Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0503: Memorize the Gospel of Mark

Episode Date: February 10, 2016

Florian wants to memorize the Gospel of Mark, which is the most action-packed of the four Gospel accounts. I present sample mnemonics based on my current Scripture memorization method. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 503 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. Florian requested memorization materials for memorizing the Gospel of Mark, or at least memorizing the topics of the Gospel. This episode is going to serve as a sort of guided exercise for you to create your own memory palace with your own mnemonics to memorize the topics of the gospel of Mark. And essentially what you're going to have to do is choose a memory palace, which you can divide into 16 general locations, each of which can be divided into a few more locations. So that might be a house that you're familiar with, it might be a restaurant or a library or something like that. It could be an outdoor area. Just make

sure that you have the different areas fairly distinct. Now I'm also going to present environments for each of these areas, and these environments don't have to have anything to do with the areas. For example, when I say that it's raining in one of these areas, that doesn't mean you should change if you thought that the fourth area was going to be a hall. You just have it raining in the hall for whatever reason. That's what's going to keep the different areas unique and to help you tell them apart and also remember which topics go with which chapters. Now, Mark is a very action-packed gospel. There are more events in each chapter in Mark than there are by far, on average, throughout the rest of the Bible. So for example, just the first chapter of Mark

has about eight different events that happen, eight or nine different events. So this is how I'm going to divide it. Your first area is going to be a very dark area. And to help you remember that, the first chapter of Mark in the major system would be T or D, and so that stands for dark. And the first thing that happens in Mark is we have John the Baptist preparing the way in that dark room. You're going to place John the Baptist preparing the way, an image for that, in the first place in your dark room.

The second thing in the dark room is the baptism of Jesus. The third thing is Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. The fourth thing is Jesus coming to Galilee and starting his ministry there. The fifth thing is Jesus calling the first disciples at the Sea of Galilee. Next, we have Jesus healing a man with an unclean spirit. Next, it starts mentioning other miracles of healing, such as Jesus healing actually Simon's mother-in-law and then a bunch of other people. Next, it talks about Jesus continuing to preach in Galilee. And then finally, Jesus cleanses a leper. You want all of those events spread out in order throughout this first dark area in your memory palace with visual representations of each one.

And maybe each one should somehow reflect the fact that they're in a dark room so that whenever you think of any of these, you'll remember the number one. And you'll remember that they're in chapter one of the book of Mark. Next in chapter two, we have a room or an area, whatever it is, that's very bright and sunny. Maybe it's a room where the sun is shining very brightly in the window because it's just now morning. Or if you're outside, it's just a very bright and sunny day, preferably in the morning, I think, so that the light kind of blaring in our eyes is significant. Or if it's in a dark room or a room that would be dark, you just have very bright lights on one wall or something. And now the events in this room, in order, are first, Jesus healing a paralytic who was let in through the roof. Then second, Jesus calls Levi, who is also known as Matthew.

Next, Jesus is asked about fasting and why his disciples aren't fasting. And then finally, we have Jesus declaring that he is Lord of the Sabbath, kind of rebelling against the legalistic rules that the Pharisees have added on top of the rules for the Sabbath. Our third area is going to be really windy, so you want a cold wind blasting through this area. First, Jesus heals someone with a withered hand. Next, it talks about the huge crowd that follows Jesus.

Then we have the 12 apostles named and appointed. And then Jesus talks about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And finally, we have Jesus talking about his mother and brothers and saying that his true mother and brothers are those who follow him. Next in chapter 4, we have rain. So this next area should be rainy. And the first story here is the parable of the sower, and then Jesus kind of talks about the purpose of parables and explains the parable of the sower. Next, we have a lamp under a basket, and then the parable of the seed growing.

So he says the kingdom of God is like waiting and then seeing the seed growing. Next, we have the parable of the mustard seed, and then we have Jesus calming a storm. All of those are in the area where there's rain. So some of those are pretty easy to put in where there's rain. The next area takes place entirely underwater. So first of all, Jesus heals a man with a demon, and then Jesus heals a woman and Jairus' daughter. These both happen in the same story. In fact, that's true of each of the Gospels where it's mentioned. He goes to heal Jairus' daughter, but he's interrupted by the woman who wants to be healed.

So those two stories, him healing a man with a demon and then healing these two other people, happen underwater. In the next scene, the water has cleared, but there's fog everywhere. And it's kind of peaceful. The fog is very easy to inhale, and it's kind of chilly. Now, Jesus is rejected by his hometown, Nazareth. Next, he sends out the 12 apostles. Next, John the Baptist is killed by Herod. And then Jesus feeds the 5,000.

