ee eee e ee Vee ee eee eeeeeeeeecEe ‘The Q Solution to Memory Quick-Start Program maw photagreprcy mamer com All memory systems seem to have three elements in couumon (we will cover the first 2 now), .. the first is creating a storage place for informanon in a physical or identifiable place and the second is the logical order of the storage places. In fact. memory systems work sunularly to how information is stored in a computer. A computer stores information in a specific address on a specific path. Whenever a program is run that calls on the need for that information. the progranuner directs the computer's logic boards down the path to that address and the infonnation 1s always there. ‘We believe that your mind already works this way. it is just that we can't identify the address and path that the brain uses for memory storage. However. after learning this system you will be able to build a program in your mind that will allow you to see both the address and the path. As an example, many of us learned a program as a child that we run whenever we need to. Run this old program in your mind: ame all of the months that conta 30 days. When asked how they reinember this information people give us the following answers: © Number 1 is - the rhyme 30 days has September, April, June and November ‘© Number 2 is ~ Starting from your pmky knuckle. the knuckles are 31 days and in between is 28 or 30 days (when you get to your knuckle on the index finger you start over at the pinky knuckle) © Number 3 is ~ they don’t know and don't care (fortunately, this is the smallest percentage) ‘Our point is that the immediate mental response to the question is a system that was leamed as a child. The mind immediately goes to that system where the information is stored. It is quick. convenient and effortless. While this works well, nobody wants 10 . make up a rhyme every time they want to remember something, rather this is just an example of a program (we'll call it the Month Program) that is already in your mind. Keep in mind the power and longevity of the Month Program as you go through this Quick Start program. Please don’t let the abstractness of what you are about to read. study and apply fool you. ‘The addresses and paths you create for a storage place will be in concrete much like the Month Program is. To do this, you must grasp the following 2 steps. But before we start, read the following excerpt from chapter 4 of The Q Solution 1o Memory Developing the skill of selecting and using physical locations and objects as places to mentally store information. This chapter describes my approach to a memory method that has been in use for many centuries. It has significant value in its own right and can be effectively 160 Theme A. fe sae vedse Fee trad, Br C47 - 267%used FO store and recall many Apes of mifurmation uth book ityervices ay the second step 1 lew ning the QO structed memory stent, 4) «an evceptional nremory tool Lill show vou how ta make valuable use of the mininate awareness thar you have of the unside of vour home Such as toons, walls, comers nooks, chanmes ceilings. Moors, stairs, doors, sundows, cabinet sks, apphances. flantture, pictues, lowers, the gavage and its contents and all other character isties of the myute of your home. You will see how fo also uve the ouside charactertsites of your home and its surroundings. Porches, colums, comers, chimes. windows, doors, drain pipes, Panos, warer faucets, walls, antenna, driveway, Mees, sections of the yard (front. sides, back), fences, shnubs, grass, flower pors, bird bath, elect meter, water meter, Nansformer, felephone line and any other fears can be used as storage places -Addinonally, we will use the street where you live and other streets you use driving to work, the steets your school bus uses (0 oF fiom school, the streets you follow 10 go fo church, oF shoppmg or the movies and any other street, path, lane or mail through a park or field that vou ride or walk along. STEP ONE Visualize a place where you have lived either now or in the past (your home, apartinent, dommitory). Now visualize amving at the entrance (STARTING POINT) to the driveway or parking lot. ‘Visualize you are standing at the STARTING POINT. Now. in your mind, slowly walk the natural and logical path you would have to take to the front door, While making this mental stroll, observe the permanent features you encounter. Once you reach the front door. go inside and walk through each room of the house in a clockwise fashion, Remember in detail the items you encounter along the way. Stop about every five (5) permanent features along your walk and solidify in your mind that you would see these addresses each time you travel the path in your mind. The permanent features will become your addresses and the mental stroll will become your path. For example: [am standing at the mailbox of the house