The Memory Palace is one of the most powerful memory techniques I know. It’s not only effective, but also fun to use — and not hard to learn at all.
The Memory Palace has been used since ancient Rome, and is responsible for some quite incredible memory feats. Eight-time world memory champion Dominic O’Brien, for instance, was able to memorize 54 decks of cards in sequence (that’s 2808 cards), viewing each card only once. And there are countless other similar achievements attributed to people using the Memory Palace technique or variations of it. Even in fiction, there are several references to the technique. In Thomas Harris’ novel Hannibal, for example, serial killer Hannibal Lecter uses Memory Palaces to store amazingly vivid memories of years of intricate patient records (sadly, it was left off the movie).
Of course, most of us are not in Dominic’s memory championship line of business (or in Hannibal’s line of business for that matter). But still, the Memory Palace technique is amazingly effective in all kinds of endeavors, such as learning a foreign language, memorizing a presentation you’re about to deliver, preparing for exams and many others — even if all you want is to jog your memory.
The Memory Palace
The Memory Palace technique is based on the fact that we’re extremely good at remembering places we know. A ‘Memory Palace’ is a metaphor for any well-known place that you’re able to easily visualize. It can be the inside of your home, or maybe the route you take every day to work. That familiar place will be your guide to store and recall any kind of information. Let’s see how it works.
5 Steps to Use the Memory Palace Technique
1. Choose Your Palace
First and foremost, you’ll need to pick a place that you’re very familiar with. The effectiveness of the technique relies on your ability to mentally see and walk around in that place with ease. You should be able to ‘be there’ at will using your mind’s eye only.
A good first choice could be your own home, for example. Remember that the more vividly you can visualize that place’s details, the more effective your memorization will be.
Also, try to define a specific route in your palace instead of just visualize a static scene. So, instead of simply picturing your home, imagine a specific walkthrough in your home. This makes the technique much more powerful, as you’ll be able to recall items in a specific order, as we’ll see in the next step.
Here are some additional suggestions that work well as Memory Palaces, along with possible routes:
- Familiar streets in your city. Possible routes could be your drive to work, or any other sequence of streets you’re familiar with.
- A current or former school. You can imagine the pathway from the classroom to the library (or to the bar on the other side of the street, if that’s the route imprinted on your mind).
- Place of work. Imagine the path from your cubicle to the coffee machine or to your boss’s office (it shouldn’t be hard to choose).
- Scenery. Imagine walking on your neighborhood or the track you use when jogging in a local park.
2. List Distinctive Features
Now you need to pay attention to specific features in the place you chose. If you picked a walkthrough in your home, for example, the first noticeable feature would probably be the front door.
Now go on and mentally walk around your Memory Palace. After you go through the door, what’s in the first room?
Analyze the room methodically (you may define a standard procedure, such as always looking from left to right, for example). What is the next feature that catches your attention? It may be the central table in the dining room, or a picture on the wall.
Continue making mental notes of those features as you go. Each one of them will be a “memory slot” that you’ll later use to store a single piece of information.
3. Imprint the Palace on Your Mind
For the technique to work, the most important thing is to have the place or route 100% imprinted on your mind. Do whatever is necessary to really commit it to memory. If you’re a visual kind of person, you probably won’t have trouble with this. Otherwise, here are some tips that help:
- Physically walk through the route repeating out loud the distinctive features as you see them.
- Write down the selected features on a piece of paper and mentally walk through them, repeating them out loud.
- Always look at the features from the same point of view.
- Be aware that visualization is a just a skill. If you’re still having trouble doing this, you may want to develop your visualization skills first.
- When you believe you’re done, go over it one more time. It’s really important to “overlearn” your way in your Memory Palace.
Once you’re confident that the route is stamped on your mind, you’re set. Now you have your Palace, which can be used over and over again to memorize just about anything you want.
4. Associate!
Now that you’re the master of your palace, it’s time to put it to good use.
Like most memory enhancement systems, the Memory Palace technique works with the use of visual associations. The process is simple: you take a known image — called the memory peg — and combine with the element you want to memorize. For us, each memory peg is a distinctive feature of our Memory Palace.
The memory pegging technique is the same one described in the article ‘Improve Your Memory by Speaking Your Mind’s Language‘, so if you haven’t read it yet, I highly advise you to do so.
As described in that article, there’s a ‘right way’ of doing visual associations:
Make it crazy, ridiculous, offensive, unusual, extraordinary, animated, nonsensical — after all, these are the things that get remembered, aren’t they? Make the scene so unique that it could never happen in real life. The only rule is: if it’s boring, it’s wrong.
Although we can use the technique to memorize tons of information, let’s start with something very simple: using our ‘Home’ Memory Palace to memorize a groceries list. Let’s suppose the first item in that list is ‘bacon’:
Mentally transport yourself to your Memory Palace. The first feature you see in your mind is your home’s front door. Now, in a ludicrous way, visually combine ‘bacon’ with the sight of your front door. How about giant fried bacon strips flowing out from underneath the door reaching for your legs, just like zombies in those B-movies? Feel the touch of the “bacon hands” on your legs. Feel the smell of darn evil bacon. Is that remarkable enough?
Now open the door and keep walking, following the exact same route you defined before. Look at the next distinctive feature, and associate it with the second item to be memorized. Suppose the next item is ‘eggs’ and the second feature is ‘picture of mother-in-law’. Well, at this point you already know what to do… The process is always the same, so just keep mentally associating images until there are no items left to memorize.
5. Visit Your Palace
At this point, you are done memorizing the items. If you’re new to the technique, though, you’ll probably need to do a little rehearsal, repeating the journey at least once in your mind.
If you start from the same point and follow the same route, the memorized items will come to your mind instantly as you look at the journey’s selected features. Go from the beginning to the end of your route, paying attention to those features and replaying the scenes in your mind. When you get to the end of your route, turn around and walk in the opposite direction until you get to the starting point.
In the end, it’s all a matter of developing your visualization skills. The more relaxed you are, the easier it will be and the more effective your memorization will be.
Final Thoughts
What I like about the Memory Palace (and other pegging methods) is that it’s not only extremely effective, but also quite fun to learn and use.
With just a little bit of experience, the lists you memorize using the Memory Palace will stay fresh in your mind for many days, weeks or even more.
Also have in mind that you can create as many palaces as you want, and that they can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish to make them. Each of them is a “memory bank”, ready to be used to help you memorize anything, anytime.
Associating physical locations with mental concepts is the most powerful memory combination I know. Most other memory techniques (supposedly more sophisticated than the Memory Palace) are, at least in part, based on the concept of physical locations being used as memory pegs.
Have you already used Memory Palace or a similar technique? What do you think? Any opinions or testimonials to share?
I’ve tried this one in a non-structured way. It works fine and this is one of the techniques I intend to use better. It is really cool the use of this technique for both Hannibal Lecter (fictional character) and Mateo Ricci (real one).
Excellent article! I’ve learned from experience that the “ridiculous association” technique is a powerful way to commit things to memory, but I like the Memory Palace elaboration as a deliberate system for doing so over and over. I’m sure you only get better at its application over time.
