1.000.000-loci Memory Palace

General Memory Chat
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1.000.000-loci memory palace
Okay, I might be taking the definition of a 1.000.000 loci memory palace a bit loosely, it is rather a collection of multiple memory palace… multiple = thousands. I have explained this system of my Memory City briefly in some other topics already, but I decided to make a topic of my own, where I can also post updates further down the road.

I am a real visual thinker, I need to have an image of something to make sure my mind keeps track of it. That’s why I decided to not just have a collection of Memory Palaces, but to give them a spot in an even bigger Memory Palace. This thought gave birth to my Memory City, a categorization system for my Memory Palaces.

City
Let’s start with a little layout for the city. This one is mine so far, with 9 sections. My sectios so far are Physical Science, Life Science, Formal Science, Social Science, Language, Law-History-Society (grouped them as each on its own would be small, and they are quite closely related), Sports and Philosophy in the pieces of the circle, and Applied Sciences in the middle (Applied Sciences covers all kinds of topics, so I put it in the middle).

Sidenote: I have a lot of things that are a science, as I would like to use the Memory Palace to memorize facts, things that are true rather than things that are said to be so. I do have ‘Religion’ as a category in it too, which holds a spot under Law-History-Society. While Religion in general isn’t known for the facts, I view the things which I will put there as ‘facts on the religion’. My Memory City has to become as objective as it can get, while still containing as much kinds of information as possible.

District
Next up is a focus on one of the pieces that makes up the City. This contains categories, you could see the categories as a district within the city. Now, while a real life city would be bound to material boundaries, this one does not. All the pieces together make the city, but the city is just a collective, it doesn’t do much itself. As shown in the image, there are mulptiple layers from the center to the outer ring, I have drawn four layers for representation purposes. Each Layer also has some extra lines dividing it into two, three or four pieces. In the image, I have drawn the lines in red. All the white squares you see there are the actual categories, the “neighbourhoods”.

The layers represent different groupings of categories. If you would imagine the district on the image to be the Physical Science District, the layers would represent a separation of Physics, Chemisty, Earth Sciences and Space Sciences. This is also where actual city planning goes out of the window. If Physics would be the most left and Space Sciences the most right, you’d think that Space Sciences has more categories and information, while in reality Physics might have way more. The circle is not an exact representation, but it was the best I could do. This might be confusing, but it makes sense to me. It is not an important aspect of the system though, in the end you have to use what makes sense to you.

Blocks
The last image shows the blocks, outlined with green. Every white block is a different city block, a different subcategory. If we’d take ‘Astronomy’ as an example, that is where you would find the Planet-block, the Star-Block, the Comet-block, the NASA-block, you name it. All these blocks contain the actual Memory Palaces. Some blocks are devided in 2 or four more subsubcategories (streets).

Finding information
Now, the categorization is nice, but information needs to be easy to find. That is where I let the designer in me out of her cage. Lets say you ask me about autism, you want to know about famous people who have autism. So I go to my city, I head to the Social Sciences District, which can be easily recognized as it is a chaos of different shapes and colors, to represent the fact that almost everything in social sciences is a spectrum, it is almost never exact. So we’re in the Social Sciences district, then it is time to find the Psychology layer, which is the middle layer, as to me psychology is the core of who we are, which is just a little mnemonic aid. In that, I have to find the Neightbourhood of Clinical Psychology, which is placed on top of a huge, red couch, like the one that is seen in the stereotypical images of psychoanalasys. In there, I have to find the Disorder-block, which on it’s own isn’t distinctive, but the actual Memory Palaces all look different and chaotic, you can see the chaos. One of the four streets of the block is the Childhood Disorder Street, where autism is. Finally, we head to the building which is a perfect cube shape, the exterior is layered with a chessboard pattern in all kinds of colors, and there are no windows. There I have all my information on autism, including a list of 20 famous people with a form of autism in the backyard.

Please ask if you have questions!

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if it works for you, more power to you. there is something, however, to be said for having the palaces completely disjointed – doing so helps me to differentiate the loci. I believe I read some author write the loci should be 30 feet apart. I am not saying I do it that way, but some kind of seperation does seem to help, IMHO. I will say this, I memorized the 1st fifty elements of the periodic table using Graceland. When I ran out of loci there, I used the zombie map Tranzit from the video game Black Ops2. This all worked about as well as possible for me, and I cannot really think of a way to have done it better.

