WEBVTT - The Memory Palace Revisited (with Nelson Dellis) 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.240 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.960 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Joe 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.680 and I recently had the chance to talk with Nelson Dellis. 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.800 He is a memory champion, a memory athlete, as some 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.000 might say. Yes, someone even say a mental athlete. Um 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.400 though when I when we chatted with him, he did 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:31.880 mention that he doesn't like to use that terminology because 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.279 if he goes out to the UK, that makes him 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:39.000 sound like he's got a problem. But but no, this 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.560 this guy is one of the leading memory athletes in 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.600 the world. He is. Uh. He uses the method of 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:50.400 loci the memory Palace, which is a fabulous device that 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:55.480 allows you to use spatial memory to catalog at times 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.760 just obscure facts or even just useless data. It's really 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.000 one of the great mental technologies that I've ever encountered. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.720 I haven't used it much, but I think it's very 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.760 interesting and I'd like to give it an exploration sometime soon. Yeah, 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.400 it's fascinating stuff. So we recently chatted with Nelson and uh, 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.760 we're gonna air that interview, but first we thought it 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.319 would be helpful to go ahead and re air some 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.600 previous stuff to blow your mind content about the memory palace, 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.959 about the method of loci, how it works, where it 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.120 comes from, and then we'll talk to the expert himself 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.160 to give some inside information. So, without any further ado, 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.800 here is Robert and Julie's excellent old discussion of the 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:40.360 memory palace. Really, I don't have the best memory in 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.080 the world. Um, I mean, maybe it's an average memory. 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.000 I'm not saying I'm I have problems with my brain 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.120 or anything, but I often forget that. I think everybody 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.400 has this where the really boring stuff you need to 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.560 remember sometimes, uh you don't remember. I can have a 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.840 simple list to go to the grocery with, and if 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.960 I don't have it written like in the notes section 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.320 of my iPhone, then I'm not going to remember everything. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.800 Even if it's something vital, like something the thing that 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.120 I need to eat that night, an important component in 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.600 the in the the meal, I still will forget to 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:19.919 pick it up. I'm sorry, what were you just saying that? Uh, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.399 you know, I have a horrible memory. Actually I read 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.919 something when our research that compared memory to a Wikipedia entry. Yeah, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.760 and they were saying, it's like it's your memory is 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.079 constantly being altered and augmented and then sometimes pared away. Yeah, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.520 and sometimes the stuff that it's being updated with is 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.959 completely uh not true. It's horse manure sometimes turns out. Yeah, 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.800 and that's not necessarily what we're gonna talk about today, 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.799 but you could actually talk to me about that before, 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.400 and I thought it was fascinating. We're just saying that 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.720 when you have a memory, each time you bring it up, 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.760 you're revising it in some way. Oh yeah, yeah, well 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.280 we'll we'll definitely have to cover that in an upcoming 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.040 episode in more detailed. But yeah, every time you bring 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.280 up a memory, you're not just removing it pristine from 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.720 the vault and then returning it pristine to the vault, 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.400 but you're updating at each time because your brain needs 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.560 updated information because we live in a world, as as 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:15.800 we discussed in our math podcast, we live in a 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.920 world and we have to navigate a world of multiple 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.280 movable objects and symbols, so we have to be able 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.680 to fly with that yep, and then hence the horsemen 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.919 who are sometimes right right. So people have had horrible 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.280 memories for as long as we've had to remember things 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.800 because just as math, as we discussed in the Math Podcast, 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.000 we develop mathematics to do the things that we're not 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.640 naturally inclined to be able to do with our normal 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.280 mental faculties. We have to develop systems. But what to 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.000 do if you're in the Roman Empire, for for instance, 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.080 just hanging out and you don't necessarily have a ton 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.760 of books around you or your your iPhone there. Yeah, well, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.520 in this case, you've turned to something called the memory palace, 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.000 also known as the method of low key. Right. That's right, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.480 And the origins of this go back to a particular 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.040 back to the fifth century BC and a Greek poet 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:13.360 by the name of Somonodes of CEOs. And uh, he 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:15.839 was attending a party, you know, in the dining hall, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.320 having fun around the table with a bunch of a 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.520 bunch of buddies, and he h walked out for a 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.040 few minutes, and the whole entire place collapsed behind him. 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.240 Oh he walked out. I wondered how he survived. Okay, yeah, 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.880 maybe he went out for smoke or something, but but 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.640 he went outside, Uh, and everything collapsed. He survives. Everybody 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.599 else's just crushed to just mush just a Smucker's jam. