We do need to expand the list on the wiki. I just typed 386 into the link dale provided and could not come up with a word. http://www.phoneticmnemonic.com/.
One of the most exhaustive list I have seen is that by Bruno Furst, now deceased, who wrote “Stop Forgetting.”
I have the book and the 1000 digits dictionary, but the dictionary fell apart. My secretary was supposed to scan all the pages, but somehow she missed one or two. It might still be available of Lottie Furst or Garrett Storm are still alive. Even it had some words that we could not find in any dictionaries because they were seemingly made up but for the most part it was a good list listing several word alternatives for most three digit numbers.
But here is an idea: Is there a potential consonant: number system that would allow the creation of more English words? What if the corpus of English with the most used 10,000 words were plugged into a computer program that tried various consonant or letter: number systems and found the one that made the most words. Would that not be the best consonant: number system???
Hi Duy,
Maybe I can shed some light on this? Ben places 3 lots of 3 digits at each location (9 digits total) therefore he has to create a complex image combining 3 images. I think Ben was referring to the association rules he makes for the complex images he creates, when seeing the images he always has them ordered from left to right or from top to bottom (i.e. non-arbitrary), for example if the digits translate to a paintbrush a teacup and a mouse he will apply the rule that they occur left to right so the paintbrush falls on the teacup, knocking it over which spills hot tea on the mouse which gets scalded.
When I was in high school, my mother was concerned about my memory. I was pretty bad in school, but like Dominic O’Brien, I had dyslexia and ADHD (they had no name for such things at the time.) I fell in love with the Arthur Borenstein course. He did a good job of memory training. His hook was to have the audience give him a list of groceries, and then he demonstrated how to make a list by visualizing. The last thing he asked his audience, before they left, deciding whether to sign up or not, was to list the items backward. Everyone could. Many signed up. I did too.
His other thing was to read the paper in the morning, bring it in, and tell people to give him a page number, and he would recite what was on the page. Good marketing. The weakness in his Major System is that it does not withstand the test of time that well. For example:
13=Tam. Well, yes, but who the hell knows the term “tam” for a type of hat? OTOH, his dictionary does list alternatives, so you can just pick ones that work for you.
Other things in his materials have expired as well. Phone number examples don’t age well. Prefixes and exchanges are done differently today than in his time.
I’d be happy to answer any questions about his materials as I have his course from way way way back then.