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I agree to loci being apart, this collective of Memory Palaces works the same. The city after all is just a way to give meaning to the collective, to structurize the lot. The Memory Palaces themselves don’t touch other Memory Palaces, all are separate. The City could be viewed as a memory palace where I store information on my memory palaces :slight_smile:

I don’t have 30 feet between the loci inside the memory palaces though, sometimes they are very close to eachother. My bathroom in my own house if very small for example, so I make myself smaller when walking throught the memory palace based on it, to make the room seem bigger, something I was told here on the forum. That works great as well.

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Question. How do you assign your memory palaces and buildings into their specific blocks. Do you use any order of buildings or it is put randomly

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I use one big palace for smaller ones. Each door in the palace opens up into a different subject. For example, I have a door for the United States. Inside there is a journey to memorize them. I needed a way to keep track of everything I’m learning and this seemed like the most logical way for me to remember things.

Laura

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Each block is a certain category, it contains memory palaces on a certain subject. So that already decides in which block a memory palace goes. Within than block there sometimes is a further hierarchie, the streets that make up the block, so a certain side of a block gets a certain category. Once I’ve found the right category to place a memory palace, I mostly just put it in. There is no real order for the memory palaces.

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I have a question about this, do you really as in plot where certain memory palaces go? As in for example, if you used the method of loci for learning about something in history, and it’s about Abraham Lincoln, do you place it in the Presidents part of the History district and place it beside whatever you know about Abraham Lincoln? So if George Washington was beside Abraham, George buildings would move to make space for that new Abraham building?

I was wondering though, have you already categorized most of the uncategorized info in your head into memory palaces? Haha how was it? I’m thinking about doing that, but I wonder if it’s going to be ok. And if it’s really manageable and maintainable. If such a thing is somehow possible, even with just the most important points of certain topics, then that’ll be a great way to organize info in one’s head!

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I’ll answer the second question first, as that is the easy one to answer :stuck_out_tongue: Yes I have, and it actually works surprisingly well. It would be near impossible to catagorize all information, but I just started out with a few bits, and then I found out how much I actually knew about other stuff. Also, for example when I was doing the part on the solar system, I searched a lot of information. Distances of the sun from all planets, elements found in the atmospheres (the majority of the elements at least), surface temperatures, sizes. All kinds of information I didn’t know before, but which I did add to the palace.

And yes, I really do plot where the memory palaces go. The Memory City isn’t needed per se, but I noticed it makes it way easier for me to remember one. Perhaps you have experienced it before, knowing that you know someones name but for the love of god, you can’t find it in your memory. Neurology says that it is because your brain is “looking” for that bit of information, overloading the very part of the brain where it is, so your brain blocks activity there. I am not sure how much research is done, but that is the very thing a memory palace deals with. A memory palace gives you a neural path to a memory. I use the same principle to organize all memory palaces.

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Thank you for this post, Mayarra. It was just the information I was looking for, because I want to consolidate a lot of palaces into a single structure of some kind.

One question: How do you go about creating the many individual palaces. Do you reuse buildings or use a new building each time, or vary the buildings you’ve used so each is distinct from the other while being the same structure?

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Some are a similar structure but a different look, others are completely new. It mainly depends on my creativity.

Say for the planets of our solar system, I made a house in de shape of a dome with a ring around it, resembling saturn. I also have a memory palace for autism which is a perfect cube, I reused that palace into one for japanese culture, but changed the outside into one of the most famous japanese temples, the kinkaku-ji (golden pavilion).

Often I also use an existing place. Whether that is from real life or something like a game or a movie. The Normandy from Mass Effect (all three versions), an ancient temple from Star Wars: The Old Republic, various player homes from Skyrim, an actual submarine that I visited recently, an actual Buddhist Temple where I have been for about a week a few years ago, those are all kinds of things I am using as memory palaces. I am currently trying to make one from the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars too, now that I have the Lego model of it.

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I just saw this haha. Didn’t know that artofmemory doesn’t generate notifs for replies. Thanks! I’m going to try doing that! I had a Memory City before, and I still do remember its layout and what each part is for. Maybe I’ll integrate that into my existing “districts” :smiley:

Omg I can really relate about the names thing, happened to me the other day and I really couldn’t remember the name of a person that I always talk to! I see what you mean about neural paths, the triggers do help in remembering things. Would try attaching at least the first letter of the names of people I know to my images of them to help avoid this problem :))

So how do you do the creation of rooms for your “buildings”? What I’ve been doing so far is creating buildings, then adding rooms and floors as I need them. But what I’m having problems on creating imaginary rooms on the fly, sometimes I even have problems on lacking real enough “hooks” on ideas as I attach them to walls. So having at least paintings or whatever helped.

