The Amazing Doctor Who Wanted to Cure His Patients By Memorizing A Deck of Cards

Would You Like A Memory Exercise That Will Give You Outstanding Mental Fitness In Just Minutes A Day ?

I'm talking about an exercise that gets you using one of the world's richest memory techniques. It involves nothing more than something called the Major Method (see below) and 52 small objects you can take with you anywhere you go.

If that's something that interests you, then here's a great question about the Magnetic Memory Method approach to memorizing a deck of cards. My answer follows.

Thank you for taking my email.

I reviewed your methods in your book on memorizing a deck of cards and am having a little trouble digesting the method or details.

I admit I've gone over your method rather quickly and probably have not given it a fair test – meaning I've skipped to the end before completing each step.

I was wondering if you had or could break your steps down further (if that makes sense) – so that I can actually practice each step slowly over time (or do I just need a coach?) I'd really love to learn this 'trick'.

I am really interested in your methods. I am a family physician and generally, as the joke goes, we are taught by someone who sprays information like a fire hose! So if I could use some of your 'tricks' that would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.

9 Ways To Makes The Most Powerful Sounds On The Planet (Without Learning To Play Heavy Metal)

To memorize cards using the Magnetic Memory Method, we first need to learn the Major Method. It's simple and as I talk about in the episode you can listen to above, Mark Channon has some great ways to memorize the follow list (give the episode a list for some of them):

0 = soft c, s or z

1 = t or d

2 = n

3 = m

4 = r

5 = l

6 = ch, j, sh

7 = k

8 = f or v

9 = b or p

For an alternative explanation and tips on making these associations stick in your mind fast, watch at least the first video from my Get Good At Remembering Numbers playlist:

The Shocking Truth About Memorizing Playing Cards

Without having the Major Method learned and committed to memory, the rest of the Magnetic Memory card memorization method simply won't work.

You could try rote memorization or Juan Tamirez's singsong method, but that takes forever and a day. And as much as I love the ideas Woody Aragón puts forth in Memorandum, I think the Major System approach will be faster for most people (though you can certainly give other approaches a try).

After you've memorized the sound-number associations, focus on just one Suite. For example, start with the Spades.

You can review my book on the matter for further details, but by now you know that this particular approach to card memorization requires that you assign each suite with a value after having memorized the sound-number associations.

In this case, Spades are 10, Diamonds are 30, Clubs are 50 and Hearts are 80.

Since we don't actually count these numbers, each Suite begins one number up (Ace of Spades is 11, Ace of Diamonds is 31, Ace of Clubs is 51, Ace of Hearts is 81).

Rabid Zombie Bambi?!?

The answer is simple. We're going to use the sound-number association method to create memorable images.

Let's say that you're starting with the Spades.

You need an image for the Ace of Spades.

Ace of Spades is represented by 11, so that means you can make an image from "ta ta" or "ta da" or "da ta."

In my memory system, I always use "toad."

But not just any toad!

It's very specifically this toad:

Why?

Because…

Specificity In Your Associations Makes Them Magnetic

But you need to come up with whatever works for you because your personal life will always serve up the most memorable. It could be Data from Star Trek, a dozing doe like Bambi, or better yet, a rabid, zombi doe attacking Data.

The point is to see the image you create as specific and concrete.

But if you use a verb like "doze" for 11, you'll be working with an abstract concept.

A dozing doe is better, but also kind of boring, though you'd now be heading in the right direction because you're compounding an object you can sense in your mind using the Magnetic Modes:

And a big, bright and colorful image of a rabid Zombie Bambi is not only exceedingly specific …

She's Going To Be VERY Hard To Forget!

It bears repeating: the words you construct from the sound-number system should be objects you can picture in your mind – or at least describe in your mind using words.

Here are the rest of my images for the Spades (remember: 1 is ta/da, so each word will start with one of those sounds).

Because most people won't identify with the concrete examples, I'll just give you the root Magnetic Imagery for the majority of them before diving into a specific example.

2S (12): Tin can

3S (13): Dam – as in the Hoover Dam

4S (14): Tire

5S (15): Tail

6S (16): Dish

7S (17): Tack

8S (18): TV

9S (19): Tape

Now for the following cards, we move to 20. That means each will start with a "na" sound followed by the sound of the next number in the digit. Therefore:

10S (20): Nose

JS (21): Nut

QS (22): Nun

KS (23): Enemy

The rest of the 20s you simply leave blank until the Diamonds, which are represented by 30 start at 31 with the Ace of Spades.

