What's your earliest childhood memories?

[ph03nix]

Being passed around a circle of adults wearing long black hooded robes and an alter in the center.

Really? That would be at your christening, yeah? So you would have been only months old too... That's trippy. Do you remember having any conscious thought? Were you scared? Curious? Tired?

 

[ph03nix]

No, it was not escape I was lonely. I was looking for a person. This was thought before language. I wanted human contact.
Yes it was planned my coordination was poor and I got stuck.

Yay, that's exactly what I was getting at... I was worried that I wasn't making myself clear.

'Thought before language'... that's something else I've wondered. Can we plan things before we have the language to describe what it is we want to do? I have no concept of this... I also learnt to talk early, so in most of my early memories I had that ability to communicate. My very very early memories aren't so clear as those that I've already mentioned... almost like snippets... a big ginger cat... sitting on the floor watching b/w tv... picking up a new car... my sister brushing my hair... but none of these come with thought, really. They're like photos, or old film...

 

[diemdepyro]

Typically people remember the memorable. Some remember all. Short term i have a poor memory. Long term is a curse.

 

[diemdepyro]

I had a new doctor who did not believe my memory.
I wrote down from memory a 5 page medical report written in 1988. She sent away for the report. I misspelled some words but it was identical.
That doctor now is freaked and also.


The earliest memories are feelings...lonely, happy, 6 month old was painful lonely
the new had wore off and mommie was having a nervous breakdown from living halfway around the word from home. We were not much different from each other . I had no language and she could not speak the local language.

We moved back to US in 1966 and i did not speak English. Considered a moron in the first grade. Life was good.
I still think in pictures and feelings. My first language comes out when I get exited. I do not remember words but the pages. I have to close my eyes for best total recall.
I hope this answers your questions ph30nix.

 

[SocataSmoker]

3 years old, train trip from Jackson, MS to New Orleans, LA

 

[Gryphonn]

A lot of my early memories are repressed I think.

I remember at about three years old...on a tricycle.

At four, in a float ring, floating in water so clear you could see the white sand on the bottom. Many years later as I realted this to my parents, they told me that it was at a deserted island in the Whitsundays area. The water was 25 feet deep where I was swimming with the ring.

At four, wanting to take a dead goat home to the place we were staying on one of the islands.

At four, in the outback. An old bloke my father knew who had no legs, racing me up a dirt track running on his hands (hand stand style).

At four, greasing up my clothes and hands on the drill rig my father had, so I could help him work.

 

[ANC]

There was something in the house I stayed in as an infant...
In my own bedroom it took on the shape of an elephant... the room was no longer there but the elephant and the yellow sand was.... (age about 3... never slept in that room)
Also in this period and house, I used to have thoes cheap plastic mugs for kids... I would sleep in bed with my parents due to the elephants. I was on the side with only the little table next to the bed.... I remember on 2 occasions (at least) that I observed my cup just go into the wall and dissapear asif neither it nor the wall was real.... I remember being to scared to peep.
Also in the same house I remember the little (well little is an understatement, it was quite long) train... it rode around the room in the little wooden skirting above the carpet... and dissapeared into the wall... I remember trying to get my parents' attention (who were in the room, but did not see anything), I remember the smell of the little smoke plume that came out of the locomotive...

And I suspect I will soon break through to who ar whatever it was... I suspect that the bits I remember was only the tail end of what happend each time... i.e. not the main event.
And I suspect it is the elves...

freaky and not something I generaly bring up as it sounds a little loony.... after about the age of 5 I never saw anything out of the ordinary... allthough these 3 mentioned memories come back to me often.

The house was over 100 old and is now a national monument and is across the street from a large old graveyard.

My oldest flash is standing in a bucket getting a bath as a baby, I remembered the joy and how I laughed... I shared this with my mom and she confirmed that this was how she bathed me the winter I was born and how I loved it.

 

[heftamga]

most of my early childhood memories i have when i'm dreaming.
they are like a presentation of short movie trailers.
then at the moment i wake up, sometimes i can see a whole event that has happened in my early days.

 

[DudeLebowski]

most of my early childhood memories i have when i'm dreaming.
they are like a presentation of short movie trailers.
then at the moment i wake up, sometimes i can see a whole event that has happened in my early days.

i sometimes dream events and seem to "remember" them before they happen. i wouldnt say predicting the future, just Deja Vu i suppose.

 

[Lord Bluntmasta]

When my grandpa died when I was 3 or 4

 

[Stoney McFried]

My brother was menaced by monkey like things as a little kid.They came out of his closet and sat on his bed and scared him.My dad wouldn't believe him.He was more scared of my dad then the monkeys.I had two imaginary friends when I was little...a little boy in blue who wore those short pants you see, and a woman with two mouths and no eyes or nose.Weird.

