The Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

The Surprising Truth About Hypnosis and Memory ImprovementHow Cool Would It Be If You Could Hypnotize Your Way To A Better Memory?

 

Well, good luck. As you’re about to learn, there’s no scientific basis or reason to believe that hypnosis can cause memory improvement.

But to look at this issue, it will be helpful to focus on one area where hypnosis has been used in the attempt to improve memory: court cases.

So our question is, can hypnosis really improve the memory of witnesses? Read every word of this post if you want to learn several key ways that you can still make strides with your memory improvement goals even if hypnosis turns out to be a dud when it comes to enhanced memory.

 

Would You Believe That Hypnosis For Memory Improvement Goes This Far Back?

 

Hypnosis in the courts has a long history. If we can focus solely on America, I’ve read that hypnosis to improve the memories of witnesses was first rejected in 1897 by the Supreme Court of California.

After that, there’s a dark spot until after World War II. Given all that happened during this war, officials wanted reliable ways to enhance the recall of witnesses.

But despite all kinds of testing, to this date, no meaningful evidence supports hypnosis as a reliable means of improving memory. Especially not for providing testimony in a court of law.

Let’s break this issue down into parts so we can get both a broad and specific perspective.

 

This Is The Truth About Memory And Hypnosis The TV Shows Don’t Want You To Know About

 

First off, hypnosis of this kind sets itself up for failure.

Why?

Because you can’t improve something that mostly doesn’t exist.

Think about it. You’re walking down the street and you see a crime. You weren’t expecting anything would happen, but then something does happen. The memories you do form are based on information that you have learned incidentally.

For example, I was riding my bike last Sunday to the Mauerpark. There’s a wonderful Flea Market and I was going to look for some cool postcards to send new members of the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. I usually find something cool there, often old cards with interesting buildings are memorable art that helps stimulate creativity.

Anyhow, I was stopped at a light when all of a sudden two guys ran into the street in front of a car. They asked a group of maybe three people, “This one?” and the group of people said yes.

 

Rage-Fuelled Vengeance On The Streets Of Berlin!

 

Then the two guys approached the doors of the car. One went to the passenger side, the other to the driver’s side. I think the car was blue, but I don’t quite remember. It may have had four doors.

What I do remember is that the guys opened the doors and started yelling.

The driver and the passenger were clearly in shock and didn’t know what to do. Finally, the passenger pulled out a wallet and in a Russian accent, the guy standing in the street said, “Give it me!” He ripped the wallet out of the guy’s hand and slammed the door. As the other guy slammed the driver’s door, the colliding air created a puff of ash from the ashtray. After the two men got back onto the sidewalk, the light turned green and the car sped off.

 

Which Of These These Facts Prove That Hypnosis Has No Chance When It Comes To Improving Memory?

 

What I’ve done just now is to recall an event that I “learned” incidentally.

As I’m telling it to you, there are oodles of things I’m not telling you because there aren’t enough words in the universe to explain:

* The urgent voice in the back of my head telling me to get the hell out of there.

* The fact that the two guys in the car were either Turkish or Syrian.

* The hot girl on the bike in front of me with people who may or may not have been her brother and father.

* My thoughts following the event, such as the concern that someone could have been shot, questions about the crime rate in Berlin and other images and concepts rolling around in my mind.

Shortly thereafter, I forgot about the whole thing until it came time to put together this podcast. In fact, I had already outlined the entire episode before this event happen, and only when I started writing it did I remember this event.

And if I were asked to give testimony about it, my testimony would be deeply flawed because I wasn’t expecting such an event to happen. As Harry Lorayne points out in all his books, you cannot remember what you haven’t paid attention to in the first place.

That’s why I couldn’t tell you:

* Anything about the clothes any of the people were wearing (except for the clothes on the girl on the bike, because I was definitely paying attention to those).

  • The hair color of the Russian guys.
  • The color of the wallet.
  • The exact color or make of the car.
  • The exact time of day.
  • The name of the intersecting street (though I could take you to it if necessary).

* … and there is probably so much more useful information that the cops might need to know if they were to put together a case.

And in this case, the large amount that I do remember possible has to do with shock, the novelty of the event, the ease with which the event could be made into a linear story and the fact that I have a trained memory. But just as each of these things could support the idea that I’ve remembered things well, each point could also prove me to be a poor witness.

Why?

Because …

 

Shock Must Be One Of The Most Amnesia-Inducing Conditions In The World!

 

In any case, if a prosecutor wanted to use hypnosis on me, he would be making a couple of assumptions about memory.

First, hypnosis for eyewitness testimony assumes that memory is like a video recorder. One of the reasons enhanced memory is not normally accepted in a court of law is that we know memory does not store information for playback.

Rather, memories are reconstructed. Not only that, but memories are a reconstructed pastiche of many things.

For example, memory takes place only the present. You can only ask a person to recall information in their present moment. They cannot recall the information the past and they cannot recall it in the future. Memory only takes place in the present.

For that reason, every time you reconstruct a memory, you are affected by context. You are also affected by language.

Remember how I said that there are too many words for the truth to exist (as such) just a few minutes ago?

It’s true. There are so many words to choose from and so many possible combinations, unless you memorized what you were saying as you said it …

You could never repeat the same memory twice. Your report would always be slightly different.

 

There Are More Villains Of Forgetfulness Waiting To Snatch Your Memories Away …

 

And each time you retold your memories, you might be:

  • Tired and hungry
  • Telling it to a different person
  • Impatient
  • Angry
  • Less certain than the time before about your accuracy
  • More certain than the time before
  •  … and much, much more

And all this depends on how much of the target information survived your short term memory and made it into long term memory.

And as massive as long term memory is, it is useful only to the extent that you can reconstruct useful and reliable material from it.

Are you interested in diving deeper into this issue?

You are?

Good. Then let’s go.

When we talk about memories moving around in the mind and recall as something that happens only in a certain kind of time (the present), we need to look at the three stages of memory.

