Quantum Memory Power Read online

  What’s a number shape? Well, the clue is in the title. Number shape. The idea is to associate—there’s that word association again—a single number with its nearest everyday look-alike shape.

  For example, the number 5 has the shape of a curtain hook. The number 6 looks like the shape of an elephant’s trunk. The number 8 looks like a snowman or maybe an hourglass. What about the number 2? Does that look a little bit like a swan?

  In this case, the swan becomes the key image for the number 2. We’re going to be using a lot of key images in this course. How about the number 1? That looks like a pencil or maybe a candle.

  By the way, you can do what you like in the privacy of your own mind. If you think that number looks like the shape of a phallic symbol, well, then, use it. One word of warning: don’t explain to other people how you can remember certain numbers.

  I’m going to give you a number, and then I’m going to give you its associated number shape. Here goes:

  1: candle

  2: swan

  3: handcuffs

  4: sailboat

  5: curtain hook

  6: elephant’s trunk

  7: boomerang

  8: snowman

  9: balloon and string

  10: stick and hoop

  Of course you can choose your own number shapes. For number 10, for instance, why don’t you have Laurel and Hardy? For number 8, you can use Marilyn Monroe. Whatever comes to mind, you could even have a number shape for the number 0. I think 0 looks like a football.

  How can we put this in practical use? Well, for instance, the planet Mars has 2 moons. To remember that fact, you might imagine a swan gracefully flapping its wings as it endlessly orbits Mars. Remember, the number shape for 2 is a swan.

  AN EXERCISE

  Do you have all of the number shapes in your head? Let’s have a quick test. What’s the association for number 7? Boomerang. 9? Balloon and string. How about the number 1? Candle.

  If you think you’re ready to go, let’s try a little exercise. I’m going to give you a question, and I’m also going to give you the answer. Somehow you have to connect them by using all those three ingredients: imagination, association, and of course location. For example, to remember that Adam and Eve had 3 children, imagine them being handcuffed: handcuffs is the number shape for 3. When you’re ready, here goes.

  How many hundred rooms does Buckingham Palace have? The answer is 6. How are you going to connect an elephant’s trunk to that question?

  Next one: how many horses are there on a polo team? Answer: 4. Remember the number shape for 4 is a sailboat. You make the association.

  How many reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh? That should be an easy one, because the number shape for 8, which is the answer, is a snowman.

  What magic number helped bring down the walls of Jericho? Answer; 7.

  How many teats does a female goat have? The answer: 2, or a swan.

  The Titanic went down with how many funnels? The answer: 4. Again, you have a ready-made image for that.

  How many children did Adam and Eve have? You already know the answer. Handcuffs, which gives you 3.

  How many wings does a bee have? Answer: 4.

  How many petals does a wild English rose have? The answer to that is 5. Remember the number shape for 5 is a curtain hook.

  Good. Now, assuming that you’ve employed a combination of imagination, association and location, you should be able to answer these questions.

  Adam and Eve had how many children? Think of the handcuffs: 3.

  Buckingham Palace has how many hundred rooms? What was the association there? Elephant’s trunk, so it has to be 600 rooms.

  What magic number helped bring down the walls of Jericho? Clue: boomerang. So the answer is 7.

  How many teats does a female goat have? Think about it. What was your number shape? Swan? The answer is 2.

  The Titanic went down with how many funnels? Well, the number shape for 4 is a sailboat, so you had a ready-made association there.

  How many wings does a bee have? Answer: 4.

  How many petals does a wild English Rose have? Answer: 5. That was the curtain hook.

  How many horses are there on a polo team? Think about the number shape. Sailboat: it has to be 4.

  Finally, how many reindeer pulled Santa’s sleigh? That’s an easy one, because it’s the number shape of a snowman, which is 8.

  You might want to go back and test yourself tomorrow or in a week’s time. If the mental pictures you created were sufficiently stimulating, you may find that you’re stuck with this information permanently.

