The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

Optimized-Dollarphotoclub_94745935In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Timothy Moser of Master of Memory, Accelerated Spanish and Ace Productivity joins us for the second time. If you haven’t heard that first interview, check it out. Timothy’s ideas will make you more productive, especially when it comes to using memory skills.

In this episode, we open the discussion further by talking more specifically about mnemonics and language learning. From there, we move into speculative areas about virtual Memory Palaces and the realities of teaching mnemonics to others. You’ll also learn about:

* Timothy’s emphasis on stressing syllables in order to gain recall boosts when studying foreign languages … and even your own mother tongue.

* Alphabetized Memory Palaces and journeys, including thoughts on how to mix these with Timothy’s Memory Palaces for memorizing parts of speech.

* Why you need to sit down and plot your Memory Palaces in order for them to fully effective.

* The importance of relaxation in using mnemonics.

* The relationship between Mad Libs and language learning. This is an excellent metaphor and way to think about your approach to acquiring new vocabulary using memory skills.

* Why mnemonics are almost always fun (and the main reason they sometimes aren’t).

* The specific way Timothy uses location-based memory strategies from a “functional standpoint”

* Timothy’s patterned Recall Rehearsal and how he reduces revision over time. He’s all about getting the most out of the minimum and he tells you exactly why so you can model the approach.

* How to arrange words for the concept of time in Spanish using a single, theme-based Memory Palace.

* How talking about mnemonics with other people will improve your understanding and use of the techniques.

* The dangers and benefits involved in sharing associative-imagery with others. I’ve written about why mnemonic examples rarely work before, but Timothy has a fresh take on this.

* Why professional mnemonists are opposed to giving examples – and why they are both right and wrong about their resistance in this area.

* Ideas about music mnemonics and different approaches to using them. This is an area where people interested in mnemonics can definitely experiment more and stretch the limits.

* The truth about “virtual” Memory Palaces and how to experiment with them in an informed way. There may not be a right or wrong way when it comes to success with imaginary places to store information in your mind, but certainly some ways are more realistic than others.

* Why real locations are almost always better than invented Memory Palaces and why you should never discount the power of the places you know.

* Why none of us will ever run out of Memory Palaces in our lifetimes and how to overcome Memory Palace “scarcity” (it’s easy).

* The relationship between sex, death, memory skills and video games.

* The right and the wrong way to use rote repetition and the truth about spaced-repetition.

* Why you need to be open to new ideas if you want to succeed with mnemonics.

* Why those who learn about learning leverage the greatest results.

* Why you shouldn’t treat your education as entertainment and why you need to take action in order to get results (we tell you what you should do and it’s probably the only way).

* Own struggles and current projects with memorizing large amounts of information.

* … and much, much more.

This episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast gives you a fascinating look behind the scenes as two thinkers and action-takers in the world of memory skills show you exactly what it takes to get started, keep going and get amazing results. You’ll hear from people actually in the trenches of memory who not only get great results for themselves, but for thousands of other people too.

Further Resources

Timothy has a number of memory courses you can study for free. These include lessons on memorizing a book of the Bible and using mnemonics to help you learn Spanish.

I have several posts on memorizing music. This one was mentioned during the podcast. It’s called Memorize Bach On Bass.

How to Enhance Your Memory With Virtual Memory Palaces.

Super-scientific PDF article called Building a memory palace in minutes: Equivalent memory performance using virtual versus conventional environments with the Method of Loci.

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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, we talk about recalling things from your deep past in order to write autobiography and fiction (and throw Jung, Lacan and Freud into the mix for good measure).

Program Notes

This Magnetic Memory Method Podcast episode was inspired by the following question I received from a participant in my video course How to Learn and Memorize Poetry. Denver writes:

While listening to the interview in Lecture 23, I wondered whether the Magnetic Memory Method is likely to aid in recall of past old memories. What thoughts anybody? One of the excuses I use for not getting round to writing the books in my head, is lack of confidence in recalling past details. I’m always staggered as to how writers do this. I know that note-taking is probably one of the keys, but “wow!”, if you could just remember things, how great that would be!

This is the original answer I wrote in response that forms the basis of the podcast, most of which is ad lib and goes into some rich areas about using wax tablets in your Memory Palaces, Nietzsche, sailboats and more.

This is an interesting question, Denver.

