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How To Build A Memory Palace Review &


Memory Palace Worksheets

By Anthony Metivier
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Dear Masterclass Member,

If you want the rare ability to quickly and easily improve your memory
and effortlessly recall information any time you wish (including years
from now), this memory improvement kit will lay the foundation for
achieving that ability, starting today.

What you're about to discover is based on the Magnetic Memory Method


principle of building a well-structured Memory Palace in combination
with effective associative-imagery that will allow you to learn, memorize
and recall anything you want.

Don't worry if you think that sounds hard or advanced.

As you're about to see, it’s actually pretty easy.

In fact, it’s so easy, that the Magnetic Memory Method is used


successfully by people all around the world, the same people who once
told themselves that they were born with a poor memory.

Please print this training, read through it, fill out the Memory Palace
Worksheets (starting on page 26) and get in touch if you have any
questions.

Sincerely,

Anthony Metivier

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Memory Palace History
Before we begin learning to build Memory Palaces, it will serve you well
to know a little bit about the history of this practice.

No one really knows whether or not the following story is true, especially
given that there are so many variations of it to choose from, but as we’ll
see, what really matters is that the legend has clues about how to use
memory techniques. I suspect it is for this reason that the “origin story”
of Memory Palaces has survived.

Back in Ancient Greece, Simonides of Ceos (c. 546-468 BCE) found


himself giving a speech at a banquet before a group of distinguished
guests. The building collapsed and everyone but Simonides died.

In some versions of the story, Simonides was called out of the banquet by
Castor and Pollux, mythical boxers who represent heroism. There doesn’t
appear to be any reason these two figures called him out of the banquet,
but the occasion did save him from being crushed to death.

Regardless of how the story is told, because Simonides knew the secrets
of combining images with locations, he knew exactly where everyone in
the building had been sitting. In what must have seemed like a miracle to
the city authorities, Simonides recounted the name and exact location of
every person in attendance. This enabled the families to claim the bodies
of their loved ones and give them a proper burial.

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It was Simonides’ ability to combine the layout of buildings with
mentally created imagery that led to the creation of the Memory Palace
technique. The major point of the story that we will be referring to many
times in this book is that Simonides used location to “store” and “revisit”
memorized information.

In fact, much of what you’ll learn in this book boils down to the
following equation:
Location = The information you want to memorize

Image = Something that helps you recall the information, leaning heavily
on reproducing how the information sounds, i.e. a rapper MC chasing and
threatening a giant letter E with a square would help you recall E=MC
Squared because each element of the image is associated with the target
language.

Action = Action often operates in the same way as imagery, but is useful
for memorizing concepts that don’t easily correspond to sounds like the
E=MC Squared example. Action is especially useful for memorizing
foreign language vocabulary where sound and meaning go together in
critical ways.

One of the reasons Simonides was able to recall all of the attendees at the
banquet is because he had associated their name with their location in the
banquet hall. He did this by creating associative-imagery, wild and zany
mental pictures that he used to almost instantly recall their names. Not
easy names like Butch or Tom or Suzy, but Ancient Greek names that
usually had many syllables.

Thus, the crazy images that Simonides exaggerated in his mind by


amplifying them with colors, sizes and movement, matched with the
mental locations of where he stored those images (which was
coincidentally where each attendee either sat or stood), allowed
Simonides to recall the names of each individual by mentally moving
from station to station and "decoding" the images he created.

About The Term “Memory Palace”

For some, “Memory Palace” is not the sexiest term. Technically, I refer to
Memory Palaces as “non-arbitrary space” because ideally, all Memory
Palaces are based on familiar locations. If you’re gagging at the idea of
using the term “Memory Palace,” as we’ll be doing throughout this book,
feel free to find a replacement.

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Whatever you do, don’t get hung up on the terminology. I once coached
on 80-year-old man through email who went on to memorize hundreds of
lines of poetry using the Magnetic Memory Method and loads of German
vocabulary, a language he had been studying in order to correspond with
a long lost acquaintance recently rediscovered through the magic of the
Internet. The crazy thing is that he understood the techniques I teach very
well. What was really blocking him was the term “Memory Palace.” Only
after we got to the root of the problem, and he finally decided to call his
Memory Palaces “apartments with compartments,” it was smooth – or
rather Magnetic – sailing.

