Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0288: Reprise: How do you create a memory palace?

Episode Date: April 15, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on how to create a memory palace, with some extra comments on how he would change his answer today. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Today we're doing a reprise episode. When we release this episode, it's going to be during my sabbatical for some extended overseas travel. So basically to make sure that you guys still have some valuable content to listen to, we're representing an old Master of Memory episode that I think is worth a refresher, but also with some new commentary from me based on my more experienced perspective. Today we're revisiting episode 1 on how to build a memory palace and basically what memory palaces are. Some things that I really still like about this episode are, in the first place, it's still a really good introduction for building your first palace and getting some good mnemonic experience. Also, you'll hear me mention in this episode why the popular concept of a

memory palace promoted by the show Sherlock is somewhat misleading in that it doesn't really have any mnemonics in it, and it doesn't really fit the traditional concept of a memory palace. But if I was to address this question today, there are a couple of things that I would change. First of all, I would point out that the main reason that Sherlock's memory palace isn't really a traditional memory palace is that it doesn't have mnemonics in it. What I emphasized in the episode when I recorded it at the time, as you're going to hear it, was that it's not linear and that it's not a place that somebody's actually been. But since I've spent a lot more time in palaces lately that are not real places,

that are virtual memory palaces, and that are nonlinear. Really, I would just point out that the problem with Sherlock's memory palace from the show is simply that it doesn't show any mnemonic imagery. It's just as if he's stored all his memories somehow in a building, as if that actually helps without imagery. The other thing I would change about this episode if I was to answer the same question today is that I would point out that it is possible to have non-linear memory palaces, so memory palaces like the one at Accelerated Spanish, where it doesn't have a particular order. You just zoom in on a word, and it's organized more like a real house rather than a story that has a beginning and an end.

And the fact that virtual memory palaces can work as well, even though traditionally memory palaces are real places that you've actually been. So that's my commentary on this episode. Now let's hear it as it was originally delivered way back when it first aired in March of 2014. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Today's question comes from Jeremiah who sent me an email and says, You always talk about mind palaces and I love the concept.

I find that using them makes memorizing material very easy. My question is this, how do you go about setting up the palace? You often present your listeners with prefabricated palaces, but rarely discuss how to set up an effective palace from scratch. I would love to hear your thought process from the very beginning. Well, Jeremiah, yes, I talk a lot about memory palaces because this technique is basically the oldest memory trick in the book, with a track record of over 2,000 years of success. So here's how you can create a memory palace and use it to remember anything really quickly. Classically, a memory palace is actually a real building, one you've been in and are intensely familiar with. This is ideal because you know it so well that any memory attached to the rooms in the building are vivid. And you can place a lot more things in it than you would in a made-up palace.

Because you have so many more details for the real palace to associate with things. You can mentally place objects on different parts of different furniture and things like that. So now what I'm getting from your question is that you may have caught some of the false concepts of memory palaces that are going around right now. So, you know, the Sherlock style idea that somebody has a single memory palace with tens of thousands of ideas locked in it is a bit of a misconception because really the way that you memorize more material after you fill one memory palace isn't to keep building onto it. But instead, mnemonists, and mnemonists means people who use mnemonics.

It comes from the word mnemonic, which has to do with memorizing things. But mnemonists have historically used more palaces to memorize more things. So they just use more buildings that they've been in, things like, you know, their homes, different homes they've lived in, the local library, school buildings, museums, cathedrals, and other famous structures that they've toured. So basically some mnemonists have hundreds of individual memory palaces for memorizing different things. For example, they could memorize different books by putting all the contents of one book in one building and a different book in a different building. Now, to answer your question, the way that you use a memory palace is you simply choose an intuitive route through a building that you know, one room at a time. So if it's your home, you might start at your front door and then go inside and go through the rooms

in order. You know, you go through this bathroom to the kitchen to the, you know, living room or whatever. So you choose a route through the building and then you mentally place your items or your thoughts, whatever it is you're trying to memorize along that route. So if you're trying to remember a list of names, you can place each different name in a different room along the path. And you try to use something very memorable to connect the thought with the room. One of the simplest things you could do with this is, let's say you had to remember the names of five of your friends, or which five friends you're going to have to call this afternoon. So you have to call five friends this afternoon.

Well, what you could do is you put each friend in a different place along the path. So you start at your front door, you take your friend Bob, and you try to connect him to the front door somehow. You think of some way that he could be connected to the front door. Maybe the door is closed on his thumb or something. But anyway, make it so that when you think of the front door, you think of Bob. And then make it so that when you think of the kitchen, you think of Martha. And when you think of the living room, you think of Susan and so on. So that all you have to do to remember which friends you have to call, you just mentally

walk through your memory palace and you see which of those friends is along that path. You can use this to memorize anything, shopping lists, you know, by placing different shopping items along the route, or you can even memorize poetry by putting different verses in different places in the memory palace. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this reprise episode. For anyone who has any questions about learning, feel free to go ahead and still leave a message at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll still be able to respond to your question from wherever I am. I just won't be able to record a podcast episode of it until I come back to the States. Meanwhile, if you want to support the show, check out Spanishin1month.com for our Spanish

course, or if you want to follow my own adventures in Argentina or wherever else I might happen to be, you can do that at timothymoser.com.