Using a Memory Palace and card-location mappings and visual links

General Memory Chat
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Hi, I’m new at memory techniques. I have tried to memorize the Mneumonica stack of cards before, by rote memory. However, there would always be a few cards that I would mix up (e.g., 6 of Hearts vs 6 of Diamonds).

What I really need to do is to be able to:
—go from card to position
—go from position to card
—go from a card to its previous card
—go from a card to its next card
and do this within a second or two and with no (or only rare) mistakes.

Since rote memory only allowed me to map from card to index—and not reliably enough or fast enough—I wanted to see if memory techniques, in particular a memory palace would help me.

I first tried the Dominic method—

A. Thinking of 52 people to match 2 letter initials
I. The first letter would correspond to the card value.
2. The second letter would correspond to the suit.
B. For the 52 positions (indices) I used major events from 1901 to 1952, as I knew 1939-1945 fairly well.

But I had problems with this approach: There were always some two letter combinations that did not map to people I could think of off the top of my head.

There were also some years where the events were not too memorable for me. And also some years were characterized by events that were hard to visualize.

Next, I thought it would be easier to use categories of people for cards (serial killers, good people, Greek / Roman gods, and bad people who were tyrants, dictators, or bad rulers; for spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, respectively). The first letter of each person for suits would indicate the value 1, 2, 3…9, 10, J, Q, K except I tried to use actual kings or queens for Q and K, use S for 6, N for 9, and T for Ten, J for Jack. So, 3 of spades would be a serial killer starting (first name) with C or for me, Charles Manson.

Similarly for card index, I would have different categories each with 10 items. The categories were constellations (1-10), WW-II weapons (11-20), handheld weapons (21-30), film actresses (31-40), dangerous animals (41-50), and paintings (1-2). The position number mapped to the first letter for category items. So 16 would be a distinctively WW-II weapon starting with S such as a Sten gun.

And if 3 of Spades were at position 16 (it’s actually 21), I would create some mental link between Charles Manson and a sten gun, usually depicting some violent struggle or lurid act to be more memorable.

Finally, I would try to place these scenes around my house. Places for the dining room at the front of our house represent cards 1-10. So I found 10 places: entrance, coat-closet, stairs landing visible from dining room, an old LP record cabinet, dining room window, chairs at the dining table left-middle-right, credenza, and liquor cabinet, and entrance to kitchen area.

My questions:

  1. Am I doing this correctly?
  2. Should I try to tie in each location somehow to the scene I want to imagine? Right now I am picturing scenes on, in, or under parts of a room (e.g., table, cabinet, or window), but they really could be anywhere.
  3. I’m finding it difficult sometimes to find 10 locations per room. Should I instead just spread 52 locations throughout my house, and try to find more memorable locations?
  4. Should I somehow tie in images of either the cards and / or stack indices, too, in these locations? E.g., Charles Manson might have a 3​:spades: on his forehead next to his Nazi swastika and the location might have a card describing the scene with number, e.g., “16. Charles Manson and Sten Gun”, as if this were a (nightmarish) art museum (again, actual location is 21).
  5. All of these approaches seem to initially double or treble the number of items to memorize—as I add in 52 people for cards and 52 other items for locations—is it worth it?

Some examples of links are shown below. Should I just keep on, or can you see specific ways I can improve?

—Thanks,
Bill

1-10 CONSTELLATIONS

1-Entry way-Start on mat, facing door, imagining it is open—scene is:
:arrow_right:DeSade is torturing a slave wearing a collar and chain he is holding in his left hand. He is lashing her with a whip in his right hand.

Aquarius, wearing a toga, is trying to hit him with a wet iron water pail. De Sade whips Aquarius now. Aquarius hits him with the pail and De Sade staggers. De Sade ‘s whip lands on Aquarius drawing blood. The slave on the ground bites De Sade, adding to the mayhem.

2-Closet-Open Closet-turn L to
:arrow_right:Benjamin Franklin is flying a kite, in stormy weather. He grabs a coat from the closet. The kite has a wire lead attached to its string that is tied to the Big Bear’s neck in an attempt to electrocute the bear before it eats him. We hear a thunderclap then electricity courses down the line knocking the howling bear to the ground. Then Franklin foolishly tries to stomp him and the bear drags him down chomping viciously on his leg. Both are electrically shocked at the next thunderclap and appear as if in a strobe light as the lightening flashes.

3-Mid Landing-Landing midway down stairs
:arrow_right:The Three Graces each in sheer silk see the beautiful Star Crown
Corona Borealis hovering directly overhead in the sky, just a few feet out of reach. Each jumps up, trying to claim it for herself. None reach it.

