I woke up last night after an odd dream in which my father told me one of my classmates was at the door to see me about a paint job I had done on his car.
When I awoke, I realized that the dream’s classmate died when I was in junior high. I remember his death very clearly and remember his brother’s reaction.
The problem? I can also remember that it wasn’t the classmate who died but his older brother. I remember his death very clearly and remember my classmate’s reaction.
Have you ever had two clear memories that are this mutually incompatible? I’d like to argue that these events were 30 years ago and therefore muddled, but I have a feeling the same thing could happen to me about events from yesterday.
I don’t think I’ve had contradictory memories, but if you expand the premise to false or impossible memories, then I have a few. I have an extremely vivid memory of dancing with a girl I liked at a school dance when I was about 14. I can tell you exactly what she was wearing (a purple dress with a flower pattern and bright yellow tights), how she had done her hair, what the room looked like. I can recall how she smelled (a bit like vanilla), and how her body felt (she was very skinny). I remember clearly how she was the one who came up to me and pulled me onto the dance floor before I could get away, and how when the dance was over, she smiled at me, but seemed embarrassed somehow, and quickly ran off to be with her group of friends, leaving me in a daze.
Steamy stuff. The only problem is, there’s no way that it could have happened like that , because I can’t dance. I mean, I *really *can’t dance, not to save my life. Not now, and sure as heck not when I was 14. I’m stiff as a plank, I have no rhythm, I have two left feet and they’re both made of lead. The few times I’ve been suckered onto a dance floor I’ve always ended up looking like an imbecile, and under no circumstances could I have made it through a swirl across the floor with this girl without incident (never mind the fact that I was much to shy to do such a thing anyway).
So, what actually happened that day I guess I’ll never know, but dancing almost certainly wasn’t involved. Most likely I’ve dreamed the whole episode up entirely, or garbled it together from part memory, part fantasy. (The girl was certainly real, though, I’m pretty sure of that. She was at my school, and I did like her, but it never went anywhere, certainly not physically.)
Dreaming is a fascinating thing, and can apparantly, from experience, leave imprints on your brain that might seem as real, or more real, as actually memories. Don’t know how that works, just know it’s happened to me and just about everybody else, I’m guessing.
I’ve told this a dozen times already, but one night at dinner, we were having hotdogs and my mom told me to get the mustard from the fridge. I told her we were out. She said no, we weren’t. I told her I’d already checked; she said ‘When?’…and that’s when I remembered that I’d actually DREAMED this exact scenario the night before. Except in the dream, I got up and checked and we had no mustard.
Banal, but imagine how all the dreams you DON’T remember are affecting you?
Another really weird one that I have, from when I was very little: I remember being the one who decided my younger brother’s name. Of course I never actually did such a thing, as 1) I was only three years old when he was born, 2) my parents are perfectly clear on why they selected his name, and I certainly had nothing to do with it, and 3) I don’t even like his name that much in the first place. Still, I very clearly remember my father asking me and me coming up with the name. It’s probably a mangled version of my father *teaching *me his name and making me say it back.
I still have a crystal clear memory of loaning a book to a friend, watching him walk out to his car with it in hand, and driving off. About a year later I learned that he’d put the book back in my bookcase, never borrowed it at all. There is absolutely no question about this-- he put the book back on the shelf before he left, and yet my false memory remains as vivid and as real as any other memories, even though I KNOW it simply did. not. happen.
Our brains are fascinating.
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Occasionally. I will have a very vivid dream and for at least 10-15 minutes or so after I wake up some of the memories stick around conflicting with reality.
Happened a few days ago, I had a very vivid dream about my cat Banzai, about his coming to the door and scratching to get in. I let him in, and he hopped up on the bed for some snuggle time before getting down to go eat. For a few minutes after I woke up I wondered how long it would be before he came back in. He has been dead for about 5 years now, but I could swear he was still alive and had just come in and was wandering around the house.