There was something in the house I stayed in as an infant...
In my own bedroom it took on the shape of an elephant... the room was no longer there but the elephant and the yellow sand was.... (age about 3... never slept in that room)
Also in this period and house, I used to have thoes cheap plastic mugs for kids... I would sleep in bed with my parents due to the elephants. I was on the side with only the little table next to the bed.... I remember on 2 occasions (at least) that I observed my cup just go into the wall and dissapear asif neither it nor the wall was real.... I remember being to scared to peep.
Also in the same house I remember the little (well little is an understatement, it was quite long) train... it rode around the room in the little wooden skirting above the carpet... and dissapeared into the wall... I remember trying to get my parents' attention (who were in the room, but did not see anything), I remember the smell of the little smoke plume that came out of the locomotive...

And I suspect I will soon break through to who ar whatever it was... I suspect that the bits I remember was only the tail end of what happend each time... i.e. not the main event.
And I suspect it is the elves...

freaky and not something I generaly bring up as it sounds a little loony.... after about the age of 5 I never saw anything out of the ordinary... allthough these 3 mentioned memories come back to me often.

The house was over 100 old and is now a national monument and is across the street from a large old graveyard.

My oldest flash is standing in a bucket getting a bath as a baby, I remembered the joy and how I laughed... I shared this with my mom and she confirmed that this was how she bathed me the winter I was born and how I loved it.

 

[ph03nix]

I'm really amazed at how many people here have had such early memories... I really thought I was the odd one out. All of this brings so many questions and discussion points to mind. This thread is becoming quite a cool little experiment.

My oldest flash is standing in a bucket getting a bath as a baby, I remembered the joy and how I laughed... I shared this with my mom and she confirmed that this was how she bathed me the winter I was born and how I loved it.

Do you have any ideas as to why you remember this particular memory?... it was obviously an enjoyable thing for you, but is there another reason? For example, Do you have a deep seated love of the water, or did you feel particularly close to your mother while she was bathing you?

most of my early childhood memories i have when i'm dreaming.
they are like a presentation of short movie trailers.
then at the moment i wake up, sometimes i can see a whole event that has happened in my early days.

Dreams are another thing that interests me. I know that our brains process the happenings of the day and play them back at us as dreams, but why does this happen? Why doesn't our subconscious just tell us what it wants us to see... why do they have to come in riddle form?

i sometimes dream events and seem to "remember" them before they happen. i wouldnt say predicting the future, just Deja Vu i suppose.

As for deja vu... some doctors and scientists think that this phenomenon is the result of a *flight* mechanism that we have. It was explained to me something like this...
Imagine your brain as a camera... as we walk around every day this camera takes snapshots of everything that's happening. Now, it's a special camera because it takes two photos of everything. The first is a very low res picture which your brain can process very quickly. The second is a higher res picture which contains a lot more information, and it takes much longer for your brain to process. Now, back in the days when we were cavemen, we had a very strongly honed sense of danger... because big things would hunt us and eat us. Back then, if danger was present the brain would pick up on it with that first low res picture, and we would be able to flee quicker, and perhaps live to hunt another day...
These days the remnants of that mechanism are still floating around in our genes, but because we no longer need to flee danger our brains see the results differently. It has been argued that this deja vu feeling is a result of your brain processing that first image... but you don't realise it... you just say to yourself... 'have I been here before?'

Personally, I don't know if I believe all of that myself. I've had dreams all my life that come true at a later date. I've seen a number of plane, train, etc. accidents inside my head... before they happened. And I learned to live with deja vu a long time ago. I used to play a game in which I'd try to change the events when I realised I was having one. Funnily enough, it didn't seem to work very often.

There was something in the house I stayed in as an infant...

And I suspect I will soon break through to who ar whatever it was... I suspect that the bits I remember was only the tail end of what happend each time... i.e. not the main event.

The house was over 100 old and is now a national monument and is across the street from a large old graveyard.

My brother was menaced by monkey like things as a little kid.They came out of his closet and sat on his bed and scared him.My dad wouldn't believe him.He was more scared of my dad then the monkeys.I had two imaginary friends when I was little...a little boy in blue who wore those short pants you see, and a woman with two mouths and no eyes or nose.Weird.

The brain is an amazing machine... who knows what it's capable of? I for one do believe that the mind is capable of some extraordinary and unexplainable things. For example, I believe that my mind and Gryph's are running in the same groove. I couldn't even start to tell you how many times we've spoken the same words at the same time... or I've been about to get up and make a coffe only to have G bring one to me... humming the same tune out of the blue... thinking of the same person at the same time... sharing dreams.... all kind of stuff like that...