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.880 There's no identifying these people. But he was, yeah, with 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.880 a name like Smuckers. Um, so he goes back in, 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.400 you know, he doesn't go back in, but they dig 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.480 everything up again, Smucker's jam everywhere, and they're like, all right, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.720 who were each of these people? And he he says, well, 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.680 let me think about it. And he's able to identify 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:04.160 each puddle as as he's able to that was, and 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.920 he's able to identify them based on their seating position 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.800 at the table. He's able to remember where they were 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.360 spatially and therefore remember who they were identified these remains, 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:17.640 and this was a big moment for him, right yeah, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.520 because then he realized, hey, I could apply this to 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.400 other things in my life. If I have a list 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.960 I need to remember, if there's a long list of 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.440 facts I need to get down, this is how I 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.760 could do it. And uh and and so this survived 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.320 for ages, uh you know, well, you know, for centuries 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.080 and centuries and on up through today. Um. One big 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:42.440 proponent of this was Dominican monk UH Giordano Bruno, who 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.520 was actually he was burned at the stake in UH 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.960 sixteen hundred for heresy. But it wasn't the memory palace 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.840 method that they got him there though, I think some 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.520 people found it kind of creepy. But his whole thing 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.360 had to do with he believed that God was president 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.160 nature and the universe and life was infinite there where 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.599 that you know, there might be aliens or something and uh, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.800 and so that got him into the hot water. Yeah. 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.000 The Roman Catholic Church wasn't big on that at the time, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.839 but today they have a statue where he where he 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.680 was burned, and and he's more revered these days. No, 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.120 that's nice, you know, at least later on. Yeah, So 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.600 the basically the the idea here, uh, if you want 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.200 to look at like just sort of a simple version, 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.280 if you take these mundane facts and you position them 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.600 in a spatial framework and you make and you make 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.040 them interesting, all right, So that the idea of the 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.080 memory palace is to create a mental house in which 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:42.559 to house and organize symbolic images, which then could serve 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.080 as a queue for information retrieval, right right, Like for instance, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:50.880 our good friend um um, the simonities here could easily 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.960 populate this this banquet table with um, you know, a 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.320 list of addresses he needs to remember if he can 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.920 come up with a unique way to remember each one 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:01.960 and then remember them in order based on where they 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.599 are at the table. Okay, and um, just a little 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:09.040 side fact to Thomas Harris's novel Hannibal. Actually, Hannibal Lecter 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.960 uses memory palaces for his patients records. Yeah he does. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.600 I've forgotten about that. I read that. Yeah, he even 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:21.600 includes music too for the rooms that he's going into. Um. Well, hey, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.880 it's good enough for Hannibal Lecter, you know, it's it's 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.880 good enough for me, which is why I actually tried 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.760 this out yesterday. And I'm going to repeat everything that 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.920 I imagined the way I built and populated my memory 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.200 palace so that I could remember a list of five 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.239 things to get from the grocery store in the way home. Okay, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.960 he didn't write a thing down, No, did not write 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:44.880 a thing down. He didn't put anything in my in 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.239 my phone and uh and so these were the things. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:53.239 Just it was a soy creamer, ingle Hoffer's mustard, ant traps, 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.840 frozen fruit, and toilet paper. So you know, just this 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.400 a standard run for me. Um, all right, what is 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.880 your mem smory palace look like? So I decided to 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.360 for the space. I decided to use the space that 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.720 I'm occupying right now, the house stuff works podcast room 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.680 slash podcast chamber. Okay, so this is why I pictured it. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.840 All Right over here behind you is our sound booth, 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.160 and inside it I pictured a robot cow drinking coffee 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.680 for my soy milk, all right, and then seated where 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.600 you are. You're not here, but instead there's a large 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:32.360 German man in in a later hosen, big mustache going on, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.800 and he's got big clumps of of of spicy hot 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.600 mustard in his mustache. And that's the inglehoppers mustache, because 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.040 it has a little German man on the loop. Then 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.560 in this seat between us, because the table that we 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.600 record at has a third chair that is never occupied 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.160 by an actual person um but in in my memory palace, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.640 it is occupied by a large pile, like a human 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.440 sized pile of frozen fruit. And it's just gleaming in 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.320 the light, smelting a little bit, smelling wheat and uh. 