The lesson here is that if you don’t like the term Memory Palace, come
up with a term of your own. Please don’t feel that this problem is silly,
trivial or unrealistic. We humans are a fickle species and sometimes even
the smallest change makes a huge difference. As Wayne Dyer often says
(quoting Einstein, I believe), when you change the way you think of
things, the things you think of change. Although it may not be technically
true, the quote demonstrates that our success with so many things in life
has everything to do with how we feel about them, and everything we feel
stems from how language conditions our experience.

So if using a “Memory Palace” doesn’t fire up your engines and motivate


you to make massive improvements in your memory, try “Mind Palace,”
“apartments with compartments.”

Why we call them Memory Palaces

This issue raises the interesting questions of why we call them “Memory
Palaces” in the first place. There are many potential answers, but one of
my favorites appears in St. Augustine (354-430 ACE). In his Confessions,
he wrote “And I come to the fields and spacious palaces (praetoria
memoriae) of my memory, where are the treasures of innumerable
images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses.”

This passage is important because Augustine points out that in order for
Memory Palaces to become useful, we need to combine locations with all
of our senses. By putting sensations together with locations, we create
“treasure.” We make the information Magnetic so that it will come back
to us whenever we wish.

You might also find it useful to know that location-based memory


techniques appear to have existed before people like Augustine and
Simonides worked with them. In her book on the Buddha, Karen
Armstrong mentions the use of memory techniques in Yoga that involve

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associating images with locations. In addition, the contemporary
Buddhist instructor Michael Roach has spoken in great detail about how
various meditations were remembered by the monks by placing imagery
in different parts of the temple.

For example, in a meditation, which asks us to remember that death, is


always behind us, monks were advised to place a black dog at a particular
part of the temple to remind them of this principle. Every time the
practitioner mentally journeys across this section of the Memory Palace,
the image of this dog “triggers” the teaching and helps maintain
enlightenment.

Later religious traditions like Catholicism would take such ritualistic


reminders out of the imagination and externalize them in the form of
reliefs or paintings on the walls of their churches in the form of the
Stations of the Cross. If you speak with a Catholic person about this, they
will usually be able to name each of these with ease. When you have the
opportunity to do so, ask them what they see in their minds as they recite
them. Chances are they’ll be mentally moving from station to station
assisted by their real world knowledge of a church structure.

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Memory Palace created by a Magnetic Memory Method student in Australia.

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How To Build A Memory Palace
In this chapter, we’re going to get into a lot of detail about constructing
well-formed Memory Palaces, but for now, sit back, relax and let the
concept sink in. Memory Palaces will provide you with the ultimate
organizational system for learning, memorizing and recalling anything.
Think of it as a cheat sheet or crib sheet for your mind.

However, there’s one important difference. Using Memory Palaces to


store information in your mind is never cheating. Some people have
asked me over the years about this because they feel that the cutting edge
memory “tricks” you’re about to learn are unethical, particularly in test
situations.

This stems back to the strange notion that memory techniques are
“artificial” as opposed to “natural.” For example, if you look at other
language learning books and listen to podcasts, you’ll often find that they
use the term “natural language learning.” What they mean, basically, is
reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Yet, when you think about it, reading and writing and even the language
itself is artificial, but the Magnetic Memory Method is based on a
combination of buildings that you’ve encountered in your life and the
natural abilities of your imagination to see and think in images by using
words. It’s the language learning books, video programs and audio
presentations that press you to use rote learning and spaced repetition that
are artificial. Memory techniques are an organic means of learning
information by using more of your mind, not less.

So, none of this is ever cheating. Everything you’ll memorize using the
Magnetic Memory Method has been learned in a legitimate way. You’ve
just learned it faster and more “Magnetically” than anyone else has. Your
personal life experiences, the locations you know and your perfect ability
to create mental imagery are your “natural” secret weapon. Of course,
you can learn a great deal about language learning from those who claim
that memory techniques are “artificial,” but please be cautious of the
argument that memory techniques somehow fall outside of nature. This
couldn’t be further from the truth.

