The ability to memorize a shuffled deck of 52 playing cards, learning a foreign language, not needing to write down a grocery list. Any of these intrigue you? No? Oh, okay, I guess I’ll just stop typing here.
Now that that’s over with… There is a story of a story teller in Ancient Rome. There was a party and he was the entertainment, however the ceiling fell in and everyone at the table died after he told his tale. He was able to tell the authorities who was sitting where by walking around the table, and that’s how method of loci or the mind palace was created. That’s one story at least, other’s claim that the story teller was using an already well-known memorization device, and other simply say that the story is a myth.
The simplest explanation of what this memorization method is, you remember the physical layouts of a building, say your house, and you mentally place some objects in the house. You then visualize yourself walking through the house and look at those items. After that is done thoroughly, all you have to do is add a story or idea to each object and you can memorize lists of anything. Example, wherever you live. Good job you know where you live! Now, imagine yourself at the front door, or perhaps doorway if you don’t like being outside your house even mentally. Imagine walking through the doorway, or opening the door then walking in because walking through a door would be kinda weird. What is the first thing you see when you walk into the room after the doorway? A table, a picture, a chair, carpet, a plain empty room with just a floor? If it the last one, go back a step and pick a different room because you need something in the room. So, the first thing you see, let’s guess its a lamp. Now you want to memorize a card, the ace of spades, as an example. The lamp has the ace of spades glued onto it all around its base, or if you prefer the lamp is now made of cards of the ace of spades, yes it still works the light bulb is left as is, or even better the lamp is being karate chopped by a mad ace of spades. Yes, that last one is rather unrealistic, but that’s the best way to do this. Without looking back, what card were you supposed to memorize? That’s right the 8 of hearts. Hopefully you had to double check something after that last sentence, as the card was ace of spades. This ‘simplest’ way to describe this isn’t so simple huh….? Anyway, the reason that last way to memorize the card, it karate chopping the lamp, is because it’s so unrealistic it sticks in your mind more. Which are you more likely to remember, waking up as you usually do, or waking up and being…. um what’s something very unrealistic hmm…. Oh I know or waking up and seeing a zebra drinking coffee while a monkey types the dictionary, correcting a few grammatical mistakes? The latter is far more likely to be remembered, or more likely to make you slap yourself or simply go back to bed maybe… Point is you are more likely to remember that, after doing other things perhaps, than simply the daily routine of how you normally wake up.
Now, many sources claim that this method works quite well because it works with how to brain is formed and thus, the brain is good at memorizing 3d, and so this method will work well. Personally, I’m not so sure that’s true. If you think about it, you see where you live a lot. It’s already memorized, as would a list of objects, because you see it so often. This method simply takes what is already memorized, and adds to it things that are easier to remember than a list, the card hitting the lamp being the easiest to memorize because it is so out of the ordinary. What is even better, because you have where you live memorized not only from entrance to exist, but also starting at bedroom and going from there to exit etc, you have not only memorized a list of things from start to finish, you can start at the end and go backwards in the list, or start midway and go to end, then from start back to midway.
Again I personally think, that a point that is well underplayed is that this is not simply a tool for memorizing stuff. You can have fun with this. You can create any room you want, with anything in it. Want a huge bed, a bowling lane, a friend imagine it. The friend isn’t quite what’s normally talked about, but who prefers enjoying the perfect house by him/herself when they can have the perfect company. This is important, because it allows you to stimulate your brain, which many sources claim helps improve memory, IQ, and even help with diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Not to mention, it’s just plain fun. In addition to stimulating the brain and having fun, you can create an entire building and use that instead of where you live for memorizing. It helps if you draw, even a crude, map of the building to give an actual visual and also to avoid possible confusion as to which room leads to which. Another thing, about the bowling lane and things like that such as sports, it’s been researched that imagining oneself doing something, such as playing basketball, without actually playing the sport can still improve one’s ability to play!
