100 would have been great. Or 152, to add a year for every card in the deck. Though he probably would have wanted the Jokers in there too. Hope you can join us during the premiere!

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM hey Anthony I have some problem while learning civic using mmm can you help me I think my basics are wrong So if I have to learn a function of cell membrane It’s function is to stop certain ions and solutes from entering the cell . So I imagine a water filter and I imagine muddy water flowing through it and the filter stops the mud from entering a bottle named cell . This is how I do it and I don’t know how should I use this to help me in history/civics Is there any better way And another question for example I have a door as a station in my memory palace and I want to learn some thing should I associate that thing with the door or associate that thing with some thing else and place it in the door

Wonderful that you’ve had so much time to use mnemonics. Thanks for sharing your experience. 🙏

Thanks so much, Mark. I do think it's likely they'll both be remembered, or at least there's a shot at it. I dip a deep dive into Rhetorica ad Herennium back in the day if you're interested: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jpmip9apndPaiYk.html Essential mnemonic reading to be sure.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM If we look back and still admire at people like Giordano Bruno and Gregor von Fineigle today, people in the future will marvel at the footage of him on the Tonight Show, and I've Got a Secret. He's the first person on film I think performing such feats.

You're probably right that he was the first televised mnemonist. The only other footage I'm aware is only tangentially related - the "multiple mentality" demonstrations given by Harry Kahne. But now that you mention, there may well be footage of magicians and mentalists using memory techniques. But unlike Lorayne, there were likely going out of their way to hide their sleight of mind.

I read his book "How To Develop a Super Power Memory" over 30 years ago. I am still amazed at how much his number system improved my memory. He was to memory training what Jack Lalane was to strength training. Both of them lived to be 96.

Thanks for your kind words, James. Long time no hear. How have you been lately?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM Been good, needing more rest, not doing as much memory lately but still doing some. Hope you and April are in great spirits and great health.

Great that you're able to do at least a little. I've always found memory provides great solace when I've needed rest, even if I can only do a little. We're both doing great here. Thanks for your wishes and hope to chat in the comments more often when you're able! :-)

What a great science teacher! And very cool that you still use the techniques. What language are you focused on at the moment?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMMI'm not really actively learning any right now. I already know German, good French, and quite a bit of Spanish, BUT I when I learn a new word or concept of grammar, I use the techniques to remember. :)

That's great. The tools have lasting power once you know them.

Great that you found it and put the ideas into use. Bravo!

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Thanks for your kind words and support. 🙏

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Are you still actively using mnemonics?

Ageless Memory is my fave. Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear your thoughts after reading it.

So great that you were able to see him perform!

Thanks kindly. Yes, that is a great and interesting book. Any other books you’ve loved and can recommend?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM I'm sure you have these in your collection. The power of your subconscious mind - Edward Murphy. The magic of thinking big - David Schwartz. These books changed my life. I'm from South Africa by the way. Those books were handed down to me by my late father. He has an impressive library. Your library reminds me of him

I don't have either of those books - thanks for mentioning them!

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My pleasure! 🙏

Thanks for your post. Are you currently using memory techniques to help with any specific learning goals?

Thanks so much, Richard. I appreciate it very much. Do you have any mnemonic-assisted learning projects on the go at the moment?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM In addition to some mentalism/memory videos I've shared (www.youtube.com/@richardrubin2192/videos), I'm always memorizing something new for another memory challenge or for my own education, which I view as a lifelong process. In 1986, I read Lorayne's The Memory Book, and it changed the trajectory of my life. I've been a huge fan of his for decades, hence my interest in your video about Harry. I'd love to exchange some ideas with you about memory techniques, including one that I call the Massively Distributed Memory Palace. Thanks so much for all your contributions to the memory improvement community!

None of your videos seem to be showing up for some reason, but they'd be great to check out sometime.

I’m working on a project for that now. The first Memory Detective Jr. book is done and working out how to get it to kids and teachers now.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. One of the greatest things about re-reading these books is that memory improvement is not a "set and forget" matter. It's like going to the gym: if we want our muscles pumped, we need to keep exercising them. And if we want our muscles to grow, we need to add additional challenges. I feel like these two points are often missed in the nature of what using memory techniques are, which is one reason I keep putting out as many videos as possible on this channel. It's not like the need to read and re-read memory books every goes away, just like the need to keep going the gym never goes away for the body that wants to remain fit. Mixed results are thus inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing, so long as we keep moving forward, as I intend to do for myself over the decades to come. The previous study-practice routine is still on the channel and next time there will be some more. Hope to see you in the comments then too. :-)

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He was. So much to go through in more than one realm if you get into him and his stuff.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM ironically,I feel the exact same way about your channel!

