WAVESOUND AUDIOBOOK of MEMORY CRAFT (AUS and NZ only): The PDF for the images can be dowloaded here.
I am very excited that Memory Craft is now available from BookDepository (International) and Booktopia and Amazon.com.au (both Australia only) among many other sites. It is now in all good bookstores in Australia and New Zealand. It will hit the overseas stores by early next year. The Pegasus Books edition is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The audiobook for international use will also be published early next year.
The Bestiary and Visual Alphabet is also now available. All details in the Memory Whisperer Shop. 
I am a science writer and Honorary Research Associate at LaTrobe University, Australia. My field of research is the memory methods used by those who depended on their memories for everything they knew: oral cultures including Australian Aboriginal, Native American, Pacific and African societies. I explore the techniques used as literacy slowly spread, especially in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Europe as well as glorious mnemonic art forms used across Asia.
It is only the last few hundred years of Western society that memory methods and knowledge has not been highly valued. We have gained a great deal from literacy and technology, but we have lost our memory skills on the journey. We can do so much better by using our memories more effectively as well.
In Memory Craft I look at how all these techniques can be applied in every day life in contemporary society, including the implications for education and ageing. These are memory methods every one can use – and there are lots of them!
I practice all these methods to ensure I really understand how they work. Given my pathetically poor natural memory, I am constantly shocked by how effective they can be. Through working on my 36 memory experiments, I am committing vast amounts of information to memory. I compete in the Australian Memory Championships, taking the Senior title for the last two years.
In The Memory Code, I explored the necessity of memory methods to prehistoric cultures. This offers radical new interpretations for their ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, the Nasca Lines and the moai of Easter Island. It is written for a general audience and published in Australia by Allen & Unwin. It has been released as an audio book by Audible and published by Atlantic Books in the UK and Pegasus Books in the US. It is now available in traditional Chinese and Czech.
My TEDxMelbourne talk on The Memory Code can be found by clicking on the image.
My academic book, Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies is published by Cambridge University Press. Based on my PhD thesis, it gives the full academic justification for my theories about indigenous memory systems and archaeology.
I have ventured into the world of memory athletes. Competing in the 2017 and 2018 Australian Memory Competitions, I took out the Australian Senior Memory Champion title for both events. Less practical than most of my memory experiments, I am surprised that I actually enjoy memorising shuffled decks of cards and strings of random numbers in decimal and binary.
My previous books include the popular science titles of Spiders: learning to love them, Crocodile and The Skeptic’s Guide to the Paranormal. I have one novel published, Avenging Janie, and ten books for education.
Grounded: Indigenous Knowing in a Concrete Reality is an academic essay in open access e-book format on Indigenous knowledge systems and the implications for education.
With a background in engineering, physics, mathematics, information technology and gifted education, I have spent decades in teaching. A full Curriculum Vitae can be found here.
Hi Lynne,
I’m on Chapter 3 of Memory craft when you mentioned that you live on Dja Dja Wurrung land. I was wondering if you heard about the protesters at the sacred tree site on Djap Wurrung land, and if you would consider using your voice to add to the protest? Ps I am enjoying Memory Craft immensely and enjoyed The Memory Code a great deal also- I believe I heard you speak on the All in the Mind podcast and purchased it immediately after.
Please consider lending your voice to that of the protesters out on the land, so much about what you write about landscape and memory makes me think about their struggle.
Hi Natalie,
I am certainly on Dja Dja Wurrung country and am, of course, well aware of the protest. I have written to Daniel Andrews and signed various things in support. What do you want me to do in terms of ‘lending my voice’? I will email you and we can talk that way. I am horrified that a new road has to go through sacred trees.
Lynne
Hi Lynne,
I’m on Chapter 3 of Memory craft when you mentioned that you live on Dja Dja Wurrung land. I was wondering if you heard about the protesters at the sacred tree site on Djap Wurrung land, and if you would consider using your voice to add to the protest? Ps I am enjoying Memory Craft immensely and enjoyed The Memory Code a great deal also- I believe I heard you speak on the All in the Mind podcast and purchased it immediately after.
Please consider lending your voice to that of the protesters out on the land, so much about what you write about landscape and memory makes me think about their struggle.