Thanks for the tips.
I just stumbled upon this and I must say, it is perfect timing. I have a mid-term this week so I am definitely going to try this to memorize some key terms.
Oddly. I do this in meditations but i never thought of actually putting stuff to remember there!
Nice one!
pril: That’s very interesting. I made the exact opposite path: I first learned about the Memory Palace, and only later realized I could put mental places to other uses, such as relaxation and meditation… (which, by the way, is the subject of an article I’m writing)
Very nice article. Thanks.
Nice and fast explanation. This technique works really good. I could remeber 20 items I needed for weeks – and this took me just 5 min or so of preparation! Great!
Thanks, great article.
That’s great, but what happens once you used a room for something. Is it forever taken? You get out of palaces very soon… For example, I used my kitchen to study for my organizational behavior class. Now what? I want to learn for my business communication class, but the pegs are all occupied!
The problem is that information far exceeds vacant pegs!
How do you suggest solving it?
Michael
One trick is to choose loci, or pegs, that can hold two associations. If you’re using your kitchen, you can choose your fridge, for example. One association can be on the fridge door or standing next to the fridge, and another goes inside the fridge. You could also use drawers that can hold something inside and something hanging on the outside. That’s what I tend to do, anyway.
as a visualization aid, perhaps virtual reality software like Second Life can be used to create memory palaces. I imagine labels of what one would like to remember could be created on the virtual furniture.
Great article. I’m looking forward to using this technique.
I wonder what Dominic O’Brien’s palace look like? and how does he create that association so quickly? I guess I can see remembering 20 or even 100 things, but beyond that, it seems like you’d start to run out of space in your happy place, erm, I mean palace.
I’ve just tried it a little, and it’s a very relaxing technique, as well as useful!
Michael: That’s an excellent question.
I found that you can create ‘long-term’ palaces and ’short-term’ palaces.
If you use a particular palace to memorize something but don’t revisit it with enough regularity, the memories tend to fade away with time — making the slots available again. I really never had a problem with that.
For pegs that you do use often, however, yes — it’s a problem. As a personal example, I use specific pegs for memorizing the calendar — pegs I’ve been using for years.
Now I am testing a new variation of the calendar technique, which requires me to associate different things with each month. I am having a hard time doing it, and I’m still not sure if I’ll ever be able to erase the previous pegs from my mind.
I know there are ways to overcome that problem — I’m just not skilled enough to use them. One possible way is by using sensory modifiers: you can imagine, for example, your palace during winter (visiting your palace while feeling cold) and summer (hot). Each one of these variations creates an entirely new memory bank to use.
Perhaps if those pegs are permanently occupied you could use the information you have stored as another set of pegs?
I find that chaining information is an effective way of reinforcing stored information and storing new stuff. As an example, If I have My license number pegged to my “front door” and I want to peg another piece of information I associate it with the original peg and the information stored. Of course this technique may not work for everyone but it is worth a shot. The more connections you can make, the easier it is to recall information.
neil: Using Virtual Reality as a visualization aid is an excellent idea!
However, I’m not sure about the effort required to create virtual environments of reasonable size using today’s tools. I have never used Second Life, just a little bit of Google SketchUp without much success. Maybe with a little more practice that can work fine.
Does anybody have any experience on creating virtual environments easily? Any specific recommendations?
Josh: Memory champions like Dominic do have some additional secrets, of course. To be completely fair, guys like him don’t use the Memory Palace technique alone, but usually combine it with other techniques (such as phonetic systems).
Even so, it’s really amazing the level of mastery these people have in each technique alone. If I recall correctly (no pun intended), Dominic is able to memorize one shuffled deck of cards in under a minute; and he does credit the Memory Palace technique as the main component of his method.
It’s worthy to note that people who make quick brain calculations uses phonetic systems too. Maybe the trick is to do your own mix of senses as a technique.
See http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/199
I really enjoy your blog. It’s one of the most thorough, well done, best written, most applicable blogs out there. And I’ve seen a lot. Keep up the great great work. I really can’t say enough. Your blog speaks to me the most with its emphasis on good habits, mind maps, good books to read, quality articles and not inundated with advertisements or buy this or that stuff.
Thank you.
Fier: Wow, I have never thought about using a phonetic system for mental calculations — that’s pretty amazing! I will investigate this, as I have trouble temporarily storing numbers in my head in multi-step calculations. Thanks for the link!
Brian: Thanks for the compliment. Hearing such nice words is really motivating (not to mention good for the ego!).
i can see how this works for lists, and other non complex things ie. bacon door, milkcrate stairs, baguette handrail, girl with olive eyes etc, how one could utilise the technique for more complex academic purposes is something i have trouble understanding.
Say i need to remember a name and a date, and connected to this, details relating to research, like numbers of medical trial participants, percentage remission, along with mechanical details regarding the undertaking of the experiement, this technique seems unsuitable.
Allegedly however, i’ve heard of people using such methods to great effect. would you propose this is a combination of this tech with something else, or merely “freud is in the wardrobe with anna o, and her neurotic coughing, and anxiety, being overseen by her long dead father etc”…
i suppose in creating that story, we re-analyse the data, making it easier to remember. The house / palace tech causes a re evaluation to occur, rather than the technique actualy directly aiding memory in this complex case.
(apologies for turning a question into my thought process…)
-or you could write it down…. your mind is for thinking not memorizing.
This is an excellent article. There are all types of variations on this method.
One technique I used in law school was to write out a one page list of notes for the entire semester. It contained the main points I wanted to remember.
I then would write down the first letter of each word in the sentence.
I would then write down the first letter of ONLY THE FIRST WORD it that sentence.
I would memorize the first letter of ONLY THE FIRST WORD in order. When I went into the test, I would write that out and it would help me, within 5 minutes, to reconstruct my entire one page list of notes. I then basically had an open book exam !!!
The memory palace technique seems a little different, but it sounds like it would work well. HOWEVER, what if you are an auditory person like me, as opposed to a visual person?
Mr. Positioning
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA, Author and Professional Motivational Speaker
ed: You’re right, for more complex data what works best is combining the Memory Palace with other techniques.
Although there are many options available, it seems that combining the Memory Palace technique with phonetic systems is the most popular and effective combination among memory prodigies (see previous comment).
Thanks for the question! It’s a great one, and one that I intend to address in a future article about phonetic systems and how to combine them with the Memory Palace technique to memorize complex, “real world” data.
Stanley: Thanks for sharing your technique. I have used mnemonics before, but not in the extreme way you described. This seems definitely worth trying!
Regarding your question about auditory types: I’m a highly visual type, so I can’t speak on personal experience. However, I think the answer probably lies somehow, again, in phonetic systems. Phonetic systems allow you to transform between images and words, which you can use hear and maybe use in rhymes, for example.
i think i might actually have to do stuff to you cause this is a god send. My memory is appalling, i’ll admit that, but i can remember places very well, this is the perfect technique for me! Thank you!
i think i created my own technique for remembering things to do about town. e.g. you want to remember to by some milk at the local store, but have numerous other chores. I find it works simply to visualise the store and think milk and visualise walking past it thinking milk. When you actually walk past it, your memory should trip!
