Quantum Memory Power Read online

  You look at somebody for the first time, and you think that person looks a bit like a lawyer, a journalist, a musician, or maybe your doctor or a tax collector. It doesn’t matter what it is; what we’re looking for here is a place.

  Let’s take an example. For whatever reason, you meet somebody who looks like a typical car salesman. Now think of your own garage. A car salesman makes you think of a car showroom, so think of your own garage or a local car showroom. Now you wait for the name. We’ll do the first name this time.

  The man says his name is George. The trick here is to use somebody else that you already know called George. It might be a friend of yours or an uncle. How about George Bush? So you imagine: George Bush at the showroom, trying to sell a car.

  Now you wait for the surname. The surname is Baker. Again, we make an associated image. Imagine George Bush with a baker’s hat on. This is the chain: profession, place, key image.

  The beauty of this method is that it works both ways.

  If you’re at a party, and you meet a crowd of people, and you use these techniques, when you hear the name Baker, you’ll think, “Wait a minute. Who was that? Oh, yes. It was the baker’s hat on George Bush, and he was standing at the car showroom. It must be that guy over there.” It’s the use of those three ingredients again: association, imagination, location.

  Let’s take another case. Supposing you meet somebody who looks like a typical tax inspector. In this case, you would use the location of your tax office. So think about your tax office, where it is situated. Use that as a mental backdrop. You wait for the name.

  The man’s name is Mr. Overton. Again, what’s the first thing that comes into your head? Maybe you think of putting a ton weight over his head. (By the way, you should never tell people how you remember their names. It can lead to all sorts of insults and arguments.) So you have the image of putting a ton weight over the man’s head at the tax office.

  THE FEATURE LINK

  What if a face has no look-alike, and a place doesn’t come to mind, like job surroundings? The idea then is to create an artificial link. If the face doesn’t take you to a place, then we get on to technique number three. This is called the feature link.

  Maybe somebody has some interesting features, maybe a pointed nose or outsized earrings, or distinguishing marks of some sort. Maybe they have a tattoo or an interesting trait. All you’re looking for is something to latch onto.

  For example, you’re introduced to a woman called Pat Whitehead. You notice that she has streaks of white hair. I know it’s an obvious link, but just imagine patting her on the head. Maybe she’s had some paint poured over her, and your hands are covered with white paint. It doesn’t really matter how you get there, as long as you make that connection, so the next time you see her you think, “Oh, yes, streaks of paint, white. Oh, yes, white head,” and you’ve patted her. “Pat Whitehead.”

  In this case, the person’s actual physique has become the location in itself. So this is the link: it’s gone person, feature, scene.

  Again, never tell anybody how you’ve gotten to remember their name. Just say you have a good memory. I once made a mistake at a meeting. A guy said, “How did you remember my name?”

  “Well,” I said, “you have rather pointed ears, so I thought of Dr. Spock from Star Trek. So I visualized you on the deck of the Starship Enterprise.” He walked off in disgust. From then onwards, I learned to keep my thoughts to myself.

  This particular technique is a favorite amongst stage performers and magicians, and they probably wouldn’t thank me for revealing it to you. They look out for particular types of clothing so they can attach or link the name in some crazy image to that particular clothing. The only trouble with this is clothes change, but faces don’t.

  FIRST NAME PLACES

  All three of the above methods are good, but now I’m going to tell you the most powerful one. I’ve used it to remember audiences of anything up to 300 people in one go. I did this once on Oprah a couple of years back. I call technique number four “First Name Places.” This is how I do it.

  The first thing I want to know is the person’s first name. That’s my first hook, the first link in the chain. That name will transport that person to a specific location somewhere in the world. If I go up to the first person in the audience and say, “Give me your first name,” she says, “Carol.” Immediately I think of a specific church in England. Why Carol? Carol makes me think of carol singing, and that’s something that I do every Christmas. So I go to that same church as soon as I hear the name Carol. Now I have a place.

  If she had said her name was Jean, then I would go straight to a jean shop in my hometown of Guildford. Why? Because that’s where I bought my first pair of jeans. If the name is Pamela, then I go to my mother’s house, because my mother’s name is Pamela. If it’s George, then I go to the White House. If it’s Larry, I think of Larry King, so I use the news desk at CNN, and I base the mnemonic scene that I’m going to create around CNN.

  Let’s go through an example together. Let’s say the first person that I meet is called Leo. Immediately I go straight to the Titanic. Can you think of why? Leonardo DiCaprio. It doesn’t matter if that person doesn’t look like Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s just the name that I’m using to transport that face to the location. So now I sort of energize that person Star Trek style. He’s now going off to the Titanic.

  Now I ask for the surname. Leo’s surname is Taylor. What do I do? I imagine that person onboard the Titanic with a tape measure around his neck. That’s all I need. When I go back to that person, I think, “Ah, yes. I sent you off to the Titanic. You have a tape measure around your neck. It has to be Leo Taylor.” Highly unlikely, surreal image, but I don’t care. I can remember his name, and I do that methodically with each person. I have a solid chain of links.

