Bonus exercises

Bonus Exercises
The following exercises should help you become a Major
Pro. Plus, they’re fun and you can do them right from
where you’re sitting now.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
This one will require you to stand up (okay, so I may have fibbed a bit
about the sitting). It is a great introduction to a couple of concepts. It’s
also very easy.

The great thing about this exercise is that it will help you create your
first long-lasting mini-memory palace with only about 30 seconds worth
of effort. A lot of people feel insecure about their ability to visualize
imagery. They think they might not be very good at it. It’s actually not
hard or scary at all. If you can remember what Mickey Mouse or
Sponge Bob Square Pants looks like after reading this sentence, then
you have all it takes.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
Open up your wallet and pull out your Driver’s License or bank card –
something with a string of digits you think worth storing in your
permanent memory.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
Now step away from your desk and face the nearest wall you can find.
A blank wall is best, but it really doesn’t matter if there is a window or
door in the middle of it or pictures hanging on it or a couch covering the
bottom half.

Bonus Exercises
The Wall(et) Exercise

Bonus Exercises
The Wall(et) Exercise
All that really matters is that you have a clear beginning and
end, starting at your left.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
“Chunking” the information is a key component of this exercise. If your
card has 9 digits try to break it up into images made from 1-3 digits at a
time, depending on how easy it is for you to remember.

We’ll use the example ID number C34094885.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
C34094885
Whenever there’s a letter at the beginning of the sequence I try to lay a little
mental groundwork and just remember it as it is – the letter C. I can attach the
first image directly to it.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
C34094885
At the far left end of the wall I picture the Virgin Mary, a very iconic figure even
for the non-religious. Perhaps she is hugging the letter C or she is submerged
beneath a wave.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
C34094885
FINGER DRAWING – Whenever I need to quickly remember an image using
this method I find that if I draw it with my finger in the air, creating imaginary
graffiti on the wall, it will most definitely stick in my mind.
To complete this exercise, you will need to do this as well.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
C34094885
Continue the sequence. Perhaps to the right of Mary you see a cage
representing “zoo” and then from that emerges “Gary” the snail from
SpongeBob Squarepants crawling out toward a judge with a hive growing from
his head.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
I might even just quickly draw the outline of the gavel and have the hive grow
out of that.

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
C34094885
Of course, you could break up the sequence above
however you see fit. Perhaps instead of “Mary-Zoo-Gary…”
you see “Ham-Rose-Goo-Roach…”

Bonus Exercises
The Wallet Exercise
Now you’re turn! Go up to your wall, card in hand and start drawing. It
might help if you pretend you’re molding the items out of clay. Make
these items 3-Dimensional! Mime them! Make them a part of your
space. Show a physical reaction to them. Are they pretty? Admire them!
Are they gross? Wrinkle your nose. Are they silly? Laugh at them.
And when you’re done. Come back here and we can go on to the next
exercise.

Bonus Exercises
Multiplication tables
Hey there! You’ve made something akin to a memory
palace already. Now let’s make something a little bigger in
the same room.

Bonus Exercises
In the final conclusion video we ended with a challenge to
memorize the multiple of 15 up to 15. Some of you may still
have been confused as to how to do that, so I’ll go into
detail here.
To make it shorter (by one) and because the pattern isn’t as
easy to figure out as 15’s (which are all multiples of 5
anyway), we’re going to work on our 14’s instead.

Bonus Exercises
The first step is to take a walk around your room and pick
out 14 spots to designate as loci.

In order to truly “mark” them I want you to imagine an
image representing “1” somewhere near the first loci, an
image for “2” near the second and so on up to 14.

Bonus Exercises
Start at the entrance to your room. Then work your way
clock-wise around its perimeter, picking out spaces and
objects. You might try it counter-clockwise if it feels more
natural, or start elsewhere in the room. But given that we
read English from left to right, I’d wager your doing this the
same.

Bonus Exercises

Go ahead and do it now.

Bonus Exercises
Got it? Good. Now you know where your 14 loci are. You’ve
chosen the spot and you’ve anchored it down with your
numerical image.

Bonus Exercises
Derren Brown, in creating a memory palace, usually only
anchors every fifth loci, but our way is important when
dealing with number facts (multiplications). You’ll see why.

Bonus Exercises
Okay, now if I were to ask you what your eight spot
is, you’d be able to answer immediately without
hesitation, right? And your third? You twelfth? Your
fourteenth?

Bonus Exercises
Ok, now from where you’re sitting at your computer you
should be able to see every spot. Even if you can’t, you
should still be able to see them in your mind’s eye.
In fact, try taking a quick little trip through your palace in
your mind’s eye. Might as well practice.
You can even hold down the “run” button.

Bonus Exercises
Now I’m going to give you some operations.
e.g.
14x1=14
So in the place of your first loci labeled “1” you will place an
image for the product “14”. Connect the two somehow.
Perhaps it’s a bottle of ale being drunk by the Lorax. Try to
place him creatively within the loci. Put him in a vase. On a
plant. In a frame. Hanging from the wall. Whatever the loci
allows.

