Quantum Memory Power Read online

  Let’s test you. What’s the capital of Mississippi? Got the image? Michael Jackson. What’s the capital of New York? Think of the Statue of Liberty. Albany. The capital of Kentucky? Frankfort.

  Now what happened to South Dakota with the monument? It’s a pier; that’s it. Montana, Helena. Still have those countries? What’s the capital of Switzerland? Bern. Afghanistan? Kabul.

  All the time you’re doing this, you’re oiling the memory machine. You’re exercising creativity. You’re allowing your imagination to do what it’s best at doing: being highly inventive. You’re freeing up the mechanism by which memory works—association—and it’s starting to get faster.

  Not only are you exercising your memory so that it becomes more efficient in many ways, you’re also becoming smarter, because you’re gaining knowledge. Associations are starting to become automatic. Sometimes it’s so fast that you don’t even know how you’ve come up with one.

  For example, this happened to me with Maine and Augusta. I suddenly thought of a lion. Maine made me think of a lion’s mane. August: I thought of Leo, because in August the sun in in the zodiac sign of Leo. Now I have the connection. Bingo: Leo the Lion.

  AN EXERCISE WITH THE AMERICAN STATES

  Now that we have the wheels of association working in your mind, let’s give you another exercise. I’m going to feed you 10 American states and their capitals. As fast as you like, come up with an association. It doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you make a link. Let’s make a start:

  Alabama, Montgomery

  Alaska, Juneau

  Delaware, Dover

  Idaho, Boise

  Kansas, Topeka

  Louisiana, Baton Rouge

  Michigan, Lansing

  South Carolina, Columbia

  Texas, Austin

  West Virginia, Charleston

  OK, let’s see how you did. I’m going to give you the capitals this time, and you give me the state. You can jot down the answers below, or write the capitals down on a piece of paper and add in the states.

  Montgomery

  Juneau

  Dover

  Boise

  Topeka

  Baton Rouge

  Lansing

  Columbia

  Austin

  Charleston

  Did that work for you? You can find more examples. If you’re feeling really keen, look up the state capitals on the Internet, write them down, and go through all 50 states.

  MEMORIZING THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS

  I once had to do a phone-in on television for students for studying exams. I was giving them tips. It was live on a television program in Liverpool, and the TV company faxed me the periodic table of all the elements from hydrogen right up to ununoctium, element number 110. They sent me the facts rather late. I got in a taxi and got on the plane at Heathrow; by the time I arrived in Liverpool, I’d gotten that information in my head. They also wanted me to memorize the atomic weights, like hydrogen, whose weight is 1.00797.

  I prepared a journey with 110 stages, and I just imagined seeing each element as a key image. If, for instance, I was asked what the element number 36 was, I’d say it was krypton, and the weight was 83.80, or bismuth is element number 83; I could say that’s Bi, the symbol, and it’s 208.98.

  This may sound impressive, but I have a trained memory. I’m equipped to do this, and you can be too. Again, speed comes with practice. Always use the three ingredients: association, location, imagination.

  Let’s simplify chemistry a bit. Let’s take the symbol for tin, which is Sn. How would you find a connection between tin and Sn? I think of the French cartoon character Tintin, who had a dog named Snowy. If you allow it to, your mind can find a connection.

  The symbol for lead is Pb. I think of a lead-weighted plumb line. Actually, the Latin for lead is plumbum. For gold, the symbol is Au. I think that gold has a certain aura about it.

  How about mercury? That symbol is Hg. Again, if you look for a connection, you’ll find it. When I see Hg, I think of author H. G. Wells. How would you connect that with mercury? Just imagine a well being contaminated with mercury. Hg, mercury.

  TACKLING DEFINITIONS

  How can you tackle definitions? Let’s take alcohol—my favorite. Alcohol is a series of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. If you think of those letters, C, H, and O, and then think of alcohol as causing hangovers, CHO, you’ll always remember this definition.

