Tonight, while driving, I listened to the CD that covers Vera's concept of learning faster. Don't know why, but it didn't seem very clear to me. I think my problem was with step 3, where she talks about creating auxiliaries for new material, based on things you already know.

She has Star Trek Geek Boy realize that he can learn law by making associations to aspects of Deep Space Nine. My problem is that it didn't seem to provide concrete examples of HOW he would do that. It kind of struck me like they shared this esoteric moment of understanding while it went right by me. It was like the little boy in Matrix...."There is no spoon."

Can someone help me out here? There are some learning topics that I need to address soon and I would like to apply her principals.

Thanks.

Which cd is that? The book does have a cross reference for tape/cd.

What did you think about the way to use the Anchorman list for writing?

Hi Margaret,

I think it was CD 7 -- More Tricks. I liked the idea for writing. I thought it was a nice application of the ABC list.

Still hoping for some insight on this.

I'm getting to that tape. Finishing up 6B today.

quote:

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Originally posted by mgrego2:
Still hoping for some insight on this.

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Mgrego,
I have to listen to that tape again because i did not understand it all.

One thing i did understand was the part about asking questions for new or unfamiliar material. In that case, taking material you already know well can be used to help you generate questions for the unfamiliar material.

I think it might have to do w/ creating an abc type of list for something you are solid on. Then you hang the unfamiliar material on the list you are solid on as a way to recall it?? That's the impression i got.

quote:

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Originally posted by mgrego2:
creating auxiliaries for new material, based on things you already know.

Thanks.

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Mrego2

I believe Vera's point is that if we need auiliaries because we have few or no existing threads on which to hang the new material that we must choose something personal to us. As such she does not get very specific so we can select something very meaningful, individual and autobiographical.

Mike selcted something that he new intimately on which to hang new material. We can choose from the Anchorman list, an ABC list or anything else that we know well. That is my understanding from listening to the tape a 2nd time and reading the Leaing Trick#2 on page 27 and 28. I hope this is helpful.

I agree with y'all but for some reason I just am not getting the "how" of it. I'd like a concrete example, whether it's meaningful or not, it would still show the process. Sorry for my ongoing ignorance.

I agree that a concrete example would be very helpful at this point in our efforts witht the material. I am new to these forums and wonder if perhaps Paul, Vera or Pete could provide something that is not contained in the workbook or in tapes. I think it could help many of us then design our own applications. Do the Learning Strategies staff respond to this type of suggestion from the forum or is there a way to make a more direct request? Please let respond with what you think.

They tend to be pretty responsive on the other forums. Doesn't seem like this forum is monitored as closely. I'm sure someone will come through.

mgrego2:
Say you have formulated some key points from studying a new topic for you like journalism.

You would take an ABC list from something very familiar to you say gardening. Or, you develop a few analograffiti words from gardening that you like. Could be the names of some flowers that are your favorites or terms like planting or summertime flowers.

Then you hang your new material on the letters of the ABC list or the terms like summertime flowers. You exaggerate it so as to be able to recall it easily.

Last night i programmed for a dream that would offer me info for a problem. I awakened w/ recalling the dream. Before getting too awake, i just narrowed the over all feeling of the problem w/ the dream to one word: committment. I used the letters of the word committment to work on the dream. I did 2 different things here: 1. i used my Anchorman list. C=camping=i've never been camping so i think there is some resistence to change in me that is holding up being committed here. O=office building & i would feel safe on the 15th floor. Ok, that shows me i'm really not too keen on the needed change i'm seeking or trying to implement. M=mystery & again the mystery book needs to be read fully to solve the mystery, so i just have to plow ahead here.

The amazing thing is i did this before waking up fully & i can easily recall it. You have to do it to believe it.

Then 2. i just did word association w/ the letters of the word committment. C=change, O=open, M=manage, M=ake it happen, I= interest, etc. Like a free association but w/ a word that could lie at the root of my problem here.

I am also thinking that it would be possible to use a trigger word as the center of a MM & then just use the letters to generate ideas from the material. Haven't done that yet.

Hope this helps...

[This message has been edited by Margaret (edited November 13, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Margaret (edited November 13, 2001).]

mgrego2,

I'll give it a try. I listened to the learning tricks today. I think it was the second time I listened to it because the first time through, I must have just totally spaced out and/or fallen asleep. This whole new learning system has been at times overwhelming, but it's settling down in me.

