I have this memory from when i was a kid. Maybe 3 years old. I'm walking with my babysitter to the park by the school where we had just walked my older brothers to (we did this frequently). It's a sunny spring or summer morning. I look up at the corner of where the school's brick walls meet with the roof. I see a purple scarf floating behind or around or above the corner. The scarf smiles at me with a cartoonish (for lack of a better word) yellow face that looks like your standard "have a nice day" face. Then it floats away. The memory is so vivid and real. it's one of my earliest memories. Yet it's so irrational and dream-like. I remember telling my brothers about it and them laughing at me. Logic tells me it's a dream, but to this day, (i'm now 17) I feel like it was as real as any other childhood memory. Any thoughts on good ways to determine whether an old memory is a dream or real? (besides hypnosis, LOL) Thanks!
Strange old memory: Real or just a dream?
- Thread starter TheGrimCreeper
- Start date
I am farily certain it wasn't real 
; however, when I had similar experiences
when I was a child. I think it might just be some kind of over-stimulation
of the brain during coniousness. Kind of like crossing REM or hypnogogic
hallucination with a fully awake moment.
; however, when I had similar experienceswhen I was a child. I think it might just be some kind of over-stimulation
of the brain during coniousness. Kind of like crossing REM or hypnogogic
hallucination with a fully awake moment.
a childs brain chemistry isn't fully balanced when young so it's possible that chemistry was at play, along with the fact that as a child it's the norm to generate self indulgent divergent states to pass the time. It's possible you were awake and saw what you saw from an overactive imagination spawned by cartoons or just drempt the whole thing up and the memory of the dream is as vivid as memory from when your awake.
None the less I wouldn't worry about it too much, just think of it perhaps as a fond memory rather than something to puzzle over.
None the less I wouldn't worry about it too much, just think of it perhaps as a fond memory rather than something to puzzle over.
False memories don't necessarily end after childhood, either. To this day I can clearly recall hiking through Granite Dells in Arizona with my two nieces. The problem is that they never visited us while we lived there. We never went hiking together, they've never seen Granite Dells, but the whole memory is as clear as any in memory. I recall showing them a rock formation that vaguely resembled a hand held up in the peace sign. Yet this never happened. I don't worry about it much myself. At least it's a pleasant memory, even if it isn't real.
Interesting one Oxygen. Now there are really only two versions of answers for that, one is the construction of the event in a dream that you were unaware of. The main things with dreams is they lack things like remembering a scent or taste.
The other version will sound ludicrous a memory created from it occuring in another universe. I couldn't tell you what would cause the paradoxal event that changed the occurance of you not having them visit and them visit, it could be anything from a Fly being used in an experiment, to someone cutting across at an interchange. (Butterfly Effect)
However as you say you don't worry about it, it is the right understanding to have, I wouldn't worry about it.
The only time you should start worrying is if constructed memories are vivd and not the norm, either of a person doing horrific acts to themselves and others or having someone else do those acts to them.
Which we are lucky enough (I hope) not to have.
The other version will sound ludicrous a memory created from it occuring in another universe. I couldn't tell you what would cause the paradoxal event that changed the occurance of you not having them visit and them visit, it could be anything from a Fly being used in an experiment, to someone cutting across at an interchange. (Butterfly Effect)
However as you say you don't worry about it, it is the right understanding to have, I wouldn't worry about it.
The only time you should start worrying is if constructed memories are vivd and not the norm, either of a person doing horrific acts to themselves and others or having someone else do those acts to them.
Which we are lucky enough (I hope) not to have.
That's pretty freaky Grim (depending how you look at it i guess).
However, i do remember when i was 7/8 years old hallucinating a guy with a giant baseball for a head, he had eyes, ears, nose, etc.. i might not of thought anything of it or been scared if it had happened once, but shoot, that sucker was everywhere! didnt say much though. dont see him around anymore either
However, i do remember when i was 7/8 years old hallucinating a guy with a giant baseball for a head, he had eyes, ears, nose, etc.. i might not of thought anything of it or been scared if it had happened once, but shoot, that sucker was everywhere! didnt say much though. dont see him around anymore either
I've recently noticed something disturbing about my old childhood memories. They are all in third person. As if I am hovering over myself and watching events unfold. The first time I realized this was when I recalled having my thumb almost sliced off in a meat slicing machine, and several adults were holding me under the running water to clean the wound and wrap it up. I still have a rather ugly scar, so it often triggers the memory at odd times, and one day I realized it, I was seeing my past in third person, and even seeing things that I hadn't actually seen, which were obviously behind me, but probably sensed otherwise. It turns out almost all of my memories come to me this way, and I have to focus to get a first person memory, which obviously feel more real... This might actually be normal, though, I don't really know. I've never read anything about how your memories are supposed to appear. I guess how you want them to appear, really. Considering how biased we all are, and over time, events probably can get even more warped. I do have memories which I hope are just dreams, but I am still not sure, as they also seem to have involved physical pain.