I could only offer anecdotal evidence, which is that, yes, practicing memory techniques can improve your overall recall.

A caveat, however. The accuracy of that recall may not be adequate even if your Memory Palace work and work with other memory techniques and mnemonics is involved. Thus, I would exercise caution if and when claiming this material is the truth. I suspect that most writers and audiences realize this anyway, but it’s an important point to keep in mind.

Something related that comes to mind just for fun:

Carl Jung used the word “cryptomnesia” to describe writing things and not realizing that you’re “copying” something you’ve read before. He accused Nietzsche of being a plagiarist, for example, but a plagiarist suffering from this condition (through somehow I don’t think Jung’s diagnosis means that Jung forgave him).

English: Hand-colored photograph of Carl Jung ...

The problem with this accusation is that it would lead people to believe that the creators of The Matrix had read the 7th book of Plato’s Republic (the “Allegory of the Cave”).

This is quite likely, but it’s not necessary that they did. What matters is that there is a core, universal story that has reverberated throughout history. What is being “remembered” or recreated is the echo of the narrative undertow and its deep structures. You don’t need to have come across something before in order to “fall prey” to reconstructing it.

This doesn’t, by the way, relate to the idea that a thousands monkeys with typewriters would eventually come up with all of Shakespeare. As far as I know, they don’t perceive culture, so that randomness could never attain to such meaning. Not only that, but what counts as “Shakespeare” has always been and will always be in question as new scholarship discovers new things and we continue to contend with the fragments of writing that were left behind and mostly unsigned by whoever wrote them.

Back to writing the “truth” of one’s past, another psychologist, Jacques Lacan, said that “there are too many words” to accurately reflect the truth of a situation after the fact.

Try it out some time.

I’m about to go to the grocery store and I can guarantee you in advance that so many things are going to happen, so many shapes and colors are going to be seen and so many people encountered, all of which will contain conscious and subconscious thoughts …

There will be too many words available in English and every other language to ever describe it except by eliminating, or rather focusing possibility towards the construction of a possible rendition of what happened.

Put another way, there aren’t words enough. You could fill twelve telephone books trying to describe what will take place on that simple journey and never make an accurate description. You’d have to be me taking that short trip, and even I won’t absorb even a tenth of it.

Français : Plaque apposée au n° 5 de la rue de...

Thus, I would suggest that it’s not what one can remember that is important when writing about the past. It’s the impressions that you shape from what you do remember that count. And the words you use to choose them will always come from a pool of too much to create too little based on the pounding of stimuli from what Freud called the “oceanic.”

There you have it. Three psychoanalysts in one answer. How’s that for fearful symmetry? 🙂

Further Resources and Nifty Things That Only An Internet Can Provide: Freud on the Oceanic in Civilization and its Discontents (probably better translated as “its discomfort”)

Wiki on Cryptomnesia

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Previous MMMPodcast Episode: Tap the Mind of a 10 Year-Old Memory Palace Master

Cool song that mentions Freud’s “Oceanic”:

About the author: Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

 

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In this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, learn how to make sure that your associative-imagery is doing the work it needs to do: recall the information that you need to succeed when using a Memory Palace strategy (I recommend the Magnetic Memory Method).

Program Notes

This episode is a response to emails that I often receive like this one:

I am new to memorization as detailed as you propose and am trying to justify learning it.  I have bought and read two of your books, the one about Memory Palaces and am currently reading Magnetic Memory Mondays. I am 76 years old and have set a goal to reteach myself Classical Latin and from their progress to other Roman languages. I want to use your Memory Palace idea but am not a very visual person and thinking of a preposterous image for each vocabulary word seems over-whelming. I like the idea of using current and past homes or places but want the right one to begin with. Any suggestions? Can you send me a list of your other books on this topic?

Listen, it was hard for me in the beginning too.

If you look through all of the newsletters starting with Volume 1, you’ll encounter dozens of ideas in addition to those in the book. It basically boils down to getting relaxed and getting started. Surrendering to the feeling of overwhelm is very dangerous, but taking action is always a benefit.

Also, you can experiment with not actually seeing the images but just thinking about them. I’ve done this for years until I started to develop my imagination by drawing, looking at lots of art, paying attention to the visual aspects of movies I was watching and doing creative memory exercises like looking at an apple and then trying to “rebuild” it in my mind.