4-Cabinet-Walk to face table, turn L to wreath + LP record cabinet, the doors open, LPs rollout, then we see…
:arrow_right:Caligula, in a white toga, lusts after a voluptuous maiden protected by Draco the dragon. As Caligula lurches towards the girl, Draco breathes fire. Caligula thrusts at the dragon with a spear. This scene appears atop the record cabinet with Caligula on the LHS and Draco and the maiden on the right. Caligula has to keep putting out fires in his toga, which is dirty, torn and smoking now.

5-Window—R. To window, see scene thru window
(Scanning Chairs at table from L end to R end back)
The grass rapidly evolves into a tree, reminding us of Darwin.

:arrow_right:Charles Darwin keeps trying to ride the horse Equus but it rears up before he can get on.

Darwin retreats to avoid the hooves.

He is angry and throws books at horse. The first he throws is the Origin of the Species. He has a large stack next to him.

6-Left End Chair—
:arrow_right:The Sirens toss pilchards at Sagitarrius. He is tied to a mast on a ship to protect himself from temptation. The sea is tossing wildly. The Sirens sing seductively in a Celtic language to him as the pilchards aren’t very enticing. They are on land.

This scene plays out atop the left end of the table with the Sirens towards the front and Sagittarius to the back.

7-Opposite Chair in Middle⏤
:arrow_right:Albert De Salvo ties up the twins (Gemini) on the bed. He starts to strangle the twin to our left. They are tied with their adjacent arms and legs bound together. The twin on the right escapes her bindings. She gouges his eyes. He clutches his eyes and staggers to the rear of the bed and then deliberately falls out the window to the right to escape.

This tableau is on the top of the middle of the table, bed facing forwards and window to the right. Albert attacks from the left initially.

8-Right End Chair
:arrow_right:Einstein is trying to write E=mc squared on a chalk board filled with physics and math equations. The Hydra keeps grabbing the chalk out of his hands as he kicks their heads. It has three heads and they attack randomly.
The chalkboard faces us to the rear of the scene. Einstein is on the left. The hydra is behind him to the right.

9-Credenza
:arrow_right:The Nightstalker fights in the Colosseum with a net and spear against a gladiator with a sword. The gladiator lops his limbs off one by one as Ramirez tries to stab him with the spear and tries to entangle his sword with the net.

The tableau is on top of the credenza in front of the fruit bowel.

10-Liquor Cabinet⏤the liquor cabinet opens and you see…
:arrow_right:The Blood Countess has the bull Taurus tied to a stake in the ground. She is covered with blood and starts stabbing the bull with a sword. The bull struggles, pulls out the stake, freeing itself, and then charges and gores the Blood Countess tossing her over his head. He gores her several more times. Her servants cheer the bull on from the side.

WW-II WEAPONS

11-Kitchen Entrance—Walk to access to kitchen, see scene outside thru glass door
:arrow_right:Queen Elizabeth sees Diana and orders an A-bomb to be dropped on her. The bomb detonates, killing Diana, and we see a mushroom cloud where Diana was.

…

13-RHS corner—see scene outside the window as if with miniatures on the grass and walk there
:arrow_right:A Cromwell tank, belching fire, approaches Bloody Mary’s castle, attacking it until its walls are afire.

Bloody Mary has four knights and several swordsmen charge out the portcullis. All are incinerated.

14-Slanted window—Turn slightly right and see scene through angled window, then walk there. Through the window we see this scene:
:arrow_right:Horatio Nelson nobly rides a DUKW into the lake as a ceremonial band plays atrocious music.

Insulted, he fires a cannon and then charges from the water firing a machine gun. Both weapons are mounted on the DUKW.

…

ACME HAND-HELD WEAPONS

21-Left Garden Windows-looking out to garden table and neighbor’s house-move here, turn L.
:arrow_right:Charles Manson tortures a female prisoner, stabbing her repeatedly with an arrow.

…

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Hey Bill!

As someone who’s memorized mnemonica and aronson stacks, I’ve got a few thoughts regarding your questions!

Looks like a good start! You may want to consider a simpler approach to representing your cards and stack positions as “characters” and “objects.” These types of elements are usually the simplest to create interactions between. So card 1’s person does something memorable to or with stack position 1’s object.

There are lots of ways to associate numbers to objects. You might look up the Major System, as this provides many options for word construction. There are lots of posts where folks have shared their number lists (mine is here), and you can also use a resource like memcoder.com to help generate ideas for your 52 stack position words.

Yes. Creating a connection with the location is really important. A common misunderstanding of memory palaces is that you just imagine going to a location and see what you put there, but unless the location itself is able to somehow prompt you to remember the mnemomic imagery, its basically useless.

Imagine your couch is the location and the imagery is a tiger. If you just have a tiger sitting on your couch, even though that is an out of the ordinary thing, there is nothing in that scene that will really help you remember it. You’ll picture the couch and probably think “hmmm there was something sitting on that couch, but what was it?” Or you think of the tiger and think “where was the tiger?.. it was sitting on something, but that could be anywhere…”

Now contrast that with imagining the tiger actively shredding the cushions, claw marks all over the sides of the couch, the couch itself having tiger stripes and fur… THAT will cause the imagery to jump out immediately when you think of the couch and easily remember “tiger.”

