B0005204 Neurons in the brain

Once you have a solid grasp of memorizing numbers, you have conquered one of the areas that gives most people the most trouble. You can now visualize dates, part or serial numbers, measurements and more. Beyond that, you can now create list with as many hooks as you want.

This technique is known as the Major System, or the Phonetic Alphabet system. It also gives rise to “The Major List,” a numbered list with 100 hooks.

As always, your hooks should be simple, clear, unique images. If you have a number-rhyme peg list that uses SHOE for the number 2, it should be a completely different shoe than the one used for the number 6 in the Major List above.

And as with the other numbered lists we’ve used thus far, you can use a modifier list like the color modifier list, giving you 1000 hooks. And, as with the other lists, if you use chains as you encounter the information, you have the capacity to instantly commit 5,000-10,000 items or fact to memory.

Alternatively, you could simply choose to keep going and create 1000 individual hooks. 100 could be DISEASE. 101, DUST. 102, DOZIN’. And so on.

Pitfalls and Possibilities
The method of using your house as a hook list is known as the Loci Method (loci is Greek for place), and is one of the first recorded instances of mnemonic techniques, explained by an ancient Greek poet named Simonides around 600 b.c.

It is possible to combine the Loci and Major methods, with each room in the house or building holding its own modified major list, giving you a capacity of 100,000 plus pieces of information.

This can be tricky. If you are doing this, the association must not only be clearly visualized, it must be clearly visualized IN THAT PARTICULAR ROOM. Otherwise your association to your red SHOE in the living room will get muddled with the red SHOE in the kitchen (or even one of the other SHOEs in the living room), and the links will work against each other.

I’d use EITHER a modified Major List, OR the Loci Method and Major List as an easier way of keeping things straight. If you need more than 1000 hooks to hold 5,000-10,000 bits of info, you’d be better off creating a new modifier list or choosing a new location.

Remember, memorizing something is not the same as learning it. It is just one of the three stages. It is important. And the ability to instantly memorize something and hold it in your mind to think about it in depth will help you understand it better, faster.

The utilization stage, with the 4 critical thinking skills, is what cements the info into long-term storage using your 100 or 1000 or 10,000 hooks. Review them on the way home, or while eating, or in the shower—previously “lost” time. Begin incorporating the 4 key questions into those reviews. Fill in the gaps where needed and dig deeper into the four skills as you review over time.

Doing this (a) strengthens your associations, (b) conditions your brain to retrieve the information as it is needed, and not simply when you recall the hook and (c) builds stronger connections between both related and non-related information already accessible to you.

There is also evidence that, instead of building heavier neural tracts (reflex pathways) like rote does, mnemonic memory builds more synaptic connections between brain cells, which correlates to intelligence and creativity in studies.

In other words, the more connections you consciously create, the easier it becomes for the brain to create more new connections. The more information you learn and can readily access, the more information you have at your disposal to make new associations, and the more options you have at your disposal when exercising the 4 critical thinking skills.

In theory you could memorize the information, review it on the previously outlines schedule, and then keep periodically reviewing it in order to simply keep the information accessible indefinitely. But in the end, you are just making more work for yourself and you aren’t getting any closer to truly understanding the material.

But it’s not a lie. And it’s not witchcraft. It is a skill. The same skillset you have already learned: association, substitution and repetition. It is just as easy as memorizing a list of vocabulary words or a grocery list. Sometimes easier.

But there is a twist on the substitution here that you need to wrap your brain around, first. But before that, I have a trick that is going to make wrapping your brain around it a whole lot easier. So to start off, we are going to learn a new hook list for the numbers 1-10: the Body List. We’re going to work from the ground up. Some of the options might seem weird, but there is a method to the madness.  Quickest way to memorize the list below would be to associate your number-shape hooks to each body part. Remember, ABSURD.

The Body List:

1. Toes
2. Knees
3. Mid-thigh
4. Rear end
5. Love handles
6. Chest
7. Collar Bone
8. Face
9. Back of the head
10. Scalp

So, stab your TOE with an ARROW. Watch as a SWAN hatches from your KNEE and a MOUNTAIN grows from your MID-THIGH, etc. And so on.

Take some time and get this list down. Get Get with it. It will make what comes next a lot easier.

The technique were about to learn will include a list with 100 unique hooks. If you use the color modifier list with it, you get 1000 hooks you can use. Using chains of 5 images, you will have the capacity to instantly commit 5000 facts to memory without breaking a sweat.

More importantly, it will enable you to turn long-digit numbers into images as easily as you can with words.

So how do we do it?

The Phonetic Alphabet

Phonetics are the sounds that letters make. That is an important distinction. The sounds. Because what we are about to do will allow you to turn long strings of numbers into words. And to do that, we are going to assign the sounds that letters make to the numbers 1-9. And we are going to base it on the initial sounds from the body list. So the number 1 (Toe) gets the “t” sound. 2 (knee) is trickier, because the k is silent. The initial SOUND is the “n” sound. Another place where it gets tricky is because some letters make more than one sound. A hard C makes the “k” sound while a soft c makes an “s” sound. And double letters (like the T’s in “letters”) often only make a single letter sound.

