Have you seen this description?
I took a closer look, and the system has some very interesting ideas in it. I don’t know if this alternate explanation will help, but I think it works something like this:
Street-Sidewalk-Structure
From what I can understand it uses an S.S.S. technique where each chapter is memorized using a Street, Sidewalk, and Structure. That part is described in section 2-2 of the pastebin starting on line 133.
The street is a location (see memory palaces) that holds information about the book and chapter numbers (see the Major System).
The sidewalk is a location that holds the number of the verse and the “title” of the verse, which appears to often be the first word of the verse.
On the structure, choose four locations, like in his image here:
Pos 1
___I_
/\-_--\
/ \_-__\
Pos 4 |[]| [] | Pos 2
Pos 3
(I love the formatting and illustrations in that text document.
)
Alpha Characters
You then take the title of the verse (usually the first word) and create “alpha characters” (people and objects) from them using the letters of the title.
To create alpha characters, create three people/objects for each letter of the alphabet: one male, one female, and one object. You will have 78 alpha characters in your system.
If I’m understanding it correctly, it might look like this:
| Letter | Male | Female | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Abe | Amy | Apple |
| B | Bob | Beth | Box |
| C | Charles | Cindy | Cantaloupe |
| D | Dave | Debbie | Door |
| etc. |
He uses the images of women for odd sentences and men for even sentences. If the title word is too short to use for the sentence (each letter of the title holds just 4 words), then you can use multiple alpha characters for that single letter. For example, if the first word of the sentence is “A”, then you could memorize 12 words on that letter by using all three alpha characters for that letter: Abe, Amy, and Apple. Alternatively, you could use the first two words of the sentence as the title for the sentence.
Each character acts out four words from the sentence or verse, moving through the four locations in a clockwise direction, and interacting with one word per location. The first alpha character moves through four locations, then the second, then the third, etc.
F-A-C-E
F-A-C-E looks like a way to strengthen the associations or add more locations for each alpha character. It stands for Feature, Abode, Career, and Event.
A. Feature – physical feature that stands out – Position 1
B. Abode - Where they live – Position 2
C. Career - What they do (Doctor, Wife, Student) – Position 3
D. Event - Some memorable event in their life – Position 4
There are two ways that F-A-C-E seems to be used:
- to strengthen associations by adding a prop to each location:
Pos 1 + AC Feature
___I_
/\-_--\
/ \_-__\
Pos 4 + AC Event |[]| [] | Pos 2 + AC Abode
Pos 3 + AC Career
- to add four extra pegs per location, giving each alpha character a capacity of 16 items instead of just four:
Pos 1-1
|
|
Pos 1-4--FEATURE--Pos 1-2
|
|
Pos 1-3
|
Pos 1
Pos 4-1 ___I_ Pos 2-1
| /\-_--\ |
| / \_-__\ |
Pos 4-4-EVNT-Pos 4-2-Pos 4 |[]| [] | Pos 2-Pos 2-4--ABODE--Pos 2-2
| |
| Pos 3 |
Pos 4-3 | Pos 2-3
Pos 3-1
|
|
Pos 3-4--CAREER--Pos 3-2
|
|
Pos 3-3
Example
Section 3-1 on line 284 provides a good example.
Additional Uses
There are some interesting ideas starting on line 463. If you’re going to the bank and need to remember your to-do list there, the word “bank” becomes your title word. Convert the first letters into alpha characters: Bob, Abe, and Nathan (or whatever your images are). Then those alpha characters could walk around your structure (the bank itself), interacting with the mnemonic images that represent your to-do items.
Line 469 describes how to memorize the US Presidents by using the first six letters of the word “President” and two alpha characters per letter.
It’s a bit more complex than the plain method of loci, but I think there are some great ideas for new types of memory systems there.