About this document
Hello, dear reader. The following page contains some of my research notes on what the M.E.G. refers to as "The Mind Palace.". It is quite the fascinating phenomenon; an amalgamation of memories intrinsically tied to the human mind, which has proven quite useful in the studies of the dreams, desires, and the general sub-conscious of wanderers in general.
Before beginning this research, I was already familiar with this method of loci, mainly due to the fact that I have done my own research on the subject via reading the books in my own library. However, only as of recent has it achieved widespread use amongst those in The Backrooms — an impact which I had not anticipated.
There are plenty of questions still unanswered about the Mind Palace. This research seeks to improve our understanding of this level, by seeking patterns, methods of entry and interaction, dangers, and the benefits of using this peculiar phenomena to our own advantages.
I — and by extension the various members of the Cygnus Order — have conducted a number of interviews and surveys, with the purpose of obtaining the necessary information that is required for this research. A lot of these interviews were conducted in languages other than English, and they will be presented with both the original, unaltered text, as well as a full translation in English.
-Blanche
Creator :
Hanc Insitus, Independent.
Description :
My Mind Palace is composed of a campfire with a sleeping bag, two tables, a cork board, a chalk board, and a large trunk.
The landscape that surrounds these elements changes every time I get inside my Palace, but the placement of the furniture is the same each time. Four paths are always present, each of them branching off into the four cardinal directions.
Among all the places that I have been able to see, the ones I like the most are dense forests, mountainous plateaus, and tundras. Most of the time, these landscapes are covered by a layer of snow.
The weather inside is representative of my mood and the stress I'm experiencing. Under the influence of a strong negative emotion, rain, or even a storm will be present.
Triggers :
To get inside of my Mind Palace, I just need to take a deep breath and close my eyes. Imagining a cold breeze on my skin helps me access it.
To get out of it, I need to walk through one of the paths that go away from the campfire; my mind will get back inside of my body when I can't hear the crackling of the fire anymore.
Creator :
Ilia, Independent.
Description :
Since the storage space in the Mind Palace is limited, I've optimized the amount of actual data I can store inside it by simplifying it as much as I could. My Mind Palace is a black, empty void where I'm floating upright in the middle of nowhere. The information I'm storing inside my Palace is put into big, floating screens, all adorned with a varied array of colours, that circle me as I stand there.
I can control the position, size, and shape of the screens by moving my hands. I don't need a keyboard or any hardware to put the information on the screens; they simply appear as I want them to.
Triggers :
I trained myself to be able to get in and out of my Palace as quick as possible. It allows me to store information while in the middle of a conversation. My trigger for entering is the same as my trigger to exiting; Clenching my left hand into a fist, and sliding my index and middle finger from my right hand onto it. The movement is quick, and goes from the wrist to the knuckles.
Creator :
Anonymous member of the B.N.T.G. (Security Department)
Description :
Rather than focusing on storing my stuff in here, I'm using my palace as a training ground. You can be harmed in this level, but as soon as you get out of it your wounds will have disappeared. Combined with the ability to create weapons and customized targets at will, it's an obvious choice for me. The place itself is a copy of our training ground on Trader's Keep, with a few modifications that are not worth mentioning.
The point of this training is to allow me to train against entities in a setup I can control. Hounds, Skin stealers, Deathmoths, Facelings… Everything goes.
It's the safest way to fight them; I can get bitten by something infected with the Crawler Fungus and stay alive to try again.
The weapons I use are stuff that I'm equipped with when going on the field: knives, spears, rods of firesalt, smiler repellent when it was still a thing…
Triggers :
I usually close my eyes and imagine myself open a door that leads to my mental place.
To end my training and get back to the real world, I simply say "[Wanderer's name] out" out loud.
Creator :
Megumi Zhao
Description :
The Mind Palace is a sacred place for me. It does the work the drawers in my room could never do, see; you can write on a paper, and you will have told it what has happened. But it is all in your memories now, and to others, a visualization. But in my sacred Palace, I have found ways of preserving these precious, precious, memories.
