Ch. 36 Memorize The Names Of The Books Of The New Testament
The time needed to memorize the names of all of the books of the New Testament will vary depending on each individual. I have taught this to people in about 45 minutes on average. It will probably take you a little longer to learn them as you read through this for the first time. But once you have learned the House Memory System you will be able to teach a friend over lunch and to memorize the names of all 27 books of the New Testament in the order in which they appear. In fact, you will learn the names so well you could even name the books in reverse order, or I could give you the name of a book and you could instantly tell me the name of the book which appears before it and after it. Imagine how excited people will be when you show them how to do the same and how they can teach others. They will not believe they can do it, but they can, and so can you.
The first step in accomplishing our goal of memorizing the names of all the books of the New Testament in the order in which they appear in the Bible is to pick a familiar room in your home. We will probably end up using more than one room so you may want to select one that connects to a hallway leading to other rooms. We will be imagining pictures sitting on different pieces of furniture, on lamps, tables, bookshelves, or coming through windows, going out of windows, and blocking doorways. Now people ask: "But, what happens when we rearrange the furniture or, if we move to another home? Won't I have trouble remembering the names of the books of the New Testament?" No. If you think about it, you can probably remember the physical layout of a room you had as a child, a classroom as a student, the layout of your old high school, university, or your last couple of offices or workplaces.
So, select a familiar room and I'll give you the memory pictures to place in that room. I'll suggest possible locations but, you pick the actual locations as they make sense to you.
The first book is the book of Matthew, for this I use the picture of a man sneezing. You may ask: What has that got to do with Matthew? The French pronunciation of Matthew sounds like A-Chew. So, just trust me on this, and imagine a man standing in the doorway or entrance to the room you have selected, and that man is sneezing repeatedly. That's the book of Matthew. Alternatively, if you know someone named Matthew, you could just imagine that person sneezing. Now the next book is the book of Mark. We will use a shark as the picture for Mark, since shark is a sound-alike for Mark. Put the shark on a sofa or chair in the room. If you like you could have the sneezing man walk over to the shark and have the shark offer the man a tissue for his endless sneezing. Next is the book of Luke for which I use the picture of a spook or ghost. You could have the shark suddenly open its mouth and have the spook fly out. Next, I want you to imagine the spook fly into an outhouse, but, put the outhouse on or under a piece of furniture in the room. The picture of an old outhouse is my standard picture for the book of John. An outhouse is an outdoor washroom used prior to indoor plumbing and rarely seen today; it was given the nickname “john”. Alternatively, if you know someone named John, you could just imagine that person but, have do a silly dance because that will help you remember them at that point.
The next step is of critical importance. Repeat the pictures in your mind and say the key words aloud, you do not have to say the name of the book itself. At this stage just walk through the room or office you have selected and see the various pictures in your mind in the doorway and on the pieces of furniture. Run through the pictures in your mind at least three times.
After having run through the pictures in your mind at least three times you are now ready to add additional pictures. Imagine an axe crashing through the door of the old outhouse, from the inside out. Imagine that the axe breaks right through the door and sticks into something. You pick what it sticks into. You could have it stick into a piece of furniture next to where you placed the outhouse, or it could even stick into the floor just in front of the outhouse. The axe will be the standard picture for the book of Acts. Now I want you to imagine a Roman gladiator, or a Roman wearing a toga, whichever you prefer, who grabs the axe and starts to swing it over his head. The Roman gladiator is, of course, for the book of Romans. Next, imagine that the Roman gladiator hops into an Indy race car. Place the car somewhere highly unusual; say on top of your television, or on a windowsill, or beneath a coffee table. He hops into the Indy car as you say to yourself car-Indy, a sound-alike for First Corinthians. I warned you earlier in the book that these systems may appear ridiculous but keep going, it really works, and works well. Now, repeat the pictures in your mind, and say the pictures aloud, don't worry yet about saying the names of the books, just run through the room in your mind. Go through the room from beginning to end at least three times.
