the concept of a mind palace was made famous by Sherlock Holmes though it was
utilized for centuries before the legendary detective so first off what is
a mind Palace a mind Palace originally referred to as the method of loci is a
memory device used to commit a large amount of information to your memory by
combining visual and spatial memory loci is the Latin word for places and the
ancient Greeks are actually credited for creating this method in fact when we say
in the first place or in the second place we're actually referring to
references of the method of loci from those early days forward this method has
been utilized by champions of the mind to perform incredible feats of
memorization like memorizing pie to a hundred thousand digits and while it may
seem like an extraordinary feat to create a functional mind palace it is
quite achievable with a bit of practice so first of all how does it work here's
a simple example to show you how a mind palace works let's say you're ready to
go to your friend's house for a little get-together you head on over but when
you get there you need to find a place to park
now his block has a bunch of cars on it so you have to park one block over then
you walk into the house and you need to put your keys up right so you sit them
on the coffee table in his living room well as more people show up and time
passes you realize that it's getting a little warm so you take your jacket off
and you throw it over the chair well the party ends and everyone had a great time
but it's now time to leave how do you know where everything is you know you
need to leave with your jacket your keys and of course your car but why it's
because you came with them they are permanent items to you you're likely to
take these almost anywhere that you travel you immediately remember where
your jacket is it's over the chair then as you walk out you see your keys and
you're reminded that you had to park a block down now the process of leaving
that get-together is very similar to what you do in a mind palace you see
things that you know you need like your coat your keys in your car and they
remind you of other things in this case where you put them with that in mind
here are five simple steps to creating and using your very own functional mind
palace with the help of one of my youtuber friends logan step number one
you need to decide on the maps location the layout of your mind palace is
crucial for it to function appropriately while it is possible to completely
construct your own layout from your imagination it'll take extra energy and
a lot of extra time that you don't need to expend the goal is to be
so familiar with your palaces layout that you can run through it in your mind
without even having to think much about it in fact humans have a memory system
that is set up to be associative this means that we store information based on
what it is associated to the technical term for this is elaborative encoding
and it's the specific way that we encode short-term information into long-term
memory with a mine palace and it works by connecting one memory to preexisting
memories every memory has another memory attached to it and the more attachment
one memory has the easier it is that it can be recalled with this in mind some
of the best locations to start off with would be to use your house your
workplace your school or even a childhood park the best possible
location for your first mine palace is any space that you're very familiar with
I also want to say on a side note with relatively new inventions of videogames
we actually have a new option available video game maps and locations can be
utilized as mind Palace layouts too for example the zombies theater map and
black ops is forever seared in my mind after running so many circles once you
have the palaces location established and thoroughly memorized you're ready to
begin the process of adding information since Logan has had a lot more practice
with mind palaces I'm going to let him explain the next few steps to you now
moving on to step number two and that's to establish the main items now assuming
that you are able to walk through your Palace in your mind without struggling
to recall details you are ready to start assigning permanent items you should
select four to five items in each room optimal items to select our furniture
artwork windows decorations and other prominent features try to avoid
selecting two of the same object in each room for instance if you have a dining
room don't use each individual chair as
separate items instead utilize the entire set as one item this will prevent
your brain from getting confused when you add information later to give an
example of what I mean the first room of my mind palace which is my living room
is filled with a rocking chair in the corner a sofa next to that than a tall
standing lamp there's also a loveseat a fireplace a bookshelf and some
decorative wall art this is a fairly detailed room with multiple items but
it's not too much to remember because the outline is already in my long-term
memory it also helps that the items are different enough that I don't
have trouble differentiating them once you have this step down you're ready for
the next step in the process that step or step number three is determining your
route this is the step that catches most people off-guard
in short you must order each item in your room and follow that order every
single time you use your mind Palace when I first learned of the mind Palace
technique I had an unrealistic concept of walking aimlessly through my palace