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.600 And you know I can see strawberry and mango and all. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.760 And because this is an important part of the memory, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.640 cost to add some details to it. You know, you're 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.520 not just thinking the word Um, you know you're not 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.719 just thinking the word frozen fruit, you're picturing it. Uh, 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.800 it is existing in space and not just a concept, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:18.400 all right. And then if I were to poke my 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.680 head out through these curtains where Jerry is setting, uh, producer, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:27.600 I would see a giant ant and that Aunt is 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.160 dressed in Maria von Trapps dress from the Sound of Music, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.480 because I need to remember Aunt Traps. Yeah. And then 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.920 the fifth item. Standing at the green screen behind Jerry's seat, 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.800 there is a toilet paper mummy going through a number 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:48.560 of sexy poses for the camera. They're sexy poses. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.080 so and so anyway it worked. I was able to 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.079 remember I know only five things. That's kind of puny, 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.440 but I was able to remember these five things. Now 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:58.440 you can also say that while I was doing this 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.800 for the podcast, I was applying thought to this than 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.680 I would normally apply to the list that I things 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.080 I need to pick up. And it's also worth noting 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.920 that even though this is an abbreviated version, one can 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.480 use use people use this for hundreds of items, right 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.920 And in fact, in each room you could have I 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.959 don't know five ten different items that are living there. 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.960 It's just a matter of placing the object, right, Yeah, 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:22.560 well how about you. Do you have a memory palace, 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.760 so you've constructed. I do, and I'm not going to 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:30.600 actually share it, um because I don't think it's I'll 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.760 share one on my on my list. And basically I 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.400 need to mail my fs A reimbursement right flexible spending account. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.679 So at my front door, I just pictured angry chirups 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.440 with wings made out of dollar bills greeting me at 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.320 the front door with a pile of mail. Oh well 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.480 that's good, right, like you, And they're angry because I'm like, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.400 you don't send this stuff in. My wings are going 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.320 to fall off or whatever. I don't know, but I 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.319 do have other rooms, but just for brevity's sake, I 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.600 won't I won't tell. But what I love about this 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:01.560 is that it quickly becomes very similar to the surrealism 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:03.760 that I don't know about you, but for me, that 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.920 I experienced in my dreams. Yeah yeah, right, Like all 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.559 of a sudden, there's these incongruent things going on and 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.920 they're they're wild and they're fantastic. And that's I think 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.480 why we remember our dreams sometimes, right, because they're so 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.600 extraordinary yeah, we were at least yeah exactly, I mean 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.760 we were. We were talking about about this how we 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.840 take something mundane and we turn it into something crazy 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.080 and memorable in the same way that on this trip 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.240 from New York we we both just came back from 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.600 attending the World Science Festival in New York City. By 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:35.600 the way, two eleven, it's gonna be back in two 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.040 thousand twelve. Highly recommend anybody who's big into science and 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:39.960 was in New York to give it a go. And and 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.440 and that's actually where I attended a I was an 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.400 audience for a panel on memory, and that's where I 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.240 get really excited about the concept of the Memory Palace. 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.520 But while I was waiting to go into one of 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.439 these events, my wife and I were waiting out in 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.520 this little courtyard area and we saw this man walk 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.800 up with a box like cardboard box under his arm 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.160 that said Trout on the side, like I don't know, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.960 like a beer card, like a box like beer would 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:07.599 come in or something, but he just said Trout. I 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.400 don't know what the brand was, But anyway, he's standing 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.200 in there, puts his box down on the ground and 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.679 he gets a handful of of like bread or crackers out, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.920 and he starts feeding the pigeons, which I don't think 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:20.839 it's technically illegal, but he's doing it anyway. So he's 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.760 feeding the pigeons. Three of them land there, and they're 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.480 just standing there eating, and then slowly he starts raising 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.440 his hand up, moving his hand forward, and then he 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.920 reaches down, snatches one of the pigeons, stuffs it into 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.560 the cardboard box, and then walks off with the cardboard 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.040 box full of a pigeon. And so you told me that, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:38.760 And I don't think I'll ever be able to look 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.760 at a pigeon without thinking of that poor pigeons fate. Yeah, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.160 or or or wondering again why the side of the 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:52.520 the cooler said trout, Yeah, yeah, so that it's yeah. 