‘Memories Light the corners of my mind Misty watercolour memories Of the way we were’
Barbra Streisand, ‘The Way We Were’
Streisand’s lyrics reflect the nebulous nature of our memories, like the water colour picture, they mostly have soft blurred edges. Key moments may stand out, particularly those memories associated with trauma or significant life events but for most of us memories are vague, abstract puzzle pieces, often missing context. Some can be revealed anew when prompted by the reminiscing of another, or by an image of our younger body caught forever frozen, in a dog-eared photograph.
Neuroscience attempts to locate mind and memory in the brain, although theories contrast; do we learn by association, by creating a pattern of circuitry or is there a storehouse at molecular level. Both theories agree that memory emerges from neuro-biology. Langille & Gallistel (2020).
There are neuro-correlates associated with different aspects of encoding, storing and retrieving memory, such as the hippocampus for example, which regulates stress hormones and responses. The size of the hippocampus is thought to be of significance and found reduced in PTSD. Zilcha-Mano (2023).
In an activated trauma response, incidents in time and memory are not experienced as distant or past but still very much a part of the present and the body responds as such. However, Biologist Rupert Sheldrake argues that memory cannot be located in specific structures in the brain but rather the brain tunes into a morphic field and therefore acts much like a radio or TV receiver;
‘Morphic resonance is a process whereby self-organising systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems. In its most general formulation, morphic resonance means that the so-called laws of nature are more like habits. The hypothesis of morphic resonance also leads to a radically new interpretation of memory storage in the brain and of biological inheritance. Memory need not be stored in material traces inside brains, which are more like TV receivers than video recorders, tuning into influences from the past. And biological inheritance need not all be coded in the genes, or in epigenetic modifications of the genes; much of it depends on morphic resonance from previous members of the species. Thus each individual inherits a collective memory from past members of the species, and also contributes to the collective memory, affecting other members of the species in the future.’
Rupert Sheldrake
This could also account for genetic memory, ancestral memory, reincarnation, a deep familiarity with a landscape, a time in history or a resonance with ancient rituals and traditions.
Mainstream science disagrees with Sheldrake, citing brain injury, stroke and in particular dementia as proof of memory being located in the brain; in the case of dementia as the disease progresses memory and other cognitive faculties deteriorate. However the ‘Nuns Study’, conducted by Dr David Snowden, would seem to call this assumption into question. This study focused on a group of nuns whose daily life, pastimes, diets and routines were the same, meaning that they were an ideal control group to study as variables could be minimised. A number of the nuns agreed to donate their brains to the research on their death. Those who deteriorated and showed signs of Alzheimer’s as predicted, were found to have lesions on the brain. However, Sister Mary’s brain showed significant lesions, yet she had only limited cognitive deterioration at end of life. Snowdon et al (1999). What might this suggest about consciousness and memory? It was thought by the researchers, that her role in teaching, reading and writing, along with balanced nutrition, helped to conserve her cognitive faculties. Indeed it would seem that no two cases of dementia run the same route. The effects of the disease were explained to me using the analogy of thoughts and memory being like books on a shelf that has been knocked over; some of the books are jumbled or out of sequence and some are missing altogether. Due to the increase in dementia over the last few decades, we have come to accept loss of cognitive function and short term memory as an inevitable part of ageing; many of us describe ‘senior moments’, when our memory fails; we forget names or we step into a room forgetting why we are there, all the while silently wondering if this is the beginning of dementia. But should we accept this as an inevitability? What impact do all the environmental toxins in our food, water and air have on our memory and cognitive faculties? From Sheldrake’s perspective the brain is thought of as a receiver / transmitter of information, rather than a hard drive storage system itself. Many other great thinkers have come to the same conclusion; Jung spoke of the collective unconscious and Edgar Cayce spoke of the Akashic records, a store house containing every word, thought and deed.Cayce belived that anyone can access these records, a theory which seems to fit quite comfortably alongside the documented skill of ‘Remote Viewing’ a term first used by Russell Targ, Harold Puthoff and Ingo Swann from Stanford Research Institute. Puthoff & Targ (2005) It is reported that the US military funded research into the usefulness of remote viewing to retrieve information from distant places, from the past and from the future and of course from their so-called enemies. CIA.gov (1974)