Dear Dr. Kelly, I truly enjoyed listening to your interview with Sean Carrol on Mindscape. One of the best! Your interview speaks to me personally as a native of West Africa (Ivory Coast) where there is a long and rich tradition of Griots aka Djelis. Djelis are storyteller, historians and troubadours of some sort. They are known to have a gigantic memory and to have good knowledge of past historical events, of genealogy, etc. I am not sure if they use “memory palaces” as a technique to remember anything but I suspect they do. In their case I also suspect that melodic music and rhythms play a big part in their ability to record the community’s past and to boost their nearly encyclopedic memories. Interesting research path to explore . . .
Thank you so much for your comment, Lew. I talk about Griots in The Memory Code. I have watched documentaries as well as read about them and am astounded by their achievements. I have not found anything about using memory palaces, but I couldn’t find anything about techniques despite looking. I was only able to conclude about the role of music and rhythms. I was researching so broadly that I didn’t have time to do more on Griots, and your giving me the key word Djelis is a huge advantage. Thank you so much. I am longing to get into finding out more about them and their extraordinary skills.
If you do find out anything about the use of memory palaces with Djelis, then I would really appreciate hearing about it.
Thank you again,
Lynne
Hello Dr Kelly,
I too listened to you on Mindscape yesterday. I work in a library and today I leafed through a book on constellations, one that has the story associated with each constellation and how/when to find it in the night sky. Has anyone discussed or reflected upon the probability that the ancient Greeks and other pre-literacy cultures used the night sky as an incredibly complex memory palace?
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Absolutely! The sky and constellations – and dark spaces between – are used by every culture I have researched. I write about it in each of the three books on memory, especially in Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies and The Memory Code. In the most recent, Memory Craft, I look at implementing the memory systems and found it too complicated to implement the way Aboriginal cultures do. A good starting place is Emu in the Sky:
http://www.emudreaming.com/Examples/emu.htm
There are numerous books and papers on indigenous astronomy, but also on the ancient Greeks. Metrodorus of Scepsis, for example, used the zodiac as a mnemonic device. That is explained in wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrodorus_of_Scepsis
Once you become alerted to these ideas on memory devices, you will find them everywhere!
Thank you so much for your comment,
Lynne
Well, I just received the book in the mail. I’m here in Canada.
The first thing I did was converted to an audiobook. I am now going to listen to them all on Sheldon.
Delighted to hear that a copy is now in Canada!
Did you convert them somehow using text to audio software? What is Sheldon?
Lynne
Here is how I did it. I took a cardboard box, placed it on its side, and cut a hole in the top for the ipad‘s camera to be able to view downwards. I then cut 2 pieces of acrylic, and glued these together at 90 degrees. This would act as the flat page holder and to keep it open while scanning. I also placed a lamp at a low angle to avoid reflection into the ipad during the photos (scanning).
The software is an ios app called Voice Dream Scanner ($7). It will automatically identify the page edges, and also automatically snap the picture without the person needing to push a button on the ipad (or iphone).
Once the book is scanned, the software has already identified the text. I then was able to save/export just the text (to a word processing software of my choice), or the pdf with the ocr‘d text layer to
The companion software, Voice Dream Reader ($7). This will read, using numerous selectable voices (male/female, different accents). I use this program to read to me while I am jogging or driving. (lol, Not *sheldon*, I was using siri voice dictation through the air pods, and it made this dictation error – usually I just use the iphone microphone which gets almost perfect dictation).
I recommend you also try JustPressRecord, which is another ios app (for both ipad and iphone) which allows a person to record their voice. At this point it records audio by pressing the record button. It retains the audio file. Now, once this is done, it automatically transcribes in the background, locally. It does not send the file out of the phone to the cloud (so no privacy concerns). In a short time, the transcription shows in the audio file. One can then select this for sharing, or exporting to their word processor (or any other app).
An example of usage for yourself is this: you walk along your outdoor path, and verbally describe the linkages you have in place for that walk. You add in punctuation phrases like “comma, period, new paragraph, question mark.“ At the end, you may have a 20 minute audio recording. The app/program will then transcribe to text. A few minutes later, the entire 20 minutes will be usable text, which you can then export to your word processor. As you get better at the audio format, this text will be completely correct, not requiring any editing or changes. The app keeps the original audio, so one can refer to it later if transcription errors occurred.
