Memory Loss?

[Darkborne]

Hello, my friends. It's been a while since I've been in this forum. I would like to ask experienced Lucid Dreamers a question. Recently, (last February) I was in an accident. I got a whole laundry list of injuries, most serious of which were broken elbows and head injury. Long story short, I've come to find that I cannot remember more than small exerts from the past 4 years of my life. Small fragments and random sensations mostly. My doctor tells me that while the injury is partially responsible, it is most likely a psychological reaction. We aren't sure whether or not it is to the injury, or something else. Needless to say, losing your high school life in college is a wee bit... disturbing. (So far, it seems only experiential memory that has become affected. Retention of skills seems to be normal, which I assure you has constantly surprised me the past few months). I want to regain my memories, but the doctor advises me not to exert myself too much in my attempts to regain my past. I wonder, is it possible to use lucid dreams in an attempt to access memories I can't consciously access? and even if I could, would it be wise to do so?

[TheShadow]

I was watching a TED talk on you tube a couple days ago about memory, and the places where skills and long term memory are stored in the brain are very different, which likely explains why you haven't lost both the skills and memories... but as to remembering things that were in your high school years, I'm not sure. It is possible that brain damage could have taken them from you forever, because if certain connections between neurons are severed, they would have to be replicated exactly to reproduce the effects they had before (regrowth of neurons and connections is possible, but to make them the same as they were before seems unlikely). If the connections are severed in your brain, lucid dreaming will not be able to help you, however if they are only damaged, then the memory may come back on its own, or with effort. If your doctor said not to strain too hard, I would probably avoid working at it for at least a few months after the injury, as you don't want to cause more damage trying to recover memories that are being repaired by your brain. I am not a neurologist, but I do have an interest in the field... I hope this helps, and hopefully you remember the good times.

[Caden]

a Remembering your past is a connection to your past. Do you really want to be linked to that past? What if you could reinvent your past making you a different and perhaps even better person? Essentially you can do this now since you have no link to a past that may have been less than desirable. Add to this the fact that a lot of people in college use this time to reinvent themselves. This is a very good thing to do as it cuts ties to past "load-stones" and gives you new hopes and goals. There once was a guy who never had any love from the ladies and was thought to be a nerdy type, this guy reinvented himself and is now a multimillionaire that you know as the legendary Hugh Hefner! (last time I checked he had 2 hot blond wives at his really ripe old age) Take this as a gift before your past comes back and your choices, and your future, become more limited. Losing things is not always a loss, sometimes it's a gain. gift.jpg