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The Major System (also called phonetic system or phonetic mnemonic system) is a famous mnemonic technique used to aid in memorizing numbers. It is over 300 years old and was introduced by Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein and later developed by Dr. Richard Grey. It works by converting numbers into words. The words can then be remembered more easily, especially when using other techniques such as exaggerations of concepts involving multiple senses (vision, sound, smell).

Each digit is mapped onto a number of consonants. Vowels and the consonants w,h, and y are ignored and can be used as 'fillers' to make up sensible words from the resulting consonant sequences. The mapping is:

0: s,z

1: d,t,th

2: n,ing

3: m

4: r

5: l

6: j,sh,ch,zh (like the s in vision)

7: k,hard g

8: f,v

9: b,p

The mapping is phonetic, so it is the sounds that matter, not the spelling. Each digit maps to a set of sounds with similar mouth and tongue positions. Therefore a word like action would encode the number 762, not 712; and ghost would be 701, whereas because the gh in enough is pronounced like an f - the word enough encodes the number 28.

Example: to remember the year in which the National Portrait Gallery in London was opened (1856), we first perform the mapping:

• 1 -> d,t,th
• 8 -> f,v
• 5 -> l
• 6 -> j,sh,ch,zh

So we can make up daffy lodge, and we think of the Portrait Gallery as a lodge in which Daffy Duck resides (the more silly the image, the easier it is to recall).

Going the other way, we can reverse the mapping and get the year. This works also very well with phone numbers: here you would typically come up with multiple words which you need to memorise in a sequence.

For most people, it is easier to remember an image or story incorporating words than it is to remember strings of digits. For example, it may be easier to remember moderately pendulum than to directly memorize the first 10 digits of Pi (3.141592653) . "It's moderately difficult to make a pendulum out of an apple pie", a vivid image of this sentence might be remembered more easily than directly memorizing the number.

The Major System isn't always the best way to remember a number. The first 16 digits of e are 2.718281828459045. If you invented a new way to fold a flag so that it would open up in the shape of an e, could you patent that? "Negative: it isn't innovative to unfurl bizarrely as an e" could be used to memorize the first 16 digits of e. On the other hand, some people might find it easier to remember them directly by grouping them this way:

 2.7         the standard approximation of e
 1828        a year
 1828        the same year again
 45 90 45    cut a square in half to get a triangle with these angles

The "best" technique depends on the person and the situation, but the Major System can be a helpful tool in many cases.

The Major System is sometimes combined with a peg system for remembering lists.

Memorizing lottery numbers

One rather surprising variant of the major system is its utility for memorizing lottery numbers, facts, and world events. What makes the system especially useful in this regard is the fact that in most State run Lotto type games the order that the numbers are drawn does not matter. For example on February 5, 2003, right after the destruction of Space Shuttle Columbia the numbers 5-26-30-14-33 and mega 5 came up on the California Super Lotto game. Using the Major System, it is easy to see that the phrase "a launch mystery, my oh my - oh well" translates into the sequence 5263014335 which uniquely partitions into the indicated draw set. Since the draw order does not matter, one could just as well have imagine saying to a parent: "Well mom, I enjoy dreams." which yields upon translation and partitioning into a set of numbers the same set, but in a different order, i.e., 5-33-26-14-30 with the same mega number 5.

With practice it becomes straightforward to link news events, to lists of numbers, to specific winning combinations. Consider for example the Laci Peterson missing persons case. If the phrase "my love may be near the bay" is translated using the Major System - then it yields the sequence 3-5-8-39-24 with mega 19, which was actually drawn on March 5, 2003 - about the time that the Laci Peterson case was officially classified a homicide. Likewise such phrases "he told me he did it!" and "he told me I would die too!", and they offered him "a deal to have to do time?, but he said oh no no!" all yield information about the June 28, 2003 draw when 1-5-11-13-18 and 22 came on the California Super Lotto game - as does "die - he will die die die - he might have no one."

See also: Talk:Mnemonic major system

Human Character System

One variant of the Major System is the Human Character System. In brief: numbers are encoded into images of Human Characters. For example, the British Prime Minister, that lives in no.10 Downing Street, could represent the number '10', whenever you see this number.