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.360 I have no idea what he was doing with it, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.080 what the purpose was, if he was an official pigeon catcher, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.080 if he was gonna eat it for dinner, uh, you 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.520 know who knows. But it was memorable because it was 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.319 so weird. And so the memory palace is is kind 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.400 of like, let's make the mundane fact, Let's make the 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.800 soy creamer that I will inevitably forget. Let's make that 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.400 into something memorable so that I can't forget it at 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.760 least for a short term. Um. And then you can 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.280 you can use this this uh this memory palace and 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.840 you can populate it with hundreds of items, so you 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.360 can you can remember a list in order of hundreds 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.360 of items. And that's what mental athletes do. They're called 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.280 mental athletes, and we'll get to them in a bit. 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:45.599 Umah after this quick break and we're back. Do you 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:50.640 remember what we were talking about everyone memory palace robotic cow. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.520 well that that was part of it. That was how 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.000 we remember. Yeah, well, let's just walk is really quickly, 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.240 just like sort of four easy steps on how you 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.400 can create your own memory palace. Um. So we've already 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.640 talked about the first step, which is create a physical 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.080 location that you can clearly visualize right now. And that's 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.360 why I went with the podcast chamber for me because 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.160 I see it all the time. I'm very familiar with 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.920 the with the locations, and I can I can imagine 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.480 it instantly, right, and you can make up your own palace, 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.040 you know, just as long as you can um get 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.720 a clear beat on the detail of it. Might I 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.440 recommend like maybe the command deck from one of the 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:27.240 Star Trek shows. That would be good. There you go. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.120 That's a good example. Um. And step two is to 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.440 establish a memory route through the location. Right, So if 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.400 you're gonna you say, your childhood home, then you want 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.560 to go through the front door, and you know, pick 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.480 a route that say you go left to the kitchen 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.440 and then down the hallway or so on and so forth. Um, 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.640 you want to keep that same route all the time? 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.000 Am I right about that? Yes? Okay? Yeah. Joshua four 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.320 who wrote a book about all this called Walking with Einstein, 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.040 he actually did a short video for the World Science 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.680 Festival and uh and it was shown during this memory 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.520 pan all that I attended, and uh and he he 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.520 was he actually did it in a garden like in 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.920 a like a gardener was more like a gardenery of 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.480 a park or something, and he was he actually, you know, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.400 he's like, all right, here is going to be and 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.160 it was something crazy like you know, Einstein moon walking 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.600 that's the title. And then he walked through it and 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:18.800 he was able to do like a list of a 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:20.920 D ten things yea. And as he's walking through it, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.120 he's placing the objects. So this is really important. So 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.480 once you're you establish your route. You want to put 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.880 your objects that you want to remember, your things, your 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.480 concepts they want to remember in that room. And the 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.160 reason why you want to do this is because it 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.960 becomes what's called a memory peg. Okay, so that's important 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.160 for step three is you need to now peg the 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.760 memory to the object. So that's when you start to 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.520 think about these really bizarre associations. Right, the more bizarre 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.200 the better. If you want to remember to pick up bananas, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.040 then can visualize your front door as a banana Dakary 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.200 portal with Carmen Miranda greeting you or something along those lines. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.680 It helps if you're kind of silly. I think silliness definitely, 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:01.800 yeah uh. And you can add a song or a 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.280 sent to the memory, especially if you're Hannibal elector right. 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.000 And then step forward is just to repeat the visualization 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.160 until you've cemented the objects to memories. You really pick 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.800 those memories, all right. So it's a fairly simple process. 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.720 So we've probably talked about the research part of this, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:21.280 which is pretty cool, and actually talk about these mental athletes. 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.480 So there are many types of memory. We don't just 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.880 have memory in the human brain. We have just to 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:29.880 give you a brief idea. We have sensory memory, we 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:35.479 have short term, long term, explicit, implicit, procedural, declarative, episodic, semantic, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.600 and uh, and we also have spatial memory. And the 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:45.600 spatial context is extremely important. Like it because again, at 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:50.160 a at a very basic level, we are navigating a world, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:55.840 a physical world of movable, numerous objects and simples. That's right. