People do remember things differently

[MontyVeda]

he may have been reffering to texts from one particular person which he had very good reason to want to keep.
Liars can find electronic communication very tricky.
far more tricky than verbal communication where they can use unrecorded tricks and evasions.
Plenty of instances of this.
evasions, straight ignoring of questions, and the old trick of answering a question of the liar's choosing rather than the question asked are all highlighted in written/text and email conversations.
You can also ask the same question repeatedly in a way which would be hard face to face.
And each asking stands as a record that it was never answered/evaded.
By chance I am involved in such an exchange at the moment.
the log is far more extensive than even I had thought.
The evidence is damning when you string it all together.

why are you only discussing liars in a thread about memory?

 

[yello]

My memory is a source of amusement to many that know me, but extreme frustration to me, as it simply doesn't work at all a lot of the time.

That must be really unsettling for you. Something that is amusing to others but a very real issue for you. It's good that you've found some coping strategies, and hopefully you'll develop more.

Time and memory is something that puzzles me. Memories are all just thrown in together up there in the noggin - how do we order them? Memories aren't date stamped at such, so presumably we date them by content and a sense of 'knowing'. That is, we simply know it happened 'then'.

I'm rubbish with dates. I can give rough dates but will frequently ask my wife such questions as 'when was I working in the US?' I'll know THAT I did and can give a very rough approximation (90s) - but as to exactly when? Not a clue.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

That must be really unsettling for you. Something that is amusing to others but a very real issue for you. It's good that you've found some coping strategies, and hopefully you'll develop more.

Time and memory is something that puzzles me. Memories are all just thrown in together up there in the noggin - how do we order them? Memories aren't date stamped at such, so presumably we date them by content and a sense of 'knowing'. That is, we simply know it happened 'then'.

I'm rubbish with dates. I can give rough dates but will frequently ask my wife such questions as 'when was I working in the US?' I'll know THAT I did and can give a very rough approximation (90s) - but as to exactly when? Not a clue.

It is extremely unsettling, especially at public events, as another aspect of the condition is that my mind will go a total blank at times, where I simply zone out even when I'm speaking.

It's more than the usual inability to recall a word, it's the whole mind gone blank. It relates to lethologica ( presque vu ) and there have been times when I've felt like I've blinked, and a whole hour or more has passed. People with me at the time have said I carried on as normal, so I'm safe to drive etc, but that period has gone forever.

 

[Blue Hills]

I do find a few drinks can affect the memory.
Sometimes, with sensitive help from others, delicate repeated questions, it can take days or even weeks to remember what happened at a particularly enjoyable soiree.
Cheese also - can cause strange dreams, particularly ones in which you are universally loved, which you might interpret as reality on waking.

 

[icowden]

Our brains are wired to fill in gaps in all sorts of ways. When I was starting at Drama School I recognised one of the girls, and she me. We both were sure that we knew each other, but as we compared notes it transpired that there was just no way that we could have previously met - yet *both* of us had this weird cognitive feeling that we knew each other from "somewhere". We looked familiar to each other and chatted like friends almost instantly, but without any actual knowledge of each other.

 

[yello]

It's more than the usual inability to recall a word, it's the whole mind gone blank. It relates to lethologica ( presque vu ) and there have been times when I've felt like I've blinked, and a whole hour or more has passed. People with me at the time have said I carried on as normal, so I'm safe to drive etc, but that period has gone forever.

That sounds horribly unnerving, losing a handle on time like that. I'm not sure how I'd cope with that.

Thanks for the link, something more for me to read up on. The thing I find fascinating about such things (aphasias etc) is how informative/illustrative they are as to the workings of the brain. It's like we need stuff to break down to show us how it actually works - otherwise we can be way off the mark with our guesses.

 

[mustang1]

How have we got this far without anyone mentioning the Mandela effect?

Or Total Recall.

