Quantum Memory Power Read online

  For example, if I want to remember the ABBA concert starts at 8:00 p.m., I use the number shape for 8, which is, if you remember, a snowman. I’d introduce the snowman into the picture; I’d have it standing outside the restaurant. Now I can’t forget. ABBA, that has to be the 30th, because it’s the restaurant. What time is it? Think of the snowman: it has to be 8:00 p.m.

  Again, I know that the dentist appointment is January 5, because my dentist is standing there at the 5th stage. Well, what if the appointment is at 3:00? I’d have him standing with a pair of handcuffs. Remember, the number shape for 3 is handcuffs. Perhaps he’s intending to keep me there in that chair whether I like it or not.

  So I can survey the whole month ahead by looking down on the village of Bramley; I can see all 31 stages at once. You should try this yourself. Maybe look at a favorite walk that you literally know backwards and forwards, so after a while you get to know that at the 15th stage is the garage, and the 2nd stage is the parking lot.

  As you already know, the journey preserves the order of events, and therefore the appointments that lie on them. Of course, you want to keep an ordinary appointment book, but isn’t it nice to have that element of control? You could also be out and about and bump into somebody. They might say, “Are you doing something on the 14th?” Instead of saying, “I have to check my calendar,” you consult your own powerful internal calendar—your memory.

  CONQUERING THE LIST DISEASE

  Now you know how to remember appointments. What about everyday chores and tasks that we never get around to doing? “I must cut the grass. I must do something about the woodworm in the kitchen table. I must drop in on the old lady at the end of the road. I must join the health club.” Don’t those tasks seem to add up, and you never get around to doing any of them?

  This can all become a bit stressful. You start to exaggerate the problem—“there are so many things I should be doing”—even though you can probably count them on the fingers of one hand.

  The answer, of course, is to organize your chores by writing them down, which is why we’ve become a nation of list makers. Even this practice is not without its stresses. Bits of paper can get lost. Worse still, you can become an obsessive list maker, buying truckloads of Post-it pads and plastering your walls with memoranda. In extreme cases, you draw up the mother of all lists once a morning, detailing the lists that you must write during the day.

  Let me suggest a calming and effective alternative: the mental in-tray. Again, choose a simple journey with 10 stages. It’s important that the place holds happy memories for you. Why not use somewhere from your honeymoon (providing it wasn’t a disaster) or a scene from your childhood? I use a hotel that I stayed at on a great holiday. This time, instead of getting you to form a journey, I want you to go on a journey with me at that holiday resort.

  Try to picture this with me. I’m going to give you 10 stages now. First stage: a sunny beach. Now just walk back there for a bit, and there’s a bar just edging onto that beach. Behind the bar is a restaurant, which is the third stage. If you step out through the window, that will take you onto the hotel drive.

  Going up from the drive, you come to the main reception. We’re on stage 5 at the moment. Going on from there, you’re now in the lounge, and from the lounge, you see a pool. At the back of the pool, there’s a window leading into the bedroom, and just back from the bedroom, there’s a Jacuzzi, which leads onto the balcony.

  We’re going to need to go through this again. With me, just imagine this. A sunny beach, in back of it a bar, then a restaurant. You go through the window to the hotel drive. It takes you to the reception area. Then through to the lounge. The lounge backs onto the pool; the pool backs onto the bedroom. Just to the back of that there’s a Jacuzzi, and then a balcony. Got that?

  With that very pleasant setting in mind, we can now place 10 key images for typical chores you might have. Go back to the sunny beach. This time I want you to picture your bank manager lazing in the sun. Picture your bank manager on the sunny beach. That’s to remind you that you have to make a withdrawal.

  Now go back to the bar. This time I want you to imagine that your plumber is there. That’s to remind you that there’s a leak in the bathroom, and you have to fix that.

  Next stage is the restaurant. Just picture your lawnmower on one of the tables there. What’s that to remind you? You have to cut the grass.

