Have you ever had a false memory?

[purplepoppy]

In local news, a nurse used the "false memory" excuse as a defence but nobody believed him. It got me thinking, have you ever had a false memory?

I remember having a vivid dream about a herd of wild elephants walking past the house. I was convinced it was real for ages.

[Chazmatazz269]

Of course, most people have more “false memories” than they care to admit.
After reading “Being Wrong” by Kathryn Schulz, i started grilling my sister about memorable events from our childhood. We remember a lot of things very differently.
Most prominently for me was an Easter when i was very young. My family had a tradition of hiding our Easter baskets. One year my parents took the garbage out, put a fresh liner in the can and then hid my basket in there. When i finally found it, i was immediately convinced that the Easter bunny hated me and threw my basket in the garbage.
I didn’t remember the event until i was shown a picture of tiny me holding the basket and crying. To this day, i don’t know if my memories of the event were triggered by the photo, or if i fabricated the memory from the context of the photo and my feelings about it.
I really think everyone should read “Being Wrong”. It’s an exploration of how we consume, store and recall information and the many ways we screw that up on a regular basis. All the while moving through life behaving as though we cannot possibly be wrong about anything. Ell oh ell! If you can read that book and don’t come away with a whole new perspective on everything that you think you know, there’s something terribly wrong with you.

[Crimsyjo]

Oh interesting! And I agree. I have "memories" of a family holiday but actually my memories are made up from photographs and stories my mum told us in relation to the photos. They feel like memories but I don't think they are true memories. I think a lot of people's earliest memories are stories told repeatedly.

This is also why witness accounts in trials have been very dangerously taken as fact for years but could have condemned many an innocent man!

[DJB72]

The most common one I know of is people believe the bible says the lion will lie with the lamb when actually it says the wolf will

Isaiah 116-7 KJV

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.


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[purplepoppy]

I wonder how many people have tried this.

[DJB72]

No idea, but I'm guessing the kid, the fatling and the cow are sleeping with one eye open...

[RandomGirl42]

um... maybe on a few, foggy, hungover Sunday mornings when my sweetie is frowning at me disapprovingly and I'm scuffing my foot guiltily and I'm almost sure things didn't quite go the way she is informing me that they did.

But now, thanks to that article, I see they were all having "false memories". 😊

[FreyaRed]

I think normal male patients have dream about nurses do something different with their PPs.
If she did that, there was some skin irritation and there is usually daily medical examination in hospitals, he could say his will was mistreated and he had an evidence.

[purplepoppy]

The nurse was male

[Jersey2]

Yes. I had a false memory in the hospital actually. With all the drugs and lack of sleep over 4 or 5 days of a 7 day stay, things can “happen” that didn’t really happen. I thought a nurse injected me in my neck with something. I was calm about it and simply asked a head nurse and she ensured me no but it had to be documented. I tried to say no and recant but it was too late. I felt bad about it.

I was injected all the time in there and actually had tubes in my neck but they didn't inject me there. Lots of pain drugs too but I refused most of them. Then I mocked them as i had better in the street. Couple that with about 2 hours sleep for 4 or 5 days and things happen.

[NathanDavis]

I'm still convinced that as a kid... I had a neighbor that NOBODY ELSE seems to remember... but I do remember them quite vividly

I was always convinced that they we real neighbors we actually for, although for a short time but... as I get older, I do think that maybe... it was a very very very strong imagination combined with recurrent dreams... lol

[exitseven]

There is a movie I saw when I was a kid that I distinctly remember a particular scene but many years later I watched the movie again and the scene was not there.

[purplepoppy]

Might have been edited out

[exitseven]

I though of that too but it was on DVD and I do not think it was. It was an old cowboy movie so it was not X rates or anything like that.

[OneViewpoint]

We all have false memories constantly. Don't believe me. Trial lawyers love eyewitness testimony. Because it can so often be ripped to shreds under scrutiny. Human memory is notoriously unreliable. Science has proven that our brains edit our long term memories, committing only essential details to storage. And over time, even those details erode to make way for new information.

[AviatorTom]

Where do you think the term "misremembered" comes from?

I once thought I was walking on the moon... with a space suit. Turned out I was in the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

The only real false memories are the ones that include people you know doing things you know they would never do.
If you have "false memory" about elephants... maybe it's real memory from your past life, when you were living in some African tribe.

[jJanSmit]

Like yours, mine come from my childhood mostly.

[Anonymous]

I have memories of an alien abduction the aliens made me see things that were not there does that count?

[TonyMetal___86]

A dream is a dream and reality is reality, they cannot be mixed!

[Lynx122]

Not something that happened recently.

[lightbulb27]

sure and seen others do it.

[AngryCarl2]

They could all be false, for all I know.

[fish5505_87]

Yes, really embarrassing!