I hope it will deliver at least a few good things!

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Yes, he was fast and sharp. There are some videos of him doing magic even into his 90s.

Yes!! I actually have the Card Classics of Ken Krenzel, and Lorayne’s writing was fantastic

Intense, isn't it?

That's fantastic, Bill. She's very blessed to have you!

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM I hope she see it that way? I jest a bit Thanks You

Memory corrects many things. I can name more than a few people who I became grateful for decades later for taking the time to educate me.

Thanks for sharing this memory, Ronald. Harry definitely made memory magical and many connections flowed from his work as a result.

I haven't had my Svengali deck in hand forever and a day. Time for some fun!

Thanks for this. Yes, there is a way to use the Major for music. There are three videos about this in the FAQ section of the MMM Masterclass that go into depth on how this can be done based on my own experiences as a touring musician who had to learn progressive bass lines fast.

That is an interesting data point and definitely a possibility. Many thanks for sharing that - I’ll look for it. Did you ever see my interview with Christopher Kemp or read his Dark and Magical places? It is about not having a sense of direction and is brief, but fascinating and useful.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMMis that related to overcoming the issue with being bad with directions? This is a bit of my case and now everytime I go somewhere im not familiar with, I keep track of the major streets I pass by and make a connection with each one to remember it. Helps a bit, but might not be the best thing. Now I'm thinking of using palaces to make it more permanent

That's great news. What kinds of info are you memorizing at the moment?

@Anthony Metivier I'm studying biology and learning about heredity and genetics

Exciting (and challenging) topics!

@Anthony Metivier😅 really heavy for me just waiting for your new video

Personally, I love taking on the heavy stuff. Did you see the previous Imaginary Memory Palace video? That and one I might release in the near future about statues might be useful for you in these realms.

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I read the book just before entering law school, and it was the basis for my study for 3 years, and successful bar exam

Do you mean improve recall of events and/or facts you used to remember that were originally encoded without using mnemonics?

Yes, please visit my site to sign up for the tutorial. It has four videos and worksheets.

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Thanks for this and great that you're getting thorough recall results. To find a faster means, it's important to think about: * The nature of the information * Memory Palace construction * Depth of multi-sensory elaboration * Practice with Recall Rehearsal * Other levels of elaboration (reading more, writing, listening, speaking about or otherwise reciting the information orally) At this stage of my career, the only thing that has changed is that I use the pages of books as Memory Palaces a lot more, partly due to figuring out a neat way to do that and partly because the major foundations I need have been established. It's now a lot about supplementing and expanding the foundations. But overall, it's not that anything has changed in any substantial way. It's a combination of ongoing experiments and exploration based on the fundamentals. Without knowing more about your projects and more technical details of how you're proceeding, it's hard to find more solutions for you, but generally, I find speed comes from compounding based on the establishment of fundamentals in a topic. Not only because it's easier to compound within Memory Palaces and other inter-topic features, but pattern recognition grows and grows, sometimes making memorization more or less automatic because pattern recognition itself has mnemonic features. Please let me know if you have more details and/or questions around this, or if this gives you a decent amount to go on. :-)

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM thanks Anthony! I’m interested in knowing more about how you use pages of books as memory palaces. But aside from that I think the advice you’ve given me thus far is great. I’m going to continue on with the process that I am using, as it’s very effective. I was using Anki prior to the magnetic memory method. And I thought it was great until I really gave your methods a try, and now I’ve entirely abandoned Anki all together. I think that the process of thinking of associations for what I want to remember and physically creating my excel documents are what’s taking up the most time. But actually placing the imagery in the loci is the fastest part. This is still new to me, so I think you’re right about having the skill compound, which will increase speed. How long do you spend committing information to memory each day, and how much can you typical store in a day? I’d really like to push the boundaries of this to commit as much as I can to memory each day.

