Jonas Von Essen, the latest brainiac to make a name for himself in the memory business, once worried about remembering to do his homework. Years later, relying on a technique called “Memory Palace,” the Swede staged a record performance to become the World Memory Champion in London, trouncing the odds-on favorite Johannes “The Human Hard Disc” Mallow.

Listening to Von Essen  describe his technique is a bit puzzling. “Kate from ‘Lost’ was drinking coke out of a skull outside my door,” Von Essen said in an interview this month. “In my hallway, a vampire was juggling some fat kids, and Jack Sparrow was peeing on a hockey puck while standing in the stairs.”

This appears to be the description of a scene from a bad fiction novel, but it isn’t. It’s what’s going on inside the 23-year-old math student’s head when trying to remember the order of a deck of cards. Read More »