I grew up in. I take about three steps and see the culvert running undemeath the entrance of the driveway. As I stroll up the driveway I see the tree stump at the right edge of the driveway and remember when. the tree fell across the driveway during a stonn. After a few more steps I tur left and look at the sidewalk leading to the front door. At the beginning. on my right, there is a big hemlock evergreen tree (a former Christmas tree that had been planted). Tcontinue up the frout sidewalk past the flowerbed and stop at the front steps (there are three). I ‘walk up and stand at the door. but look to the right first and see two wicker chairs with a table in between on the front porch. I look back at the front door and see the wood grain. of the old door and the brass doorknob. (We realize that all of this is meaningless to you. ‘The purpose is to give you an example of the detail to use). Notice that the family pet is not arbitrarily standing someplace. The reason is that the pet could be anywhere not some place permanently; unless the pet died and was buried next to the Christmas tree 161Now. please stop reading and close your eyes. Create the path to the door of the place you have chosen to enter. If you want, wnte down the description as I have (you don't have to. but it way help you later in this exercise). Now. let's go back to my front door. I open the front door. enter the foyer and see the staurs that go up. but I tun left into the doorway to the Library (Wwe called it that). On the left are a bookcase. a chair and a reading Iainp next to it (in that order. looking clockwise around the room). Then, a big window. another chair and the bookcase on the right side of the big window. I'm still standing in the doorway to the Library and looking at the room in a clockwise manner. Carefully I identify each permanent fixture that is in my mind as I remember it. Continuing in the library there is another doorway to the master bedroom and a plant with tall wide leaves on the right side of the doorway. On the right wall there is yet another doorway to a hallway then the telephone stand (actually an old smoke stand that was my Grandfather's). The telephone stand is up against a roll top desk. On the wall that contains the doorway I am standing in and in the last clockwise place (address) is an old cedar chest that has a doily on top and framed fainily photos. 1 take a step back into the foyer and turn to my right and see a bench that still has some of the daily mail on it OK that’s enough for now. I could continue my stroll and identify different items and physical characteristics along my stroll. And the interesting point is that I could repeat this stroll tomorrow, next week, next year aud I will see and experience the same sights. feelings, smells, memories each time. ‘You must now continue your own stroll and create a path in your mind. These will become your addresses and path for memory storage. Let's review my addresses in order that they are seen along the path: 1. Mailbox 2. Culvert 3. Tree stump (fallen tree) 4. Front Sidewalk $, Planted Christmas Tree 6. Flowerbed 7. Front steps (3) 8, Two Wicker Chairs with table in middle 9, Front Door 10. Entrance to Library 1, Left bookcase 12. Arm Chair 13. Reading lamp 14, Large Window 15. Another Arm Chair 16. Right Book Case 17. Door way to Master Bedroom 18, Plant with large leaves 16219. Door way to hallway 20, Telephone stand 21. Roll-Top Desk 22. Cedar Chest 23. Bench in foyer Etc Ete. Etc These locations will become the addresses and path for the storage of the information I Want fo remember. Now. you must stroll through your chosen place and create 28 locations (28 because our next step involves storing the movies that won the academy award each year from 1975 through 2002). If you run out of locations while inside go out another door and into the back yard. Review the 28 locations in your mind and finally number and write them down as I have done above, You have just created addresses and a path in the style of an ancient memory system called foci, We have chosen it because we feel everyone can take a similar mental stroll and create the addresses and path as we have described. STEP2 As mentioned earlier, there are three common elements used by most memory systems. ‘We have covered the first two. The third feature is Association. Now you know all three characteristics — Address, Path and Association. At this point, for this Quick Start program, you should have created the Addresses and the Path for your first project. Now lets look at the element of sociation Everybody would agree that a great oil and canvas abstract painter makes great use of the mind’s eye as they create the images that end up on canvas (Picasos. Renoir, Monet...) At the same time these artists must have two important tools before they begin — paint and canvas. Once these are in