Palace of Memory: the effective method that will help you remember everything
Through spatiality and emotions, this technique will help you remember everything you want with a little effort.
Hypermnesia is the mental disorder that causes sufferers to remember everything they have experienced in their lives. All. From the color of the socks they wore at their three-year party, to the exact words with which their childhood love broke their hearts.
Contrary to what anyone would think, this circumstance is not entirely pleasant: these people can not forget the most painful moments of their lives, traumas are always present and can hardly enjoy emotional stability. However, while they struggle to try to forget, millions of people constantly search for a method that helps them remember an unlimited number of things.
It is the Palace of Memory, a mnemonic method that makes use of the incredible facility of human beings to remember places and emotions. This technique proves that abstract ideas can remain in memory if they are associated with these two aspects.
In scientific terms, it is about elaborative coding: a system of hooks and associative anchors by means of which information can be related unconsciously until it reaches the memory.
This name has its origin in the Confessions of St. Augustine, where he speaks of the "Palace of Memory" as a metaphor to explain how our memories work. However, an historical anecdote refers to a better approach to its functioning: in ancient Greece-about 2,500 years ago-there was a poet named Simónides, who attended a banquet where he had been hired. After the event, a cataclysm occurred and all the assistants died. Not only that, but his remains were so unrecognizable that no one could know who was there.
The tragedy was even worse when the conditions made the burial of the deceased impossible, given its extremely important character for the Greeks. However, the poet returned to the place and after seeing it for a few minutes, he was able to remember who was sitting in each place.
How to do it?
This system works on the basis of human visual and spatial memory, the product of thousands of years of evolution where it was essential to know which place was dangerous, where the refuge was, and so on. If you want to practice it, carry out the following steps:
- Think of a place that you know very, very well. The most advisable thing is that it is your house. You are used to it. You can also do it with a tour that you do every day.
- Make a list of everything you want to memorize. It could be your super list, the name of your new co-workers or anything you need for an exhibition.
- Think of images or symbols that are relevant to you. They can be emoticons or images of your favorite things: kisses, hearts, stars, whatever.
- Associate these symbols with the things you want to remember. Try to have an emotional relationship or one that makes you remember a specific aspect of it.
- Imaginarily, "place" each of the symbols or images in the places of your route. If it's your house, you can "put" each one in a different room. Do not do it randomly, but with a sense of meaningful association.
That way you can memorize everything you propose in a short time. Evolution will play on your side. The more you practice it, the more you will remember everything you propose.