  Go through the window of the restaurant to the hotel drive. There you see a large, dirty ashtray. That’s to remind you that you have to stop smoking.

  What’s the next stage? It’s the reception area. Picture your aunt in tears. That’s to remind you that it’s about time you sent a letter to her.

  Now you go to the lounge. This time, picture Superman in a phone booth. That should tell you that it’s time to pay your phone bill.

  Now we go to the pool area. In the pool is a car. That’s a trigger to remind you that you have to renew your car registration.

  The pool backs onto the bedroom. In the bedroom is a shopping cart. Picture that. It’s wrapped up in the bedclothes, and that’s to remind you to do some shopping. Two more stages to go.

  In the Jacuzzi is a camera. You have to develop those photos. Finally, on the balcony, there’s your vacuum cleaner. Yes, you have to vacuum the house.

  See how many of those you can remember. It doesn’t matter if you can’t; it’s just to demonstrate the principle of this mental in-tray.

  Back to the sunny beach. Who’s there? Bank manager: make the withdrawal. At the bar, your plumber. Yes, you have to get that bathroom leak fixed. At the restaurant, what do you see? The lawnmower. You have to cut the grass. Hotel drive, that’s right: you have to stop smoking. It’s the dirty ashtray.

  Who is that in tears at reception? Letter to relative. In the lounge, you have to pay the phone bill, and that’s Superman in the phone box. In the pool is your car. You have to renew your registration. In the bedroom, wrapped up in the bedclothes, yes, it’s the shopping cart. You have to do your shopping. Jacuzzi: develop those photos; it’s the camera. Finally, what do you have to do in the house? You have to vacuum it.

  Can you see how the journey is preserved in the order of the things you have to do? Your mental in-tray. The image of a supermarket cart tucked up in bed, bizarre as it is, can mean only one thing: it’s your turn to do the shopping. The sight of your aunt in tears can only mean one thing: it’s about time you sent her a letter.

  Priority is not that important. Once you have all your worries out in the open and blended with the pleasant surroundings of your journey, you’ll have an equal awareness of each of them, which will allow you to put them into better perspective.

  A mental in-tray has many uses. I use it when I’m attending a meeting or have an important phone conversation. If there are certain key points that I want to convey, I translate those into images and place them along my in-tray journey. There’s nothing more frustrating than the sudden realization (usually on your way home) that you’ve forgotten to make your most important point at a crucial meeting.

  I use the mental in-tray last thing at night as well. If I must leave a note for the milkman, I imagine a bottle of milk at stage 1. The accountant, pictured at stage 2, reminds me I have to call him, and the gas meter at stage 3 reminds me that I have to pay my heating bill.

  Here’s one thing that you might miss by using this technique: when you have a list of things to do, isn’t it nice to strike the items off? Yes, I have the plumber sorted out. Yes, I’ve cut the grass. Yes, I have the car registered. Tick that one off.

  Every time you do a chore with your mental intray, just throw an imaginary hand grenade at it. Like your bank manager on the beach—just blow him up into oblivion. You’ve done that; you’ve withdrawn the money. Throw a hand grenade at the vacuum cleaner, because you’ve vacuumed the house. It’s a great feeling.

  AN ASSOCIATION EXERCISE

  Now we have another exercise. This is going to be a limbering exercise for your powers of association. I’m going to give you some pairs of words or objects, with some people thrown in. The idea is, as quickly as you like, to make a connection between each of the words or each of the objects. Here we go:

  Apple, rainbow

  Canoe, Bette Davis

  Dracula, fire extinguisher

  Zebra, yellow

  Train, Cleopatra

  Telephone, hot air balloon

  Desk, waterfall

  Hat, bow and arrow

  Computer, umbrella

  Scarf, streaker

  A pair of ice skates, Rambo

  Sandwich, lamppost

  Beach ball, Napoleon

  Pencil, rocket

  Microphone, penguin

  Book, trapeze

  George Bush, see-through negligee

  boxer shorts, Velcro

  Hammer, gorilla

  Cannonball, Madonna

  At this point I suspect you have some rather interesting images in your head. If you really made the connection—and it should have been fairly immediate—let’s see if you can connect one word to the other. Below I’m going to give a clue, and see if you can come up with the paired word. Jot it down next to the clue, or write this list down on a piece of paper and do the same.