 

The People Who Understand The Following Three Phases Will End Up Having A Better Memory

 

These are:

1. Acquisition
2. Retention
3. Retrieval

Acquisition involves encoding information for retention. The quality of the encoding relies upon the attention you’ve paid to the information and to what extent you’ve intentionally memorized it. As I mentioned, everything I recalled from the automobile situation last Sunday was learned incidentally. I made no special attempt to memorize anything and what I do remember was selected by my long term memory from a field of other thoughts, shock and the additional thoughts I added later.

The retention stage involves storing the memories. But this isn’t like storing old baseball mits in a box at the back of your shed. As Dr. Gary Small told us in an interview with him here on the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast a few weeks back, memories move around in the brain as they age.

This movement effects the quality of recall, both positively and negatively. It also changes the context of the information and how it will be recalled in new contexts during the reconstruction phase.

We’ve gone through this a bit already with my story from last Sunday, but let’s look at how the memory of witnesses can be affected during all of these stages:

Acquisition is influenced by:

* Age
* Level of rest
* Physical fitness
* Emotional states
* Confidence
* Stress
* Mood
* Attitude

You also have the factor of expectation. Again, if you haven’t expected to remember something, the something you are able to recall will most likely be of low quality.

Another factor involves the characteristics of the material:

* Is it an object?
* Is it a person?
* How many objects or people were involved?
* Are there any moving parts?
* How big or small are these objects or people?

We also have to account for the length of exposure to the the information. Did it take place in an instant, or did the witness have more time to study the event?

Finally, we have the addition of information between the instances of the event and the instances of recall.

 

The Most Comforting Memories You’ll Ever Have Are The Ones You’ve Completely Bent Out Of Shape

 

For example, imagine that you saw The Dark Knight at the movie theatre. You tell a bunch of friends about the movie and you balance your report by giving all the characters equal time.

Then you learn that Heath Ledger died. The next time you tell someone about the film, you’re much more likely to focus on the Joker parts of the film because the additional information about the film will not only change your memory of the film, but also how you talk about it. And each time you talk about a memory, you add more information to it, which changes it even more. You are in effect playing the telephone game with yourself.

Not only that, but you may not have really thought much about Heath Ledger as an actor, but by paying attention to him differently based on the new information, you may suddenly find that you’ve become a fan.

 

How To Influence Someone’s Memory Simply By Choosing Your Words Carefully

 

To look at this differently, you’ve probably heard about the scientific studies where they show people films of car crashes.

When they ask people “how fast the cars were going before they collided,” they answer differently than when they ask people how fast the cars were going before they crashed or smashed into one another.

The way the mind hears the question conditions the answer. And questions count as new information.

So if I say to you, “How did you like the Joker in Batman,” you will select a different answer from your memory than if I ask you, “How did you like Heath Ledger’s final performance as the Joker in Batman?”

 

The Nearly-Miraculous Ways Interrogators Can Control Everything About Your Memory – Even If You’re The Good Guy!

 

So far we’ve covered some of the basic issues surrounding memory and hypnosis. Now let’s look more at the reconstruction of memories during interrogation and on the stand.

Investigators and prosecutors ask witnesses to reconstruct their memories in different ways.

The first is free narrative. The interrogator opens up free narrative by asking open-ended questions. For example, they might say, “tell me what you remember about the incident.”

The research shows that this kind of witness testimony produces surprisingly few errors. But the witnesses also often leave huge gaps.

Next we have controlled narrative. In this case, the interrogator ask for detailed descriptions of the event. They might ask, for example, “what was the assailant wearing?” to guide the witness towards specifics. This kind of testimony may indeed produce more detail, but the accuracy of the detail goes down.

Finally, we have forced choice. These are specific questions for which the witness can only give a limited number of answers. These are yes or no questions or either-or questions. “Was the car red or black?” is a question that requires a specific answer.

Although this kind of questioning provides the highest amount of detail, it produces the least amount of accuracy. When you press people to choose, you cut their ability to describe.

 

You Can Force Anyone To Remember Anything You Wish By Using This Memory-Shaping Technique …

 

Forced choice also leads people to give the answer they think the interrogator wants. And questions like these do indeed force certain assumptions. For example, a question like, “did you see the gun?” implies that there was a gun.

Moreover, the question puts the image of a gun into the imagination of the witness. As we talked about, the addition of new information can cause – and usually does cause – memories to change every time we reconstruct them.

 

Spell-Binding Questions That You’ll Want To Ask Yourself Before Giving Testimony Under Hypnosis In A Court Of Law

 

With these problems in mind, when we factor in hypnosis-aided testimony need to answer several questions. These questions include:

1) Does hypnosis create confidence? In other words, do witnesses become more convinced of the truth because hypnosis convinces them that their memories are more real.

Most of us know from our own lives how this works. Once we are convinced that we’ve experienced something a certain way, it becomes impossible to change back. We cannot go back to questioning the validity of our memory.

2) Does hypnosis help “destroy evidence?” In other words, if hypnosis makes a person more confident in their memory and the introduction of new information changes how they remember, where has the original evidence gone?

3) How to deal with the fact that the memories were not intentionally gathered. The witness was not instructed to learn it as if they were a student in school. These memories are typically the result of highly emotional conflict. And when the witness gives testimony, the future of someone’s life is at stake. If they mess up, an innocent person could wind up in the electric chair.

4) To what extent can the memories of witnesses be trusted even in the absence of hypnosis?

Over time, courts have suggested some solutions to some of these problems. These solutions include:

A) Leave it up to jury decision. The judge needs to point out that hypnosis assisted certain witness testimony and that they should place no more or less emphasis on the testimony as a result of the hypnosis.

B) Reject hypnosis-assisted testimony. Due to the lack of scientific evidence that hypnosis helps memory, some courts have barred all such testimony.

C) Use strict guidelines. In this case, hypnosis must be carried out by a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist trained in the practice.

Plus, the hypnotist must not be informed of the facts of the case before the session takes place. This measure is to ensure that the hypnotist cannot influence the testimony.

The hypnotist should also be independent, not someone chosen by either the prosecutor or the defence team.

Everything must be recorded on video, including from the beginning to the end of the meeting to capture any comments that may have influenced the testimony. This will also help reduce the chance of introducing post-hypnotic suggestions.