and seeing things that I wanted to remember while this seems interesting
and is partially true it negates how a mind palace truly functions a mind
palaces functionality lies largely in repetition and visual cues so now that
you have your mind Palace memorized and the items within its selected you have
to establish a route that you will always take when recalling things in
other words you must order your items some people find it easier to give a
number to each item in their memory palace for instance I always enter
through my front door and then I always turn right and work around my house in a
counterclockwise motion I work counterclockwise in every room as well
until I finally make it back around to the beginning of the route once you have
a route in your mind Palace determined and know it better than the back of your
hand you are ready to start adding information a simple way to know if
you're ready is to quiz yourself for instance what's the third item in the
second room if you can think of it quickly without going through all of the
rooms you're ready on to step number four and that's adding information to
the permanent items this is the part that you were waiting for actually
adding information to your mind Palace now that we have a mental model of the
rooms memorized you must associate something with each object in each room
something to keep in mind while adding information is that the mind Palace is a
visual memory technique so you have to convert whatever information that you
want to memorize into a visual form this means even if it's numbers cards test
information or a speech you must turn it into visual information there are a few
techniques that have already been created to help you do this conversion
but many people do it with their own creativity the first step in adding
information is to convert it into an absurd visually and sensory stimulating
image bright colors the textures sounds feelings and
movements help with this after you've done this to your information you can
begin to place it throughout your mind Palace along the route that you take
this is where the route begins to become a useful tool say you were memorizing a
deck of cards and the first card is an Ace of Hearts well you would then take
the image you have created for an Ace of Hearts and associated with your first
item in your first room so for mine the Ace of Hearts is represented by a monkey
with a bright red bum going crazy it sounds insane but it's visual and
memorable the first spot in my mind palace is a small coat closet just to
the right of the front door with that in mind I walk into my mind palace and I
look inside that small closet to see a monkey with a bright red bum going crazy
the Ace of Hearts now say your next card is a 4 of Spades well for me a 4 of
spades is a shiny black party cone hat on top of a shovel a spade is another
type of shovel my next spot is the railing that separates the entryway from
the living room considering this after I see the monkey in the closet I look just
next to it and see a shiny black party hat set upon a shovel that is balanced
precariously on the railing the 4 of spades I would continue this until I
have placed the entire deck of cards throughout my mind palace in the order
in which I want to have them memorized then when I want to recall them I go
back through my mind palace and I see the images on each spot those images act
as a memory trigger for the card they represent this process can be carried
out with many forms of information what makes the palace powerful is the
repetition of the same location in route and the visual and sensory imagery
however there is a concern that most people have in regards to the mine
palace what if you have added some information to your mind Palace and when
you try to add more information your brain gets confused with the two
different lists of things well the answer to this is simple but not easy
the answer is number 5 to create more than one yes the answer really is that
simple you were no doubt familiar with more than one location in the world so
yes you can create more palaces in fact many memory champions will create
multiple palaces for various commonly memorized topics for example one will be
dedicated cards one for numbers one for a list of
things and one for speeches the difficulty for this is that you have to
dedicate even more time and effort to create and memorize each palace if
you're thinking to yourself that this sounds like a lot of memory work just to
create the systems that are supposed to help you with your memory you are
definitely correct this is why many people fail to actually use the memory
palace effectively they just haven't dedicated enough time towards it however
with these five simple steps you can now begin building and utilizing your mind
palace it does take a lot of work and ease and speed will come with time but
memorizing more complex information will become easier as you learn more
techniques for tethering more information now as one final disclaimer
I want to let you know that the mind Palace technique is not for everyone
there are many other techniques that you can utilize to improve your memory
capacity and the effectiveness of it if this technique doesn't work for you
there are many others that might be a better fit but those techniques require
other videos as I in this video I want to give a big thanks to Logan from
observe entertainment he wrote most of this script and if you enjoyed it I
encourage you to go check out his channel where he has a ton of other mind
Palace videos thank you guys so much for watching and I hope to see you in the
next video