  Yellow

  Sandwich

  Apple

  Umbrella

  Dracula

  Napoleon

  Canoe

  Pencil

  Hot air balloon

  Penguin

  Cleopatra

  Book

  Desk

  See-through negligee

  Bow and arrow

  Velcro

  Streaker

  Gorilla

  Rambo

  Cannonball

  Just make a
note of the ones that you can’t remember. Maybe you weren’t using enough imagination. If not, change the connection by changing the image.

  Can you see that by creating these images, it’s fairly easy to come up with associations? I’m not expecting you to get 100 percent correct, but it’s a great exercise for oiling the wheels of association.

  NUMBER EXERCISES

  Now we’re going to do some number exercises. Again, I want you to form a journey of 10 stages. I’m going to give you some numbers, and I want you to convert them into number shapes, so when you read the number 3, you think of handcuffs, and number 2, swan.

  First stage: 8. Second stage: 0. Keep moving on. Third stage: 0 again. Fourth stage: 5. Moving on: 2, 5, 9, 0, 0 again, and finally, 0 again.

  OK, rewind the mental video tape. Go through the scenes, go through the stages, and what do you have? Was it a snowman for the first one, 8? Next stage, football, 0; 0 again. Then did you have a curtain hook for 5, a swan for 2, the 5 again? A balloon and string for 9. Then you had a 0, 0, and finally 0.

  This is all about how to learn any subject. Can you remember out of all those hours you spent as a student—probably about 10,000—how many were actually spent in learning how to learn? Can you recall a single lesson devoted to memory techniques? How many hours did you spend on the art of concentration? Did you ever have a lesson on the art of observation? What about visualization or mnemonics to help you memorize things? If the answer is no, you can’t remember, neither can I.

  When I was at school struggling away, I was expected to get on as best I could. Nobody ever taught me how to learn in the first place. I wasn’t a natural, as you probably guessed from my school reports. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy school. The whole learning process for me was an uphill struggle. I now believe that every child should have to be taught how to learn.

  I have a phrase which says, “Teach the teachers how to teach the children how to learn.” There should be training for all students, at least once a month, preferably first thing on a Monday morning, on how to learn.

  I get letters and emails from people all over. Many of them say, “I got your book,” or, “I got your course. I passed my exams with flying colors.” But they also say, “Dominic, why don’t they teach this stuff at school?” It’s a good question, and it beats the hell out of me.

  I dropped out of school when I was 16 because I couldn’t hack studying any longer. I just didn’t know how to absorb the knowledge in the first place. Now I get parents sending their children to me—to me, that dyslexic kid from 1967. I’m teaching them how to learn. There’s a certain irony in all this. I never realized that learning could be such fun.

  Earlier, we touched on mnemonics. As you remember, mnemonic is any device that aids memory. “Richard of York goes battling in vain” gives you the colors of the rainbow.

  Here’s another one. “Every good boy deserves favor.” If you take the first letter of each of those words, you get E-G-B-D-F. These are the line notes in the treble clef.

  You can make up a lot of ditties to remember anything. Take physics, for example. This is my favorite: volts equals amps times resistance: V = A x R. All you have to think of is, “Virgins are rare,” and you’re not likely to forget that.

  Here’s another one, which uses rhyme. “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” Mnemonics are a favorite for medical students as well. They’re great fun if you want to convert chemical symbols, atomic weights, or historical dates into images.

  Let’s take geography, for example. I used to hate that subject. I got the lowest grade, but I wish I were back at school now.