No one else should be present during the hypnotic session. Other people can unconsciously or inadvertently communicate what they expect to hear the witness say. They might also look startled, upset of disappointed by the testimony, shaping how the witness reconstructs their memories.

An expert in hypnosis must testify before the jury about the use of hypnosis to assist the witness in remembering more.

They must also explain that hypnosis is a suggestive procedure that does not ensure the validity of anything said during the testimony.

As you can imagine, there is a lot more to be said about this topic. But to sum up for now, we can now ask the ultimate question lurking behind this issues:

 

Can Hypnosis Improve Recall?

 

The answer is most likely no. Here’s why:

There’s no objective way to identify the accuracy or inaccuracy of any memory of an event. Memories are reconstructed, can only be delivered in the presence, and most studies show that memories are easily manipulated.

Also, there’s no way to tell if the memories were created by other means. For example, the witness could be lying. They might have heard someone else’s testimony or they saw something on TV. They may have revisited the scene of the crime. Worse, they might simply be unsure themselves of what exactly they saw.

Finally, when hypnosis takes place and memory does appear to be improved, it might not be hypnosis at all behind the improvement. Other factors might trigger recall, such as concentration, better rest, no longer being in shock, other forms of therapy, etc.

 

Warning!

The Secret Key To The Goldmine Of Memory Is Not Here

 

IF hypnosis can be said to improve recall, it may be because:

1. People lower the level of what they would normally consider a good memory.

2. People under hypnosis may be praised for any memories they give. This may cause them to give a lot more detail, but the significance of these details may be in questions. The quantity and relatedness of the memories does not necessarily amount to quality and accuracy.

3. Repeated interrogation under hypnosis may improve more recall, but this could be the result of the witness simply giving the prosecutors what they think the prosecutors want.

So with all this said, what can we learn from these issues? How can they help us improve our own memory and reach our goals?

 

Here Are The Real Secrets You Can Learn And Apply From The Memory And Hypnosis Fiasco

 

There are several lessons here:

1. Relaxation does help us produce more detail.

2. We can change our memories by adding more detail. This fact of memory need not be negative. In fact, it is helpful when it comes to using mnemonics. The more we can associate unfamiliar information with familiar information, the easier it is to memorize.

3. We know that consequences count. Just as the stress of helping shape the future of someone’s life affects eyewitness testimony, the stress of texts, exams, speaking a foreign language, etc. shapes how well we recall information. This fact takes us back to relaxation because we can indeed train ourselves to be relaxed under pressure.

4. The importance of scientific validity when it comes to memory. Although there is no real evidence that hypnosis improves memory, we have all kinds of evidence that mnemonics do.

 

The Only Real Secret Weapon Of Memory Improvement You’ll Ever Need

 

But at the end of the day, the only science that matters is based on the experiments you perform yourself. You need to learn the techniques, apply them and track your results. Only then can you make informed decisions about how to change your approach. And only you can do the work of improving your memory. No court of law can force you to it, only your interest, your passion and your need.

So what are you waiting for?

Until next time, I hope that you never have to give eyewitness testimony. I also hope you never have to bump up against the law leading to someone else giving testimony against you.

Keep safe, keep on the right side of the law and until next time, keep Magnetic.

Further Resources

10 Memorization Not So Tricky Tricks

The post The Surprising Truth About Hypnosis and Memory Improvement appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

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Memory Techniques For Language Learning with Daniel WelschHow To Memorize Even The Most Difficult Words In The World Using World Class Memory Techniques

Hey everybody, this is Daniel Welsch.

And I’m here today as a special guest host for the Magnetic Memory Method podcast.

Anthony invited me to do the podcast today about using memory techniques for Basque and it’s a great pleasure and enormous honor for me to do so, also in Spanish in a general way:

I’ve been following Anthony’s work for about a year and I’ve been corresponding with him for nearly the same length of time and he’s been a great inspiration to me, not only in my memorizing ventures but also in my own work as a teacher and writer here in Madrid, the beautiful capital of Spain.

So when he offered me the chance to do an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method podcast on memory techniques, of course I jumped at it…

So first I’m going to tell you a bit about my language learning journey. And then I’m going to tell you how I became acquainted with Doctor Metivier and his work with memory techniques. And finally, I’m going to take you through one of my Memory Palaces to show you exactly how I memorized some very difficult material from a language that’s like no other language in existence.

Now…  A little bit about me.

Aprende Más Inglés

You probably don’t know me, because most of the work I do is in Spanish.

But I have my own website called Aprende Más Inglés, which you can find at aprendemasingles.com. There I teach English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation—and now, learning memory techniques and how to be a more effective student and person in general.

You might want to know a bit about me. Well, I was born in the US, specifically in Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the middle of the Sonoran Desert a couple of hours from the Mexican border.

Filling In Blanks On Worksheets Has
Never Been One of My Passions

In school I learned Spanish but never took it too seriously. After that I ended up working in a kitchen with some guys from Mexico and found that speaking languages was a lot more fun than learning them in school.

Filling in blanks on worksheets has never been one of my passions.

When I was 21 I moved to Madrid, Spain, which is kind of a long story, and ended up, one way or another, teaching English.

And at the same time I was learning more and more Spanish. I was doing it organically, for the most part. I had some free Spanish classes, which I barely ever went to. And the rest of the time I was walking around, talking to people, reading the newspaper, watching TV, things like that.

At the same time, at work I was teaching English.

And I was kind of startled by how ineffective language learning in Spain was. Of course, back in the US it wasn’t any better, but in Spain learning English is just hugely important for a lot of people. Now that Spain is in the European Union and with the massive amount of international business and tourism that goes on, almost everybody needs to learn English.

It should almost be a strategic objective for all of Spain, to get the general level of English up to the level where they could compete with any country in Europe.

But unfortunately, the system wasn’t very effective at actually creating bilingual Spaniards. And after a few years I started to discover why.

But we’ll get back to that…

Couldn’t Speak, Or Even Worse, Refused To Speak

While I was teaching, I had a website where I was writing about grammar and vocabulary.

And in the meantime, my Spanish was getting better and better. I eventually got the highest level diploma in Spanish offered by the Instituto Cervantes, which is an international organization that teaches Spanish like the British Council teaches English.