Just remember, we’re focusing on the sounds, not the letters themselves. I promise this will all make sense before we’re done. Let’s get to the list

1 = “t”

2= “n”

3= “m”

4= “r”

5= “L”

6= “Ch”

7= “K”

8= “f”

9= “b”

Ten in our body list is a special case, because it’s two digits, and we’re focusing on single numerals here. So we’re going to drop the “1” and make it a “0”

0= “s”

So each number has a specific letter sound. But now we’re going to broaden it a little bit. We are going to assign some similar sound to a few numbers, based on how the sounds are made. When you make the “t” sound, you do so by placing the tip of the tongue against the back of the top front teeth, and then forcing the air out in a “ta” sound. The “d” is made in exactly the same way… the only difference is that the “t” sound is just air while the “d” sound includes the vocal cords (try making the “d” sound without using your voice; it comes out as a “t” sound).

Similarly, the “k” and “hard c” sounds are made in a similar fashion as the hard “g” sound, by closing the throat and then forcing air out at once. And the “f” and “v” sounds are similar, and are also often represented as “–ough” (rough).

So we expand our list a bit:

1= t, th-, and d

2=n

3=m

4=r

5=l

6= ch, sh, j, soft g, and –tio/tia (nation)

7= k, hard c, hard k, hard ch (tech), hard g

8= f, v, -gh

9= b, p

0= s, soft c, z

Again the trick is to start with the initial sounds from the body list hooks. Once you’ve memorized those, the other fall in line pretty quickly.

If you notice, there are some letter sounds that aren’t represented here. First, there are no vowels. Second, the letter W, H and Y are missing. This is what gives is the flexibility to turn the numbers into words.

Here’s an example: Pi = 3.1415

3.1415 translates to m t r t l. What we want to do now is sprinkle in some vowel sounds and see if we can make some words appear. An easy way is to simply try to pronounce the letters as they appear. When I do it, it comes out something like matartle, which instantly sounds to me like My Turtle or Ma Turtle, either of which is a strong image.

Let’s try another 9265 could be bnchl or pnshl or bnjl or bnshl. Picking one and dropping in vowels quickly: “banshal” “benshel” “binshil” “bonshol”or “bunshul” Two things kind of jump out at me the word Shell (remember: the letters “ll” only give us a single “l” sound)  and the word Bone. Bone Shell.

Now, 9265 is actually the next four digits in Pi. So 3.14159265 now gives us Ma Turtle Bone Shell. If you picture your mom (or whatever image “Ma” conjures up for you) wearing a large, bleached, bony turtle shell… you have the first 9 digits of pi contained in a single image.

This one will take some practice. But with a little practice you will be able to look at the numbers and automatically read them as letter-sounds.

Three easy steps to practice, and you can master this technique in 1 week.

1. A couple of times a day, quiz yourself on which letter sounds the numbers represent. Write down the numbers 0-9, and then list what sounds each represents. Pick a random number and list its associated sounds. Do this until you get it right every time.
2. Do it in reverse: pick random words or words on signs or pages or on the TV, and translate them into the numbers they would represent. This tends to be easier, and is a good way to get familiar with linking letters to number sounds.
3. Write down a number of at least 5 digits. It can be random, or a telephone number or any other number. Set a timer for 2 minutes and see how many words you can make to represent that number. If you can’t make a word or words from the number sounds you’re given, remember, W, H and Y are freebies. Drop them in and see if it gives you more options to work with.

This is a dense one, and probably the one technique that is more involved. But it is still simply substitution. You are substituting the numbers for letter sounds, which allows you to substitute numbers with words in order to create a mnemonic image you brain can hold onto.

It can seem daunting or overwhelming, but take it one step at a time. Learn the letter sounds first. Then practice turning words into numbers. THEN practice turning numbers into words. Do it in that order, and you’ll be good to go in a week, and ready to learn not only numbers like dates and phone numbers, part numbers and math constants, but you’ll be on your way to memorizing entire equations, and more.  

Just because you’ve memorized the material, doesn’t mean you’ve actually learned it. There are three stages of the learning process. Finding the material (Acquisition), committing it to memory (Memorization), and using the material (Utilization).

Most learning—comprehension and deep understanding—takes place in the 3rd stage. It is easy to confuse memorization with learning. But being able to parrot something back is not the same as understanding it. That comes from actually using the information. Playing with it. Experimenting with it.

In school, 99% of what passes for utilization is actually NOT utilization. It is repetition disguised as work. Most homework is simply forcing students to repeat facts and principles over and over. Tests and writing assignments focus more on parroting back the information rather than digesting it and digging deeper.

Here’s a little secret: “deep thinking” isn’t scary or boring or hard. It isn’t a talent or a gift you are born with. It is a simple set of skills people just aren’t taught anymore. Four skills to be exact. And all four are simply a matter of asking the right questions.

The four Critical Thinking Skills are: Analysis, Critique, Creativity and Logic. And each can be expressed with a single question.

