Memory, the Things We Keep with Us

The Big Idea

I had no idea that memory and memorization could be as varied and useful as it is. Rote memory is only one form of memory. Here are some of my notes about what I have learned so far.

Similar Notes:
Why Learn
Storytelling
Memorizing the Psalms
Memorizing the Lords Prayer
Memorizing the Ten Commandments
Memory, the Things We Keep with Us

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A Really Good over view article about memory methods: https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/mnemonic-devices/

Deut 11:18 - binding scripture to our heart and being

Prov 3:3 6:21 7:3 - love and faithfulness being bound and written on the heart.

Do I have to Memorize It?

We live in a world where memorization is highly deemphasized. We can always look things up. Even more so with AI we can even have a conversation to get needed information easily and quickly without the trouble of storing it within our own minds.

This mentality is not helped with the common monochromatic perspective of memorization. You learn a song or phrase by repeating it over and over until it is “stuck” in your head so it can be regurgitated easily.

Whenever the phrase: “You need to memorize this” comes up, students young and old shutter and call to mind memories of shoving multiplication tables, morphology charts, element tables, formulas, etc. into their minds for the sake of a test.

I experienced that when starting to approach the idea of memorizing sermons

it is super hard and time consuming to word for word memorize something.

It is also very fragile. the smallest distraction and you need to go all the way to the beginning in order to start again.

You also can’t access something in the middle without reciting the whole thing.

Rote Memorization

This kind of memorization also often gets applied to learning Bible versus as well. A parent, teacher or Pastor is usually the one who hands you some kind of sheet or slip (or even makes you write it down yourself) in order to commit the whole thing to memory word for word. When you can finally recite the whole thing without mistakes it is usually deemed to be “memorized.”

I think of my time teaching 7th and 8th grade religion classes and that is exactly what memory verses were. You gave students a verse and then over the week they were expected to study it and be able to spit it out word for word by the end of the week. Success in this context were the students who could recite the verse easily without stopping and starting.

The goal of this kind of memory is to regurgitate word for word the thing being memorized with particular care being taken for exact accuracy.

More to Memorization

Rote memorization is not the only way to memorize

we have so many resources inside our head that we should engage.

engaging imagination with memorization
Spatial relationships and location
Color and shape
Story and action
rhythm, pace and music

Memory ends up being the things we allow to live inside us

Functional Memorization

A method that I have practiced when delivering sermons is the shift away from rote memorization. Trying to memorize word for word ten to fifteen minutes of content every single week is a huge amount of work for not a great return. Delivery is always halting or can easily go off track because what is actually committed to memory are the specific words written on the page. In essences, the sermon becomes a verbal regurgitation of a written essay.

Functional memorization takes a more dynamic approach to things. Rather than trying to commit all those specific words to memory. Functional memorization seeks to memorize the key themes, phrases, and stories that “make the sermon go.” Just like in a normal conversation. We do not enter every conversation with a whole script but as we talk our memory works to recall and piece together the things we say as we go.

Functional memorization gives some structure to that normal process. What this looks like practically for me is to write out the main points of a sermon in a brief paragraph form making sure to highlight reference to scripture, stories or other illustrations that go with a point. What this allows me to do is be more freed up to actually talk naturally. I know my points and where I am going so I don’t just talk in circles but I am also able to be reactive the to room I am in. If something happens I can respond to it normally rather than my fragile memorization getting shattered.

One word of caution with this kind of memorization is that you actually have to be living with and in the texts and things you want to share. Otherwise you will deliver a short bullet point and have nothing else to say or expand on. But if while preaching another bible verse or story comes to mind why not just add it in there.

As long as I am regularly reading my bible, practicing stories and normally thinking about faith and theology this kind of memorization has helped to make it possible for me to preach without hardly ever having to look down at notes or need to type out whole manuscripts or totally memorize things word for word.

Memory as Play

Source Article

From a Romanic theory of memory that sees memory as a way to be refreshed and to play within the world looking for truth and virtue and holding on to it.

Memory Games

• Sight-seeing - have a child go look at a scene and then come back and describe it to you. As questions for more and more detail so that you can picture the scene without having seen it. When they cannot remember the answer to a question they run back to look more until they can come describe more details.
• “picture-painting”; children and adults together take turns looking at some landscape before them, then closing their eyes, recapturing a mental image of the scene, and then “saying what they see”—each member of the group trying to outdo the others in vividness and exactitude of description.

Telescopic or Treasure Chest Memorization

based on the idea of chucking
example in the small catechism and Luther

• two great commandments down to ten commandments on the the rest
• creed onto the fuller story of scripture
• lord’s prayer on to psalter on to all the prayers and songs in scripture
  Telescope of Scripture, the Law and Doctrine

Registering Content off already memorized Content

https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/how-i-memorized-psalm-27-14-verses-in-5-10-minutes/31110

Major System for Memorizing Numbers

https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/major-system/

Remembering Numbers by hand

using hands can be a way to hold onto specific numbers

article about making memory associations with physical things like fingers but also other things:
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/question-about-using-your-hand-or-any-memory-devices/97825

Numbering by fingers

Whole fingers

• 4 long fingers

• 8 on both hands

• 5 fingers total

• 10 on both hands

Finger Joints

• 2 knuckles on thumb

• 4 on both hands

• 3 knuckles on each long finger

• 12 knuckles on long fingers together

• 24 on both hands

• 14 knuckles including thumb

• 28 on both hands

Larger Arm joints

• 1 Wrist can be added whenever needed

• 1 Elbow

• 1 Shoulder

• 3 larger joints on each arm

• 6 larger joints each  

Memorization for Inner Sight

A really good walk through of how we remember things and how spatial memory is a foundational part of our mental understanding
1_New_MMM_Worksheets+V2-1.pdf

We naturally map spaces we experience and hold them in our minds.

