Memorizing a mem deck stack using 52 meaningful Loci.

I believe the 52 Loci memory technique as suggested by Divrom deserves its own thread so here it is.

As some of you may know to memorize a mem deck I prefer what I call direct pegging Method A or direct pegging Method B In which the magician writes the position number in a unique way (different on each card) on the face of a practice deck. Also verbally saying the card and the number when practicing helps.

Divrom has suggested a 52 Loci method (that I sometimes refer to as Method C) which I like very much.

Note that Method A and Method B you start preparation with the card image and link the position number directly onto the card.

Using Method C (the 52 loci method) you start preparation by linking each of the 52 numbers to a PLACE and then later mentally link each playing card of the mem stack you are about to memorize to the appropriate place (based on the position number of each playing card).

As with any system there are pros and cons. Imo the con to Method C is that it takes some time to come up with the 52 locations and to meaningfully relate those locations to the numbers one through 52 and then practice until you can quickly know the location and it's number. This is all done independently of the playing cards. You still have to do another 52 memorizations to mentally link the playing cards to the Loci (to the PLACES). Using mnemonic techniques this is much easier once you have the 52 Loci mentally locked in. So this con imo is very small.

The pros to Method C:
Once you have these 52 locations memorized then you can apply (use more mnemonic techniques to memorize) these locations to any mem stack that you want. This is a great feature of Divrom's Method C imo.

Also if the locations can physically progress like true traditionally organized loci then you can mentally progress to the next card without having to think about the position number, but this may be difficult to keep the physical relationship of the loci when using Method C because the number itself should trigger the mental image of the place and vice versa the place should mentally trigger the image of the number. So the meaningful name of the location may prevent a physical sequence going place to place.
The whack-a-mole principle: you make one thing better and something else gets worse.
But this is not a big deal because the numbers themselves allow you to go to the next place.

Traditional loci memory methods do not use numbers, for example they simply use the physical next piece of furniture in a room. Therefore traditional loci you can easily know the next loci (and it’s associated card) without knowing anything about position numbers, but that's a problem for us magicians because you do not easily know the position of the card(s). That is the downfall of traditional loci methods such as PAO for us magicians. Divrom’s use of 52 Loci overcomes this problem.

Having said all that I believe that using the meaningful 52 loci Method C you don't give up much because it's easy to know the next sequential location simply by using the number (yes it cost you a split second to think of the next number when doing sequential tricks, but Method C (like any mem deck memorization technique) allows you mentally (because you have memorized the cards with their locations) to know very quickly the position number of any card which traditional loci with multiple cards on a loci cannot easily do.

As with any mem deck memorization technique Method A, Method B and Method C all handle both positional knowledge and sequential knowledge quite well.

Divrom uses locations and relationships that he can personally relate to (which is imo the best way for any mnemonic system).

However I like to develop generic systems that many magicians other than myself can relate to. So here are some of my attempts at setting up 52 meaningful loci in order to use Method C:

Countries and states (total 52), starting with Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany etc.
I'm calling this the Iceland 52 loci method.

Planet Archibald with 52 islands where each island is shaped like a number one through 52.

Statehood sequence of the United States Plus Puerto Rico for 51 and Alberta haha (I don't care either way) for 52.

The planet Archibald method in theory should be the easiest because each place (each island) is the number, but that really just relegates it to traditional methods, not ruling it out but not sold on using the planet Archibald method for the loci.

Using the statehood technique
I fully developed the statehood mnemonics to memorize the number associated with each state, but have not yet mentally linked a stack to the states. I see this as working quite well for me if I want to pursue it. If I do I will probably try it with my Tritium stack.

The Iceland, Norway etc loci method has the advantage that you can more easily advance physically to the next card because of the physical progression through the countries, but there are some anomalies. This ability to mentally imagine physically going to the next country is not a significant issue because the number associated with each country also allows you to do that.

I will have some following posts that will show some of my 52 loci places to be used in conjunction with Method C.

To others please feel free to post your 52 meaningful loci that others could adopt.

My advice to those who have not yet adopted a mem deck but wish to is to make or pick a mem deck and memorize it using whatever technique works for you and then stick with that one mem deck. Most of us magicians do not need to memorize more than one stack (so our mind does not get confused by memorizing another deck).

Thanks again to Divom for pointing out how to use meaningful associating names for the numbers of the 52 loci. Such as his example of a diving board for the number 29 (leaping from a diving board associates leap year having a month with 29 days). That and his suggestion to actually use 52 loci instead of the traditional 17 or 26 that PAO and PA use. The use of 52 loci allow us magicians to easily know the positions of the cards.

