What a great question to ask on this thread and what a remarkable response.

Many thanks, Harry, for sharing your ideas born of adversity.

I'm currently working through one of Harry's memory books and making progress. They are full of very workable methods and it has made grocery shopping more interesting to remember the list in order (or reverse). I've very close to being able to use any deck as a memorized stack.

Oh and thanks for many books and dvds including the Apocalypse volumes. I've heard there will be a reprint as some volumes are no longer available.

This is what I love about the Café! It is great to be able to speak about someone's seminal works, and to have them be able to answer the questions directly.

This thread has also given me reason to restudy Corinda's second step, and perhaps move on from there.

I came across Harry's material in the late 70's, after being introduced to his magic material. I followed the Memory book to the letter and after a short period of time, could instantly remember 100's of the peg words, etc. I bet a guy that I could remember 10 items a day (too easy) in random order for 30 days. After two weeks he gave up. I've applied Harry's systems to dozens of tricks (see Bascom Jone's Magic, Syzygy, Linking Ring) where the memory system is hidden under the presentation and no one knows how it is being done. For me, that is the power of using Harry's systems. Over the years there have been rip-off's of his material (peruse the pages of Apocalypse for Harry's comments here on this.)

Over the years I've collected material on memory from various sources, etc., and find them mostly derivative of Harry's work. By the way, Harry is a gracious gentleman. I once sent him a magazine with his pic on the cover and asked if he would sign it for me. He did and now it hangs on the wall. So in my opinion, do the minimal work that he teaches and it will yield tremendous success, not only in venues of magic.

Yes! That's right I resurrected a very old thread ... why? Only to set off the bat-signal at Harry Lorayne's house

Book Review: The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15yxl6DgXNk

You know, I have an original edition of the Memory Book with Harry & Jerry pictured on the cover. At one time years ago I started into it but for some reason got sidetracked with other things in life. Well now that you've posted your review I'm gonna dig it out and get back to it.

Thanks!

I bought Harry’s memory book but kept forgetting to read it.

Kind of reminds me of the time I bought a book on speed reading but never finished it...

You read it so fast you forgot. This stuff is insidious.

Ordered.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lorayne a few times when I was a kid.
He was always kind, funny, and and approachable.
As an adult he probably would have scared the hell out of me lol.
Looking forward to adding this to the growing pile of books next to me.

GET THE GOOD STUFF!

Sorry all, Pavlovian response when I see Harry Lorayne’s name.

Haha, maybe!!

Seriously though I did buy one of Harry’s memory books in my early 20s, read it and used it, and was amazed at how well it worked. It is almost like having a super power. It’s a skill, not a trick.

I really am looking forward to taking this further.
I’ve used the basic 10 item peg for years, and even that’s fun.

I didn't get on well with the format of The Memory Book. I suspect some of his other books would work better for me. Much of Harry Lorayne's approach to mnemonics is actually nearly the same as the earlier course by one Mr. Roth (look for the Roth Memory Course) many years prior. And there have been advances in mnemonics in the decades since. Dominic O'Brien is the name that comes to mind.

That said, I feel that the greatest contribution Harry Lorayne made to mnemonics was actually just popularizing the concept of memory training. This isn't in any way downplaying his books or skills. Rather, it is pointing out that for a lot of people the idea of training the memory is a new idea. When people think they have a poor memory, they may not even realize that they can learn to remember better. By popularizing the concept and spreading the awareness, he has done a tremendous service to people, even if they don't get on well with his book.

A lot of us here have Corinda's 13 Steps, right? How many have read and applied the chapter on memory and mental systems? I confess I've been remiss, myself. But if I actually did apply that chapter and put in the time to learn it well, I suspect it would serve me extremely well. And there are a number of tricks in that chapter that make use of the systems of memory. And they are, for the most part, totally propless, but potentially amazing. How cool is that?

-Patrick

I learned "The Amazing Memory Test" from Corinda after seeing it on Richard Osterlind's video. I would practice with my wife on long car trips and we were both amazed at how well it works and how effective it is.