John became the first person to know about all the things that went on in my mind. My roommate at Ohio State University during my freshman year was John Havlicek, a great professional basketball star of the Boston Celtics. He became something of an idol to me, and I was soon to find out how his systems would help me in my college studies. I read one of Harry Lorayne's books and used his systems or ideas in areas where I thought his were better, or simpler, or easier to apply others I adapted to my own. An important change took place when I entered college. No living human being knew that I had the ability, for example, to alphabetize any word faster than most people could spell it normally, nor did anyone know how involved I was with other mental activities. I would like to impress upon you that all of this mental activity was of a private nature. They worked well for me throughout junior high school and high school, where I was practically a straight-A student. These systems worked, and I began to expand and sophisticate them. To me, schoolwork always seemed to be at least 90 percent memory work, and I wanted to make it easier and less time-consuming for myself. I began to use simple memory systems to help me with my studies in school. As I grew older, my mental games and activities became more complex. You might think I was a bit crazy if I took the time to explain all of them, so I won't, but they did require a lot of counting, cataloging, and recall on the part of a very young boy. I soon followed this alphabetical spelling game with various other kinds of mental games I apply the same system, since an alphabetized word is like a foreign word. To give some examples: CAT becomes ACT, MEMORY becomes EMMORY, JERRY LUCAS becomes EJRRY ACLSU, and HARRY xi FOREWORD: JERRY LUCAS LORA YNE becomes AHRRY AELNORY! Once I've alphabetized a word, I can remember it in that formwhen you read the chapter on how to remember English and foreign vocabulary, you'll understand how I do this. If you can rearrange a word instantly and spell it in alphabetical order, you know that word very well. Thanks to this mental habit, I could spell amazingly well as a child. Ever since then, I have memorized words alphabetically as well as normally. It got to the point where I became used to requests from them to "calm down a little." Just after one such request, I remember looking at an oil company billboard and saying to myself, "What would 'SHELL' look like if the letters were arranged in alphabetical order?" I mentally rearranged it to "EHLLS," and I was hooked. On lengthy automobile trips my constant fidgeting, tapping, and so on got on my parents' nerves. By the time I was eight years old, I had so much nervous energy that it was hard for me to sit still. I can never remember a time when my mind wasn't occupied with some sort of activity, whether it was communicating directly with someone else, or being actively involved with a mental game of my own invention. 10022 Simultaneously published by Ballantine Books, Ltd., Toronto, Canada FOR My wife Reneé and my son Robert HARRY LORAYNE My son Jeff and my daughter Julie JERRY LUCAS CONTENTS Jerry Lucas xi Harry Lorayne xiv Some History of the Art 1 In the First Place: Association 5 The Link 14 Substitute Words 20 Long Words, Appointments and Errands, Shopping Lists 26 Speeches 31 Foreign and English Vocabulary 38 Names and Faces 50 Absentmindedness 73 Long-Digit Numbers 83 The Peg 94 Style Numbers, Prices, Telephone Numbers ♱05 Playing Cards 111 Weekly Appointments Days of the Week 124 Anniversaries, the Zodiac, Historical Dates 135 The Alphabet and Picturing Letters 141 Start Your Children 145 Sports 149 The Stock Market 157 Politics 161 FOREWORD: FOREWORD: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ix CONTENTS 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 The Arts Music for Beginners Reading The Memory Graph Potpourri Look, I'm a Genius 166 171 179 184 192 199 206 Finally X FOREWORD: JERRY LUCAS As a child, I had a peculiarly busy mind. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-90705 SBN 345-24527-X-195 This edition published by arrangement with Stein and Day Publishers First Printing: June, 1975 Printed in the United States of America BALLANTINE BOOKS A Division of Random House, Inc.
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