I chose my first post is to be something useful! The moment you will find something interesting, for example in the this Blog, you are able to keep the information as a precious collectible for ever.
Place it in your Memory Palace!
The Memory Palace is a powerful technique to easily learn, memorise and recall large quantities of information. It is said to be an enhanced version of the Method of Loci, both are a mnemonic devices. These techniques can be understood as a mental walk through memorised facts. But the facts are transformed in to objects using visualisation to store them organised and systematically in your Memory Palace (brain). It is the visual representation of knowledge and give you the power to control your brain.
What kind of information can be stored this way?
Any kind of information as long as it is transformable into pictures. If for example you like to memorise numbers or cards there are systems as the Major-System that will give you a technique to do so.
Consider this!
Your Memory Palace has to be structured as logic as possible and the rooms and objects have to be arranged clearly. Before starting to to build your very own palace I would like to give you some hints I read.
Experts (Of course I do, too!) suggest if you divide your Memory Home into levels or areas that you give them different colours. By colouring parts (levels or topics) of your memory palace you add to the spacial feeling the colour as an extra memory component.
It is possible to build one room for one topic, but I think you are missing the route, which is an important help to learn the topic. What do you think? Stuffing everything into one room to me feels like memorising a list, but isn’t that what we don’t want?
And something I have heard is that the stranger the item, room or hint the better you are able to remember it.
Under Construction!
By explaining how to built a Memory Palace I will create my own and take you on a trip through it. I am trying to give you a “Museum Tour” through my Memory Home with little visual hints. In general it might be useful to think a second if you wish to create your memory palace visually, because it might limit your creativity.
You are able to choose if you would like to build your cosy memory home at once or piece by piece. You can also place your information transformed into every day objects while building, but also move in and decorate after the construction is finished. It also depends on what your feel the most comfortable with. This also applies to the size of your Memory Palace it can be as large as you like as long as you regularly take a walk through the rooms. The good news is that you can walk through your Memory Palace anywhere you like as for example in the tube, waiting for a doctors appointment, just anywhere.
There is no limit to your creativity and fantasy. You might want to store the information in a castle flying in the air on a cloud, create a whole shopping street, an underwater world or a skyscraper formed as a huge high heal.
You could also choose to come up with stories along a certain walk. This would be a mixture of techniques (Loci – and Route technique added by a story). In comparison to these two techniques the Memory Palace enables you to walk through your housing freely without the necessity to follow a certain route.
Its your brain, so its your choice!
Let’s get started!
I got myself a book called “Schotts Sammelsurium” (Mingle-Mange or Conglomeration) by Ben Schott this holds various useless facts. That’s perfect. I flip through the pages and randomly pick a list.
The MORSE ALPHABET. Interesting!
… This is where I had to stop for a whole week before now I feel I can continue writing.
A few findings I already made.
First of all its not as easy as I thought it to be. It took me quite a while to figure out with what kind of housing I feel comfortable.
Than it took me a while trying if I would like to build rooms simultaneously with placing memory items. That did not work for me. I finally decided to built my Memory Palace first and then bring it to life by placing the items inside.
ARCHITECT AT WORK!
My Memory Palace is a cosy little wooden House with red shutters. It was build as a tree house.
I drew the floor plan before decorating because it made it easier for me to structure the rooms and feel comfortable with the split-up. I memorise better, when seeing something. Therefore scribbling took the memory palace from paper to my brain.
Let’s start furnishing together!
As usual there are two ANTS at the bottom of the tree sitting on a root sunbathing. One of them is short and pretty round. The other one is long and thin. They are a funny couple. After greeting them exchanging some small talk I climb up the rope ladder to my Memory Palace. Half way up the tree (It’s a big tree!) I have to take a break and see a BEE family flying around the beehive. A large mother bee is teaching her three little kids how to fly.
I am reaching the top of the tree. Three steps up to the entrance door. The door is locked with a chain and a number lock. I can’t tell you the code otherwise you could steel my knowledge. (*Interesting thought) I have a very special CHAIN. It contains of a narrow hook sticking to a diamond again a narrow hook and another diamond. The rest of the chain is only regular metal. The door opens. I step in. At home. Great. First I visit my “little” friend. He hates me for calling him that. I walk through the entrance hall with the large chandelier. The sun reflects brightly in it. The secret to my Memory Palace is that it looks small and understated from the outside, but it is stuffed with neat items and very cosy.
Ah, there it is the first door on the left. I ring the bell by pulling an ancient looking string. He answers and I enter the room. A little dwarf is welcomes me. He is living in the library. All the walls are furnished with book shelves. Looking up it seems as the room does not have a ceiling. Books, books and even more books. I bend down to hug the DWARF. I know what he longs for the most. He wishes to be tall, but he only has two short legs. Today I brought him a pair of platform shoes. He unwraps the present and grows 2 centimetres of joy and 10 because of the shoes.
I need to get going I have another present to hand over. But first I like to take a little nap. Don’t worry, it won’t take to long. I am into power napping. I am walking back to the entrance hall and step up the stairs. They are similar to the ones in the movie “Gone with the wind”.
At the end of the first level corridor is my bedroom. Open the door. Close the door. Yes, I am quite tired. This robe ladder is exhausting, but I just can’t carve anything into the wood of the tree. My bed consists of endless mattresses. I climb up another ladder. This one is wooden. I take a nap. Sleeping I am dreaming of something poking me into my back. 5 Minutes – 10 Minutes later I get up again. Regularly I dream that something is hidden between the sheets. I even tried to find what is bothering me. I can’t find it. It feels like an ERBSE (pea). One small little pea. Maybe I just image that. I need to get going.
In the hallway I step on a FORK. Ouch!. I pick it up. It has four prongs. I pull the first one. It makes an interesting short and high *pling sound. The second one, too. *pling The third one … oh … *booooooonggg sounds deep and vibrates long. The fourth one short again. *pling
I quickly jump to the wall, because my pet walks by. A friend of mine recently told me that a giraffe is the must have pet. Therefore I got a little one. But it grew and now it is wandering the corridors of the house bending its head down. I named the GIRAFFE GINA. She has long legs, a long neck and a small head. She’s a very friendly pet that likes to cuddle.
Now I walk down the stairs again. There is a small door underneath them. I knock four times. That is very important! squieck* The door needs some oil. There he is. My HOUSE DRAGON – HANS. The knocking is a secret code that he knows I am entering, because he keeps my tree house secure. There is one knock for every one of his four heads. I throw the present I brought out in the hallway and he jumps after it.
Oh, the grandfather clock in the entrance hall strikes. I think it is getting late and you have to go home and build your own Memory Palace. Maybe you have a story room in your Memory Palace, where someone is reading out this story, so you are able to know the Morse Code A to H just by reading this.
I will continue to wander through my tree house and soon send you a Morse code message.
This turned out to be a pretty long first post. Last but not least I am really interested in your experiences with Memory Palaces.
What does your Memory Palace look like?
Would you like to share any thoughts?
Which topic did you choose?
How did you feel building and decorating?
Can’t wait for you comments.