One of my most difficult challenges right now as a primarily non-visual person is the Hiragana for Japanese. If you’re not familiar with the Hiragana  , they are these crazy little images that indicate sounds.

As I teach in the book, to ease the “cognitive load,” I use “bridging figures,” characters that go along the journey. Because they can be used for more than one word or letter or piece of information at a time, that’s one less aspect of the crazy image that I’ve got to come up with (or that you’ve got to come up with).

Here’s just three images with Ezra Pound as my bridging figure that I’ve created to help me both “see” and “hear” what these symbols mean:

あ (a) Ezra Pound standing in Jesus Christ pose with a Christian fish symbol attacking his legs. He shouts Ah!

い (i) Pound with two eels in his mouth, squirming, one long like an upside down seven, one short. They are squealing eee eee eee.

う (u) Pound leaning on a stick with a beret cooing ooh as the weight is relieved by the stick.

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This process works great and by “leaning” on Ezra Pound throughout the journey, I was able to do fifteen in fifteen minutes. I’ll soon be making more time from Japanese and expect that I can do between 40-60 characters in 1.5 hours with reliable recall. As I talk about in the book, there will need to be corrections and there will be the need to rehearse the material.

But hey: it beats fussing around with index cards when you can turn the stations of your Memory Palace into amazing and vibrant indexes for silly little images to remind you of the sound and meaning of words, or in the case of the example I just gave you, the sound of certain typographical images and how they look.

I really wish you the best with the experience and want you to know that I’m here to help as best I can, affording that I get lots of questions so can take up to a week to answer. But that’s why the Magnetic Memory Newsletters are available from Kindle. I’m 100% confident that after writing 1000+ pages answering questions just like these that you’ll find all the answers you need. My Amazon page is easy to find.

I’ve also got some video courses if you like to learn by that medium.

But really I think in this email you have all that you need, which in sum is:

1) Mindset. Toss worry aside and get started. Fear is the mindkiller.

2) Create a bridging figure when ever possible to reduce the cognitive load. If it’s someone that you care about, all thDerek Jacobi In A Togae better. I’m deeply fascinated by Ezra Pound and he also had a connection to Chinese and Japanese, so he works really well in this connection. In Latin, you could use Derek Jacobi or some actor you like who you’ve seen prancing around in a toga to keep things interesting. (Or an actor you’ve never seen in a toga, for that matter, to keep things extra memorable). The point is that it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with zany images if you take familiar things and put them in unfamiliar situations.

3) Make sure to rehearse the work that you do in order to ease the material into long term memory .

4) Enjoy!

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions or if there is anything more I can do for you.

About the author: Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

 

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Richard GilzeanDear Memorizers,

Richard Gilzean, long time friend of the Magnetic Memory Method and the man behind the delightful blog peeleye, recently shared with me some great writing he has done to chronicle his adventures in using memory techniques and related skills like juggling.

How are memory techniques and juggling related?

Read on to find out.

And a Magnetic thanks to Richard for not only sending this to me and allowing me to post it on the site. I’m proud to make it the first Magnetic Memory Method Guest Post ever and know that you’re going to love reading these reports from a memorizer making great strides with the techniques. Richard is an inspiration to us all.

Hanging Out With My Magnetic Memory

By Richard Gilzean

28 July 2014: Where to start with this recollection on what I have learnt about myself over the past 12 months? The idea came to me this morning on the train as I was commuting in to work. While passing over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and looking out over the harbour, I was listening to the podcast interview between Anthony and Kerstin Hammes. Just after Anthony had explained what a “John Henry” was to Kerstin, she suggested that language learners can benefit from keeping a journal of their efforts in order to better see and appreciate where they have come from in their respective journeys.

What a cool idea, I thought. I’ve been on my own personal development journey for almost a year and it is as good a milestone as any to take stock and recount what has happened. (Although in reality it is a process I have been undertaking with varying degrees of application for many years).

In my case a whole bunch of factors came into play, not one particular flash of inspiration. I had wanted to get back into studying German language, but in a way that was different from my past efforts of going to classes, studying stacks of flash cards and reopening the German text books which had taken over a shelf in my study. There had to be another way.

It was around this time that I came across Anthony’s book How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary: … Using a Memory Palace Specifically Designed for the German Language (and adaptable to many other languages too) on Amazon.