place the Artist can begin. Think of the Addresses and Path as the paint and canvass: Association will become the resulting art. It is your personal art and normally you will share it with nobody. What you will share is the interpretation of your art, which is the information on the subject to be remembered. Read this excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Q Solution to Memory to understand more of this concept of the inind’s eve and the importance it plays for your new leaming tool. Teaching the mind’s eye faculty to read and write mental pictures and images From the moment a person ts born the parents and others spend an exceptional amount of time and effort to teach the person how to recognize what is seen, heard, felt, tasted, and smelled. During this educational process, which occurs in phases throughout the person’s life. the person develops the remarkable ‘capability to immediately recognize the sensory inputs. They learn to sort them 163 OPPPPPEOPP PEEP PPE SESS OCC CeCe noeee‘out for what they are and determine what they mean m context with the rime, actions, and place of their occurrence. Reading and writing are two remarkable complementary skills thar are developed through intense training. Without such specific individual training a person ts unable to read or write and ts classified as illiterare. If ane 18 not rained 10 read one can look at a page of written information all day long and never recognize a single word. Compare the Functions of the Mind's Eye fo the skills of Reading and Writing The mind's eve has an introspective faculty that compares to our extroverted senses. Even with all of the training that we receive, the lack of raining of the mind’s eve may classify this faculty of our minds as functionally illiterate. It can only nominally read and write. It is therefore, important that we place emphasis on training the inind’s eye 10 effectively read and write. Writing by the mind’s eve is done by imprinting what 1 fed fo it upon the memory as mental pictures or images. The information that is {fed 10 the mind's eve is in bits and pieces from all directions and through all of the senses. “Minimal sorting and association is done by the perception and judgement faculties and, by and large, the information falls helter-skelter into memory with insufficient integration and clarity for tt to be fully legible when we try to read it ata later time. This is somewhat like throwing the lerters of the alphabet into a large glass container and then looking to see what words or sentences were formed. The potential information is there but itis in such a disorganized form that itis not ‘very useful. For the information to become useful, the letters must be consciously sequentially placed in relationship to each other to form the desired words and ‘sentences or otherwise it becomes a mass of garbage. “The mind’s eve needs to be trained to place the information it receives in relative sequence so that he resulting memory writing by the mind's eye is structured tnro mental pictures that are easily recognized, readily retrievable and of immediate and practical use in our thought processes. 'As you leam to more effectively utilize your mind’s eye you will find that Association is the key element and art that brings about the goal of the process. Read and re-read the following exert from Chapter 4 of The Q Solution to Memory and then we will continue the final phase of this Quick Start Program. Remembering Selected Information by Using Your Home as a Memory Storage Medium. Continuing .. in the same direction, mentally place the .. items on, above or near the pieces of furniture or have them in some well-picnured posinon relating 10 the features of the room and keep the items to be remembered in 164sequence The mental picnures that you make of the item should be out-of- character, wuisual and i coun ast with the arncle vou place 11 on or near. ~ddditionally, the pictures yiwuid have action and wn olve you, through your e75¢5, Your emotions and your participation At this point. you must be able to visually rm through the 28 addresses along the path you created. Before we move on test yourself by running through them in reverse order (just walk the path from the end to the beginning). It should take you the same amount of ume as going forward. ‘You are now ready to put information in your addresses. As we go through this exercise you will come to appreciate the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words. The good ews is that you will never have to write out your mental pictures and you will see first hand the amazing speed at which you can recall your target information. Remember you must use all types of emotion and all of your senses to embellish your ‘mental pictures. Let yourself go and become a real ‘mind’s eye artiste.’ The advertisement industry uses the same concept. The professional advertisers know that you will remember the strangest, the most extreme, the surreal, the sexiest, and the ‘dumbest commercials they can put together. Babies talking, animals talking. baby animals talkin; Events in your own life such as visiting somebody near to death in the hospital, funerals. getting lost as a child — these could very well be the first experiences or thoughts you ever had asa child. Why do these things stand out in our minds? Because we experienced deep emotion and our senses were at their peak. And then there is the abstract. The imnagination. Numbers can’t fly, but you can imagine them flying if you put wings on them. Then they can go anywhere and represent something you want to remember. A Cuckoo Bird out of a Cuckoo Clock typically doesn’t pop out of a mailbox when you open it. Picture this scene (it occurs at my first address — my mailbox): Tam standing at my mailbox (address 1). I open the mailbox door and a Cuckoo Bird pops out. As this happens something is startled and rises from a nest on top of the box. Itis not a bird but a number | with wings and it hovers over the nest on top of the box. In my first address for Academy Award winning movies from 1975 to present I have just stored One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest. At this point we will not store the year, because we will remember the movies in groups of five and we will have a year marker every 5 years. You are probably thinking this seems like it will take a lot of time. It even seems like a long process to me because I am writing about it. You will never write out your thoughts like this. The mind processes and works at speeds that allow you to develop images at incredible speeds. Just for your information I stored this list with the ‘mind's eye thoughts’ I created on a 35 minute car ride in which I was interrupted by a 10 minute phone call and, of course, I had to pay attention to traffic. I would estimate that the average time spent was 30 seconds per movie year with the low side being 5-10 seconds and the high side being two minutes. Don't be frustrated when you have trouble with an association, Let your mind and imagination run wild, you will never have to share your association picture with anybody. In the furure you will find yourself smiling 165 ee ae eae a ee ae eewhile you take your tests because of your mental pictures AND because you are so confident of knowing your subject. Let's continue, I tum from the mail box and walk over the culvert (address 2) and I run in to three thick bungee cord like ropes that knock me back down to the ground. I look up and see a boxing ning on the driveway and boxers fighting. In my second address I have just stored Rocky. This was a Jess shan 10 second one for me. In your case. you may not have seen the movie or the address doesn’t lend itself to a great association and you may have to embellish it with ‘rocks and keys.” Next I approach the stump and actually visualize what the tree looked like when it fell against another tree and was suspended there at a 45-degree angle. The wind finally caused it to fall about 12 hours after the storm blew it over into the other trees. In the mean time, we were driving cars underneath to get to the garage. The movie we want to store here is a movie that I never saw and I had to think about it for several seconds. My association is that I see a porch swing attached to the fallen tree while it is still suspended in the other trees. It would be very dangerous for somebody to sit in the swing because it could fall and smash them. Then I see my wife whose middle name is Anne and ber Aunt Joanne sitting in the swing. I yell to them as the tree starts to slip through the other trees it is suspended in to “Haul your tails out of there.” In short I tell Ann-e and her ‘Auntie JoAnn-e to Haul. Annie Hall is now stored in address 3 Now I know this last description is very personal and meaningless to you, but Iam. sharing my personal art with you. My mind’s eye pictures would not be interpreted by ‘you the same way as I, the creator intended. My ultimate goal is in there but you would ever see it. Next, let me give you some basic association elements and some possible eibellishments for each movie, then you make the association with your address. Stay in order and if you skip one because it is hard, you must skip that address as well to keep the sequential order in place. The movie titles are in all caps. PLEASE, PLEASE, feel free to use your own art, mental pictures and embellishments. Don’t worry about how long this first project takes you. Speed will come with confidence, practice and understanding.THE CENTER FOR MEMORY MECHANICS QUICK START PROGRAM PROJECT 1 MOVIE ASSOCIATION LIST (1975 ~ 2002) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO NEST ~ A Cuckoo bird begins to pop in and out of some part