It’s kinda difficult though, or is it just so at the start? I feel like I’m designing rooms on the fly :))) Classes just started for me and I tried doing it this past week, it worked, but I miss things at times due to my not so strong hooks. I also designed an entire building in mind for a final exam before. But that’s all of my experiences that were useful to me in building creation :)))

I was wondering about using existing places though, I’ve tried that with memorizing cards and lists, but I’m not sure how to use them for “buildings”. Is that how you do it? Make your places like “rooms” of buildings? Or do you use the entire places themselves? So you don’t reuse them for memorizing knowledge? It’s just that I have a fear of lacking space :))) Like if for example I use up all the malls near my area, I don’t know what to do. So I’m not sure if using places is maintainable, and what if I suddenly learn that I missed a store or messed up some details? Won’t it garble up one’s existing memory of a memory palace?

Haha sorry I just want your opinion on “imaginary” vs “real” places. Based on my ramblings you can see that I just have this fear of using up places :))

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Most of the palaces I use are pre-made, artificial palaces. I almost never make one on the spot. I do sometimes use real places.

I like real places more for their easy-to-use aspect, they are already done for 95% and you can use them right away. Also a place you have seen once can be in your memory with insane amound of detail (I still remember the vacation home where I was about 3 years ago as detailed as can be). Artificial palaces are my favorite when it comes to being versatile, I can do literally everything to it. Changing is it is easy, and loci can easily be added or removed. Though they take more time and efford to create.

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So, it’s been a year since you first posted this! :o

It’s the kind of things that people post, and try, but often don’t stick with, for X or Y reason…
But I saw that you still link this post as a reference; So I guess it’s still working just fine for you?

I’d like to hear it if you discovered some flaws for this system, or its strength, of just some details of how it helped you since you started using it?

( I just started to use Palaces to store everyday’s fact I want to keep, but I didn’t organize it yet. From what you say, it seems like getting organized is worth it ^^ )

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The problem I mainly found with it over time was that I would sometimes not be able to find a palace, epecially newly added ones. While practice and repetition solved this slightly, it wasn’t working perfectly. I currently do have all my palaces listed in an excel file, and I have plans to turn that into a memory palace, though I didn’t get to do that yet.

What that palace will be is basically an “index page” of all palaces and where to find them, basically a list that will tell you everything I know.

besides that, it is working just fine, even when on the go. I can easily hop from one palace to another by just walking through the mental streets and I can easily find all information stored. It does take a lot of effort in the beginning though, as most of the visualized city is still empty, but once it starts to fill up with palaces, it turns into a palace itself.

I also think it is fun to do the palace maintenances! Just going about and see what information is really factual, what can be added, and what can be removed.

Another problem I face, which is actually a problem of memory palaces itself, is the limited number of loci. I currently got a few palaces that are (nearly) full, and I am not yet sure how to fluently add loci to them. Currently I just make a copy of the palace, but make it flooded or so. Basically just copy the existing palace with added markers to help separate it from the original. That palace then also doesn’t come in the same line as all other palaces, but right behind the original in a fixed order of used markers.

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I wonder how do you keep track of the details in the house? Assuming you’re using them for loci. Two hundred loci in a small Skyrim house sounds impressive. I remember the layout of the house, but details may get lost.

PS. Thanks for sharing your methods, by the way.

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Vivid imagination and structurized loci ^^
Say you go for 20 loci per room, that is a lot, but not if you take it room by room, and each room has 20, that gives consistency and structure, which makes it easier. when memorizing the palace I start with room 1, then room 2, so on. Taking it one by one. Then every detail has more to it thatn just what it looks like. It has a smell, a sound, a texture, I notice all those things when memorizing the palace. Mentally, I really walk through it as if I was really there. That way, it becomes a very vivid palace, and details become easy to remember.

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Hi Mayarra, I am new to learning the method of loci, can I ask you some things?

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I have problems making images for some stuffs e.g If I want to or if you want to memorise The Bible and you need to form an image of Exodus or Leviticus. how do I or how would you? Nice Page by the way

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For words like Exodus and Leviticus, you could look up the word roots. “Exodus” means “exit” in Greek. Even in Modern Greek, exit signs say “Έξοδος” (Exodos).

“Leviticus” refers to the Levites (Aaron’s tribe). You could use “Levi jeans” as the image. (Levi is a Hebrew name.)

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Thanks for your response. Will work on this