I've learned by experiences that it is difficult to argue against beliefs.


Yes, me.
Unfortunately I never tried appropriate effects before reading memory books.
So I can't claim that it did not work before, ...

Cheers
Th.

J: I know literally tens of thousands of such all over the world. You can't be serious. I'm not being snide, either - I'm trying to help people. That's sometimes an upward climb when there are those who simply don't know and make negative statements. Without realizing it, of course. I've done thousands of corporate seminars over the years and all over the world. At EACH AND EVERY ONE the people there remember more than 30 or 40 (made-up names) after hearing them once - after learning my techniques. ("Made-up names" because in most instances the people there already know each others' real names.) Please! Know whereof yo speak. HL.

I first encountered Harry Lorayne's books as a teenager and I found the methods invaluable. I have not explored them to the depths that I should have, but even so they have vastly improved my ability to recall information, and to soak up information rapidly. For instance I was at a show recently where a mentalist did an effect involving four six digit numbers. I managed to memorise the 24 numbers while he did the effect, and later I was able to write them out and figure out how the effect worked. Impossible without Harry's methods.

I know Harry was not the first, but his books are about the best out there. The only one which comes close is Quantam Memory by Dominic O'Brien. Everything else seems to be just a poor imitation of Harry's work.

I read Harry's book in my late teens. Pretty quickly I learned how to remember names and phone numbers. Which young girls didn't believe when I told them you don't have to write down your number.

I still remember numbers more than 20 years ago. And I can still use his phonetic alphabet even now. Ive not used it in years but its still there ready for when I want to.

I have used it to memorize serial numbers on bank notes so I could read minds...

In pubs I used to get people to write down numbers 1 to 50 and write an object. I could with a minutes scan remember every object and what number it was at.

At one time I could memorize a deck of cards to for real.

I don't really use it these days but most of it is still up there if I want to.

Harry's books have helped me gain confidence in myself and abilities, achieve my degrees from university, retain medical knowledge in my practice, operate effectively as an essentialist in this world, encode philosophical principals, lyrics, dates, ... you name it! Harry Lorayne ... you have made a great difference in my world.

A great and venerable THANKS to a great memory expert, instructor and magician!

Looks like I have a new testimonial

"in all my books... not anywhere do I suggest the use of flash cards...Thank you Timothy" Harry Lorayne

John,
I will respectfully answer your question with a yes.

I was one of the fortunate high school students who took the Harry Lorayne course at the Roosevelt Hotel approximately 45 years ago. At the end of the course Mr. Lorayne asked some of the graduates if they would like to volunteer and demonstrate their new found abilities to other potential memory students. I gave several demonstrations including memorizing the names of everyone in the room. There must have been about 50 people in the room.

My point is that this stuff works if you try it. My normal memory is probably no better than yours and without mnemonics I will usually forget a persons name, although I try to make it a habit to use the techniques as much as possible. I've used these techniques through graduate school, business and find it to be indispensable with mentalism. Corinda probably felt the same when he put it in step 3 of his 13 steps.

There is so little to lose and so much to gain by studying Harry Loraynes systems that I can't see someone not at least trying it out. Besides being a great practitioner and performer he is also a great teacher which is why I so highly recommend his work.

Finally, I haven't seen Harry Lorayne in over 40 years and have no financial interest in his projects. I'm simply a lifelong student and practitioner of his systems and can't think of a better way to help others than to recommend his work. Give it a try!

Steve

Glad I've been of help, guys, and thanks for saying so publicly. As for Mr. Hyde, I so wish I knew what the h@ll he was talking about. Do any of you know? There's always one! Best - HARRY L.

I bought Harry's "How to Develop a Super Power Memory" back in the 1960's. It remains one of the most valuable books I have every read and learned from. The techniques I learned from his work became cornerstones in my own development as a mentalist.

Thanks, Harry!

Good thoughts,

Bob Cassidy

I'll put myself on the list of people that learned memory skills using Harry's books. I'll admit that I haven't put in the work to remembering faces. For some reason I'm lazy in that one part, but any time that I have applied it the thing worked.

I remember helping a friend out many years ago as she shot a film short. I was going to be her main assistant so I knew I was going to be meeting a large crew and cast. I decided to apply the principles that day so I wasn't constantly asking for names again or just shouting "Hey, you!"

Well, I surprised myself. All day I was calling out people by name and even heard some comments from people that were amazed I remembered everyone. It works. You just have to not be lazy about it.

As for all the other principles like the link and peg system, I've used them for years and they've never let me down.

Greg

I'll add my name to the list of those who, as a teenager, read one of Harry's books and was astounded by what I was able to remember. I still do a memory demonstration for my introductory psychology class every semester. They are amazed that I can remember the 30 or 40 items they give (I once was invited to give a guest lecture to a very large section of 200 students at another university. After the typical demonstration of 30 or so items, they invited me back for a "challenge"... all 200 were to give me an item. I returned the following week. They gave me a standing ovation when I finished repeating back the entire 200 item list!).

Regards, Steve

One can simply develop their own technique, out of neccesity that is what I have done. That's what I have done. I just picture the list in my mind. Sometimes, if possible, I will write down whatever it is I want to remember and simply number them. I then picture the list in my mind.

