Remember in 3rd person?

[Mini-Thud]

I find that when I'm remembering things I tend to do so in the 3rd person, like I watch myself doing whatever I'm remembering. Its not always like that, but sometimes it is. Also, does anyone else every dream in 3rd person? I've have quite a few dreams where I'm watching myself from behind, kind of like a video game.

I guess my poll here is:

Does anyone else remember stuff or dream in the 3rd person perspective?

[Roadwalker]

get help

[lorinada]

No, not that I can recall.

[Orange Skinner]

I dream in the third person almost as much as I dream in the first person, so, no, you're not alone on that one, Jukaal. As to the iremembering in the third person, I don't know...I'll have to get back to you on that one.

[elfkin477]

I almost started a thread on this a while back...yup, some of my memories, especially from childhood, are definitely in the third person. So that makes at least two of us, anyway :D

[Trigonal Planar]

I have *lots* of memories that present themselves in the 3rd person. I think that as the memory gets older, you get more disconnected from the experience and this manifests itself as a shift from a 1st person sense to a 3rd person sense.

As for dreaming, in fact, the majority of my dreams are in 3rd person.

[urban1a]

It's possible that 3rd person memories aren't really memories but things you were told that you did.

Bob

[urban1a]

I actually meant early childhood memories. I have several of these that I know are from being told what I did, rather than actually remembering the action.

Bob

[look!ninjas]

I dream in the first person and third person. I also occasionally have dreams in which I am someone else, and I've twice had dreams that were animated in the style of the Simpsons.

So I don't think you're crazy. Or at least, you're not as crazy as me.

[Sinungaling]

Sometimes I'm not even in my dreams, and I'm watching a whole bunch of stuff happen to other people, like on tv.

[Trigonal Planar]

Yes, I also agree with urban1z.

[jackelope]

I find that my memories from more than maybe eight or ten years ago (I'm 31) are in third person. I imagine time like a long, gently curving hall, with the inside of the curve being all windows. If something is relatively close (i.e., recent), I can look back and see it in the hall with me (first person). But if something is farther away (longer ago), I have to see it by looking out the window and back in through the window next to where it happened/is; I see it as if I'm looking in through the window, in third person.

Hope that makes sense; I don't think I've described it well. But yes, I've noticed this many times.

[Zeldar]

This is very thought provoking. Great answers, too.

There's another thread asking about earliest memories and I think there's a lot of similarity in the ideas involved.

I'm a firstborn and like most I've had conversations with, it runs that the firstborn is doted on with photos and videos and other such things more than later kids in the family. It was certainly that way with my own kids.

There are five or six albums with photos of me from babyhood up through age four or five. I've looked at them off and on since I was little. Whenever I try to decide if there's really a memory of those times, I'm utterly confused about whether it's memory *of the picture* or memory independent of that.

As a possible result of that confusion, I'd say that maybe half my memories and dreams are third person.

Perhaps an even weirder case would come from switching persons (people?) in the same dream or memory. I don't recall doing that. Maybe *that* would be the signal to seek "help."

[elfkin477]

Originally posted by urban1z
I actually meant early childhood memories. I have several of these that I know are from being told what I did, rather than actually remembering the action.

Bob

I've thought about this. It's plausable, except with several of these type of memories, I also remember what I was thinking at the time as well. Someone else might fill me in on what I did, but they couldn't tell me what I was thinking.

[lorinada]

I have way too many memories of things that happened to me when I was alone, too. Or when I was with no one who would later be able to tell me what happened, such as things that happened in the nursery (what they called day care way back in the ice age).