A little query, if your running out of memory places, why not turn it into a whole town? would that still work or would that be a little too much for the brain to handle?
Sharpy: Thanks for sharing your technique. Reading your description, I’m not sure if you think about the word ‘milk’ (like repeating ‘milk, milk, milk’) or if you actually visualize white milk. If you think about the word only, try imagining visiting the store and seeing milk spilling from all over, and people running and screaming in horror. This is guaranteed to be even more effective.
Creating a ‘Memory Town’ is a marvelous idea. It’s definitely not too much for the brain; it’s all a matter of being committed to invest time in practicing it. Actually, I’ve seen somewhere about a memory prodigy that does exactly that — he has his own imaginary town which is his framework for all his memorization efforts. They all take place in the streets or inside its buildings and houses.
I always remember things with the word poop. Sharon – Poop. I don’t know. It just works for me. Great article!
I was taught this technique in middle-school. My teacher made us memorize a list of ten words by associating them with a journey through our house.
I’m 22 and I still remember the list:
teeth
shoes
desk
basket
milk
addition
ring
kite
house
water
I’m anxious to use The Palace Method and would like to ask if a particular way of using the method (that I think would help me) is a valid one. I’ve spent 30 years building true palaces, (as a builder, I was once hired to supervise 17 Pakistani men during the reconstruction of the Kuwaiti palaces after the first Gulf war.) I now live in an American Colonial Historic home and having the intimate knowledge of every joint of every piece of millwork in the house, I wondered if going room to room, using every joint of millwork as an association point, could I make use of each of those stationary points? It occurred that they might offer more association points than a room with furniture that can be relocated.
Samuel: Sure, use every detail you can! Having such a deep knowledge about a place is a privilege: since the pegs are already vivid in your mind, those are virtually free memory slots you can use.
This technique really is amazing. I’ve remembered a lot of things that i wouldn’t have remembered otherwise. But what are the other techniques? are there any?
Cordell: Certainly there are many more memory techniques, as there are many great resources in the net discussing them. WikiHow, for example, is a great place to start exploring.
I’ve always wanted to try this, but I think I am an extremely un-visual person, and can barely visualize my own home in detail. (I suppose I’d never know until I tried, though…)
The comments here were really useful, though. Stanley’s super-mnemonics method might work better for me, because I definitely get a lot out of writing things down, and can usually remember how many items I’m trying to remember.
For example, for small grocery lists (forgotten at home on the fridge, of course) I can usually remember all the items after I remember how many there were. Maybe if I attempted to remember the first letters of the items, I’d be able to remember longer lists!
Qrystal: Glad to have you back here!
Some people naturally do better with techniques that involve mnemonics and words instead of images. Bear in mind, however, that visualization is a skill — and unless you have trained at least a little bit — you won’t be good at it at first.
For basic memorization (such as small lists), it’s a matter of personal preference — pick the technique you like best and stick with it for a while. If you feel the technique you’re using doesn’t suit your needs anymore, you can always upgrade it or combine it with a more powerful one.
this way to remember aidsto visualizing links: “span” (a bridgr) s=substitution/ p=proportion. a=action, n=numbers. for elaboration of these keywords, see”the memory book,” by lorayne and lucas.
I’m definitely going to try this one. I’m very visual, and I pretty much can already walk through anywhere I’ve been in my mind. I’ve also associated real objects with things to remember so that when I see it my memory gets jogged.
The technique actually predates ancient Rome. Frances Yates book, The Art of Memory gives the history. The Greek poet Simonides was at a dinner, left early, there was a disaster and he was able to recognize the bodies by remembering who sat where at table. Thus the insight: when information is linked to places, it is easier to remember. The “palace’ is merely a place with many rooms, gothic cathedrals were also used, but any physical place will do. This technique was taught in schools for centuries, the classic text is the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium. The technique was routinely used by lawyers to help remember facts because there was no paper in Rome, and papyrus was at a premium. Both books are worth a look.
Thanks for providing a more accurate history of the technique.
I am going to take a look at the book “The Art of Memory”. “The Memory Book”, which was suggested by previous commenter walterhenry, also seems very interesting.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys!
I love this method – as I began to build my website, I used this exact method to walk through each unique type of user’s experience. It was a fantastic process, because it also allowed me to decipher why some other needs might be required of some users and not others.
Also works very well when you’re trying to get out of the house on time in the morning – do your walk-through while you’re in the shower and you’ll be amazed how much more organized you feel as you’re leaving. love it.
I saw that Michael needed help freeing up pegs…
if you wanted to free a memory peg, simply remove it from your mental place, and visualize the peg empty. Then mentally walk through enough times that you get used to it not being there.
If you want to replace an item, simply replace the association, and walk through until you get used to it.
– Roshkins
Roshkins: That’s a very clever idea — I am going to try it myself! It seems that it’ll work. Thanks for the contribution!
Hey I had been using this system for a short time before I came across this post. It was great by the way. Anyway I had never really used it seriously at all until today when I used it to store some information for my English final. This took a long time to do and afterward, I actually felt exhausted from the concentration required. Have you ever had this happen to you?
Slice22358: This never happened to me. Maybe you’re having trouble visualizing the palace? Remember that it’s imperative to know really well the place you choose.
Also, bear in mind that visualization is a skill: the more you use it, the more effortless it becomes. If you feel you need to develop it, check out this post by Albert Foong:
How to Develop Your Visualization Skill.
Good luck!
To be honest, I believe that the visualization is the source of the problem, but in an opposite way to what you suggested. It seems to me that the more detail I put into my palace at the time(sometimes there’s more sometimes less) the more it taxes my energy. I did it again today, not for storing information, but to meditate as in your other post. I stayed inside for a little while but not too long, and it was very relaxing. However, when I awoke I found myself tired yet in the same relaxed state as before. Interesting I shall have to experiment with it and see what I can come up with.
Slice22358: Wow, that seems very unusual. Please do report back here if you find out anything, as it may be helpful to other readers.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Luciano: How did my technique work? (Ok, I admit it, I’m just to lazy to try it myself.)
roshkins: Unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to try it out yet.
I’ll report back here and let you know as soon as I do it. Thanks for the interest!
This is all the stuff Derren Brown does its workS!
Try using The Sims to create your visual palace. You can create any kind of home with various rooms for small bits you might need such as a speech or an exam. You can then deleted if you no longer need the infomation.
This is great for people who need to “see” their palace in 3D and even move around it.
Also a good visualization for removing informations is to picture yourself taking the item off the peg and putting it in the recycle or moving it to a room further away.
Sarah: Thanks for your suggestions!
I never tried The Sims. Although it does not seem to be free (like Google SketchUp), my bet is that it’s much easier and quicker to use. Previous commenter Neil also mentioned using SecondLife. Does anyone have any thoughts on how these compare?
Your suggestion about clearing pegs also seems a very sensible one!
Clearing pegs is a common question (which I still don’t have a decisive answer). Previous commenter Roshkins suggested a similar solution, but we didn’t have the chance to try it yet.