Magnetic Memory Amplification

That being said, there are three main principles involved in what I call
“memory amplification.” I use this “artificial” term (wink wink) because
memory techniques do seem to “turn up the volume.” This louder quality

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means that the Memory Palaces themselves become kind of like storage
unit speakers through which our imagination roars out the information
we’ve memorized.

In order to learn how to amplify your memory in order to make it more


Magnetic, we need to understand three key principles. These are:

Location

Imagery

Activity

Along with these principles, we have the two sub-principles of


preparation and predetermination.

Let’s look at them in turn. Keep in mind that each of these principles is
individually important and each is interrelated. Use them independently,
and they will still help improve your memory. Use them together and
your memory skills will soar beyond belief.

Location

Location is part of, but not the entire picture of the Memory Palace
concept. At the simplest level of understanding, locations are used to
store imagery. We saw how Simonides did this in our story about the
birth of the Memory Palace technique in the Western world and the
reason we use locations is because we tend to remember the structure of
places we’ve lived or visited without exerting any mental effort. At the
very least, we use only a minimal amount of energy to recall what our
home, school, library or church looks like. The ability to recall the
structures of building is one of the key principles of memory work:
eliminate everything that you don’t have to work at remembering and
build natural associations.

You might be asking yourself, “What about outdoor locations?”

Great question.

For now, I suggest that you work only with indoors locations. Your mind
can readily rebuild the layouts of buildings in a way that is much more
structured than any forest path or journey down a busy street. You can
use outdoor locations after you’ve worked with at least ten indoor
Memory Palaces so that you really know what you’re doing and why
you’re doing it.

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As we move through this book, I’m going to suggest that you create a
large number of Memory Palaces. Although there are many elements of
the Magnetic Memory Method that make it unique in the word of
memory techniques, it is the emphasis on multiple Memory Palaces that
makes this approach work as well as it does.

Of course, when I tell people just how many Memory Palaces they should
build, they think I’m crazy. When you’re thinking about locations for
storing memories, try doing something that I did for myself when I came
up with the Magnetic Memory Method.

I sat down and determined all the places I have lived and all the schools I
attended. At that time, I listed eight cities, twenty-five houses (or
apartments) and sixteen neighborhoods within those cities. I then added
the homes of my friends and family member. There are even hotel rooms
that I remember very well in cities that I have visited. The path I took
from an apartment in Paris to the Louvre, for instance, has served me
very well over the years. I’ve found that the number of Memory Palaces I
can build is exponential. The list expands each and every time I travel or
intentionally step into a store I’ve never visited before.

By intentionally, I mean deliberately deciding that each new building


could become a Memory Palace and paying attention to its layout. If you
start doing this, you’ll have more than enough buildings from your past
and present to build all the Memory Palaces you could ever need while
adding new ones as part of your future as a Magnetic Memorizer.

Action Step – Start a list of all the locations with which you are
familiar.

Why not try this exercise now? Get out some paper and something to
write with. Start with the first home that you can remember.

Then, list all of your relatives whom you’ve visited and have houses or
apartments you can remember.

Move on to list all of your friends and their homes if you remember them.
Do this for both your past and present friends. If you have bad memories
from previous relationships, you can leave these out. However, try to be
scientific and clinical about it. Just because you may have a bad memory
about a particular building, it doesn’t mean that you can’t “cleanse” it of
those feelings and use it for the sake of good.

Next, list all of the schools you attended.

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List churches you’ve belonged to.

Clubs.

Movies theatres.

Shopping malls.

Art galleries.

Libraries.

Bookstores.

Etc.

By the time you’ve completed this exercise, you’ll see that we all have
more territory in our minds than we could ever possibly hope to use for
storing memories.

Once you have a list of potential Memory Palaces, you can then organize
them in particular ways. You can organize them alphabetically, for
example, which is a major suggestion in this book and if you’ve
downloaded the worksheets, you’ll have guided instructions

Once we’ve got our Memory Palaces organized, we can then think deeply
about how to best create memorable journeys within them. To do so, we
will sub-divide our Memory Palaces into individual macro-stations and
micro-stations. Don’t worry too much about these terms right now. They
are explained more fully in the next chapter.

The point I want to stress is that you always use locations with which you
are familiar. Many people want to build fantasy Memory Palaces or base
them on video games.

