I have some questions about the Dominick system.

General Memory Chat
1

Is the Dominick system more up to date or advanced than the more traditional mnemonic systems? For example… are journeys superior to the Roman Room method and the Dominick number system superior to the major system? I ask because I want to commit to learning mnemonic systems again and I’m beginning from scratch. I want to start off the right way.

Also, if the Dominick system works better then the more traditional systems (as in ease of use and overall effectiveness) which books (the top two) would get me on the right track and up to speed in the months to come? In other words which books are the most practical?

2

It is hard to say which one is better or worse. The Dominic system works with letters, like BG (image could be Bill Gates, parhaps) or GD (could be Ghandi). The major system works with sounds, like when you have /k/ and /t/ you could combine them into “cat”. It just depends on where your preferences lay.

I myself don’t use either, I use categories. 00-09 are characters from Fringe, 40-49 are Marvel super heroes, 90-99 are historic people, etc. This is a system that works for me, and everyone has their own.

Also, the Roman Room is -for as far as I know- the same thing as the journey method :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

It’s Dominic (no K at the end), named after Dominic O’Brien, eight times world memory champion. So, that tells you how effective it can be!

However, it’s really not possible to answer your question without knowing what you want to memorise with it. Also, how do we measure effectiveness?

Easy to learn?
Ease of use?
Expandable?
Ability to memorise items where speed is the issue?
Ability to memorise items where amount is the issue?
Suitable for long-term memorisation?

And so on.

You can think of both Dominic and the Major System as number-letter codes. They are effectively ways to encode numbers into letters and then into images.

Dominic would be:

1 A
2 B
3 C
4 D
5 E
6 S
7 G
8 H
9 N
O O

The double digits then (usually) become initials of a person. E.g 56 = Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Major lettering is different:

0 s, z
1 t, d, th
2 n
3 m
4 r
5 l
6 j, ch, sh
7 c, k, g, q, ck
8 v, f, ph
9 p, b

Consonants are then used to fill out words. E.g 56 = Loch or lush.

Before Dominic, those words were mostly objects, though some people now use Major for people.

Here is how I personally would rate the questions above:

Easy to learn? - Dominic
Ease of use? - Dominic
Expandable - Major (Dominic can grow into a PAO system, but I still think Major wins here.)
Ability to memorise items where speed is the issue? - Debateable, but more top athletes seem to use Major (or one of its variations like the Ben or Shadow systems), than Dominic
Ability to memorise items where amount is the issue? - as above, if we’re just talking e,g. 5000 digits of Pi. If we mean something like 50,000 decimal places of Pi, or 52 packs of cards, see below…
Suitable for long-term memorisation? - Draw

Regarding books, I’d recommend getting Dominic’s first book, How to Develop a Perfect Memory. It’s an exceptional book and most of his later books are just rehashes.

4

I would like to memorize books (biology, psychology, history, religious texts, novels etc.) as well as long strings of lists and numbers. I’m also into lucid dreaming and would like to memorize my dreams (instead of writing them down) in a nice and organized way where I can access them from my memory.

