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[ Silence ] Let me introduce myself to you, and I don't want you to forget my name. My name is Dan Michaels, and in the next hour I'm going to show you the right way to remember names and faces.

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To begin with, let me briefly tell you a true story, and there have been many such instances over the years. Some years ago I was invited to a social gathering, a Christmas party, where there were approximately 150 people,

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People I'd never met before. I had the opportunity to meet all of these people. Quite a feat, I know, but I always try to meet as many people as I can.

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It's fun. In any event, some five years after this Christmas party, the host and hostess of the party decided to do it again, that is to invite the same guests

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and more to his and her home in order to celebrate Christmas. I had neither seen the host, hostess, or any of these guests since the Christmas party. Five years had passed.

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The big question, after five years did I remember the names and faces of all the people who were at the first party? An emphatic yes. Needless to say there were quite a few people at the party who were amazed. How did I do it? How does anybody do it? Let me show you the right way to remember names and faces, for remembering

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names and faces is easy. You just have to know how to do it correctly. The fact of the matter is that most people go about it all wrong, and it's for this reason that I tell people that they have to undergo psychosocial surgery before they are expected to remember someone's name. No doubt you too need to undergo

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psychosocial surgery. That is, as it is now, your behavior in a name-swapping situation is probably all wrong and it needs to be changed. However, before you learn the right way to remember names and faces, I want to take the time now to show you the key for having a great memory, for it is this key which will

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allow you to remember someone's name for a long, long time. There exists a visualization well, and by entering it you will greatly improve your retention. To show you how the visualization well works, I'm going to ask you to enter it. All right now, by using your mind's eye, I want you to picture a loved one of

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yours, that's right, a loved one of yours, bouncing a basketball, a bright orange basketball. Please take a few seconds to do this now. I'll give you a few seconds. Please do it now. Okay, did you do it? Good. Now here's a question for you. Was your

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visualization or video rather fuzzy, flat, and one-dimensional, or was your visualization two or three dimensional and in color. If it was two or three dimensional and in color, you were at the greatest level of the visualization well. If on the other hand, your visualization was fuzzy, flat, and appeared to be

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one-dimensional, you were at the lowest level of the visualization well. Quite frankly, being at the lowest level isn't all that bad since you're still in the visualization well. Let's play a visualization game. I want you to picture a carton of milk on your head. I want you to feel it on top of your head. Oops, the

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carton is leaking milk. Feel the milk now running down your head. Now picture green olives coming out of your eyes. Got the picture? Good. Now I want you to see bananas hanging from your nose. Yellow bananas. Now imagine tomatoes bouncing out of your ears. Feel them with your hands. Sure you can feel the tomatoes. Use

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Use your imagination. Picture cracker crumbs on your lips. You've just eaten some crackers. Feel them.

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Taste the cracker crumbs. Now see someone pouring Coca-Cola on your shoulders. See it. Feel it.

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It's all over your shoulders. Eww. Got the picture? Now picture someone throwing a huge ripe watermelon at you and hitting you in the stomach.

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Ouch! I want you now to see yourself juggling lemons. Oops, you dropped one. Next imagine yourself crushing grapes with your knees.

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You've been doing it for so long that your knees are stained with juice. Okay, one more. See yourself barefooted stomping on avocados, making guacamole. the guacamole oozing in between her toes. It feels great. Let me now test you to

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see how well you visualize and video these food items. Please respond out loud. Number one, what item is on top of your head? Did you say milk? Great. Number two, What food item is coming out of your eyes? Green olives, right? Number three, what is hanging from your nose? Yes, bananas.

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Number four, and what is coming out of your ears? Tomatoes. Very good. Number five, what is on your lips? Cracker crumbs. Very good. Let's continue. You're half finished. Number six, what's being poured on your shoulders? Very good. Coca-Cola. Number seven, what food item hit you in the stomach? Watermelon is

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correct. Number eight, what food item are you juggling? Yes, lemons. Number nine, what are you crushing with your knees? Grapes. And number 10, what are you stomping on? Avocados. Very good. How well did you do? Did you get most of them right? Did you miss a couple of them? If you did forget one, two, or more, it's because you did

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not video well enough. In other words, you did not enter the visualization well. You must come to understand that memory is a question of seeing, of visualizing. If you forget, it's simply because you did not visualize or video. You did not enter the visualization well. I think perhaps you would more quickly come to understand

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what the visualization well is all about if radio was still with us in the way it was before television. There was a time not so long ago when people used to sit next to their radio and listen to their favorite program. Perhaps the program was the Shadow, the Whistler, or Gangbusters. Tell me, can you visualize the following?