And then Jesus walks on water. And then finally, Jesus heals the sick in Gennesaret. You want the next area to be really smoky. So imagine there's smoke everywhere. It hints at the fact that there's a fire somewhere, but not yet. So similar to the fog before it and the fire that will come after it, but make it distinct in that it's warm, but there are no flames and it's hard to breathe. So here are our stories for chapter seven. Jesus talks about the difference between commandments and legalistic traditions. Jesus talks about what defiles a person.

He says that it is what's in the heart, not what is eaten. Next, there's the faith of a Syrophoenician woman. She gives a clever response to something that he says, and he heals her daughter. And then finally, he heals a deaf man. All right, now we come to chapter 8, which is fire. So Jesus feeds the 4,000 in this chapter, as opposed to the 5,000 before. The Pharisees demand to see a sign, and he says, I won't be giving you a sign.

Next, Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And then he heals a blind man at Bethsaida. Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ. And then finally, Jesus foretells his death and resurrection. In chapter 9, this is kind of where things turn around. So we're going to imagine that everything is upside down. Gravity is reversed. If you turn around so we're going to imagine that everything is upside down gravity is reversed if you're outside you're going to have to make things take place on the undersides of branches of trees and things like that because it's upside down and if you're inside a building then things happen on the undersides of furniture and fall to the ceiling so here's what happens in chapter nine first First of all, we have the

transfiguration, and if you know what that is, it's easy enough to create imagery for that. Then we have Jesus healing a boy with an unclean spirit. Jesus predicts his death and resurrection again. Then there are disciples arguing about who is the greatest. And then Jesus says, anyone who is not against us is for us. And then he finally talks about the importance of getting rid of temptations to sin. Okay, finally, chapter 10 is where we come to our last. This isn't the last chapter, but it's our last category of chapters because the last digit is zero. And zero is like S, so it's our last category of chapters because the last digit is zero, and zero is like S, so it stands for snow. So this region is snowy. Jesus is teaching about divorce. Then he says,

let the children come to me. Then there's the rich young man who wants to know how to get eternal life, and Jesus gives him a challenge that he's not willing to follow. Then Jesus foretells his death again. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, ask to sit at his right hand in his kingdom. And then finally Jesus heals Bartimaeus, so that's a blind man. Next we're going to our 11th area, and this one's going to be like the first one, so it's going to be dark. But you should remember from generally where you are in your memory palace, whether something is chapter 1 or chapter 11. tree, Jesus cursing a fig tree, Jesus cleansing the temple, the lesson that Jesus presents from the withered fig tree that he cursed, and then finally the chief priests and the scribes and elders coming and challenging Jesus' authority. Next we have chapter 12, which is the second part

with the sun or a bright light blazing in horizontally. And here we have the parable of the tenants, Jesus talking about paying taxes to Caesar, the Sadducees asking about the resurrection, Jesus answering the question as to which of the commandments is the greatest or the most important, Jesus posing a question or a riddle as to whose son the Christ is, which everyone says it's the son of David, but he basically forces people to challenge their assumptions. Then we have a part where he says, beware of the scribes. And then finally we see

the widow's offering. Next we have chapter 13, which is another windy area. So Jesus foretells the destruction of the temple, and then he foretells signs of the close of the age. He talks about the abomination of desolation, and then he talks about what the coming of the Son of Man will look like. He gives the lesson of the fig tree. And then he says, no one knows the day or hour. So basically this chapter is a bunch of eschatological discussion in one form or another. Next we have chapter 14, which is going to be another rainy area. We hear about the plot to kill Jesus, Jesus being anointed at Bethany, Judas agreeing to betray Jesus, the Passover that Jesus celebrates with the disciples and him instituting the Lord's Supper, Jesus foretelling

Peter's denial, Jesus praying in Gethsemane, Jesus being betrayed and arrested, and Jesus before the council, and then Peter denying Jesus. Next, we have another area that's underwater. So Jesus is delivered to Pilate. Pilate delivers Jesus to be crucified. Jesus is mocked. Jesus is crucified and dies, and then Jesus is buried. And then finally, in chapter 16, which is where we have fog, we have the resurrection. We have Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, Jesus appearing to the two disciples, and then the Great Commission.

Place all of those events in the 16 chapters of Mark in a memory palace, and you can remember any topic from any of these chapters and what the chapter is that each topic that someone mentions is from. For example, someone might ask you, in which chapter is Jesus anointed at Bethany? And you can remember that it was during the rain, and you'll remember that it was 14 rather than 4 because you've placed it in the second rainy area rather than the first rainy area. So it's not chapter 4, it must be in chapter 14. Thanks for the question, Florian. In tomorrow's episode, we'll be talking about memorizing the populations of countries of the world and how you can memorize large numbers using only a single object mnemonic. 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.