5

Hey Newton-Telsa, there is no better method. As Graham rightly said they both relate to different letters and sounds. This makes them unique to their creation of words and associations. I tried using the major system first but it just didn’t fit right so I switched over to the Dominic system. After that I developed a PAO system from that. It really helped me a lot. I am neither criticizing nor defaming the major system but it just doesn’t felt right. In the end it is you who decides whether the numbers go in your mind and stay there through letters or sounds. Actually you can create a PAO system with the major system too. Just like the Dominic system, the major system has it’s own letter scheme. You can create either a list of 100 PAO entities or 1000 major system objects/identities for the best results. But in the end it all comes down to how well can you interpret a number with the method you choose. Try using both and then decide on one.
Memorizing books can sometimes be tricky. People say that using journeys can ease that burden of absorbing all the content but all you brain does is adsorb it. The difference? It is the same as skimming and swimming. Just like you can see much more when you are in the water rather than above its surface, when you make a journey it needs to be so detailed and so clear in your mind that you can easily relate to what the next paragraph is about. Taking notes always helps in doing so because they are like mnemonics to the whole text. When you (and I cannot stress this enough) VISUALIZE what’s in the journey you come to know the actual code you were trying to understand. This gets trickier when memorizing long texts because then you have to make more journeys and find more loci to fit each image perfectly. Coming to the strings of lists and numbers is pretty much saying memorizing random words and numbers to some extent. The journey method is your best bet here because it has unlimited expansion potential. Numbers will always drag you to your chosen system - Major, Ben, Dominic, PAO or the Simon System. So make sure you have all your numbered pairs very clearly in your head. Another tip is to stop sub-vocalizing while you memorize lists and numbers. It slows you down. Do not read them in your mind but react while you see them. Instantaneous response does take a lot of practice to master but is certainly achievable through hard work. And the last on was organizing your dreams. First of all I am really curious to know more on lucid dreaming. Dreaming is a part of your subconscious - it can only be seen when some nerves in your brain are triggered. If that part can be controlled, then I think the possibilities are really vast for us to be more imaginative and think more vividly. I don’t really know how you can memorize your dreams because it depends on how clear they were when you saw them. To that I can only say don’t see but observe to get a closer look at everything in the scene and everything happening around the central axis. Take a 360 degrees turn if you can to be more familiar with the background. Hope this helps.
Kind Regards,
K.

6

I gess i started to learn Dominic in same reason Newton-Tesla did.
My Dominic system is based on major system :)… Primary numbers are based on major system but everything else is Dominic
But it would also be nice to see some more tip on memorizing books. Not memorizing every word in what row of page.cccc thats insane. Just remembering idea, meaning… To get more smarter :smiley:

What I have heard is that no technique helps. The only think that helps is recalling. Reading, repeating over and over.

7

I don’t quite get that, especially the first sentence, could you explain what you mean here? Maybe some examples

8

Well I dont know if i understant Dominic system rule wrong, but people usualy use
1 A
2 B
3 C
4 D
5 E
6 S
7 G
8 H
9 N
O O

or something similar for Dominic. Don’t know if that is rule or advice
For Dominic system i use rule from Major system. ITs much more easy for me to remember what number represent what letter. Because even if I use same rule for Major System, i won’t use persons, disney characters that have 2 words (mickey mouse) etc…

0 s, o (can use d if not used in 1. since D is half of 0 )
1 t, d, (I don’t use " i ", since I can mix it with number 5=L )
2 n
3 m
4 r
5 l
6 sh, b (looks like 6 )
7 k, might use S as well (if not used in 0 )
8 f
9 p

9

Well retaining and understanding are two different things. If you understand something it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you are asked about it you’d be able to give a perfect answer. I am not saying you can’t it’s just that sometimes your brain cannot find the specific link to the particular concept you were hunting the answer for. Thats why memory systems are more efficient than rote learning. They provide you with the LINK you need to search for the answer. It saves time and is more reliable than just being dependant on your simple memorization. Nevertheless if you get the concept well enough you’ll have no problems remembering it. This doesn’t apply to everyone out there and also on everything you learn. Repeating sure does help memorize stuff but when you start visualizing and associating different events with images you’ll get a better idea and it will further develop your understanding of the concept you wanna learn. Hope this helps.

10

Difermo,

If I’ve understood your posts correctly, you’re not using the Dominic method at all. You’re simply using the Major system to come up with people.

I’d guess that a good proportion of people using PAO do so via Major, not Dominic. So, you’re in good company.

11

Graham,

Well I tought that Dominic system is this: “every number from 0-9 have some letter that it presents. like you post. So every two digit presents to letters togather. Those two letters are first letter of some word. IT can be famouse people, historic people, some cartoon or other character. For example Mickey Mouse”

But how I understand Major system it is like this: “every number from 0-9 have some letter that it presents. like you post. So every two digit presents to letters togather. Those two letters are from same word. first word that came up on my mind is best to use. And rule is to fill the rest of word, that have those 2 letters with consonants. IT can be name, animal, object or some action. For example mama (or mom)”

So what is different as I understand is next
Dominic system 3=M => 33 = MM => Mickey Mouse
Major system 3=M => 33 = MM => mama

