Dominic says that to his knowledge, no one has ever entered or won a memory championship having completed or used the Pmemory course.
It has not slipped his notice that he is berated on the Pmemory forum, along with Tony Buzan. (To be fair, it seems to have been mainly one poster – Procompleter – doing the berating.)
He believes that there is no more powerful memory system than the one he teaches, and says that if Pmemory were that powerful, then someone would have let him know about it.
Ed Cooke, the guy who trained Josh Foer, the author of “Moonwalking with Einstein” (see the previous post), learned the memory strategies he uses from books written by Dominic. Dominic also gave Josh a day’s training taking him through all the techniques as well Brainwave Training and AVS. He also mentions that the current World Champion and world ranked one memoriser, Wang Feng, uses exactly the same strategy too.
Dominic says, “If anyone has a better method I will drop mine immediately and adopt theirs – I’m still waiting!”
Dominic is into Brainwave Training and AVS? That is so freaking cool!
It’s true. Check it out:
http://www.thebraintrainingcompany.com/#
Question did the pmemory course provide the promised results for you? I took the course and the procedure didn’t work well enough for me to recall the images( 3d, large, touching and in color). I was never able to remember the 20 or so items in the first exercises. Do you know of other people who were unable to use the techniques to remember 20 items? Thank you for any assistance you provide.
Hi Marcus,
For what it’s worth, I completed the whole course, on something like the fourth attempt. Time management problems were my major obstacle, and I resorted to creating screen captures of the lessons so I could print them out and do them throughout the day. Perhaps this course was aimed at schoolkids and college students who have huge amounts of vacation time, but >2hrs in one sitting per lesson was just unreal for a person working full time and having a relationship to think about. It could be that dividing the lessons up like this meant that I never built the visualization “stamina” you’re supposed to get out of the course, or it could be that I found random numbers highly unappealing, but I never got up to even 100 numbers on Improve Memory 2.0, never mind 300 (the supposed “passing” standard). I had better success in applying the course for factual data from books.
You are not alone in finding those early lessons too long and difficult. One of the instructors intimated to a fellow student that only 1-2% of enrollees ever complete the course, and I strongly believe that while the course has potential, its current format is very poorly organized and goes against one of the most fundamental teaching principles in putting all the long, difficult exercises at the beginning. Unhelpfully, though, if you mention to an instructor that you are struggling on the early lessons, you are simply told that it’s because you are doing something wrong. It’s never down to the fact that the course structure itself could be to blame! I ask you: Are 98-99% of its students really that dumb that they can’t follow the instructions?
I could have used my teaching experience to thoroughly overhaul that course and make it more student-friendly. However, it’s pretty obvious what Ruslan thinks of me – he locked me out of my account!
The course instructions tell you not to make up your own drills and exercises, but I think I have enough teaching experience to be able to throw that out of the window and offer some advice. How many images could you connect before it started not to work? Take that as your starting baseline, and just practise doing that many until it becomes easier. Then add a couple more images and practise doing that many. The key here is to strike a balance between feeling that you are pushing your ability just enough, without making it so hard that you’re not getting anything out of the exercise. I hope this helps!
If a person can get to a 10 item sequence in the chain, russian doll and free association methods can they progress with 13th lesson or how many items do you think a person should be able to do in a sequence? Did you get perfect scores on the exercises as Ruslan requires and how many attempts did it take you to remember the entire sequence? Thank you for your time.
No, you would need to build your skill to greater than 10 items before you are ready to progress with Lesson 13. Some of the exercises in Lessons 6-12 require you to be able to link 75, 80 or even 100 items. When you start the second course, you will be building a huge database consisting of hundreds of items. Some of those very long exercises took me 2-3 attempts before I got a perfect score. The only thing I found that helped me with the database was repetition, repetition, repetition. Each day I would repeat what I had already memorized, then do today’s lesson, repeat that several times, and then put the whole lot together. I was so determined that I wasn’t going to make any silly, careless mistakes on the exam in Lesson 24 that I probably went through the material a ridiculous number of times beforehand.
Were you able to recall the sequences of 20 to 30 items in lessons 1 and 2 on the first attempt? I have to do thirty or so attempts to recall 15 items. Thank you.