Do you always have success with your procedure for clearing pegs? Can you please tell us any experience you had with it? Thanks again!
An excellent article. I am from Nepal and I learned similar technique from a Memory trainer Madhav Aryal in Kathmandu. Now I can demonstrate 1000 random items serially, randomly and also in reverse order. Actually, in this technique, a scene is taken for each word from phonetic numbering system(0=saw 1=tea 2=hen… upto 100=thesis or even more) and from each scene 10 images are taken. First image from scene for word saw(0) is given no. 1 2nd image is given no. 2 …. Similarly first image from scene for tea(1) is given no.11 2nd image is given no. 12. And this pattern goes on. For scene 99=Pipe, the first image is given no. 991 and the 10th image is given no. 1000. But I want to know if there are any techniques for speed memory, like memorising 40 random decimal digits in less than 30 seconds, remembering a random suffled pack of cards in 30 seconds , remembering 60 random binary digits in 15 seconds and so on. What i have noticed is that, Once we can be very rapid in the images, we can remember 30 random decimal digits in 40-45 seconds, 40 random binary digits 1n 15-20 seconds , a random suffled pack of cards in 70-80 seconds.But I think memory heros like Spanish Ramón Campayo have different techniques for speed memory . I request you to share other methods too for memory with me.
Mahesh: Creating a memory palace in such a methodical way (such as creating these huge matrices) is really pushing it to the next level and can be amazingly powerful.
Regarding speed memory, I am not aware of any specific techniques for increasing speed, other than just training. Just as you suggested, the bottleneck of speed is usually on the ability to quickly use visualization.
I plan to cover additional memory techniques here in the site (as well as how to combine multiple techniques), but none of them are specifically focused on speed.
If you go on in your research and find something, please share. That’s something I would definitely be interested in learning.
I have used the memory palace technique with great success! I aced all my exams that semester
I use the palace in conjuntion with other mnemonics, using mainly the association and jouney techniques.
But now i am stuck for places for a memory palace, i need more pegs. As the existing one’s are filled, i considred expanding my palace using imaginary rooms, although i find it hard to picture those rooms and also a lack of creativity to create a room worthy to hold information for any span of time. Any pointers for creating rooms? Should they be based on existing rooms despite their location within my palace?
I am writing again and this time, a different topic, about mathematics. Actually I was seeking some ways to ease mathematical calculations. And really I found those qualities in Vedic mathematical system. Using this system, we can solve the problems easily in a very short time. Solving becomes fun and no more stress. I am trying to be able to multiply two 25-digit-numbers each ,that too mentally, and only the result on the paper in a single line, using Vedic multiplication. I takes 15-20 minutes for me now but I am trying to do the same in less time.So I request everybody, who really wants to excel in mathematics, to bother to see at least once what Vedic mathematics is. And if you like you may follow the techniques.
Luke: If you know any other places (real that is) that you know well, you could have an imaginary street, and have many different places for palaces.
Thanks for the help. I’ll see what I can do
Luke: For more pegs, remember that you can try first to add more details to your current rooms.
If you still need or want new imaginary rooms, bear in mind that visualization is a skill: you need to walk through your new rooms during some time in order to ‘imprint’ them on your mind.
In order to make them more vivid and rememberable, you may want to add emotions and senses other than vision. To ideas about that, please read the article Put Yourself in Any Mental State With a Mental Sanctuary.
Hope this helps. Good luck — and please let us know how it goes!
Mahesh: I’ve never heard about Vedic mathematics but, judging by its Wikipedia entry, it does look interesting. Thanks for the pointer!
Thanks for the help. I read the article on developing a mental santuary. Thanks for the link! It was a great article. The beuty of it, i would think, is that i can incorperate it right into my memory palace, as if to join the two together. I’ll give it a go, and visit it every day!
I also read about the Vedic mathematics. It was so interesting, that i borrowed a book from a friend entitled “The Natural Calculator”, which teaches Vedic mathematics. It is realy a simple way to do mental calculations and i recommend it to everyone.
Sorry for getting off track a little. Thanks for all the support.
Wow, I knew a similar technique with “Numbers” to remember stuff in order, but this one is really interesting too. I’ll certainly try it ! By the way, nice blog, continue the good work ! =)
I really like this idea.
Although I haven’t tried using Memory Palaces yet (but I now will), the concept of having multiple palaces comes naturally to me. For example, if I’m trying to memorize my grocery shopping list, I would visualize my most-used supermarket and peg the list items to the actual places where I’d find them on the shelves.
Unrelated question- is there a way to use memory palaces for reminders such as remembering schedules? I.e. having the palace pull me in instead of me deciding to go there.
Jacob- In relation to our last comment, I have never heard of that concept although it intrigues me. I will definitely have to try to set up palace reminders. One time during some free time I had, I set up a clock in my palace and tried to keep the time going for some 15 minutes. Perhaps that could be used to set up some reminders. I’ll just have to try it out.
@Jacob: I’m not sure if I understand your question. Are you looking for some kind of trigger so you remember to visit your palace at given intervals?
If that’s the case, sorry, I have never tried anything like that. (It looks like a bootstrapping problem, remembering to remember…)
Does any other reader have any experiences in that regard?
I used to have a terrific memory. Then I got a Palm Pilot and have had one ever since (11 years). Although I love it for many reasons, there’s no question that relying on it has allowed my memory to atrophy. I’ve decided that I want it back and more.
One of things my Palm does so well is reminders. Could memory palaces be harnessed in that sense? That’s clearer, I hope.
@Jacob: Sorry, never had any experiences with delegating reminders to memory in a reliable way (using the Memory Palace or otherwise). In that regard I am also completely dependent on my PDA.
If any other reader uses just plain memory for everyday reminders in a reliable way, please speak up! How do you do it?
I’d love to hear about new techniques to try!
Thought I’d share. I have only just started using “MPs”, even if it comes to nothing it’s a good mental workout! I learned them as a system called “losai”. Builing a map of 10 points in my town’s main street, after 2 days I had memorised 60 random items ( 6 in each location ), the locations are getting cluttered so I am just starting to learn how to drop memories, which is a lot harder than setting them up in the first place! I have started playing with historical facts, the only problem I have is that I end up breaking each tiny fact and placing it in a separate location, which makes it appear like “memory rambling”, where I end up having to spread so much info over so many places, I can pull it back OK, I think I need to find a way to refine it better.
Great article and great site, keep it up!
@George: Your ‘memory town’ system is quite amazing — thanks for sharing!
It’s surprising how these location-based memory systems are effective to the point that forgetting (even if that’s exactly what you want to do) becomes much harder than remembering, isn’t it?!
Great article. I found this page after reading about Hannibal’s Memory Palace, funnily enough. I heard of the technique before reading the book, but it showed me how powerful it can be, and I started my research
Thanks for the information. The way you’ve written about it is very easy to understand.
@Jacob from Group Writing Projects:
For reminders, this involves a slightly different training. With this, you’ll rely less on your watch and calendar, and more on your own clock. That will come naturally. It’s rough starting out, but after maybe a few months, depending on how much devotion you give it, you’ll be setting off your own alarms.
