The Method of Loci or MOL is an ancient memory strategy that dates back to around 500 BC. According to a legend described by Cicero, Simonides discovered the strategy during a tragedy that befallen his comrades in a banquet in Thessaly.
Simonides was a poet, who was invited to gather along with other poets in that feast. His attention was called by two messengers outside who have something to tell him, and shortly after coming to them, the roof of the building where they were feasting collapsed. The tragedy that came thereafter was perhaps greater than the catastrophe itself, because the bodies of the dead were much too garbled to be identified for proper burial.
Moved by sympathy and grief for the wailing relatives who were frantically searching for things that might identify their dead loved ones, Simonides mentally traveled back in time and tried to recollect the visual images of people in their seats right before the roof fell down. This enabled him to identify the corpses where they were found.
Loci or locus (singular) is the Latin word for place. Basically, the method employed is to use visual imagery of familiar places in order to associate these locations with the things that you want to remember. That is why this mnemonic method is also called “memory journey” or “mind palace” technique.
Cicero, Quintilian and other Greek orators and rhetoricians from the classical period mastered this system to deliver their speeches without carrying a note or something. They would associate the basic points of their messages with images of places in their mind in their proper order. The fundamental form of this method, as used in the classical era, is that the orator would lay out in his mind’s vision the image of an intricate but familiar building, such as a public theater or temple.
He would then assign each point of his message to one corner, location or to an object, such as a sword or statute. The orator would recollect the points one by one in their proper sequence as he, in his mind’s vision, moved around the place according to a prearranged route.
Throughout the medieval and early modern period, many other elaborate variations of the Method of Loci have been employed. For example, some people add auditory, visual and other details to the locations to strengthen the memory, but usually, the depositing of the objects to be remembered in their loci without further details is effective enough because spatial memory is quite strong.
Other variations that evolved thereafter include the creation of imagined locations and application of the same process in the Method of Loci. It may be hard work at first and it takes a lot of time because this variation involves creativity and a lot of imagination, and then the next thing is to familiarize the mind with the imagined towns or cities.
The advantage sought here is to assign each place to a specific area of study – which may contain a lot of information to memorize – and then create a well-organized information system that will last for long-term storage and easier recall if reviewed.