Is this just a case of us not having the science to properly explain what's happening to us? Could all of this just be a result of something like a lost and forgotten *flight* mechanism? Could it be something connected to something like our feelings of love and protection... something that picks up on every little coincidence and tricks us into thinking 'Wow... this one's special... I'm going to keep him.' Are we simply telling ourselves that we have some supernatural ability because we just can't yet explain it any other way? Or simply because that's what we WANT to belive? Or is it possible that a psychic ability lives within each of us, but we simply don't understand how to use it? And if it is, could the strength of your ability somehow connect to how early your childhood memories begin?

Oh questions, questions, questions!!!

 

[homerdog]

My earliest memories are from age 2-3, I got caught taking a dump in the neighbors back yard, prob got a whooping for that one. Same time period I remember my dad taking me to a friends house who had a big train set in his garage.

I took a "trip" one night (a number of years ago), was presented with every import event that occurred in vivid detail from birth through childhood. Like being in old home movies, lots of sad shit. I'm am positive that all of it occurred and it was just unlocked to me that night. Much of my childhood memory is suppressed and I randomly remember shit in detail.

 

[Gryphonn]

Sometimes it takes a trigger to recall memories I've had. Like, I can remember them, but they fade into my subconscious until something triggers the memory again...

...like when homerdog mentioned the 'dump' thing. When I was three we stayed at an Aunty's place on a farm. I remember breaking a rotten egg (the smell will NEVER leave your mind), then having an overwhelming urge to 'poo'. I didn't make it back to the 'thunderbox' and remember walking with a pair of undies full of poo...

 

[DontMakeMeComeDownThere]

"Really? That would be at your christening, yeah? So you would have been only months old too... That's trippy. Do you remember having any conscious thought? Were you scared? Curious? Tired?"


When I was a teenager I told my mom about this memory, due to some other heavy memories I was having. First she said that the nursery school I went to was run by "Devil people." Then she said that if she told me what they did to me I wouldn't be able to handle it. I believed her, so I dropped it!

 

[DudeLebowski]

"Really? That would be at your christening, yeah? So you would have been only months old too... That's trippy. Do you remember having any conscious thought? Were you scared? Curious? Tired?"


When I was a teenager I told my mom about this memory, due to some other heavy memories I was having. First she said that the nursery school I went to was run by "Devil people." Then she said that if she told me what they did to me I wouldn't be able to handle it. I believed her, so I dropped it!

What doesnt kill you makes you stronger...

repressed memories comin back during inappropriate times (like on the job some 15 years on) can REALLLY fuck with you.

but i can definitly understand wanting to keep the past in the past.

 

[Stoney McFried]

You know the guy who said that?Nietzsche?He went nuts.

What doesnt kill you makes you stronger...

repressed memories comin back during inappropriate times (like on the job some 15 years on) can REALLLY fuck with you.

but i can definitly understand wanting to keep the past in the past.

 

[Stoney McFried]

It will come back, and eventually, you will have to deal with it, my friend.Awful bastards like those folks should be killed.

"Really? That would be at your christening, yeah? So you would have been only months old too... That's trippy. Do you remember having any conscious thought? Were you scared? Curious? Tired?"


When I was a teenager I told my mom about this memory, due to some other heavy memories I was having. First she said that the nursery school I went to was run by "Devil people." Then she said that if she told me what they did to me I wouldn't be able to handle it. I believed her, so I dropped it!

 

[buggs bunny]

I can't help on this one. I don't remember much of last year, let alone when I was five.

your funny louis hahahahaha

 

[ph03nix]

When I was a teenager I told my mom about this memory, due to some other heavy memories I was having. First she said that the nursery school I went to was run by "Devil people." Then she said that if she told me what they did to me I wouldn't be able to handle it. I believed her, so I dropped it!

First up, let me say sorry, DMMCDT. I'm not into religion much and just assumed...

Sometimes it takes a trigger to recall memories I've had. Like, I can remember them, but they fade into my subconscious until something triggers the memory again...

What doesnt kill you makes you stronger...

repressed memories comin back during inappropriate times (like on the job some 15 years on) can REALLLY fuck with you.

but i can definitly understand wanting to keep the past in the past.

Which brings me to repressed memory. Do you think that everyone has that ability? I don't think I do. I have never been able to forget a damaging event, no matter how bad it has been. I do know people who have been able to repress their memories... even said at a later date that they consciously 'forgot' things in order to cope. And that's what it is... a coping mechanism. I belive our inner self knows what kind of things we can handle, and hides what it thinks we can't. Perhaps the surfacing of these types of memories at a later date signals a strengthening of the mind... our suconscious believing that we can finally handle them.

I've never tried to encourage anyone to remember repressed memories because, while in many cases it helps the person to seek the help that they need to deal with the memory, I don't know how much more damage it might cause. Repressed memory is obviously there for a reason, and it's kind of scary.