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The blue-eyed, black-haired man was slowly coming up the stairs, dragging his right leg while supporting himself on the left banister. A big man, six foot three and 240 pounds. Can you see him? Sure you can. In essence, this is what made radio so attractive. It caused people to visualize, to sit around the

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radio and enter the visualization well. It was as if listeners could reach out and touch their favorite characters, and the characters were real and in living color. To be sure, these listeners were at the greatest level of the visualization well. I cannot stress the following point enough. It is extremely

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crucial for you to go beyond the words and lock into the picture that the words represent. In other words, it is important for you to be visually dominated by an image in your mind's eye. A picture is worth a thousand words. For the fun of it, I want you to listen to the following excerpt from John Steinbeck's book

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travels with Charlie. If you recall, this book describes Steinbeck's travels through the United States with his dog Charlie. Now then, while listening to this excerpt, make it into a video. In other words, use your mind's eye. First there was a very high iron bridge, as high arched as a rainbow, and after a

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bit a low stone bridge built in the shape of an S-curve, and I was on Deer aisle. My written directions said that I must take every road branch that turned right and the word every was underlined. I climbed a hill and turned right into pine woods on a smaller road and turned right on a very narrow road and turned

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right again on wheel tracks on pine needles. It is so easy once you've been over it. I couldn't believe I would find the place but in a hundred yards there was the great old house of Miss Eleanor Brace and there she was to welcome me. I I let Charlie out and suddenly an angry streak of gray burned across the clearing in the pines and bucketed into the house

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That was George. He didn't welcome me and he particularly didn't welcome Charlie I never did rightly see George, but his sulking presence was everywhere For George is an old gray cat who has accumulated a hatred of people and things so intense that even hidden upstairs He communicates his prayer that you will go away

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How well were you able to video or visualize this excerpt from Travels with Charlie? The better you video, the better your concentration and the better your retention. You know, I get people all the time who say that they want to improve their retention for names and faces, that they want to be able to remember what they read and hear. Some also say that they have a hard

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time concentrating while they read. Others claim that they wish they could remember conversations and jokes better. It seems that common sense claims that if you are having a difficult time with your comprehension, you should pay closer attention to words. The fact of the matter is that if you are genuinely

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interested in remembering, say, a joke or instructions or something you've read, you should not, I repeat, you should not be preoccupied with words while you are in the act of reading or listening. The time to commit words to memory

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is not during a speech act or while you are reading, but after a speech act or a reading. The reason, then, that you may not be able to understand, say, a lecture on high velocity

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physics and grasp such concepts as curved space, expanding space, and the like is because there exists visualization blockages. Simply put, you want to video all you listen to

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and all you read. If a friend says, "I went to Mammoth Mountain and did some skiing," you want to picture in your mind's eye this person skiing in Mammoth. If an acquaintance says, "Yes, I enjoy playing tennis very much,"

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and you want to remember this, then you want to see this person playing tennis. If you're unable to video what you are listening to, or unable to video what you are reading, then you're not understanding the material.

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Isn't it interesting that once someone has come to understand, say, an idea or a concept, that this person may respond with, "Oh, I see now." Likewise, it's not uncommon to hear, "I don't see what you mean," and "I don't get it." Memory is a question of seeing and perception, and the better you see, the better your comprehension and retention will be.

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It's that simple. Before looking at the right way to remember names and faces, another important point which should be made at this time is the following. When videoing or visualizing, you should be as personal as you possibly can be. If you do this, your perceptions will be deeper.

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For instance, when hearing, "Dave went to the store and bought a loaf of bread," you should visualize a Dave you know, you should picture the grocery store at which you shop, and you should picture a loaf of bread that you now have in your kitchen.

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If you are as personal as you possibly can be, and all the while videoing what you are reading or listening to, you will be going deeper into the visualization well. I'm going to tell you a story, and while telling it to you,

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I want you to visualize it and be as personal as you possibly can be. Here's the story. About five years ago, a friend of mine, Bill, and his sister, Nancy, were playfully arguing. And while having this verbal exchange with one another, Nancy picked up his belt, which was lying nearby, and snapped it at him.