This Method C using the statehood sequence as Loci.

First here are some facts that may not be known but will help with some of the difficult numbers:

5 rhymes with "hive" therefore think of a dome shaped beehive with a big number five written on it.

Nashville Tennessee is the world capital for bachelorette parties, The girls are everywhere downtown on Friday and Saturday night (in warm weather many are in blue jean short shorts and cowboy boots). This makes for some good mnemonic imagery to be used later.

White Sands proving ground in New Mexico is where the US military developed many missiles and bombs.

Frogs are noted for their leaping ability.
A frog represents the number 29 in many mnemonic schemes because leap year has a month with 29 days and a frog leaps. Also the year 1929 stock market crash there were some investors that leaped from the top of tall buildings.

The Empire State Building is used to represent the number 31 because it was built in 1931.

A baseball "Mitt" is often used in mnemonic systems to represent the number 31 (the MAJOR system M means three and T means one).

The "37" mentalism trick:
There is a magic trick where the magician asks a spectator to think of any two-digit number between 1 and 50. A very high percentage of the time that number will be 37.

A flying saucer shaped UFO with a clear dome in the center and a green alien head inside is a great representation for the number 51 because of the stories
about the secret "area 51".

North Dakota Badlands image and imagine a mop on top of the tower (in the MAJOR system the M means 3 and the P means 9). Also think 39 final steps to the top (like the Big Ben Tower’s 39 final steps). You can also think of the "mop" being brought down to the neighbor state South Dakota to scrub off the top of Mount Rushmore and then the mop taken back to North Dakota and put on top of it's Badlands Tower. Also notice that North Dakota and South Dakota were consecutively added as state number 39 and State 40.

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Okay enough said about the preliminary stuff, so here is my actual 52 statehood loci and the mnemonics to associate the number to the state.

The order of statehood:
1 Delaware: - "the first state".

2 Pennsylvania: - Constitution written in Pennsylvania providing two houses (Senate and Congress).

3 New Jersey: - Bell Labs 3 prong transistor was invented in New Jersey.

4 Georgia: - Augusta Georgia Masters golfer hollers "four".

5 Connecticut: - cutting a beehive in half ie: Connecti "CUT".

6 Massachusetts: - Massachew SIX.

7 Maryland: - shape looks like a machine gun that James Bond 007 is holding.

8 South Carolina: - ate octopus headed south for 8 letters in Carolina.

9 New Hampshire: - Hampshire/Cheshire Cat with Nine lives (both have "shire" in their name).

10 Virginia: - Jamestown colony so they could follow the Ten commandments.

11 New York: - September 11th infamous day.

12 North Carolina: - chicken head pointed north and laying a dozen eggs. Or think of a pocket watch and 12 being the NORTH most number.

13 Rhode Island hockey: - has goalie mask which represents the evil Jason of Friday 13th movie.

14 Vermont: - has a FORT with TEENagers and VERMIN.

15 Kentucky: - Colonel Sanders playing badminton where 15 points wins.

16 Tennessee: - Nashville 16 bachelorettes holding candles (movie "Sixteen Candles").

17 Ohio: - teenage magazine "Seventeen" on State image and teenager is waving her hand saying "oh hi".

18 Louisiana: - Louisiana 18 y o license to drive (License and Louisiana start with the same letter "L").

19 Indiana: - looks like a banana (potassium atomic number 19).

20 Mississippi: - interstate 20.

21 Illinois: - drinking age 21 at Al Capone Chicago bar. Too much makes you ill and annoying.

22 Alabama: - squirrel hunters with 22s.

23 Maine: - JAX Lab genetic research "23 and me".

24 Missouri: - gateway Arch visible 24 hours a day.

25 Arkansas: - Bill Clinton about to get a haircut standing by a Barber pole "shave and a haircut two bits" which is 25 cents or just show a USA quarter coin on a little rock.

26 Michigan: - Show the town of Marathon Michigan on the state of Michigan map. Mentally note that Michigan and Marathon start with the letter M. Also you need to be a long distance runner to run to the two parts of Michigan.

27 Florida: - a bunch of dresses (27 dresses movie) or an alligator has two eyes and a 7 ft tail.

28 Texas: - 28th parallel runs through Texas also the the first letters "T" and "E" of Twenty Eight are the first two letters of Texas.

29 Iowa: - 1929 stock market crash, have picture of Herbert Hoover with 29 on his face or Iowa frog gigger hunters because frog means 29 because frog leap and 29 day month in leap year and also stock market crash in 1929 people leaped from buildings. The letter I in Iowa looks like a frog gig pole.