Anyway, I'll try to give an example. I've been studying specific bone fractures as part of my learning in my profession. You have to know the names and where the fracture is. In medicine, I've always had a harder time memorizing orthopedic material because it's one of the more uninteresting topics for me. Therefore, I find myself having fewer threads compared to other topics in medicine.

The other day, I was trying to memorize what a massoneuve fracture is. Hard word for me and I don't know french, which is what it sounds like. Anyway, instead of being like Star-Trek Geek boy (as you so astutely pointed out), I remembered my own episode of life. I thought to myself, what does massoneuve most sound like to me. I thought of mayonnaise. I knew that the massoneuve fracture involved a fracture of the proximal fibula in your leg, but I needed to remember it. So I associated mayonnaise with eggs (I have an allergy to them). Then immediately, I saw myself in the third grade with Mrs. DiNonno (who I didn't like) wanting us to tell her what we had for breakfast as part of an exercise to eat healthy. Whatever. Anyway, I imagined myself "fibbing" (for fibula) to her that I had eggs (associated with mayonnaise and therefore massoneuve fracture) because I didn't want to get a failing grade. In honesty, I had NOTHING for breakfast that day. So that was my auxiliary thread of an episode in my own life. If I were a Deep Space Nine fan, I might remember a particular episode with certain details in it, like in my own life as a 3rd grader, to help me remember what a massoneuve fracture it.

Another example. I wanted to remember Ranson's criteria for pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). Firstly, I had difficulty remembering the name Ranson. Then I thought of Mel Gibson in Ransom (at least I think that was the name of the movie, but it works anyway) who's kid was kidnapped. He was naturally upset and in my version, after he's all emotional and yelling, he started to have bad belly pains. Now I cannot forget the name Ranson. Without going into details, I also devised a way to remember all the numbers associated with Ranson's criteria for prognosis of pancreatitis. Before, I was always so dumbfounded when another person was able to rattle it off so easily. Now I can too.

It's great that once you start building new threads, you can use those new threads to hook on newer stuff instead of only using auxiliary threads from other topics you know like your autobiography or your own ABC/Anchorman PEG lists. I think that's how the exponential learning takes place. We don't always need to rely on the Pegs once our learning curve starts to take off exponentially. When we combine it with asking questions about material which is so key, we make more and more associations and our reconstructions become easier and easier.

Margaret and Imagineez,

I like and appreciate your examples. Perhaps I'm trying to make more out of this than it deserves. I think you both touch on effective uses of her techniques for learning. Perhaps you each have taken a different approach to Learning-Trick #2 on pages 27-28 of the manual.

Margaret, I'm still processing your suggestions. They seem appropriate within the context but I'm still searching for a meaningful example of my own. Imagineez, the technique you suggested is one I've used to learn foreign words in the past and it is EXTREMELY effective.

Still resisting here and I'm not sure why. I'll give the session another listen. It may well be that your ideas will provide a useful structure for a second listening.

Thanks for your patient assistance.

mgrego2:
Ok, i went & read that trick #2 & got confused.

p. 11 = def. of Auxiliary Threads: My technique for creating auxiliary helper threads to tie something new into the existing memory web requires your "personal" involvement. YOu will create a personal episode, an autobiographical experience that functions as an auxiliary thread until the new info has become part of the fabric of all you know, part of your memory web.

Based on this definition, Imagineeze has given very worthwhile examples of this definition of Vera's.

My descriptions of what i did were not correct examples for this trick #2. The way i understand it is we need to create clear easily recallable personal experience episodes to serve as auxiliary threads.

Example: I cut the grass all summer. Ok i have the lawnmower, gas, i use stabil in it, & have 6 different parts to cut. I can use this auxiliary thread: gloves, lawnmower, gas, oil, top part around the beech, bottom part, back w/ the bench, side along the driveway, down part around the maple roots, middle part around the blue spruce.

Next step is to memorize the parts of this auxiliary thread. That's easy, b/c i'm so clear on this grass cutting proceedure. And, the trees can serve my memory b/c all those trees are different as well as the areas.

Lastly i would tie new material into each part of this auxiliary thread. Once i fully integrated the new material, i can just drop the use of this auxiliary thread b/c now it has its own web. I can then use this auxiliary for some other new material if i want.

