# Gary Lanier System **URL:** \ **Category:** General Memory Chat\ **Tags:** lanier-system\ **Created:** [November 10, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885 "2019-11-10T19:55:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/ridwane)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/1 "2019-11-10T19:55:35Z")
Hi. I have just finish to read Gary system but I didn’d understand how what it is how to apply it to memorize texts. Can somebody help me? Excuse me for my language because I’m learning English now, French is my official language. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/josh/32/21_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/2 "2019-11-10T20:47:18Z")
Have you read this thread? [Read this to better understand the Gary Lanier system and memorizing text verbatim!](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/read-this-to-better-understand-the-gary-lanier-system-and-memorizing-text-verbatim/34910) It’s beneficial to learn [these three other techniques](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/read-this-to-better-understand-the-gary-lanier-system-and-memorizing-text-verbatim/34910/25) first. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s also a tag: #lanier-system ---
**Author:** ![GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/gibtsdochgarnicht/32/6734_2.png) [@GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/GibtsDochGarNicht)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/3 "2019-11-10T23:15:28Z")
> [@ridwane](#): > > Excuse me for my language because I’m learning English now, French is my official language. To be honest mate, Lanier’s videos didn’t make much sense to me as a native English speaker either! I looked into them when I started out with trying to memorise verbatim and gave up (even after reading the links that Josh has given you). I think part of the problem was my not being au fait (that’s French btw for ‘au fait’) with the Major and Pegs as Josh suggests. ---
**Author:** ![ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/ridwane)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/4 "2019-11-11T20:24:31Z")
Hi. Please, is there other systems or techniques to memorize texts? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/josh/32/21_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/5 "2019-11-11T20:31:46Z")
Have you seen this page yet: [How Do I Memorize a Book?](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/how-do-i-memorize-a-book/33721) For more links, see also: - [How to memorize a book](https://artofmemory.com/wiki/How_to_Memorize_a_Book) - [How to memorize a 500 page book verbatim](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/how-to-memorize-a-500-page-book-verbatim/37698) ---
**Author:** ![ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/ridwane)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/6 "2019-11-11T20:36:40Z")
OK thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/gibtsdochgarnicht/32/6734_2.png) [@GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/GibtsDochGarNicht)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/7 "2019-11-11T20:43:29Z")
> [@ridwane](#): > > Hi. Please, is there other systems or techniques to memorize texts? > Thanks! (from Nelson Dellis’ “Remember It!”- Josh, is that too much for ‘fair usage’ ?) **TO BE OR NOT TO BE . . . WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?** **HOW TO REMEMBER POEMS** Sometimes memorizing the key talking points isn’t good enough—you have to get each word exactly right. For instance, in memory competitions we have to memorize poems as precisely as possible—punctuation, capitalization, and all. If you’re an actor, you have to do pretty much the same thing (with even more contextual information such as blocking) every time you get a new script. To do this, you need a pretty long journey, even for fairly short texts, because even if you chunk a few consecutive words together you’ll still need at least one or two anchor points per line of text. The general principle is the same as before, but with word-for-word memorization you’ll need a code similar to what we discussed in chapter 5 with regard to passwords (see this page). Instead of finding something concrete and visual for each of the characters on yourkeyboard, you need something concrete and visual for all the conjunctions (and, or, etc.), prepositions (to, in, at, etc.), pronouns (he, she, etc.), and articles (a, the, etc.). You’ll also need to represent punctuation and capitalization in your code (if your recall requires you to write it down rather than say it aloud). You can do this on the fly, though, since consistency doesn’t matter as long as you can keep everything straight. Sometimes the easiest way to encode those short, abstract words is with a rhyme word that would otherwise be out of place with the rest of the text—for instance, replacing and with an image of sand, or a hand, or a band (you can see a list of some of my go-to filler word images in the appendix on this page). To give you an example, I’ll break down the first stanza of Shel Silverstein’s poem “One Inch Tall.” As always, you can use any journey you like, but for the sake of illustrating this with a slightly more iconic route (and to show you another idea for what you can use as a journey), we’re going to take a trip across the United States: starting in Miami and moving up the East Coast to Washington, D.C., then to Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston; heading west toward Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco; and finally, down to L.A. Each place has its own memorable scenery: Miami Beach, the White House, the Liberty Bell, the Empire State Building, Boston Harbor, the Sears Tower, the Rocky Mountains, Lombard Street, and the Hollywood sign. Here we go: EXAMPLE— IF YOU WERE ONLY ONE INCH TALL, YOU’D RIDE A WORM TO SCHOOL. THE TEARDROP OF A CRYING ANT WOULD BE YOUR SWIMMING POOL. A CRUMB OF CAKE WOULD BE A FEAST AND LAST YOU SEVEN DAYS AT LEAST, A FLEA WOULD BE A FRIGHTENING BEAST IF YOU WERE ONE INCH TALL. Before you start trying to store the stanza in the journey, dive into it and imagine not just witnessing it but living it. As you read the words, picture them playing out in your mind and as you see them, try to feel the emotion of each line: the freedom and pride of riding your very own worm to school, the schadenfreude as the ant cries and you