Honestly, I adopted a more elementary approach to how I see scales when I started out, but it DID help me in the long run here... It may confuse some (or all.. ha) but maybe it'll help somebody else out.
I didn't concern myself with all the theory mumbo jumbo when I started. I just learned the names of the modes and the shapes of them. I didn't worry about "this is this scale and this degree of blah blah blah" at that point because I was too overwhelmed just learning the damned scales themselves, let alone learning their life story and hearing about their Uncle Bill's famous whiskey in the process... I know how to write it all out when it comes to "the Phrygian is the major w/ a flatted 2nd." blah blah blah when I think about it. Honestly, I never saw a point at the time, but my fascination led me to learn that all in due time...
I play in groups of shapes and "puzzle pieces", as I call them. Specifically, 3 note patterns. The modes are nothing more than pieces to a puzzle. The way I went about memorizing them was ALWAYS minding what the key of the song is and what the scale I'm using is before anything else. So, say I'm in F# Minor, when I started, I'd find F#, then recall the minor "shape" and play it there.
Now here's an error I think too many people make. They learn all the shapes in one specific key. Work it, drill it, damn near MASTER it... then move to the next key and lose all that progress. For me, at least, it wasn't a process of memorizing a ton of patterns everywhere, I picked one CENTRALIZED shape to go from and worked from there.
So eventually, as I learned the rest of the shapes all across the neck, I'd just remember where the minor "puzzle piece" is, then make the relation to where the other shapes were accordingly. For some reason, it helped me remember where all the rest of the shapes were by having a centralized point to branch off and come back to. Since I learned the Aeolian (minor or "natural minor") shape before any of the others, I just used that one...
So, for example, if I'm in A minor, bam, 5th fret on the E and away we go... But say I'm doing something in E Phrygian over that A minor progression and I go in too hot and lose my place, I just find my minor shape and re-find the Phrygian piece. But then I would sit there and drill the shape into my brain going "this is what Phrygian in E sounds like... see where it is compared to the A minor shape??" So I'd eventually see where the scales are all over the place and could recall them easier later using this sortof relation technique. Even if it's not in a minor key, I became so programmed to do it that way that if the song's in, say, B major. I'll go "hmm, okay, G# minor" and go to the "major shape".... Just remember, this is only a "spacial-relation" technique to help you remember the shapes everywhere on the neck, not to make you play one big minor scale up and down the neck.
More recently, I don't even have to do that anymore. As I worked on that approach more and more, I just immediately went to whatever key/shape I needed, now instead of finding the "central Aeolian shape" or whatever you wanna call it, I can go right to the shape and see how the pieces fit together on the fly.
Pardon the rant, but I wanna be as clear as I can... So, try it out if it sounds reasonable and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
aXe