And the thing about it was that I never felt like learning Spanish was a chore or an effort. I did the minimum possible in school, and later learned working in a kitchen with some guys from Mexico. And my Spanish really took off when I moved to Madrid and discovered that I could use it to meet girls.

Meanwhile, a lot of my students had studied for years and couldn’t speak, or even worse, refused to speak. They were terrified!

I decided that maybe more grammar wasn’t what people needed.

And after a couple of weeks on vacation in Italy, with my girlfriend at the time, I realized that everybody was going about it all wrong.

A Sort Of Exotic Dialect …

What happened in Italy is that I was in contact with a sort of exotic dialect of Italian that doesn’t sound anything like “standard” Italian. As far as I know there are no textbooks for this sort of thing.

They don’t even really have a literature in this dialect—it’s a small-town thing, and if you want to leave the town and do big things in Italy as a whole you need to learn proper Italian.

So I had been there surrounded by this dialect, and I had found that the book I had read to learn some Italian before going had been pretty useless too, since the pronunciation was so different than what I was hearing in small town central Italy.

In any case, by just listening and imitating and having fun with it, I was able to pick up enough of this dialect to have a sort of conversation pretty quickly.

With my knowledge of Spanish, my knowledge of standard Italian, and just listening, I was able to pick it up.

And on the way back to Spain, my flight was delayed, and I was stuck in an airport in Bologna or something similar and decided to write the outline for a book about language learning.

It took me several weeks to get it all on paper, once I was back in Spain, but I wanted to make it a sort of compendium of everything I had discovered about language learning, both as a teacher and a language learner, in my years of experience.

I called it 6 Claves para Aprender Inglés, which would translate to 6 Keys for Learning English, and I published it on Amazon, followed by a few blog posts.

In fact, I had very low expectations, but the book went to #1 in Education on Amazon in Spain, and eventually to #1 over all.

And one thing leading to another like it does, I decided to leave the grammar alone for awhile and start focusing on learning techniques and writing about how to be a more effective language learner.

So…

A Podcast About Memory

That brings me to how I met Anthony. I was in the park down the street, working out with my friend Jef. My friend Jef is a brilliant guy in his own right. And in between our sets of pullups he told me he was going to send me a link to a podcast about memory.

I had heard about memory palaces before, but it sounded sort of complicated. And I had never gotten into it. But I listened to Anthony, and his enthusiasm for the topic was so convincing that I sat down the next day and started memorizing.

I memorized, just as an exercise, the 50 provinces of Spain, from Álava to Zaragoza. It was surprisingly easy.

And I wrote an article about it for my website, which I sent to Anthony.

The next day, being the kind of guy he is (the on top of his email kind of guy, something which I aspire to imitate him in… some day…) he answered me and said we should do a podcast about it.

You can check out the podcast we did together, where we talk about imagination, pink elephants, Jimi Hendrix, and a lot of other things.

They Had All Used Memory Palaces …

I got some feedback from my readers—the doctors, especially, said that they had all used Memory Palaces to pass their exams back in the day. And that it had worked for them just as well as it had worked for me. So as a next step I decided to use the technique for language learning.

Well, in the course of 10 years teaching English I’ve come across a lot of people who say they have problems memorizing.

I’ve never had a big problem learning new words, because (as Anthony says) I think I automatically form associations. It’s just how my brain works. Maybe I learned it in elementary school and by now it’s just automatic.

This became especially clear when I started learning Italian—I could associate with English and Spanish and it was pretty easy, one way or another.

But I thought, I should do the experiment. For all my students who have difficulty memorizing, why not try the memory palace with some vocabulary?

And to make it more difficult, I decided to try with a language that had no associations at all.

No Associations At All

It’s easy to associate something like “estación” in Spanish with “stazione” in Italian and “station” in English because they’re all very similar words.

I wanted to test the method in a new way, on some truly difficult material.

The language I ended up choosing is Basque. If you don’t know about it, Basque is a language that’s spoken in a small area of the north of Spain and the south of France. Basque sounds like this:

The fact is that Basque is apparently unrelated to any of the other European languages. You can take a look on Wikipedia for some of the theories (and use memory techniques and How to Memorize a Textbook to absorb the info), but the one I like best is that the Basque people are the original barbarians who lived on the Iberian Peninsula before anyone else, and who managed to hang on to their mountainsides and their valleys through 2000 years of invasions by a long series of other civilizations.

You really have to admire the Basques, whatever the explanation is, because while virtually all the rest of Western Europe is speaking some dialect of German (English, Dutch, and the other languages of the North) or a dialect of Latin (Spanish, French, Italian, etc) the Basques are still speaking Basque… Or as they call it, Euskera.

They’ve defended their language and identity for, like I said, 2000 years of European history, which I’m sure has been difficult at times.

An Arbitrary Sequence Of A Lot Of Ks And Xs And Ts

And it’s a language with no association to anything else. To me most Basque words just look like an arbitrary sequence of a lot of Ks and Xs and Ts, without any way to make a guess at what they mean.

Nothing like Italian or French or German or Dutch, which you can often get the gist of, either if you see it in writing or if you hear it.

So I asked a Basque friend to make up a list of words, and she gave me 30 words. And I decided on a place to build my Memory Palace: the United Nations building where I give English classes every day here in Madrid.

And I sat down to do the method. I guess you’ve heard Anthony explain the guidelines for using Magnetic Memory Method memory techniques here on the podcast, so I’ll just take you through my Memory Palace, and some of the things I took into account while constructing it.

Using Anthony’s instructions for using memory techniques:

I started in a terminal location. Actually the UN building has 9 stories, but as a teacher I never have to go higher than the second floor. So I started in the Human Resources office on the second floor and went down from there. I put a mental image that reminded me of both the sound and the meaning of the word in each station I created along the way.

I created a mental path through the building all the way out to the streetcorner outside the door, putting mental images all along the path. From Human Resources, I went down the hall, past the other offices I’ve been in, the photocopiers, down the stairs, to the classroom where I teach, and then out again and further downstairs and out the door.

