The Art of Mnemonics

There is a simply fascinating technique used by many actors, public relations people, politicians, and others who need to exhibit proficiency in recalling names, faces, and figures. The word “mnemonics” comes from the Greek word for “memory.” It is a simple but powerful association system which allows the user to recall details that regular long-term memory might find difficult to supply. Lorayne, the leading authority on mnemonics, has written a number of instruction books on the subject. It works thus: Suppose that you must remember the names of several persons to whom you are being introduced. Applying Lorayne’s system, you would pick out some prominent feature of each person’s appearance (facial details, dress ornaments, marks, etc.) and then associate that detail with either the sound or some other characteristic of the name. For example, you are at a party one evening and you have met a man with a Band-Aid on his cheek, and you are told that his name is Carter. You might choose to picture the Band-Aid as having a tiny cartoon of Jimmy Carter—with lots of teeth, of course—drawn on it. The connection has been made—and the sillier or the more bizarre the connection, the better. When you later see that man wearing his Band-Aid, you will have no difficulty making the connection, and you will recall his name. A woman might be wearing outlandish rhinestone glasses and be named Alexander. In this case, you might choose to imagine the name Alexander written out on her forehead in rhinestones, and the tune Alexander’s Ragtime Band being played. Next, you are introduced to a man wearing a loud checkered vest and you learn that his name is Hershey. Think of that vest with Hershey’s chocolate syrup poured over the front of it, and that man will not be difficult to identify later on. This is the kind of outlandish imagery that will make mnemonics work for you. Such systems are not at all hard to master, and I learned that “healer” Peter Popoff, after I had blown away his alternative system of identifying people in the audience (see Chapter 9), was seen reading a Lorayne book aboard an aircraft taking him to one of his crusades. Pause. Without looking back to the pertinent paragraph, let’s test the efficacy of the mnemonic system that has just been described. (I suggest that you cover the upper half of this page with your hand.) Imagine that it is later in the evening, and you have run into those same three people, in a different order from when you first met them. You wonder if you can recall their names, which you have committed to memory by means of the system. Now answer these three questions:(1) How do you address the lady with the rhinestone glasses? (2) You see a chap wearing a Band-Aid. What is his name? (3) Who is the guy with the checkered vest?

I think, from this example, that you will see now how easy it can be, even for one who is only slightly acquainted with mnemonics, to use this art. With some experience and practice, mnemonics can be a very handy and very powerful tool. It has made fortunes for W. V. Grant, among others.