Thanks for this. I also find these techniques far better than Anki to the point that, except for a few experiments from time to time, I never use any software. I never really did all that much in the first place because the Leitner algos were well-known for index cards already, and the digital amnesia problem was pretty easy to see early online. I'm not sure how to answer your questions about amounts of time spent because they are quantifying information in ways that I don't reflect how learning and memory work - at least not for me. There are goals and systems and what matters is the consistency of the forward progress. For that, there is no meaningful answer because I would naturally revert to: I can memorize as much as I want any given day relative to the realistic nature of my goals. Currently, I'm memorizing Bruno in Latin. How much can I memorize in a day? As much as I want relative to the realistic nature of my goals. Some days that's an entire paragraph. Some days it's just one word. What matters is the consistency of the forward progress. Likewise when I was learning German or doing my Sanskrit project which amounts to nearly 2k words. I really can't say how much I memorized on any given day because it's beyond measurement. And my boundaries are very different than the boundaries of others. I do not seek to "push" anything, but rather to commit to consistency, which is not a boundary-based commitment, but a commitment to flow. But if I did want to break boundaries, I would rearrange my goals and that would require changing how I think about my own ego, which I go out of my way to not think about at all. To do this, I would look at the records currently set by memory champions and set goals in accordance with them. Then, I would journal my daily results in the categories I want to "win" in and make measurements based on that. For example, there almost certainly is a record for the most amount of memorized Sanskrit. But because I only care about the knowledge and the consistent ability to use the knowledge, how much Sanskrit is largely irrelevant and it would only be the poisonous trap of ego that would put me in pursuit of such a goal. So my goal is different: to maximize the consistent use of the Sanskrit I have memorized relative to other goals, which requires daily, consistent meditation and adding on other texts by people who achieved similar conclusions. This is why I'm now memorizing some Bruno and memorizing as much as I like on a daily basis relative to my larger goals, and I can say each and every day I memorize exactly as much as I want. Now, let's say I wanted to push my boundaries without reference to the boundaries set by others. In this case, I would journal exactly how much I was able to memorize within x framework, i.e. 10 latin phrases per day. To break this boundary, I would start by squeezing in 11 by doing whatever it took to make that happen. Then I would shoot for 12 and keep experimenting until I hit a ceiling of complexity or a saturation point that prevented me from going any higher before starting an analysis. Surely, there must be an upper limit... or must there be? I don't know, but personally, the nature of information itself has long suggested to me that this is not a useful activity. Indeed, if you look at many of the spiritual traditions, instead of memorizing the entire Bhagavad Gita, some clever people extracted its essence into a piece called the Song Celestial. If you memorize this before, during and after reading the full Gita, you will be well-served and free from the mostly useless task of memorizing a bunch of narrative information and operators that are needed in order for basic grammar to work. This not only gives you a tremendous knowledge of what the text means, but it makes it faster and easier to snap onto the next condensed work, which you can always create for yourself using the MMM approach to textbooks. In any case, I don't mean to judge anyone else's goals, but have decided for myself that my pursuits are about amounts memorized always and only relative to goals that I have thought about deeply and tested before I even get started. Raw logic tends to reveal to me that less is not only more, it is itself excessively more than needed given the overdetermined nature of language and how pattern recognition forms in the brain. I have also based some of this based on the mental image I maintain of how the great memory masters also operated. Bruno's theory of everything, for example, is connective based on building the mental space in which mental connections are possible. It's not really about knowing and understanding everything, but about creating the foundations that make for a more rapid absorption of new knowledge possible along with a patterned ability to test quickly whether it's really worth memorizing at all. The reason I call my own teaching the "Magnetic Memory Method" is precisely because magnetics attract, but also repel. So a huge part of maximizing/optimizing one's use of the techniques according to this particular strategy is exactly that: know what you need/want to repel just as much as what you want to attract and remember. Does this way of looking at things make sense and help you out?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM hey Anthony! I apologize for my late response, I got quite sick last week and am just starting to feel better. All of this was very helpful. I think I was just operating out of impatience at the time. With a week having gone by, I’m already beginning to notice that my understanding of these tools are really becoming locked in. And by that I mean, the several dozen journeys I’ve made are very quick to recall, and through that process of recall I understand more clearly how mnemonics work. In other words, recalling my journey creates a feeling of confidence that these tools really do work, where as before I was uncertain because I hadn’t had a month or more of time in between making and recalling a journey. Now that the time has passed and I can still recall what I placed in the loci with greater speed and ease, I feel like I have the process on lock, which is really exciting I like what you said about the ego. I think I can certainly benefit from that lol! I’ve been looking into some books on the topic as well. One of the things I’ve been thinking back to is you saying in one of your videos is that you don’t visualize? Am I misremembering this? The reason I ask is because I do feel a bit of uncertainty in the imagery that I create. There is imagery, and I do my best to incorporate Cogkav, however I don’t always feel like the image I’ve created is the best for certain loci. This is something that I think i will be able to work on and solve. However, my question is, what do your images look like? How clear are they? When you revisits a palace do you get a full head on image of each loci, or is it more like scanning the room and getting a glimpse through your periphery, which is enough to generate the meaning that the imagery represents. I find that I just need to get the most subtle visual detail, and that will be enough to help me remember what I stored. Is this a bad practice or should I spend time really looking at what I’ve placed in the loci? Thanks! I hope that last bit wasn’t too much at once! Look forward to hearing from you :)

