Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0371: Memorize the books of the Bible in order

Episode Date: August 10, 2015

Susan asks about memorizing the books of the Bible in order. I provide a mnemonic system for accomplishing this memory feat very quickly. BONUS: Here’s a quizzing set you can use to memorize the key words of this poem: Memorize strange meeting What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, […]

Master of Memory 371. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Susan asked a question about memorizing the books of the Bible in order. This is a great application for a linear memory palace where you're not organizing the books or the items that you're trying to memorize by some sort of function or some sort of category. You're just placing them directly in order in a straight line through a memory palace.

The first thing that I would do is come up with a brief mnemonic for each name of each book of the Bible. I suggest using a memorable character based on number pegs 1 through 66 if you're interested in keeping the order of the book straight and in doing future stuff with these books as well, such as memorizing entire books. That's not particularly important for this specific project, it's just good for future expansion into memorization of passages. So don't worry about that for now if you don't know what I'm referring to, but for those who are regular listeners you probably know what I'm talking about, coming up with a memorable character for each of the books of the Bible. So, just make sure that each book, this is the point as far as this project is concerned, make sure that each book is distinctly memorable, and you know what each one is so that you can create an image for it somehow. Next, what I would do is use a memory palace with 11

large stations. So it could be, let's say if it's your house, your front porch, nine rooms in your house, and one station outside the back door. These are 11 large stations, each of which can contain six items. Then place the six items in each station, maybe six memorable characters around your porch. The first one is Genesis, the second one is Exodus, the third one is Leviticus, and so on. So you have six characters in each station. But don't stop there. Don't be satisfied with just creating a memory palace. The fourth thing that I would suggest doing is recording yourself listing all the books of the Bible in order. So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.

Just create a recording of yourself listing all of those books and listen to that recording several times throughout this project. You want it to be in your auditory and oral memory, not just in a memory palace. You want it to be in both places because the muscle activity of just physically saying these books is really going to accelerate your memorization of them. Now, as far as doing the work

of actually memorizing all of these things, you've placed them in your palace, you've kind of listed out where they are in each location, but now comes the time actually to get in and memorize them one by one. And what I would do is suggest actually starting either at the end, so learning the last six

and then the six before that and so on, or start with every other station. For example, you could learn numbers 7 through 12 just inside your house. That's the second station. And then numbers 19 through 24. That's the fourth station. Numbers 31 through 36. That's the sixth station. and numbers 43 through 48, the eighth station, and 55 through 60, the tenth station. That way, every time you listen to that recording of yourself saying those names, you'll remember very well those six that you're learning, plus your mind will be actively listening to the items in between. So you'll actually learn everything a lot faster by doing this sort of scatter approach,

learning every other station. So that's exactly what I would do, Susan. And for everyone listening, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.