How to Develop a Perfect Memory (4 page)

The moment my boss introduces us, I simply imagine her in the canoe, teeter-ing on the edge of the falls.

Let me give you another example I was once rehearsing for a TV show

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and was told that I would be accompanied by a professional croupier named Jan Towers. Before I had even seen her, I couldn't help

thinking of the Tower of London covered in a thick coating of strawberry jam ('Jan'). As soon as we were introduced, I imagined her dealing out hands of blackjack inside the Tower of London using a very sticky deck of cards.

All you are doing when the name comes before the face is reversing the

earlier chain of associations and missing out the look-alike stage

Name Location Face

Although I was putting the cart before the horse, the woman was indelibly linked to her name, thanks to the Tower of London setting. She still is to this day.

TECHNIQUE 5: FEATURES

Sometimes there is a very obvious link between a person's physical appearance and his or her name. In such cases, there is no point in ignoring it. The 'feature link' technique, as I call it, is a favourite with 'memory men' for shows and party tricks and can work very effectively.

If, for example, you are introduced to a Mr. Whitehead and he appears to be greying above the ears, you imagine someone pouring a pot of white paint over his head. A Mrs. Baker comes up and introduces herself. You notice

immediately that she has her hair tied in a bun, so you make the obvious connection.

These are obvious examples, I know, but as far as I am concerned, this is the only time when the technique should be used. There has to be a glaring connection between name and appearance.

What you are effectively doing is using the subject's face as a location in which to place their name. But the features can start to overlap after a while, and the technique requires obvious names. Besides, why limit yourself to such a small map as the face, when you can let your imagination remind you of a whole village, a country, or even another part of the galaxy.

During a recent show, somebody called Paul Mitchell asked me how I

remembered his name. I told him I could imagine a friend of mine called Paul trying delicately to pick up a fragile shell (-chell') wearing a thick glove ('Mit-') on board the USS
Starship Enterprise.
‘Why
Star Trek?'
he asked I told him it was because he reminded me of Mr. Spock. (I was using technique 1, first impressions Look-alike Spock, location
Starship Enterprise,
name Mitchell, first name my friend Paul.)

The look on his face taught me that you should never fully disclose the

details of your mental associations. As it happened, Paul Mitchell reminded me of Mr. Spock's manner, rather than his aural attributes. Sadly, no amount of convincing was sufficient, and I fear the poor chap ran off to the nearest mirror.

Whichever technique you use, the secret of my method is in that first, split-second reaction to seeing a face. Your brain makes an instinctive association that must be cherished. Grab hold of it - develop it - and let your imagination do the rest.

One last point: take control of the situation when you are being introduced to people. This might sound obvious, but if you arrive at a party and the hostess reels off the names of ten people all at once, stop her. 'Hang on, one at a time, please. And your name was?' Hear the name correctly and get the person to repeat it if necessary. Say it back to the person as well. It might sound a little awkward, but it is not half as bad as forgetting someone's name two minutes later.

HOW TO REMEMBER LISTS OF NAMES

Occasionally, as part of my show, I am asked to memorize a list of people's names. I am not allowed to see the people; all I am given is a seat number in the audience. Surprisingly, this is almost easier than actually seeing their faces.

In Chapter 2, I explained how to use a mental journey to memorize a simple shopping list. When I have to remember a list of people, I simply visualize a person at each stage of a journey, as opposed to an item of shopping.

It is quite an impressive trick to pull off at a party, particularly if you know in which seat everyone will be sitting. You simply number the positions

logically, and relate them to stages along your journey.

Let's assume you want to remember a list of ten names in order, the first three of which are Michael Woodrow, Gayle Wheeler and Marcus Spiertanski.

Michael Woodrow: Using the journey around your house (see Chapter 2),

you imagine waking up to discover your bedroom is flooded and all your possessions are floating around. Your friend Michael is sitting in an old WOODen tea-chest, Rowing gently out of the door.