  THE NUMBER RHYME SYSTEM

  More about number shapes later. The second system is called the number rhyme system. Again, the clue is in the description. The idea is to associate the number with its nearest rhyming word. Let’s give you some examples.

  You would associate the number 4 with door or sore; 7 you’d connect with heaven or Kevin. How about 6? You could connect that with sticks or bricks.

  I’m going to go through the list now from 1 to 10, and I’m going to give you a suggestion for a number rhyme. Of course, you can use your own.

  1: gun

  2: shoe

  3: tree

  4: door

  5: hive

  6: sticks

  7: heaven

  8: gate

  9: wine

  10: pen

  Got those? Now we’re going to do a little game. I’m going to get you to memorize the last 10 presidents of the 20th century, so make sure you have the number rhyme system clearly in your head.

  Do you have that? Quick test. What’s the rhyme for 8? Gate. What’s the key image for 9? Wine. How about 2? Shoe, and 6 is stick; 1, gun; 4, door, 5, hive. If you’ve got those right, then we’ll progress with the exercise.

  I’m going to list the 10 presidents in order, starting with Truman. He’s number 1, and somehow you have to connect its key image, in this case gun, which rhymes with 1, with Truman. When I say the number 7, and the number rhyme is heaven, I will list Carter. Now he’s a bit of a saint; he’s going to go straight to heaven, isn’t he? You connect Carter with heaven, so you know he’s the seventh president. Here we go:

  1: gun, Truman

  2: shoe, Eisenhower

  3: tree, Kennedy

  4: door, Johnson

  5: hive, Nixon

  6: sticks, Ford

  7: heaven, Carter

  8: gate, Reagan

  9: wine, Bush

  10: pen, Clinton

  Keep thinking all the time. This time I’m just going to list the number, and I want you to write down the president.

  1

  6

  2

  7

  3

  8

  4

  9

  5

  10

  How many did you get? Did you get all 10? I wonder what was going through your mind with some of these. How would you connect, for instance, Kennedy to tree, or Clinton with pen? What would Bill Clinton be doing with a pen? Maybe rewriting the past.

  You can do lots of things with this. You can pinpoint any one of those presidents. If I say 5, that makes you think of hive, which you connect with Nixon. You could go forward. You could go from Truman right the way through Clinton. You could go backwards as well. You can do it in reverse.

  If I say to you, “Bush,” you can tell me what number on the list he is. Bush makes you think of what? Wine, which gives you 9. What would Eisenhower be? You think of shoe, which gives you the number 2.

  Can you see how the pieces of the memory puzzle are beginning to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle? That’s because you’re using your imagination as well as association and location.

  SOME PRACTICAL USES

  You want to practice these systems. Use the number shapes or the number rhymes, whichever you prefer, but they’re very useful for memorizing all sorts of information.

  How can we use this on a more practical level? Well, you could use it to memorize your bank PIN number.

  For example, let’s say your number is 4135. Just translate those into key images using the number rhyme system. So you have 4, door; 1, gun; 3, tree; 5, hive. What do you think the right location would be to store your bank PIN number? Well, think of your bank. Just imagine your bank, and how would you fit a little miniepic around your bank using door, gun, tree, and hive?

  Imagine the door bursting open, and there’s somebody there with a gun, and he runs up a tree, only to find there’s a beehive up there. All you have to do is think about that again, and you have the bank PIN number for as long as you want. Door, 4; gun, 1; tree, 3; hive, 5. Of course, after a while, you’ll build up a verbal recall of the number, but isn’t it nice to have a backup just in case verbal recall lets you down?

  If you really want to get into numbers, in the next chapter we’re going to get serious. I’m talking telephone numbers, big ones, like thousands. Until then, use the techniques that I’ve described here. Use number shapes and number rhymes to help you remember any sort of number. Then you’ll really find that you’re developing your own quantum memory power.