And finally, I practiced. A few times the first day, a few times the second, and a few times a few days after. And after that I generally had it.

The Most Difficult Thing Was The Set-Up

As I had found in previous experiences with the Magnetic Memory Method, the most difficult thing about using these memory techniques was the set-up. Once I had organized my list of words, list of stations, and thought of appropriate images, it was easy. I took Anthony’s advice and actually wrote it down, but it’s also possible to do it in your head, at least for me. Whatever works for you!

Now you may be wondering what sort of images I would use for a language with no associations—well, it turns out that the syllables can be associated with one thing or another. And I was able to mix English and Spanish associations with no problem.

For example: the word Entzun, which means listen. I had one of the Ents (those magical talking tree-people from Lord of the Rings). That was the first syllable. And for the second I had Kim Jong-Un, the young dictator of North Korea, who’s pretty memorable with his chubby cheeks and his military uniform and the fact that he’s supreme leader of a whole country despite being in his early 20s. So he was Un.

So I had him climbing up the tree, the Ent, and holding a hand up to his ear to listen for something in the distance. So I had Ents, I had Un, and I had the fact that he was listening to remind me of the meaning.

Another example using these memory techniques: Eskerrik asko, which means thank you. I separated that into “scary” and “casco” (which in Spanish means helmet) and I had something like a bicycle helmet with fangs and claws flying onto a girl’s head. The girl was down on her knees praying and giving thanks for something, it doesn’t really matter what, and so I was able to remember: scary casco, eskerrik asko, thank you.

A third example with these “Magnetic” memory techniques: garagardoa, which is beer. For this one, I had a doe (like a female deer) gargling a glass of beer. Gargle + doe = beer.

Forget The Association And Just Remember The Word

What I found on my journeys through the Memory Palace is another thing that Anthony suggested: Once you make the association and practice a few times, you can really forget the association and you just remember the word. You walk through the Memory Palace in your mind and the word is just there. It pops into your head.

Also, keep in mind I was following Anthony’s recommendation to make things violent, ridiculous, or offensive—in this case not too offensive, but I had violence in the scary bicycle helmet, and ridiculous in the gargling does, and Kim Jong-un climbing a talking tree—all things you don’t see every day, and things you’d definitely remember if you saw them.

I think that’s one of the strengths of how the Memory Palace works in the end—rather than spending a lot of time creating associations organically (through living in contact with the language) you create an artificial association. And then you can use the memory techniques to repeat as much as you want until you remember the word.

Rather than spending a few weeks or months bumping into a word before you’ve created enough associations, you can do it all in a day or two if you want.

My language learning really took off when I realized I could use languages to meet girls—later I found out that there are really only two ways to get things into long term memory: with repetition and with emotion.

And the Memory Palace works on both of those shortcuts to memory. Thank goodness for memory techniques!

Create Emotion In Your Head

As Anthony is always saying: make your images big, colorful, sexy or violent and you’ll remember them a lot easier. It’s just a way of creating emotion in your head, rather than going out and finding it externally.

Of course, finding native speakers to cause strong emotions in you can also be a lot of fun and extremely educational. But the key is balancing your study on the one hand with your contact with the language on the other.

Learning vocabulary is one thing, acquiring fluency is another. As I have said in my books many times, the only way to learn how to speak a language is to go out and speak that language.

I’ve Spent A Large Portion Of My Adult Life
Butchering One Language Or Another

And that’s the last thing I’d like to leave you with here.

A lot of people have this unnecessary fear of going out and speaking. They think they’re going to make mistakes and be embarrassed and have to go live in a cave somewhere due to the shame of conjugating some verbs badly.

In reality, I’ve spent a large portion of my adult life butchering one language or another, and I’ve really never had a bad experience because of it. Most people are happy that you’re just trying.

And most native speakers aren’t even aware of their own grammar. I learned years ago that it’s perfectly useless to ask anyone other than a Spanish teacher “Why did you use the subjunctive in that sentence, rather than the indicative?”

Generally, they have no idea—they may not even be aware that they even used the subjunctive.

So when you’re speaking to a person in imperfect Spanish or German or Italian or Mandarin, chances are very good that they’re not mentally giving you a score, like it’s some sort of test.

They’re probably only aware that you’re making a valiant attempt, and they’re trying to communicate the best they can with you.

So…

Make All The Mistakes You Can

Where I’m going with this is that it’s important to go out and make all the mistakes you can. In the worst case, people will laugh at you butchering their language. And you can laugh back. And learn something from the experience.

I don’t know anybody who’s learned a language just by studying grammar until they “knew everything” and were then able to go out immediately and start speaking with no errors.

It never happens. You’ll always make mistakes—you probably even make mistakes in your native language, even if you’re using memory techniques.

The key in my mind is having an objective for your conversations besides the conversation itself—and making your success criteria reflect that goal.

Just as an example, if you’re in Korea and you’re going to the market to buy vegetables, your goal can be to buy your vegetables—not to speak perfect Korean the whole time.

That takes the pressure off… You don’t need your level to be perfect, you just need it to get the job done.

Go Out And Use Memory Techniques!

So, go out there and memorize something! At the very least, you’ll have an interesting experience of what’s possible in your imagination… Whenever I use the Magnetic Memory Method and other memory techniques, I feel almost like I’m going on an adventure, inside my head, because I’m just so focused and I’m able to forget the outside world for a while and just live in imagination.

Nothing more to say today. I’d like to thank Anthony for handing the podcast over to me for the day to talk about memory techniques. Stay magnetic! as the doctor would say.

You can find more from me at the site I linked to above if your Spanish is good enough, or you can see all my other projects at danielwelsch.com. I write about Spanish culture, American culture, food, politics, and more, on a variety of websites out there.

And if there’s one thing I’d like to leave you with today it’s this: don’t be afraid to communicate—just say what you think and what you feel you need to say, in any language. Life is short, and as Mark Twain said, “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

So go out there! Speak languages, and be awesome. Life is short to do anything besides live up to your full potential. So, enjoy it.

This is Daniel Welsch, and I hope you have a great day. Goodbye.