My Palace takes the form of a long path over a black abyss. At the sides of the path above the abyss, balls of light hang, each one a memory of mine which I can experience once more in immaculate detail by running my hand through it and feeling the warmth it exerts. The feeling is wonderful; I can go back to places outside these accursed rooms, and I can feel alive, without all the worries of the cell I'm in.
Sometimes, I can also create new false memories for me to explore, which stimulates my creativity in the best way possible. I am not confined only to my reality; instead, my imagination is my limit.
Triggers :
To enter my mind Palace, I must go to sleep with the intent of going there. Granted, you must understand that I do not do this very often, as I do not want to have my memories lose their value due to me oversaturating them. But on some long, dreary days, it is exactly what I need to calm myself down. When I am done, all I need to do is let myself fall into the abyss, and I will wake up, oftentimes with a smile on my face.
Creator:
M.E.G. Operative "Bolt"
Description:
This Mind Palace thing is quite useful; I can store my items in here without the fear of losing them; I can enjoy a moment of peace without Sada annoying the hell out of me.
My Mind Palace is a first class passenger airplane. It flies for a few hours before descending down for a momentary break.
The plane is mostly empty and a quiet piano can be heard through the speakers at all times.
Triggers:
I can get here by making an image inside my head of an airplane and then closing my eyes.
For the exit, I wait for the plane to descend and leave through the door.
Creator :
Freya Ölafson
Description :
My Mind Palace isn't much of a specialty; I just like to visualize a sort of grand garden, like the fields me and my brother would spend days frolicking in.
When I'm there, I just like to sit down on the grass and, err, just do nothing, I guess? I do explore occasionally, but there isn't really much to explore but a small forest near a river, which is… oddly emptier than I remember it, actually. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing any living things, no birds, no insects; and good riddance for that last one!
Im getting carried away though, whoops! Well, to summarise, my mind palace is just a place where I can go to unwind, relax, and reflect on the happenings of my life. It's a pretty neat occurrence, and I'm glad it exists!
Triggers :
I'm not sure when or why I started experiencing my own Mind Palace, to be honest. At some point, I just got so sick of my own reality that I just, well, started to enter my Mind Palace when I daydreamed. Don't tell me what the trigger is, I'm just bored outta my mind most of the time and I just zone out into it. Wait, no, that would mean that that's the trigger, right?
Hmm? How I exit? Well, simple, I just take a dive in the river. Nothing wakes me up better than a fresh splash of freezing cold water!
Creator:
Sada
Description:
My Mind Palace is simply an empty beach with an infinite ocean, similar to Level 100.
I spend my time there whenever I am stressed about something or simply bored. Aside from the ocean waves, my Mind Palace is completely silent.
Even if it's my mind and I made it to be empty and quiet, some damned butterflies appeared inside, somehow. I'm not even able to kill them, my hands phase right through them.
Triggers:
To get to my Mind Palace, I simply lay down, close my eyes and, think of waves carrying me to shore. When I open my eyes I arrive here.
Exiting the level is quite simple as well — swimming far into the ocean eventually causes me to leave the level.
Creator:
Boone
Description:
I imagine a cozy cafe filled with the aromatic scent of coffee and an assortment of flaky pastries. The normally busy establishment is slow today, likely due to the frigid and wet weather outside. As I sit in the usual spot, I happily listen to the heavy rain plinking against the roof and windows. A soothing performance by mother nature herself. However, if I stay long enough, sometimes I am treated to a live performance from a small jazz trio that frequents the cafe. I always treat myself to a favourite hot beverage of mine from this place. Some days it's a chai tea if I'm in the mood for something spicy, or apple tea for something soothing. Other days it's a coffee or a latte if I need a jolt of energy, and if I really want to treat myself, I ask for a shot of vanilla flavor.
