Amazing Feats of Memory

Ever seen someone memorise the order of a pack of cards in 30 seconds? It's possible. Ever seen anyone remember perfectly the order of 35 decks of cards (35x52=1820 cards)? It's been done.

No Tricks

Sounds hard. It is, but THERE ARE NO TRICKS. It is possible, with a trained memory, to perform feats such as this. And not just amazing spectacles, everyday life can be made simpler with the same systems.

The Ancients

From the beginning:
The Ancient Greeks first outlined the practice of memory, their simple rules are still used today in even the most complex modern memory systems. That knowledge was passed down through Medieval scholars, and fairly died out after the advent of printing. But now it's back! Useful everywhere, the art of memory has been revived and extended. Where before there were scholars, now we have athletes.

Memory Sports

The World Memory Championships are held in London every year where mentathletes compete in ten memory disciplines for the title of World Champion, currently held by Andi Bell (WC 2002-2003, www.andibell.net).

Everyday Life

For more down to earth needs, the systems these athletes use can be deployed on smaller scales to help with shopping lists, telephone numbers, facts and figures, languages; anything you might want to learn can be memorised if the rules of memory are followed.

So, welcome to Mnemosyne.

On this site you'll find information about it all. From the most basic to the most advanced, into memory sports and the history of memory. It's very difficult to find information about memory on the net that isn't a commercial venture, urging you to buy very expensive memory training courses and suchlike. No need! This site contains enough to teach you all the memory systems that you'll need, no charge.

When working through this site:

• Begin with the History of Memory section to get an overview of where the artificial memory has come from and how it has evolved.
  
• The Three Memory Principles section is short, but extremely important. The three principles will help you remember even if you do not then learn any of the systems. They will also brighten your daydreams.
  
• The Basic Systems are day-to-day memory systems- shopping lists and so forth. If you are new to memory ensure that you understand and practice the Basic Systems before moving on. Practice is extremely important.
  
• The Specific Uses section shows how to improve your memory for some particular tasks. For instance memory techniques can be very effectively applied in languages. 
  
• Number to Image System deals with one very specific memory system that gets its own section because it's so important. Its a little more difficult than previous systems, but is very powerful.
  
• If you feel like you want to try for more, then move onto the Advanced Systems. These are more difficult to master but can be very powerful.
  
• The next section deals with Memory Sports, a fairly recent addition to the art of memory. The section shows how to use the systems above to perform the sort of feats of memory that are displayed at events such as the World Memory Championships.