Customer Reviews

Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory: How To Release Your Superpower Memory In 30 Minutes Or Less A Day

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

Before I cut into this book, I have a few things to say up front. The techniques in this book work, there's no reason why they shouldn't, they've been working for years. I have to say, in some cases, I thought Trudeau's peg words were better than others I've read and he does all the usual techniques, albeit with different names.

That being said, I considered the book almost un-readable. After reading the much better "Your Memory" by Kenneth Higby (the best of all the memory books in my opinion), "Use Your Perfect Memory" by Tony Buzan and a couple of Harry Lorayne's books ("How to Develop a Super Powered Memory" and "The Memory Book" with Jerry Lucas), I found this book sub-standard. Trudeau baby feeds the information to the reader, constantly assuming that you are stupid. The amount of repetition is unnecessary, and seems just like padding (why not just tell you to re-read it?). There are a lot of statements like "Ok, now stand up and repeat the words out loud", "Now do it again" etc... He talks down to his readers throughout. If you don't mind that, you'll probably like the book.

On top of that, Trudeau never gives credit where credit is due. He leaves the reader to assume that all of these techniques are his own invention, when they are actually just variants of systems in common use. He uses a variation of a phonetic system created in the mid 1600's but never says as much, maybe he doesn't know. The book often reads like a Mega-Memory advertisement.

Finally, Trudeau gives tons of scientific "facts" about memory and imagery without ever feeling the need to back any of it up with a references (Apple didn't create icons by the way, that was Xerox). He says that you shouldn't take notes because it encourages you to forget what you've written, but saying it out loud enourages you to remember. Saying it out loud gets you to use your vocal cords and "Neruo-muscular memory" kicks in because you're using your vocal course which creates more memory links. What about your eye seeing you write something, your hand muscles moving the pen etc...? Aren't those neuro-muscular too? I don't know how many of the scientific "facts" are true or not, but I saw enough wrong to doubt most of the rest. The whole thing is written in a shoot from the hip fashion without verification from other sources.

All the other books I quoted either supplied references (Higbee), or avoided making scientific statements at all (the rest). Either way, I respect those authors much more.

This is the third time I have tried to go through Kevin Trudeau's memory system, and I am convinced that it is useless. It requires countless hours of memorizing "picture words" through silly repetition and after mega-hours of study, I find that it hasn't helped me at all. So what if I can remember that the "picture word" peg for the number 88 is "fife"...now what? How does this help me improve my memory? I am studying computer science, and it is of no use to me whatsoever in this endeavor. Kevin Trudeau failed to keep his promise to give me a photographic memory. I feel swindled!

Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory will probably work for some people, but it will not be everything for everyone. The premise is that if you can visualize concepts for remembering names, numbers, etc., they are much easier to carry with you. This is probably true, and the beginning chapters can be accomplished very easily and do have limited use, but that's about it. To be completely successful with the system one would, as the book says, need to practice only 30 minutes a day, but for a very large number of days. I would slightly recommend part one of the book. Part two would be an excercise I'd rather forget. Success would probably come with total immersion, but I'll stick to my day planner, thanks.

The very engaging personality of Kevin Trudeau often gives the viewer of any of his infomercials the idea he knows of what he speaks. Memory theories have been around for decades, if not centuries, and they all use gimicks to improve upon memory. The problem with all such books is they view learning only from one aspect, and at most, maybe two. People all learn in different ways: some are visual learners, some auditorial learners, some kinesethetic learners, and some a combination of all of the above. What does learning have to do with memory? Well, quite a bit. If you are an auditory person, and that is the main way you learn, that is through hearing, being forced to memorize visual cues to remember things does absolutely nothing at all, except increase frustration. If you are a kinesthetic learner, you need to be feeling, touching, moving etc. in order to learn. Just memorizing a few confusing pictures won't do a thing for you. Yet, if you were required to move, or physically do something to reinforce the learning process, you would remember better. This system presupposes that all people are visual learners. There are even experts who presupposed that of all the males of the population. The problem with all that is when the system doesn't work, it usually is because the person is not accutely able to use that form of learning.

Now putting that aside, there comes the idea of word association and image association to remember things, dates, people's names, etc. Those ideas have been around forever, and they work for next to no one. Some people really notice an improvement, while most have a very different reaction, or result -- they have a terrible time remembering the stimulous that is supposed to trigger the memory to remember the important thing they are trying to remember. Sounds like a very complicated sentence, doesn't it. Well, that is exactly what is happening in the person's mind. They don't remember well to begin with, and now they have to remember an entire encyclopedia of information all of which is supposed to help them remember the important things they were having enough trouble remembering. Instead of just remembering their aniversary, or the boss's wife's name, now they have to remember all the images and junk they dreamed up to help them remember these other things. So, instead of remembering the original 10 pages you were required to remember, you now have to remember 50 more so you can recall the original 10.

