Can we CONTROL our MEMORY......?

ask anyone in crime investigations...memory is a trickster witnesses regularly "fill in the blanks" if memory doesn't serve them as well as they would like.....they even convince themselves their "blanks" were true upon recalling the events later.

ask yourself if you have ever told a little white lie...only to have it confuse your memory.

the ways that memory fools us are many.

I realized this at an early age watching people going around being smug and telling fibs all in the name of small talk.....I strive not to do this. When I remember things I discern wishful thinking from the facts to the best of my ability.....but am the first to admit I was wrong when a discrepancy arises that tweaks my memory.

It can happen both ways.

Memory usually interferes in a person who has very little control over his mind.

From spiritual angle, mind is looked at as having 5 aspects. The three are memory, imagination & sleep, and the other two are right centre & wrong centre from which we operate the 3 (or the other 3 get operated upon, if we are not consciously rooted into the right or wrong centre)

As an example, a fully drunk person is strongly rooted in wrong centre, and you can't argue with such a person, and a saintly person if strongly rooted in right centre, and again very difficult to contradict such a person in an arguement. We common people oscillate to often, and then invoke the memory & imagination, and so often inadvertently fall a prey to the situation, the chance being whether we were in right centre or wrong when acting out of that moment of mind.

Spirituality creates a possibility to understand and consciouly control these centres, (even sleep can be invoked at will, with practice.... note, some people have difficulty in invoking it, and hence use pills).

And, recalling from memory again depends on how we stored the information (like ... well arranged books in a library can be located more easily).

Hi,

An interesting question and it can work either way. I think there is still a lot we have yet to understand about memory. Not everyone realises memories can be false, no matter how real they might feel. Memories can be elaborated on, gaps filled in, changed, as time goes by. Mere thoughts can turn into what people believe to have been memories; how can they differentiate one from the other? With great difficulty, sometimes.

Can we control our memory? This has been done in a way when it has become apparant that what people believed to have been childhood memories were actually suggestions planted in their head by a hypnotist/counsellor.

Do memories control us? Again, some people can't seem to 'break away' from the past, allowing memories or their perceived beliefs of the past to prevent them from moving forward. In that respect, memory seems to have a lot of control over some people's future.

Pollyanna

It is the mind that controls us and not the memory. Memories are those experiences we perceived in the mind. Memories has nothing to do with control. It is the mind that is responsible in doing what is this and that.

Great question. Have a wonderful day!

A memory is the record of your experience and can never be changed once created. The memory of your experience will have its effect on you until you learn to understand the cause. If however you wish to control your memory's you must first.... ?

Mostly memory that controls us. Seems that we would be a bit lost if we never knew from which we came, who we knew and that which we have learned.

I know a guy that has short term memory loss...can't even do his job anymore. He must write everything down from one day to the next.

Memory is perhaps what keeps us moving forward, realizing our existence is actually on going and that we truly are unique in this ability.

You can choose not to think about something therefor pushing it from your mind and not "remembering" it.

Sometimes the hurt from a memory can control your actions towards others in the future. Ex. some one totally crushes your heart and the memory of the pain and heartache can cause you to be scared to start anew with some one different.

I think that we are the ones that control our memory, because when you do not want to think of something unpleasant that happened in your Life, you can block the memory, and you can forget it, until it comes back, and you block it again. sometimes the Memory controls our actions but we are the ones that has more control over it.

mainly and unfortunately the memory controls most of the people... even more those who try to control their memories

I believe we can control memory by being rational rather than emotional. Even in bad instances in my life, I tend to put those memories on the back burner until such a time they can play a significant and more positive role in my life--that includes the cessation of life.