I’ll be honest with you.

This can work.

The problem is that because they’re invented, you then have to remember
what you invented as you move through the fantasy Memory Palace, and
as you move through it, you have to rebuild it in your imagination. When
that happens, you’ll be spending way more time on your Memory Palace
and almost no time on learning and memorizing!

When you get this technique right by preparing in advance, you can
spend nearly all your time on rapidly memorizing as much information as
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you want because well-constructed Memory Palaces based on real
locations ease cognitive load.

It can’t be said enough:

The more you use places you already know, the less you have to
remember.

The less you have to remember, the more you can associate.

The more you can associate, the more you can remember.

The more information you can remember, the more you know.

Try this Exercise Now

Close your eyes and visually reconstruct the room you’re sitting in using
your imagination.

Chances are that you easily can do so. You might actually “see” it or only
see a kind of floor plan made of simple shapes. You may even only “feel”
or “sense” the concept of the room, but in one way or another, you can
reconstruct the room in your mind.

Don’t worry if you can’t “see” it as if you were watching HD TV. You
can also “see” using descriptive words and thinking about the relationship
between points in space.

After that simple task is done, mentally move out into the hallway and
reconstruct that space. Move throughout the entire building, recreating its
rooms and its nooks and crannies in your mind. Work on making it
visual, or simply develop what is now becoming a Memory Palace in
whatever way works for you.

We’ll talk later about becoming more visual in your imagination, but at
the end of the day, we are all visual enough to create a mental construct
based on a real location. So if you absolutely cannot see anything in your
mind, just think to yourself about moving from place to place (or station
to station) using words.

Whether you are mentally seeing or describing in words your emerging


Memory Palace journey, you are creating powerful – and Magnetic -
“links” between different locations in space. You’re going to tag these as
“stations” that can be revisited at will with (almost) zero effort.

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Once you’ve established these stations, you can place information at, on,
beside, under or in some in these stations. By using a few other tools,
you’re going to “magnetize” that information by using associative-
imagery. Then, you’ll revisit those stations later in order to retrieve the
information you’ve memorized by decoding the associative-information.

If you’re thinking this process sounds involved, complex and requires too
much creativity …

Don’t worry. You’re not alone! Lots of people have told themselves “this
will never work for me. My mind is different.”

I’ve warned you already about not falling into the trap of this kind of
thinking, and I’ll warn you again.

You can build Memory Palaces and you can use them. You just need a
few more tools.

You’re going to get them. Just keep reading. ☺

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Chapter 4: Example Memory Palace
In the previous chapter you constructed a Memory Palace of the room
you were sitting in and extended it through the hallway and entire
building – the location is established. The next step is to set up the
"stations."

As you’ve learned, we next divide our Memory Palaces into “stations.”


These stations form the stops along a mental journey based upon “actual”
paths that you could take in the real building upon which you’ve based
your Memory Palace.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Memory Palace


Stations … But Forgot To Ask

The concept of “stations” is nothing more than an updated take on the


Method of Loci. “Loci” means “locations” and the Method of Loci is the
art of using them to drop and retrieve information. However, “location” is
too broad and is better used to identify Memory Palaces themselves. For
this reason, I have drilled down to call these “Loci” stations.

There are in fact two types of stations:

* Macro-stations

* Micro-stations

A macro-station is an entire room (i.e. bedroom, kitchen, living room, or


bathroom). A micro-station is an element inside of a room (i.e. a
bookcase, bed, TV set).

It’s important to recognize the difference between these two kinds of


stations because at the beginning stages of using Memory Palaces, it’s
often best for people to start out with macro-stations until they get the
hang of the techniques. Many people rush too quickly into the game and
wind up confusing themselves.

Again, macro-stations are entire rooms. That’s what makes them easier to
use at the beginning. When you start using micro-stations, we’re talking
about using beds, chairs, tables and appliances as stations. Without some
practice with the bigger rooms first, you risk frustrating yourself.

If you don’t believe me, then that’s a good thing. You’ll go out and try
using imaginary Memory Palaces or using every windowsill and coaster

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as stations and fail to get results. Then you’ll come back to this book and
get yourself back to basics.

