Share Your Strangest Memory: Real or Imagined?

[Ivan Seeking]

We all have an odd experience from time to time. I assume that most people have a childhood memory or two that don't make sense. Some people claim to have experienced the seemingly inexplicable. Do you have any strange or seemingly inexplicable memories or stories to share?

There is one that I've never made sense of. I remember being very young, perhaps 2 or 3 years old, and being at my aunt and uncle's house. There were two or three older blonde boys there and one of them hurt my arm. I remember the boy who did it was trying to hide it and keep me quiet. I remember going to the hospital and being in the X-Ray machine.

My mother and aunt said they didn't remember any such event. Honestly it has always bugged me a bit. I am quite sure it happened. It might have been a sore spot that everyone chose to forget. My family was like that.

 

[DaveC426913]

I have the opposite problem. I have 4 sibs, and they have a whole backstory for me that they share all the time, and I know nothing about it. Apparently, when I was three, I dumped all the food in the fish tank and killed all the fish.

Or so I'm told. Personally, I think they're gaslighting me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have the opposite problem. I have 4 sibs, and they have a whole backstory for me that they share all the time, and I know nothing about it. Apparently, when I was three, I dumped all the food in the fish tank and killed all the fish.

Or so I'm told. Personally, I think they're gaslighting me.

Or they blamed you to hide their crime and they still won't admit it.

 

[geordief]

When I shared my bedroom with my elder brother (again I was somewhere between I and 4 years old) I had something like tinnitus where I heard this high pitched noise and I didn't know where it was coming from.

This was at night and was keeping me awake.

After a while I must have realized it was in my head or at least I was responsible for the noise and so I got up out of bed and went over to my brother's bed to apologise for the noise.

I can't remember if he acknowledged me or even if he woke up.

Nothing was ever said anyway.

 

[geordief]

Or they blamed you to hide their crime and they still won't admit it.

My mother told me her sister did that all the time and she would get the strap from her father as he believed her sister's account always.

 

[darth boozer]

I remember having a repeated dream in which I was squeezed head first through the gap between the seat and back of what I took to be a red leather settee, the kind made from strips as in the attached picture. This was accompanied by a loud throbbing noise, which I later identified as a heartbeat.

I have often wondered if this was somehow a memory of being born.

 

[Hornbein]

My strangest experiences might get me in trouble with Physics Forums. Here's an acceptable one.

I was seven years old when we were in Kitzbuhel on a ski trip. On New Years I was awakened to see the fireworks. Or so I was told. The next day I didn't remember a thing. But they say I was able to engage in conversation.

 

[DaveC426913]

...I was squeezed head first through the gap between the seat and back of what I took to be a red leather settee...

"Yo mamma's booty sooo big it can sit three abreast wit' a bowl o popcorn."

 

[geordief]

I also have a non memory.Returning from Greece to home land (Dover in Kent,UK) I mixed the (brandy) drinks we had bought on the way in the former Yugoslavia.

No recollection of coming through passport control and no passport on my person . I was apparently carried through passport control unconscious by my mates who gave me back my passport when I came to on the other side.

On passport related matters I also once came into JFK airport to be met by a customs official who disbelieved my story that I was a tourist ,on my way to S America and deducted 3 months from my Visa permit

Some months later ,returning by coach from Mexico to San Diego,I spotted the same official out of the corner of my eye and my heart sank(would he refuse me entry now?)

He spotted me from the other side of the concourse , came over ,looked at my passport and acknowledged that I had indeed simply (at that point ) come as a tourist ,visiting SAmerica as I had told him..

He didn't offer to reinstate my 6 months (was it a year ) I had been originally given by the embassy in Europe ,but I was surely impressed at his photographic memory picking me out in the crowd months later and 3000 miles the other side of the country.

 

[gleem]

There is a book called "My Mother, My Self" written by a woman who worked as a psychiatrist's secretary. Basically about how we often turn out like our parents. This book as I recall recounts in part the problem she has with a memory of her dropping her toddler brother in the bathtub injuring him when she was young. She suppressed for years because of guilt as a child hiding a misdeed from her parents. Finally, she gathered enough courage to ask her mother about it. Her mother told her the incident had never occurred. I forget the explanation of this false memory.

I know for myself in talking with my sister about past events that we participated in that we do not always totally agree on what occurred. It seems that some thoughts left to age in the cellar of our subconscious develop or transform into something different and not always for the better.