Further Resources

How To Train Your Memory To Memorize Any Word

Memory Strategies Of The World’s Top Language Learners

Gabriel Chats With Language Trainer Daniel Welsch

The post Memory Techniques For Learning A Hard Language Like Basque appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Direct download: Memory_Techniques_For_A_Language_Like_No_Other.mp3
Category:Guest Post -- posted at: 4:24pm EDT

Optimized-IMG_3270Sometimes Learning Is As Simple As Asking The Right Questions

Were you one of those students?

You know the kind I’m talking about.

The kind of student whose mind is brimming with questions.

And yet …

You never asked any of them.

Instead, you sat behind your desk, gripped by curiosity, but forever reason, kept quiet.

 

How To Train Your Memory To Memorize Any Word

 

It all begins with getting out of your comfort zone and asking those questions.

But before that, you’ll need to read and test how well you’ve understood something on your own.

And that’s what I admire so much about Jordan.

He sent in this question and really took his time to think things through.

Because here’s a little-known secret for you …

 

The Answer Is Almost Always In The Question!

 

To prove this point, take a moment to go through the following question. Note just how many times Jordan’s fantastic questions create the basis for a powerful answer.

You should do the same whenever you have questions. Write to explore and you’ll find that you know so much more than it might at first seem.

Hi Anthony,

Everything about your associative memory methods is exceptionally clear. I actually developed a near-identical memory system for myself to learn basic Hebrew and Farsi, years ago … 

However, what I didn’t include at the time was my own “spatial / palace” dimension. My images were going ‘into the void.’

For that reason, I’m having a bit of trouble understanding just how it is you use your Memory Palace – in combination with your Excel sheets etc. – when learning a new language.

I’m now learning Russian, so let’s use that as an example here. Sorry for the questions to follow. Just bear with me a moment, and maybe this can help you clarify your method to other future learners.

I’m curious how it is you build your palatial repository, sequentially speaking. Here’s how i understand it… please let me know if I’m getting any of these steps wrong or missing out something crucial.

1) Create one Memory Palace for your new target language (e.g., Russian), and begin by subdividing into 33 ‘locations’ within that Memory Palace (i.e., one location per letter of the alphabet).

The path you walk through the palace at any point in the future will now be by location, by alphabetical order. (I.e., start with ‘A’ location, then ‘Б’ location, then ‘B’ location, etc., linearly, without crossing or doubling back or boxing yourself in)

2) For each ‘location’, identify at least 10 ‘stations’ (i.e., sub-locations?) … These stations are where you’re going to store the associative images for your first 10+ vocabulary words. Respectively, each of which starts with the respective letter of the alphabet corresponding to the location. For instance, in my ‘A’ location I have 10 stations, where I store the words ‘арка,’ ‘афиша,’ ‘аптека,’ etc. (i.e., one word/associative image combo per station).

3) I continue to populate all my locations and stations this way, i.e., organized by initial letter.

4) I write each of my vocab words down in an Excel file, noting the words itself. Plus, the location, the station and/or the image … ? (please advise if I understand this correctly)…

5) Continue ad infinitum and practice my walk through regularly… 

Assuming I have that right, above (please correct me if not), I have a few questions:
i) As you learn any new word, you must create a new station within the appropriate location, and store it there for organizational purposes and ease of access … correct? … So, theoretically, each ‘location’ grows in terms of volume of ‘stations’, infinitely (i.e., it grows by one newly invented station every time you add a new word that begins with the location-relevant letter). 

ii) Assuming what I just said in (i) above is correct, do you subdivide the ‘location’ into ever-smaller, more specific ‘stations’, as your vocabulary grows? Does this result in a sort of infinitesimally divided ‘location’ …

If so, do you have any tricks or techniques for finding ever more, or increasingly small/minute, stations to create and use within your locations as your vocabulary grows? … If not, and I have this wrong, please correct me. 

iii) Assuming (i) and (ii) are mostly correct, what do you do to memorize key phrases, as opposed to just words? Do you store each one in a new station, within a location that corresponds to the first letter of the first word of the phrase (e.g., ‘Что нового’ gets its own new station within the ‘Ч’ location)? I realize this may be different for everybody, but I’m curious how you do it, particularly in terms of Russian, but also for any language, generally. 

iv) Assuming i have the general storage hierarchy system understood correctly, do you tend to store new words/phrases in new stations in alphabetical order within your locations? E.g., if you already know and have stations for ‘аптека’ and ‘афиша’, but then you learn the new word ‘арка,’ do you create a new station for ‘арка’ in-between the stations for  ‘аптека’ and ‘афиша’? (I.e. because the letter ‘р’ comes after the the letter ‘п’ but before the letter ‘ф’ in the Russian alphabet.) .

Or do you just add a new station at the end of all your other ‘A’ stations each time you learn a new ‘a’ word (i.e., within each location, new words get stores in stations ordered sequentially by when you learned them). … Please let me know which system you use/have had the most success with. 

v) Assuming most (i) to (iv) is correct in spirit if not in detail, each time you do a mental walk-through of your Mind Palace, are you actually revisiting *every single station* within *every single location* in your palace? If I understand correctly, this is basically like walking through a dictionary from front to back, in your mind, with each word represented by its own station, nested within one of 33 (e.g., in the case of Russian) sequential locations. … That seems like a lot of walking/remembering!! … maybe I’m missing something here (or maybe its just not as daunting as it sounds) … Do I have this right? 

Generally, I’d just like to know if I have this all understood correctly. I do realize everyone can and will make their own personalized modifications to the system/principles based on how their own minds work, and on their specific target material. That said, I’m very curious to know how you, specifically, structure your Mind Palaces for language acquisition, and–to the degree relevant–specifically in the case of Russian. 

Apologies for the epic email, but I want to make sure I’m building this palace–and these habits–the most effective and adaptable way possible, from the ground up.

Thanks for any insight!!

Cheers,

Jordan

 

How To Avoid Disaster, Make Your Own Discoveries And Find All The Memory Palaces You’ll Ever Need

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for your note.

Yes, you’ve understood everything more or less. I think a re-read of the book will cement things further.

On to your questions:

1) I do not recommend that you create your stations as you go along. This is a recipe for disaster.