of the address. At the same time the number “1” with wings is flying around the address. When it gets tired it settles down on to a nest that is on top of the address. ROCKY ~ You have walked to this address yet you can not see it due to a large pile of Rocks. You notice one of the rocks has a dead-bolt lock in it. You insert a kev and it ‘opens and you see the address with a boxing ring around it. ANNIE HALL — As you approach the next address you lean down to the ground on a dmee. Then someone you know named 4/me sits on the other knee. As you both gaze at the address she tells you that it seems like that is al/ you need to remember and that you can haul on to the next address. THE DEER HUNTER ~ A Man in Camouflage holding a Bow and Arrow with a dead deer at his feet. (The deer is bleeding heavily because he has just been field dressed and you have to walk through the blood to get to the next address leaving footprints of blood as you walk. When you look back the deer jumps up and mins off) KRAMER VS. KRAMER - The character Kramer's hair from The Jerry Seinfeld Show. (See his hair specifically associated with the address, as you look at his hair it parts into z ‘V and then back to Kramer's normal hair). Altemate: If you are not familiar with this TV character picture yourself at this address and you see two Rains butting heads with the address in between them. Both rams have the letter “A” shaved into their fur on their sides. They are against each other: it is Ram Vs. Ram. Finally one knocks the other out. You then see a stretcher remove the one that was knocked out. You ask where are you taking him and they say to the “ER.” K-Ram- ER Vs. Remember I said we would give some type of 5 year indicators. We are now ready for the 1980 Award winner. In order to mark this next movie, you will be holding a sign as you experience this address. The sign say “Happy New Year.” You were very hungry and ate the sign. You eight (ate) the sign because it was nineteen-ate-e. ORDINARY PEOPLE ~ While holding and eating the sign you walk to the address and there are many strange. gross and scary people. (You must squeeze past them and you are not pleased because these are not ordinary people). Remember to throw the half- eaten sign back in front of this address before proceeding to the next address. 167CHARIOTS OF FIRE ~ There is Charleton Heston standing on some part of your address in full Roman wear im his chariot, (He cracks the whip at the address like it is the horse and fire flies from the end of the whip). This works for me because of the movie Ben Hur. It may not work for you. Alternate: You see a large pan of carrots on top of the address. Not particularly a fan of carrots. while nobody is looking. you pour gas in to the pan. As you start to walk to the next address you toss a match in the pan and it explodes into a fire. Carrots-a-Fire GHANDI - At this address stands Ghandi himself wrapped in a sheet like toga. He has one in his arms for you. (Put the sheet around you and ann in arm he smiles and escorts you to the next address). ‘Alternate: If you can't picture Ghandi, picture a hand that has been severed from au am. (On the top part of the hand is a tattoo of the letter “G." There is no way you are going to touch the hand until you realize someone has played a trick on you and it is a rubber hand. You pick up the hand and tur it over and the letter “I” is tattooed on the palm. G-hand-I. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT - Jack Nicholson (one of the stars) stands there petting that deer that got away earlier and feeding him mints. (He has a contract in his hand and he gives it to you and says here are my ferms). Terms-Dear-Mints Reminder ~ remember to intertwine the address with the picture to re-enforce the connection between the two. AMADEOUS ~ At this address you see someone playing a tiny piano. The person has a can of almonds on top of the piano and he never stops playing. All he does all day long is play for us and eat almonds. Almond-day-us. OUT OF AFRICA - On this address is a light switch, the kind you pull to make it work. The pull is actually a tassel from a graduation mortarboard. As you look at it you see 1985 on the brass tab (another $ year marker). You decide to pull the tassel and all light sources of any kind go out. While the lights are out you hear a roar from a lion that seems very near by. You pull the switch again very quickly and the lights come on and everything is fine. You decide to tur the lights ou again and you are surprised this time by the sound of an elephant trumpeting. Back on and ont again. this time you hear screaming monkeys. Out-(animals of)Africa. PLATOON - Associate with this address soldiers in full gear circled around a vehicle. it looks like a tank and they are on patrol. You look closer and it is not a tank. instead it is a pontoon boat on a trailer and they are pulling it along. (If you need to, mniniaturize the scene to relate to the address or project the scene on to the address). Pontoon rhymes with Platoon. THE LAST EMPERIOR - On or at the address place a miniature model of the Empire State building. Hanging from the spire you see an oriental man dressed in a bright red robe and he is yelling ‘I can't /asr much longer. I'm going to fall.’ Last-Empire 168Altemate 1: If you know Chicago picture the Sears Tower on a map of Illinois on the address. Alternate if you are a guy picture a chick’ you knew from a long time ‘ago" Altemnate 3: Picture Frank Sinatra singing his hit song “Chicago.” Altemate 4: Picture baby chicks pecking around the address and you run them because you want them to go. There is no one best scene to picture with anything you are trying to remember. Sometimes the address lends itself to a great scene; sometimes it is a unique piece of knowledge you have that works best and that is what you should use. Finally. do the following: 1. Name the movies forward. ‘ame the movies that won for 1980, 1985, 1990, 1998 and 2000. jane the movies backwards. ‘ame the movies that won 1978, 1982, 1986, 1991, 1997 and 2001 2 4. 4d ‘You should be able to give all of the above information absolutely 100% correct. If you can't you need to correct one of the following areas: 1. Your Path of Addresses is not sequentially in order. 2. Your Association (artwork) is not emotion filled and/or abstract enough 3. You have not anchored your 5 year timeframes If you are not able to achieve 100%, 20 back and modify your weak areas. Practice your list several times per day at first. You will notice that you are not consciously seeing every little picture that you created before you recall the movie title, but force yourself occasionally to reinforce the complete address scene. When you occasionally do this with information you always want to remember, it will assure that each address is solidly on the path. As you impress your friends and family with your knowledge of movies, notice that you seemingly can name them as fast as you can see the next address in your mind. You don’t even have to stop for a second to think. That's how fast the mind’s eye works, in fact, we believe the processing speed of the mind can compete with or even beat a computer when you have created an address, placed it on a path and associated the information to be remembered. How do you explain your new ability and skill to your friends and fellow students? The answer is simple: “Don't!” You have made a major individual step to set yourself apart from the others. The world is a competitive place and you deserve an edge. If you choose to share this information with others you will only be sharing your ‘play-book* with the competition. And, you will open yourself up to being the ‘butt of jokes when you can’t remember someone's name. Of course you and I know that you didn't store that name but our friends will say.” the memory expert can't remember.” Many will purchase the rights for this material and never read or use it. Why? It is just human nature to seek a “quick fix’ and not put in any effort. Our congratulations to you because if you've come this far with the program you have eamed your way into an elite group of 71 eee ee EE Th rT Fr reindividuals that have trained their mind’s eye to recall information like a computer does ~ Address and Path. If you have to explain your new ability. explain it as a “computer-like* information storage and retrieval system. otherwise. let people think you are smarter than they are. And you are! How many people do you know that can store information and recall it perfectly each time? ‘You now have successfully leamed and applied the three basic elements of most memory systems — address, path and association. More importantly you have begun to teach the aind’s eye to read and write. All you need for your next subject is another path you are familiar with and specific addresses along the way. This could include: Schools you have attended, friend's and family’s homes, roads that you travel daily....there are many places to pick from. For many students, this could serve them well and no additional systems would ever be required, however. there is much more on the subject to learn when you are ready. Read the first six chapters of The Q Solution to Memory next and you will reinforce and expand upon ail you have leamed in this Quick Start Program. Then, read chapter 7 to leam why the Q (short for Quincunx) is the ultimate memory medium (address and path), The Center for Memory Mechanics is dedicated to teaching the mind’s eye to read and write. Visit the site often for updates, hints and newly developed systems designed to help students be successful in any and all educational endeavors. Please contact us with ‘your successes, comments and requests. 172