Free How to Develop a Perfect Memory by Dominic O'Brien Page B

people.
    The guest list bears an uncanny resemblance to the people you memorized
    for the DOMINIC SYSTEM. This time, however, the characters represent
    years, from 1900 to 1999. Take Benny Hill, for example (or your equivalent character suggested by BH). Using the DOMINIC SYSTEM, he represents
    1928 (2 = B; 8 = H). Or Betty Boothroyd, the Speaker of the House of
    Commons. She represents 1922 (2 = B; 2 = B).
    The house is too small to accommodate all the guests in one room, so your friend has allocated each person to a particular room, and told everyone to stay there for the whole evening. One group has even been banished to the garden.
    As far as possible, they have been spread evenly; some areas have fourteen people and some fifteen. I will tell you in a moment who has been allocated where.
    THE METHOD
    When someone tells me a date, I make an instant and simple calculation. The date is broken down into its component parts, year, month, and day, and I give each one a basic numerical code (anything between 0 and 6). I then add them together to work out the day of the week. The party scene you have just
    imagined is an easy way of remembering the relevant codes.
    THE YEAR CODE
    The setting for your party should consist of six rooms and your garden. Each area must be distinct and have familiar associations: furniture, pictures, windows. It doesn't have to be your own house. You might prefer to chose your place of work, a health club, a school, your parents' home. It is important, however, that you use the location solely for calculating the twentieth-century calendar.
    Allocate to each room a number between 0 and 6. As the garden is not a
    room, we will call it zero. I suggest that you use the simple number-shape method to remember the other numbers.
    AREA
    NUMBER
    SHAPE
    ASSOCIATION
    Garden
    0
    Football
    Playing in the garden.
    Bedroom
    1
    Telegraph pole
    BT have erected an
    unsightly pole outside
    your bedroom
    window.
    Spare room
    2
    Swan
    A rather tasteless
    porcelain swan
    ornament sits on the
    dresser (that's why it is
    in the spare room).
    Staircase
    3
    Handcuffs
    I always keep these
    handy at the top of the
    stairs in case I have to
    arrest an unwelcome
    intruder.
    Lounge
    4
    Sail boat
    The seascape oil painting above the fireplace
    depicts a sailing boat.
    Kitchen
    5
    Curtain hook
    Why are the curtains
    drawn in the kitchen?
    Bathroom
    6
    Elephant's trunk
    An elephant's trunk
    (downstairs)
    acts as a shower
    attachment (another
    tasteless feature, I am
    afraid.)
    The next stage is to work out where each person has been allocated. This will give you the all-important code number (between 0 and 6) for the year you have been asked. If someone says they were born in 1972, for example, you need to know that George Bush (GB = 72) is in the bathroom, which gives you the code 6.
    ROOM ALLOCATION
    Here is a list of the people who have gathered in the garden, and the years they represent. Needless to say, you should use your own characters - a mixture of personal acquaintances and celebrities. For the purposes of demonstration, however, I will use the people on the list in Chapter 4.
    Garden: Code number 0 (football)
    Olive Oyl
    1900
    Eamon Andrews
    1951
    Omar Sharif
    1906
    Ebeneezer Scrooge
    1956
    Alec Guiness
    1917
    Seve Ballesteros
    1962
    Bill Clinton
    1923
    Gerry Cottle
    1973
    Benny Hill
    1928
    Gamal Nasser
    1979
    Christopher Dean
    1934
    Humphrey Davey
    1984
    Duke Ellington
    1945
    Nick Owen
    1990
    Imagine each person in a different part of your garden. Make people interact, and incorporate the actions you gave them in the DOMINIC SYSTEM. Omar
    Sharif is playing backgammon with Ebeneezer Scrooge. Gerry Cottle is swinging on a trapeze at the end of the garden above Benny Hill's milkfloat. Bill Clinton is being interviewed by Nick Owen, who is sitting on a sofa. Seve Ballesteros is demonstrating his golf swing to Eamon Andrews, who is more interested in reading out his life story from the famous red book.
    Use all your senses.