Instead, go in with your Memory Palaces prepared in advance. If you want to memorize ten new words, have a Memory Palace with ten stations. If you have to build it as you go along, then you’re going to create cognitive load. Dig your wells before you get thirsty.

2) Subdivision is possible, but you shouldn’t need it because proper use of the MMM will get the words into long-term memory. You can then reuse the Memory Palaces. If you want to hold onto them, which is often the case and perfectly okay, then you can create new Memory Palaces per letter. Easy-peasy.

There’s more help here:

How To Find Memory Palaces

3) Phrases are best memorized by attaching them to words you’ve already got reliably stationed. If you’ve memorized the word for “first,” then later, go back and memorize the equivalent of a phrase like, “first things first,” or “in the first place,” or “first of all.” You can often memorize a number of phrases, assuming the word is actually in the equivalent phrasing of the target language (it isn’t always, but often enough it is).

4) See 3

5) If your Memory Palace is built correctly, you’re not revising every station. You just go there. It’s the same thing as walking from your bedroom to the kitchen. You don’t revise that journey. You simply move to it on autopilot.

Sure, there’s some part of your mind responsible for moving you from place to place and observing everything. But good Memory Palace construction reduces the effort.

As for this being a lot of memorizing and revising, I suggest that anyone time their effort, time spent and results in comparison with rote learning. I doubt that anyone seriously using the Magnetic Memory Method in the right way will be able to say that spaced-repetition software or any other form of rote learning will be faster or easier.

And you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out Noel Van Vliet’s results using the Magnetic Memory Method. He was very skeptical, and yet it worked gangbusters for him:

Judgment Day

As for whether you understood everything correctly or not, here’s the thing:

Go in with the spirit of experimentation using the understanding that you already had and some of my clarifications. If you get results based on that understanding, awesome.

If you don’t get the results you’re looking for, go back to the book for more study and analysis of what you’ve been doing and make changes based on your needs and preferences. When you get results, awesome.

Since this is a method that teaches you how to build your own systems, then it’s really not about how I use the MMM. It’s about how you use the MMM.

The books and video courses already tell you how I use it. I’ve never made any significant changes to how I use it and I doubt I ever well. The basic nature of memory, the nature of the techniques and the nature of language will never change – at least not much. These features of reality really are one of the few things that are impervious to the old rule that change is the only constant. Not memory techniques nor the basic rules of language (words and grammar “rules” might transform over time, but the fact of words and grammar as such most likely never will).

The only thing that ever changes is the extent to which people get busy using these techniques. And I’m very pleased to see that you’re poised to do just that.

And it truly is the best of all worlds because as you learn Russian with the MMM, you learn about your memory and how to use it. As you learn about your memory and how to use it, you learn Russian.

Just make sure that you also read, write, speak and listen to Russian everyday. Otherwise, all the Memory Palaces and memory techniques in the world won’t help you get fluent. Memory techniques are a tool of fluency and the MMM is an imaginative and organic alternative to the old school hammer of rote learning. But both require the same level of daily reading, writing, speaking and listening.

So memorize forth and prosper with this in mind.

Thanks again for your note – hope to correspond again soon!

Further Resources

Download the above as a printable PDF 🙂

Memorize Foreign Language Vocabulary With Big Box Stores

The post How To Train Your Memory To Memorize Any Word appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Direct download: How_To_Train_Your_Memory_To_Memorize_Any_Word.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 6:30pm EDT

Improving Memory Just Doesn't Get Any Easier Than ThisHow To Become More Creative And Remember The Information That Matters In Your Life

 

Would you like to be more creative?

How about in a way that makes you more visual so you can memorize more information faster and with greater accuracy?

You would?

Great. Then this may be the most important episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast you’ll ever experience.

Here’s why:

I’m going to give you two simple ways to become more visually creative so you can use your imagination to memorize anything. Of course, you’ll need to use a Memory Palace. Ideally you’ve already created several.

If not, you can listen to previous episodes of this podcast for help. These include How to Find Memory Palaces and movie and How to Enhance Your Memory With Virtual Memory Palaces. There’s also a full memory improvement course for improving memory in all areas of your life.

But for now, here’s …

How To Improve Your Memory By Legally Stealing Information That Already Exists Using Direct Analogy

The first way to become more visually creative involves creating “direct analogies.”

To use direct analogy, you need only follow five fun steps.

1. Identify an issue or problem. For people interested in using memory techniques for accelerated learning, this step should present no problems.

Chances are that you need to memorize:

  • Facts for school
  • Mathematical equations and other number-based information (link to math book)
  • Information about historical figures
  • Professional terminology in fields like medicine or law (am links)
  • Music
  • Names and faces
  • Poetry and speeches
  • Foreign language vocabulary and grammar rules

And this list is just for starters. Pilots, teachers, restaurant staff, police officers and a whole host of other people need memory techniques to make them better professionals.

The more specific you are about the problem you need to solve, the more dedicated you can be about shaping memory techniques as your go-to solution.

2. Find similar problems.

You might think it’s crazy to leap from your problem to other problems that only tangentially relate, but trust me. This second step is critical for developing your visual imagination. We’ll explore this point more completely in the next section.

3. Explore the analogy.

Once you’ve picked an example, dive in and start charting out the territory.

For example, doctors need to memorize a lot of terminology relating to the body, diseases, medicines and the cruel instruments related to their trade. How to get that large variety of terms and definitions into long term memory can be hard to visualize.

A similar problem that might come to mind could involve computer programmers. They need to teach computers to store terminology and make it accessible to users with intuitive ease.

You could then create a picture in your imagination of a doctor programming his mind as if it were a computer. Maybe he’s opened his skull and attached some wiring to his brain. And maybe the wires run into a keyboard so he can type the words and definitions, sending them exactly where they need to go.

 

Every Cell In Your Brain Has The Power To Help You Create Powerful Memories

 

By finding an analogy, you help yourself create an image. It’s great exercise and simply achieved.

To take another example, you could think of a painter who needs to place shapes and colors in just the right places. For example, you could see a doctor painting terminology onto a patient.