Gayle Wheeler: A terrific GALE blows open your bathroom window. The

wind is so strong that one of the WHEELS from your car flies through the window, narrowly missing you, and bounces into the bath with a splash.

Marcus Spiertanski: A pop star called Mark is standing in your spare room, waving a United States (US) flag. Suddenly a SPEAR flies through the air and knocks him to the ground. A huge, TANNED SKIER steps forward and puts his foot victoriously on the slain pop star's chest.

You must use your own imagination in any way you can. Let it take you off in all directions, but remember to preserve the order of syllables in longer names. No name is insurmountable, providing you break it up into its constituent parts.

Once you have done all ten people on your list, simply move around the

house, reviewing the journey, recalling the scenes and, hopefully, remembering the names.

4

HOW TO

REMEMBER

NUMBERS

The problem with numbers is that they are cold and unfeeling. Group a list of letters together and you have a word that represents something - an image, an emotion, a person. Throw a few numbers together and you have, well, you

have another number.

So many people find numbers awkward, slippery customers. And yet numbers play such an important part in our lives. Numbers are everywhere. Haven't we all wished, at some time or another, that we could remember numbers

without writing them down...

Imagine you meet a woman (or man) at a party; she gives you her address -

street, floor, and flat number - but you don't have a pen to hand. She goes on to tell you her phone number and fixes a time and day to meet again. The next morning you wake up and can't remember one iota of what she told you. (You can, of course, remember her name, having read Chapter 3.)

You wander downstairs, bleary-eyed and depressed, and open your post.

The bank has sent a new Personal Identification Number for your cashpoint card. You think twice about writing it down, remembering what happened last time. On your way to work, you are concentrating so hard on remembering the number, you step out into the street without looking and a car knocks you down. Crawling around on your hands and knees, you find your glasses, glare at the car disappearing into the distance and try to remember its number plate.

A medic asks for your National Health and National Insurance numbers on

the way to hospital; a policeman investigating your accident gets hold of the wrong end of the stick and demands your driving licence. Finally, when the hospital authorities conclude that you can only be treated privately, someone asks for your bank account details or, failing that, your credit card number.

Okay, so we don't all live our lives like Mr Bean. And these days, most of us carry around pens, filofaxes, even personal organizers. But there will always be occasions when we are caught out and need to memorize numbers. In the following chapters, I will explain how to remember numbers (up to ten digits) and, in particular, telephone numbers.

THE LANGUAGE OF NUMBERS

How can we be expected to remember six million, three hundred and eighty-seven thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four when we can't touch it, throw stones at it, smell it, pick it up, poke fun at it, marvel at its eating habits? It is inscrutable, inanimate, forgettable. To remember a number you have to breathe life into it, make it come alive by giving it a character, literally.

When I look at a number today, I see a person. If it's a long number, I see an entire scenario unfolding. Each number has been translated into a new language that I can understand and remember.

This new language is at the heart of what I have christened the DOMINIC

SYSTEM. (If you like acronyms, I have managed to work one out for

D.O.M.I.N.I.C.: Decipherment Of Mnemonically Interpreted Numbers Into

Characters!) I originally designed it for competitions. Used properly, it eats numbers for breakfast. I can memorize 100 digits in a 100 seconds. Telephone numbers are small fry by comparison. (I explain how to crunch 100-digit mon-sters in Chapter 22.)

The DOMINIC SYSTEM works by stripping numbers down into pairs of

digits, each pair representing a person. The formidable 81,269,471, for

example, becomes 81-26-94-71, which in turn relates to four people. But

before we get on to big numbers, I would like to show you a simple way to remember single digits.

HOW TO REMEMBER A SINGLE DIGIT BY USING NUMBER

SHAPES

The number-shape system provides a useful introduction to the whole concept of translating tedious numbers into memorable objects. It works by associating the physical shape of a number with its nearest, everyday look-alike object.