 

[BillTre]

My sister seems to have great recall of family events. I have not nearly such a strong recall of these past family events.
My sister frequently repeats these recall events at family gatherings. I don't do this nearly as much.

I am wondering who would have more accurate recall of the past events involving my sister.
Would repetition be expected to lead to more changes in memories?
Does repetition of recall lead to better abilities to recall (percentage of "yes I remember that) (irregardless of accuracy (but differently))?

 

[gleem]

I have read that the mind tries to fill in blanks in incomplete information. If you observe something happening very quickly and do not have enough time to fully process it before it is over, you try to make sense of it by adding things from your own experiences.

I just had such an experience. We have a white cat. While sitting at my computer I "saw" out of the corner of my eye something white seem to move past the doorway quickly and quietly. I thought it was the cat until I saw a sheet of paper on the floor which had blown off my desk.

I wonder if this is done when you forget elements of a past experience and try to make the memory coherent in a way that satisfies you.

 

[DaveC426913]

I have read that the mind tries to fill in blanks in incomplete information. If you observe something happening very quickly and do not have enough time to fully process it before it is over, you try to make sense of it by adding things from your own experiences.

It's much worse than that.

It's not conditional on circumstances, (such as 'out of the corner of your eye'). The mind always compresses any experience, and stores only a small portion of it. When you remember, you are not so much recalling, but rebuilding a memory from parts - and many of the parts are made up on-the-spot.

You senses are lying to you all the time, 24/7 about almost everything.

Jay Ingram's book Theatre of the Mind is a fascinating study of the tricks your mind plays on you to keep you sane. I highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0062026682/

 

[geordief]

It's much worse than that.

It's not conditional on circumstances, (such as 'out of the corner of your eye'). The mind always compresses any experience, and stores only a small portion of it. When you remember, you are not so much recalling, but rebuilding a memory from parts - and many of the parts are made up on-the-spot.

You senses are lying to you all the time, 24/7 about almost everything.

Jay Ingram's book Theatre of the Mind is a fascinating study of the tricks your mind plays on you to keep you sane. I highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0062026682/

I was thinking along those lines a few weeks ago.

As I looked out at the landscape near my house it occurred to me that I had a picture in front of me that was extremely detailed .

Obviously the actual thing(s) I was looking at would have been extraordinarily detailed and data rich if one was to attempt to make a copy of their appearance but even it seemed to me that the picture formed in my mind was also extremely detailed (even if much less so than a "real" picture)

Too detailed ,it seemed to me for my mind to actually be composing such a picture but there it was "right in front of my eyes" ,so to speak.

As I stare at this little screen all my attention is concentrated on a few small number of characters with everything else in a kind of soft focus.

But when I looked at the landscape it felt like I was capturing it in one panoramaThat is just an illusion then?I was making a series of captures focused on different points in the landscape and another part of my unconscious brain was stitching them all together like a series of movie negatives to make a broad picture as required?

 

[DaveC426913]

I was making a series of captures focused on different points in the landscape

And not even 'captures'.
Pick any single thing you looked at. Try to draw it from memory. Get anywhere close to the amount of detail in the original and you're doin' great. Now take it outside and see how accurate it is.

 

[Hornbein]

And not even 'captures'.
Pick any single thing you looked at. Try to draw it from memory. Get anywhere close to the amount of detail in the original and you're doin' great. Now take it outside and see how accurate it is.

One day I decided to do some drawing of a real object. I was amazed how little I was able to remember. I had to look at it every few seconds.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

When I was 4 or 5 years old I saw something that has perplexed me ever since. I know my age because of the place and the kids present. We were playing in a friend's backyard when I looked up and saw a very low, very slow flying missile passing over us about a block to the West. Apparently I knew what a missile was because I remember thinking that was what I was seeing. It was striking but not shocking. And that all made sense until I got a little older. A few years later I remembered seeing that and realized that missiles don't fly over residential areas. I cannot imagine what I saw.

 

[pinball1970]

Diving behind the settee when the music for "Dr Who" came on. Not strange just earliest. Or one of them. Another was biting the head of the baker, my rubber toy from Trumpton/Camberwick Green. Great music and I loved the programs

 

[DaveC426913]

I looked up and saw a very low, very slow flying missile passing over us about a block to the West.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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Good thought but I'm sure it wasn't a blimp. I would imagine that because of the cold war, I knew what a missile looked like. And it looked just like a missile to me. And it was close. One thought that occurred to me was a plane tilted such that I was looking at the edge of the wing and effectively couldn't see it. But we lived near an airport and planes went over constantly.