Or you could think about how novelists observe people in cafes to create portraits of them in prose. How could you use the needs of a doctor to create a visual analogy for comparison with the observation process of a novelist?

Whatever you choose for this part of the exercise, see the computer programmer-doctor or the painter-doctor or the writer-doctor in your mind. Focus intensely on creating that visual image.

If you can’t see a picture using your mind’s eye, take a few seconds to write out a description in words. Or access your other senses. What would it feel like to paint terminology on to a canvas, for example?

Whatever you do, don’t overthink the exercise. Just get started. You’ll learn by doing.

4. Repeat the process and prime yourself for better results

Now that you’ve found and explored an analogy, it’s time to start all over. Do it again. Just do it again.

And up the ante. Here’s how:

Keep giving your mind material that will make you more creative. To become more visual, use the material as a kind of “paint” to spread on the canvas of your mind.

In sum, you need to feed your mind the materials that make up paint.

The good news is that filling your paint factory with raw materials is easy and fun. You can:

  • Read novels and poetry
  • Look at art
  • Go to a museum
  • Watch movies
  • Sit in a park and study nature
  • Blind contour drawing

Why engage in any of these activities?

 

The Springtime Of Your Imagination Is Just Waiting To Explode With Insane Growth

 

Because when you feed your mind with images, you’re giving yourself more material to process than you consciously realize.

Think of your unconscious mind as a kind of Grand Central Station. Except in this station, only one train comes and goes.

The doors to this Grand Central Station are your eyes, ears, sense of touch, smell, etc.

Every piece of information you encounter enters Grand Central Station. If the individual bits of information were people, they would be bustling around and bumping shoulders.

Some of them would be pregnant, some may even be giving birth. Some would have already had children and be pushing baby carriages. Some would be flirting and some would be pickpockets.

Yet other people would be police. Perhaps there are some Secret Service agents lurking around in your Grand Central Station too.

 

The Agents Of Forgetfulness Are Even More Evil Than You Think!

These are the agents of judgment and disapproval. They try to stop babies from being born. They prevent babies growing up, and worse, from getting on the train at any age.

If there is an upside, it’s that they sometimes stop the pickpockets from thieving booty from unsuspecting passengers. But it’s mostly downside. These agents will stop at nothing to prevent certain people from getting on the train of your conscious mind. Usually, they hinder the most important people that you need to be the most creative at the most important times.

But even with all these agents around, every once in a while, the train of your unconscious mind pulls into the station. Sometimes it stays for awhile. Other times it’s just a short stop. Sometimes it picks up a ton of passengers. Sometimes very few, perhaps even none.

And when it rolls in, there may be few thoughts and perceptions still on the train. But many have left, getting off at various stations along the tracks of your life. This emptiness means that your train is usually in desperate need of new passengers if it’s going to travel anywhere.

Thus, the more information you get into your Grand Central Station, the more of that information can get onto the train of your conscious mind and then step out exactly where you need it in life.

 

Never Let A Good Idea Stand Alone

 

And the more information you’ve got milling around, the more the people in the Grand Central Station can work together to overcome the police and secret agents so they can board the train in the first place.

And the more people on the train – yes, even the pickpockets – the more these people can interact with another and arrive at the right places when you need them. And the more interactions you have on the train, the more these people will be able to spot the pickpockets and shake out their plunder.

And should a police officer or Secret Agent ever make it onto the train, the others will have no problem exposing them and turning them out with the thieves.

In sum, to be more visually creative, you’ve got to feed your mind visual information so that you can create more analogies.

And if you don’t believe me, just think about what I’ve just done. The picture I’ve given you of the unconscious mind as a train station and the conscious mind as a train is an analogy.

It’s a powerful one too.

 

Like King Lear Said:

Nothing Can Come Of Nothing

 

But it didn’t come out of nowhere, even though it felt like it had as I was writing it just now.

As I sit and write out this part of the podcast, I become aware of the movies and series I’ve been watching over the past few days. In an episode of Prison Break, for example, Michael Scofield and his brother are in a train station. A fellow escapee – an expert pickpocket – has recently died. There are cops everywhere and secret agents are chasing them.

Plus, I’ve been reading a John Grisham novel. It features a bus station in it. And I had recently watched Jackie Brown, which involves crowds milling in an airport and a shopping mall.

It’s clear to me now that these viewing experiences have influenced what seemed to be a spontaneously produced analogy. But it wasn’t spontaneously produced. It’s the result of the mixture churning in my unconscious mind and getting pumped out into my conscious mind.

And it every element has filtered through my studies of Freud from years ago. Freud, who talked about the “police” who stand between the conscious and unconscious mind. The repressive gatekeepers who prevent our powers of creativity from helping us create the lives we want.

So there are reasons why my unconscious mind is brimming with info. I feed it every day. I read novels, I look at art, I watch movies, I play music and sing.

 

Like Wyndham Lewis said:

If You’re Going To Be An Island, Might As Well Be A Volcanic Island!

 

And when I need analogies to help me teach or memorize new information, I never have to stretch. The volcano of raw material raging within never fails to spurt out material that I shape and form into rock hard analogies that do the trick.

And the force of the blast is so hot and so strong, no police officer or Secret Agent standing between my unconscious mind can survive the heat of the blast, let alone prevent it.

And the good news is that you can develop these superpowers of creativity too.

You now have the keys. You now know how to use direct analogies to become more visually imaginative. You now know how to fuel your Grand Central Station. You know how to fill up that train with all the best ideas. You know how to deliver whatever you need at any time, any place and under any conditions.

But let’s not stop with direct analogies.

Next time we’ll talk about how to become more visually imaginative so you can remember even more using personal analogies.

Stay tuned for that on the next episode of the Magnetic Memory Method, and as always, Keep Magnetic!

More Resources

Download this episode transcript as a PDF

Seven Ways To Make Your Memory Swiss Army Knife Sharp

The post Improving Memory Just Doesn’t Get Any Easier Than This appeared first on Magnetic Memory Method - How to Memorize With A Memory Palace.

Direct download: Improving_Memory_Just_Doesnt_Get_Any_Easier_Than_This.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 6:17pm EDT

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