I hadn't heard the term mind palace until the show, but I  have one. Well, a mind bungalow. I've always called going there 'going into my head.' The rooms are full of filing cabinets and bookshelves. More like Magnussen's mind palace than Sherlock's.

The filing cabinets are full of images that help trigger memories/recollection. I mentally photograph the contents of books so that I can store them on the bungalow's shelves so I can retrieve the information from anywhere.

Yes, it's possible to delete stuff from your mind palace, at least it is for me. It's about forgetting things, that's much harder to do. But I frequently go in and chuck and rearrange things, the way I do with my real house, to make them less prominent so that the stuff that matters is at hand and the stuff that is no longer relevant is tucked away deep. I also occasionally redecorate! The bungalow used to be very dark and cramped, but now it is spacious and well lit.

I mostly go into my mind palace for the purpose of maintenance in a state of wake dreaming just before I go to sleep, but I can retrieve information at any time, and I can hide out there during situations of extreme distress.

I really love the post-shooting scene in Sherlock's mind palace in HLV because it's so realistic. I had a really bad injury about 10 years ago, real life or death situation with hypovolemia and shock and hypothermia and crippling pain while alone in the bush in 40 below weather. I am convinced that if I couldn't have separated myself from what was happening to my body and been able to retreat to my orderly mind palace where I could get the medical information I needed to save my life (I was a medic at the time), I would have died.

My favourite room in the bungalow is the solarium, with all its comfy chairs and lounging spots, where can go be comforted by the memories of the people and pets I have loved and lost.

It's neat to talk about my bungalow; I've never done that. The people in my life just think I'm day dreaming when I go there.

Mary

While reading about mind palaces I started to think of my imagination abilities / visualizing things. Building a mind palace and mind mapping is about "seeing" things, right? For me it is normal to close the eyes and see nothing but black. I can't get pictures. And also no colours. I can imagine things of course (and I also dream) but this feels more like I think those things, I don't see them with inner eyes. When I'm lucky I "see" some diffuse black contours on a black background. That's lousy. I try to look at an object, then close the eyes and imagine it again. It doesn't work neither.Is there a trick to visualize things? Or it this just a thing of practice? I feel like start on this first before I try to build a mind palace. Any suggestions? 

Did you already try it with relaxation music? I think, music is a perfect key to the doors of inner perception.

 

I've been using these techniques since the 1980s. There are better techniques than the memory palce though. The peg system is the best. I enter memory competitions and the whole thing is now an international "sport". It's become my natural way of remembering now and I use it for everything from memorising shopping lists and phone numbers to winning money of gullible people who say it's impossible to memorize a deck of cards in under 2 minutes!

The scenes when Sherlock uses his mind palace are great , it is impressive ! It is more impressive to see it is real
I am trying to build my palace with the method
For the moment I choose my previous house because I lived 10 years in this house.
I choose a route and I try to remember some key elements in the rooms.
It is very exciting !!

Last edited by maxime (December 30, 2014 10:37 am)

This YouTube channel explores a lot of interesting topics. I haven't watched every video but I always enjoy them when I do. This one I watched recently deals with memory, and the concept of the mind palace/memory palace is involved so I thought I would share it. This person starts from a place of not being able to remember things well and then ends up being able to memorize Pi to the 3,141st digit.

I don't know if I could stand all the planning involved in this memorization method, if I'm being honest. It seems like a lot of work, even though apparently she only memorized chunks of information for five minutes at a time once she'd planned out the memory palace.



 

Last edited by Yitzock (August 1, 2023 2:35 pm)