Halls of the mind: what is it and how to develop it?

The phrase "halls of reason" in most modern people is strongly associated with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The famous character, created by the great Arthur Conan Doyle, skillfully used some of the tricks that received a common name - the halls of the mind. This work has been filmed more than once, and each time the directors show this detective ability in a new way.

The palaces of the mind - a special method of memorizing information, which was described before our era in the textbook “Rhetoric for Guerenius,” whose author is unknown. There are several names to this method. It is often called the Cicero method, the method of places or the method of loci from the Latin locus - location.

In any case, the technique is used to improve memory. Therefore, the method is also known under another name - the palace of memory.

Can we independently create our own palace of memory, enter it, or is it subject only to such great minds as Sherlock Holmes? Experts say that mnemonics is available to everyone. Anyone can build his palace of memory and learn to use it no worse than a brilliant detective. The main thing is desire and patience.

True, opinions on exactly how and where to erect the palace differ. Some believe that it must certainly be based in a familiar environment - in an apartment or even exclusively in a separate room. Others believe that the coveted palace should be created from scratch, from scratch. It is necessary to build a completely new space in the imagination, for example, a medieval castle.

Proponents of the familiar environment claim that it is best to arrange the mind halls along a well-known street route, for example, on the road from home to work. Some use their workplace, favorite club, museum, or even church to create them. In any case, this will help to master the secrets of mnemonics (a set of techniques for remembering the necessary information).

One of the simplest, and therefore suitable for beginners, is the palace of memory, created in its own bedroom. Every corner is familiar to you in it. However, to create “halls” in it, it is necessary to go into a familiar environment, as it were, anew.

Next, determine the places in it where you will mentally place the information you need. Such places may be a dressing table, bedside table, pillow, headboard, mirror, and so on. Creating “halls” is akin to meditation, many close their eyes to this, and use relaxing music. You need to mentally walk through the place chosen to create the "halls" several times. Remember every detail there and only then post information there.

The better you study your palace, the better it will help your memory in the future. If you wish, you can fill your palace with other clues - smells, for example. It is also recommended to draw it in all the smallest details, discuss it with friends. And only then you can reliably place the necessary information there.

Every time you need to go around your abstract domain in the same order. That is, strictly clockwise or vice versa. If you have chosen a street for your "halls", then there is only one route. And always start it from the same place. So let's get started.

• Every memory in your virtual palace should be stored as an object.. For example, in order not to forget about meeting a new person, you can hang his photo at the head of the bed. By the way, here you can fix other "nodules" as a keepsake.
• It is recommended to divide the imaginary space into several zones, in each there is a place for four to five visual memories.
• If your room has two absolutely identical shelves, then only one can be used to store information. Repetition in this case is best avoided, confusion may occur.
• We go through our palace further. If you have plans to go to the store the other day, you can also make a shopping list using your own “hall”. Mentally place the necessary products on a pillow, bedside table, bookshelf and so on, if you want, add smell, color, music to the visual row, or imagine how an egg cassette fell from a table and milk spilled onto a computer keyboard. Then, having come to the store and mentally returned to your “chamber”, you will definitely not forget to buy eggs and milk. A shopping list is, of course, not the most brilliant idea for using this method of remembering, in a supermarket it may be easier to use a regular list written by hand or hammered into the phone, but this is a great opportunity for beginners to try out the skills of managing the memory palace.
• With experience, it will be possible to use skills in more important situations, such as passing an exam or a test, giving a lecture, and so on. With the addition of each item, go around your possessions again and again, so as not to miss a single detail. Only in this way can you recreate the picture invented in your head on demand. So it will be easier to create, and then reproduce the associative series.

So, how to create and get into the palace of memory, we figured out. But like any structure, your "halls" require care.Do not forget to visit your property. Do such locus training, or as they are often called - mental or mental walks, regularly, spend at least 15 minutes a day in them, even if you have nothing to add to the atmosphere there. Thus, we train our brain, and as a result, intelligence.

In order to better remember the memory items placed in the “halls”, there are several methods. With their help, it is easy to remember complex foreign words, the necessary numbers and dates, the menu for a festive dinner. In general, the Loki method can be useful to anyone - from a housewife to a financial tycoon. Here are a few secrets to help you master it.

In order to remember the numbers, they also need to be visualized. And even shocking pictures will do. Experts say they are even more effective than emotionally neutral. For example, you need to remember the number 128 - imagine a unit in the form of a spear, a two in the form of a swan, and then imagine how one blow carries the bird into eight parts at once. Cruel, but believe me, the number 128 will remain in your memory for a long time.

Suppose you need to remember the number 194102. It should be divided into parts: 1941 - the year the war began, 02 - police phone number. You can visualize each digit: 7 - an ax, 0 - a wheel, 8 - a snowman and so on.

Another option. You need to remember to congratulate your bride’s mom on January 12th. Imagine Ostap Bender from "12 Chairs" by Ilf and Petrov. Yes, the one with a long scarf, but not in the freshest, right after the New Year holidays. Remember the birthday of the future mother-in-law? It seems that you will not forget it, no matter what happens.

This method is well suited for learning foreign languages. In Turkish, the word “salt” is consonant with our card “ace”. For better memorization, we put a box of salt with an ace on the shelf, hold our attention to this mental design for at least 5 seconds and leave it there until we need this information. As soon as this corner in the world of abstractions needs to be freed, our memory will do it easily and without regrets. She always easily parted with information that was no longer necessary and important for us, which is why information that we do not use in everyday life is so easily forgotten.

By the way, this can happen without your will. If you leave your possessions in your head for a long time unattended, then they will soon disappear or, more simply, like atrophy without muscle training. So if you decide to create your own palace of memory, then you need to visit and update it every day.

There are symbols that are fixed in the minds of most people. At the same time, people themselves never thought about creating halls of consciousness. For example, the majority of tortoises are associated with slowness, the red cross with health care, the scepter and crown are symbols of power. In order to better remember this or that information, think up a suitable correct symbol for it and put it in a free place in your memory palace.

Symbols will come to mind easily and naturally, at your first request to reproduce this or that information.

According to some reports, the method of loci was invented by the ancient Greek poet Simonides, who lived from 556 to 468. BC. According to legend, he was the only one who survived after the collapse of the building, where he feasted with friends and more. When asked to identify the dead, he did it without much difficulty, just remembering which place one of them was sitting at the table before the disaster.

According to other sources, the first halls of the mind were created in their heads by masters of rhetoric back in ancient Rome. They just had no choice.Roman speakers did not have the right to use recordings during their speeches. And so they began to use such a method to memorize numerous facts. In those days, public speaking was not regulated and lasted several hours.

Today, world championships are held in memory. During these competitions, participants memorize more than a hundred words in literally instants, in one or two seconds. One of the most famous champions of such tournaments is the English author of books on the development of memory, Dominic O'Brien. In 2002, he set an impressive record by remembering a sequence of 2,808 cards, looking at each of them only once.

What are you capable of, you can try to find out right now - just start the construction of your palace of memory. Numerous articles and books published on this topic will help to improve in this matter. But do not forget - we live in the age of computer technology, when the old good Sherlock Holmes with his deduction was replaced by the modern Sherlock, with the halls of reason.