30 Wisconsin: - hunk of cheese with 30 holes.

31 California: - has the 1931 Empire State Building in place of San Francisco dragnet Tower. Baseball Mitts (31) are used a lot in California because of the moderate temperatures.

32 Minnesota: - Minnesota Fats gritting his 32 teeth on the middle of a pool cue stick.

33 Oregon: - covered wagon arriving in Oregon playing 33 RPM record.

34 Kansas: (1861) - has Luke Skywalker's X-34 land speeder superimposed over outline of the state of Kansas.

35 West Virginia: - 35 mph sign over mountain roads "Country roads take me Home" drive slow and safe over "West Virginia mountain Mama".

36 Nevada: - roulette wheel has numbers one through 36.

37 Nebraska: - pretend Johnny Carson the "Amazing Carnac" does the 37 mentalism trick while waving an ear of corn in the air like a magic wand (Johnny Carson was from Nebraska).

38 Colorado: - silver miner with a 38 caliber pistol to protect his silver mine.

39 North Dakota: - imagine on the N.D. Badlands Tower imagine Neil Diamond tying up Jack Benny (always 39 y.o.) in blue jeans sitting on the tower. "Forever in blue jeans" is Neil diamond song and his initials N D also indicate North Dakota. Also think of 39 final steps like the 39 final steps on Big Ben Tower.

40 South Dakota: - 4 tea bags on Mount Rushmore, one on each president's mouth thus “Four Tea” for South Dakota.

41 Montana: - 1941 Japan balloon bombs in Montana as Joe Montana throws a bomb away.

42 Washington: - Microsoft software is spread through entire UNIVERSE of hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy. Reminder that Microsoft is headquartered near Seattle Washington.

43 Idaho: - on 43rd parallel, imagine several potatoes forming the number 43.

44 Wyoming: - need Jeep 4x4 to do wild roaming in Wyoming.

45 Utah: - Mormon w 45 wives.

46 Oklahoma: - just a big 46 in the outline of the state, in the pan also envision a complete double helix chromosome wrap around the pot shape of Oklahoma. Also the Choctaw named the state "Okla" people and "humma" meaning red. So Oklahoma means "people red". Therefore the double helix 46 chromosomes produces the red skin color.

47 New Mexico: - Twitchell flag w 47 also AK47 equipped soldiers to protect white sands military testing area.

48 Arizona: - 48 starfield flag (last of the continental 48 states to get statehood).

49 Alaska: - 49ers rushed to the Yukon gold.

50 Hawaii: - current American flag starfield.

51 Puerto Rico (UFO sighting of spitting orb).

52 Alberta Canada (on 52nd parallel) possible state, haha.

If not being used to memorize a deck of playing cards the above 52 mnemonics could be used by a history student to get an A on their statehood history test.

Here is a link to a picture of the North Dakota Badlands Tower to help with mnemonic imagery:

https://images.app.goo.gl/BYsJJ

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Here is the link to a Nevada roulette wheel showing slot 36 as the highest number on the wheel (in this picture 36 happens to be at the 11 o'clock position).

https://www.zazzle.com/very_fun_american......62786666

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Clarifications:

The mnemonics for Marathon Michigan and 26 is, of course, that the Marathon race is 26 miles (I failed to mention this). Most people reading this thread would know that Marathon=26 but I mention it here in case there's a few that do not.

I did mention Herbert Hoover in connection with Iowa and the number 29. Most reading this would think the only reason for using Herbert Hoover was that he was president in 1929 and that was the mnemonic connection. I failed to mention that Herbert Hoover actually was from Iowa. What a coincidental perfect mnemonic bridging link Herbert Hoover is for Iowa and 29!

USA border states 52 mnemonics. This is to be used in conjunction with Method C.

Ai Prompt:
I want a list of landmarks and or buildings and or natural structures in the USA so that I can form a mnemonic memory palace using many loci. I want only things that are in states that are in the perimeter of the 48 states. In other words: states that touch the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, states that border Mexico, states that touch the Pacific Ocean, states that border Canada.

Above was the Ai prompt that I used. I deliberately avoided the New England states because many of them are physically small and hard to visually imagine a traveling path therefore I started in my imaginary car with the state of New York and worked my way south along the Atlantic coast then on the southern border states to mentally travel Westward to California and then up to Washington State and then eastward to Ohio and then flew to the four outlier "States": Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Alberta.

Practice memorizing the itinerary with the states and locations and number associations with those locations and after you have that solidly memorized then use your stack of preference (Aaronson, Mnemonica, Redford etc) and form mnemonic associations to the appropriate mnemonic object in the list below.

