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themajormemorysystem

TheMajorMemorySystem

TheMajorMemorySystemisoneofthetwomostpowerfulmemorysystemscurrentlyavailable.Itrequires
asignificantinvestmentoftimetolearnandmaster,howeveronceitislearneditisextremelypowerful.Itis
theapplicationofmainlythissystemthatformsthebasisofsomeoftheextraordinary,almostmagical,
memoryfeatsperformedbymagiciansandmemorytechnicians.

MindToolsMnemonicGrades:

EaseofUseDifficult
EffectivenessVeryEffective
PowerVeryPowerful
LearninginvestmentSignificant
WhoshouldusePeoplepreparedtoinvestsignificanttimein
learningthesystem.

Howtouse

Thesystemworksbyconvertingnumbersequencesintonouns,nounsintoimages,andlinkingimagesinto
sequences.Thesesequencescanbeverycomplexanddetailed.

Thebuildingblocksofthesystemaretheassociationofthenumbersbelowwiththefollowingconsonant
sounds:

0s,z,softcrememberas'zisfirstletterofzero'
1d,t,thrememberasletterswith1downstroke
2nrememberashaving2downstrokes
3mhasthreedownstrokes
4rimaginea4andanRgluedtogetherbacktoback
5Limaginethe5proppedupagainstabookend(L)
6j,sh,softch,dg,softggis6rotated180degrees.
7k,hardch,hardc,hardg,ngimagineKastwo7srotatedandglued
together
8f,vimaginethebottomloopofthe8asaneFfluentpipedischarging
waste
(letterimageofFinalphabetsystem)
9p,bbas9rotated180degrees.

Theseassociationsreallymustbelearnedbeforeproceeding.

Thesystemoperatesonanumberoflevels,dependingontheamountoftimeauserispreparedtodevoteto
learningthesystem.Thefirstlevel,thecodingofsingledigitnumbersintoconsonantsandsmallwords,

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functionsalmostasapoorrelationofthenumber/rhymesystem.Itisathigherlevelsthatthepowerofthe
systemisunleashed,howeverthislevelmustbeassimilatedfirst.

Thetrickwiththeconversionintowordsistouseonlytheconsonantsthatcodeinformationwithintheword,
whileusingvowelstopadtheconsonantsoutwithmeaning.Bychoosinglettersforyourwordinthe
preferentialorderAEIOUyoustandabetterchanceofbeingabletoreconstructtheimagewordifyouforget
it.

Ifconsonantshavetobeusedtomakeaword,useonlythosethatarenotalreadyusedi.e.h,q,w,x,andy

1.Singlenumberwords:

Thefirstlevelcodessinglenumbersintoashortnounmadeupofthenumberconsonantsoundandsome
vowels.Onasheetofpaper,writethenumbers1to9,andapplytheserulestocreateyourownmemory
words.Anexampleisshownbelow:
1toe
2neigh
3ma
4ray
5law
6jaw
7key
8fee
9pay

Thesewordscanbeusedinassociationmuchliketheotherpegtechniquememorywords.

2.Doublenumberwords:

Similarrulesapplytocreatingastandardwordfromtwonumbers.Itisbestnottotrytousesinglenumber
wordasaroot,asthiscanconfusetheimage.

Addtoyourlistofnumbers1to9thenumbers10to99,andapplytherulestocreatememorywordsfor
yourself.Afewexamplesareshownbelow:

17t,chtech
23n,mname
36m,shmesh
41r,srose
52l,nline
64ch,rchair
75k,lkeel
89f,pfop
98b,fbeef

3.Triplenumberwords

Justusingdoublenumberwordsmaybeenoughtomakethisasufficientlypowerfulmnemonicforyou.
Alternativelyyoumaydecidetousetriplenumberwords,usingthesameconstructionrulesasdouble
numberwords.

Examplesare:
182d,v,nDevon
304m,s,rmiser
400r,c,sraces
651j,l,djailed
801f,z,dfazed

Eventhoughwordscanbeconstructedfromfirstprinciplesitmaybeworthwritingthemdownatthislevel
ofcomplexity,andrunningthroughthemmanytimestostrengthenthelinkinyourmindbetweenthe
numbersandtheassociatedwords.Thiswillenableyoutorecallthenumberwordfaster.
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Applyingtheseimages

Onceyouhavedevisedwordsandimagestolinktoyournumbers,youcanstarttoapplythetechniqueto
rememberlongnumbers,etc.Atassimplelevelyoumightdecidejusttorememberalongtelephonenumber.
Todothisyoumightjustassociateafewimagestogetherusingthelinkorstorytechnique.Alternatively,to
rememberareallylongnumber,youmightassociatewordsmadeupofthecomponentsofthesenumbers
withstopsonajourney(seethejourneytechnique).

Summary

Themajormemorysystemworksbylinkingnumberstoconsonantsoundgroups,andthenbylinkingthese
intowords.Byusingtheimagesthesewordscreate,andlinkingthemtogetherwithanothermemorysystem,
largeamountsofinformationcanbeaccuratelymemorisedifproperlycoded.

MainMemoryTechniquesPage

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