I don’t think so. 2-3 attempts, maybe. And I found the Chain method and Cicero method easier than RD or free association.
At this point, I’ll give the same basic advice that I give to everyone, and which I don’t think the School stresses nearly enough. You can’t memorize successfully without certain lifestyle habits being in place.
1. Get enough sleep on a regular basis.
2. Eat a proper, balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, and – important! – good quality protein. Consider seeing a nutritionist if you think you have any food intolerances.
3. Absolutely no junk food!
4. Supplements: take a high-strength multivitamin and omega 3 every day.
5. Don’t drink alcohol. A glass of wine at dinner is OK, but any hard stuff has got to go. Lager etc. is full of chemical crap that they put in it.
6. No tobacco. If you smoke, seek advice on quitting.
7. And it goes without saying – don’t smoke anything stronger! Any “recreational” drugs are a strict no-no.
8. Get yourself on an exercise program that incorporates both aerobic activity and strength training.
9. You need fresh air and natural daylight. Find a way to get some time outside during the day.
10. Get a medical to ensure there is no undiagnosed health condition that may be causing problems.
Unless those basics are in place, no memory course, or any other mind training program, is going to help anyone! Let me know if any of this is helpful to you.
Thank you for the information.
Greetings 7Sigma! I just finished lesson 6 of the pmemory course. Before that I initially learned about the method of loci from Ron White (I’m very new to this visual memorizing method), and I’m fascinated by the concept of being able to memorize whole books and use your mind as a fully searchable database. I want to discuss the pmemory method with you. I read some of your blog about it, and agree with much of what you’ve written, and I also don’t have anything bad to say about anybody. I learned at the church I go to not to speak evil of anyone. If I think that someone has a problem, I’ll just pray for them. I don’t think that you want to run anybody down, either, but are simply a seeker of mental freedom. I think that I’m a pretty open-minded person, and would love to gather from many sources concerning visual memorizaton. Can you please email me so we can conversate about this subject? I would really appreciate it.
Well this is not true, about no one completing pmemory course haven’t entered a memory championship. Although I see no reason why someone would want to use their time and effort on just memorizing than rather memorizing something useful and interesting.
Mattias Ribbling is ranked 65 on the world-memory statistics and he completed it about 3 years ago.
http://www.world-memory-statistics.com/competitor.php?id=609
I don’t understand you thinking here. What do you mean when you say, “…I see no reason why someone would want to use their time and effort on just memorizing than rather memorizing something useful and interesting?”
How can you say “just memorizing?” YOU CHOOSE what you memorize. If you are referring to Dominic’s exercises as information you are “just memorizing” then apply that thinking to pmemory as well. There are MANY exercises in pmemory where you “just memorize” information that has NO MEANING at all! The point though is that if you can memorize that information, then you can memorize anything. Same thing with Dominic’s exercises. That’s all they are! Exercises! After you apply the method using those, then you can choose what ever you want to memorize. And what is USEFUL or INTERESTING is based solely on the person doing the memorizing! What is useful to you may be useless to me; does that make sense to you?
Sorry but I get so sick of this “establishment” mentality; it’s so close minded. “We have the truth therefore anything else must be a lie!” This thinking is a hallmark of a close minded individual or group. There is not “one way” to accomplish a goal; there are in fact multiple ways in any area of study to reach your goal. If you set up mental traps for yourself and others you will greatly limit your thinking while doing all a disservice.
I went through most of the lessons as I was able to spend two hours a day doing them. Though I was able to retain all of the information in the exercises, I have not retained anything for my long term memory. In contrast, exercises I did seven years ago from Dominic’s Excellent Quantam Memory cd set I still remember to this day! The ten largest seas and oceans exercise for example. I feel that pmemory lacks creativity that Dominic’s method has. It is too rigid. Also, the environment from the people in charge of the website/school is very pretentious and closed minded. I think one of the worst things you can do is be dismissive of other people outside your group. I feel Dominic’s method is far superior. Some of the things in pmemory were just ridiculous to me and not very efficient. On top of all that Dominic is a gentleman from the few times I have corresponded via email with him. When you hear someone being dismissive of someone you know from your own experience has a product that works in the “real world” that is a sign of shady business practices in my opinion.