Or, using personal experiences like Imagineeze mentions w/ the teacher in school asking the same question every day.

hope this helps some...

Hi Margaret,

I listened to the CD again today and thought I had clarity for a moment. The suggestion was made that once we have 55 or so auxilary threads, we've developed a web that can then stand on its own and further information can be related directly to this new structure. No problem.

Imagineez's examples are excellent. My problem continues to be that I'm trying to build a procedure based on comments on the CD. Building threads based on personal experience seems reasonable and "doable." Applying a coherent structure to new information based on Klingons, animals, or fugues just isn't registering well.

I can comprehend how you might use your lawnmowing example to remember things you want to buy or to remember topics for a speech. What I can't figure out is how you might use those elements to learn an entirely new topic. Say you want to learn to play the violin (with no previous musical background) or you had the desire to learn calculus, how would you then use your lawnmower example? Doesn't there need to be some correspondence between the topics? How does linking the integral to Stabil or the area under a curve to the oil provide a useful thread? Perhaps you could link the area under a curve to one of the areas you mow, but even that seems a bit iffy.

Am I making any sense here or have I gone off on a tangent that serves only to confuse?

mgrego2,

I don't think the connection you make always has to make sense. It can be really stupid. Who cares as long as it is something even outlandish that will stick in your mind long enough for you to learn that new thread and assimilate it as part of your memory web. Perhaps you have a fear of using your creativity, or lack of belief in it. That was the first thing that came to mind when I read your most recent comments. Remember, you downplayed things when Margaret complimented you on your ABC list for photoreading. Just a thought, anyway. And remember, you have what it takes to come up with your own stuff. I cringe when I think of Mike's use of fugues or Star Trek stuff as auxiliary threads because that's NOT me. Of course you're NOT going to relate to it because it's not a part of your own MEMORY, and therefore not a part of you're PERSONALITY.

For me, I could imagine pouring oil into the area under the curve to make it more real and practical, and less theoretical and abstract. If I was learning how to calculate the area in a funnel, I might pour the oil through the funnel and somehow link the particular formula with that whole scenario. I don't know if this is calculus, but it's math nonetheless. My main point is to at least make something new that you're learning familiar enough to continue with, thereby generating interest and doing it with greater ease.

Have you been listening to the MO paraliminal? That probably will help too. If you have the Belief paraliminal, that one is good too. Or personal genius.

Hope this helps.

Hi, mgrego2,
I was listening to the B side of tape 2 which corresponds to cd 2. I think this is where your question is answered. She explains the use of auxiliary threads clearly.

I wasn't trying to find the answer to your question; i was just listening to the tapes for the 2nd time.

She mentions how unfamiliar terms can be hung on very familiar terms in order to learn them. She gave the example of how she taught a computer language course to Germans who were unfamiliar w/ the English language. The goal was for them to just get a handle on some words to make the learning of the pc language move along faster.

So, say, you are learning calculus. I guess you'd just get a some of the terms that are new & have no threads in your memory web & hang them on an auxiliary thread or personal experience that is easy to recall. Auxiliary threads would be used as a peg list & personal experience used as a story.

It was my understanding that the auxiliary threads was not used to learn some new material but to jump-start you into it. I think in any new learning, vocabulary terms are the first things that need to be grasped. Once those terms are understood & memorized, then we begin to get more of a feel for the new project.

Check out cd 2 b/c it really does help explain trick #2.

I haven't started building any auxiliary threads yet though. I'm all wrapped up in doing abc lists. I'd like to get around 50 done in the next couple weeks.

Good luck

Imagineez,

Thanks again for some good points. I'm beginning to think it's just laziness. It'll take time and effort to create those first links... I've only listened to the MO paraliminal once so far. I know I should do more but time has been tight.

Margaret,

Thanks for reminding me of the story related to Basic. That does bring a little more context in that is useful. It supports Imagineez's prior posting from Nov 13 but "resonates" a little more for me because my web has a lot of old programming stuff in it. It's surprising that I had forgotten that story.

Thanks again, everyone.

I read something in "The Einstein Factor" by Win Wenger and Richard Poe that seems to apply to this topic. The example seems more effective (for me) than the Klingon example. I figured I would post it because things are so slow on this forum.

The text appears on page 208, during a discussion of freenoting.