Even more curious yet still aligned with the field theory is the phenomenon of the ‘Mandela effect’. This is a term given to cultural or societal memories, which do not seem to agree with documented facts. Fiona Broome, a paranormal researcher, established the term to describe what she believed to be a collective alternative memory, which she shared with a number of people at a conference in 2010. Broome (2023) They had the memory that Nelson Mandela had died in prison during the 1980s. In fact, Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and was very much alive at the time of the conference. Another frequently cited example of the Mandela Effect is the James Bond film, Moonraker. The character Jaws, who has metal teeth, meets Dolly who also has metal teeth as she has braces. That is what attracts them to each other and they instantly fall in love as a result; it is an important comedic moment in the movie. However the DVD film and subsequent TV showings of the film, have Dolly with a perfect smile and people insist that the scene never existed. Have we misremembered or is there something stranger afoot? Skeptics explain this as false memory, which they say is easily facilitated by social media and the digital age, whereby memes and urban myths spread quickly and soon become an established truth. Prasad & Bainbridge (2022) Yet the scene from Moonraker makes no sense without Dolly’s braces, why would Jaws have spared her and why would he have fallen in love with her at first glance?
However, I have a my own example of either the Mandala effect or of mis-remembering, which features the Live Aid concert in 1985 which was huge at the time for a young person of 17. In my memory I watched the first half of the show at my paternal grandmother’s flat with my then best friend. For twenty years whenever Live Aid was mentioned I recalled this memory, until my best friend told me that she had been somewhere else entirely and this was not her memory of the event at all! Still in my mind I am unable to find an alternate scenario and still remember my friend being there.
It is a strange feeling having your history, your personal narrative rewritten or re-remembered. There is a sense of disappointment and loss even. Hypnosis is sometimes used to retrieve memories but is viewed rather suspiciously by some as it is notoriously easy to influence the mind, plant suggestions or cause confusion. This idea of ‘False memory syndrome’ however, has been used to discredit significant traumatic events for many; such as in the denial of childhood sexual abuse, ritual sexual abuse and even to discredit the stories of those who believe they have been abducted by aliens. Deliberate attempts at obfuscation or denial of facts or events known to be true is commonly described as ‘gaslighting’; all of us in the ‘truth movement’ are only too aware of examples of gaslighting by those in power who use the term ‘conspiracy theory’ to close down uncomfortable questions that stray too far from the agreed narrative.
Yet our memories are not static snapshots of time as in photographs, nor are they documented facts stored in libraries or the hall of records from which data can be retrieved as an exact replica from the hard drive. Memories are fluid; the past is recreated anew according to our current perspective, mood and understanding. Our present state of being in this moment necessarily colours our recall. Our looking back, our reflections, are affected to a great degree by our current state of mind. If our mood is negative, we will find many incidents that support the negative mind set; we use statements such as ‘that always happens’ or ‘everything went wrong’.
The narratives of our childhood are shared and exchanged with the insight of our adult self who is now telling the story and this is not therefore an accurate representation of the experience of the child self, who did not have our current understanding.
Memory often floods in with its twin-flame nostalgia; Christopher Lasch describes nostalgia as an obstacle to progress, for we can never imagine anything ever exceeding the sweetness of those brief moments of recall, together with a discontent with the present, which seems beige and bland in contrast;
‘Nostalgia appeals to the feeling that the past offered delights no longer obtainable. Nostalgic representations of the past evoke a time irretrievably lost and for that reason timeless and unchanging. Strictly speaking, nostalgia does not entail the exercise of memory at all, since the past it idealizes stands outside time, frozen in unchanging perfection. Memory too may idealize the past, but not in order to condemn the present. It draws hope and comfort from the past in order to enrich the present and to face what comes with good cheer’.