David,
Which of Dominic O’Brien’s products do you particularly recommend as the best overview of his memory system(s)? Does the Quantum Memory CD set cover all the useful data, or are there any other books/products that he has written that you particularly recommend?
7sigma, (if that IS your real name!)
All joking aside,
I’ve only used his Quantum Memory Power CD set, so that’s all I can recommend. He goes over how to memorize many types of common information in those. I highly recommend that you email him. I emailed him because something wasn’t included on the cd set, and he was kind enough to send me a pdf of it. If you ask him any questions, I am confident he will give you honest answers. Also, he doesn’t talk poorly about other people’s or company’s methods. Quite a nice guy. One more thing. I think that is is best to combine different methods and create your own method. There are things from pmemory that I like a lot. The Russian Doll method is one of my favorite ways to memorize a string of information. Also I like how they teach you to create a block of information that has 125 pieces of information built into it. I just don’t like their pretentious attitudes.
Oh and the set is 6 cds! So you get quite a lot of bang for your buck! Do you have any other methods you have come across that you find interesting or enjoyable to use? I think you are right. If there were an overhaul to pmemory’s program it would be way more efficient. I know it works, but it’s too much trouble to memorize certain items the way they have it. I really really dislike that they want you to memorize 999 different items for 999 numbers. I think if you take Dominic’s method giving each number a face, it is much much more efficient. So, if you have an item for each number from 1-9 (candle, swan, handcuffs, sailboat, hanger, elephant, cane, snowman, balloon) you can combine that with numbers 10-99 and be able to cover 999 numbers and beyond. For example, if 34 is Clint Eastwood and I need to memorize the number 348, all I have to do is have Clint sit on a snowman or have them having a gun battle or whatever. You can re-use the people you have associated with numbers 10-99 and combine then with the objects associated with numbers 1-9 and that will cover 999 numbers no problem! Now you don’t have to memorize 999 different objects. To me this is much more streamlined and efficient than pmemory’s way. Sorry for the poor grammar!
Oh and I found QMP CD set to be EXCELLENT! Dominic narrates the whole way and it is a joy to listen to his Brittish accent lol. A+ set in my opinion. I was able to memorize everything the first go in each exercise.
yeah, I also think that Dominic is the best , kind gentlemen out there :).
I really would like to see Dominic to create a really complete training course that we can follow for 2 or 3 months (it’s the only good thing in GMS, it’s a real training )
Dominic does train people. He runs workshops where he teaches memory techniques to schoolchildren.
If it is an online course that you want, then I guess you’ll be disappointed. He doesn’t make any great secret of his techniques however and you could find out all of these from his books or the Internet. Then you could put your own training regimen together. Whether you stuck to it or not, is down to how self-motivated you are. But then I guess you could say the same about GMS.
Mattias Ribbing – a swedish memory recorder is from Pmemory school. Pmemory works very good, but the load is quite high so you reap benefits in later lessons. It also develops database-type thinking which relates well to real-life problems – something other courses don’t even address. (Nevertheless I do not like the owner of pmemory website, as the course was not developed by him) If you have problem to pass 300 elements mark, try following: 1. Increase you memorization volume steadily up to 500 elements (after recalling 80% of elements) 2. Decrease memorization time per element to 1-2 seconds. 3. After going to 2 sec/element for 500 elements, try to memorize 300 elements at speed of 6sec/element – you will definitely pass. Best of luck.
First of all, thanks for putting up this blog, 7sigma. I signed up for pmemory *four years ago* and felt like a failure that I hadn’t completed it —until now.
I’ve been hoarding memory courses and books for years but sadly I forget to read them! 🙂
I spoke to Doiminic O’Brien at a course in Bournemouth, England about six years ago. Seemed like a nice guy. I bought his Quantum Memory Power CD set that day and it’s definitely more enjoyable than pmemory.
My problem is I’ve spent the last four years getting the pmemory two digit numbers down but haven’t got much further.
I think I’ll have a listen to my Quantum Memory CDs again. I’m afraid I’m as fickle as my memory!
How will did the pmemory technique of connecting object by imagining them touching each other and in color and 3d work for you? I was never able to develop that fundamental skill with the course? Thanks for any information you provide.
