talkmagic.co.uk

So I guess this isn't really a magical question but more of a request for help and information. I'd like to state right up front that this isn't a book test and is in no way aimed at being a performance piece, unless of course people actually want to ask me to demonstrate it.

Basically for a long time now I've been very interested in mnemonics and different memory techniques, but up until now they've been left very under developed. Sure I can memorize the order of a deck of cards, quite quickly actually, and same for lists, numbers, but I've never really pushed them to the limits of my abilities. I guess the furthest has been to memorize two decks, and to see how many digits I could recall without making a mistake, 144 if anyone is interested. Recently however I've been talking with a friend about this stuff and we came up with a kind of challenge, a friendly bet to see if I could learn the entire dictionary by heart. That is that I can name the page, column and entry down that any named word is at, or if given these bits of information, could name the word.

This challenge interests me a lot and so I am really devoting myself to it. I feel as though not only would it be quite the party trick, but will also be a marathon of a brain exercise as well as just being beneficial to my vocabulary. So for those of you who have read through this post so far, here's my question.

What good resources are there for learning something like this, besides going on any special and expensive courses? I'd like to say that I don't want to learn to speed read, unless it would help. There is no real time limit. I'm aiming for maximum storage and recall.

If anyone can point me in the right direction for these kinds of things that would be great. Like I said, it's not really magic, but there are a lot of bright people on here who have also dabbled in mnemonics.

Thank you for any help.

Contact Harry Lorayne if I were you. I'm sure his e-mail address is floating around online...if not, it's his signature on the cafe.

He's published lots of books and has been very helpful in the past with queries etc.

Whoa, big challenge! I have no idea where to point you, but good luck presumably you will always have to use the same dictionary so I'd maybe buy 10 copies so you don't run out when the first is really worn. What's going to be funny is when you perform this for other magicians, they'll never believe that you actually did it, my guess is they will all assume its a clever method for a booktest (which I suppose it is in a way!)

Wow, good luck to you! It'd really make for an amazing effect if you can manage it, keep us posted on how you get on.