  Let’s talk about countries and capitals. The idea is to make a link between the country and its capital. For instance, the capital of the Philippines is Manila. How would you make a connection there? I think of a friend of mine called Philip pining because he’s a man that’s ill. Philip pines, man ill. It’s a little far-fetched, but there is definitely a chain of links.

  Let’s have a look at the capital of Switzerland, which is Bern. Imagine the Swiss have come up with a new ritual. They stand at the top of the mountain and expose a bare knee as they’re yodeling. It’s a quick, immediate association. The capital of Switzerland is Bern. It’s a little bit like an old Monty Python sketch showing a guy at the top of a snow-capped mountain, baring one knee and yodeling.

  That’s another thing that you should use: humor. We tend to want to return to happy memories. If you make connections attractive in the process—in other words, you’re producing happy juice in your brain—you have more chance of returning to them later.

  The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul. Imagine that all the cars are driven by bulls. Get inventive. There’s always a link if you allow your mind to find one.

  Let’s take New Zealand. The capital of New Zealand is Wellington. If, by a little stretch of the imagination, you were to turn New Zealand upside down, it could look like the shape of a wellington boot. Sometimes that’s all you need to go on.

  The capital of Australia is Canberra, not Sydney. Again, by a little stretch of the imagination, if you look at the map of Australia, it vaguely looks like the shape of a camera.

  Here’s another one. The capital of Grenada is St. George’s. What do you think of? When I hear the name St. George’s, I think of St. George slaying a dragon, but this time he has modern weaponry: he’s using a grenade. Grenada, St. George’s.

  Let’s have a look at the American states. Again, just allow yourself to find a link. Try to make the connections fairly immediate. Use all the tools available to you. Use your senses, imagination, exaggeration, humor, sex if you like, color, movement, sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

  It doesn’t matter if you already know what the capital is. I’m going to give you one now. The capital of Mississippi is Jackson. To me, it’s a straightforward connection. I imagine seeing Michael Jackson wading through the Mississippi trying to get to the other side.

  The capital of New York is Albany. Again, I try to pick out a feature. So I imagine the Statue of Liberty with long, flowing auburn hair. It’s not exactly Albany, but it’s just enough to trigger the name. Statue of Liberty, auburn; New York, Albany.

  Another one: Kentucky; the capital is Frankfort. I think of Kentucky Fried Chicken, but they’ve run out of chicken, so they’ve opted for frankfurters.

  The capital of Utah is Salt Lake City. A connection that comes to mind straightaway: imagine being told that you had to tar the entire area of Salt Lake City. You tar: Utah, Salt Lake City.

  With some of these states and capitals, you have to get a little bit more inventive. Take South Dakota. The capital of South Dakota is Pierre. When I hear South Dakota, I think of those presidential carvings on Mount Rushmore. So picture a pier jutting out from the carvings, and put yourself there. See yourself coming out on this pier. Immerse yourself in the scene. South Dakota, Pierre.

  If you create images like that, you’re never going to forget them, and of course, you’re engaging the whole of your brain. Your right brain is involved. It’s become active in the learning process. We’ll be looking at the individual functions of the left and the right hemisphere later on.

  Let’s take another one: Montana. Helena is the capital. I don’t really know Montana. I can’t think of a place connected with it, but I know the name Helena. She used to be an old girlfriend of mine, so I imagine her playing the card game Montana Red Dog. Now I have a connection. I’ve bridged the gap.

  I once had to do a TV show in Scotland, and they issued a challenge to me. They gave me somebody from the audience. They said, “Can you teach this guy how to memorize the American states?”

  “Well,” I said, “we’ll give it go.” I fed him all 50 American states and their capitals. We were given about 25 minutes to do it. I went back on set—it was live—and they started rolling the cameras. This guy went through every single state. I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t supposed to do that in 25 minutes.

  I wonder how fast you can wade through the American states. Do you remember the old-fashioned way, where you had to keep repeating information? With this method, you can go right through all 50. OK, you might get a few wrong, but judge for yourself. How much faster is this method?