Glad you're feeling better! I tend not to visualize, no, though it did start happening to me. I think part of the problem is how people think about "visualization" and how they discuss it. It ultimately gets pretty noodly, but for people who want to experience visualization, there do seem to be options. I didn't believe it, but I explored those options and now sometimes I visualize. I don't particularly care for it, though. And I certainly don't need it to manipulate visual references for use in mnemonics. All of that can be done in very striking and impactful ways using logic and the other modes. So when asking questions like how clear the images are or what they look like, I would ask a question in return: I have Wolverine making an X at a Pet Barn with the 10 of spades on one claw as he's piercing the door for "expetendorum." What's there to see? It's faster to perceive the logic of the image and hear the sound of the claws smashing into the door than to animate it visually. If a person can animate it visually, then how I see it doesn't matter. How much that visuality for the person actually contributes to the recall of the target information matters. And this is the ultimate problem I've seen in mnemonics. Even people who think they are visual do very well to add the other sensations to bring in recall. And the specificity of the reference matters a great deal. With one possible exception, which we'll talk about next: In terms of the "best possible image," I would suggest setting the need for this aside. I prefer to go with the images that I get and improve them on a second pass when necessary. Depending on the content, it may be more or less necessary. Some recent Latin has required more vigor, for example, but that's also partly a function of the current state of my health. I didn't originally think of having a ten of spades on the claw originally, so got stuck on that during the first round of Recall Rehearsal. But there's no guarantee that waiting around for a better image would have not required some revision, so the name of the game for maximum speed is go with what you've got and correct when you need to. With more experience, things will improve, with the odd time still arising where you might miss an obvious opportunity to do better, but for some reason missed it. Even the best athletes have that when they are at the top of their game, and so too must our best memory artists. Even Harry Lorayne. Does this way of looking at things help you out?

Favorite Lorayne book?

Thanks for asking about this. Lorayne never mentioned him to me when I talked with him so I don't know. My impression was that Lorayne thought a lot of people copied him, which is a bit ironic given his reference to the dusty old texts from which he learned the techniques himself. Did you learn mnemonics from either of them yourself?

yes, both. My first exposure was actually Bornstein, circa 1980, via a promotional Book signing (in Galveston) of his 1979 printing of his book "Memory" by Arthur Bornstein. This book was first printed in 1964. He had started his LA based school for 'memory training' in 1952. Lorayne's first book was in 1957. They both successfully did the Carson-Linkletter kind of showings. They seemed to exist in parallel universes, unless(more likely) they knew each other. When you view, for example, an Arthur performance on Steve Allen, or Johnny Carson, it's the same format as Lorayne. Maybe it's co-incidence. It's crystal clear to me that Harry is FAR superior as a showman..Not even close. I will tell you that I have always thought that Bornstein was a very good business man and promoter. But my gut tells me that he unabashedly copied Lorayne.. But...I DON'T KNOW! As you know, Scott Bornstein, Arthur's son..has successfully continued his Dad's business..seemingly targeting the corporate crowd. Really, a solid strategy if their business was to remain sustainable. I tend to think that Harry's comment to this would be something like.."Boring is not sustainable." For sure, somebody knows. Being a nerd on this subject, I find it fascinating. There might be a decent story here.

Hello Anthony, I have discovered that there is only 1 year difference in their date of birth! The problem is finding the exact DOB for Arthur. I could only verify that he (Bornstein) was 32 years old in 1959.

Thanks for asking about this. Please shoot me an email using your MMM Masterclass account email. I’ll get back to you with a personalized tutorial a.s.a.p. 🙏

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM ok I have sent the email Thanks

It's your skillset with the art of memory. What do you think?

Thanks for your question. I don't compete, so it would be best to ask a competitor. But the one time I did compete, I did repeat the information I memorized: to demonstrate that I had memorized it. Generally, I only memorize things I want to hold for the long term. Depending on the source language, it can take a minute or longer, and it ultimately doesn't matter because I want to be able to repeat it for the long term.

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Can you be there for the premiere?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM sure! I will be❤

Awesome - see you there!