Bonus Exercises
So now if I ask you what 14X1 is, assuming the entire room
represents 14, you are multiplying the room times the first
loci and up pops the answer.

Bonus Exercises
Yes. I understand this is completely unnecessary for the
first few multiples, but it works pretty well when you get to
the larger numbers.
Besides – it’s a great way just to practice using the Major
System and building Memory Palaces quickly and
efficiently.
Remember, this is like a new language. At one point we all
had to practice with “The cat sat on the hat.”

Bonus Exercises
So here goes:
14x1=14
14x2=28
14x3=42
14x4=56
14x5=70
14x6=84
14x7=98
14x8=112

14x9=126
14x10=140
14x11=154
14x12=168
14x13=182
14x14=196

Bonus Exercises
Of course, you could learn any set of multiples this way.
15x15’s
18x18’s
23x23’s
99x99’s
Just put the necessary amount of loci and you can do
anything!

Bonus Exercises
For those of you groaning at the thought of having to
conjure up images every time you’re asked what 15x17
is, don’t worry. These are just like training wheels on a
bicycle. The more you practice them the less you will rely
on having to see the pictures in your head until the
information you retrieve comes automatically without
looking at the “cheat sheet” in your head. This holds true for
anything you’re trying to memorize using these techniques.
Just lay the groundwork.

Bonus Exercises
Long Numbers
The following is an excerpt from Derren Brown’s book:
“… take the following random string: 876498474505773498724. It’s fairly
impossible to learn by rote, but quite fun to use with this system. I look at the
number as a story, alternating as feels easiest [between the major system
and other systems described in the book - ed]. He I would look at the
numbers as follows:
I hear a countdown from eight, but the counter realizes she’s missed
five, and stops (8764) Fair enough, she’s nearly a hundred years old (98) and
even gets planes muddled up (474 instead of 747). The aeroplanes fly over her
beehives… she had three beehives in a row but the middle one is missing
(505), so she put a ToTeM (773) pole in its place. She did this FOR* her 98th
(498) birthday. I only gave her a TeNneR (724) as a gift.”
– D.B. Tricks of the Mind, page 98

Bonus Exercises
Long Numbers
That was a nice little story and if you repeated it to yourself a couple of
times, really picturing all the of the key imagery, I’m pretty sure you
memorized the number yourself by now. I hadn’t looked at that passage
in about a year and I remembered the long string of numbers exactly.
Now just because it’s Derren’s story doesn’t mean you can’t tweak it to
your own convenience. For instance, I wanted to remember a few
things:
1) the page it was found in the book.
2) the number that started the entire sequence.
3) I also kept forgetting the number penultimate 4 listed there (before
that final 98)

Bonus Exercises
Long Numbers
Three problems – three solutions:
1) I pictured myself in an airport in Tokyo. The old lady in the story
happens to be a very old Geisha (98). Not only did this help me
remember the page number, but the number 98 pops up at the
beginning and end of the sequence, so it helps me remember now not
only that she is very old (pushing 100!) but exactly HOW old!
2) She is shining a pair of brown shoes and throws one away when
making her announcement (8 – which starts the sequence).
3) For some reason, just really emphasizing the word FOR in “for her
98th birthday” was enough for me to remember to include it. Perhaps
you might need an additional image for the number 4. Or none at all.

Bonus Exercises
Studying
The Major System is really only useful for numbers. I won’t pretend that
it will be enough to make you a virtual memory sponge any more than
teaching you how to draw with a charcoal pencil will make you a
fantastic watercolorist.
So I can’t really give you any more hacks or tips that you couldn’t find
elsewhere on the internet or in some really good books. But here’s
something that fascinates me:

Suppose you wanted to memorize the names and dates of some
famous paintings for an art history class or, hopefully, for your own
amusement. You might go to a museum and lo and behold they’ve
pretty much built a memory palace for you. And a nice looking one at
that.

Bonus Exercises
Now aside from possibly serving as a future palace for other
information, you might wish to learn about the works on display. Some
people might be tempted to start filling the space in front of and around
and even in a painting with new imagery translating the necessary
image. Thus the following work:

Bonus Exercises
Ends up like this:

Bonus Exercises
The painting is one of three (hence the ham) Van Gogh
painted in 1898, titled Wheat Field with Cypresses.
See the problem here? Now imagine walking through a
gallery or an imaginary memory palace and defacing all
theses works of art like that. You would be seriously
missing the point.
And you wouldn’t really be “getting” the art.