I know that sounds a bit complex, but it's actually very elegant once we've sorted it all out in our heads.

Again, I cannot stress enough that you come up with your own images.

But can you spot the one major weakness in my Spade number associations?

It's Enemy.

Why Is It A Weakness?

Because it's not specific. I can't see the concept of an enemy. Can you?

Since writing the first version of this post, I've since "compounded" Enemy with the author and painter Wyndham Lewis who edited a journal called The Enemy. Here's a self-portrait he painted in which he looks very much like an enemy indeed.

Now, this compounding of a specific figure to the concept of "enemy" has certainly helped, but it does require two steps rather than one to encode the card.

To take another example, in order for this system to work as well as it can (and it will if you put in the small amount of effort required), you need to be able to say that the 7 of Spades is a tack within a second of seeing it.

And put it this way: if you put in the effort just one time, you'll never in your life have to do it again.

Here Comes A New Idea For Using More Than One Memory Palace

Think of four cars, ideally the first four cars you owned so that you can mentally line them up in the order that you owned them. The historical order will help you remember which order they should come in your 4-part Memory Palace.

If you haven't owned four cars, then perhaps you can use four cars owned by your parents, your best friends, your neighbors, etc.

Or you can come up with something else.

The important point is that you select four "Memory Palaces" and that each has a 13 station journey.

The stations I have on each car are:

• Driver-side headlamp
• Passenger-side headlamp
• Hood
• Windshield
• Steering wheel
• Driver's seat
• Passenger's seat
• Seat behind driver
• Seat behind passenger
• Top of seat
• Back windshield
• Trunk
• Exhaust pipe

That's enough stations for one quarter of the deck. With all four Memory Palaces together, there are 52 stations, one per card.

Here's an important tip: the journey from station to station has to be clear in your mind.

The journey should be direct: you should not cross your own path, nor should you trap yourself in any way. That just leads to mental confusion later on when you're trying to recall the order of the cards.

If you haven't by this point memorized a set of images for the entire deck (52 in total), then at this point, just use the Spades. Shuffle them up and practice placing them at the 13 stations you've identified.

Give It Some Practice And Then … Practice A Little More!

Before you know it, you'll have the entire deck memorized and will be able to memorize new orders within 15 minutes or less. You can push yourself to do it in under 5. The world's best can do it in under 20 seconds.

Where preparation meets opportunity, there is no ceiling.

How To Apply Memorizing Cards To Memorizing Foreign Language Vocabulary, Japanese and Chinese Characters And Other Seemingly Difficult Sets Of Information

One of the questions I'm asked the most is how to memorize Japanese Kanji and Chinese Hanzi.

The answer is not simple, but there are possibilities.

There are also existing mnemonic approaches, such as those found in Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig. I recommend checking it out, but I'm concerned by two things in the book:

1. The sounds of the Kanji are not covered.
2. There is no location-based mnemonic strategy, such as using one Memory Palace (or ideally more)

What memorizing playing cards can do for you, however, is get you accustomed to memorizing abstractions by using sounds.

So for the Japanese and Chinese character sets, card memorization is great preparatory and ongoing memory exercise. Because you practice associating sounds with numbers and images (and what are numbers other than images?) in a constantly rotating pattern that is never repeated, your ability to manage cognitive overload in learning stretches.

So does your stamina.

Not only that, but there is good reason to believe that priming our mind with small creativity exercises before engaging in large ones increases the quality of our creativity.

Whether or not you're learning a language or want to give your memory a major boost, give this approach a try.

Remember: when preparation meets opportunity, there is really no end to the heights you can reach.

Further Resources

Interesting article in search of Wang Feng's card memory system. He's the guy who can memorized a shuffled deck in less than 20 seconds.

Memory Sport article on Wikipedia.

How to Memorize A Shuffled Deck In Less Than 60 Seconds on Tim's Ferriss' Four Hour Work Week.

11 Unexpected Answers To Your Questions About Mnemonics.

System for Remembering Cards? 13 Reasons You Should Have One.

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