All that said, many people “get” how the Memory Palace works right
away. This intuitive understanding enables them to make quick progress
right away with micro-stations. I’ll leave it up to you and invite you to
email me at any time if you have questions about what you should be
doing at [email protected].

Rest assured that I myself still use macro-stations for many purposes.
We’re not playing a game of “fill up all available space with crazy
images so that we can remember every word in the world.” We’re talking
about intelligently deciding what we want to achieve, selecting the right
Memory Palaces for the job and then populating them with words in
accordance.

No matter what happens as you explore the techniques you’re learning in


this book, get in touch with your questions. I’m happy to help you.
However, you will do both of us a huge favor by first filling out the
Magnetic Memory Method Worksheets before emailing. I love helping
people, but far too often get emails from people looking for advice that is
answered both in this book and by taking action using the Worksheets.
They have been designed in such a way that merely by filling them out,
you’ll have a ton of Memory Palaces at the ready.

If you still need help, I’ll be able to help you at a much higher level
because you’ll have come to me with targeted questions. Without having
done some preparatory work on your own, it’s kind of like going to a
teacher and asking “what is math?” after he or she has given you a set of
simple worksheets for practicing simple arithmetic at the end of an hour
long class devoted to exactly how the plus and equal symbols work in
coordination with numbers.

That hard “coaching” speech dealt with, the most important thing here is
to get started ASAP. The sooner you start experimenting, the sooner you
can start getting results from these amazing memory techniques. Memory
Palaces are humanity’s greatest invention. One you start getting results,
you’ll see why.

Visual Examples Of Macro and Micro Memory Palace Stations

Macro-Station

Have a look at the following diagram.

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Each of these rooms represents a macro-station. There are four in total,


five if you count the entrance – bathroom, bedroom, living room, kitchen
and entrance.

Micro-Stations

The following diagram represents the same home. In this case, I’ve
provided labels that indicate just some of the possible micro-stations in
this home:

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By identifying a liberal amount of micro-stations within each room, we


now have 30 individual spots (i.e. micro-stations) upon which to place
information that we want to memorize. Again, you want to work up to
this level of multiple stations per room so that you can take advantage of
Memory Palace journeys that offer this many possibilities. However, do
not rush into it without mastering macro-stations first.

Exercise

In order to let the power of building a Memory Palace journey sink in,
take a moment to identify the Memory Palace macro and micro-stations
in your own home. It doesn’t matter if it’s a house, an apartment building
or a trailer. Even if you’re reading this in prison, you can build a Memory
Palace using your present location. I know this for a fact because both
prisoners and prison guards have written to me to tell me about their
experiences using them as Memory Palaces.

To fully benefit from this exercise, I suggest that you:

* Draw your Memory Palace by hand in a notebook

* Create a top down list

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Top-Down List

In other words, tap into both your visual imagination and your
conceptual, organizational imagination.

Two Key Principles

As you construct your journey through the Memory Palace by identifying


your stations, obey two key principles:

* Do not trap yourself

* Do not cross your own path

You want the journey you create to be linear because this makes it easier
to follow the journey in your mind and you will spend much less mental
energy when using the Memory Palace to store and recall words.

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Moving from the visual example I’ve given you on the previous pages,
let’s look now at a real set of micro-stations in a real Memory Palace that
I actually use.

This is the office where I write. The bookcase stores books. I use the bed
to study the effects of meditation on memory and research dream recall. I
use the desk and chair to write books and work on music memorization,
the wall to lean my guitars on and the bike takes me home at the end of
the day.

I also use all of these “micro-stations” to store information that I want to


memorize. By making the journey linear with no path crossing and
moving towards a door so that I’m not trapping myself, there is no
confusion about what comes next along the journey and mental energy
expenditure is kept to a bare minimum.

Now that you’ve had a look into just one room of just one of my many
Memory Palaces, are you beginning to see the power of separating places
that you already know into individual stations so that you can use them to
“drop” pieces of information in order to access them later?

I certainly hope so because there is literally no other memory tool this


powerful. Now let’s learn how to use it.

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Okay, I Have A Memory Palace … Now What?

I’m going to give you several examples of Memory Palaces in action.


However, because I want to show you how their use in a complete
manner, there are a few other items that we need to go through first.