  8

  The Dominic System

  Have you ever seen a memory performer on television reciting a long number? Maybe you’ve seen me on television, or maybe you’ve read about these guys who can remember telephone directories. What about the character in from Rain Man who could remember the order of sticks on the floor? He did a telephone directory and cards and numbers.

  You’re probably wondering how this is possible. As I mentioned, in 2018 I was able to remember 1,780 digits—that’s a random sequence of digits—in just about 60 minutes. How is this possible?

  Originally I designed this system to allow me to memoriz
e gigantic numbers. I used this to break records and win World Memory Championships, but somewhere along the line when I was developing this system, I began to realize that you could use it to remember a whole range of things—telephone numbers, appointments, statistics, equations, birthdays, and if you’re a student, maybe atomic weights, atomic numbers, history dates—anything involving a number.

  If you think about it, why is it so easy to remember faces and pictures, but for some reason when it comes to numbers, we’re stumped? Our brains have something like 86 billion neurons. We’re very clever people, and yet our memory span for numbers is about 6 or 7 digits.

  It seems a bit unfair, because we live in a world of numbers, and without them, life would be chaotic. Take telephone bills, gas bills, appointments, exam results, train timetables, weights, measures, bank statistics, account numbers. We live in a world of numbers. Everything has to be tallied, quantified, and reckoned. Numbers count.

  Now if I give you a number, let’s say 34286492, it doesn’t register, does it? You probably forget it immediately. But say I have some good news for you: you’ve won the lottery. You’ve won a record $34,286,492. Doesn’t that number all of a sudden have some resonance? It means something.

  We can really only understand numbers if they have some significance. Otherwise they’re unintelligible, inanimate, monotonous. They’re positively dull and forgettable, because they don’t have any character.

  Now you’re asking yourself, how can this guy memorize 1,780 digits? The reason is that I actually give numbers a character. I breathe life into them, and this is the heart of a system I have christened the Dominic system. If you’re one for acronyms, you can call it the Decipherment of Mnemonically Interpreted Numbers into Characters.

  When I see a pair of numbers, I don’t just see numbers. I see a person. For example, when I see the number 10, I see Dudley Moore. Why Dudley Moore? Because he was in the film 10. When I see the number 23, I think of Bing Crosby. Why Bing Crosby? If you take the second and third letters of the alphabet, that gives you B and C, Bing Crosby’s initials.

  Let’s give you another one. If I see the number 07, what do you think of? I think of James Bond. Another one: 72; I think of George Bush. Why George Bush? Well, the seventh letter of the alphabet is G, and the second is B: George Bush’s initials. For every pair of numbers from 00 to 99, I see a person.

  Furthermore, each character, each personality has their own unique prop and action. In Bing Crosby’s case, number 23, I have him decorating a Christmas tree, because I keep thinking of the film White Christmas. James Bond is wearing a white tuxedo, and he’s carrying a gun. I associate Dudley Moore with playing the piano, because he’s a great pianist.

  I have a code that will enable you to translate numbers into people. It’s just 10 numbers translated into letters.

  1 = A

  6 = S

  2 = B

  7 = G

  3 = C

  8 = H

  4 = D

  9 = N

  5 = E

  0 = O

  Number 1 is A. That’s the first letter of the alphabet; 2 is B; 3 is C; 4 is D; Five is E. For 6, there’s a slight change here. It’s an S, because it has a sort of a sexy sound. Now we go back to normal. Seven is G. H is 8. Nine, that’s an N. Zero looks like the letter O, so it’s an O.

  Once you have those letters in your head and you know how to translate them, you can get all sorts of combinations of initials for people. Take the number 33: that translates into CC. Now you have Charlie Chaplin. How about the number 43? That gives you DC. How about David Copperfield, the magician?

  Over the next few days or weeks, using the table below as a sample, start to associate pairs of numbers with people. This could be a whole range of people: royalty, politicians, family, friends. You could also have fictitious characters.