"...Freenoting will automatically increase your memory of the lecture by associating key points with your own expressive thoughts. The crazier, funnier, and more bizarre those thoughts are, the more memorable they will be.

In a chemistry lecture, you might imagine those atoms that combine easily with hydrogen to be covered with fur in which the little hydrogen atoms tend to get caught. Picture the strange, varied coats of fur that would distinguish each type of hydrogen-trapping atom. Oxygen, for example, might have very wet looking fur."

Why do I care? Because, unintentionally, Dr. Wenger provided a better example of applying things you already know. By applying visual properties of fur to the atoms, you are putting it into a framework that makes sense to you. This just seems a little more clear than Vera's example. Now I have a clearer sense of how something from the Klingon world might be applied to law. I was looking for a direct correspondence (sort of a 1-to-1 relationship that very likely doesn't exist -- torts are like the Klingon practice of such and such...).

Does this make any sense or was it a waste of bits? Sorry for restating the obvious, since everyone else seems to be getting it already anyway...

mgrego2:
There's not a whole lot to discuss on the MO course. Basically, it's the Anchorman List & variations. In addition, she has numerous techniques called tricks. Most of the tricks are useless to me b/c they are so involved in electronics & gadgets.

I have found Jose Silva's techniques for programming far superior in producing results & they don't involve electronics & gadgets. Heavens, i don't even own an exercise bike or any such stuff. I have too much to do to ever work out! I have actual manual labor & real work to do

I also have no interest in all that Alheizmer stuff either. Do you? I do what i do & have enuff problems w/ other types of fear in my life that i'm attempting to address. I don't need to feel pressured to do abc lists for Alheizmer (sp?) fears too.

I think we have discussed all that needs to be discussed w/ regard to her course. It could have been nicely done in 4 tapes & the anchorman concepts....imho...

I am up to almost 50 abc lists & have used them for problem solving & lots of wonderful things. I also have just taken out some car tapes from the library to listen to for driving to/from work. But, much of my life is about not putting so much into my head.

Listen Ramana Mahrishi spent his time mostly in silence & he never had any problems w/ memory. I am not so sure that having a ton of stuff in my memory web is the KEY to anything substantial for me or my goals.

Remembering my Source is where it's at for me & no amount of abc lists or memory webing will help me or anyone out there. Who am i? Where does the "i" come from? What is the source of the i-thought? No memory web can help me out there.

But, i do love the anchorman idea & have kept the course, b/c it was totally new to me. I have also enhanced her concepts to include innovative ideas not found in the manual or on the tapes. I could not have done that w/o the anchorman concept. So, i feel i got my $$'s worth.

What do you think about the course overall? I look forward to your comments.

Hi Margaret,

I think your points are quite valid. I agree that the course could have been condensed and still retained the essential info. Some of the tricks are rehashes of stuff from other courses. I didn't get much from the additional CD's. I enjoyed the section on the ABC List and I will play more with analograffiti to see what I get out of it. It is not likely that I will get much out of the other tricks. The piggy bank time idea is good but I don't see myself using a VCR in the suggested manner. Also, I was a bit disappointed with the sales pitches throughout the recordings. Still evaluating.

Margaret and mgrego2:

So, have you given up on this MO stuff ?
I just bought it a week ago. You mention that this whole thing could have been condensed into 4 tapes. Hmmmm, no wonder I feel so sleepy after hearing 30 - 45 minutes of it.

So, I guess, the course is mostly about Anchorman List and ABC lists and tricks ?

Are you guys still working this DF or are gone from it ? You were the most active.

Hi Aron,

Still out here and haven't given up yet. I would say that Anchorman and ABC Lists are the foundation for the course. I've been reading the book a bit more and find some better information related to the questions I've had. Starting with page 48, there is more detailed info on the topics that were troubling me. Having said that, aside from listening to the CD's again, I haven't had time to do a lot of application lately.

quote:

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Originally posted by aron:
Margaret and mgrego2:

So, have you given up on this MO stuff ?
I just bought it a week ago. You mention that this whole thing could have been condensed into 4 tapes. Hmmmm, no wonder I feel so sleepy after hearing 30 - 45 minutes of it.

So, I guess, the course is mostly about Anchorman List and ABC lists and tricks ?

Are you guys still working this DF or are gone from it ? You were the most active.

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