Harry Lorayne, World’s foremost memory-training specialist!

GIVE ME ONE EVENING AND I’LL GIVE YOU A BETTER-THAN-PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY!

This is the headline that was on top of a 3000-word full-page advertisement for my first book. That ad appeared, from 1957 to 1966, continually, in every newspaper in the USA with over 5000 circulation, and in every major magazine. And in newspapers and magazines all over the world. The book sold over eight million hardback copies in just about every major language.

I have studied, practiced, applied, invented, sophisticated, manipulated, taught, demonstrated, written about, lectured on, conducted seminars on, memory training, memory improvement, techniques for well over half a century. My books are the ONLY ones on the subject of memory training to EVER appear on bestseller lists – one of them ( THE MEMORY BOOK ) for over 50 weeks at top of the NEW YORK TIMES list. My books have been Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, and just about all other book club, selections.

You've seen me many times on all the television shows, remembering the names of everyone in the studio audience (plus memorizing a complete issue of Time Magazine and other feats of memory). (Over 20 times on The Tonight Show – and all the way back to I've Got A Secret [with Garry Moore], To Tell The Truth, Jack Paar, Ed Sullivan, David Susskind, Merv Griffin, That's Incredible, Mike Douglas, The Today Show, Good Morning America, 48 Hours, Regis Philbin, (in England, the Michael Parkinson Show, Paul Daniels Show, Just Amazing) and many more.

Hello; I’m Harry Lorayne. Well now, how does one become the "foremost memory-training specialist in the world,"  "The Yoda of memory training"?  Okay, short version. When I was about eleven years old I had great motivation to get better grades in school. That motivation was fear. My father believed in corporal punishment, and when I brought home failing grades on my tests, he “corporal punished” me.

Of course I knew why I was getting those failing grades. I simply wouldn’t, couldn’t, put in all the necessary study time. But, finally, the proverbial light bulb went on. "Hey," I thought, "if I can remember the answers to the questions, if I could simply know/learn those answers faster, I wouldn’t have to put in all that study time. I realized that "remember," "learn," "know" are synonyms; they all mean basically the same thing. If you know something, you’ve remembered it; if you remember something, you know it. And if you know/remember it, you’ve learned it!

That realization started it. I ran to the library and read some books on "how to remember," some dating back to the 18th century (some of which are now in my private library). At that time of life – remember that I was only eleven years old – I managed to understand only an infinitesimal amount of the information I read. But that tiny bit of information was the beginning of the solution to my problem – getting better grades with only a fraction of the study time, so that my father would be happy.

Well, I had to change and manipulate the little bit I’d learned about better-remembering ideas just so that they’d apply directly to my schoolwork. And I did make them apply – I felt that I had to. (I didn’t realize that I was coming up with some seminal ideas – "necessity being the mother of…" etc.) I was soon able to remember the salient facts (the answers) the first time Mrs. Goldfischer (the teacher) mentioned them, and the first time I read them in our assignments. I went from seemingly "stupid" (I am, incidentally, dyslexic), with bad grades, to the honor roll. Most importantly, my father stopped "corporal punishing" me – for lousy test marks, anyway.  Then…

Featured articles about (and by) me, and my memory techniques, have appeared in many in-flight airline magazines and in most large-circulation magazines, including Reader's Digest, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Vogue, Christian Science Monitor, Gentleman's Quarterly, Fortune, Nation's Business, Forbes, U.S. and World Report, and countless others. I've even been the answer to crossword puzzle clues (“World renowned memory training specialist” – seven letters) and been featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not .

Hundreds of top corporations use my MEMORY POWER systems as an on-going part of their training programs. (Exxon, Int'l Paper, Boeing, Phillips, Xerox, Mack Trucks, General Motors Corp., Chevron, NASA Headquarters, McDonnell Douglas Corp., Wang Laboratories, Inc., General Mills, Prudential Insurance – and so many more). The video course they use won the award for teaching/presentation from the Int'l Television & Film Festival of New York. Order your course today!