Topic 2: The Link System - Tutorial 2
Your second memory training exercise again involves memorising a list of items in sequence, but this time we'll make the list more practical. Assume you wish to memorise the following shopping list of fifteen items:
Chicken, Melon, Scouring Pads, Shredded Wheat, Milk, Baked Beans, Shampoo, Runner Beans, Meat Pies, Car Polish, Evening Newspaper, French Loaf, Tea Bags, Soap, Eggs.
Of course, it's just as easy to jot down your shopping list on a piece of paper as it is to try and memorise it. But how many times have you reached the supermarket or shops only to realise that you've left your list on the kitchen table, or in the pocket of a coat which you decided not to wear after all?
Anyway, let's assume for the moment that you wish to memorise the list of items above. You are going to memorise the list of items in sequence, using the Link System. Of course, it;s not important to know a shopping list in sequence - you simply want to remember all the items. But, if you don't memorise the list in sequence, and particularly if it's a long list, how else will you be sure you've remembered all the items?
Actually, there is another method of memorising all the items, using the Peg System, but we'll come to that later!
O.K., let's make a start on memorising that shopping list. The first item is Chicken. Before moving on to item two, consider for a moment how you can be sure that you will remember the first item in any Link. After all, there is nothing to asssociate it to. The answer is to associate it to the subject of your Link - in this case the supermarket.
For example, picture yourself opening the supermarket door and millions of chickens flying out, knocking you over. If you can picture that ridiculous image, or a similar ludicrous picture, clearly in your mind for just an instant, then you will remember that first item on your shopping list.
An alternative method of remembering the first item of any Link is to think of any item in the middle of the Link, and work backwards through your associations. This must eventually lead you to your first item.
For the moment, let's assume that you know the first item, chicken. The second item is melon. Now, form a ridiculous association between chicken and melon. You might picture a chicken trying to lay a huge melon insead of an egg, with a contorted expression on its face. This is rather a crude picture, but one that is likely to stay in your mind. See that image, or a similar zany association between chicken and melon in your mind's eye, right now.
Remember that the ludicrous associations suggested here are only suggestions. If you come up with your own images then so much the better - you are increasing your Original Awareness.
Now, continue with your Link. The next item is scouring pads, so you might picture yourself trying to clean some dishes with a massive melon instead of a scouring pad. Next comes Shredded Wheat. To associate that item to the previous one, you could picture yourself eating a bowl of scouring pads soaked in milk, instead of Shredded Wheat.
The fifth item is milk. You might picture yourself pouring from a milk bottle, but instead of milk out come hundreds of Shredded Wheat. See each one of those Shredded Wheat squeezing itself painfully out of the bottle, so that it bursts into a thousand pieces when it finally squeezes through the neck of the bottle.
Next comes baked beans. Imagine yourself piercing a can of beans with a tin opener, when gallons of milk squirt out, soaking you from head to toe. The seventh item is shampoo. Picture yourself pouring some shampoo over your head, but instead of shampoo, tons of baked beans come squirting out of the bottle, until you are knee deep in them.
The next item is runner beans, so associate that item to shampoo. You could see yourself lathering your hair with shampoo, when dozens of runner beans suddenly start sprouting out of your hair. See that association, or one you thought of yourself, for just a split second. Remember, you don't have to see the picture for a long period of time - you just need to see it clearly for a fraction of a second.
You are now just over half way through forming your Link of fifteen items. Before continuing, just pause and review the associations you have made so far. Look back over the associations suggested up to this point, and consider how the five principles of Out of Proportion, Substitution, Exaggeration, Movement, and Humour have been used in the suggested images.
O.K., let's continue with the ninth item in the Link, meat pie. To form a ludicrous association with runner beans, you might see yourself cutting into a meat pie with a knife and fork. Suddenly a huge runner bean plant sprouts out of the middle of the pie, so tall that it shoots right through the ceiling.
Next comes car polish. See yourself trying to clean a car with a meat pie, instead of a tin of car polish. Picture yourself dipping a cloth into that meat pie, and covering the car with dripping gravy. See that image clearly.
The eleventh item is evening newspaper. A zany association here might be - you open the evening newspaper to the middle pages, and an arm holding a duster covered in car polish zooms out of the newspaper and polishes your face, causing you to splutter and cough.
Next, associate evening newspaper to french loaf. For example, imagine yourself trying to make sandwiches out of the evening newspaper, instead of the french loaf. Then comes tea bags. A ridiculous picture here could be - you are trying to push a gigantic french loaf into a teapot.
The fourteenth item on your shopping list is soap. See yourself perhaps washing your face with tea bags, and getting into an awful mess. To complete your Link, associate soap to eggs. You could picture yourself eating a bar of soap out of an egg cup for breakfast, instead of a boiled egg. As you eat the soap out of the egg cup, your mouth fills up with soap suds!
If you have really seen all those crazy pictures in your mind's eye, you will now know the shopping list in sequence, both forwards and backwards. As stated earlier, there's no reason why you would want to know the list in sequence, but it's an extremely useful exercise in practising the techniques of Association and Linking.