The Genii Forum

Here's Joshua Foer's excellent TED talk...
Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do

Thanks for that detailed article.

Below are some notes that I took when I read Joshua Foers book on the subject. Foer doesnt go into as much detail as Ed does, but he does give a good summary of the PAO System which he learned from Ed as well. If you want to refer to the actual book itself, Foer begins talking about the technique on page 166 of his book, Moonwalking with Einstein.

Ive also modified the symbolic representations of the suits only slightly, based on Jungs archetypes.

Diamonds = Kings/Queens
Spades = Warriors
Hearts = Lovers
Clubs = Magicians

PAO System [ Person Action Object ]

--A single image of a person performing an action on an object
--Each of the 52 cards is associated with its own PAO image

i.e. Clubs (Magicians)

AC Dai Vernon Smoking a Cigar
2C Penn & Teller Exposing the Cups & Balls
3C Max Maven Reading Your Mind

6C Uri Geller Bending a Spoon

JC Juan Taramiz Playing the Violin
QC Tina Lenert Plucking the Harp
KC David Copperfield Vanishing the Statue of Liberty

--Any triplet of cards can be combined into a single image by combining the person from the first card with the action from the second and the object from the third.

i.e. Dai Vernon (AC) Bending (6C) the Statue of Liberty (KC)

--A full deck condenses into 18 unique images

52/3 = 17 (with one card left over)

--Place those 18 unique images into a Memory Palace

i.e. The Magic Castle

1. Vallet Entrance
2. Lobby
3. Grand Salon
4. Close-Up Gallery
5. Hat & Hare Lounge
6. Museum
7. Invisible Irma
8. Main Bar
9. Owl Bar
10. Dinning Rooms
11. Gallerie d Arte
12. Palace of Mystery
13. Palace Bar
14. Parlour of Prestidigitation
15. Inner Circle
16. Peller Theatre
17. W.C. Fields Bar
18. Library

The art of speed cards is in finding the perfect balance b/w moving quickly and forming detailed images. You want to catch just enough of a glimpse of your images so as to be able to reconstruct them later, without wasting precious time conjuring up any more color than necessary. j.f.

Oh, please! Get one of my books, for God's sake!!

I just finished reading Forer's book. It's kind of creepy: the writer lives in his parents' basement and trains for a memory contest with an assortment of what can only be described as pathetic losers. Yeah, they're all very smart, and can memorize pi to thousands of places, but that's about the extent of their contribution to the world.

I found the entire journey Forer takes the reader on, depressing.

Any book by Harry Lorayne is a million times better.

I thought I'd posted this somewhere before, but can't find it. I have literally thousands like this - "On December 30, 2008 I celebrated my 86th birthday. Earlier this month on December 1st, I put on a memory program for the Peachtree Corners Rotary Club, Norcross, Ga., and in my presentation I used over 2,000 numbers, all 159 Counties of the State of Georgia and County seats of each county (largest in population to the smallest), 6 decks of playing cards, and 3 different editions of TIME magazines. Thanks Harry for your contribution to my life. Since learning and using your memory-training techniques I have been able to accomplish this feat.
Ben C. Robertson"

I also posted somewhere someone's letter to the NY Times (don't know if they ever used it), anyway I'll paraphrase him -
"Writing about memory training and not mentioning Harry Lorayne is like writing about the theory of relativity without mentioning Albert Einstein!" (I think it also shows a lack of knowledge - or perhaps stealers don't want to mention from whom they steal?)

Thanks, Bob. It's amazing, though, isn't it? How many simply don't know, or don't pay attention!?

and can memorize pi to thousands of places

Heh. When I was about ten I memorised Pi to thirty-odd places for fun. Does that make me a fraction of a loser? :D

Interesting - I have a letter somewhere from someone who used my systems to memorize Pi to 3000 (yes, 3000!) places. Don't ask me why! And, I can do it, but there's no way I will!!

Oh, it can be done, but at the time I only had access to the 30-something digits. Torsten Allers, in the class above me, knew it to 200 places, but wouldn't tell me any more!

At the time, however, I had no knowledge of Harry or his books, so I worked out my own technique for remembering things (which has served me well over the years). A dozen years ago or so I got a booklet by Zufall, which filled in some gaps, but I've always found it easier to use my own system (I suppose if you learn something like this very young, it's hard to switch). I imagine that if I knew nothing about the systems then Harry's books would be a place to start (or Dominic O'Brian).

Ian, I'm sure you used that information to do something useful -- therefore not a loser, even by fractions. I memorized the Nikola system when I was about 12 to do card tricks -- but the people in Forer's book, all they DO is memorize. I prefer what I think Sherlock Holmes once said: never remember anything you can look up (I may have forgotten the actually reference -- yeah, irony is everywhere).

I know pi to 5 place, but I can make up random digits for the ones after that. Hardly anyone knows the difference.

And I'm sure they're thoroughly entertained!

I'm sure I read that Doug Henning generated some notoriety in High School by memorising Pi to forty digits - and he credited Harry Lorayne.

If memory serves me right ..............here is Pi to one thousand places. Hope I got this right. I've been known to be incorrect once.

3.

1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923 0781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460 9550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954 9303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485 6692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817 4881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384 1469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 4807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244 0656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176 7523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091 7363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201 9956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998 3729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533 4468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914 7303598253490428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532 171226806613001927876611195909216420198

Cheers from the Emerald Isle,
John Bowden

I've memorized it to as many as you, ten more, and enough to make my total 1011:

1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923 0781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460 9550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954 9303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485 6692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817 4881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384 1469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 4807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244 0656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176 7523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091 7363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201 9956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998 3729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533 4468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914 7303598253490428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532 1712268066130019278766111959092164201989216420198

Vincent Hedan of France has a fantastic effect "10,000 decimals of Pi" based on knowledge of one of six non-periodical stacks (Mnemonica, Aronson, Osterland, Nikola, Joyal, or (Claude) Rix)...

Vincent Hedan's 10,000 decimals of Pi ...

Bob Farmer wrote:I've memorized it to as many as you, ten more, and enough to make my total 1011:

1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923 0781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460 9550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954 9303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485 6692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817 4881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384 1469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 4807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244 0656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176 7523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091 7363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201 9956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998 3729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533 4468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914 7303598253490428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532 1712268066130019278766111959092164201989216420198

And Mr. Farmer has won the Internets for today. Where would you like them delivered?

Send them to my Commodore 64.

I meant no disrespect Mr. Lorayne. Im quite new to the memory game. I just picked-up two books of yours at the local public libraryThe Memory Book and Ageless Memory. One appears to be for people over 50. I figure I have a lot of catching-up to do and might as well read both to cover my loses.