Here’s why:

When using Memory Palaces, we store information on or beside what we


have been calling “stations.” The question is … How? What does this
mean?

What it means is that in order to recall information that is hard to


remember, we have to associate it with something that our minds find
easy to remember. If I told you that Oedipus is structured with
architectonic tautology and features a fabulous example of peripeteia and
anagnorisis … your eyes would probably roll back in your head. You
might even scream with frustration if you were asked to recall what these
terms mean.

If I told you that earlier today I saw a giant pear punch my pet dog Ty
while shouting “ya!” you’d probably be able to repeat that information
back to me half an hour later. Especially if I made a big deal out of how
huge and green the pear was, how fast its fists moved and how loud it
shouted “ya!” and Ty yelled in pain.

Now imagine sticking that image of a giant pear punching a dog named
Ty while shouting “ya!” taking place in your bathroom.

Have you done it?

Good.

If not, close your eyes and imagine that nasty pear punching a dog named
Ty and shouting “ya!” If you can’t see the imagery in your mind, just
think about it using words.

Now, take the component pieces and put them together.

Pear + Ty + “ya!” = something very close to peripeteia.

Now just imagine that Ty snaps back and takes a huge bite out of that
pear. That would be a reversal of the pear’s fortune, wouldn’t it?

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I’m glad you agree, because “reversal of fortune” is exactly what
peripeteia means.

In essence, we’ve created a vignette that “encodes” the sound and the
meaning of the target word we want to memorize. When we come across
it again in a Memory Palace, we need only look at the image, break it
down into its component pieces to “decode” it and retrieve the
memorized word in its original form.

If you can create and imagine a little picture like a pear attacking a dog,
leave it in your bathroom so that you can recall the sound and meaning of
a word, then you can leave hundreds of words in a structured manner
throughout the buildings you are familiar with and make rapid
advancements in your studies.

There’s a bit more to be said about this process, so let’s dig in deeper and
explain more about exactly what’s going on when I suggest that you learn
to make images like these so that you can spread them around your
Memory Palaces with ease. You’re going to learn to combine imagery
and action in a particular way that will ensure your success each and
every time you study.

Imagery

Imagery is … well, imagery – mental pictures that you build in your


mind. For the purposes of memorization, these pictures need to be big
and colorful, and the larger and the more colorful, the better. Essentially,
you want to exaggerate the size and colors because that will make the
image more memorable. This will in turn strengthen the association.

Some of the students I’ve taught tell me that they are not particularly
visual in their imaginations.

I understand this completely.

In fact, when I used to read a novel, I rarely saw images in my mind. I


read the descriptions, of course, but my mind kept the imagery
conceptual. It’s possible that I had something called Imagination Deficit
Disorder or IDD.

Whether I suffered from this condition or not, I don’t know. However, I


memorized a lot of information using the techniques that you’re going to
learn without seeing anything in my imagination. In fact, I excelled by
using words alone to describe the kinds of crazy images we’ll be

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discussing in this book. We’ll talk about some of the exercises I used to
become more visual, but for now, rest assured that as a person who
previously experienced a low visual threshold, I am able to give my non-
visual students in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass quite a few
suggestions based on my own experiences.

Whatever happens, do not allow a lack of imagination for intense imagery


to be a barrier. I know that you can incorporate imagination into your
memory work. Here are some approaches and exercises to help you create
powerful images in your mind, either at the conceptual or visual-
imaginative level.

First, if you can’t think in color, don’t force it. You can try thinking in
black and white. Exaggerate the black and white. How black is the black
and how white is the white? Is there an opportunity to use gray in some
memorable way?

Another option is to use paintings that you are familiar with in your
imagery. The more you are aware of their intricacies, the better. The next
time you are in an art gallery or looking through an art book, pay closer
attention to what you are looking for. The material could become fodder
for better associations for the information you will be memorizing.

I must mention a small problem with artwork, however. Paintings and


statues tend to be static. Unlike actors, you’ve seen on television and
movie screens, painted figures don’t move. You’ll need to add motion
yourself. That being said, if you can imagine the Mona Lisa walking like
an Egyptian outside of her frame, or Michelangelo’s David doing the
Moonwalk, then you should have no problem.