In my palace, I have a secretary in the lobby. Sometimes the secretary is a celebrity or historical figure depending on mood or need. Every hour, I visit the secretary for current appointments. I kept missing the check-in for a while, but eventually I got into a regular habit. Now, the secretary’s desk is a huge, round table with various trinkets and statuettes. I always proceed in a clockwise direction starting at the front. Where I have devoted pegs to each object on the desk, I can visit each one and recall the reminder as necessary. For example, the first object is a miniature painting on an easel with the image of a king eating a hamburger. Hanging on the corner is a tiny hunter’s cap. This reminds me of a dinner plan with my Dad at Burger King. The next two objects sitting beside it are pegs for a personal day and time I developed way back.
I’ve only ever used four spaces on this desk, each mnemonic set around at symmetrical spots. For example, if we used a clock to pick the points on the table, then my objects are at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. You could put more in there, but it really helps to give them some space.
You could expand on this if you have numerous reminders. You would build a room specifically for your schedule. It would be quite grand. Perhaps six hallways on each side, with a huge column in the middle (so you have three hallways to each side of the column,and with stairs going to other levels for expansion. Each level can correspond to a day of the month. Additional building sets could be designed for each month. Day one is on level one of the first building. Now, each hallway corresponds to a an hour of the day, going clockwise. So, yeah, you’ll undoubtedly be using only one section of the building for most of your appointments. Down each hallway are your pegs for your appointments.
Hope that helps!
@Daniel P: thanks for your terrific suggestion and experience.
Basically you’re saying that we need to regularly ask ourselves if there’s something we need reminding of. That sounds more effective that the usual, more random ‘letting it hit you’ way humans do things.
Plus, I like the idea of having my own virtual-virtual assistant
@Daniel P: Wow, thanks for sharing this wonderful idea!
I won’t dump my PDA just yet, but I’m adding your idea to my Someday/Maybe list for when I feel ready for such a mind stretch!
Thanks again!
I just wanted to write with my thoughts on the memory palace technique. I’m currently using it to remember historical events and one of the things I’ve found is a lack of practical examples of how people create an image. I thought I’d paint a picture of one of my images so that people can see that the system is not just for remembering shopping lists. I combine the journey technique with the phonetic numbering system mentioned in a previous comment.
So for Alexamder the Great…..
I’ve imagined a journey that takes me on a walk from my house to the local pub with a number of stops along the way. At each stop I’ve deposited a historical event that I want to remember. One of my stops is the driveway to a block of flats. Standing on the driveway is a huge giant with the face of Alex from the Apprentice (a UK TV programme). In his right hand he hold aloft a sword with which he slices mail (number 35 in the phonetic numbering system) letters as they fall to the floor. From the hilt of the sword fires out a a set of teeth or a jaw (number 6 on the phonetic number system) on a spring which also chomps into the falling letters. From this I remember he was born in 356 BC. In his left hand I see him spinning the Ventrovian Man(spelling??) by DaVinci (number 32) and my mum (number 3) also helping to spin the figure. I remember he died in 323 BC. I look at his breast plate and see a big blob of Syrup, a splash of grease and a pot of yogurt that’s made a mess. From this my memory is jogged to remember he conquered Syria, Greece and Mesopotamia. I look at his wrist and see a bracelet with an old man with a beard thinking deeply engraved on this. Because of the position (on the wrist) my memory again is jogged so I remember he was taught by Aristotle. I look at his belt buckle and I see engraved a female Navy officer (Ma’am – number 33) with a big saw (number 0) cutting down on Darius (an annoying UK pop star) .As Darius is split in two by the saw his hands fall to stroke a big persian cat. This jogs my memory to think that in 330 he defeated Darius the King of Persia.
The point I’m trying to make is that the images can be quite complicated to allow you to remember a whole amount of detail about a particular topic.
I hope this helps and would be interested in hearing if anyone else uses the system in this way.
Rich
@Rich: Great example!
We usually see ’shopping list examples’ because they’re more didactic, but you do a great job in showing how powerful the memory palace (together with a phonetic system) can be in a real-life situation.
Thank you so much for your thorough comment!
I am considering writing an article about the phonetic system (and later one about combining memory techniques)… Would you mind if I use your example in the article?
That’s pretty fascinating. Interesting technique that I will definitely have to try. I’m finding myself losing short term memory at times!
Well I must admit that I forgot to try out the reminder idea put forth by Daniel P. When I realized this, I nearly died from the shear irony of the situation. Anyways, I tried Daniel’s system and was very successful in using it. However, I made a slight change to his system. Instead of going to my secretary every hour, I tell her to remind me when it’s time for me to go check on an appointment. Essentially, I have her set an alarm clock on the table that is set to the time that I need to check in. Besides using this for appointments, I have found this very useful in rousing myself from sleep at 6 in the morning. Before I tried this, no amount of alarm clocks could wake me up, but the alarm clock in my head seems to do the trick. Thank you to Daniel, and I’ll let you know if any new developments occur.
slice22358 and Daniel P, interesting comments about your internal alarm clocks. I do that too I guess, I always set a physical alarm, but I usually wake up a couple of minutes before it goes off, even when I am waking up at unusual times, for example 4am because I have to go to the airport or something.
my reminders normally come to me just as I wake up and haven’t really given anything much thought yet. Obviously a good low traffic time to remember things!
Also, with remembering things to do, I usually write things down, and I remember them later not because I read my list to remind me, but because the action of writing it down prompted my memory. I don’t even have to read my list sometimes. Maybe that’s what you are doing with your secretary
@Daniel P, @slice22358, @Belinda: I think we have a really fantastic idea here!
I must confess that I am utterly intrigued by the idea of using our internal alarm clocks with the Memory Palace: it switches the Memory Palace from a ‘pull’ concept (I have to willingly step into the palace) to a ‘push’ model (I get transported to the palace automatically whenever I need — the palace just ‘comes to me’).
Needless to say, this opens a whole new dimension for the Palace technique!
For me, the big challenge here is one of trust: how can we set and trust that our internal clocks will work reliably?
Coincidentally, in the last past weeks I am consistently waking up in the same exact time in the morning: 5 minutes before my alarm clock buzzes. I didn’t do anything deliberate to set my internal clock, but definitely there’s something to be explored here.
But, still — even after many days — I’m yet not sure I can assess my trust in it.
If you or any other reader has any experience or resources to suggest about how to reliably set our internal alarm clocks, I would be eager to take a thorough look at it…
Thanks for this great discussion! If you continue to experiment with this, please do report any findings here. In the meantime, I’ll do some research and maybe try some experiments on about internal alarm clocks.
I think one thing that helps me wake up at a recurring time is outside noise. When I normally wake up I think there are routine noises outside that I subconsciously hear and as a result wake up, such as a certain car driving out for the day, a certain bird call… I think also a certain amount of daylight outside triggers me as well.
I guess you have to be worried about the appointment, if you don’t care about the appointment, you will oversleep. And lack of sleep doesn’t really matter either- if you care enough about the appointment, you will wake up automatically.
