Reciting Reverse Alphabets from Memory!
Can we recite alphabets in reverse order from memory? In the above video, I do it in ~10 seconds.
How does one accomplish this? There is a simple mnemonic aid that I have placed in a memory palace….
Imagine a
Zebra in Yellow jacket playing Xylophone ZYX
asking “What Vill U have for Tea, SiR” WVUTSR
this Question is asked at a Post Office Near Mussoorie QPONM
on banks of Lake Kempty LK
where Jesus & I JI
discovered the Human Growth Formula HGF
Of Education Department at Centre of Basic Arts EDCBA
In the above story line, I have coded the entire flow of reverse alphabets. As shared in the video above – and the presentation below – the mnemonic is enhanced with vivid, vibrant, multisensory images that are tied together on a location map in Mussoorie ( a hill -statin in Uttarakhand state) with a famous landmark called Kempty falls. I have chosen the location partly because it enables me to use North Mussoorie and Lake Kempty as cues from the story line naturally.
In fact, the original mnemonic that I got from Dr.Anthony Metevier, my guru for memorization, used North Minnesota and Lake Kilimanjaro – I replaced with a local landmark as I equated with that more naturally! The how-to presentation is shared here…and the video above will give you the full explanation as well.
Reciting Alphabets in reverse order!
Mnemonics are a powerful aid to remembering specific elements – you can enhance the power of the same by:
- exaggerating the image in your mind
- linking it with your reference points (Near Mussoorie can be “North Minnesota”; )
- Compounding it to reinforce
- Building it in a location map (memory palace) for natural recall
How does one achieve these feats? It is an acquired skill that leverages the fact that visualization and visual memory is a key cognitive capability of the human brain…and surprisingly under-utilized by humans. By combing a focused mind with visualization, imagination, action and location, one can increase human memory capacity and recall accuracy dramatically.
I will cover this memory training (Smriti Shaastra) in future posts. For the time being, just enjoy videos shared below – and subscribe to my Youtube channel (it is the red button below the youtube video) and the blogpost for getting more posts on memory training and other life-hacks!