The whole idea here is that using this memory palace and doing a sequential call out of playing cards trick you can (with practice) visually proceed to the next iconic image without having to mentally reference a number from 1 to 52. But if doing an acaan type trick you can still use the positional number to get to a playing card. The best of both worlds.

Gemini provided many of these, but I overrode and plugged in about two thirds of the following:

New York:
1. Empire State Building (looks like the number 1).
2. Times square (New Year's Eve ball in two positions, up or down).

New Jersey:
3 Atlantic City three-eyed Miss America.

Pennsylvania:
4 Philadelphia Liberty Bell has 4 cracks (not true, pretend).
5 Gettysburg (five major attacks).

Delaware:
6 Wilmington (Washington crosses Delaware - I know it was the Delaware River to get to Trenton NJ but for ease of memory I think this works to include Washington crossing the Delaware painting as a mnemonic image for the state of Delaware because a lot more people will recognize that image than say a Rehoboth Beach in Delaware).
Pretend many soldiers were sick (six) and throwing up while crossing in the small boat.

Maryland:
7 Pimlico horse race track for the Preakness (open seven days a week, not true but pretend).
8 Fort McHenry (the number eight looks like two cannonballs stacked on top of each other).

Washington DC:
9 Capitol building (they are fat cats in the building and cats means nine lives).
10 Washington monument (on a scale of 1 to 10 this monument is at 10).
11 Jefferson memorial (imagine Thomas Jefferson standing in front with two skinny legs that look like the number 11).
12 Lincoln memorial (has 12 columns across the front, this is true).

Virginia:
13 the Pentagon (unlucky to mess with).
14 Colonial Williamsburg (girls got married at 14).

North Carolina:
15 Biltmore Vanderbilt estate (Open to public March 15th 1930 so think of Julius Caesar being assassinated by commodore Vanderbilt in the Biltmore mansion on the Ides of March to mentally lock in the number 15 with Biltmore).

South Carolina:
16 Fort Sumter (if we flip the two digits of 16 we get 61 which is the year 1861 of attack).
17 Fort Jackson basic training (17-year-olds go in for basic military training).

Georgia:
18 Augusta Masters golf tournament (18 holes).

Florida:
19 Disney world (Stephen King's dark Tower 19 can be associated with the Disney World Hollywood House of Terror).
20 Cape Canaveral (ingenuity helicopter sent to Mars in the year 2020).

Alabama:
21 Tuscaloosa red tide football (a good three touchdown score).

Mississippi:
22 Vicksburg general Grant gunboats (soldiers equipped with 22 rifles, not true but pretend).

Louisiana:
23 New Orleans Mardi gras has lots of DNA shared kissing (23 pairs of chromosomes).

Texas:
24 Alamo (they had to be alert 24 hours a day also William Travis victory or death letter written on February 24th).
25 Starbase (SpaceX new city named Starbase Incorporated in the year 2025 so imagine Elon musk standing on a sign that says 25 and he also has the appropriate playing card on his chest.

New Mexico:
26 Carlsbad caverns (you can run a 26 mile marathon inside).
27 White Sands Missile range (27 dresses all with white sand on them).

Arizona:
28 Painted desert (visit during February 28).
29 Grand canyon with lots cliffs to leap from (on leap year February 29th).

California:
30 San Diego Navy port (has 30 ships).
31 Los Angeles Anaheim (Cinderella Castle in Disneyland with the evil stepmother who was 31 years old).
32 San Francisco Golden gate bridge (has about thirty-two vertical steel cables between the spans and there is 32 false chatter teeth trying to bite one of the cables).

Oregon:
33 Portland (Covered wagon (Oregon trail) they listened to 33 RPM records in their wagons).
34 Snow capped Mount Hood (Luke Skywalker's X-34 land speeder is sitting on the very top of the mountain).

Washington State:
35 Mount St Helens with its side blown off (pretend that 35 people died as did with the Hindenburg disaster)
36 Seattle Space Needle (top is about 36 yards in diameter).

Idaho:
37 Boise (magician David DaVinci (Dave Womach) was originally from Sandpoint, Idaho. I think of the number 37 being associated with magicians ("think of a two-digit number from 1 to 50" many will think of 37).

Montana:
38 Little Bighorn Custer's last stand (he had a 38 caliber pistol which did him no good).

North Dakota:
39 Badlands Tower (Jack Benny with a mop scrubbing off the top).

Minnesota:
40 St Paul (pretend Minnesota fats using a forty inch long pool cue stick).
41 Minneapolis 3M Scotch tape (In 1941 they sent Scotch tape to tape up the holes in naval ships that had been torpedoed).