• Analysis: What is this?
• Critique: What is it like/unlike?
• Creativity: What if…?
• Logic: If… then…?

Simply asking these four questions when you encounter a new piece of information will put you far, far ahead of the vast majority of people. But the goal here isn’t simply to get ahead of everyone else. It is to allow you to quickly and easily improve your comprehension and understanding of new material. So let’s take a closer look.

Analysis

Analysis is objective and deconstructive. It is asking “what is this?” What are its dimensions? What is the definition? How much does it weigh? What does it do? What are its parts? What are their dimensions and functions and physical qualities? How do they all fit together? Work together?

Critique

Critique is also deconstructive, but it is subjective. What does this mean? What is it like/not like? Is it good or bad? Is it good or evil? What is it bigger than? Smaller than? Where is its place in the universe? What does it mean in its context? What does it mean to me? To the world?

Creativity

Creativity is constructive and subjective. Here we should delineate the difference between creative and artistic. Art is a depiction of the artist’s interpretation of a thing or idea. Creativity, on the other hand, is shifting the way you look at the world. It is taking two unrelated ideas and smashing them together. It is taking a look at something and asking what else it could be. Looking what is and asking “what if it wasn’t?”

Logic
Logic is creative and objective. It is looking at what is and drawing concrete conclusions form it. If “this” is true, what does that mean for “that?” If “this” is NOT true, what does it mean for “that?”

The 4 Critical Thinking Skills in Action

Let’s say you’ve committed something to memory, from a text or a lecture. Later, while you’re reviewing, ask yourself: what is this? If you can’t answer it, then you know what you don’t know, and you can set out to find that information out.

If you DO know what it is, then ask yourself “what does it mean?” Is it important? How does it relate to other stuff you know? What is it like? What is it not like/opposite to? If you can’t answer these, then you know what you don’t know and can set out to find the answers.

If you DO know, ask yourself “what if ‘X’?” What if this disappeared? What if it did the opposite? What if it had been invented by a dog? By Da Vinci? By Darth Vader? Find a random picture in a magazine; what do you get if you combine this new information with this picture? Let your imagination run. Write a paragraph about what that would mean. Or a poem. Or draw a picture. This could be a pure flight of fancy, or you might want/need to learn about what Da Vinci or Darth Vader would do with it. Either way is fine. What is going to happen here is you are going to find new ways to think about the information and new questions are going to pop up. Which you can then set about answering.

Finally, take the information and ask “if this is true, what else must be true?” AND “if this is not true, what would that mean?”

Relax and have fun.

You won’t need to do this for every single fact or idea you memorize from a text or lecture. As you are reviewing those facts, ask these four questions about the overarching ideas and concepts you have encountered. The review itself will take a matter of minutes, even for a two-hour lecture. Running through these four questions can take as long as you want it to. Even answering them quickly will show you exactly what you do and do not understand and provoke new ideas and questions. And THAT is your starting point to a better understanding and more thorough comprehension of the subject matter.

Then, on your next review, pick one of the four critical thinking skills, and focus on that for the entire review. Apply analysis or creativity to the entire lecture. Then on your next review, apply logic or critique.

Here, not only are you reviewing (and therefore strengthening) your associations, you are also actively USING the information. You are participating in the UTLIIZATION stage, which is where the real learning takes place. At the same time you are more firmly cementing the information into long-term memory for easier recall.

Not only have you memorized it quickly and more easily, you understand it better than if you’d spent ten times as much time getting the information in your head with rote memorization. You’ll go into class knowing what you need clarification on, and so can ask clear questions. You will have unique ideas to participate with in the conversation. And you will go into the tests confident that you know what you need to know.

And all because you started with four simple questions.

1. Memory vs. Recall – Most people have no problem with their memory. The information they learned is in there, somewhere. The problem is being able to recall it on demand.

The brain naturally decides what is memorable based on a few criteria: is it something vitally important? Does it stand out from “normal” stuff? Is it a threat? Is it funny?

We need a way to tell our brain what information is important for recall, and give it the proper tools to facilitate recall when we need it again.

2. Your Brain Is Weird – Your brain stores and categorizes information in ways we don’t entirely understand. This is what makes recall so dicey.

It’s like walking into a library to discover that the books are arranged according to how many pages they have, or what color the cover is.

Or like a computer. Imagine you could only access programs or documents if you knew where—physically—the information was stored on the hard drive.

3. Almost Like Bookmarks & Computer Icons – Luckily, you don’t need to know where on the hard drive your important documents are. Your computer provides a picture-based structure to help you find what you need.

That image that looks like a folder isn’t really a folder. It is a stand-in that helps the computer know what you’re looking for. Click on it and the computer finds the information on the hard drive that the picture represents, and opens it for you.

The bookmark in your book isn’t the page you stopped on… it simply points you to that page.

Your brain can do the same thing for you.

REMEMBER BETTER, NOW!
4. The Power Of Association – The simplest way to tag something for recall later is to associate it to something you already know, something you can recall on demand.
.. but in an absurd way.

