How to Remember Anything: The Proven Total Memory Retention System (3 page)

When you set up your permanent rooms, you should be able to see or imagine every numbered location within every room you are using. It is easier than you may think. For example, you can see your kitchen in your mind—even if you are not in your kitchen right now. You can see your refrigerator in a specific location within your kitchen. You know what color it is. You know if the door opens from the right to the left or from the left to the right. You even know what it looks like inside. But you are not there! That is how the numbered Cube system works. You can see each room location—each corner, every wall, the ceiling, and the floor as well as the furniture—because the room is very familiar to you.

I once gave a memory demonstration while traveling in the Republic of China. I did not use the room in which I was located. I used my familiar rooms half a world away. I remember thinking about that fact at the time. Think about it—even if you were on the moon, you could still see your kitchen and your refrigerator clearly in your mind, from a quarter of a million miles away!

MULTIPLE PROJECTS IN THE SAME ROOMS

One of the most frequently asked questions by those who are just learning the Cube system is, “How can I use my rooms for many different projects without confusing the data?” There are three reasons why this concern should not be a problem:

1.
You will be familiar with the subject. By concentrating on that subject, you will find that other objects that you have stored in the same room will not even come to mind.

2.
Although a memory system makes it possible to initially store information with relative ease, soon the need for the memory system will disappear and you will know the information you have stored for a given body of knowledge. For example, there are few students of chemistry who know the more than one hundred elements on the periodic table of the elements (name of the element, symbol, atomic number, atomic weight, group, block, and period). Only through a memory system could this information be stored with rela— tive ease and recalled with accuracy and speed. Through fre— quent use of the memory system, the information becomes permanent knowledge without a conscious use of the system. This system makes it possible to initially store information that may otherwise be very difficult to learn in any reasonable amount of time.

3.
If you are working on more than one project at a time, you may use different rooms to eliminate any possible confusion. Also, in the chapters that follow, you will find that there are additional systems that may be used.

Step 2

HOW TO CHANGE WORDS TO PICTURES

THE AUDIONYM

By seeing how the names of the first nine presidents were changed into
soundalike objects, you have already experienced the use of the second of the ten easy steps in my learning system. I call Step 2 the audionym. “Audio” means
sound.
“Nym” means
name.
An audionym is a sound name (a soundalike) for a word you want to remember. It is important to note that audionyms are based on sound, not spelling.

An audionym can be created for any word. Remember, the audionym must be something that sounds like (or at least suggests) the word you want to remember and it must be something you can see. Following are examples of audionyms I have created for a number of subjects:

By reviewing the above words and their suggested audionyms, you will gain an excellent understanding of the audionym technique.

HOW TO CREATE AUDIONYMS

You cannot see a Pennsylvania, a Jackson, or an April, but you can see a pencil, a jack, or an ape. The purpose of the audionym is simply to convert information you want to learn into soundalike objects you can see.

The word
pencil
does not necessarily remind you of the word
Pennsylvania.
However, when you are dealing with the subject States, and
pencil
is the audionym, then Pennsylvania will immediately come to mind. The audionym will be one of your most frequently used memory tools.

Some words suggest obvious audionyms. They immediately suggest an object you can see. If you want to recall China, the country, you could picture china, the dinnerware. Other words become apparent when the sound of the first syllable(s) of the word to remember immediately suggest(s) an object with which you are familiar:
Canada, Poland, Belgium, organization,
and so on. Still other words don’t immediately suggest anything. Mexico, confidence, and purpose are examples of this. These words require a little more thought to create audionyms. Here are some suggestions:

When you come to a word for which you need an audionym, say the word fast to see if it brings to mind a soundalike object. Then say it slowly. What object does it sound like to you? Remember, it is how the word
sounds
that counts, not how it is spelled. Remember, also, that the audionym must be something you can see. With just a little practice, audionyms will begin to come to mind quite easily.

Here are more examples of audionyms for last names. Note that they are also the last names of former presidents.

As you can see in the previous examples, a Ford is already an object you can visualize. The first syllable in the name
Carter
could suggest
car
or
cart;
I would use
cart
because it is closer to the name Carter. The first syllable of the word
Eisenhower
is not spelled like
eyes,
but it sounds like
eyes.
That makes
eyes
a good audionym for Eisenhower.

CHEMICAL ELEMENTS

Just by knowing the subject with which you are working, the audionyms will immediately remind you of the word you want to remember. For example, the following audionyms immediately suggest the names of the states they represent:

When working with subjects with which you are familiar, such as the states, the word
pencil
should easily remind you of Pennsylvania. But when you are involved with a subject containing unfamiliar words, names, and terms, you will sometimes have to create multiple audionyms for a single word. Algeria might be converted to something such as
owl-cheerleader.

When creating audionyms, develop the habit of pronouncing the word you want to remember, and then pronounce the audionym. For example, Hayes to hay, Grant to granite, and so forth.

Creating audionyms is the most important technique in my learning system. The more audionyms you create, the easier it becomes.

Remember, audionyms are based on sound, not spelling. They must sound just enough like the word you want to remember to enable you to recall the word later.

It is very important when developing audionyms to know the subject so the audionyms can be kept simple enough to trigger the answer when needed. For example, if you know the subject is major U.S. capital cities, you can probably guess the city represented by each of the following audionyms. Cover the City column. Look at all the audionyms and try to determine the city each of them represents. Uncover to confirm whether you are correct.