just as we use Memory Palaces to enliven the material we want to remember using vibrant color and intensified action, we can drain our negative dreams of the intensity that terrifies us by placing those fears in a familiar location we've reconstructed in our minds. Try it sometime. When you wake up from an unsettling dream, place as many details as you can remember into one of your Memory Palaces. Or write them down as you would normally to get the fullest possible recording of the dream on paper and then transport the dream into a Memory Palace. (If you're new to Magnetic Memory Dream Recall, then writing them down first before doing Memory Palace work is probably the better option). Either way, once you're in the Memory Palace with the dream, or looking at it from whatever way that you look at dreams you've placed there, before you do anything else, drain the dream of colour until it's black and white. You may even want to make it like an old scratchy movie, which will allow you to eliminate and reduce the sound. This is another powerful strategy for neutralizing a nightmare. For especially bad dreams, you can speed them up and add sound, as in a comedic movie where everything speeds up and everybody sounds like Mickey Mouse. Make it so that you have no choice but to laugh at the dream. To that younger version of myself, who from the ages four to ten had intense nightmare that caused so much disturbance throughout the day that it could not help but to invite new nightmares the next night, I would advise myself to eliminate the color from the dream and then using the powerful safety of a Memory Palace, wrap it up like newspaper and throw it out the door like Sigourney Weaver ejected the monster in Alien out into space. I ain't saying that this will be easy. It could take some deliberate practice with dream recall. And definitely some familiarity with Memory Palaces. But if you're interested, and for some reason not already on board the Magnetic Dream Recall nightmare-healing journey (potentially, depending on your sincerity of effort), the train departs from here: How to Remember Your Dreams The post Can A Memory Palace Heal Nightmares? appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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. The post How To Write A Dissertation (Or Essay) appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, I talk about a strange book called How to Memorize the Bible Quick and Easy in 5 Simple Steps that claims mnemonics are a form of witchcraft! In addition to debunking this claim, in today's episode you'll learn: * The real reason I wrote How to Learn and Memorize the Psalms of the Bible. * Why I have been asked to help people stop memorizing the scripture. * Why actually reading scripture may be more important than memorizing them. * How the laws of physics, force and velocity relate to the universal principles of mnemonics and Memory Palace construction. * Why you need to take dedicated memory training so that you can learn to build effective Memory Palaces, understand journeys and asssociative-imagery and learn Recall Rehearsal. * Why memorizing textbooks verbatim is not necessarily the best goal and an invitation to learn how to do it the right way. * Why books that mix mnemonics and theology are can be dangerous for your health (and what to read instead). * Why asking God to help you memorize the Bible will probably involve a dedicated memory technique (possibly even the Magnetic Memory Method). * Why belief (not faith) can be a mnemonic strategy and how to properly place it. * Why memorizing only the material that leaps out at you might be good for "bibliomancy" when memorizing a textbook, but probably won't help you when trying to memorize scripture verbatim. * Why mnemonics are most certainly not blasphemous. * Why mnemonics bears absolutely no relationship to witchcraft (because witchcraft doesn't exist). * Why memorizing long strings of numbers is absolutely fantastic for building your memory skills. * The relationship between weight-lifting and memory skills. * Why rote-learning is the "blunt force hammer" of learning. * The benefits of reading books twice before you memorize them (either in whole or in part). * The mysteries of "chunking" and "rechunking." * Why the future of the human species is going to be better than its past. * Why the words "atheist" and "agnostic" are ridiculous words (but not ones that should be forgotten). * Why Memory Palaces and location-based memory techniques are the best of all mnemonic methods. * Exactly how to ensure that you never forget where you left your keys again. * How to find more Memory Palaces than you can shake a Magnetic stick at. * Why your memory has no saturation point whatsoever. * How to leverage the natural ability of the mind to memorize all the information you could ever want. * … and much, much more! If you're interested here's the book talked about in the podcast: Here's my book about how to memorize the psalms: And this is the video course I mentioned that goes even deeper into memorizing verse in general. Use coupon code "nonstrology" for a special introductory discount on your one time investment in this revolutionary memory training. It comes with a 30-day Magnetic Decision Guarantee. +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. The post Of Witchcraft, Nonstrology And Mnemonics appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, you'll learn 8 simple and effective strategies that you can apply to your dedicated memorization efforts when you using mnemonics to study, memorize poetry, foreign language vocabulary or even a deck of cards. Listen now to learn: * The important connection between space in your Memory Palaces and where you use your Memory Palaces. * The amazing value of having a solid routine so that you can see the compound effect of the work you're putting into your memory (developing your memory is more like play than "work", so don't let that nasty word put you off!) * Why you need to start simple each and every time you memorize something so that you can sail into the more complicated matters with ease (this one tip alone is worth at least a million Magnetic dollars). * How to leverage the power of mistakes and turn them into the most powerful memorizing experiences you could ever wish for. * When to ditch parts of your Memory Palace so that you can memorize even more material and not get stuck in a ditch. * The most important rule in the world for getting past the whining and crying of frustration so that you are always calm and relaxed when working on memorizing material. * The productivity secrets of specialization and why you need one. * How to train your brain using rewards (I used to think this was corny too until I finally gave it a try … it works!) * … and a whole lot more! Listen to this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast and be amazed by what you can achieve using the natural abilities of your mind. +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. The post Your Free Memory Improvement Master Plan appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.