Bonus Exercises
A far better course of action would be to spend time appreciating every
painting or other work of art until you are familiar with how it looks, what
it communicates, the feelings it evokes. Make the scene depicted
therein an actual place.
This applies not only to art, but to anything else you might be studying.
If it is historical figures, ask yourself, who are they? What were they
like? Why were they important? Likewise historical events – who was
affected by them? What was it like to live through this? In science you
can ask yourself what the relationships are between various scientific
phenomena – what does the discovery of such and such an element
mean for us and our understanding of nature? How does this relate to
what I already know?

Bonus Exercises
Once you’ve settled on this, then you won’t need so many images to
distract you from what you really need to know. You might learn what a
cypress tree looks like, recognize Van Gogh’s style and know that he
operated during the 19th century. Then perhaps all you would need was
to picture a Geisha standing near the painting to complete the
circle, making you seem like an expert or at the very least a dedicated
admirer. And who knows? You might be on the way to becoming either
one.

Bonus Exercises
That’s about all I can say regarding memory techniques and studying.
Know your material and know it well. No “trick” or technique can ever
replace familiarizing yourself with your subject. They can only aid you
like any good tool can.
Using a memory palace and a method of loci along with the major
system can help you categorize information, maybe recall historical
events or eras in a particular order. But of course you have to have
information to place there and the more you relate to that information
on a personal perhaps even emotional level (history does that for me, I
know) the easier it is and the less crutches you need to prop them up.
As a result, you’ll really know what you’re talking about and it will show.

Bonus Exercises
Incidentally, that’s also why it can help make you a better public
speaker.
Delivering a public speech or address or leading a meeting will be
much easier and seem far more impressive when you shift effortlessly
from one point to another in an orderly, constructed way.

Bonus Exercises
Lists – Impress your friends
Do you remember the items in the lists provided in previous
lessons?
Go back and see if you still can. If not, then perhaps you
can use some of these new tools to really get them down.

Bonus Exercises

Remember, practice is key. Wow your friends by memorizing all their
phone numbers at a party. Of course it might help if you already have
some of them on your cell phone so you can practice them. Do the old
magician’s trick where you ask everyone aloud to say their
number, then write it on a piece of paper. Perhaps throw in a few
people who you just met. The key to making it impressive is to try to
memorize them while they say them aloud and as you write them down.
After you’ve completed your list pretend to look at it with extreme
concentration, perhaps running your fingers quickly down the list as if
scanning. Your audience will think you are memorizing them now when
in reality you’ve already done the work and are just perhaps making
sure. Do this for about 5 or 6 seconds, then hand the list to a friend and
have them call people’s names out.

Bonus Exercises

Now if all this with phone numbers seems a bit advanced, you might
want to do as Derren Brown suggests in his book and try the trick by
having people shout out random objects. Anywhere from 20 to 50.
You’re likely to be even quicker with this than with phone numbers. You
could link them all (he goes into detail in the book on how to link items
even better than I show you here) or you could number them and
anchor them to the numbers. I like this way because you can have
people shout out a number later and you’ll tell them exactly what item is
at that spot in the list. You might even include addresses in the trick
(much easier than phone numbers).
Remember to only pretend you’re memorizing them when you scan the
list, but do all the secret work at the beginning.

Bonus Exercises

If you want to move on to phone numbers later, you might heed this tip:
It helps if you’ve got “stock” images for certain area codes and prefixes
ready.
The are code 707, for instance, might be “toast” and you imagine that
person eating toast. The prefix “555” might be – anything you want – I
dunno – a poodle named Fifi. Picture that person dressed as a poodle
eating toast. Did I mention this is a great way to get phone numbers?
You can choose anything for these stock images; they needn’t adhere
strictly to the Major System.

Bonus Exercises
That’s really what we’re trying to get at here. Don’t follow the system for
its own sake. You know the it already, so you can allow yourself to be
creative. It is a tool, not a tenet. In creating my memory palaces I often
distinguish them by using different items. The number 6, which is
usually “bee” is sometimes “Boo” or “Bowie.”

Bonus Exercises
It doesn’t even have to make sense entirely according to the system.
No. 6 could be a spider named Boris for all we care. Or haN solo for the
number 2. So long as YOU know what it means. This system has just
been a way to facilitate things for you. A key to a language. I’m sure lots
of you take short cuts when spelling things online or in text messages.
Me 2.

Bonus Exercises
Remember, just like with any creative endeavor, an initial skill set is
required before you can “bend” the rules or play fast and loose with
them. Anyone who tells you that artists don’t follow rules has probably
never worked with an artists tools. Whether you’re working with
words, as in constructing sentences, or sculpture with power tools you
must first learn the proper way to master the rules written in the
instruction manuals and text books so that you can best communicate
what you wish to communicate. The Major System provides a way for
you to communicate with yourself. The more stable the system, the
easier you can acquaint yourself with it. Think creatively!

Bonus Exercises
Well that’s it for the bonus exercises. If there’s anything you feel you
would like to share. Perhaps something that makes memorizing easier
for YOU – let me know in the forum section of this course! I’d love to
hear of it! Maybe I’ll use it for myself.

Bonus exercises

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