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.200 And no, I've talked about this before that when you 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.040 walk into a room, that what you're perceiving isn't necessarily 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.480 coming through your eyes. It's coming from the associations that 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.479 your brain is making spatially. So you're whether or not 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.040 you realize that you're you're judging the height of the 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.120 ceiling or the doors, and so on and so forth. Yeah, 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.520 I mean, and if you look back at our evolutionary history, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.080 you know there's a time where you need to remember 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.800 the field where you you know, killed a monkey that 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.040 you're gonna eat or something of that nature. You know, 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:22.720 where does it lay in the field? Has it moved? 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.840 So every we end up having this spatial scaffolding upon 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.880 which we make sense of our entire lives. Just think 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:34.399 of a calendar or think of a timeline like these 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.199 are These are spatial scaffolding systems that we use to 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:41.600 understand what's going on in the world around us. Yeah, 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.439 and I especially like the evolutionary example because if you 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.320 and why you would need the spatial memories because ye 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.879 again think about like trying to find food sources and 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.520 mapping that out in your brain, or trying to figure 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.199 out where that dent of lions are how best to 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.199 avoid them. Yeah, So it's really important distress here that 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.240 the memory palace is not a trick. It's not really 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.200 a trick. It's not something and when you have people 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.439 who can who can use it and use it to 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.000 impressive degrees, not just for five items at the grocery 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.240 store that uh, they're they're not doing anything out of 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.600 the ordinary. Like the spatial way, and the way that 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.280 we use spatial memory in the memory palace is just 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.440 how we think. It's how the brain works. Well. And also, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.000 these mental athletes that compete, right, they actually have very 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.480 average memories. They've tested them. Yeah, these are not superpowered 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.560 brains here. These are normal brains. They're using just to 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.080 tie down what's happening in the brain. And there's a 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.080 lot going on in the brain with memory. But uh, 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.800 spatial memory is tied to the hippocampus, which is located 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:46.840 in the temporal lobe, and it kind of looks like 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.440 a long gummy worm kind of thing in your brain. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.640 And it's also worth noting that at the head of 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.320 this worm you have the amigala, which is tied to 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.200 emotional memory, which again kind of look at the head 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.560 of the worm, and underneath that you have the pa 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:06.040 hippocampal which is tied into details, memory recoding, and memory retrieval. 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:10.119 But the hippocampus that's spatial, and that's the area that 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.639 really fires up when these mental athletes start using the 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.159 memory palace to exceptional degrees. That's right. In a study 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.840 of eight top ranking mental athletes that they were asked 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.399 to memorize three digit numbers and black and white photographs 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.959 of people's faces and magnified images of snowflakes, researchers found 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.400 that in comparison to the control group of non mental athletes, 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.280 the mental athletes were using a lot more of their 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.960 spatial memory in that hippocampus region that you talked about, um, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.679 And again it's because they're using that spatial reasoning to 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.639 peg a blueprint of all the objects that they're memorizing. 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.040 So um, so we're talking about these mental athletes. Let's 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.040 talk specifically about one of the more famous ones. I 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.879 suppose by now, um Joshua four. Yeah, this is the 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:58.200 guy who wrote Moon's Moonwalking with Einstein that I mentioned earlier. Um. Yeah, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.080 he became interested in these individ jules and he's just 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.600 a journalist, right, I want to find out more about this. 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.720 I mean, he became interested in the US Memory Championship 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.199 and he went there expecting to interview a bunch of 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:14.160 savants and uh and just you know, mental giants, and 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.359 and they kind of laughed at the notion when he 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.639 when he asked him the questions because they're like, no, 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.280 I'm just you know, a normal dude and this is 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.240 not that complicated. And so he kind of took it 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.000 on as a challenge to like, well, let me see 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.200 what I can do. Let me try out the memory palace, 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:28.719 let me let me see what I can do with 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.640 the method of Loki. Yeah, and he spent a whole 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.600 year this was just pretty incredible with memory champ ed 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:40.199 cook um literally just so he could improve his mental acuity, 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.040 right that that was his the first thing that he 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.040 wanted to try to do, but he became really obsessed 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.040 with becoming a mental athlete himself. And he went on 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.480 to compete in and win the US Memory Championship, and 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.119 each morning during this year, he would spend fifteen minutes 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:58.760 memorizing a new poem or memorizing the names in an 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.000 old yearbook for instance. Um, but that's not that's not 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.560 where it stopped him. He again, he was obsessed with us. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.600 So on the subway he would start to memorize random numbers, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.040