  How do I remember 100 names in an audience? I have a whole dossier of places that I can send people to. If I hear the name Terry, I think of a friend’s house, because he’s a decorator, so that person then goes to Terry’s house in England. If I hear the name Nicola, I can’t help thinking of a specific wine bar where I dated a girl called Nicola. The date was unsuccessful, but I don’t care. I can still remember it.

  REMEMBERING MORE COMPLICATED NAMES

  “OK,” I hear you say, “but what if you have a more challenging name, something with 2, 3, or 4 syllables or more?”

  All you have to do is break the name down into syllables and make more complex scenes.

  For instance, the name Radwandski, now I would break that down into rad, wand, and ski. Rad makes me think of radiator, wand a magic wand, and ski a ski, of course. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You can break any name down into syllables and consequently into pictures.

  Take the name Dougherty. I think of docker’s tea break. Hathaway makes me think of hats away. How about Jameson? Jamey in the sun. Oppenheimer, open home. Rachmaninoff: you can have rack, man, in oven. The match doesn’t have to be exact. You’re just looking for a trigger. How about Neacher? I think of knee itcher.

  What if two people double up? Supposing I meet somebody else in the audience called Leo. No problem at all. All I do is transport that person to a different part of the ship. If there are three or four Leos, then they just mix around the helm of the ship, or they may be in a life raft or somewhere else. In fact, it even helps, because I can group them all together.

  What about 300 people? It doesn’t just happen. I don’t suddenly absorb all the information from 300 people. I have to work methodically, one at a time. It takes a bit longer, but I can guarantee I have them all in my head. I transport 300 people off to different parts of the world. Try it. It really does work.

  To recap: give a face a place. Study a face, and just think whom they remind you of. Take the nearest look-alike. They might look like John McEnroe, an archvillain, an actor, hero, or maybe a relative or friend. Just allow resemblance to take them to a place. If somebody looks like Tiger Woods, then base the scene around Augusta. Use colorful, imaginative scenes to remember the name.

  What if they don’t have a look-alike? Use “What’s My Line?” Where would you expect that person to work? Look at the person and see what sort of job they’d be likely to have—like a law enforcement officer or a bank clerk or a hairdresser. Use their place of work to provide a mental backdrop.

  What if that person doesn’t take you anywhere? What if that person doesn’t have a look-alike, or you can’t think what job they might have? In that case, you would use a feature link. Maybe they’re called Pearson, so they have piercing eyes. Or they’re Cooper, so you imagine them being barrel-shaped.

  I think the most powerful method is first-name places. Let the first name transport that person to a place. If the name is Dennis, you could take him to the dentist. If the name is Zoe, she can go to a zoo.

  A FIRST-NAME EXERCISE

  Here’s an exercise for you. I’m going to list a series of first names. As soon as you read each name, I want you to immediately associate that name with a specific location. It doesn’t really matter how or why you arrive at that location. Your brain is so used to making connections that it’s sometimes difficult to keep pace with your own chain of thoughts.

  If I say the name Lisa, you might immediately think of an art museum. Why? Even if you don’t realize it, Lisa could make you think of the famous Mona Lisa and da Vinci. Hence, the art museum. If I say the name Bernard, you might be thinking of Switzerland and a St. Bernard dog, or the name Barbara might make you think of Barbra Streisand on location for a film.

  I’m going to feed you a series of names, and let that particular name suggest a place. This is personal to you. Try to get an associated place immediately, as soon as you read the name.

  Michael
br />   Richard

  Karen

  Elizabeth

  Peter

  George

  James

  Mary

  Caroline

  Bobby

  Did you notice that as soon as you heard the name, you were able to think of an associated place? That’s a very useful mechanism to have, because we can use it to store massive amounts of information about each person. That’s the mechanism of association, and that’s how it can work for you.

  This time, I’m going to list the same first names again, but I’m going to add surnames. Now, when you hear the name Michael, I want you to create a little image based on the surname and fix it to that mental backdrop.

  Michael Stamp

  Richard Glass

  Karen Barber

  Elizabeth Fox

  Peter Baker

  George Ford

  James Neacher

  Mary Nightingale

  Caroline Taylor

  Bobby Kowalski

  We’re looking for immediate associations here. Let me pick one of those surnames at random, and see if you can remember the first name. If I say Taylor, what are you thinking of? Whom are you connecting that to? It should be Caroline.

  Let’s make it slightly easier. Let’s do the first name first. If I say Michael, you should be at a location now, and you should have fixed an image of Stamp. Let’s give you another first name. How about Mary? What are you thinking of now? Can you see a bird there? Mary Nightingale.

  I’m going to give you another surname: Fox. Where was the fox? Wherever the location is, that should trigger the first name, which is Elizabeth. Bobby—what place were you thinking of when I said Bobby? You had a pretty difficult name: Kowalski. Here are all those names again.