So to speak. I have a bad habit of looking at my schedule while I’m in bed about to go to sleep, so maybe this helps in a way. I check my schedule then turn out the light.
As for strange hours that aren’t regular, if I’m really worried about not waking up in time I usually stay semi-conscious (which probably means I get a bad night’s sleep, but also means I don’t oversleep and miss my appointment).
So I guess if you want to aid your body clock a little, remove the clock from your room, know that there isn’t a noise to wake you up, and perhaps you will wake up on your own out of sheer panic at oversleeping
This works best for me if the last thing I do for the evening is think about the time I am getting up the next day, so it’s kind of “glued” to the … nagging part of my brain.
Luciano: Thanks. Pls go ahead and use the example. You may way to check for typos.
Very creative!
Never heard of it before.
Haven’t tried it out yet, but I surely will…
Thanks +_+
I noticed that there are many issues with clearing pegs for new material.
There is no need to clear your pegs or create new vast arenas for empty pegs. Let me explain a method for expanding your information first. Then I will get to my method for not needing to clear any rooms.
I have been using a few different rooms of various sizes for memorization with “expansion modules”. The rooms vary from small 10 bedroom items to large 100 landmarks around my city.
The expansion modules allow me to learn something and then add to that group of items. So if I learned 10 items, say specific ingredients for a recipe like pancakes, and then found some variations to that recipe like chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries etc. I would add those new items in the expansion module. One type of expansion module would be colors. So my whole room becomes bathed in one color (I tend to go from red to violet using ROY G. BIV) for these new choices that I can add to my pancakes, they would be all bathed in red AND have something red as part of their action that links them to the peg in that room (think blood or strawberry shortcake if your not too violent). I can then add tons more data to something already learned.
In a more complex situation, such as memorizing the innervation’s of nerves and musculature names and attachment points. I took each body part and started with a larger room. Then when it came time 2 years later to learn diseases and treatments and diagnostic methods that related to certain special pegs (very specific nerves and muscles) I would just add the color to that peg where the color depicted either the disease, treatment or diagnosis. (the color was further linked to my actual book with the same highlighter color so it was pretty hard to not forget. Then a few years later when I needed to add medications and special notes concerning new clinical issues I just continued with more two more colors. I can keep adding things as my basic colors are not even completed yet with all this data.
However, what happens when I need to reuse that room for something new?
I DON’T NEED TO CLEAR IT!
I have added an additional component to each of my rooms that help me remember why I am in it. The center of the room has something that keys me in both verbally, visually, and textually so that no matter whether I see, hear, or read something it will immediately key me to just the right room. Furthermore, this central item is directly linked to the first peg so that it can start me rolling right away and not have be stand there looking around my room and befuddled.
A simple example would be memorizing facts concerning a war or a historical figure. That historical figure would be in the center of the room doing something funny or evil or impacting TO that room, and almost always to my first peg. There would also be a name tag on them for the text part. They would be also chanting or yelling their name. If it was a war then the soldiers would be chanting their name as they advance on my first peg (say a picture) and trying to slice it with their bayonets. If it was Lincoln or Napoleon then they may be standing on my picture in a heroic pose and saying something like “now you’ll never forget that I am X!” while looking at the sky gallantly. In my pancake scenario I may have the pancake stacked so high that it leans down towards my picture to steady itself ala a MAD cartoon. Or for my muscle systems I had the arm smashing itself through my picture with the wood pieced hitting my face when I walked in the room.
The key is to make the room extremely recognizable with TASTE SMELL TOUCH FEEL TERROR HEAT COLD WET EMOTION and tons of other memorable linkers. You will always be able to reuse that room.
I even have rooms that are meant to be disposable. Such as my grocery list, which has my wife in it. She is yelling at me in a very queen like manner: quite shrill and piercing not to forget the milk. She is sitting on a thrown and throwing her celery scepter at my head where it hits and leaves a bitter taste as celery leaves land in my mouth which causes me to spit onto my picture. That is where my first grocery item resides. I will never confuse this room-which I have come to hate as I always need to add things at the last minute–for my bosses stats room which is where I leave important numbers that will impress him concerning my field of occupation. In that room he has rigged the classic rabbit trap at the door and when I enter I am sprung to the air and hung upside down by my foot. As I dangle there he is sending spittle to my face and spewing stinky stale coffee and cigarette breath all over me as he asked for a report on how our sector is doing. His coffee cup has been tossed onto the picture this time.
So as you can see there is really no need to create more than a few rooms once you have created the standard sizes for your needs. Such as the 10 peg room, 30 peg room, 50 peg location, 70 peg street route, and 100 peg city landmark. You must also remember that there are expansion modules to call upon at any time such as colors, seasons, and many more. Just imagine the 100 landmark peg system. Then add 7 colors, and 4 distinct seasons and you have well over 11,000 pegs and this is without adding a single central figure to preside over that peg system or creating other expansion modules that suite your needs.
As a final note don’t forget to use the visual mnemonic system for numbers or the phonetic system for numbers as this makes adding dates, times, years, and other numerical items a cinch.
Best of Luck
As a quick follow up you should use the 10 peg landmark peg system to help you remember the phonetic system for numbers.
Just add hot deliciously smelling alphabet soup as the central figure to your peg room and make it doing something memorable with the spoon, bowl, letters, and NUMBERS. You can also incorporate a telephone book or a math book. Just don’t get any splashed on you as it’s HOT!
If your Memory palace is a museum (like mine) and you attach your pegs to Pictures an easy way to erase them is to store them elsewere and pin a fresh Picture in the wall.
@InfiniumEtAl: Amazing, absolutely amazing comment. Thank you so much for describing your process so thoroughly!
You expose a very interesting view on the idea of used pegs — instead of clear/reuse them, simply add to them! This is both easier and more effective, after all, why clear pegs when we have close-to-infinite memory slots, right?
I always knew the idea of using ‘expansion packs’ is one of the secrets of the memory champions, but I had never paid attention to how it makes clearing pegs unnecessary…
Thanks again for taking the time to craft such a great comment!
Browse to and try the “Virtual Memory Palace”. With this virtual representation of the ancient Greek memory technique you can assign pictures to certain loci in a 3D building. Link: [http://www.fassben.de/Fassben.de/Virtual_Memory_Palace.html]
I’ve developed it in 2002 so it is a bit dated. However, it still runs, even in VMWare on my Mac. The only real requirement is a Num-Block.
Enjoy,
@Eric Fassbender: I downloaded and played a bit with the Virtual Memory Palace. Wow, I think this is a great to demonstrate the concept of a Memory Palace to those who have trouble seeing the palace in their mind’s eye (the ‘less visual’ people).
By the way, it worked flawlessly on my Vista system.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Luciano,
That was exactly what I developed it for – A prototype so that less visual people get an idea of the concept. Thanks for letting me know that it still works on Vista
Cheers,
Eric
I’d really like to know if anyone has experience trying to learn and remember a programming language using these techniques. I’m trying to learn php. My problem is that I’ll follow along with the book, complete whatever example is it I’m working on, but then will totally forget everything I did two weeks later.
I want to develop a way to store both basic definitions and specific examples (which there are a ton of).