While I enjoy the ambiance of my comforting surroundings, I write my fictional ideas in my worn journal. Obviously well-loved based on the coffee stains and frayed pages, this journal somehow doesn't fall apart on me. It truly has stood the test of time as my grand ideas of writing a series about plague doctors, ghosts, coppers, and crime syndicates filled its pages. I find myself falling into endless daydreams of the adventures of my characters, all of which I have written a sensitive part of myself into. My struggles, my fears, my pain, they all overcome them so valiantly as I nearly lose myself in another Mind Palace within a Mind Palace.
An impressive sound of thunder cracks through the gloomy autumn sky and snaps me out of my daydream. After scanning the skies in hopes of seeing lightning, I quickly write down another idea and continue sipping my hot drink. I could easily stay here forever…but I certainly know that these ideas within my mind palace are meant to be shared with the world.
Triggers :
Finishing a hot beverage normally jolts me out of my mind palace, but sometimes it takes two drinks. Closing my journal also has this effect as well. Even authors have a hard time escaping writer's block in their own Mind Palace.
Creator:
Frederick 'Rust Punk' Kaiser
Description:
Seriously? You guys have a place where you can do anything you want, and you guys choose all that boring shit? Bah, you people have no creativity.
What I do? Heh, glad you asked.
Basically, it's just Munich, so I'm back at home for a while. Catch is, Munich's not exactly the same. I have a huge workshop in one of the streets, like, really big. I use it to experiment with my ideas and to store blueprints, so it's like a replica of my workshop here. That's interesting on its own, I am a pretty damn creative guy. But see, the real fun begins when I need to blow off some steam, and one of my ideas coincidentally comes to fruition.
I'll take out the thing I'll have created, and I'll blow shit up! Nymphenburg Palace always gets blown first, I hate that place's architecture. Once I'm done with that, and I've tested my new toy's power, I move on to some other places. I'll have destroyed at least half of the city by the time I wake up again, and if I haven't, that idea just isn't crazy enough for me to do in real life. Oh man, you should've seen the time I took out the jet-powered fridge for the first time in my Mind Palace. That thing's probably the most destructive thing I've ever created. It's even more destructive than the fucking Fireseal!
Oh? Why do I take my anger out on my home town? Well, simple; it's the only place I remember clearly enough to actually replicate in all its destroyable glory. You must understand; I am a perfectionist first and foremost!
Triggers:
Sometimes, I get really tired when I'm working, and I begin to drift away and sleep. During these on-desk naps, I'll drift across to the Mind Palace, and continue my work there. I'm not gonna let rest stop me from my work — that'd just be ridiculously stupid and inefficient, time is money as they say!
Creator:
Conor O'Carroll
Description:
I've kinda made bags of my Mind Palace. See, at one point when I discovered I could do this whole thing I got really excited, so I decided to use the Mind Palace like a computer. I had one room that was like a large office in which I could store important information and indulge in my hobbies — I actually manifested a copy of my piano from The Frontrooms there, played the shit outta it when I needed to blow off some steam. Other than the room, the rest of my Mind Palace was just filing cabinets, music players, and storage equivalents to what you'd have on your average run of the mill computer, right?
Well, I kinda fucked up after a while. One time, I tried copying one of the documents which I'd written (It was just a really obscene drawing I thought was funny which I decided to keep for some reason). This resulted in that same paper being constantly copied around the place, and before long, my Mind Palace became flooded. I got pissed at it, so I tried to delete it. Safe to say that didn't actually work: All that happened was that stupid fucking painting just changed to something else. It now had a message written at the bottom, told me to eat shit, and the character in the picture now gave me the finger. I tried a few more times, but it didn't change.
So yeah, now my room's banjaxed, and every time I enter, I just drown in the papers and have no way of getting out of them. I've got no clue how to fix that stupid omnipresent sheet, and it's driving me mad that I can't do any of the cool shit the others do. This just sucks man…
Triggers:
I used to be able to go into it by visualizing my office inside of it, and kinda, y'know, feeling it. It was as simple as one, two, three. But now I've lost control. Sometimes when I go to bed, that thing just sends me into my own personal hell to mess with me. I don't know what it wants from me, but I hate it with a passion. If anyone else knows how to fix it, I BEG of you to tell me, it's like the only reason I'm even talking about this in the first place.