False Memories

When I was about 5 yrs old, I walked outside the front door and made my way out of the neighborhood. I was determined to explore my surroundings. I climbed into the back of a pickup truck, hid for about an hour until it stopped. Next, I saw a bus and latched onto the bars of the back and climbed my way up to the top and decided to go along for the ride. By this time it got dark I remember thinking this probably wasn't too good of an idea.

Even though I awoke the next day in my bed, I was so sure someone had brought me home. I made mention of this only to a few of my kindergarden friends and I was their hero. I must have had this memory in the back of my mind for the next ten years.

Now I realize there must have been a few episodes of my childhood that were so realistic in nature (not the absurd ones) that I mistook for real life.

Does anyone have any false memories attributed to dreams?

Yeah, once when I was like 3 years old, I introduced my parents, my house and me to myself in the dream, it was really strange when I think about, and its the first dream of my life that I have memory of, I always thought It had happend for real but I asked my parents in diferent times through the later years and they never knew of this. So I actually am still not sure if it was a dream or real :?

Yep,

I have memories I could swear were real, but other people involved have no idea what I'm talking about
also, stuff I thought I'd dreamed / imagined that turned out to be real

My childhood memories are very patchy in places.

One memorable (haha) incident, I must have been 6 or 7, and my parents and I were walking out over the Thames mud-flats in Southend.
I could swear I fell down a bait-digger's hole up to my waist and couldn't get out
I'm positive my dad pulled me out and took me round my grandparents house to get cleaned up.

However, there's a photo of me, taken on that day, with mud only up to my ankles.
(my grandparents used to take photos all the time)
their photos have conflicted with my memory of things on numerous occasions

I have a ton of false memories from dreams some people can just dream deeper than others and some minds can get confused between dream and reality. There are many similarities between Lucid dreaming and Dyslexic Disorentation if you want a differant view point on false memories look up the Dyslexic research done by Ron Davis

I always get those and find it hard to believe when someone who was there tells me it didnt happen.

I know the exact feeling. It questions practically every memory we have.

This does bring up the question, how reliable is the mind when recalling memories long put away? We have established that dreams are not direct playbacks of experiences, but are really, our own recollection.

Certainly, this is part of "a differerent point of view" thinking.