  It’s a deeply personal thing. For instance, the number 57 is a friend of the family called Theresa. When I was born, Theresa came along and helped my mother to raise the family. Why 57? That’s the year I was born. I always associate Theresa with 57. Let’s say for the number 49, you might have a favorite sports person from the 49ers, so this is where it starts to get fun. Apart from everything else, it’s a great exercise for the brain.

  If you can’t find a direct association between a number and a person, then use the code I gave above. You can decode the numbers into letters. For instance, 53 to me is Eric Clapton, EC, because E is the fifth letter of the alphabet and C is the third. As I mentioned, each figure should have a prop and an action, so Eric Clapton is playing the guitar.

  Why do I have every pair of numbers as a person and not an object? As I said before, I’ve developed these techniques and systems over time. I’ve thrown out the techniques that didn’t work. Originally, each pair of numbers used to be an object, so the number 35 would be a book. The number 47 was a vase, for some reason, and 19 an umbrella. But I was finding these difficult to remember when I was trying to memorize long sequences of numbers.

  Then I threw in the odd person. I found that it was far easier to remember the people than it was to remember the objects, because objects tend to be dull as well. You can shout until you’re blue in the face at a vase, and it won’t flinch. If you shout at a person, they’re liable to shout back, and they might even throw a vase at you. People are versatile, flexible. You can put them into any circumstance, any location. That’s the key. So let’s have some more examples, and remember, we need to put props and actions into this process.

  Take the number 08. That translates into Oliver Hardy, O and H. His action is swinging a plank. How about the original comedian, Charlie Chaplin, number 33? His action is bending a cane. What about the number 18, 1-8? To me, that’s Alfred Hitchcock. I always associate him with the film Psycho, so I have him taking a shower.

  PRACTICAL USES

  How can we put this to practical use? I want you now to imagine your train station. I’m going to give you a time. This is the time the train leaves on the hour, every hour. Picture your own train station. The train leaves at eight minutes past every hour. Imagine the platform with Oliver Hardy swinging his plank and maybe causing chaos, knocking all the passengers onto the railway track. OK, got that image?

  Here’s another one. Suppose there’s a friend of yours arriving at the bus station. The first thing is you have to go to the location. Remember those three key ingredients: association, location, imagination. Think of your own bus station. Your friend is arriving on the number 53 bus, which translates to Eric Clapton. So have Eric driving the bus. Maybe he’s singing, “You Look Wonderful Tonight.”

  It could be a little more complicated. Suppose the number of the bus is 532. This is where you have to get a bit inventive.

  Remember the number shapes. We can have a pair of numbers, 53, which is Eric, followed by the number shape for 2, which is a swan. So imagine Eric on the bus holding a swan. A bizarre image, but a memorable one. Now you’ll remember the number of the bus: 532.

  Or you have a client, and he’s asked you to phone him back. His extension number is 184. How are you going to remember that? The first thing you ought to do is think of the location. Think of his office.

  Now we break the number into a person and a number shape. So 18 is Alfred Hitchcock. He’s at your friend’s office, and what’s the number shape for 4? It’s a sailboat. Picture Alfred Hitchcock in a sailboat, and this is happening in your friend’s office. So, you’re connecting, you’re anchoring this image and therefore the piece of information to that specific location.

  A BIT MORE FUN

  OK, let’s make it a little bit more fun. Let’s get on to 4-digit numbers now. Let’s take the number 3135. This time we break that into pairs of numbers. So 3135 relates to Charles Atlas: 31, CA. and 35 relates to Clint Eastwood: CE. Charles Atlas’s action is weightlifting; he’s a bodybuilder. Clint Eastwood you would imagine smoking a cigar and saying, “Make my day, punk.” How do we combine them?

  If the number is 3135, you could have Charles Atlas using Clint’s action, which is smoking a cigar. You could imagine Charles with a cigar in his mouth saying, “Make my day, punk.”

  What would happen if it was the other way around? Supposing it was 3531. What would you have then? Think about it. It would be Clint Eastwood bodybuilding or weightlifting.