29 July 2014

In embarking on this quest for self-improvement, mastery, getting-my-act-together, call it what you will, I found myself quickly inundated with information and opportunities to explore this open-ended field of inquiry. I browsed the websites and purchased a bunch of e-books on memory improvement / training.

Last October I watched the television documentary series Redesign my Brain on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). From within the topics explored, including visualization, mnemonics, magic and memory training, I became interested in the art of juggling. After a few weeks of tossing and catching and dropping I became a reasonable 3 ball juggler. But more importantly I was reminded of the values of concentration, regular practice, focus, relaxation and keeping it simple.

More recently, in one of his newsletters, Anthony disparaged that hoary notion “If something is worth doing it is worth doing well”; rightly noting that it is a load of old cobblers. Juggling tells me that something worth doing is invariably preceded by failure and persistence. Embrace failure people, because failure gets you closer to what you’re good at.

30 July 2014

Slow Hand. Did I want to memorize a couple of packs of playing cards in under two minutes like those described in Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein?

Not really.

But I did like the idea of impressing family and friends by being able to shuffle a pack of cards and casually rattle them off one by one. So I followed the tried and true mnemonic system of associating each card in a deck to an image, rehearsed it a couple of times and now I have all 52 cards locked in – plus the joker for good measure. I’m still pretty slow at it after almost a year and so I still need to keep up the rehearsal – keeping my hand in, so to speak.

I find using a deck of cards a great way to remember places that I have visited and spent some time in and which I want to use as Memory Palaces. The other day I went to the local Austrian Club – Community Cultural centre for a birthday lunch with a bunch of friends and their kids. While tucking into my Schnitzel and Weissbier and with an acoustic backdrop of yodeling music on a stereo loop, I made a mental note of the large hall which included a “Herzlich Willkommen” reception, Stammtisch, dance floor with band stage, drinks bar, maps and flags of the Austrian regions, air rifle trophies, several mounted animal heads and a painting of people sitting at a table that looked like it had been knocked out by one of the locals after one too many ales. With my pack of cards I have spent an enjoyable half hour recreating such Memory Palaces, as well as holiday houses, places from my childhood, museums, cafes and the local art gallery.

 31 July 2014

Geography, poetry and the in-laws. One of main goals for wanting to improve my memory has been to increase my overall ability to communicate in German. One of the first exercises I undertook after reading Anthony’s book on how to memorise German was to memorise the 16 Bundesländer together with the names of each capital city. I chose the house of my partner’s long deceased Tante Annie in Munich.

I never met Annie, but I did get to spend a couple of excellent summer holidays there a few years back. Her house has also become my Memory Palace for all of my German vocab words starting with the letter ‘a’. Even though Annie’s old house has now been knocked down and replaced with a bunch of townhouses, I will always have a strong imprint of all the rooms and apple trees in her house and garden.

I have also memorized poems both in English and German. Not a huge repertoire to date, it includes Shelley’s Ozymandias, the German children’s poem Der bitterböse Friederich from the Struwwelpeter book of poems and Heinrich Heine’s Die Lorelei – about a guy in boat with an unhealthy obsession for a girl. Armed with this new knowledge, I have tested my partner’s knowledge of the German states (she didn’t pass) and entertained my mother-in-law with a recital of Die Lorelei (she was very impressed with her son-in-law).

 1 August 2014

The Memory Wars. 6am. I slide out of bed, shuffle downstairs and crack open the smart phone. There, in my inbox, sits my Magnetic Memory Newsletter; as regular as the ravens, kookaburras and lorikeets making a racket outside my window. This morning’s post is not Anthony’s usual considered replies to someone’s magnetic memory question, but a spirited defence of the daily newsletter against the detractors and critics who have ‘issues’ with his approach.

Personally I don’t have a problem with the format of the newsletter. On some mornings I will quickly scan the text, satisfy myself that I’m across the main point and hit delete. But usually the points raised are of interest and I’ll read a bit more closely and save the post for future reference. I recently read an article which argues that we live in an age of warring internet tribes. Whether it’s climate change, immigration, religious belief or the kind of pet you have, people are going to have entrenched positions and whose opinions cannot be changed.

I guess memory training and approaches to learning are not immune to blog wars and forum stalking. It’s not just that we differ, but our sense of self is developed in our disagreements. Conflict is inevitable, but disagreement can still be productive. Which, in my mind at least, is what I took away from this morning’s post.