Make a list of all the places you know.

what do you see, feel, or remember, when you close your eyes and imagine these places?

the idea that you can tell a story based on imagining and seeing it in your mind as you speak

very different from trying to deal in disparate lines or text or facts that are in memory

Describe the room you are in right now as you see it and look around it. This is your normal sight and you can connect it to your speaking if you want.

shut your eyes and do it again but describe the room from your memory. this is what we are talking about

Experiment with this Memorizing the Ten Commandments

outline the key pieces of things or parts of a story or idea

what is the rhythm of the things that keeps it moving?

can think of the seed of a story. that is the moral point or lesson, the surprise, the turning point or general “payoff” when you hear the story. that Aha moment. In other words the think that makes the story worth telling.

Memory Palace Method

https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/memory-palace/
Introduction: Defining the Memory Palace Technique and its Core Principles

The memory palace technique, also known as the method of loci, stands as a cornerstone of mnemonic strategies, tracing its origins back to ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical practices. This technique centers on the visualization of a familiar spatial environment, such as one’s home or a well-known route, within which items to be remembered are mentally placed at distinct locations, referred to as loci. The fundamental principles underpinning this method involve harnessing the brain’s inherent strengths in spatial memory and navigation. By creating vivid and interactive mental images of the items at these locations, individuals establish a structured pathway for recalling information as they mentally navigate through the imagined space.  

Memory Palace or The Method of Loci in Classical Lutheran Practice

Commonplace books or Loci Communes are basically written maps of memory palaces from these authors
MayesLociCommunesATheologiansBestFriend.pdf a walk through of various early Lutherans and their advise on using these books

Blog on Commonplaces or Loci books

Early Lutheran Loci or Commonplaces

https://www.cph.org/on-interpreting-sacred-scripture-and-method-of-theological-study

Spaced Repetition

A plan for how often and how you will repeat things to be memorized
https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/spaced-repetition/

Journey and Story Method

• The Journey/Story Method: Creating Narratives and Mental Routes for Memorization

https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/story-method/

https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/journey-method/

The journey method involves constructing a mental “journey” through a sequence of familiar locations, sharing similarities with the memory palace but often characterized by a more linear and narrative progression. Closely related is the story method, which focuses on interweaving the items to be remembered into a cohesive and memorable story. In the story method, items are linked through plot developments, characters, and actions, rendering the sequence of information easier to recall. The journey method can be viewed as a narrative unfolding across the loci of a memory palace, effectively merging spatial and sequential elements.  

A possible book to read Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Foer, Joshua. Health, Fitness & Dieting

Other book recommendations: https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/memory-palace-books/

1. Writing on Tablets of the Heart

   • Description: The internal mind and conscience portrayed as a slate, stone, or parchment where laws, covenants, and instructions are indelibly inscribed.
   • Verse References:
     • Proverbs 3:3 - “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
     • Proverbs 7:3 - “Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
     • Jeremiah 31:33 - “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”
     • 2 Corinthians 3:3 - “You show that you are a letter from Christ… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
     • Deuteronomy 6:6 - “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.”

2. Sealing and Stamping (The Signet Ring)

   • Description: Memories, commitments, and identities viewed as a signet ring impression pressed into soft wax, ensuring security, ownership, authenticity, and preservation against fading.
   • Verse References:
     • Haggai 2:23 - “‘On that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.’”
     • Song of Solomon 8:6 - “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death…”
     • Ephesians 1:13 - “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
     • John 6:27 - “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life… On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

3. Hoarding and Treasuring in the Heart

   • Description: The memory treated as a secure inner chamber, vault, or storehouse (thesauros) where valuable experiences, divine words, and foundational acts are safely deposited and pondered.
   • Verse References:
     • Luke 2:19 - “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
     • Luke 2:51 - ”…His mother treasured all these things in her heart.”
     • Matthew 13:52 - “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
     • Psalm 119:11 - “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
     • Colossians 3:16 - “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly…”

4. The Anchor and Foundation of the Past

   • Description: Memory functioning as a stabilizing weight cast into past faithfulness or foundational history to secure the present self against storms of doubt, fear, or cultural amnesia.
   • Verse References:
     • Hebrews 6:19 - “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
     • Psalm 77:11-12 - “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
     • 2 Peter 1:12-13 - “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have…”
     • Deuteronomy 8:2 - “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years…”

5. The Path, Trail Markers, and Footsteps of Return

   • Description: Remembering depicted as physical retracing, staying on a road, or turning back (teshuvah) to established boundaries, preventing the traveler from straying into forgetfulness.
   • Verse References:
     • Deuteronomy 4:9 - “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
     • Psalm 119:59 - “I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.”
     • Jeremiah 6:16 - “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’”
     • Deuteronomy 8:11 - “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I give you this day.”

6. Awakening, Rousing from Sleep, and Coming to One’s Senses

   • Description: Forgetting treated as a spiritual slumber, stupor, or death-like trance, making remembering an act of startling consciousness, lucidity, and sudden realization.
   • Verse References:
     • Luke 15:17 - “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’”
     • Psalm 78:65 - “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior shouting from the wine.”
     • Romans 13:11 - “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”
     • Ephesians 5:14 - “This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

7. Re-membering, Assembly, and Bodily Integration

   • Description: The covenantal act of gathering fragmented historical, communal, and personal elements back into a unified, living, and functioning whole (preventing the decay or dissolution of the body politic).
   • Verse References:
     • Deuteronomy 8:19 - “If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.”
     • 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 - ”…’Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”
     • Psalm 103:2 - “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits…”
     • Joshua 4:7 - ”…These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”