You can also use toys that you remember in the associative-imagery you
create. GI Joe, Barbie, My Little Pony … anything goes. As with
paintings, the most important factor here is that you can put these figures
into action.

Action

By now, you will have thought about different locations you are familiar
with, the macro-stations within those locations and different ways that
you can use exaggerated imagery.

The next step is to give your images a bit of movement (more than a bit,
actually). Just as you want to exaggerate the size and color of your
images, you also want to exaggerate their actions in order to make your
target information more memorable.

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It’s not an entirely nice way to think of things, but I have to tell you about
a sensitive matter. Something that will work wonders for your memory is
to make the action in your associative-imagery violent.

Think about highway accidents. Unfortunately, they serve as the perfect


example of how memorable scenes of violence can be – even in their
aftermath. If after seeing an accident or accident site you could not shake
the memory of your mind, then you know how powerful violent images
can be.

This is not to suggest that lives need to be lost in your memory work.
Cartoon violence that makes you laugh will work too. Wile E. Coyote, for
instance, provides a strong example of someone willing to savage himself
in some pretty hilarious ways when trying to make the Road Runner his
dinner.

Again, the goal is to create something so potently memorable that


working hard to recall the image is unnecessary. It will instantly come to
mind when you look for it because you’ve given yourself no other choice.
You’ve made the image impossible to forget.

Now, you may be thinking that using this technique is going to lead to a
brain cluttered with bizarre images. This may indeed happen in the
beginning when you are first learning the Magnetic Memory Method.
With practice, however, the images you have used will ultimately fall
away. You’ll still wander your Memory Palaces and have a hankering of
what the images were that you used, but they will be secondary. The
words and their meanings will be the central artifacts on display. They
will be part of your fluency.

Preparation and Predetermination

At this point, you’ve gotten most of the “big picture” of how memory
techniques work. However, there are still two principles we need to cover
before moving on to some examples. These are Preparation and
Predetermination. Please don’t skip them. They are cornerstones of the
process.

Preparation involves relaxing the mind. I will share several thoughts


about it in the concluding chapter, but for now, please realize that when
the mind is tense, busy or exhausted, it will resist attempts at
memorization.

Being stressed out does not mean that you won’t be able to remember, it
only means that your mind won’t be in the most receptive state possible

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to remember. When your mind is open and relaxed, you’ll be amazed by
how these techniques will double, triple and even quadruple in
effectiveness.

Predetermination involves charting out the memory locations and


stations in your multiple Memory Palace system before making any
single attempt to place the words you want to memorize.

I must stress that before populating your Memory Palaces, you will want
to have built the entire system first. Having tried to make up my Memory
Palaces as I went along and helped hundreds of people who have tried the
same, I can tell you that this leads to little more than frustration and
impoverished results. Please spend the necessary time to predetermine the
locations that you want to use and label the individual stations within
them. The Magnetic Memory Method Worksheets makes this easy for
you.

So with that said, I’ve included the Magnetic Memory Method


Worksheets here for you. Just turn the page, start filling them out, and
you’ll soon have an entire system of Memory Palaces you can use to
learn and memorize anything.

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You are now are familiar with the following three principles:
1. Location
2. Imagination
3. Action

To become truly fluent or all encompassing when it comes to memorizing


a particular subject area, we want to create as many palaces as there are
letters in the alphabet, and in some cases more. The following pages
include example exercises and worksheets that you can print out and use
when building your own unique memory palaces.
Exercise Number One:
To begin, think about 10 locations that you know well. These will
become the basis for your first ten memory palaces. Whenever possible,
try to link the place with the letter. For instance, I might associate A with
Aberdeen Mall, S with the Sony Center and Z with Zoltan’s Movie
Theatre. You will undoubtedly have more than 26 locations, so save the
extra ones to build palaces for grammar or miscellaneous material you
might want to pick up from time to time.
Do your best to link your Memory Palaces with locations that match the
first letter now, but if you can’t, keep identifying locations that you can
use anyway. You can always come back and organize your locations
more thoroughly and alphabetically later. One of the keys to the Magnetic
Memory method is to keep moving forward. To paraphrase Edison, make
a mess now and clean it up later. That’s what these worksheets are for, so
print them out as many times as you like and start fresh.
So what are you waiting for? Print out this entire document and start
filling out the Magnetic Memory Method worksheets now. ☺

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1. (A)

2. (B)

3. (C)

4. (D)

5. (E)

6. (F)

7. (G)

8. (H)

9. (I)

a) (J)

If you can do all 26, then by all means, please continue.