Let’s say you have a bad habit of misplacing your car keys and you put your car keys on the coffee table. You could just picture that in your mind… but it’s a mundane, boring image, isn’t it?

But if you imagined putting your CAR on the coffee table… make it realistic: hear it straining just before it collapses in a heap of splinters beneath the weight of the car… feel the floor shake as the car hits the ground… THAT’S memorable.

Now, just try to forget where you put your car keys. All you have to do is think of your car, and that image comes right back to you.

5. Outrageous Associations – Outrageous associations are the key to keeping information available for recall… I mean really ABSURD. (Active, Big [no, really big), Sensory, Unexpected, Ridiculous [or Raunchy] and Dumb). Expected images are easily forgotten. Ridiculous, humorous, colorful, smelly, action-oriented associations are not.

6. The Power of Substitution – Picturing cars is one thing… but what about an address or a number or an abstract concept? Or a word you don’t even know the meaning to? To do that, it’s really the same thing. You simply create a mental image to serve as a stand-in for that concept. What does it look like, sound like our otherwise remind you of?

For the number 12, for example, you could picture a carton of a dozen eggs.

If Bob lives at number 12 Forest Lane, picture a forest. In that forest is a tree with cartons of eggs growing on it instead of fruit. Picture Bob standing under the tree, and a carton of eggs falls on him, cracking, covering him in slimy raw egg.

Now, I dare you to forget where Bob lives.

7. Why This Works – First, the native language of the brain is images. Creating “memory images” plays to the strengths of your brain.

Second, you are intensely focused on the information at hand (even if briefly). That is a clear signal to the brain that this is important and might be needed later.

Third, bringing in sensory details involves multiple areas of the brain… another signal that this might be important later.

Fourth, you are actively thinking about the subject not only analytically (what is this information… what does it mean?), but you are thinking about it creatively as well, creating new and unexpected connections to unrelated ideas.

Fifth, it’s FUN! Rather than repeating dead, dry facts until you’re sick of them, you are pouring creativity and imagination into them, giving them a life of their own… making them unique to you.

REMEMBER MORE, NOW!
8. Super Power – Now that you know HOW to create an association to remember something… let’s use it to remember a LOT of somethings

Imagine your house. Walk through it mentally, one room at a time in a logical progression.

Have someone come up with a list of 12 random items. Give yourself 60 seconds to mentally walk through your house placing each item in one room of your house. Make it absurd… make it huge, or comical, or active.

Make it the least likely way that item could possibly be in that room. Does it take up the entire room? Is it replacing a piece of furniture (impractically)? Is it attacking you as you try to make your way through?

Do it quickly as you can, but see it clearly in your mind. 60 seconds.

Then get a sheet of paper, number it 1-12. Take another mental stroll and write down what item is stored in each room. Chances are you’ll get most if not all of them.

If an item is pizza and you’re in the dining room, don’t just picture a nice hot pizza sitting on the tale. Imagine the entire take to is a giant pizza… or a bunch of pizzas are buzzing around the room like flying saucers. The ordinary and expected are not memorable. The surprising and absurd are.

If you miss any, you’ll probably find that the association between the item and the room wasn’t nearly as outlandish or memorable (ABSURD) as the those you remembered. See if you can fix it, and try again.

9. Speech! Speech! – This is the precise method Greek orators used to memorize speeches, and bards used to remember poems and songs.

They’d create an image for the first point they wanted to make and place it at the front door of their house. The second point would go in the foyer. The third in the living room, fourth in the dining room and so on.

When it came time to give the speech, they’d stand up and mentally tour their home. Coming to the front door, they’d talk about point #1. Walking inside, point #2 was there to greet them. As they moved through their house room by room, the entire content of their speech was laid out in order.

As a more advanced method, the main topic of each section would be in the center of the room, with images for supporting points linked to different furnishings and fixtures in the room.

They’d walk into the den and state, say, their fourth main topic. Then they’d, perhaps, look clockwise around the room and cover the supporting points for that topic.

This freed them from having to memorize an entire speech word for word, making the delivery much more spontaneous and free, without leaving out an important fact. One can remember rather long speeches or poems in this manner.

10. A Whole Neighborhood of Memory – To make this powerful, flexible technique even more powerful and flexible… you can use any building or structure as a memory building, as long as you know it well enough to walk through it in your mind.

Your house, your school, your church, the local park or playground… your own body.

SHORT TERM vs. LONG TERM
11. Reinforcement- Much of what you will use these techniques to learn will be for short-term memory (48 hours or less) — to hold the information close at hand until you can use it for some purpose.

The way to cement this information in your memory is with repetition. Not the old Rote Memory style of repetition, though. With these techniques, that kind of drudgery is a thing of the past. The review here literally takes seconds.

Each time you review the information, the association gets stronger and lasts longer. So you review it on a schedule like this

1. Immediately after creating the association
2. One or two hours later.
3. Before you go to sleep
4. Upon waking the next day.
5. Upon waking the NEXT day.
6. 3-4 Days Later
7. A week later
8. A month later.