So yes, find a connection unique to the location and make it part of the action of your mnemomic scene.

Yes. Don’t worry about a minimum or maximum number per room. Use a path that is logical and doesn’t crisscross or back track and pick out as many distinct landmarks along the way as you can. If an area only has one or two, fine. Use them and keep moving. Have a room with tons of unique features, great! Focus in on each and use them. You should know exactly which landmark follows from every other. You can even start outside your home and end up back outside. Remember that anything can be a landmark, but try to keep them distinct. Try not to use multiple chairs around your dining table if they are all the same. Try not to use a bed in every bedroom, unless they are easily distinguishable. (So like two generic queen beds are probably not good to use both, but a generic queen bed and a kids bunk bed are distinct.)

Knowing what locations connect is part of what will allow you navigate forward and backward through your stack so having a 52 landmark route that flows naturally is helpful.

I think what you’re asking is if you should visualize the ACTUAL card or imagine the ACTUAL number somehow? If so, I’d say no. In my opinion there is no real benefit to that. The whole point of mnemonic imagery is to NOT have to remember abstract and difficult to remember things, but to replace them with concrete and easy to remember things. The card index and the stack position number are abstract things. Difficult to remember as is. Adding them back into the scene doesn’t really help you. But replace them with people and objects and they become tangible. Here’s the fun thing though, after you practice a bunch with your mnemonic imagery and you mentally convert “Charles Manson is the 3 of Spades” after a while Manson kind of fades away and you will actually just recall the card itself in that scene without having to actively visualize it as Manson’s part of the scene.

This is like wanting to learn jazz guitar and asking if it’s worth learning 3 different ways to play each chord. You don’t HAVE to, but by committing the effort up front, your playing will be smoother and more enjoyable. This is a one-time cost that you pay up front in exchange for learning a lasting skill and building the framework to master it. Magic (card magic in particular) is all about extra effort in small details, so this should be nothing new. Compare it to the effort needed to learn a variety of sleights and false shuffles and working on good patter. I assume you’re not opposed to extra planning and effort for those things, so apply the same dedication here.

Also, the only thing about this process that could be “difficult” should be the initial build out of your lists of people, objects, and locations. Once that list is built, the learning process itself should be fun. Challenging, yes, but you should take some enjoyment out of the process. Track your progres and watch as you incrementally get faster at recognizing the card people and the stack number objects. Enjoy navigating through your house and imagining the scenes that are taking place at each stop. The learning process shouldn’t feel like work. After a while, you’ll have developed those connections to a point of fluency and the fun of applying it to performing can begin.

Make sure you set realistic expectations on how long this process will take. While you can learn your associations in a few hours, to get to the point of instant recall will take time. Don’t get frustrated if its difficult at first. You’re learning a new skill. It’s like doing one-handed cuts and faro shuffles… You’ll get there if you’re consistent with your effort!

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Hi, TheHumanTim, thanks very much for your helpful and detailed feedback. I’ll go back and revise my loci to not be restricted to a certain number by room and will look for locations where the place or an existing item in the space will remind me of a link. I’ll add the connection between the locus and the link.

If I follow, then I actually have two associations at each location. One is between the location itself (or whatever is there) and the character. The second is between the character and the object representing the stack index. Or, instead, the locus object could be affecting both character and object (see later garage door example slamming on both).

Going back to my locations then I need to choose ones that offer more interaction, especially where there can be bizarre, explosive, and dangerous interactions with characters. For example,

Automatic Garage Door ⏤ can dangerously spring open or shut

Wooden Fence — character gets impaled on slats, eaten by squirrels

HVAC Room ⏤ character inside HVAC room is electrocuted as it floods

So, where previously I had Ben Franklin trying to electrocute a large bear (Big Bear constellation) by flying a kite, I might now need Franklin and the bear struggling in the flooding HVAC room or being repeatedly hit by the automatic garage door going up and down.

I’ll also see if I can find simpler categories than constellations, too, like objects that rhyme with numbers for the first ten locations. E.g., to borrow from one of the lists I saw posted by Flame0 Jonathan:

  1. Acid
  2. Swan
  3. Sumo
  4. Sari
  5. Easel
  6. Sewage
  7. Husky
  8. Safe
  9. Soap
  10. Daisy

Looks like I’ll need to learn the Major System, with a focus on decoding to numbers first.

And I need a circular route through the house not backtracking or criss-crossing. That may be a challenge since it is a two story house with basement, so I will need to be going up and down the same stairs to visit all rooms. I suppose I can start downstairs and work my way up. I think I may actually need to draw a map of my route.

Thanks! Any other suggestions also appreciated!

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