"I remember when I was 3 or 4 years old..."

murrayp4

Does anyone else just switch off when someone is recounting a 'paranormal' experience they had when they were a toddler?
(Specifically the 'Ghosts-What are your experiences?' thread.)

Dave!

Yes, pretty much

Some paranormal believers contend that toddlers and young children are more 'in tune' with the spirit world -- and that accounts for them having more experiences :eek:

Try i. more active imagination, ii. lesser understanding of science, how the world works, etc., iii. not a very nuanced view of the world, so easy to misconstrue something, iv. YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY REMEMBER WITH ANY GREAT ACCURACY SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU WERE 3 YEARS OLD!!!

kylith

Definitely! I can't reliably remember what I did last week so I'm not likely to put much faith in things people definitely remember from 20/30 years ago; especially since it's been proven that you can blatantly lie to people about their own childhood and they will actually 'remember' it happening.
http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/02/implanting-false-memories-lost-in-mall.php

I had a few of what could be could be termed 'paranormal' experiences in my childhood
1) piano keys hit when no one in the room. I believe that I was so used to hearing the piano that I assume I did when I didn't.

2) woken up by flute music in my room; no-one in my family plays the flute. I believe that I was dreaming, or at least half dreaming.

3) This is actually the one that gets me, so lets see what explanation ye come up with: I was about 8-10, I was in my room, alone. I had a keyboard playing a backing track called Londonderry Air over and over because I liked the tune. After maybe 10 minutes or so Danny Boy started to play. I don't think I imagined it because I didn't know that Danny Boy and Londonderry Air were the same song. It's possible that the keyboard played it automatically but I've never been able to get it to do so again, no matter how long I leave it play for. Maybe the flute-playing ghost did it :LOL:

pookie82

Dave! wrote: »

YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY REMEMBER WITH ANY GREAT ACCURACY SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU WERE 3 YEARS OLD!!!

I was almost three years old when my mom left me to go back to work for the first time since I was born. I remember the room where she left me, the pattern on the curtains, being in my aunt's arms and crying as she tried to leave and I reached my arms out to her, I remember the slide in her hair and exactly what she was wearing.

The reason for this is probably because it was a traumatic experience for me and my memory somehow retained it, even though I can't remember some incidents from when I was 7.

I think that if your brain classifies something as overtly unusual or traumatic you can retain very early memories.

I'm not arguing that all of these people are correct in what they saw, just your last point there.

kylith

pookie82 wrote: »

I was almost three years old when my mom left me to go back to work for the first time since I was born. I remember the room where she left me, the pattern on the curtains, being in my aunt's arms and crying as she tried to leave and I reached my arms out to her, I remember the slide in her hair and exactly what she was wearing.

The reason for this is probably because it was a traumatic experience for me and my memory somehow retained it, even though I can't remember some incidents from when I was 7.

I think that if your brain classifies something as overtly unusual or traumatic you can retain very early memories.

I'm not arguing that all of these people are correct in what they saw, just your last point there.

You may remember remembering it, so to speak, but your memory may be wrong (here's a scientist misremembering an event that happened him as an adult, even though it made an impression on him, even though he wrote it down at the time). Every time we access a memory our brain recreates it as best it can, but it can be fooled (see the link in my last post where people 'remembered' events that researchers had made up about their past), and it can be wrong (I have a memory of our kitchen table that turned out to be from before my parents got that table.)

The thing is that without a photo of the exact moment you can't be sure that you're remembering it correctly, maybe you are, but no-one has any way of knowing, and you'll never know if your memory of the event is correct or not.

The brain is a mysterious and scary place, don't you think?