Past Memories Manifested by Other Senses

Padawanbater2 · May 25, 2012

This is something I've been interested in since like 2nd grade... One of the first real world observations I consciously observed by myself; The connection between senses during memory manifestation. When you smell something, you're instantly taken back. When you hear something, you're instantly reminded of that ex-gf who you had so much fun with.. I notice it most with smell, followed by sound. The other senses (like taste, if it's specific enough) also tie in, but smell is, imo, clearly the most obvious sense tied into memory retrieval, and sound is a close second. When you hear an old song for example of an important time in your life... This is just fascinating as shit to me, I'm sure you guys notice this as well, what's your take on it, opinions? Sometimes I'm glad we have this ability and other times it makes me kind of sad, but appreciative, an odd feeling. Butters explains it perfectly in one of the episodes of South Park... "I'm sad, but in a way I'm glad I can feel this sad, it makes me feel more alive"..

The brain, an interesting organ when you actually think about it. It is, essentially, everything, everything that you are, all the things that make up what you are, who you are.. All the substances that can interfere with normal brain function (MDMA, LSD, etc.) to make you feel a certain way, coupled by the power of manipulation we're all susceptible to on a daily basis..

Sanity, it would seem, is a luxury most of us take for granted...

Heisenberg · May 25, 2012

I have noticed I have a sort of visual recall. For example, if I am working on something, constructing a new res, building a drying rack, hanging mylar, and I am receiving outside stimuli, like music or TV, I will remember that stimuli the next few times I see the object. When I look at my res I am reminded of a specific episode of HOUSE MD. When I look at my drying rack I am reminded of John Stewart talking about BP oil. I have to try to recall these things now, but the first few times I encounter the object the memories instantly surface unbidden. This even happens when I am cleaning the house. I will move to a specific section and 'hear' the stand-up comedy routine I was listening to the week before when I cleaned that area.

drive · May 26, 2012

I know this will sound all catch-22 but, I know i am not sane. there is something peculiar and very different in my brain

Weedasaurus · May 27, 2012

the sense of smell is most connected to memory recall.

lokie · May 27, 2012

Interesting how smell and the brain work.

When I think of my first wife all I can think of is the rage and misery experienced. However
there is one smell, I can not pinpoint what it is exactly, 30 years later that makes me think of her.

Just the memories by themselves bring back the anger and angst of the times.
The smell, when encountered, brings memories of her although does not invoke the rage. :?:

olylifter420 · May 27, 2012

I get this when I hear some vocal trance music, it takes me right back to the times I would roll hard on molly...

drive · May 28, 2012

Vocal trance is what i like to call Harmonic resonance. certain tones and sounds are very powerful.

drive · May 28, 2012

Padawan do you believe in memory that goes deeper than personal memory like a genetic or cultural memory

Padawanbater2 · May 29, 2012

drive said:
Padawan do you believe in memory that goes deeper than personal memory like a genetic or cultural memory

What do you mean by 'genetic or cultural memory'?

drive · May 29, 2012

In biology it has been shone that flat worms can learn certain "tricks" and pass this information down to their offspring. Aversions to certain animals may also be a genetic memory for humans. Culteral memories are harder to pin down they might include Swedes liking winter.
You know how there are the nomadic people in mongolia would there horse wispering skills be learnt or after hundreds of generations could this knowledge become genetic

zat · May 29, 2012

drive said:
Padawan do you believe in memory that goes deeper than personal memory like a genetic or cultural memory

You're talking what Carl Jung (psychoanalyst who disagreed w/most of Freud's b.s.) called the collective conscious. As in there's a collective memory tied to all of us, but in Westernized "civilizations" if we can't measure it, it doesn't exist. We've fucked ourselves by becoming such hard science buffs and not giving merit to unmeasurable things like intuition, sixth sense, clairvoyance, etc. All of these things were respected and trusted by millenia of ancient cultures....but now...everyone's got a fucking iPad that tells them where to take a piss.

Yes, smell is the closest "trigger" to memories.

Padawanbater2 · May 29, 2012

drive said:
In biology it has been shone that flat worms can learn certain "tricks" and pass this information down to their offspring. Aversions to certain animals may also be a genetic memory for humans. Culteral memories are harder to pin down they might include Swedes liking winter.
You know how there are the nomadic people in mongolia would there horse wispering skills be learnt or after hundreds of generations could this knowledge become genetic

I don't know enough about that to say whether or not it's true, but from what I currently know, it seems unlikely.

Aversion to predators is an evolutionary instinct.