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What happened next was terrible. The belt buckle hit Bill in the left eye, and immediately Bill was on the floor, writhing in pain. I, by chance, happened to come by at this time, and we called the ambulance, and Bill was rushed to the hospital. In short, Bill lost his left eye and some weeks later Bill was fitted with an artificial eye.

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As curious as it may sound, it was a wooden eye. That's right, an eye made out of wood. Well, a month or so had passed after this dreadful incident and I decided to call Bill on the phone and ask him if he would like to come to a party that I was throwing. "No," he said, "people will make fun of me, of my wooden eye."

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I said, "Bill, it looks fine. Nobody cares." Then I said, "Listen, I'll come by and pick you up myself. The party's next Friday night. I'll pick you up at 6 o'clock." Friday night at 6 o'clock, I picked Bill up in my car, and don't you know, the entire way to my home, he was looking in the rearview mirror, all the while

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examining his artificial eye. When we finally reached my home, I told Bill that he looked fine, that there was nothing to worry about. Once the party got started, I I noticed that Bill was not dancing and he wasn't mingling with the other guests. I approached Bill and asked him if everything was okay.

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I could tell that he was uncomfortable. I said, "Bill, why don't you dance with somebody? Ask somebody to dance." "No," he said.

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She'd only make fun of my wooden eye, my eye made out of wood. Suddenly before I could respond to that, he said, "My gosh, isn't she beautiful?" "Where?" I asked.

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woman over there on the other side of the dance floor, the one with the big ears. Bill, what an awful thing to say. Yes, I said, I guess she does have big ears. Listen Bill, why don't you ask her to dance? No, no, she'll make fun of my wooden eye, my eye made out of wood. Well, I gave Bill a push and he hesitantly

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walked across the dance floor, went up to this woman and said, excuse me, would you like to dance?" And she said, "Would I?" And he said, "Big ears, big ears, big ears." Chances are you've heard this joke before, but my question to you right now is, how well did you visualize the joke and how well did you personalize it? If

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you're going to improve your memory skills, you always want to visualize and you always want to personalize. For the next few minutes, I'm going to give you some first names and I want you to picture in your mind's eye people you know with the same first name. You can use relatives, friends, movie and TV

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celebrities. In your visualizations try to achieve the greatest level in the visualization well. That is try to make your pictures real and in living color. I'll start you off with some most popular men's names and then we'll turn to some female names.

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OK, then. Ready? Johnny. I pictured Johnny Carson, and I could see him

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on stage doing his monologue. You're on your own now. I'm not going to help you. You have to supply your own visualizations.

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By the way, don't be concerned if you're unable to supply a visualization when you're presented with a particular name. Just do the best you can.

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Ready? George. Harry. Art.

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Bob. [INAUDIBLE] Steve. Tim.

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Jerry. Are you ready for some female names? Okay. Jennifer.

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Michelle. Linda. [PAUSE] Kathy.

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[PAUSE] June. [PAUSE] Carol.

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[PAUSE] Excellent. Now that you know that a visualization, which personalizes, is a major key for developing a super memory,

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are there any questions? Yes. What if you can't picture or visualize? Everyone can visualize.

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Everyone can use their mind's eye. How can I practice projecting a visualization? Simple. Whenever you're reading, listening, start videoing.

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Start visualizing. In no time, you'll get into the habit of projecting a visualization. You know, I teach kids, young children,

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how to have a great memory. And I always urge them to video. And they always know what I mean. If you're having a hard time understanding what I mean

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by getting the picture, using the mind's eye, think of radio. There was a time when radio caused us to project a visualization. Now, because of the popularity of television, we do a minimal amount of visualization. Any more questions? Yes, I have another question. It's not a question, I guess, but it's

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more of a comment. I didn't do very well with the first name visualization exercise. For instance, when you gave us the name Kathy, I couldn't come up with a picture. I don't think I know anybody by that name. If you're serious about remembering names, you must have a visualization for every name you hear.

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There are only 100 popular most common first names. Okay, if there are no more questions, please go to side two of your tape so that we can discuss the right way to remember names and faces. Please turn the tape over for the continuation of this program on side two.

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to. [BLANK_AUDIO]