Personally I’ll stick with Anthony’s daily newsletter. His commitment to the cause confirms for me that he practices what he preaches.

 2 August 2014

By now I have come up with more that enough memory palaces to serve as staging posts for all the things I want to be able to remember and use. I’ve already mentioned Tante Annie’s house, but there is also the house I live in here in Sydney, my parent’s apartment block, my son’s local scout hall, the swimming pool, the places of my youth and journeys around my neighbourhood.

Cafes are handy, as are cinemas and my daily commute from home to office. They are all listed on a spreadsheet and some are used more than others. I have a very large cork board sitting over my office desk (measures about 1m x 1.5m) and around the edge I have pinned a collection of business cards, postcards and photos, 35 in total.

billboardI’ve been training myself to employ this notice board for capturing the key points of podcasts that I listen to every now and again.

5 August 2014

Flash celebrities over at the school. Another website that I subscribe to is German Flashcards run by Antosch-and-Lin.com. The site turns out a daily newsletter containing a word and phrase of the day and is designed for the spaced-repetition brigade. I wrote a blogpost for their site a few months ago about my experiences and struggles with learning foreign languages over the past 24 years.

You’re welcome to have a look at Wrestling the Bear, Part 1 of what plan to be a three part series.  Armed with the daily phrases that I consider to be useful and which add to my vocabulary, I have compiled a hefty list.

But how best to memorize them? My solution has been to create an A-Z spreadsheet of famous names and people I know and assign a phrase to each of them. (I’m not sure where AM – Anthony Metivier fits in – famous or people I know – but you’re in the mix). Each name / phrase is then placed on a route that runs from my front door and heads out towards my son’s local public school, a Memory Palace I am very familiar with.

So far I have gone from Andre Agassi to Conchita Wurst. With the exception of Q – X – Y (too hard), I have most of the spreadsheet filled with names. However, if someone can suggest a name with initials IO I’d be grateful.

6 August 2014

Meet Bob the Builder Roman Soldier. Of all the positive benefits I have achieved over the past couple of months, without doubt the most personally rewarding has been being able to impart my learnings onto my nine-year-old son. Math is not one of his strengths, and my wife and I have invested a lot of time and energy in helping him to stay on top of the topics covered in the class.

Towards this end, and in part inspired by Anthony’s interview with the young girl who memorized all of Shakespeare’s play and sonnets, I have had some wins in using the Magnetic Memory Method to help with times tables, shapes and volumes. My son is now getting the hang of creating his own memorable characters, including Bob the Roman soldier, who walks through his mapped-out classroom and nominating stations for the Roman numerals I V X L C D & M and figuring out how the sequence of Roman numerals operates.

 

English: Clock in Bad Salzdetfurth, Germany, B...The next big hurdle is the decimal system. After cogitating long and hard about how to introduce something that is active, vivid and magnetic, we came up with the idea of using one of his favourite cartoon characters “Ben TEN”. It was while I was rummaging through his bookshelf that I came across one of his picture books: Animalia by the illustrator Graeme Base. After about 15 minutes of working through his amazing illustrations I was able to lock down a quick Z to A memory recital sequence.

I wish I had been shown how to use my mind to memorize all the stuff that they threw at me during my school years. I wish I had been show how to study properly, period. I am determined to make sure that my child will be able to realize his potential and dreams without the stress and pressure that hangs over the education system like a heavy cloud. So I lend my wholehearted support towards the idea that mnemonics – and the Magnetic Memory Method in particular – have a worthwhile and important place in the education toolbox, regardless of whether you are 9 or 59 years old.

So that just about sums up what I have achieved in a relatively short period of time. My German vocab excel spreadsheet continues to grow and I still find the whole process mostly fun, even on those days when it seems like some word is not sticking despite repeated attempts to recall. Just remember that it is not a race and to relax. As for the future, well I have a desire to memorize all sorts of things including music, Japanese, Italian, chess patterns and especially my command of my mother tongue.

 

About the author: Richard has a background in fiction writing, ESL teaching and mnemonics. He has a love of all things German, believes that more men should wear proper hats, and would never be want to be called a ‘polyglot’ because it sounds like a pathological condition. Check out his post on memorizing German phrases for an updated tutorial on his progress with learning, memorizing and recalling German en masse.

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