How would you like to remember anything that you want at anytime with 100% accuracy? This seems like a bold, and impossibly loaded question, but it is absolutely possible, and your life will change instantaneously! How? Memory training from Mr. Harry Lorayne!
I was in the military, and I was having a hard time remembering all of the phone numbers for the different departments, and I was forever doing up “frequently called numbers lists,” and I finally had enough, and so I went to the local library in search of books on memory. That was when I discovered Mr. Harry Lorayne’s books, and they changed my life forever!
The art of memory is nothing new, but Mr. Lorayne just refined it down to some very easy, and basic principles. Surprisingly, many ancient cultures have been practicing memory techniques/aids, without the uninitiated even knowing that it is happening. I’ll revisit this later on.
The technology that Mr. Lorayne teaches is based one universal law about memory, and that is if something is outrageous, and out of the ordinary, then you will be able to remember it. Can you ever forget 9/11, or perhaps a very traumatic experience like a car crash, or your first kiss? Would you ever be able to forget if the chair that you are sitting on suddenly grew human legs, and walked away? Why is it that you wouldn’t be able to forget this? Our minds record everything, but we will really only remember things that are out of the ordinary, and the mudane things are filtered out. Can you remember what you had for breakfast this morning? Most people cannot, and really who cares…that’s what your mind is saying, but if you were to burn your toast, or almost electrocute yourself trying to get the toast out of the toaster do you really think you’ll be able to forget that?
He puts this principle to use by taking two pieces of data (1, 2, to infinity amount of things that you want to remember), and associating them in impossible, and crazy situations.
There are 3 laws that you have to follow in order to remember:
1 – Exaggerate the size.
2 – Exaggerate the number.
3 – Substitution.
Let’s say that you want to remember a shopping list. Now, most people just write a list, but what if you lost the list on the way to the store? Well, you don’t have to worry about that now because you will have memorized the list. Let’s start!
The list is of items to pick up are (5 in all):
Milk
Light bulbs
Eggs
Butter
Apples
Okay, you’ll need a starting point, and that is you, so see yourself going to the store, but instead of driving to the store, or walking, etc, see yourself swimming in an ocean of milk! Now see yourself drinking out of milk carton (I know your mother told you not to, but we all do it), and instead of milk coming out of the carton you are drinking light bulbs (make sure you see millions of light bulbs). Next you’ll see yourself cracking open a huge light bulb just like it was an egg, and out comes billions of eggs. Next see a huge egg and it’s buttering itself with huge globs of butter. Next see billions of plastic containers of butter (or the packaging of your favorite brand of butter) eating huge apples (Have the apples screaming as they are eaten by the butter).
Okay, some really quick rules about what you’ve just memorized: Make sure that you see each piece of data individually with the other piece of data, and after you’ve made the association do not include the 1st piece of data to the 3rd piece of data. Your mind works so quickly that it will morph the information into the next data value. So you have to ensure that you see the 2 data points, and the next 2 data points do not have the 1st piece of data, and so on. So in our example of memorizing the list we had you swimming to the store in an ocean of milk, and then drinking from a milk container, and millions of light bulbs come flowing out…notice how we did not include the ocean of milk because your mind will morph it, and you will not be able to see the light bulbs data. See each of the objects clearly using the 3 rules, and no not deviate from what you first memorized. In other words, do not change it while your still memorizing as your mind will become confused, and not see the images clearly, or you’ll see 2 images, and they will not link up with what you’ve memorized. Exaggerating the size: never have anything small! Always have it impossibly huge, massive larger than life! Exaggerate the number: Always have billions, millions, never just a few! Like instead of a glass of milk we had an ocean of milk! Substitution: instead of using what would be logical, substitute it! Just like we did with the light bulbs coming out of the milk carton.
What you just did is what Mr. Lorayne calls the “Link Method,” and it is great for memorizing lists just like the list that we just memorized, and anything that is in order, and it is just the beginning of the incredible journey that you will have when learning how to memorize!
I noticed that the first nations aboriginals would tell stories having huge birds, animals, trees, and even mountains talking, and doing impossible things, and it struck me, when I was learning about memory training, that they have been utilizing these memory techniques for as long as mankind as been around!
After I finished a couple of his books, I starting memorizing the phone numbers of every department that I frequently called, and my supervisors were absolutely amazed as to my seemingly photographic memory! In fact, they wouldn’t even bother with the base phone directory because I was there, and I even went further by memorizing all the major departments. By the time they had words out of their mouths for the number they were looking for, I had already rattled off the number to them! I can’t begin to tell you what an incredible feeling that you get when you are able to do the impossible, and it is a great boost to your self esteem!
I should point out that I was an average student in school, and I often wondered how much my marks would have improved if I had been trained, and when I left the military, and did some upgrading I found out…I achieved an A average! Later on, I was even able to get an life insurance license, and it was straight memorization, and I was one of the top students that they’ve ever had! (I should point out that the course that I went through had books that didn’t even have indexes in them as they were in the midst of redoing them, and I still came out on top!)
Bottom line, my initial question, “How would you like to remember anything that you want at anytime with 100% accuracy?”, is not impossible once you start applying Mr. Lorayne’s teachings. We want to learn, and we are placed in learning institutions, but we are never actually taught how to learn! Mr. Lorayne addresses this, and once you start his courses your life will never be the same! If you have a child that is struggling in school, or they seem to be having problems concentrating, and are suffering from ADD, then start them on this incredible learning experience…you’ll be amazed!
References:
Mr. Harry Lorayne
Website: http://www.harrylorayne.com/
E-mail: questions@harrylorayne.com/
Some books by Mr. Harry Lorayne:
The Memory Book
Super Memory Super Student
Page-a-minute Memory Book
Secrets of Mind Power
How To Develop A Super Power Memory