  Here’s another. An allotrope is an element that can exist in different forms, like carbon. Carbon can be tough, like diamond, or it can be soft, like graphite, so it has many allotropic forms. Think of different forms of shapes out of a rope, a lot of a rope tricks—allotropic.

  Get your children on to this now. They’ll mop up the periodic table, and just imagine how useful that would be for learning chemistry. Every time you hear the name of an element, you’re already familiar with it, and you know its atomic number. Once you train your memory, you could learn it in a day.

  Just to demonstrate the principle of learning these elements, I want you to form another journey, let’s say around your old chemistry lab, if you can remember that, or maybe the grounds of your school. I’m going to feed you first 10 elements in order, but first we’re going to need some associations.

  When I say the word hydrogen, just think of an explosion, a hydrogen bomb. For helium, think of a helium balloon, lighter than air. Lithium, what’s the nearest thing you have to that? How about a lighter? For beryllium, which is the 4th element, think of somebody you know called Beryl.

  Boron: think of boring a hole. For carbon, which is the 6th item, think of a pencil. Nitrogen: I think of someday rowing in the night (night row), so think of a canoe. Oxygen: think of an oxygen mask. Fluorine, imagine some flour, and finally, for neon, the 10th element, think of a bright neon light.

  Now you have ready-made associations, so you need to put them in a location. Set down this book and work out a mental journey around your school. When you’re ready, start reading again.

  Are you ready with those 10 stages now? Immerse yourself in the first stage, and when you read the element, visualize its association. Here we go:

  Hydrogen

  Carbon

  Helium

  Nitrogen

  Lithium

  Oxygen

  Beryllium

  Fluorine

  Boron

  Neon

  Now go back to the first stage. Just let the images wash over you. You’re at the first stage of the journey. What do you see? You should be seeing an explosion: hydrogen. Next stage, something floating: a balloon, helium. Next stage, lithium. Keep going now: beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, and that neon light—neon.

  Again, if you’d made a little marker along your journey so that you know where the 5th stage is, which is where the boron is, I could say to you, “Give me the 4th element, atomic number 4.” From your internal geography, you’d say, “Beryllium.” You just have to go back one stage from boron.

  If I say, “Give me the 7th element,” you go 2 forward from boron, which gives you nitrogen. If you really wanted to be smart, you’d go backwards. You’d go neon, fluorine, oxygen, and so on.

  Really, this is the key to learning to learn. Always look for associations, and make connections the whole time in whatever you’re learning. After a while, it’s going to become automatic. Practice. You can go through all 50 states. When it comes to chemistry, don’t look at them as boring old elements. Bring them to life. Animate them. Think of hydrogen as a hydrogen bomb, but above all, enjoy learning.

  11

  Some Words on Words

  Now we’re going to talk about words and their meanings, and then we’re going to take an interplanetary journey. I’m going to say a word or two on a word or two. This is going to be really rich, coming from a self-confessed dyslexic, but I’m going to tell you how to learn how to spell correctly.

  Actually, I believe I’m an ex-dyslexic, but I still have to be careful about certain words and their meanings. like the difference between annual and perennial or lightning and lightening. It’s probably because I found spelling and certain meanings difficult when I was in school. I’ve had to work hard to overcome this difficulty.

  So there you are, lying in bed, doing a crossword, and all of a sudden you come across a word you’re not sure of. You look up the meaning, but you’ve forgotten it the following morning.

  Do you remember when we were memorizing names and faces? The trick was to forge a link, albeit an artificial one, between the person’s face and name.

  The same principle applies with words and their meanings. Take the word garrulous, which means talkative. As far as I can see, there is no obvious link between these words; they certainly don’t sound similar. The only thing they have in common is that each has three syllables, so you need to call upon your inexhaustible supply of creative imagination.

