The Dominic System is a variant (constructed by Dominic O'Brien) of the Major memory system. As with the Major system it requires a significant investment of time to learn and master, however once it is learned it is extremely powerful.
While the Major system uses words and images based on these words, the Dominic system uses images of famous or known people, and actions associated with them, to code numbers into complex images. This recognises that many people store information on people much more effectively than information on objects.
The Dominic system can code information a little more densely than the Major system, however the choice of which to apply is very much a matter of personal taste.
Ease of Use - Difficult
Effectiveness - Very Effective
Power - Very Powerful
Learning investment - Significant
Who should use - People prepared to invest significant time in
learning the system, who prefer images of people
over images of objects.
The system works by converting numbers into letters, and letters into the initials of people, and initials of people into their mental images, and actions associated with them.
The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with common initial letters of names:
1 - A 2 - B 3 - C 4 - D 5 - E 6 - S (!) 7 - G 8 - H 9 - N 0 - O
These associations really must be learned before proceeding.
Once these number-letter associations have been learned, the next stage is to write down the numbers 00 - 99, and next to them the letters that correspond to them. The next stage is to write down next to each pair of initials the name of a person with those initials whom you recognise. This might be a fictional or historical character; a famous actor, musician, or politician; or may be a friend, a member of your family, or a work colleague. Next to them write down a characteristic action associated with them.
Examples might be:
15 - AE - Albert Einstein - thinking 18 - AH - Adolph Hitler - invading France 23 - BC - Bill Clinton - giving White House press conference 36 - CS - Charles Schultz - drawing Snoopy 52 - EB - Ernst (stavro) Blofeldt - stroking cat etc.
This is quite a difficult exercise - perhaps look through a personal video or book collection for ideas. Compiling a list of all initials for all numbers may take a number of days.
Where you cannot find the appropriate initials for numbers, use numbers associated with people - e.g. James Bond is 007, so associate him with 07.
This is quite a culture-sensitive thing: ideas I suggest are unlikely to be of much benefit to anyone outside my immediate culture.
Once you have completed your list, read through it so that the initials, names and actions are coherently and easily associated with each other, both from the numbers to the people and actions, and vice versa. Remember that you do not have too store a sharp image of or detail on the named character: your mind stores the identity of people almost independently of detail on them such as the faces.
Once you have learned these number - initial - person - action links, you are ready to apply them. Application can use the following methods:
Images can also be associated by using the techniques described in Expanding memory systems, and by storing images using e.g. the journey system.
The Dominic system is used to code numbers using the initials of well- known people, and is remembered by association of these with images of these people and their typical actions.
It is a very powerful technique, but needs a large investment of time to learn and prepare to unleash its full power.
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