Great goal! How did you get all of these Pokemon into memory?

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM there are tons of videos and images on them, so if you want to make them memorable, I suggest getting to know them on a closer level, like distant relatives or friends.. their names are a combination of words based on their types etc, so name origin videos are very useful for this because pronunciation can be quite tricky at times.. but you can break their names down to smaller parts and associate them to other things.. for example Charmander can be broken into Charm- man- der.. For charm you can think of Irish lucky clover.. a man for man lol.. and dirt for der.. etc etc.. I suggest starting with both name and images then try connecting the list of names to the mental image of them, and final step is image to name.. Exposure is key

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM flash cards are good as well.. you can also gamify it by keeping track of time records (how many you can name in under a minute or how long its take to name 20 etc)... and there are tons of pokemon games to aid with familiarity... the possibilities are endless

Thanks for these suggestions. Ultimately, I use the Magnetic Memory Method, and since it has never been directed at Pokemon and probably won't be, I'll continue to follow a very similar principle with figures from mythology, authors of books, actors, directors of movies, etc. What I wouldn't do is use flashcards, at least as little as possible. And when I do, I use them the Magnetic way. Which, I must agree, Pokemon, Magic The Gathering, Garbage Pail Kids, hockey cards, etc. all have Magnetic qualities to them.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM very cool. I just went with Pokemon because I grew up on the stuff and there is an order behind it that helps with encoding (evolved forms, fire, water, etc types).. also it all comes from one source, I find pulling from multiple sources difficult for retrieval.. plus the cute art style is simpler to remember for me than say Yugi-Oh or other styles that are abit more complex..

Great question. I've seen people move quite quickly, but there's the question of passion and interest in the goal. What makes you interested in this particular application of memory techniques?

I see it as a start also just a way to impress some of my friends once I get to finish this l would feel like I have a foundation. But how long do you think I would take?

I don't do things to impress others, so I don't know. When it comes to developing foundations that I know will be bullet proof, here's what I do: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g6yqZpR51bzPmmQ.html

Well darn, Im going to watch the video thanks I guess I don’t need friends

Not sure if you know this, but I wrote my PhD dissertation on friendship. I'm not sure if I would conclude that one doesn't need friends, but a lot of my research showed that there's definitely a way to optimize the roles that friendship can play in our lives. It's definitely worth taking a deep dive on the topic at some point, and I will be doing that in one of my future memory-training books.

Please see this tutorial: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p7NhprR72M68dWg.html Then be sure to do all the exercises at the end of this one: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lZl-ZcxomLKvpGQ.html

If you have develop all (or at least some of) the systems involved in the MMM, you apply them to this information.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM thanks but I don’t know how I think my basics are wrong So if I have to learn a function of cell membrane It’s function is to stop certain ions and solutes from entering the cell . So I imagine a water filter and I imagine muddy water flowing through it and the filter stops the mud from entering a bottle named cell . This is how I do it and I don’t know how should I use this to help me in history/civics Is there any better way And another question for example I have a door as a station in my memory palace and I want to learn some thing should I associate that thing with the door or associate that thing with some thing else and place it in the door

Let's pull back the camera here: Why are you memorizing cell functions in history and civics?

The rule of thumb is to use the Magnetic Memory Method so that you never run out of Memory Palaces and the best possible choice springs to mind when you need a “new” one. That, or you spontaneously use the room you’re in, like we see Harry doing in the video footage included here.

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM right okay thank you. I have the course and it’s been a big game changer. Are you referring to the list of A-Z inventory of palaces?

Thanks so much for your follow-up. Yes, the A-Z network is the opening of the skill. You can also have multiple networks and a secondary 00-99 PAO system, which can also be extended into multiple versions. The more you have and use, the better and more "Magnetic" things will become for you. Please let me know if you have more questions about this and thanks for being part of the MMM Mission! :-)

@@AnthonyMetivierMMM thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I’m using your shelling system to create journeys and it’s made it much easier. But sometimes I forget the next stage, so I’ll place a person from my pao list into the loci, and it’s astonishing how much easier it makes to recall the accurate sequencing of loci. I have many questions but I’ll try and solve them on my own for now! I’ll save the tougher ones to ask you in the future.

You're doing great and yes, having Bridging Figures or 00-99 PAO figures on stations can be a great way to "kick off" each station. I do that sometimes myself, depending on the info. By all means, please send your questions anytime, though you have intuited the Feynman technique/active recall: the value of trying to answer questions oneself first. It's a powerful learning strategy that itself forms memories faster based on new learning.