The Memory Base

"Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used." ~Dr. Carl Sagan

There is a distinction between knowledge and wisdom and intelligence. Knowledge is "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association" according to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Being a wise person is marked by deep understanding, keen discernment, and a capacity for sound judgment. Wisdom is the knowledge of how to apply all other knowledge. Intelligence incorporates both knowledge and wisdom. Intelligence is the process of collecting the facts and how one uses those facts by using judgment.

Intelligence is also what all are (D&C 93:29-30, 36). But God is more intelligent than the rest of us (Abraham 3:19-22). However, even though intelligence is not made nor created we can obtain it through diligence and obedience, as whenever we receive a blessing from God it is by obedience to the law upon which it is founded (D&C 93:29; 130:18-21).

The other day I was reading an address by Elder D. Todd Chrisofferson entitled "The Blessing of Scripture". Scripture enlarges the memory of a people and of individuals. It helps us to always remember the Lord and our relationship with Him and the Father.

It teaches you about past people, cultures, and events we did not experience personally and might have forgotten otherwise in our histories.

It shows you that life is only a small little moment on the timeline of Eternity. It reminds you that the trials you experience are only a moment, but that it is significant in the fact that what occurs on mortality affects the rest of your existence and what kind of existence it will be. So it enlarges your memory to all of forever rather than just limited to mortality.

However, I was struck with the inspiration that scripture can do more than that.

The scriptures can be read in so many ways. It can be read as a story of a real people. It can be read as an instruction manual for specific or broad topics. It can be read as a compiled biographical work or the first history books invented. It can be used to study economics or perhaps politics. The scriptures are multidimensional; there is more than one aspect to it.

As a result, the scriptures can literally enlarge our minds in another way that I had never before considered.

Let's add Cognitive Psychology into this explanation. (Though I honestly can't claim to know much about Cognitive Psychology). But I know that somehow it fits into this explanation. If I knew more about it. Meanwhile, until I do, let's just keep to my theory and for those of you who know more please ponder upon the matter.

We are told to make personal connections to the scriptures so that its teachings can become more applicable to our lives (Teaching from the Scriptures). However, in connecting a thought to multiple topics it is easier to recall that thought. In the process of connecting the thought to other topics it becomes a bigger aspect of our lives and it is easier to apply when it has such a presence in our minds.

So if we can connect the scriptures to every aspect of our lives, and our lives to every aspect to the scriptures, then just the process of opening and reading the scriptures should bring to the forefront of your mind a thought or memory. Opening the scriptures opens your mind and allows the Holy Spirit to help connect the thoughts in your head to other thoughts, creating that 'lightbulb' moment, especially if we have actually already begun to connect to the scriptures. The scriptures become an extension of your memory, of your life. You would have made the scriptures truly applicable when it becomes such a part of you.

I think connecting to the scriptures in such a way will help you organize your life, your mind. The scriptures have a format, a structure in physical form. When we connect to every aspect of the scriptures or the scriptures to every aspect of our lives we will have a format in which to organize our thoughts, and by extension, our lives.

I think that this level of connection could occur with most anything as your base, if you can make a great many connections to it. I think this should be kept in mind and perhaps studied by those who are in that particular field of study, or at least in a related field.

However, the scriptures are probably the best source in which to base yourself upon. There are several reasons for this. First off, they are the words of the Lord. There really can't be anything better in which to listen and obey. Also, as perviously mentioned, the scriptures are so comprehensive and so specific that one can truly connect to such a work on a variety of different levels and a variety of different topics. It is something in which if you truly connect you it can help you verses harms you in an obsessive sort of way.

The scriptures is not just one thing to be focused on and worshiped. The scriptures, if read and connected to truly, brings you to other elements in life and other teachings and expands your memory. Where most other works, if connected to, will only limit the expansion of your mind.

I would love to see a study about physical objects, sounds, and smells becoming an extension of a memory, but to see it developed further and see if a person could be healthily connected in all memories and thoughts to the scriptures and the things of the gospel. I'd love to learn more about this and where exactly Cognitive Psychology fits in.