  Michael Stamp

  Richard Glass

  Karen Barber

  Elizabeth Fox

  Peter Baker

  George Ford

  James Neacher

  Mary Nightingale

  Caroline Taylor

  Bobby Kowalski

  How many of those did you get? I tried this test on a friend of mine recently, and she said she got 8 out of 10, but she had a lot of trouble with Peter Baker and James Neacher.

  “Why is that?” I said.

  “I’m glad those people are out of my life—Peter and James. That’s why I had trouble. I didn’t really want to think about them.”

  Here’s what I suggest you do. It’s quite difficult to begin with, because you’re using your brain in a different way. Just as practice, I suggest you flip through a magazine or a newspaper. You always get unfamiliar faces there, and they normally put the names just underneath. Try applying the techniques to see how many of those names you can remember. You could do a competition with your family or friends and see how many you can remember.

  The next time you’re at a party, try it out. It’s a great party trick as well as a great exercise. If you really get confident, why don’t you use it in the work environment? It’s a great way of meeting new people.

  In effect, it’s like carrying a 3D internal filing cabinet. You have a file on everybody. Once you have a location for each person, then you just keep adding more and more images. If you remember, in the example I gave you, Leo Taylor was onboard ship on the Titanic. If you want to build up more information about him, just keep adding more images. Maybe you can store his wife’s name or the fact that he likes going skiing or that he drives a Chevrolet. Just stick the Chevrolet onboard the ship.

  People are going to start asking, “How do you remember all this stuff? Where is this guy getting his information from?” You’re using this internal mental filing cabinet, which is full of names. Don’t tell them. Just say you have a good memory.

  It’s embarrassing to forget people’s names. It’s one of the biggest insults to forget somebody after a short time (like 30 seconds after you’ve met them). Remembering their name is also one of the biggest compliments you can pay somebody, particularly if you haven’t seen them for a long time. How to win friends and influence people? Remember their names.

  In the next chapter, we’re going to work more on names and faces, and I’m going to give you another exercise. Until then, keep practicing the techniques that you’ve learned up to this point.

  7

  Dominic Plays “Trivial Pursuit”

  A few years ago, I did a promotion for the game “Trivial Pursuit.” I had to spend a few weeks memorizing a total of 7,500 questions and answers. As part of the promotion, I was asked to appear at a famous toy shop called Hamleys on Regent Street in London. There was an ad in the paper beforehand, which said, “Challenge the memory man. If he gets a question wrong, you win £50. If he gets two questions wrong, then you win £100. If he gets a third question wrong, then you win £5,000.”

  When I arrived at Hamleys, there was a huge queue stretching all the way down Regent Street. Anyway, I got to the top of the building. I had a briefcase with me. I put it down, they dropped the rope, and everybody ran towards the front of the queue.

  After about 10 minutes or so, things were going well—I got all the questions right—but I noticed somebody in the queue. He kept leaning forward and looking around. He looked a bit shifty as well. I don’t know if you ever get that feeling that something’s going to go wrong. Well, I sensed it with this particular guy.

  Sure enough, when he got to the head of the queue and it was his turn, he said, “Before I ask a question of Mr. O’Brien, I want that briefcase removed.”

  “Absolutely, no problem,” I said. “Move it wherever you like.”

  “Send it to the back of the room.” A couple of guys came along and moved it to the back of the room.

  He said, “No, I want it further away. I want it out of earshot.”

  Somehow this guy thought that I was cheating. Maybe I had a little man or a speaker inside or something.

  Anyway, once the man was satisfied that the briefcase was far enough away, he came out with a question: “How old was Anna Kournikova in May 1992, when she was described as the finest tennis prospect of the century?”

  I said, “Ten.”

  He threw the card down and said, “Oh, this is a fiddle,” and walked off. Well, it wasn’t a fiddle. I was able to come up with the answer because I was thinking of Dudley Moore. Why Dudley Moore? He was in the film 10.

  All I needed from that question were two words: Anna and tennis. Anna made me think of a friend’s house, and she plays tennis. I know she has a tennis court. Then I just imagined Dudley Moore playing tennis there, and the answer was simple. I was using mnemonics.

  WHAT ARE MNEMONICS?

  Put simply, a mnemonic is any device that aids memory. An acronym is a mnemonic. Probably the most famous acronym for British schoolchildren is “Richard of York goes battling in vain.” That gives you the colors in their order in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. If you take the first letter from each word, it gives you ROYGBIV. Of course, you could just think of the name “Roy G. Biv.”

  Now we’ll learn how to use mnemonics to translate numbers into colorful, meaningful, and of course memorable images. I call this the language of numbers. Later I’ll explain a system that I developed which I believe has been pivotal in enabling me to win the World Memory Championships for a record eight times. This system is so devastatingly effective that unfortunately for me, my rivals are now using it to try to beat me, and one or two are getting rather too close for comfort. I’ve christened it the Dominic system, but more of that later.

  For now, to ease you into the language of numbers, we’re going to look at a couple of standard methods of translating single-digit numbers into mnemonic symbols. They’re very easy to learn, and they can be very useful for remembering a whole host of numerical data, like your bank PIN number or any other short sequence of numbers.