For example, if I’m learning about PHP sessions, I may have some basic definitions I’d like to remember. Then I’d also have to store information on the actual php code.
So, say I have the following definitions and sample block of code.
Sessions …
- Used to store user information on the server for later use
- work by creating a unique identification(UID) number for each visitor and storing variables based on this ID
- the code to start a session must be at the very beginning of your code, before any HTML or text is sent
Sample Code:
I am currently able to create associations for each individual definition and for the sample code. But I’m really having problems storing the information and accessing it for later.
In Dominic O’briens book, he talks about using a town to store information when learning a foreign language by grouping various words together in different parts of the town. For example, all adjectives would be put in the park, action verbs at the sports complex, etc.
Would this work for a programming language? In my example above, sessions remind me of Congress being in session. So I could place all information and examples relating to sessions in the court house of my imaginary town. Another topic in php are classes. Information on classes could be placed in the school buiding. Arrays are another topic. My mental image for an array is a stingray, so information on array could be placed at the aquarium.
My problem is that there is just so much information on each of these topics. For example with sessions, there could be a number of different code examples I’d like to store. I’m having problems figuring out how to store these in my courthouse so I easily go back and retrieve them.
If anybody has any experience with this or have suggestions or other techniques I could try I’d love to hear them!
Mandy
P.S.
For those looking for a way to help create and visualize new rooms, check out floorplaner.com. You can create a floorplan, add furniture and objects, then view it in 3D. I just found the site today and only played around with it for 15 minutes or so, but it seems pretty easy to use.
Although I never used the Memory Palace technique to memorize a programming language — so I can’t comment much —, let me suggest that memorization techniques may not be the best tool for the task at hand.
A programming language — just like any language — is essentially made of patterns — some basic building blocks (such as words and basic constructs), rearranged in infinite setups (sentences). I compare the task of memorizing programming examples to understand the language with trying to learn words by memorizing the sentences. There are just too many of them, don’t you agree?
In my opinion, what you should try is to identify and truly understand the basic building blocks of the language. Use the examples in the book to help you grasp the concepts, nothing much than that.
From personal experience, the best way is to actually learn a programming language is by using it: create simple programs that demonstrate the concepts you’re studying and, as you gain confidence, continue building more complex examples from there. In languages (programming or otherwise), nothing beats hands-on experience.
Hope this helps.
And thanks for the recommendation of Floor Planner — it looks really good!
I’ve been trying to learn a programming language this way, although, I did not use my memory palace to remember the basic building blocks of the language, I find it useful for learning the different library functions ( their names,parameters,return types ). Whether this is an efficient way to learn or if I’m just wasting my time as practice would also be a productive way to go, I’m not entirely sure, I’m still experimenting with the technique at this time.
In regard to other posts about learning passages of text, I use a keyword system and take the “essence” of the sentences, the key ideas, and just link each sentence idea together then place the first link in a loci on my journey. This way I have one idea in one location broken down into little ques to aid the memory. The downside of this I find as I am not entirely sure it is faster using this method or just learning by rote. I also find I’m having to review the information stored, within a couple days of my last review and if I leave if for a week or more it fades quite quickly. Not sure how to overcome this boundary as it will become more difficult to manage, the more information I store.
With my use of the memory palace technique (I call it “roman walk” system, I’ve now “left” the house and gone for a walk round my town, my place of work, my old place of work, places I played when I was a kid. I’ve got my pegs up to 1000 this way.
If you’ve run out of pegs you can take a part of your palace/walk and visualise it in a different context. So, for example, I’d see my alarm clock on the runway of an airport instead of by my bed. When I make a new association it’s virtually impossible to get the two different images confused because of the totally different contexts.
You can also imagine a different example of the thing/object you’ve used as a peg. For example, instead of the painting on my wall I’ll imagine another painting – The Haywain, for example – and form my new association there.
It’s also important to do regular reviews of the information you’ve learned. In “The Memory Book”, Tony Buzan gives the post-memorizing times you need to review – these are, 10 minutes after learning, one day, one month, six months, and then after that the information is retained by your long-term memory (I do my reviews yearly after that).
Incredible how many of us have found this site while reading about Hannibal Lector!! I am studying several courses at the present and will try and learn this technique. I’ll try to remember to let you know how it goes!!
Please do. I’m always eager to know about innovative ways people use the Memory Palace for.
Could your site start offering printable versions of the articles that are without all of the ads and comments?
Thank you,
Gary Levine
Hey Gary,
When you print the article, the ads and comments are already being filtered out.
However, I just checked it and it seems that the formatting of the printed version has some serious problems, rendering it unusable. I will investigate what’s going on and fix it as soon as possible.
Thanks!
has anyone ever looked at or taken a look at tony buzan’s studies at the human brain or read any of his books like “mind maps”, or “head first”. or “make the most of your mind”? those are a few of my favs, as far as literature goes. however it remains nothing but constant practice. In order to have a sense of somewhat mastery of course.
Great article, I’ll start practicing this, and I’ll tell you the results.
This is such a fascinating subject and a great article.
I have just finished reading “The Season of the Witch” by Natasha Mostert which involves 2 characters creating a memory palace with millions of rooms to store info about pretty much everything. One of the characters, an architect, designed the palace for her sister to use. It was fiction of course,but it was very compelling reading and it led me to do a search on memory palaces.
My memory used to be so sharp but is now quite appalling. I intend to try this technique to improve. Thanks for the ideas.
Thanks for the book recommendation, Cassandra! I always find fascinating the stories of people pushing the Memory Palace technique to the limit — even when they are fictional.
Your Memory Palace technique is something I’ve been working on for a few years. I can’t believe it’s not utilized by more teachers. Last February I volunteered at a nearby school in Arizona where I live as a snowbird. I worked with a class of 5th graders and challenged them to learn the US Presidents in order. About half the class mastered them. Others learned the majority in order. Whoever did not master them had not mastered their personal list of places. Two of the students were interviewed on radio and showed off their mastery.
I’m a retired Canadian teacher and I used the method to memorize many ‘lists’, including the Presidents, our Prime Ministers, Olympic medal winners, Forbes top 100 celebs, etc. I go through a list every night as a form of meditation to focus my mind.
Learning a deck of cards is great fun. Each card must be identified as a character. For example, for me, the Hearts are those people close to my heart. King and Queen are my parents…
then shuffle and place the top card character at your first ‘place’. And so on…
I had intentions of developing an e-guide or something on this topic, but time nor technical knowledge has permitted.
I’d love to tell you more.
I also think it would be very beneficial teaching children the Memory Palace technique: it’s a great mind training and it puts their imagination to good use. (Unfortunately, most schools seem to only teach children how to get rid of their imagination altogether).
Thanks for sharing, Iris.
Good technique. I haven’t tried this, but am interested enough to give it a shot. This may be excellent for one of a kind lists, that don’t change over time. For others like grocery lists, the thing is – they keep changing every day, and there can more than one list to remember at any given time – then this could get a bit challenging, at least the way I see it. My apologies if you had already addressed this in any of your comments – I haven’t read all the comments.