Like I said, I was 4 or 5 and all these years later I still think about it from time to time. Maybe something experimental...?

 

[DaveC426913]

... because of the cold war...

OK, so I misoverrepreguestimated your age by 50 or 75 years...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

OK, so I misoverrepreguestimated your age by 50 or 75 years...

Huh? I'm 25. That's what I tell my gf. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[PeroK]

Diving behind the settee when the music for "Dr Who" came on.

My brother and I used to do that; and, shoot at the monsters with our Lego guns!

 

[Astronuc]

I wouldn't call it a strange or the strangest memory, but parts of it are still quite vivid. It begins when the family car was broadsided by a truck on a morning trip to the beach in 1964. I remember being hit in the face and head, the world spun, then I blacked out. Then there is a sequence of images: being held in someone's arms while looking back the car with shattered windows, going into a doorway (of a store), being laid on a counter, being held by someone (an ambulance attendant) and watch a familiar street while driving, then waking in a lot of pain (glass being removed from my neck, face, scalp, mouth, and stitches being applied) while my arms and legs were being held (I don't believe anesthetic was used), and finally waking up with my brother and parents. I was in and out of consciousness. Somehow I got home (don't remember the trip) and was laid on the couch. My sister remained in hospital with a skull fracture. My brother didn't suffer much in the way of injury. As far as I know, I was by the rear door on the side that got hit. I had a lot of stitches around my neck, face and scalp, and my nose was a lattice work of stiches to reattach it; my nose has mostly been cut or torn away. I still have scars on my face and scalp.

The truck driver who hit us came by the house and apologized for the accident. After that, it was mostly recovering from the injuries. I'd occasionally cough up a piece of glass or spit one out. I remember feeling pieces of glass in my mouth, either in my gums or cheeks.

It was a week or two later when I got the stitches out, that was also rather painful (no anesthetic). I think that is why I developed a high tolerance for physical pain.

 

[Hornbein]

My sister in her youth had a premonition of an automobile accident. She was in the back seat so she curled into in a ball in the footwell, even though the car was being driven safely. Sure enough there was a head on collision. One fatality.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I wouldn't call it a strange or the strangest memory, but parts of it are still quite vivid. It begins when the family car was broadsided by a truck on a morning trip to the beach in 1964. I remember being hit in the face and head, the world spun, then I blacked out. Then there is a sequence of images: being held in someone's arms while looking back the car with shattered windows, going into a doorway (of a store), being laid on a counter, being held by someone (an ambulance attendant) and watch a familiar street while driving, then waking in a lot of pain (glass being removed from my neck, face, scalp, mouth, and stitches being applied) while my arms and legs were being held (I don't believe anesthetic was used), and finally waking up with my brother and parents. I was in and out of consciousness. Somehow I got home (don't remember the trip) and was laid on the couch. My sister remained in hospital with a skull fracture. My brother didn't suffer much in the way of injury. As far as I know, I was by the rear door on the side that got hit. I had a lot of stitches around my neck, face and scalp, and my nose was a lattice work of stiches to reattach it; my nose has mostly been cut or torn away. I still have scars on my face and scalp.

The truck driver who hit us came by the house and apologized for the accident. After that, it was mostly recovering from the injuries. I'd occasionally cough up a piece of glass or spit one out. I remember feeling pieces of glass in my mouth, either in my gums or cheeks.

It was a week or two later when I got the stitches out, that was also rather painful (no anesthetic). I think that is why I developed a high tolerance for physical pain.

Wow! It sounds like you were very lucky to survive.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember reading a first-hand account written by a man who claimed he had been abducted by aliens. I don't remember all of the details but the general idea was this: He remembered driving on a remote road at night when he saw bright lights coming at him. He was run off the road by this craft. He jumped out of the car to run but then it came back. He lost consciousness and didn't remember anything else. He woke up the next morning in a ditch by his car.

After carefully reading his account the truth of his abduction became clear: He was extremely drunk. When he saw a car coming at him he swerved and went off the road. He then got out of his car and climbed back up to the road. At that point another car came from the other direction and hit him, knocking him into the ditch.

Memories can be a funny thing.