5.6 Ideas from grandmasters
Should you research the topic of memory, then you will come across some stories of what people have done = memorised.
Example 1:
Dominic O’Brien memorised 40 decks of cards, that is 2080 cards. How? Well, he had 40 journeys each with 52 stages.
The difference between you and Dominic: Well, you have at the moment one journey and he has a lot of them. However otherwise there is NO difference. Now, it is up to you to build up more journeys and you can do just the same.
Do you want to remember 40 decks of cards? Oh, that is now a totally different topic.
Example 2:
Again Dominic O’Brien: he memorised 2 decks simultaneously. And he said that this made quite an impression on his audience. How did he do it?
You may guess this one. He used two journeys which he kept separate in his mind. So he placed the first card of the first deck on journey one, the first card of deck 2 onto journey 2. And so on. Afterwards to recall the cards: walk the walk. Deck 1 is on journey 1, and deck 2 is on journey 2. Sound simple now. And it is (ONCE YOU HAVE ALL YOUR JOURNEYS IN PLACE).
Example 3:
The number pi is pure nerdvana. It is very attractive as there is no pattern in that number, and therefore nothing to ‘grab’ onto. How do you do 1000 digits? (or 50.000 digits or whatever)
Change the numbers into pictures (LINK) and then have enough stages and journeys ready and place the pictures onto the journeys. Afterwards (it is getting repetive now, isn’t it): you walk the walk and recall the pictures on each stage.
Maybe you are getting the feeling that YOU can do the same. And I promise you: If you so wish, you CAN do just that.
Example 4:
Maybe the last story to illustrate my point here.
Tony Buzan (LINK) talks about psychologist and that they claim that human beings cannot recall more than 17 digits of a number. That is what ‘science’ tells us. Again Dominic O’Brien is at a conference where that topic came up. And he says: let’s test that one. And he says to the psychologist: throw ‘ a couple of digits’ at me. After 200 digits Dominic asks: do you think that is enough? The psychologist: can you recall the number? Dominic: let’s make it more difficult. Let’s sit down for dinner, have a couple of drinks, and THEN you test me. And Tony Buzan remarks so nicely, that Dominc really enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. After dinner, the psychologist ask: Now, can you recall the 200 digits? And Dominic asks back: Do you want it forward or backward?
Now, that made quite an impression.
How did he/ would he do it?
With a journey of course. Forward: walk the walk as usual. Backward: simply start at the back and work your way to the beginning.
You realise now, it makes sense, doesn’t it.
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