If all these memory tricks were so successful, they would not need reinvention every so many years and to be resold. The first time they were discovered would have done the trick and we would have used them from that time on, they would have become time honored techniques. However, they had only marginal success when they first came out, and that is why they all went the way of the dinosaurs. Then the ideas are resurrected by a new author, repackaged, and once again we have more memory secrets that will help you recall all those things that are in your brain. This book is nothing more than rehashed hash. Oh, some will find the explanations new and inviting, but the real test is your memory. And sadly, you cannot judge that honestly yourself. If you think it is better, because maybe you finally concentrated on what you were doing for a change, was it the technique that improved it, or was it the fact you finally paid attention to what you were doing? The real judge is asking someone you loved if you are remembering the things they ask you to do, are you remembering your aniversary, or those phone numbers you never remember, or events you were supposed to be at but failed to get to. If, in the long run, nothing substantial has changed, and those that live with you still offer the complaint, "You never remember anything I tell you." then I can guarantee you your memory never improved one bit.

Personally, it did nothing for me. I have a nearly photographic memory now and can recall conversations, data, written word, nearly perfectly and for years after. That is just the way my mind is, and I noticed no change in it whatever. Most of my friends who used the book threw it away before they even finished it because it was frustrating and accomplished nothing.

The book description mentions Kevin Trudeau as the founder of the American Memory Institute. Go ahead and try googling it...it doesn't exist. There is American Memory Fellow Institute, but he has nothing to do with that. That fact is Kevin Trudeau is a convicted felon who has made so many false statements regarding his products that he is banned from selling them anymore, being reduced to only being allowed to sell publications, and these publications have made enough false statements that are being passed off as fact that they are currently working towards banning him from advertising his books as well. He claims the government has stopped him from telling the "truth", but if he really believed that he was telling the truth he would not have settled the case by paying over $2 mill.

Be very suspicious of 5 star reviews. If you happen to look at reviews on smaller websites you'll notice there is not a single good review...highly suggesting Kevin Trudeau is having people put good reviews for him on the major websites

Please note that nearly all of the positive reviewers for this crook's books have only written one review. Seems fishy to me.

-jcr

PS: I am an engineer in the computer industry, and I have no connection whatsoever to any pharmaceutical company (even though I can spell pharmaceutical, which seems to be beyond the Amazing Memory Powers of a certain convicted felon I could mention.)

Trudeau, you are a crook, you are a liar, and you are a weasel.

I bought this book/tapes along with his speed reading book/tapes when it was first released as a bundle back in the 90s. Like most others, this is basically nothing new that's been around forever, it's just repackaged. I was so not impressed with the product that I threw it all away because he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know nor did any of the techniques have any SUPER memory/reading benefits. His commercials are slick. So slick in fact that he makes Bill Clinton look like Forrest Gump.

Kevin Trudeau used to do infomercials for his "mega memory" system until he was prosecuted for fraud by the Federal Trade Commission, including for making false claims about his mega memory system. The FTC doesn't prosecute that many people for fraud, so it takes a rather egregious violator to get their attention. Convicted con artist Kevin Trudeau made outrageous and false claims about mega memory, including that "Kevin Trudeau's breakthrough techniques were developed while working with blind and mentally handicapped students. Their recall ability increased from 15% to 90% in just 5 days"

There are plenty of legitimate books on how to improve your memory, but this isn't one of them.

Of course, you can buy this book and try it. Just try not to forget that it didn't work for you since it won't help your memory.

I work with Cisco routers and switches. Cisco technology is very complex and as a router engineer I have to know thousands of arcane commands and concepts. I was also studying for my Cisco CCNP Certification, which requires the mastery of hundreds of different topics.

I read the book very carefully, I almost quit a few times because some of the exercises seemed childish or silly. In fact, they are meant to be silly to illustrate certain facts about how memory works. I hung in there and in the second half of the book, things really got interesting. Kevin teaches you this cool trick: Give me any date in any year and I can immediately tell you what day of the week it was! I also have memorized all 1023 well know TCP port numbers. I can recite every model of every Cisco router and switch and every option from the Cisco catalog! At first it was tedious, I stumbled and fumbled but after a while I got better and better. Now it is just second nature, I don't even try.

Passing complicated technical tests has now become laughably easy. At work being able to recite obscure router commands and lecture in painful detail about routing protocols litterally astounds my co-workers.

The really shocking thing is, considering how important memory is, why don't they teach this in school? Trudeau didn't invent these exercises, they have been around for thousands of years, he just teaches them in an organized, gradual manner. I read the Memory Book by Jerry Lucas and Harry Lorain, it contains the same techniques, but Kevin Trudeau explains them much better.

Five Stars. Highly Recommended!

For some years now, I have read several books about memory improvement. In my opinion, this is likely the best book about memory ever. It contains different memory techniques and with practise, you can apply these techniques to your studies, with amamzing results. Trudeau describes a very powerfull system that promote concentration and understanding when you are reading. You will also learn how to prepare for exams and tests with astonishing results. You will learn to work smarter, not harder, and shorten your study hours and improve grades. The book is filled with useful information about memory and step by step exercises to release super memory power. You will also increase your intelligence. The author, Kevin Trudeau, focus on the techniques, and he dont bore you with a lot of facts about our brain. Either you a worker or a student, you will benefit a lot from this book. The book is a must for medical and law students. However, keep in mind that all exercises in this book requires effort and attention. Results will not come directly from this book , but from your own willness and eager to develop a super power memory. I highly recommend this book!!!!