12. Why This Schedule Isn’t As Daunting As It Looks – This review schedule seems like a lot of work… but let me convince you why it’s not.

First, it happens at the speed of thought. All you’re doing is reviewing a succession of linked images in a house in your mind. You can flash through images in your mind– and comprehend what they mean– at ridiculous (almost instantaneous) speeds. But even if it took you five seconds per room, if you had 12 rooms, that’s still just 60 seconds.

Let’s say you read a book. The book has 12 chapters. You create an image to represent the main point of each chapter and place it in its own room.

In this case, when to review it later, you’ll be reviewing all 12 major points of the book in just 60 seconds. If you were to add 5 supporting facts to each room and it took 5 seconds to review each one (it won’t… but for sake of argument)… that’s 5 seconds per fact for 6 facts each in 12 rooms.

That’s the 72 most important elements in the book and you’ve reviewed it in just 360 seconds (or 6 minutes).

Using the schedule above, you will have reviewed the book 8 times over the course of a month and a half… for a grand total of 48 minutes.

And since you don’t even need the book in hand to review it (you’re just strolling through a house in your mind, remember) you can do it in the car on the way to school or work, or in the shower, or while walking/running/working out… or during one of a million other previously wasted moments in any given week.

13. Quick Review –

Where did you leave your car keys?

Where does Bob live?

What are the 12 items you had to memorize?

Those took place quite a while ago… how did you do?

14. This Isn’t New – This isn’t something someone just came up with recently. Back before the printing press and chainsaws, back when books and paper were in short supply, this is HOW students and professionals learned things.

Lawyers, philosophers, doctors, poets, singers, storytellers, craftsmen and tradesmen — most of them completely illiterate– acquired and passed knowledge on in this very fashion.

Techniques like these are why we still have The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Old Testament and the Torah and historical tales from many early cultures.

This is an ancient art… and this is only the beginning.

15. The Real Name – the house method you just learned is actually called the Loci Method, and is around 3,000 years old, reportedly developed by Simonides, a Greek poet. “Loci” is simply the Greek word meaning “place.” (This method gave rise to the common phrase “in the first place,” as that’s how people actually used to learn things.)

16. Linking – You know that an outlandish association between two ideas is the basis of this system. By “linking” information together in chains, you can remember a lot of information very quickly.

You create an association between one item, and a second item. Then you form a new association between the second item and a third item. Link the third item to a fourth, the fourth to a fifth and so on.

17. An Example – Let’s say you needed to run to the store and were given a small list: Milk, eggs, ham, toilet paper and cereal. First, you’d link “store” to “milk.” Maybe you’re looking at the store and a GIANT bottle of milk falls from the sky, crushing the store. Or perhaps you walk into the store only to find yourself knee deep in milk as you wade through the aisles.

Next you link “milk” to “eggs.” You go to pour yourself a glass of milk, and instead eggs come tumbling out of the jug, cracking as they hit the bottom of the glass. Then link “eggs” to “ham.” Maybe you go to crack an egg, and a tiny pig falls out instead, and runs all over the counter, squealing as you try to catch it.

(Remember, ABSURD: Active, Big, Sensory, Unexpected, Ridiculous or Dumb!)

“Ham” to “toilet paper.” You walk into the bathroom and there’s a pig sitting on the toilet, looking entirely offended that you just walked in on him. Finally, “toilet paper” to “cereal.” Picture yourself pouring milk over a heaping bowl full of toilet paper. Grab your spoon and dig in!

Now, when you arrive at the store and see it, you’ll automatically think of it being crushed (or flooded) by milk. Milk will lead you automatically to pouring a glass full of eggs. Eggs will take you that tiny pig (ham). Ham will put you in the bathroom (toilet paper). Toilet paper will take you to a bowl of the worst breakfast cereal ever.

If someone is giving you this list, you can form the link from item to item as they’re speaking to you. Your first review happens as you repeat the list back to them to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

18. Hooks & Chains – In this example, the store is actually a “hook.” It is the thing you call to mind in order to recall your chain of memory links. In the previous post you read, each room in your memory house is a hook.

Chains can be as long as you like… but I like to stick to ten or fifteen links as a maximum limit. It just keeps it manageable.

19. Your Memory House Just Got Bigger- Let’s go back to your house. If you had 10 to 12 rooms you were using as hooks, and each hook held a chain of 10 links… you now have a place to store 100-120 pieces of information.

And if you wanted to start out safe and just work with 5-link chains… that’s still 50-60 items you can recall on command.

That beats the heck out of the average person’s 7-item short-term memory capacity. But that’s still a drop in the bucket.

20. You Have Just Learned to Crawl – The techniques we discussed here will make your memory– or rather, your recall– far better than it was before you read this. With just a little bit of practice, you can use this to do impressive things.

But this is nothing, really. Like an infant whose big trick had been to turn over onto its belly, these techniques have taught you to crawl and opened a whole new world for you to explore.

Once you are used to using these, you can add other techniques that will allow you to stand, to walk, to run, to climb.