Wisconsin:
42 Green Bay (has giant hunk of cheese ruling the universe hitchhiker's guide Galaxy 42).
43 Milwaukee giant beer bottle (made from shots of Licor 43 - I never heard of this but it's about the only 43 thing I could find).

Michigan:
44 Detroit 4x4 vehicle to travel to Northern Michigan.
45 Lake Michigan (45 feet deep, not true but pretend).

Ohio:
46 Cleveland (Cleveland Hospital studies complete DNA.
47 Sandusky roller coasters (must be 47 in tall to ride).
48 Toledo scales (can handle 480 lbs).

Alaska:
49 Yukon (49ers rush to Yukon for gold).

Hawaii:
50 Honolulu (the 50th state with full star field on flag).

Puerto Rico:
51 San Juan (UFO on the beach).

Alberta Canada:
52 Calgary (this is a joke, we have our B-52s ready to go from Alberta).

Of course you can substitute your own mental associations of a number to a location instead of the ones I have provided.

After building this memory palace with the playing cards mentally attached then you can pretend to go on a sightseeing tour in your automobile starting in New York City with the Empire State Building and mentally seeing the first playing card attached to the Empire State Building and then driving to times square to see the second playing card attached to the New Year's Eve ball and then driving to Atlantic City to see Miss America walking down the aisle with the third playing card on her body. Then driving to the Liberty Bell to see the 4th playing card attached to it and so on.

Wow... This is fantastic. Really great post! Thank you.

Thanks Rory111!

Border state memory palace: Possible Modifications for numbers 45 through 52:

I have our imaginary automobile trip traveling the wrong direction along the northern edge of Ohio. So here are my suggested changes to rectify that and to keep the entire trip within the continental USA:

Remove location 45 from Michigan.

Ohio:
45 Toledo Ohio (imagine a big Toledo scale with it's arrow pointing to 45 lbs. Could also think of a heavy person standing on the scale and looking at the scale showing a large weight and then that person says "you lie" and pulls out a 45 caliber pistol and shoots the scale).

46 Famous Cleveland Hospital: DNA studies (a human double helix has 46 chromosomes ie: 23 pairs times 2 is 46).

Northern New York:
47 Buffalo New York (where Buffalo Bill armed with an AK-47 is shooting buffaloes in his wild west show).

48 Niagara Falls New York (the falls are approximately 48 yards high). John "David" Munday: this Canadian machinist was 48 years old when he went over the falls in a steel barrel, becoming the tenth person to survive.

49 Rochester New York Power Building (where Eastman Kodak and miners 49ers are panning for gold to make gold-plated cameras. Imagine that the Power Building looks like an old-fashioned camera plated with gold). You could also think of the old time black actor who played "Rochester" and a 49er gold panner both standing in front of the Rochester building shaking hands.

50 Syracuse University New York (Carrier Dome holds 50,000 people. True statement).

51 Watertown New York Thompson Park paranormal vortex for UFOs and pretend military Blackhawk helicopter from nearby Fort Drum shooting down UFO that was from area 51.

52 Lake Placid New York (the lake is approximately 52 ft deep, true. Also the American "Miracle on Ice" 1980 Olympic hockey team practiced for 52 weeks, not true but we can pretend).

I had to use a lot of Northern New York locations to finish out the needed 52 locations to keep all the locations in the Continental USA and complete the circle of our huge automobile imaginary trip of maybe 15,000 miles starting in New York and ending in New York.

Imagery for a Toledo scale (these scales are no longer manufactured but historically they were famous):
https://images.app.goo.gl/TZsAEfXgb7Hkyh3eA

Imagery for the Rochester New York Power Building:
https://images.app.goo.gl/vz5bv

Imagery for the Carrier Dome in Syracuse New York:
https://images.app.goo.gl/bFAZM

Also for the border state method the number 37 for Idaho can be enhanced by visualizing Mr Potato Head dressed in a tux and holding a magic wand. Since a magician can be associated with 37 and a potato associated with Idaho we've got a good mnemonic connection of 37 with Boise Idaho.

For the border states method I want to change the Washington State mnemonics to:

Washington State:
35 Mount St Helens with its side blown off (note that 35 thousand years ago it had lava eruptions, true).
36 Seattle Space Needle (pretend the main metal structure underneath is composed of thousands of metal yard sticks welded together ie: a yardstick is 36 inches).

51 Watertown New York:
Imagine the circle around its fountain being the outline of the landing area of the flying saucer from area 51. See the image in below link:

https://images.app.goo.gl/VBXy6

I think this is a simpler mental image than involving Thompson Park which very few people would know about whereas the above photograph of the circle around the Watertown fountain can directly form a mental image of a flying saucer.