Accessing Past Memories Through Lucid Dreams?

Hey, long time reader of these forums but I've only just registered today, so hopefully I'm not talking complete nonsense :cheeky:

Anyway, last night I had a semi-lucid dream in which I was almost "reliving" the memory of the day on which I moved away from home to go to university a couple of years ago. And although the dream was pretty short, I swear that the dream played out exactly as that day did (or exactly as I remember it anyway). I was lucid and knew that I was dreaming, but I had absolutely no control whatsoever on the dream itself. All I could do was stand there and watch what was going on through my own eyes.

I woke up pretty quickly as I was pretty excited about what I thought I was watching, and quickly wrote down what I could remember of the dream. I've been thinking about it all day and I've never heard of this sort of thing happening before (it certainly hasn't happened to me) so I thought I'd register here and share my experience.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Is every memory you've ever had stored in your brain, and if so do you think it might be possible to try to access these through lucid dreams? Or do you think I'm just remembering the day wrong and my mind is telling itself that these are memories when really it's just a product of my subconcious/imagination?

Sorry if this sounds like the ramblings of a madman :panic: It's late here and I'm shattered so it probably doesn't read that well. Just thought I'd put it out there and see what you guys thought,

SC29

Hey there, this is a pretty common question/occurrence actually. No one is going to be able to give you a right or wrong answer, but if you are interested in the subject I would suggest doing some research about it. The mind drastically distorts memories, whether it's the conscious or subconscious that plays a role in this I don't know that anyone knows, but it's been shown that a memory can have slight variations each time you actively recall it. This is one of the best reasons for journaling everything btw.

I've seen this question brought up so many times...that I propose a research project for anyone who is interested. Basically it would involve going back in time during a lucid dream and experiencing some memory, but it would have to be something that you would be able to obtain hard evidence for whether the memory was accurate or not. For example: I have no memory of what I (or my friends) wore to school on picture day in the 5th grade. So I would try to either remember, or go back to that day in a lucid dream and see what everyone was wearing. Then when I wake up, I can try to find an old class picture and see if I was right. Definitely not the most scientific way to go about things, but if anyone has any other ideas please share.

Also, I personally have memories from being an infant (and I swear I even have a womb memory though everything thinks you're crazy when you say this so I don't tell anyone anymore), so I'm inclined to think that the mind stores everything, and we can access it with the right tools and techniques.

I don't know if I would say that memories are stored in the brain, but that they are stored in a kind of field around the brain. I don't have a link for that but.... google it or something. You can find many stories of basically what nina described, where someone examined a detail of a memory while dreaming, then confirmed it in waking life.

Also, welcome Dream Views! ^^

I also might say that all experience is stored in the Akashic records but not everyone is into that.

yes i get these dreams too, but played out differently as it was when it happened.

I'm just going to be a bit petty and state that all memories are past memories. From there on I can say that remembering things through dreams is nothing unusual and if lucid you could probably break away from it if you tried properly. This is because the brain remembers a lot more than it lets on when you're awake but most memories are, to put it simply, put in the "trash I have no interest in" folder even if they might be actually important. You can make yourself remember anything by reinforcing it (thinking about it frequently) or associating it with a strong memory while awake, but when asleep the brain can freely access the trash bin and can basically remember everything that's actually stored in your memory.