I’ve made a name for myself in three separate careers for being able to sit through excruciatingly long meetings and classes without taking notes, then recap not only the information delivered by the presenter, but the comments of the other participants, including detailed numerical facts and figures.

People who know more than I do say that if you read three books on a particular subject and write a 1-page summary of each, you know more about that subject than 75% of people on the planet. Read 5 and you know more than 95%.

With a rich mnemonic system, you can not only do that, but you could stand and give a speech about each of those five books– and five more– without referring to notes… having read them just once. Not just key points of chapters, but right down to the key point of each paragraph.

You can sit in class and memorize an entire lecture, even if you don’t understand what half the words mean (using the power of substitution), then go home and look up those words, or watch a half dozen YouTube videos until you find one that makes sense to you… giving instant meaning to the body of information you’ve already memorized.

That’s a bold claim. And it is entirely true. Not semantically; not “technically.” But truly, quantifiably, actually 14,300% more powerful.

First I’m going to explain that number. Then, I’ll show you the technique. Then I’m going to explain why it works. (Yes, you can use this technique even if you don’t know why it works).

14,300%

There is no shortage of studies on memory. And those studies show that the average person is able to hold only seven items in their short-term memory. If someone were to rattle off a list of 5 items, you’d repeat it to yourself a couple of times and be able to recall it very accurately within the next 20-30 minutes without writing it down. Bump that number up to 7, and 50 percent of people will begin missing items. Bump it up to 10, and retention actually gets worse.

If you could accurately recall 14 items… that would be a 100% improvement over the average person’s seven. What I’m about to show you will give you the ability to memorize and recall 1000 things instantly in your short-term memory AND cement them into long-term memory as well. Objects, facts, images… anything you see, hear or read. Oh, and the very process it is fun and entertaining to do.

Let’s say you are reading a book that has 20 chapters–something you will be tested on for school or work– and as you are reading you instantly commit the ten most important facts or concepts in each chapter to memory. You put the book down. That night, while taking a shower, you mentally review the ten essential bits of info from each chapter (while the book is safe and dry in another room). The entire review takes you three minutes.

If you can do that, I think it’s safe to say you have learned the material, wouldn’t you? 20 chapters times 10 memorized items is only 200 items. When you have the ability to memorize and instantly access 1000 items, that means you can do the same thing with four more books. If, after just one reading, someone could recite or write down on command the 1000 most important points from the 5 best books on a subject…you’d consider that person fairly knowledgeable, wouldn’t you?

By the end of this article, you will have the ability to do just that.

What if it wasn’t a book? What if it was a lecture, or a business meeting? Would the ability to listen, and then recall, the 25, or 100, or 500, or 1000 most important points covered come in handy? You don’t take a single note, and yet can easily talk about everything that was said… would that get you noticed? Would it make your job easier?

Here’s a warning:

If you are an adult who takes himself or herself too seriously, you’re going to feel kind of goofy. You won’t be doing anything that looks stupid to anyone outside your own head… to them, you’ll simply astound them with amazing feats of mental prowess. But a lot of people give the voices inside their head way too much import. Those people will find this uncomfortable.

If you’re NOT one of those people… if you have a sense of humor… if you actually like to have fun, and want to pick up a valuable skill, get ready… not only are you about to pick up a valuable skill, but you’re going to make life a lot more interesting.

Ready?

PREPARATION: The Hook List
The first thing we need is a simple way to remember a list of items on command. A place to hold the things we want to remember. I like the numbers 1-10. Problem is, numbers are abstract concepts, and the brain finds abstract concepts difficult to hold on to. So, we need to take those abstract concepts and make them into something more concrete.

We’re going to create a clear, unique image in our mind to represent each of the numbers, based roughly on their shapes.

1: Arrow.
2. Swan
3. Mountains (turn the 3 on its side)
4. Sailboat
5. Hook
6. Cherry
7. Cliff
8. Hourglass
9. Golf Club
10. Bat and Ball

It is important here to envision a clear, distinct, unique realistic (as in, not cartoony) image. You can’t simply think to yourself “Okay, the number nine looks like a golf club.” You have to see a specific golf club in your mind.

For our purposes here, these images are now the numbers 1-10. These images will serve as hooks to “hang” the things we want to memorize on.

The Fundamental Technique #1: A,B.S.U.R.D. Associations.
Now, in order to memorize a list of (to keep it simple) ten objects, you have to create an absurd association between the image for your number, and the object you want to recall later. Absurdity is the key here. The absurd is memorable. If it is a normal, logical, expected relationship, it will be easily forgotten. It is the things that stand out that are memorable. So you have to make it stand out. You must make it A.B.S.U.R.D. Your link between the two words should be two or more of the following:

Active
Big (No, I mean REALLY big)
Sensory-rich
Unexpected
Raunchy
Dumb or Dangerous.

Let’s say the first item on your list was to pick up balloons for a party. Your image representing the number 1 is an arrow. The simple association between the two would be popping a balloon with an arrow. Which isn’t a terrible choice… it’s active. You see and hear it pop, so it is sensory-rich. It’s something that is easy to envision concretely.