I don't think all northern European people like cold weather or all African people like warm weather. As for the horse whispering, it's exactly what you called it, a skill. It takes time and practice to learn any skills. I don't think things like that are passed down genetically, the evidence doesn't support it.

zat said:
You're talking what Carl Jung (psychoanalyst who disagreed w/most of Freud's b.s.) called the collective conscious. As in there's a collective memory tied to all of us, but in Westernized "civilizations" if we can't measure it, it doesn't exist. We've fucked ourselves by becoming such hard science buffs and not giving merit to unmeasurable things like intuition, sixth sense, clairvoyance, etc. All of these things were respected and trusted by millenia of ancient cultures....but now...everyone's got a fucking iPad that tells them where to take a piss.

If it's real, we can measure it. If we can't measure it, it's useless to us.

zat · May 30, 2012

[/QUOTE]If it's real, we can measure it. If we can't measure it, it's useless to us.[/QUOTE]

Can you measure "love" or "happieness"? Not really....so you're saying these are useless to us?

Heisenberg · May 30, 2012

Flatworms 'eating' memory is a classic example of flawed methodology followed up with years of special pleading. Carl Sagan was fond of listing flatworm memory among his lists of fake science. It was debunked long ago, not too long after the initial experiment in the 50's. Peer review identified as many as 70 variables left uncontrolled in the original experiment, and when they added the most simple control (washing the maze between runs) the phenomena disappeared and was never replicated again. Turns out, any second group of worms made it through the maze faster simply by following the chemical signature of the first group. The man who lead the experiment spent nearly two decades unsuccessfully trying to re-demonstrate the effect until he ran out of people willing to fund him in 71.

The Golem, which is a book with an anti-science message, spends it's entire first chapter looking at this story in depth. Even they seem to be struck by the flawed process used.

Doer · May 30, 2012

I sometimes wonder if our mind is simply tricking us. We know that time sense is very elastic and it's why people are late even if they wear a watch.

Deja vu. We are certain this happened before somehow....in a dream, maybe? But, what if the elastic time sense makes us think that? Causality itself can be elastic in the Mind. Eye witness accounts are now known to be the least reliable, for example.

Past memories. A combination of memories that seem to be outside our experience, but probably not.

Knowing something just before it happens....really? Or does it just seem that way in our Subjective Reality?

Padawanbater2 · May 30, 2012

zat said:
Can you measure "love" or "happieness"? Not really....so you're saying these are useless to us?

Yes, actually we can;

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/08/health/la-he-love8-2010feb08

"Arthur Aron, a social psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York, has done brain scans on people newly in love and found that after that first magical meeting or perfect first date, a complex system in the brain is activated that is essentially "the same thing that happens when a person takes cocaine.""

Explain to me how something would be useful if there was no way to prove, either it's existence or it's validity.

kizphilly · May 30, 2012

after my pops died for some reason i couldnt cry i dont know what it was but like a week after i was driving down the street scan thur the radio and some old john prime song came on and i just busted out in tears it brought back memories from when i was younger when me and my dad would take trips and he must played that cd a 100 times its funny how one song can bring u back

Heisenberg · May 30, 2012

kizphilly said:
after my pops died for some reason i couldnt cry i dont know what it was but like a week after i was driving down the street scan thur the radio and some old john prime song came on and i just busted out in tears it brought back memories from when i was younger when me and my dad would take trips and he must played that cd a 100 times its funny how one song can bring u back

Great story. It does seem music brings back more complete and emotional memories than smell, although smell is more common. For me, the memories brought back by scents are somewhat undefined and fleeting. I think when it comes to music there is a sort of mnemonic action involved as well as the auditory stimulus.

Heisenberg · May 30, 2012

Doer said:
I sometimes wonder if our mind is simply tricking us. We know that time sense is very elastic and it's why people are late even if they wear a watch.

Deja vu. We are certain this happened before somehow....in a dream, maybe? But, what if the elastic time sense makes us think that? Causality itself can be elastic in the Mind. Eye witness accounts are now known to be the least reliable, for example.

Past memories. A combination of memories that seem to be outside our experience, but probably not.

Knowing something just before it happens....really? Or does it just seem that way in our Subjective Reality?

Good points, but I have to say, when I have deja vu, I am anything but certain. The feeling is slippery, hard to focus on and very fleeting. I do noticed other times though, when I have dreamed something very similar to the situation, and it takes me a second to ask myself, 'Did that happen for real', and then I realize it was indeed a dream. Those times feel very similar to deja vu, except they do not resist examination. Deja vu seems to slip away faster the more you try to concentrate on it.

olylifter420 · May 30, 2012

Is there any science behind "deja vu" ?

Heisenberg said:
Good points, but I have to say, when I have deja vu, I am anything but certain. The feeling is slippery, hard to focus on and very fleeting. I do noticed other times though, when I have dreamed something very similar to the situation, and it takes me a second to ask myself, 'Did that happen for real', and then I realize it was indeed a dream. Those times feel very similar to deja vu, except they do not resist examination. Deja vu seems to slip away faster the more you try to concentrate on it.

Past Memories Manifested by Other Senses

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