Method of Loci

Hell no.

All right all right.

I’m super excited.

I hope you are too.

Let’s get started with the course because I’ve been talking a lot but we haven’t really learned anything

yet.

Now before we dive into the core of the course and start off with the principles I want to do a fun

little exercise to get you excited about the idea that our brains are like muscles and they can be trained

because the entire point of this course is to make you realize that you can train to be an efficient

learner to be more intelligent and to teach you the skills that will take you far into the future.

So what’s this fun exercise.

Well we’re going to use one of my favorite techniques when it comes to memory and it’s called the method

of Loki.

Now keep in mind this is more of a fun technique than a life long learning technique that we will discuss

later on in the course.

But I want to start off with this because I guarantee you by the end of this video you’ll be wowed and

excited about why you can accomplish with a simple technique like this to improve your memory.

We’re going to learn how to memorize a shuffled deck of cards.

So what is the method of local method of Loki is also called Method of a place Loki is place in Latin.

And this technique is mentioned in Moonwalking with Einstein a book that covers the story of memory

competitions around the world where we have people with incredible memory how they train for their championships

and competition very exciting highly recommended book but the method of Loki isn’t a recent thing if

we go to our good old friend Wikipedia we see here that the method of Loki was actually developed in

the Roman times where famous Romans like Cicero used it as a way for them to do long speeches where

they could memorize their speeches using the method of Loki but it’s still one of the most used techniques

for people that go into memory competitions.

It’s extremely effective.

So let’s actually learn it.

Now let’s all go to this Web site and I’ll link to it and the resources as you can see here.

We have a deck of cards and we can shuffle this deck of cards so that it all is in random order.

There you go.

And by just clicking we get to play around with a shuffled deck of cards.

Now imagine somebody shuffles these cards and gives these cards face back like this and tells you hey

can you just memorize the entire order of these cards look at them once put them down and then see if

you can remember all 52 cards in the order that you saw them.

That sounds crazy right.

It sounds impossible.

Well with method of Loki you can actually accomplish this over a week now because we don’t have all

day.

I’m going to demonstrate to you how you can memorize.

Right now the first 10 cards super fast and you can go off on your own and play and see if you can memorize

all 52 decks of cards.

Now before I show you the technique try and pause the video and try this yourself.

So for example you can shuffle the cards pick the first 10 cards I’m only going to do four for now and

then look at the first on then the second one.

Then the third one then the fourth one and try to spend just 30 seconds memorizing the first 10 cards

then turn them around and then see if he can say it in order testing yourself.

If you get it right.

Pause a video and give it a go by yourself.

Once you’re done we’re going to talk about the method of Loki to learn how to make this super simple.

Ready.

Let’s learn the method of Loki as we’ll learn in this course.

Humans are really good at spatial memory.

Evolutionarily we’re really good at it dented flying 3D things.

3D locations but we’re really bad remembering weird types of datas that we don’t really are used to

such as phone numbers such as deck of playing cards these are meaningless things in our head that doesn’t

really apply to our lives.

But humans are really good at these spatial recognition as well as connecting the dots stories for example

stories that flow.

So how is this related to the method of Loki.

Well based on the fact that humans are really good at stories at connecting the dots.

A 3D space is based on that knowledge.

We use something called the Memory Palace a memory palace is a location you know very well.

So for example it could be your house.

It could be your school.

It could be the road that you take from your house to your school.

It’s a physical location in your brain that you can imagine right now.

So go on and pick a location.

All right that’s it.

So you picked a location your memory palace.

Next we want to give meaning to our cards.

So let’s say the first card that you saw was the seven of diamonds.

Well let’s associate all diamonds from now with a diamond ring.

So in your memory palace in my example I’ll use my house.

So I wake up in the morning.

I imagine this in my head.

And next to me in my bed there’s the seven of diamonds.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to make something completely ridiculous in my head that is memorable.

So I’m going to say next to me is a slot machine that has all sevens and that slot machine is wearing

a diamond ring.

So I wake up out of bed.

I see this slot machine with the diamond ring and I say whoa this is this is crazy.

Then I connect the dots.

Let’s say the next card is a queen of hearts.

I’m a little bit startled.

I just woke up.

So I’m going to open up my closet so that I can change my clothes.

And then when I open up the closet I see the Queen of Hearts.

Maybe I can imagine all hearts to have a heart pendant or maybe the queen of hearts just gives me one

big hug.

That’s memorable so I just woke up.

There’s a slot machine wearing a diamond ring.

I go to my closet.

I get a big hug.

Next let’s say I walk down the hallway and down the hallway I encountered the eight of clubs.

Well eight of clubs.

I can just imagine maybe an hourglass or maybe a really fat person with a belt around their waist and

that person is let’s say a leprechaun with a funky leprechaun hat to symbolize a clubs.

So that person does a little dance around me and maybe kicks me in the shin.

That really hurts and I’m angry I’m really confused.

Next I go down the stairs and I encounter the ace of spades.

Now let’s associate ace with this case.

It could just be me Andre because my name starts with the name and the space.

Maybe Andre at the bottom of the stairs is digging a hole in your house.

How dare he.

That is.

That again makes you really angry.

Now what I’ve just told here is the memory palace technique.

It sounds ridiculous but those images are now memorable in my head.

And more importantly there is a connection a storyline between these things in my memory palace that

is in my location a 3D space that I recognize I can now visually remember these things.

For example I know that I wake up next to a slot machine.

So seven of diamonds with a slot machine wearing a ring.

I open up the closet and this queen that I’ve never met before gives me a giant hug and squeezes me.

I go down the hallway and this leprechaun a fat leprechaun with a belt around his waist kicks me in

the shin.

Now I’m hopping around walking downstairs and downstairs at the bottom of the stairs.

I see myself Andre digging a hole.

So I start yelling and get really angry now although that’s really silly.

That is more memorable now.

I really identify these objects as certain things.

And in the future I can continue this further I can walk to the kitchen I can walk to the basement I

can even walk to my school.

It’s a location that I can associate each card with a place something ridiculous happening in a location

and the beauty of this technique is that it’s really easy for me to remember things in reverse because

each one of these things has meaning now.

So I can go from down the stairs down the hallway into the closet and back into bed.

And you remember things just as well how cool is that.

So based on what you just learned go back to this exercise.

Shuffle the deck of cards pick 10 cards in a row.

And spent let’s say one minute looking at all these cards in a row memorize them.

Create that storyline.

With each of the cards just spend one minute then turn them around.

Go drink up cup of coffee maybe go for a walk and then come back and see if I can remember those 10

cards.

By using the memory palace technique I bet you were able to remember those 10 cards very easily without

having to constantly repeat them in your head because you’ve created a storyline connected the dots.

Congratulation you’re just getting started.

And this was something fun to just show you the power we have in learning to learn.

This course isn’t just about memory tricks like this.

We will learn principles techniques and mindsets to really change our perspective on learning and succeed.

The goal is to learn the foundational skills of 0 to mastery how to go from zero to mastering a topic

in the most efficient way possible.

We still have a long way to go but I promise you that if you do all exercises and follow the course

it will have a long lasting effect on your learning skill throughout your life.

These are the skills that I have used throughout my life to achieve success but it’s also the skills

and techniques that have been created way before me.

Like we saw with the method of Loki these are proven techniques that we’re going to learn throughout

the course.

So let’s dive in to the principles section.