But I think we can do better. Maybe you shoot a single arrow and it zigzags through a room full of kids popping each child’s balloon. Or maybe you’re taking aim at a full-size balloon-animal deer. Or maybe you try to pop a balloon with an arrow, but it won’t pop… and it gets angry, sprouts arms and breaks the arrow.

Absurd. But memorable.

Now, the cool thing about this is you can create associations like this much faster than I can write about them or you can read about them. The brain thinks in images, and does so at nearly the speed of light. It doesn’t have to be beautiful or perfect or “right.” It just has to be absurd enough to be memorable. But if it happens to make you smile or laugh, it’s perfect.

Maybe item two on your list is to pick up tickets for the basketball game. (Swan + Basketball) x Absurd = ? You dribble a swan down the basketball court (the swan, of course is not happy about it), shoot for three and nothing but net!

Now you’d call up the image of the next number (3), which is mountain, and link that to the next item to be remembered. And so on and so forth.

You move quickly down your list creating clear, concrete, absurd images that link each item you want to remember to a number on your list. Once you’ve created your absurd associations between the number-shape images and the things you want to remember, you want to review your list immediately to make sure your association for each item is absurd enough (hint: if you can’t remember an item, it’s not). This review shouldn’t take more than a couple of seconds.

Arrow = ?
Swan = ?
Mountains = ?
Etc…

Now you’re not just trying to hold items in your short-term memory by brute force. You have linked them to items you can recall at will (the numbers 1-10). Your number-shape images serve as hooks for you to hang the new information on. And if your image is absurd or funny or unexpected enough, forgetting it quickly will actually be difficult.

“But wait,” you say. That is ten items. 10 is only 143% of 7, not 14,300% of 7.

And you’re right. You’re very astute. I like that.

Fundamental Technique #2: Link Chains
But your 10-item list is actually a 50-item list. Because once you have linked an item to your first number shape, you can link another image to that item. So you linked arrow to balloon. If the next item on your list were to go to the bank and deposit your paycheck… you would simply link Balloon and Bank. You walk up to the teller, open your wallet, and pull out a big bunch of inflated balloons, and hand them to the teller.

Again, it’s goofy. It’s kinda dumb. It doesn’t make sense (how in the heck are you pulling a big bunch of fully inflated balloons out of your wallet???). But it IS a memorable image.

Now, you’d associate bank with the next item on your list. As long as your associations are absurd, you can easily link 5 items on each “hook” of your number-shape list, making a chain of linked associations. When you think of Arrow, you’ll automatically think of balloons. Thinking of balloons with automatically remind you of bank, and so on.

“Fine,” you say. “But 50, as impressive as it might be, is still only 715%. We are still a bit short.”

True. But your 50 item list is actually a 500-item list.

Fundamental Technique #3: List Modifiers
Do you know the colors of the rainbow? Maybe you learned them with the acronym Roy G. Biv, or Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Many people don’t realize this, but “Indigo” was thrown in just to make the list 7 items long. So what we actually have are 6 distinct colors:

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple

If you combine all of these colors of light, you end up with white. If you take them all away, you end up with black. And the way you split white light into these colors is with a prism, which is a clear triangular block of crystal or plastic.

So now we have nine “colors,” if you will.

Red Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, White, Black, Crystal (clear)

If you use each of these these colors to modify your number shape list, your 10 hooks become 100 hooks, like so:

1-10: normal number-shape images
11-20: The number-shape images, but completely RED
21-30: The same images again, but completely ORANGE
31-40: YELLOW number-shapes
41-50: GREEN number-shapes
51-60: BLUE number-shapes
61-70: PURPLE number-shapes
71-80: WHITE number-shapes
81-90: BLACK number-shapes
91-100: CRYSTAL number-shapes

So now you have 100 unique, distinct hooks, each ready to hold up to 5 items. That’s a 500-item holding area. So now we’re up to a 7,150% increase in your memory. How do we double it to get to 14,300%?

Fundamental Technique #4: Multiple Hook Lists
By creating another list for the numbers 1-10. Instead of using objects that look like the numbers, we can use objects that rhyme with the numbers:

1. Sun
2. Shoe
3. Tree
4. Door
5. Hive
6. Sticks
7. Heaven
8. Plate
9. Wine
10. Hen

Again, you want to create clear, specific, unique images to stand for each number. The “shoe” for two shouldn’t be a generic shoe… it should be a specific, unique shoe. One you can call to mind on command that will always stand for 2 on your number-rhyme list (HINT: a high heel generally has you halfway to a good absurd association right off the bat).

Once you have your images in place, everything else is already set up for you. You can modify them with the colors just as you did your shape list, and you can hang up to 5 items on each hook, associating the first item to the hook itself, and each subsequent item to the item before.

That’s two 500-item lists you can use to memorize 1000 things, almost instantly.