The first records of the Human Character System appeared in a gambling book relating to memorizing cards: GBC PRESS, Las Vegas book "Perfecting your card memory" by Charles Edwards in 1965. Below this system is therefore referred to as the EDWARDS system. EDWARDS stands for "Eating Digits Whilst Absorbing Rational Dichotomouos Simulations".

Modernly Dominic O'Brien became a champion at memorizing random numbers using a similar system. Dominic never said he invented the system - indeed, he admitted that he thought he had, but he was predated by several millenia}. Edwards would then be responsible for the system, not O'Brien.

However, the system was later used by others, and not ironically O'Brien to achieve PI records or even World Records for number memorization: David Thomas - the amazing British PI record holder, Andi Bell and Yip Sue. Yip Sue seems to have beaten everyone by unofficially holding a 60,000 digit record for PI.

The system uses images of well known people rather than words. Numbers are coded into images. The system is based on the idea that information about people is better remembered than other information. The Edwards System requires you know a lot of people with different initials {it simply requires you to be able to link double digits to a person or memorable character}.

The first step to using this system is to map the numbers 00 through 99. One initial parse should be spent finding obvious number\famous people associations, e.g. 007 (07) for James Bond and 23 for Michael Jordon. Now, using a Magor System mapping, come up with famous people with initials (or similar sounds e.g. OD -> Odie from Garfield comics) for all remaining numbers. Hence forth each person is refered to as an actor in that they will be acting in your mind; their real life professions are irrelevant and they need a unique action. Break the number to be encoded into pairs and alternate the encoding as you parse through between actor and action and use the classic principals of memory to create memorable images.

E.g. Titanic sinking 04/15/1912 Since we know the century we will encode 04 15 12 from the sample system below this becomes Odie/Begging | Albert Einstein/Thinking | Alan Border/Playing cricket or using bat.

So starting from the left we alternate actor, then action: Odie thinking (classic greek statue style), whele Alan Border hits him with a bat; all on the deck on the sinking titanic. In this example Alan Border is also performing an action which could lead to confusion, but it is up to the individual to work around this.

The system can be used in conjunction with the journey system to remember large numbers or the order of a deck of cards. This is the actual system used by all World Memory Championship winners. It would seem the Lorayne system takes too long to form creative links for such purposes, while the constraints of the EDWARDS system make it faster. E.g. there is no thought of how to relate the 04 to the 15, it is predermined.

While the EDWARDS system certainly appears to have the advantage for short term memorisation, it is possible the Lorayne method is superior or at least advantageous for longer term memories. Two reasons for this are a) There are more possibilies using the Lorayne method. E.g. 21 could be net, gnat, knot, knead, nod, etc. This should allow for more indexes into the memories and less index overlapping. This index overlapping is theorised to be a magor factor in memory loss. I.e. the memories might remain but there is nolonger a unique means of accessing it. b) The associations can be more creative and absurd. For the Titanic example, 4/15/1912 can be encoded into rattle-dawn (again ignoring the century). So we can see a rattle snake dragging the titanic underwater at the crack of dawn and feel the warmth of the sun and see the orange; literally bask in it! This should be easier to remember than recalling who was placed on the deck of the Titanic, keeping in mind that these same individuals will also be used in a myriad of other settings between encoding and recall. From this comparison is evident that the two systems are complementary.

The most common mapping used for the EDWARDS system is as follows:

External links and references

Software

• 010 Memorizer A powerful program for using the Major System. Contains many features.
• MajorTeach is free (and Free) portable software to help you learn the Major System
• 2Know is free Windows software for converting numbers to words (English, German, French). (Major System)
• Mnemisis Another free (and Free) mnemonic program - runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows

Other

• Human Memory
• Memory Improvement and Learning Information
• Memory Improvement and Learning Information
• Memory Master
• Mind Tools - The Major System
• Mind Tools - Dominic System
• Palace of the Mind
• Pseudonumerology The Major System. A site totally dedicated to the Major System.
• World Wide Brain Club describes SEM Cubed (Self Enhancing Memory Master System), which is an extension of the Major System
• Expand your Peg list by adding colors and smells, textures.
• history of the Major System
• University of Amsterdam - Online Memory Improvement Course is an online step-by-step tutorial of the Phonetic Mnemonic System (The Major System)
• Homepage of World Memory Championships
• Palace of the Mind
• Mick Curtis memory techniques A practical memory course.

• Mnemonics