You should be noticing something I like to do when I memorize a series of pictures. Memorize three or four pictures in the room you have selected, repeat them in your mind three times then add the next few pictures to your room. Try not to put too many pictures on any one piece of furniture. I limit myself to one or two pictures at most to any one piece of furniture, doorway, window, or corner. If you run out of space begin to move out of the room and down a hallway, into another room, outside in your backyard, or even down the street.
Ok, now add the next few books. Let's say the First car-Indy races across the room and rear ends a second car-Indy which, of course, is Second Corinthians. Place the second car in a particular location in the room which will help you recall it later. Witnessing the accident is a cow-gal (a girl dressed in western clothing wearing a ten-gallon hat). Try to place the cow-gal in a strange location or position, you could have her swinging from a light overhead, standing in an air-conditioning vent, or heating vent whatever. This cow-gal wearing the ten-gallon hat is our standard picture for the book of Galatians. Now it gets funnier. The cow-gal takes off her ten-gallon hat and shakes it off causing thousands and thousands of fleas to jump off right there in your hallway or doorway, or whatever makes sense in your room. But make sure you have her shaking the fleas off in a specific location in your room or office. The fleas will be the standard memory-hook for the book of Ephesians (Efleasians... get it?). Now I want you to add someone you know to your picture. What will work best here will be someone who would not normally be in the room where you are imagining your memory pictures. So, if you are using your living room at home you might want to think of having your boss in the picture at this point. Pick someone unusual and imagine that they see these thousands of fleas and they are so startled by the sight that they do a backflip away from the fleas. The backflip will be the standard memory-hook for the book of Philippians. (Flip-ians... get that one?). All your mind needs is a little nudge and your brain will supply the rest of the book’s name.
Take the time right now to go through the whole series of pictures and say aloud the key words in the pictures. Don't worry about saying the names of the books yet. Just walk through the rooms in your mind; go through the list of pictures three times.
By now you should be getting the idea. You are just placing funny pictures on, in, under or near pieces of furniture, doorways or windows in familiar rooms, and as you walk through the rooms in your mind you can easily recall the pictures.
OK, let’s continue. Whoever you picked as the person to do the backflip after seeing the fleas, I want you to imagine that when that person lands on the ground they knock over a large 6-foot-high cola bottle (Cola-sians... get it?) Place the cola bottle in a doorway, on a table, or maybe on top of a stereo. Just place it somewhere in the room that makes sense so that it will be in the natural flow of how you may look around the room; that way it will come back to you more easily when recalling the pictures.
Now I want you to imagine that the knocked over cola bottle starts to drain cola all over the place, everything is getting soaked. In fact, you look down and notice that your favorite dried thistle just got soaked too! You bend down and pick it up as it floats in the cola, and you try to shake it off as it droops down in your hand. So, you are trying to dry off your 1 thistle (First Thistle-onians... get it?). As you stand there shaking it off you look up and see someone (you can pick anyone you like here, the stranger the better... maybe your Pastor, or an old schoolteacher) imagine that they have two thistles in their mouth and they say to you "Yeah, my thistles are soaked too!" this will be our standard for Second Thessalonians. Really try to imagine that the person you have picked is standing there with two thistles sticking out of his or her mouth and is speaking with you.
Next, I want you to imagine an extremely timid person. He is poking his head around the corner of a wall, or through a window, or even out from beneath a piece of furniture. Maybe this timid person is trying to eavesdrop on the conversation you are having with the person who has the two thistles sticking out of his mouth. Well, the timid person is our sound-alike for First Timothy (1 Timidly).
Now imagine a second head poking from around the corner, or furniture or very close to the other timid person. So, now we have a Second timid person, which of course is Second Timothy.
Suddenly the second timid person jumps into the center of the room, or you could have him jump on top of a stove, or counter, and you realize he wasn't as timid as you thought. He puts on a pair of ballet tights right in front of you. Then he proceeds to leap in ballet fashion all over the room. He is our standard memory-hook for the book of (Titus...Tight-us) Now is a good time to practice your house memory pictures so far. Please take the time to review your series of pictures, but this time review your pictures from the cow-gal to the guy in the ballet tights.