Fundamental Technique #5: Substitution
And if the thing you want to recall later is not concrete… if it’s abstract… all you have to do is the same thing we did for the numbers 1-10: come up with a concrete image to represent it. Love is an abstract concept. But a heart, cupid, and the romantic scene from a favorite movie are concrete images that represent the idea of love. The number 12 is an abstract concept, but a dozen eggs in the carton or a dozen doughnuts in a box are concrete images that can represent 12. Law is an abstract concept. A police officer and a judge are concrete images.

Or let’s say you needed an image for “the War of 1812 was fought between The U.S. and Great Brittain. There is a technique for memorizing strings of numbers that makes it really simple, but that technique is a little more advanced than we can fit in this article. But that’s okay, because substitution works here, too.

We need to find an image for 18, and an image for 12, and combine them. For 18, I like using an 18-wheeler– the big semi truck. And for 12, we’ve already discussed a dozen eggs. So, we just imaging an 18-wheeler, but instead of the normal tractor trailer, the rig is pulling a giant egg carton on wheels. 1812. Put Uncle Sam and Queen Elizabeth II on top engaged in a matrix-style kung fu fight, and there’s your image for War of 1812 was fought between the U.S. and Great Britain. Have it driving off of a pier and crashing violently into a bright orange sailboat with a bright orange sail, and exploding… and “The War of 1812” is now number 24 on your modified number-shape list.

Absurd, but memorable. And try not to smile when that image pops in your head during the test.

The simple act of choosing a substitute image represent a concept is typically enough for you to recall what the image was supposed to stand for later.

Fundamental Technique #6: Transition to Long-Term Memory.
So that takes care of your short-term memory… and for lots of things, just holding something in short term memory is enough: a grocery list, a phone number you’ll only call once, a part you need to buy to repair something, etc. But, some things you will want to hold on to; how do we cement it in your long-term memory? Two ways: first is repetition– but not like the repetition you’re used to. You don’t have to repeat it over and over and over dozens and dozens of times. Review it right after you form the associations– a handful of items will take just seconds to review (again, the speed of thought), a couple hundred would take less than ten minutes.. Then review it again after an hour or so. Then again before bed. And so on, putting progressively more time between the reviews.

The second (and most critical) way is to DO SOMETHING with the information. Write about it. Draw a picture or diagram of it. Explore what it means, or what makes it up. Build a model. Combine it with something else and see what you can make. You can even DO SOMETHING while you are reviewing it, killing two birds with one stone.

Best of all, because you’ve got the information attached to your hook lists and can recall them on command… you don’t need the book or notes or lists or other source material to review or use it. It’s there, easy to access. You can review or think about the material in the shower, on the drive to school or work, while you’re eating lunch or dinner. (NOTE: Don’t draw a picture or build a model if you’re driving. That’s just stupid and dangerous).

So there’s your 14,300% improvement in your memory: 1000 items versus the average person’s 7. Now, I’m going to turn that 14,300% improvement into infinite improvement in a single sentence:

ANY sort of list you can call to mind on command can be used as a hook-list.

The planets of the solar system. The rooms in your house, or your grandparents’ house, or your neighbor’s house. The route you drive to school or work. Your school or office. The grocery store. Walt Disney World. The parts of your body. The alphabet. Once you create the clear, specific, unique images to serve as memory hooks, anything you know becomes an anchor for a new set of facts to be learned.

AN ASIDE ON EDUCATION
The three root concepts here: association (linking something you want to remember with something you can recall on command), substitution (creating a concrete image to stand for an abstract or undefined idea) and structured repetition, are the fundamental building blocks of rich memory systems used for millennia.

The intentional (yes, it was intentional) loss of working knowledge of these systems during the protestant reformation and industrial revolution has done a huge disservice to students. The initial stages of the learning process, which could (and should) be fast, fun and exciting has been made tedious, boring and time consuming. And the stage where the actual learning takes place– actually using the information– not only is robbed of time and attention that could be spent on it, but is hamstrung by the fact that kids are already numb, totally devoid of interest and excitement, when they finally get to it.

It would only take a matter of two to four weeks for most middle and high school students to become proficient with these systems, which would allow them to read a text passage, hear a lecture or watch a video once, and commit it to memory. Allow them to quickly and easily commit mathematical formulae and strings of digits to memory. Allow them to structure and compose complete essays and poems in their head before ever putting pen to paper or turning on the computer.

What could teachers do in classrooms if students could acquire and memorize the material that quickly? The entire class almost could be devoted fully to fostering understanding and transforming the information into something new.

In the 1600’s and then again in the early 1900s education was intentionally dumbed down and made more complicated. The world has since moved on, but education has yet to recover.

It’s tragic. But it could actually be a good thing for any students who learned these systems. Every test is an open book, open note test when you’ve almost instantly memorized the text and lectures. Study time isn’t spent memorizing, but trying to better understand what you’ve memorized. You have more time for extracurriculars and a social life when your don’t need your books or notes to study, and can review material in the shower or on the bus or during the commercials.

Schools won’t change easily, or any time soon. But students can. And those who do will win.

The next installment I will show you how to combine the review process with techniques for understanding and using the material you just memorized, in a way that is still quick, easy and fun.