For memory students, their memory palaces, and paths (and any other formats like in your book) can be recorded (for posterity) without the 40 words per minute slow pace of typing.
Even if a person does not have any apple products, the above apps are so worthwhile, I recommend buying an iphone 6 or newer, or an ipad of a few years in age. These will be new enough to handle the scanning, reading, and audio recording/transcribing as described in my post here.
How interesting. I am going to try recoding my memory palaces this way. Especially the one where I do 1000 digits of Pi.
Thank you for taking the time to write out in such detail.
Lynne
so …. how did your recording of your memory palaces work out? Using JustPressRecord.
I just converted your other book “Memory Craft“ to text, then modified it for epub, and using that I am able to send it to Voice Dream Reader to listen to while driving and jogging.
I am really tweaking your books, to change the structure to highlight the memory systems used. Instead of the chapter and subheadings you used, I believe that a heavy focus on the systems used would be more useful.
Furthermore, using easter eggs would be an excellent tweak. Surprises to readers, where they would be able to look back and realize that useful memory pegs were placed throughout the text, to aid the person in remembering the overall structure and components parts.
Hi Steve,
This all sounds like great ideas and good fun. I haven’t had a chance to try anything new. When a new book comes out, it is a full time job doing interviews, writing articles and replying to readers. All time consuming and very rewarding, but means that testing recording memory palaces will have to wait. As will a brilliant idea from another reader using the bestiary for Chinese vocabulary and another idea … Too many great ideas! I just need time!
I find your tweaks very interesting. Maybe in a later editions!
Lynne
No, sorry. Different author.
Dear Lynne,
Are you currently a professor or do post-graduate supervision? I have been thinking about this for a while and I am from the Pacific. After reading some of your material, I am interested in pursuing a PhD along this idea and was wondering if you could be someone that can help guide me in this.
Thank you,
Kiblas
Dear Kiblas,
I would love to see you pursue a PhD in this field. I am an honorary researcher at LaTrobe University. Basically that means I do research for no pay – which gives me total freedom. But I also do no teaching and don’t supervise students. I am sorry.
I do hope you find the right person to halve with your academic goals.
Lynne
I only recently discovered The Memory Code. I’ll share my ideas based on this book as they evolve. Theres a lot of work I have to do first. I just want to know when the book comes out that explains a practical application of The Memory Code.
Hi Mark,
I look forward to your response to ‘The Memory Code’. The new book expanding on the practical application will be published early in 2019. Sorry it is so long, but there is a lot of new material and I need to thoroughly test every method I talk about, not only the ones I talk about in ‘The Memory Code’.
cheers,
Lynne
Hi Lynne
Thanks for replying. 2019 is great! it means i can read as much as possible on orality and internalize it. I teach music mostly to little people and I’d like to apply these techniques in my teaching as well as in my eveyday life. The Memory Code has been a trigger to another pathway through, making me a better teacher and helping me know a whole heap of stuff. I fugure thats what we’re here for
Kind Regards
Mark
Hi Mark,
I am absolutely convinced that teaching these methods to school children is an essential application of my ideas. Indigenous people have been doing it for tens of thousands of years for every good reasons!
Let me know how it goes.
cheers,
Lynne
I went to Amazon where the ‘Spider woman’ book is listed but not available. How do I get it?
Regards,
Hedley
Can you contact me by email lynne@lynnekelly.com.au and I will work something out?
Lynne
Hi Lynne,
I’ve seen you over at the mnemotechnics forum.
I wonder if there is a place where you’ve listed your 52 ‘ancestors’ for playing cards? I love the idea of my 52 characters being useful memorable items themselves – and possible pegs for further info.
Thanks,
Graham
Hi Graham,
Thank you for your comment.
That is something that I talk about in the new book, but I don’t actually list the characters. So it is a great question and the right place to answer it is here on the blog. I shall do so within the next day or so and then reply again here. Thank you for the question!
Lynne
I have listed them on the blog! http://www.lynnekelly.com.au/
Thank you for the question.
Lynne