Bennett meets the Father of Modern Memory Training..Harry Lorayne

So a few days back I get a tweet from @scottdavidcoles saying my links to Harry Lorayne's website demonstrations don't work.

So I prematurely email the site http://www.harrylorayne.com/index.html and the email address is simply one that looks like it is going to the site administrator. I simply said that on my iPad the videos for the demonstrations bring up an error message.

A few funny things happened. I get an email back pretty soon saying "Have no idea what you're referring to."

Hmmm. Odd message from a site administrator I thought to myself. Usually they give you a canned response as to why you are not getting the video and a few possibly reasons. This was a different message indeed.

A little later, I checked out the site again, this time with flash on my PC and everything worked fine. So I thought I would email the site back just to let them know that I had figured out what the issue was.

So I email back saying "Sorry it works with windows but not with an IPAD."

Then i check where the email is coming from... its coming from a Harry Lorayne address.

Could it be?

Nah.. there's no way he actually answered my email about his website.

So I email the person this...

"If this is THE Harry Lorayne, I am a huge fan and wrote a poker memory book applying your systems, I mention your Memory book throughout my text.

It's the first of its kind. Truly an honor. If it isn't, please pass on the message that he has a huge fan in Winnipeg.

Bennett Onika"


So what happens next I get an email back oddly enough at the grocery store where I memorised half the grocery list my wife had, and there it is...

 Hi: Yes, Bennett, this is THE Harry Lorayne. Glad you straightened out the site thing - I'm a lousy computer person, so wouldn't have been able to help. I'd much rather you mention my website (harrylorayne.com) rather than any of my books. However... Best - Harry Lorayne.

To which I replied..

NO WAY!!! That is so awesome! I will put your site on my blog! Thanks for impacting my life. I just wish I would've known about you 30 years ago I would've got a lot less beatings about my marks.


As a matter of fact I am at the grocery store and memorised half the list lol


I am on twitter @bennettonika and check out my book description you are mentioned


Such an honor!


To make a long story longer, Harry Lorayne answered my email, which to me is like meeting Michael Jordan. I mean really, he was on Johnny Carson, and sold over 7 MILLION books on memory.

Anyways checkout his site with a PC you will be SOOOOOO glad you did.

Bennett.

The teenage brain

A great video about the teenage brain. It made me think about the last 5 - 10 main event winners being younger and how they can take more risk and feel comfortable about it vs older players.



http://csm.cds1.yospace.com/csm/31759110/000020623622?yo.l=true&yo.p=3&ref=app5-prd-cds1-30060-1328445766230&fromselector=true&account=Documentaries&show=The%20Nature%20of%20Things&location=iphone&adcategory=the_nature_of_things

Copy and paste into your browser



It is a long vid though but funny.


Bennett

Memories are not born, they are made!

Strong memories are not born, they are MADE!!!

Here is an excellent short documentary on the memoir competitions and more evidence that your memory isn't something you are born with, it is something that can be trained.

It is about 9 minutes long and worth the watch.

I hope you enjoy it

Bennett Onika

Must watch for any parent with young kids!

This is a must watch for any parent with kids below the age of 4.

 

USA Memory Champion Ron White - a must see video and post....

Dear Followers,

In my quest to bring the latest in memory research to my readers, I came across this video of Stan Lee's Superhumans ( a fantastic show ) on humans that can seem to do extraordinary things.

Ron White did a segment on the show where he shows off his super memory, a memory he freely admits he trained and was not born with. I actually got his course on memory when I first started learning techniques and I can say without a doubt that Ronnie White's Memory in a month program is great. It teaches you everything you need to know on how to train your mind to recall vast amounts of information.

Now as I watched the video, there is a part where scans of Ron's brain were compared with an untrained brain for memory. Memory experts such as Ron White and myself will attest to the fact that we have no special gift. Although I am no where near as talented as Ron, I can assure you my memory was trained and built from the ground up, and Ron has said this publicly many times that he has taken memory courses to improve his memory and trained like a Navy Seal to improve his results and become the USA memory Champion.

I fully expected the scans between Ron and the untrained host to be virtually identical. To my surprise, in the video the researcher shows that Ron is using 35% MORE of his brain than the host, particularly on the right side of the brain where visual memory is used. I was genuinely puzzled - for about 5 seconds, until I started to think about how the brain works and why his brain was 35% more active than an untrained brain.

The answer is in the brain's construction of neural pathways between neurons. Now I am not a brain expert, nor can you count on what I am about to say, but from all the reading I have done on the brain, as you build your memory, your brain builds more and more pathways between the 100 billion cells you have called neurons. My theory is that when Ron was not a memory expert, his memory worked like everyone else and I would be willing to bet that his scan would have looked exactly like the hosts. As Ron trained his memory over the years, pathways began to join between neurons in the visual part of the brain, in short the more he worked this part of his brain the better it became at recalling information. Why the visual area? Well, it is common knowledge that your brain has an easier time remembering funny pictures as opposed to numbers and letters, which is why if you have been following my twitter account @bennettonika you will see tweets describing nicknames of hands with stories attached to them to derive the rankings of hole cards in heads up and full table situations. IE JT is Justin Timberlake who DIVEs on a MOP and gets REAL LUCKY he doesn't die.

An interesting study would be to take 50 participants with untrained memories scan them, and then train them as Ron White trained and then scan them again to see if they use more of their brain for definitive proof. In my mind I already believe your brain is like any muscle you already have, but sceptics would of course need to see real scientific data and of course, we shall not deny them that.

For your pleasure and interest I have included the 10 minutes on Ron in Superhumans. I won't spoil it but he does something quite awesome in the end!

Until next post, train hard and recall EVERYTHING!!!!!

Bennett Onika

Mentalist Keith Barry Performing Memorization Techniques

I thought I would show this video in which he memorizes each page in a book. This is done with common memory techniques used by many memory artists.

Now the second video I have NO idea how he does it but its super cool.

ENJOY!!!!!

A little more on how your brain can remember anything it wants to for poker memory

Dear Followers,

I am proud to say the next few goals for me in memorization are coming along. The biggest challenge is finding the time between a career, family with 2 kids, poker training and reading new information to keep up with all of it.

I thought I would share with you the LOCI or PALACE technique. Should you buy my book and are fortunate enough to have had contact with me, I use this technique in some of the systems in my book. This is your chance to get a "head start" on your poker competition.

Of course I cannot tell you how I put the system together yet, but what I can say is learn all you can about the LOCI method. It involves systematically going through your house and creating an orderly map of items in each room and of all rooms in your house. Personally I have 60 items in my house that I can attach or replace items whenever I choose to in order to remember any items I want in order.

I have left you with a video from Andy Bell, and he details how to use this method more effectively on the person doing the interview. He is shown the method for the first time, memorizes the items, goes off to work, comes back after a full day and then recites the list. It seems impressive but anyone - yes  you can do it.

Since learning this method, my wife gives me lists of items to pick up from the store, and I never have to worry about writing it down. She has yet to catch me making a mistake. It is about 6 minutes long, and it will change your thoughts on memory training.

Enjoy the video and we will chat soon!

Bennett Onika

The Phonetic Alphabet

Awesome Video on the Phonetic alphabet, what you need to decode the Hole Card Memory stories

Bennett Onika

What is Possible with Human Recall

I thought I would dedicate this post to the champions of memory. I will let the videos speak for themselves. Now I should mention for my system to work at the card table you do not have to be near this fast. Anyone can train their memory. The 2 people featured here were ordinary people just like you and me and trained their recall just like you can.

My system is the first poker memory system that takes recall like these and marries them to a live game.

Enjoy!

Bennett Onika