Been curious about something for some time...

[Srentiln]

I've been wondering how common this experience is, so I wanted to know if this is how you guys remember things.

The day of my 4th birthday is the first day of my "conscious" life. I woke up that day having no memory of anything before that day. I knew who my family was, who Batman was (even that he does not have a mustache), who the ninja turtles were, that I was at home, etc. It didn't seem odd at all at the time, just one moment my entire world popped into existence with no need for explanation.

Is that how you guys remember it being for you?

I've gotten curious about this lately because I've been reading the glitch in the matrix sub reddit lately and it got me thinking of all the strange things that I have observed.

 

[CreepaShadowz]

On the subject on memory:
I have a really weird "deja vu" thing that happens to me every so often.

So I'll "think" or "see" a snapshot of an image while I am asleep (or on the concious brink) and I find it rather strange, then forget about it in a few days.

Fast foward a few months, then what I have "seen" actually appears in real life.
Its happened about 5 times so far. Really strange.

As an answer to your question, that never happened to me (as far as I know).

 

[rmanimal]

Only have 5 memories at all before 4...

 

[Jkjkelly1]

Around the time I was 3, we lived in a haunted house.

no, seriously. It was haunted. How do I know this? Because my grandfather visited me in my bed. Only problem was, he had been dead for 2 years. I remember a whole conversation between us, saying how he wished he got to see me grow up. At the time, it wasn't weird, as I had no idea, but my parents explained how that couldn't be. Now though, it's weird. Also, I don't remember this, but about a week after we moved it, after all the things in our kitchen were put away from their boxes...

THEY WERE REPACKED OVERNIGHT.

what. We talked to the previous owners. Apparently people died in the house? But anyways, that's my earliest memory. I was 3-4 at the time.

 

[Zatharel]

I don't really know sren. I remember what you describe at one point, not even a clue when. I can hardly remember anything before that myself without the help of others who were there before me. Before that my memories are just bits and pieces that I somehow managed to remember- ie I would remember times I played with my grandfather and could probably describe him in detail right now and I remember things like the very bad teacher at kindergarten.

@Creeper2685 happens to me as well. I recognized the exact scene of an event I was at around a month or so before it happened.

 

[rickyboy320]

Guys turn off your hacks.. Pfft.
Have not yet any such experience, I do still remember how my house looked when I was 5-, that I was scared of sleeping in the attic, and some other vague memories, but I don't know if that's because of recordings (my dad loved his camera back then), or actual memories. I do remember alot of 5+, but not nearly enough to actually know anything that áctually happened that time.
Also, noone really close to me died yet, knock knock knock, so in no way could such 'appearance' have happened to me. An interesting theory in the philosophy is the '5-minute-hypothesis'. This claims that 5 minutes ago(or in your case when you were 4) the entire universe was created. All memories you have from before that time are memories added by the 'creator' (be it omnipotent or not). This means almost the entire history is not true knowledge, as for all we know this actually might have happened.

The five-minute hypothesis is a skeptical hypothesis put forth by the philosopher Bertrand Russell that proposes that the universe sprang into existence five minutes ago from nothing, with human memory and all other signs of history included. It is a commonly used example of how one may maintain extreme philosophical skepticism with regards to memory.

 

[Srentiln]

creeper, that might be a prophetic dream. I've had two prophetic dreams (as well as a semi-lucid dream, but that's a different story), both centering around Runescape. Each time, I dreamed that I received a very rare drop, and ended up with it the next day. I was actively going after the items either, I just happened to end up with slayer tasks to kill the dropping monsters.

Jelly, it has been believed for many years that children are more sensitive to the astral and ethereal planes do to the lack of being taught that it's all just their imagination. It is very possible that your grandpa did have a chat with you. As to the unpacked-repacked boxes, I am almost certain that that would fit in to the glitch subreddit.

zath, have you ever asked your family about it? I've talked with my parent about it a few times. My mom told me it makes sense to her because prior to then I seemed to be in my own little world and she was the only one that could understand my attempts to communicate with the rest if the world at the time (other people thought I was going to be a special-ed. kid and would forever be a child trapped in an aging body, lol!).

ricky, secondary memories can be dangerous. They are a lot easier to manipulate since it is an outside source helping your brain piece together fragments. I have a problem with that 5 minute hypothesis: how does it account for recordings and artifacts? How does it interact with radio-carbon dating?

 

[rickyboy320]

Honestly I'm completely against the hypothesis, but that hypothesis claims the entire universe was made ~5 mins ago. And thus also the radio-carbon dating, recrodings and artifacts and everything else was put there 5 minutes ago. It's an extremely outrageous point, and very unlikely, but 'possible' according to the conceptual skepticists, and thus there's a reason for 'doubt'. It just popped into my head after reading what you said

 

[Freakworld]

I remember some things from when I was 2-3, it came periodically for me.