7sigma,
i now read a lot of posts from your blog. as many other people i am after self-improvement and so i came to pmemory. there is so many website out there that are scams so i was very careful if pmemory is a real thing and whether i want to spend that amount of money. Now, everyone has their own reason why to learn such a skill. Mine is i to retain information. I do have a lot of interests and remembering things would make it so much easier, as well i was after reducing time until i can recall information. any kind of information. currently i am on close to lesson 12 and i know that these are the hardest to go thru. although i did prepared myself for this and knowing what kind of person i am (great with starting things, not so good with completing) and i still got somewhat stuck. I read so many posts and i know how much people struggle with this course. all the reasons are in the users posts of your blog. most of them are true. starting with lesson 1 it was a real challenge. I was able to finish the first lessons within the 2 hours limit. But with every lesson it got so much harder that i ended up splitting a lesson in 3 x 2 hours. 6 hours for a lesson. that is a lot of time commitment when there is a spouse, family, work and other important things in your live.
I spend some time to analyse the situation and i came to the following conclusion: pmemory on its own is fine. the person and most graduates are a hardcore group. does not matter if they start at their lowest point in live or in their peak they finish this course because it becomes so important that it almost turns into an obsession. which is fine for them. but not for the rest of the users. the time limits vs. the amount of information to work is not balanced and results into frustration. i can tell. so what would a smart person do? i image the following.
1. don’t get pushed by anyone, not by the given time limit, not by users with questionable and rude advice (even if they where successful with the course), not by instructors (i did not experience this, but just saying).
2. learn at your own pace. If 2 hours are to much. It is better to build up slowly. pmemory (and many others) like to use the comparison of training your body with weights. NOBODY would EVER start with the hardest exercise and with an ridiculous amount of weights because its prone to fail. In fact trainers would stop you from pushing too hard. so why should one make a difference with the brain?
3. split up lessons as much as you want. do one or two exercises a day. there is nothing wrong with this. anyone suggesting otherwise has the potential to become a scam and try to keep users under pressure, infusing the thought of failing or being incapable to succeed. now that would be wrong. consistency is more important then volume. ANYONE wrestling with habit issues knows that.
4. be within a group of hardcore people, but don’t be hardcore, and dont try to be if your not. rather be yourself
5. since the course is missing a vital feature, that is a classification of the users starting the course, its up to the user to figure out the speed and load of information. do not make the mistake and think someone else who does not know you at all, never met you in person, never talked to you face to face can tell you what speed and what level is good for you. listen to your own feelings, follow your guts
6. think twice if you create a journal, not always you are treated with respect and not always good advice will come along. there are other ways to keep your motivation up.
i definitely will complete this course. but on my own terms and my own style.
is there other/better courses out there. yes, maybe, no. It depends on what one wants to achieve. does pmemory lack structure, proper explanation, a better community platform (forum), more valuable update information from the creator? yes it does. Is it unusable? No.
Is pmemory my last course in brain and memory enhancement? Nope.
Very good advice. Thank you for posting.
@sigma : thx yo for your blog man !
@quasimonto : wow, love your comment, you’re right !
me : built my own regimen course using every article, book that I read …(I have pmemory but don’t want to use it, only take the good part (russian doll is interresting, the structure day/day …)
my dream: create my own memory (it will be in French because I’am) 🙂
1 year training using the “kaizen” way (every day a little step ! using the standart method used by work class memory champion like the loci/journey method, the PAO (person action object), the major system… and Your WILD CRAZY IMAGINATION !
@7sigma,
I have read this post with interest as well as the comments. I agree with most of your postulations especially as it regards pmemory having a structure that one can follow.
I have found pmemory course outline to be almost impossible in my current situation and as such would like to try out other memory courses that have been suggested.
One thing that I like about pmemory is the mentorship and assistance one can get from instructors. I would like to know if Dominic O’Brien has such.
Thank you.
You could try asking him at info@peakperformancetraining.org. A word of advice, though, if you do contact him – don’t mention anything about pmemory as he’ll only say he can’t answer your questions because he never did that course, that Ruslan and the instructors maligned him on the pmemory site, etc. Only ask him questions directly related to his own system if you want helpful answers.
Thanks