But mayarra post that it can be something that is familiar to those letters. Like AK = AK-47. OR MM can be m&m candy :smiley:

But i think hardest for me would be memory palace. Somehow I fear that it is too big bite or it wont work. And if I use my house over and over again, for diferent tasks, that I will mix what i remembered

12

Both should give you an image of a person or an animal preferably, my AK (AK-47) would bring up the image for Michail Kalasjnikov, who then will be my image for the letters AK if you have those two letters in your used system (K isn’t normally used in Dominic). That is working with the dominic system. As you said, MM could be Mickey Mouse (if you would use the letter M, as it isn’t in it normally), BG could be Bill Gates, HO could be santa clause (ho ho ho)

Major system is similar, but instead of letters, you use sounds. The M in major system is not the letter, but the sound. MM would then be ‘mom’ or so. 71 could be /k/ and /t/, with those sounds you can make the word ‘cat’. 55 for example, would be /l/ and /l/, two times the L sound. Something that comes to mind, would be lol, Laughing Out Loud, though that would be hard to imagine as an image. So again, you need to turn in into a useful word, like ‘Lola’, which is the name of a friend of mine, that friend would then be the image for 55.

13

I guess it depends where you draw the line. In its most comprehensive sense, the Dominic System may be thought of as:

  1. A particular number-letter code (i.e 1 = A, not T)
  2. Double digits are translated into people’s initials
  3. Those people are placed along stages on a journey

To be honest, it’s probably difficult to specify what is and is not Dominic, such is his influence on the world of mnemonics. However, after Dominic popularised the Person-Action and Andi Bell (possibly?) added the Object, it’s now fairly commonplace for people to use the Major System to produce people’s initials.

Yes, that is an important part of the Dominic system, that I wonder how many people miss. So, it’s recommended to go through the numbers 0-99 first and see how many immediately make you think of people:

07 = James Bond
11 = A Ballerina
80 = HO = Father Christmas
81 = HA = Comedian

Etc.

The method of Loci is an effective and reliable one. Dominic was perceptive to make it a core part of his approach (Association, Imagination, Location). however, Dominic did not invent it and though he popularised it, it’s not even true to say that he revived it. It’s possibly the most ancient method that any mnemonist uses.

Why would you use your house again and again? When Alex won the 2015 World Memory Championships, he had over 3000 different locations.

So, in conclusion, I’d say you’re using a Dominic-inspired Major-system-based Person system. But that might just be splitting hairs! :slight_smile:

14

Thanks both… It helped to understand rules.
I will try but i think it will have problems for me. But if I use 0=O so 00 = Olive Oyl and 07 = James bond then O=J. I think it could make problems for me and mix. The reason why I took 7=k or 3=m is to make it faster and easy to recall. At that time it seams best solution. I think we are all diferent, and most important is to use what works, even if it diferent then others. Since I didn’t practice a lot (I just created list), as you said, to go through the numbers 0-99 first and see how many immediately make you think of people, maybe it woudn’t be a problem to use 07 = James Bond when it starts to be a natural think when I see numbers.
I’m still creating (modifing) list

15

In 07 the 0 doesn’t stand for J. 07 is james bond because he is also known as agent 007

16
The reason why I took 7=k or 3=m is to make it faster and easy to recall. At that time it seams best solution. I think we are all diferent, and most important is to use what works, even if it diferent then others.

Absolutely agree.

17

You might find this site helpful:

A useful feature is that you can change the Dominic alphabet to Major, or anything else.

18

You might find this site helpful:

A useful feature is that you can change the Dominic alphabet to Major, or anything else.

19

I guess what ever system we use to create a link between a person and a number is ok! However what is the best way to memorize a 3 digit number? If the number has odd number of digits what are you guys using? Dominic PA system works good with numbers with 4 digits and using an object alone is good for 2. But what is a seamless way to get 3 digits?
How should i remember a number like 582? or 68933?

20

I was told to create another ten images for single digits. 582 with me would be 58-2 (P-A) and 68933 would be 68-93-3 (P-A-O). This works great for me ^^