Simple association, in other words. A 4, for instance, might remind you of the profile of a sailing boat. A 2 might suggest a swan. I have listed some suggestions below, but you must settle on what is best for you. Don't worry if it is not in my list at all.

0 = FOOTBALL, wheel, ring, sun, severed head, hat

1 = TELEGRAPH POLE, pencil, baseball bat, arrow, phallic symbol

2 = SWAN , snake

3 = HANDCUFFS, Dolly Parton, workman's backside (aerial views)

4 = SAILING BOAT, flag, ironing board

5 = CURTAIN HOOK, seated lawn mower

6 = ELEPHANT’S TRUNK, croquet mallet, metal detector, golf club

7 = BOOMERANG high diving platform, cliff edge, curbston

8 = EGG TIMER, Marilyn Monroe, transparent potato crisp

9 = BALLOON AND STRING, basketball net, monocle

I repeat, these are only suggestions. First impressions are, as ever, all important. You should choose the first image that enters your head when you see the shape of a number. Most people, when they look at a '1', think of something long, such as a stick, but if all you keep imagining is the profile of a garden fence or a guard standing to attention, so be it. Choose whatever turns you on.

Be careful not to let symbols overlap with each other, though, and make sure that each one is unique. If 6 represents a golf club, don't pick a baseball bat as 1.

Once you have familiarized yourself with the ten key images, you can start using them as props to store and recall simple pieces of information, including position, quantity, and lists.

REMEMBERING POSITIONS

Let's assume you wanted to remember that a friend of yours, or maybe one of your children, came second in a swimming competition. Try to imagine him or her being presented with a swan on the medal rostrum. Or perhaps the reason they came third is because they were wearing handcuffs throughout the race.

Similarly, whenever you visit your aunt, you can never remember which flat it is. To remember that it is number 7, imagine that she has taken to hurling boomerangs around her lounge. (She's getting a little eccentric in her old age.)
REMEMBERING QUANTITY

Your boss has asked you to go out and buy eight cases of wine for the office party. On the way, you visualize him sitting at his desk timing you with an egg-timer - typical of the man. Or perhaps your local wine merchant has

miraculously turned into Marilyn Monroe. Make a mental note of how out of place she looks, particularly in a sequin dress.

REMEMBERING LISTS

In Chapter 2, I showed you how to remember a list by using a journey. That system is the basis for my whole approach to memory. There is, however,

another simple way of remembering a short list of things in order by using number shapes. Applying your ten shapes, link the following people, in

sequence, to the corresponding numbers.

1. Boris Yeltsin

6. Dali Lama

2. John Major

7. Charlie Chaplin

3. Elvis Presley

8. Steven Spielberg

4. Mother Teresa

9. Gary Lineker

10th position)

If a telegraph pole is your symbol for 1, imagine Yeltsin shinning up it to mend the wires. (Telecommunications aren't all they could be in the former Soviet Union.) Picture John Major feeding swans instead of talking to the press. Elvis Presley is singing a duet with Dolly Parton, and so on, until you get to Prince Charles being beheaded. (You have to be prepared for some gruesome scenes when you are improving your memory. If it helps, there is a precedent; Charles I was executed in 1649.)

Personally, I prefer to use the journey method (I find it more structured), but this is a good way of exercising your imagination and you might find it easier.

A word of warning, though: when you get beyond ten items on the list, it becomes a little complicated without a journey.

The number shape method plays a small but important part in the

DOMINIC SYSTEM. When I am breaking down a long number into pairs of

digits, I am often left with a single digit at the end. For example, 37485915274

becomes 37 - 48 - 59 - 15 - 27 - 4. I know the last digit represents a sailing boat. In the next chapter, I will show you what the pairs of digits represent, and how to combine them all in one image.

INTRODUCING THE DOMINIC SYSTEM

My fear of revealing this system to you is that you might be the one person who uses it to break my world records. If you do, I hope that you will pay me the courtesy of acknowledging as much at the award ceremony!