I enjoy saying " Literally, in the literal sense of the word" I'm reading this book right now called The Self Illusion and just finished the part about memory. It mentions Elizabeth Loftus who is this expert on false memory. When she was 14 her mother drown in a swimming pool and 30 years later her uncle mentioned that she found her mom. Even though it was actually her aunt who found her she had lucid memories of finding her mothers drown in a swimming pool for days until she found out. Edit: I have more too say, reading this book made me feel weird about it, mainly because they mention how our memories contribute to our "self" but also aren't even all that accurate. That is the bit that messed with me.
RIGHT?!? When you start unpacking all the implications of this memory-isn't-whatcha-think-it-is situation, other parts of your life become way less certain... "...our memories contribute to our "self" but also aren't even all that accurate. That is the bit that messed with me."
When I was 4 we moved to Singapore and a family who lived nearby had a small pet monkey While I grew up I remember - extremely clearly - when it escaped and climbed up onto a neighbour's roof and I was worried because it was howling and screaming .I was scared it would come into our house and ... well I don't know what I thought it would do but obviously mad, screaming monkeys in the house are undesirable. Some years later after we'd left Singapore I spoke to my mum about it and indeed there was a family with a pet monkey, but it had never escaped and run amok, although it did climb up onto their roof once, but I never saw that - I only heard about it. That set my head spinning. I couldn't imagine how something that I remember seeing so vividly wasn't true. I can easily understand how people can have different opinions or misremember details but to completely fabricate a memory like that? As far as I know I don't have any other completely false memories but it makes you wonder, not just about your own memories but other people's too.