Thanks for sharing this interesting technique.
I am using this method for the past few months.Have some problems regarding storing information.Any information can be divided into Headings,Subheadings and ideas in that particular subheading.By using this method i can remember them as a list,but cannot organize the information.And am researching on how to remember mindmaps using loci method.please help me regarding this.
To be honest, I never used this technique to remember mind maps so I can’t advise from experience.
(Anyone who already memorized mind maps using a Memory Palace please jump in!)
The problem I see is that by cramming the mind map into a Memory Palace, you’ll have to “flatten it” so it fits into its linear journey. By doing so, you lose the spatial properties that were already present in the map — “dumbing it down” to a linear sequence.
This is not an easy problem to solve. Maybe better than using a Memory Palace would be to compose short stories for each mind map branch and use simple pegging, instead of putting it to a palace.
Would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this one!
I’m wondering how you could use this to memorize long passages of text? Everybody seems to be interested in memorizing lists, and those singular items are easy to picture at each stop in the palace, but how do you memorize a paragraph at each stop?
Yes Lon, the Memory Palace is perfectly-suited to lists. For memorizing long passages of text, I would take each paragraph (or sentence, it depends) and put it in its own stop. This is just the regular Memory Palace technique being applied, and it would take care of properly sequencing the text.
Now each paragraph becomes a new, smaller memorization problem that should be tackled separately.
The way I’d go now would be making each peg remind me of the paragraph or sentence. Since it’s overkill to use pegs to remember sentences word-by-word, your peg must map to the overall meaning of the sentence. To remember the sentence itself, you could rehearse by imagining yourself reciting the sentence out loud as you see/interact with the peg.
With a little practice, the visual and auditory inputs combination works wonders.
is it possible to add an event in your palace in memorizing terms etc… tnx
Keem, I didn’t understand you comment. Can you please elaborate?
hi luciano…great work..For the past few months am using the Method of loci combined with Roman room technique…At each loci i create a room and store a particular kind of information..I use to search google images(living rooms) for rooms….till now i created around 40 rooms…i need to remember 400 rooms that is around 20000 keywords…whether its possible to rememeber that many rooms without inteference….As mostly each room has same objects…I need around 30000 images..dont know how to get…can u help me how to create those images easily using software or techniques…
I have a few questions…please anyone visiting this forum can also help…
1.How much information can i store using this method?
2.wheteher there are any softwares or techniques to create images easily?
3.Whether its reliable to learn a subject eg.public administration?…Initially ill store all the information related to public administration then ill work on analyzing the information present…then revise and connect new information to the information already present…
Thanks so much for this article and the great 5 steps..
I already put it in my blog :
http://bonar13.web.id/2010/01/.....gs-better/
And now i’m interested to try it out
This is great. I heard about the whole memory stuff and was pretty skeptical at first until I researched it and tried. This is actually how I came across your blog (an amazing one, by the way).
Anyway, I did use it for tests and so on (still 18..) and it works perfectly, but I am having troubles in combining it with different techniques. (I have read about many of them: phonetic, palace, number-shape, number-rhyme, alphabet and so on)
Could you perhaps either create a page of its own or just a detailed comment for uses and ways to combine all the different techniques? I mean, the examples are good for starters, such as grocery lists and so on.
I am going to go to university soon (one of the reasons I started researching the memory-stuff + speed reading and all the performance/mind boosting features) and I would really like to use everything I can to be as good as I can be.
Perhaps you could explain how to use different things (especially the Memory Palace) for mathematics, physics, chemistry, law, medicine, literature (although some are straightforward), cards and so on. I really do want to learn a lot with this technique, above average, I should say.
I would REALLY appreciate it if anyone really spends the time on doing so, because I am not yet skilled enough to do anything like that myself.
And again: great web! I am loving it. Going to try all the different things here!
Cheers,
Dan!
Thanks for the suggestion, Dan! I plan creating a thorough memory guide that goes from basic to advanced (the latter includes combining all the basic techniques).
Great idea.
I am so looking forward to it! Going to be fantastic.
Thank you!
Cheers,
Dan
Hi
One of the early problems I came up with was visualising enough rooms or journeys to make the system work effectively. I now use Google Maps street view to create journeys around my home town. In time I will expand this to the nearby City and beyond as needed. Street view enables me to plan a route and view actual objects that I want to make as landmarks / memory locations. I’ll never run out now !
Also remember that you imagination can change what is actually there. All my journeys start in my home street. However, my neighbours house is actually (in my memory palace) the buidling in which I work – I store all work related material there. A little further on a normal house has been changed into a huge gothic buidling in which I store all my employment law facts and figures. A quick stroll up the street (in my memory palace) will take me to which every building or journey I need. I have a marker at the beginning to remind me which each building contains eg in my legal buidling I have a lawyer all dressed up in court room dress acting as the door keeper.
Buildings can be changed in this way so for instance you can ‘create’ in your mind a door in an actual existing building that takes you to a new building. THis is impossible in reality but in your mind their are no limits. In this way buildings can be linked together as needed.
Above all don’t forget to review and stroll round your creation. I once made the mistake of creating a room and didn’t visit again for some time. THe images began to fade from my mind. I actually find walking aronud my palace hugely relaxing.
I hope this is useful.
Kind regards
Rich
Hey! I really want to say to you “thanks!!”
Thanks to you and your blog I had discovered the existence of this kind of techniques… and all of them are awesome!
Since I started reading some of your posts I really can say that my memory has improved a lot.
I use them to remember birthdays, identifications, passwords, number of mobile phone, etc. People are very impressed on how I can remember hard numbers that fast, and I’m impressed of myself too!
I really want to say that you must be proud of your blog.
Thank you Matias, I’m really flattered by your compliments!
Thank you, Luciano! I’m impressed by how well you condensed the technique into a short article.
I had an idea for a source of alternate memory palaces, for those of us who are running out of real places we know well: stories. I got to this idea by thinking that the map of Middle Earth in _Lord_of_the_Rings_ might work as a memory palace. I realized: it’s not the *map* that would be a set of pegs–it’s the story itself. You start at the beginning, at Bilbo Baggins’s birthday party, setting up sequential pegs for all the events there, and then proceed on through Frodo and his companions leaving the Shire, etc. Each step of the journey–i.e., the narrative or story–providees new memory pegs.
And you could do the same thing with movies you know very well. Let’s say, for example, you know the movie “Casablanca” very well. The sequence of scenes in the movie is a sequence of steps through a palace, each scene providing both visual and auditory memory pegs. For example, if you were trying to remember “eggs,” you could associate the line “I’m shocked, shocked…” with an image of Claude Rains wearing a big egg costume, round & white with dribbles of rich yellow yolk as if it were soft-boiled–and *smell* that yummy cooked egg, too–while he says that line.
Anyway, my point being: *stories* can also provide spatial sequences with multiple senses available to reinforce their memory pegs.
A book showing how you can use the techniques for ALL school subjects already exists. It’s called SUPER MEMORY, SUPER STUDENT by Harry Lorayne.
I tried this yesterday and just woke up and still can remember what I memorized.
thanks