get to swim around in its tears, the satisfaction of eating that crumb, and the fear of that intimidating flea. After you’ve read it once, readit again without storing it. On the second pass, pay more attention to the structure of the lines, the meter, and the rhyming scheme (if you want, on this second pass try the First Letter Method from earlier in this section [this page] so you can get an even better handle on the stanza). Then, on the third pass, start coming up with images for the exact words as you store them along your journey. PRO TIP There is no right or wrong way to split up the lines. It’s my personal preference to split them in half, but it’s not always the case. If a line is short, I’ll just take the entire line as one image. If a line is long, I might even split it in three or four pieces. It all depends. The important thing here is to be flexible and do what feels reasonable to you. In this particular poem, the lines are a bit long, so we’re going to split them in half. Here’s how I’d break them down: “IF YOU WERE ONLY ONE INCH TALL,” We’re standing in Miami on the beach (our first anchor point) and we need to picture this phrase happening there. This is an easy one, since it’s so concrete: Picture yourself on the beach as if you were only one inch tall! That will give you only the gist of the phrase, so you might add an image for “if,” to get deeper into the specific wording. When I see the word “if,” I imagine the Château d’If from the movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo. So plop goes the Château d’If on Miami Beach, and you’re only one inch tall in comparison. To remember the word “only,” put emphasis on the fact that you are the only person on the beach. One thing to take note of is the point of view of the poem: It’s in the second person. Everything is about you. It’s something to keep in mind throughout the whole poem, not just in this one line. What about the comma? This is where you need to access your visual code for symbols. For instance, I associate a comma with the action of falling, a period with some type of bloody violence, and a semicolon with mopping the floor. So to remember the comma at the end of this phrase, I would picture my tiny one-inch self falling over next to the Château d’If. . . . “YOU’D RIDE A WORM TO SCHOOL.” Now you’re in D.C., in front of the White House, and you’re riding a worm up tothe White House, which looks like a fancy school, with yellow school buses pulling up and students milling around carrying backpacks. What about the period at the end? According to my code, I need some bloody violence in there, so maybe a sniper takes me out as I approach the front door of the White House. “THE TEARDROP OF A CRYING ANT” This one is also easy to picture, and memorable too. Imagine there’s a giant ant atop the Liberty Bell, and it’s crying hysterically as a massive teardrop runs down the bell. Pretty simple, but if you’re worried about confusing crying with a stronger verb like sobbing, add something small and similar-sounding, like a crayon, to remind you. “WOULD BE YOUR SWIMMING POOL.” We’re in New York City now, so picture a wooden bee in a swimming pool on the top of the Empire State Building. Why a wooden bee? To help you remember would be. It’s not about representing each word perfectly but about representing all the words in some fashion (except your, which comes up over and over enough to be inferred wherever it appears). Plus, it’s weird and random—which means it’s memorable. “A CRUMB OF CAKE WOULD BE A FEAST” Sometimes you can fit a whole line into one image. This particular line happens to be short and simple, so you can imagine Boston Harbor (or any colonial- looking harbor) with a giant, floating cake in the water, and a single crumb flakes off and is promptly feasted upon by that same wooden bee. If the word feast trips you up as something that’s hard to picture, maybe instead, imagine the bee holding a fist (fist is close enough to feast) in the air like a rock star as it eats the crumb. “AND LAST YOU SEVEN DAYS AT LEAST,” Now at the Sears Tower, we have an abstract—and therefore difficult—line to imagine word for word. Let’s split it in half. “AND LAST YOU” For prepositions like and and or you’ll want to use contrasting preset images. For me, and is a circle and or is a square. So I might picture myself at the Sears Tower standing on a circular platform; I’m last in line to get into the building,and lit up on the side of the building is the logo from my alma mater, the University of Miami, aka The U (pronounced like you). “SEVEN DAYS AT LEAST,” On a mountain in Denver, imagine that you’re throwing a boomerang (the number seven) while singing “Day-O,” then falling down the mountain (because the comma is marked by the falling motion). “A FLEA WOULD BE A FRIGHTENING BEAST” On Lombard Street, Flea (the bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) is being stung by that wooden bee, and he’s screaming over and over, “A frightening beast!!!” as he runs down the famous winding road. “IF YOU WERE ONE INCH TALL.” Lastly, you’re at the Hollywood sign in L.A. Since this line is the same as the first, minus the word only, you’re going to picture the exact same thing as you stand under the sign—except you’re not the only person there. Don’t forget something gory for the period! ---
**Author:** ![ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@ridwane](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/ridwane)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/8 "2019-11-11T20:49:41Z")
Thank you ---
**Author:** ![GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/gibtsdochgarnicht/32/6734_2.png) [@GibtsDochGarNicht](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/GibtsDochGarNicht)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gary-lanier-system/43885/9 "2019-11-11T23:41:46Z")
Almost all my memorising is of text and that verbatim …and in a dead language because I am a sad old man with far too much time on his hands and no friends. I tend to memorise ‘keywords’, using mainly, but not exclusively, the system which Anthony Metivier describes in his “Chinese Challenge” videos on youtube. Here the first example that comes to mind: “Witta weold Swæfum, Wada Hælsingum” So I see a wheat field (_witta_) and Patrick Swayze ( **Swæ** fum ) welding (_weold_) in it, while a vado (_wada_) driven by Peter Cushing as Van Helsing ( **Hælsing** um) passes by.