If I can't write it down, which is the majority of the time, such as while performing, I just mentally invision a piece of notebook paper and place the word, picture or whatever, on the list and number it. Then when needed, I simply recall the list.

Works well for me.

Dreadnaught: You never know - my systems may even work better for you. Of course, if everyone "developed their own technique" I'd never have sold, nor would I continue to sell, any books! I do wonder if you could do what Steve just explained with your own "developed technique."

I love memory systems and how the human brain works, so, I'm definitely going to check your system out. My system was developed in elementary school. I'm severly dyslexic and in order to keep from being put in the "special education" classes I forced myself to commit everything to memory. Still sucked on the written test part until I just learned to adjust for what I heard to what I was seeing. My math skills still suck to high heaven. However, I can still recall the most trivial things, like Latin noun declensions and that in sixth grade Social Studies the chapter on Ivan the Terrible was chapter six starting on page 65. Go figure.

As far as what Steve did, I have never memorized anything that big, but I have memorized complex things especially patterns which is common with dyslexia. I have a dual major in Music Theory and Composition and Classical Guitar. Because my sight reading is as bad as my math skills, I had to, again, commit to memory real complicated pieces of music which are still rolling around in my noodle.

Peace and Godspeed.

Dreadnaught: If it helps you any, please be aware that I am terribly dyslexic. When I was a young kid in school, there was no such word - I was simply stamped "moron." You're given the name, you play the game. But, at about 10 or 11 years of age, the lightbulb lit. I had thought I was stupid because I failed all tests that my schoolmates passed. The epiphany was when I stopped dead in my tracks and thought "Wait a minute - these questions we're asked on these tests have nothing to do with intelligence. They have to do with one thing, and one thing only - MEMORY. If you remembered what the teacher said or what you read, you answered the question correctly and when you took the graded test home, your father didn't belt you because you had a failing grade! That - THAT - started what eventually became a career. C'mon Dreadnaught - I wrote my first book on the subject in 1956. It's about time you "checked out my systems"! No?

I definitely will check it out, I'm on Amazon now.

I am really glad to meet someone who went through the same stuff I went through and walked the same road. You simply adjust or fall to the wayside.

I was in elementary school in late 60's. Like you said, there was no such thing as dyslexia, or if there was, no one was taught to look for it, you were simply retarded and moved to special education.

I remember being in math class and given a simple math equation dealing with multiplying fractions and my answer was -356 4/5. And then the class erupting in laughter when the teacher said no Scott the answer is 2. But I got the last laugh when I not only memorized the Preamble to the Constitution but the first four amendments as well.

Thankyou.

Peace and Godspeed.

Jeffdell, I would also give you the advice to explore what is your PERSONAL way of remembering things, as some have said here.

For example, Dominic O'Brien's system of using persons to remember numbers doesn't work at all for me. Although I have a phenomenal memory when it comes to faces, I can not make his system work if my life depended on it. Just because it works well for most and he has set world records with it, it doesn't mean it works for everyone.

On the other hand, using objects instead of persons works very well for me, so that's what I would use if I had to.

It has also been suggested that the more "strange and illogical" something is, the easier it is to remember. Very often the opposite is true for me. If I can find a logical link or make up an ordinary image, I remember it very easily.

One more thing. If a system doesn't work it's not your fault. You didn't "put too little effort into it" as some would say. It's simply that THAT system is not for YOU. Move on to a system that works easily for YOU.

I have a really bad memory....
I even forget the billet I peeked at or read while coming to the second billet...hope you understand what I mean.....
I have used a stacked set,learned the selection by looking at the bottom card...and forgotten it while doing the revealation!
I think I should go thru Harrys book.
But I have a question for Harry L....does any system, yours or others, give you a better memory or help you only when called upon/challenged to memorise a certain group of numbers/objects.

Hi Mikael,

Thank you for the feedback. I like to think my memory is very average though like you were saying there are things that I'm stronger with and things that I'm weaker with. I'm okay with numbers and not so good with names\faces. I did pick up a copy of Harry Lorayne's book The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play from Barnes and Noble and went through the first couple of chapters. I suspect to implement something like this will take some time and practice before it becomes second nature!

Thanks for all the advice!

Jeff

Yes, you will become better as time goes by. One very unsuspected thing I found out (and that no one talk about) was that learning a list by heart (such as the peg word list from 00-99) actually gave me a better automatic memory. With automatic I mean when you don't use memory techniques, for example you remember someones name automatically. So it seems like the act of trying to remember something in itself gives you a better automatic memory for everything.

It seems like the effect fades away though, so I think it's a good idea to always have a project going on, like learning the worlds capitals or your country's area codes or similar.
I use to play around a little with the license plates I see to train my fantasy (fantasy is the basis for all memory techniques, I think everyone will agree on that!). Swedish license plates have three letters in a row, like ABR, which in my fantasy becomes ABRacadabra. CLT would be CLinTon (Bill), HNY would be Happy New Year, etc.

When I started several years ago, it was hard to find words or phrases that fitted, but now they come almost automatically.