 

[steverob]

Seemed to me a bit overkill. No doubt hes had it done to him but to keep all your texts from everyone, maybe for ever seems a bit wierd if im honest.

Keeping a long history of e-mails and texts isn't THAT strange. I've got e-mails going all the way back to mid-2008 on my PC - the reason I haven't got any further back than that is because mid-2008 is when I discovered why you need to have backups... (oops)

However I'll admit that I'm not keeping them because I want to challenge lies from other people - they're more as an aid to me so I can recall what was happening at certain times in my life, where I was, what I was doing etc. I've used them in the past to answer questions from my wife about when exactly we went to place X on holiday, or from my Mum asking about the dates my late sister was in hospital for example.

But yes, memory is certainly an odd thing. I've got some things that I would swear blind happened to me in my youth, yet others who I know were there have a completely different recollection of the same events and both of us feel we're the ones who have the "true" story.

 

[Blue Hills]

Keeping a long history of e-mails and texts isn't THAT strange. I've got e-mails going all the way back to mid-2008 on my PC - the reason I haven't got any further back than that is because mid-2008 is when I discovered why you need to have backups... (oops)

However I'll admit that I'm not keeping them because I want to challenge lies from other people - they're more as an aid to me so I can recall what was happening at certain times in my life, where I was, what I was doing etc. I've used them in the past to answer questions from my wife about when exactly we went to place X on holiday, or from my Mum asking about the dates my late sister was in hospital for example.

But yes, memory is certainly an odd thing. I've got some things that I would swear blind happened to me in my youth, yet others who I know were there have a completely different recollection of the same events and both of us feel we're the ones who have the "true" story.

I've got some timed texts from Thames Water about my water being off (useful for proving lack of supply) which they deny ever having sent. I put them under the shyster subheading of alternative memory.

 

[palinurus]

I have many very clear memories of my father who died nearly 40 years ago. Absolutely confident in their accuracy.

I have few memories of my father. For some time I had what I considered a very reliable memory- he was standing in a particular spot in the house we lived in back in the 70s and his face looked grave, he was beating around the bush somewhat- explaining that my grandfather was old etc. and I guessed that he was about to tell me that he had died- which he then went on to do.

Recently- in the last few years- I was checking the location of some family graves as I am dealing with my mother's affairs (she's alive but has dementia) and my grandfather had actually died the year before I was born (It's probably safe to assume the date on his grave is correct). My father predeceased his father so I wasn't getting my grandfathers mixed up.

The memory still feels reliable to me though, moreso almost.

 

[classic33]

One way I had it explained years ago was that its like a roll of cine film.
There may be blanks on the reel, but the mind works to fill those blanks in, using what it considers logical reasoning. A follows B, and comes before D.

 

[Teamfixed]

When I was younger, I could remember everything whether it happened or not!
(Mark Twain)

 

[MontyVeda]

I have few memories of my father. For some time I had what I considered a very reliable memory- he was standing in a particular spot in the house we lived in back in the 70s and his face looked grave, he was beating around the bush somewhat- explaining that my grandfather was old etc. and I guessed that he was about to tell me that he had died- which he then went on to do.

Recently- in the last few years- I was checking the location of some family graves as I am dealing with my mother's affairs (she's alive but has dementia) and my grandfather had actually died the year before I was born (It's probably safe to assume the date on his grave is correct). My father predeceased his father so I wasn't getting my grandfathers mixed up.

The memory still feels reliable to me though, moreso almost.

childhood memories are tricky things since we don't really remember the event, we just recall the memory of it.

I can recall, as an eight year old, thinking about my childhood home soon after we'd moved in, when i was three years old.... the road hadn't yet been tarmacked. I can see it quite clearly, but I'm not remembering 1972, I'm remembering a memory i had in 1977... if that makes sense.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Anyone remember when Edwina Curry starred in Barbarella?

 

[Alex321]

Anyone remember when Edwina Curry starred in Barbarella?

I'll "remember" it from now on