 

[Zatharel]

Not directly sren, but I've talked to my mother (conversations with my father usually only range from music to films ) about some related things. I don't need to anyway, the time before the start of my "conscious" life consisted entirely of Sonic games & online flash games, which is why I strive for a "normal" social life these days. That basically caused me to miss important things and feelings that I should have had, for example the death of a relative, and that's how a day went by really. But then, you're probably not interested in a full self-psychological analysis of me

 

[Ajdj]

Sren, I have an incredibly similar situation to what you describe in the first post. I woke up one day during the summer before preschool, and for some reason, a switch in my brain flips and I start recording memories. What's interesting is that there are fragments and knowledge from before that (How did I know to go downstairs for breakfast, how did I know to hold a fork, etc...)

@Creeper2685 , I've been having the same "deja vu" moments for ~10 years. I started writing them down after they happened, and eventually figured out that the dreams were vague enough that they were able to fit themselves into moments that I would later experience. My guess is that the brain just fills the gaps so that it feels like the same instance repeating itself.

Slightly unrelated, when I was 5 I fell asleep and had a dream that I got a haircut (hair was ~1 inch long), woke up with a buzz/crew cut...

 

[blie4]

I'm no professor, but I do wonder if the human brain suddenly starts recording memory at a certain point in our growth/development. That beginning of recording might also come with memory analysis, which is why you realized you hadn't remembered anything before then. I also feel that things like how to hold a fork or who your family are might be knowledge based on repetition/basic learning, and would be separate from personal memory. I don't really know.

I've had a few strange experiences myself, but they might seem too much like ghost stories to fit in to this thread.

 

[Srentiln]

Aj, I'm interested in expanding this query. Mind seeing if anyone else you know had that sudden moment as well?

Well, blie, I could list a few strange things I remember as well and it would fit better . There is actually one in particular that I'm going to be asking my family about because it never really made sense and I want to see if there were more details I wasn't aware of.

 

[cocacoakley]

My first memory was when I was living in my NJ house (which we moved out of when I was ~2). I was suddenly staring at an ugly, beige couch. My mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table eating pasta. I remembered that I had my blanket in the other room and that I wanted it and that I wanted to play with our cat (who wasn't actually in the memory). The next memory was me tearing up a colored in picture of a whale that I drew and putting the pieces into my dinosaur piggy-bank. I was super upset about it, but in my mind it had to be done to preserve it. I have a few other memories of that house, but I don't remember being fully "conscious" until I was about 4 or 5 in another house.

 

[agwR0CKS]

Sren, I have an incredibly similar situation to what you describe in the first post. I woke up one day during the summer before preschool, and for some reason, a switch in my brain flips and I start recording memories. What's interesting is that there are fragments and knowledge from before that (How did I know to go downstairs for breakfast, how did I know to hold a fork, etc...)

@Creeper2685 , I've been having the same "deja vu" moments for ~10 years. I started writing them down after they happened, and eventually figured out that the dreams were vague enough that they were able to fit themselves into moments that I would later experience. My guess is that the brain just fills the gaps so that it feels like the same instance repeating itself.

Slightly unrelated, when I was 5 I fell asleep and had a dream that I got a haircut (hair was ~1 inch long), woke up with a buzz/crew cut...

The dreaming world is really quite insane to me. There was one time where i wanted a ps3 for my birthday, and in my dream, i woke up from something and the ps3 was laying on my chest. i then woke up like a could barely breathe because i was really sick, so somehow my brain thought there was something on my chest crushing me...
also a lot of times someone pees in their sleep then wakes up wetting their bed- from experience and other ppl telling me they had the same (when i was young dont make fun of me haha)

dreaming really is quite crazy

 

[Srentiln]

lol ag, the worst is when you dream the you just woke up and ran to the bathroom XD. Haven't had that happen to me in a while, but man was I p***ed off...and on (by myself)

 

[CreepaShadowz]

Quick question, has anyone here had a lucid dream?

 

[Zatharel]

Quick question, has anyone here had a lucid dream?

Yesss but only briefly. Quite recently actually. It wasn't one of those lucid dreams where you're in control of what is going on, but I did know I was dreaming.

 

[Srentiln]

only a partially lucid dream (as previously stated). Normally, the second I either realize I'm in a dream or say the words "dream" or "asleep" I wake up. One time I didn't, and had full control. Then I completely lost control over the dream again and spent the rest of the time trying to figure out how to force myself to wake up since the dream felt pointless then.

 

[SleeknFoxy]

My earliest memory was on my third birthday, and I had all the Bob the Builder stuff set up and a cake too, and I remember playing around with some Hulk toy that I got. A possible earlier memory was me in the car driving home from McDonald's while I was playing with a toy, which I had still had up until I moved in June.
But I definitely never had any memory of earlier years.

On the topic of the Deja Vu thing Creeper stated up above, I've had something similar of those moments but it hasn't happened for several months, but rather you could say it literally is Deja Vu.