  Let’s think of a link. How about Gary talks a lot? Not only does it sound like garrulous, but we’ve rather sneakily put in the meaning of the word as well. Garrulous, Gary talks a lot, talkative. In effect, Gary talks a lot is acting as a bridge between the word we want to understand and its meaning.

  How would you construct a mental bridge between cacophony and its meaning, which is a harsh sound? Cacophony: harsh sound. Think of the cackling of hens. That makes a pretty harsh sound. Cacophony, cackle of hens, cacophony.

  Here’s another sound meaning. Vociferous means loud or noisy. So just think of a voice ferocious: vociferous.

  Here’s another. Largesse means bestowal of gifts. I think of the words large and the dollar sign. So you have large dollar sign: $, ess. Imagine bestowing someone with a gift of a large number of dollars.

  Here
’s another: impasse. Impasse is a position from which progress is impossible. We’ve all had situations like that. Think of impossible to pass: impasse.

  Here are a few more examples for you. Exigent means urgent, demanding action. I think of an announcement: exit, gents, urgent.

  Eclectic: selecting from a variety of sources. He collects it all: eclectic.

  How about parity? That means equality in status. Think of level—par, parity.

  How about factitious? That means contrived, produced artificially. So think of fact, fictitious.

  SPELLING

  What about spelling? I say potato, you say potahto, but how do you spell it? Is it with or without an E?

  With any word you’re not sure of, you have to get inventive. Create a reminder. Think of “Not one single potato has an E in it, but two do.” In other words, the only time you stick an E in is with plurals.

  Here are some common words people have trouble spelling.

  Separate. When you think of it, you may ask, is it spelled separate or separate?

  Here’s another for you: anoint. Does that have 2 Ns or 3? It has one N to begin with, so it’s anoint.

  Another one: receive. I before E except after C.

  Another one: cemetery. There’s no A in the word cemetery, if that was what you were wondering.

  Embarrassed has 2 Rs and 2 Ss.

  Here’s another one: pursue.

  Accommodate: that has 2 Cs and 2 Ms.

  Accidentally. It’s not accidently, though people sometimes pronounce it that way. It’s accident-ally with -ally at the end.

  Desperate—not desparate.

  Finally, definitely. If you think there’s an A in it, you’re wrong.

  As before, you need to be a little bit inventive. So let’s take those words.

  Separate. It’s para in the middle, so imagine somebody in a parachute descending upon the word separate. The parachutist is separating the word: para.

  What about anoint? Just think of an ointment, and then you can’t get the spelling wrong.

  Receive: I before E except after C.

  What about cemetery? There’s no A in it. It’s all Es. If you look at the word cemetery, there’s a sort of symmetry about it. The symmetry of cemetery.

  How can you remember that there are 2 Rs and 2 Ss in embarrassed? You’re embarrassed, so you’re rose red and feeling an ass. Rose red—two Rs—and ass has 2 Ss in it. So 2 Rs, 2 Ss.

  Here’s another one. Pursue: how can you remember that it’s not persue? Imagine being pursued by a thief who’s after your purse.

  Accommodate. Think of accommodation. Think of taking your company car, CC, to the Motorway Motel, MM.

  Accidentally: think of having an accident in an alley. Accident, alley.

  How will you get desperate? Think of desperado.

  Finally, what about definitely? Think of this. Night follows day as day follows night; in other words, as D-E follows N-I-T-E.

  As you’re doing this, not only are you picking up valuable learning skills, but you’re also exercising and developing the whole of your brain. You may notice already that you’re slightly quicker at brainstorming, and ideas are coming to the fore faster. Your memory craves imagination and making associations.

  So help your vocabulary by linking a word with its meaning, and look for patterns or clues to help act as reminders for spelling. Are there 2 Ts in battalion or one? Think of doing battle, B-A-T-T, and battalion, preparing to do battle, and that should give you the answer.

  LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

  You could use this same technique for learning a foreign language. Think how much easier, faster, and more fun it would be to munch your way through 50, 100, 1,000 words of Spanish, French, or German. I teach this method to students, and they tell me, “How did I ever manage before?”—endlessly slugging away as they did with repetition after repetition, and still a lot of the words didn’t sink in.

  Yes, sure, using this method, you’ll still have to review or revise. Remember the Ebbinghaus rule of 5? Review something 5 times and you have it for life, but this method takes away the monotony of endless repetition, because although the words and meaning will become automatic after a while, the use of images is so powerful that you’ll triple or quadruple the rate at which you absorb foreign words and their meanings.

  For example, the Spanish for cow is vaca. Imagine a crazy scene of a cow vacuuming a field.

  How would you remember that the German for rain is regen? Simple. Find a link between the foreign word and its meaning, no matter how bizarre. I picture a shower of Ronald Reagans falling from the sky. It’s the sort of thing you might expect from a surrealist painting, a René Magritte or a Salvador Dali.

  The French for pink is rose. Picture a bright, pink rose. The clue is always in the word. You only have to allow your imagination to find one.

  A FRENCH TEST

  Let’s do a fun exercise to help you with vocabulary in French. I’m going to give you an English word, and then I’m going to give you the French equivalent, and you’re going to try and find a link. We’ll do the first one together.

  The French word for door is porte. I think of a bottle of port hanging from a door.

  I’m going to give you the words now:

  Door, porte

  Tablecloth, nappe

  Sea, mer

  Blanket, couverture

  Mouth, bouche

  Menu, carte

  Grass, herbe

  Jacket, veste

  Clock, pendule

  Hen, poule

  How were those quick-fire associations? Again, let me give you the French word, and see if you can give me the English equivalent.

  Porte

  Nappe

  Mer

  Couverture

  Bouche

  Carte

  Herbe

  Veste

  Pendule

  Poule

  What sort of associations did you come up with? With sea and mer, I think of a mayor of a town swimming in a sea. With mouth and bouche, you can think of a bushy mustache covering someone’s mouth. What about a herbal sort of grass for herbe? With clock and pendule, you think of a pendulum. Tablecloth: napkin for nappe. These words bridge the gap between the English word and its foreign equivalent.

  Couverture for blanket: you think of cover. Carte: maybe a playing card on the menu. Jacket, veste, that’s a ready-made connection. Hen is poule. Maybe you think of a hen playing a game of pool or swimming in a pool.

  A friend of mine was exasperated with his son because he couldn’t learn French, so he asked me to give him some private lessons. The son was really bad at it. He couldn’t even tell the difference between the masculine and feminine genders, and he’d been studying the language for two years.

  This was his first clue to learning French: I said, “Listen, Dave. The next time you have trouble with le and la, just think of two people, Len and Laura. So, now, Dave, is Len masculine or feminine?”

  “Masculine.”

  “Great. So is le masculine or feminine?”

  “It’s masculine, of course.” You could see a little light switch on in Dave’s head. He said, “Ah, so that’s a good way of learning French.”

  By the way, Dave passed his French exam, which totally baffled his French teacher. He didn’t get top grades—I got him at the eleventh hour—but he wasn’t even expected to take the exam.

  Try it for yourself. It’s fast, it’s a quantum leap in learning languages.

  AN INTERPLANETARY TRIP

  How about that interplanetary trip that I mentioned? Can you name the order of the planets in our solar system? There are nine, including earth: 4 large and 4 small.

  I’m going to give you a story, and I want you to visualize the scenes. Let them wash over you as I go through the story. At the end of it, you should be able to name the planets and tell me if Saturn is large or small.

  We’ll have the moon as a backdrop for these images. Imagine that you’re on a spaceship, and you’re slowly descending to the surface of the moon. As you’re getting closer, the surface is very hot, so the temperature is rising. You have a little thermometer. What do you have in a thermometer? Mercury. It’s a small thermometer, so now you can remember that the first planet from the sun is Mercury.