Have the guy in tights leap over and pick up a file, which is a small hand-held metal tool. Have him begin to file something in your house that you really wouldn't want filed, that will help you remember the picture. Maybe he files an expensive lamp, or a favorite photograph of yours, or even just the corner of a doorway or window in your home. He will be our standard picture for the book of Philemon (File-man). If you like, instead of seeing a man using a file, you could see a person filing some very important papers into a strange place in your home maybe into the back of your television, or beneath the corner of a piece of carpeting. Some people may prefer to imagine a person filing papers rather than using a filing tool. Whichever works best for you, use that picture. And if you can come up with your own picture, I encourage you to use that instead of mine. Your own pictures will always be more powerful reminders than mine.
Now the man filing is working so hard that he has developed a thirst, so he grabs a large beer mug, a brew and then another brew and yet another one. You can place the beer mugs in a specific location, maybe in a desk drawer next to where the man was working, or on top of a high bookshelf. The man quenching his thirst with a bunch of brews is our standard picture for the book of Hebrews (he-brews). Realizing that he shouldn't have consumed those brews he decides to go to a gymnasium to exercise. Imagine the man working out furiously in a gym. This will be the standard for the book of James (James - Jim - Gym). Alternatively, if you know someone by the name of James then you could imagine him in your next memory location. Practice the memory pictures from the cow-gal through the gym or James.
Next have James or the guy who was working out in the gym finish his workout and hop into a jet plane which just happened to be sitting in your house. This is a single-seat plane. We will refer to it as a 1-seater jet. This is our picture for First Peter (1-Seater). So, he hops in and flies out into another room or even just across the same room to land in a very strange area. But wherever you choose to have him land he lands right next to another jet airplane. This second jet is a 2-seater and is our picture for Second Peter (2-Seater). Imagine now that all the pilots share three tiny little outhouses at their tiny little airport. So, imagine there is a line of three tiny little outhouses or johns right next to where the 1-seater jet landed which was right next to where the 2-seater jet was parked. The first john is for men, the second john is for women, and the third john is for a baby changing station. So, there is our picture for First, Second and 3rd John. Alternatively, if you know someone named John then you could imagine John and two more John clones.
Practice walking through the rooms in your mind and go through your pictures from the cola bottle through the three tiny little Johns at least three times.
Now imagine that you hear music, it is the Beatles playing their hit song "Hey Jude", as they walk out of the tiny little outhouses. This will of course be our picture for the book of Jude. But have the drummer Ringo be the last one to walk out. As he walks out, he is playing his drums. Instead of using drumsticks he is playing his drums using Revel ice-creams (just a brand name of ice-cream bars). That is the last picture, and it is for the book of Revelation (Revels). Now practice walking through the rooms in your mind and go through your pictures from the cola bottle through the Revel ice-creams at least three times.
Practice the entire series of pictures by concentrating on the rooms in which you placed the pictures. Just try to recite the pictures. Don't worry about the names of the various books just yet. As you go through, if you have trouble remembering some of the pictures, then make sure that you have placed them on a piece of furniture or in a doorway or swinging from a light fixture or whatever. Once you are sure you can recite all the pictures try saying aloud both the pictures and the names of each book. Finally, try saying the names of the books only as you walk through the rooms in your mind.
Repeat the complete series of pictures at least three times in the next 24 hours; the more times the better. Try going through the pictures as you walk through the rooms in your mind and say only the names of the books out loud. Have someone check you. Try reciting the books forwards and backwards. Get someone to give you the name of a book and see if you can name the book on either side of it.
Finally, you need to refresh your memory by repeating the complete series of pictures at least three or four times during the next week. Try going through the pictures while waiting in a line up, or sitting in a traffic jam, or while riding the bus. Try to repeat the list of memory pictures three times every day.
Now it is very important that you practice this series of memory pictures at least three times in the next 24 hours, and then at least three more times in the next seven days. Then you will need to practice it any chance you get e.g., when you get up in the morning, at noon, and again just before you fall asleep at night.
People usually ask: "What happens when I have used all the rooms in my home?" Try your office, workplace, or an old school. Or try beginning your tour of the room from a different point. Maybe come through a window. You will be amazed, but what I have experienced is that as you are thinking of a piece of furniture, it seems to only trigger the pictures appropriate to the topic you are recalling.