11. (K)

12. (L)

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13. (M)

14. (N)

15. (O)

16. (P)

17. (Q)

18. (R)

19. (S)

20. (T)

21. (U)

22. (V)

23. (W)

24. (X)

25. (Y)

1. (Z)

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Notes:

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Whether you have identified only 10 or all 26 locations, start now by


detailing one of those locations by figuring out 10 “stations” within that
location.

For example, in my Aberdeen Mall example, I would have:

1.Front entrance
2.Jewelry store
3.Book store
4.Escalator
5.Radio Shack
6.Food court entrance
7.Orange Julius
8.McDonald’s
9.Dairy Queen
10)Back exit

Notice here that I’ve constructed my path between all locations by


obeying the following two principles:

a) I do not cross my own path


b) I do not trap myself along the way (and I have ensured that I can
add ten more stations (I have the parking lot, the McDonald’s on
the other side, the movie theatre, and then a number of stores I
remember down the road leading to another shopping mall I can
use later on if I choose). Always keep your options to extend each
Memory Palace open.

Now you try:

1)
2)

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3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

There are two very important principles when selecting your stations.

1. Never trap yourself


2. Never cross your own path

This means that when identifying your palaces, you should pick a starting
location in a place that will allow you to move forward without running
into barriers or dead-ends. For example, you would not want to start at
the front entrance of your home and then end in the basement. This would
prevent you from extending your Memory Palace. However, if you start
in the basement, you can then move outside your home and then add new
stations for as long as you would like.

In terms of not crossing your own path, we do this in order to avoid


confusion. One of the main principles of this method is to avoid having to
remember the order of your stations. If you cross and re-cross your own
path, you can wind up having to spend too much time remembering
which station comes next. Avoid this.

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Here are some tips for creating and storing your Memory Palaces:

Although the point is to eventually be able to do everything in your mind,


it is useful when starting out to write everything down. Even advanced
memorizers like to keep records for the purposes of testing, forgoing
them only during competition.

You can copy out the worksheets I’ve included at the end of this handout,
or you can use an Excel file. I myself use Excel and create a separate file
for each and every letter. This lets me easily list the individual stations in
a top-to-bottom manner. But I also like to write out my material by hand
from time to time because it helps build the mind in a different way. I
also use handwriting to test myself, i.e. I write out the words I’ve
memorized and only then look at the Excel file. I do not close my eyes
with the file open or give myself any opportunity to peak at the next
word. It’s important to be disciplined and rigorous when testing.

Finally, if you find it useful, you can draw maps of the different
locations. Some visual people benefit from doing taking this step. I
myself have created drawings to help refresh my memory about how
certain locations looked. You may also want to get in the habit of
photographing places you’ve been in order to better build Memory
Palaces if you are not a particularly visual person.

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Blank A-Z Sheet

1. (A)

2. (B)

3. (C)

4. (D)

5. (E)

6. (F)

7. (G)

8. (H)

9. (I)

1. (J)

11. (K)

12. (L)

13. (M)

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14. (N)

15. (O)

16. (P)

17. (Q)

18. (R)

19. (S)

20. (T)

21. (U)

22. (V)

23. (W)

24. (X)

25. (Y)

1) (Z)

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Blank Station Sheets

Location for Letter A: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter B: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

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9)
10)

Location for Letter C: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter D: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)

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5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter E: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter F: ___________________

1)
2)
3)

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4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter G: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter H: ___________________

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1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter I: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

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Location for Letter J: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter K: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

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8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter L: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter M: ___________________

1)
2)

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3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter N: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter O: ___________________

1)

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2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter P: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter Q: ___________________

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1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter R: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

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Location for Letter S: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter T: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

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6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter U: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter V: ___________________

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1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter W: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter X: ___________________

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1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter Y: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

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8)
9)
10)

Location for Letter Z: ___________________

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

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