Christopher Lasch
Interestingly nostalgia historically was associated with depression although other writers experience it as a sweetness which I resonate with; it is a melancholic ache and a yearning for something just at the edge of our reach, yet it is a seductive ache.
Our digital age has lessened the need for memory, calculation and problem solving, this is all done for us at the touch of a button. Our elders tell us though, that their memories are their most precious possession, more cherished than anything material as they reflect back on their lives. How tragic therefore that so many lose these treasures through dementia. What are those adventures that we have shared if one of us can no longer relish in the reliving of them as with the Mandala effect, did they ever exist at all?
Who or what decides the memories that we can recall and those which will be relegated way at the back of the bookcase never to be re-accessed. Memories are like a silken cloud migrating by moonlight; the gentle silver glow makes everything look magical, yet the moon is illusionary and predators murmur languishing in the shadows...
It is easy to become seduced by the moonlight, carried off to halcyon days, full of nostalgia, when things were simpler, worries were less and life was easier, after all our future lay ahead, full of opportunity and of course we had time on our side. But our memories are only a representation and whilst they come with the sweet wave of nostalgic bliss, we can never truly be wholly back there as we once were. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could step back into the chapters of our lives and re-experience those sweet spots exactly as they were? Is that a dangerous thought though in today’s society; perhaps ‘Neuralink’ could promise to make this possible? Plugged into the matrix any life you could possibly imagine, created for you not at the press of a button, no, in the blink of eye. After all, what if every night when I fall asleep my life is recreated anew, with a different script each time on waking, how would I know?
I will finish with a verse from the Grimnismal of the Poetic Eddas, a collection of Old Norse poems. Larrington (2014)
The All-Father Odhinn, has two Ravens, Huginn and Munin, mind (or thought) and memory respectively, that he sends out each day to brings news from the nine worlds:
O'er Mithgarth Hugin and Munin both Each day set forth to fly; For Hugin I fear lest he come not home, But for Munin my care is more.
References
Central Intelligence Agency (2024) https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000500410001-3
Broome, F. The mandal Effect is Not Flase Memories (2023) https://fionabroome.com/mandela-effect-false-memories/
Langille, J. J., & Gallistel, C. R. (2020). Locating the engram: Should we look for plastic synapses or information-storing molecules?. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 169, 107164.
Larrington, C. (2014). The poetic edda. OUP Oxford.
LASCH, C. (1990). Memory and Nostalgia, Gratitude and Pathos. Salmagundi, 85/86, 18–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40548513
Prasad, D., & Bainbridge, W. A. (2022). The Visual Mandela Effect as evidence for shared and specific false memories across people. Psychological Science, 33(12), 1971-1988
Puthoff, H. & Targ, R. (2005). Mind-reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Abilities (Studies in consciousness) Hampton Roads Publishing Co
Sheldrake, R. (2024) Morphic Resonance Research and Papers. https://www.sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance
Snowdon, David A., Lydia H. Greiner, Susan J. Kemper, Nuwan Nanayakkara, and James A. Mortimer. 1999. Linguistic ability in early life and longevity: Findings from the Nun Study. In The Paradoxes of Longevity. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 103–13
Zilcha-Mano, S., Duek, O., Suarez-Jimenez, B., Zhu, X., Lazarov, A., Helpman, L., ... & Neria, Y. (2023). Underlying Hippocampal Mechanism of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Outcome: Evidence From Two Clinical Trials. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 3(4), 867-874.
Lovely thoughtful piece Lucinda. We also at times try to harvest solutions from memory to current problems, when the sometimes scary solution is something totally new. Looking forward to your installment 💪
Lovely thoughtful piece Lucinda. We also at times try to harvest solutions from memory to current problems, when the sometimes scary solution is something totally new. Looking forward to your installment 💪