Can you use Lucid Dreaming to.................

I was just wondering if it was possible, or more preferably, If anyone has ever been able to relive a moment in their past while LDing. I mean, is it possible to relive the time when you were six years old at Grandma's house in order to bring back memories of which you had forgotten (or not been able to recall).

I read somewhere once that the brain records every bit of information that your sensations bring to it. That every single letter of every single page of every single book you've ever read is stored in your brain, but that your unable to recall it.

If LDing puts you into a position where you have most if not all of the control over your brain, would it be possible?

Implications:

Remembering your father who died when you were young

Remembering every single moment and feeling of your first date, etc.

What moment would you relive?

I think it is possible. Like I relive some moments in my life which had an impact on me, or has great symbolic meaning and value. For me, when I have LD's, it all comes from my sub-conscience thoughts and deep feelings. If something important happened to you, you might sometimes dream about it.
Or, if you can controll your dream easily enough, you can change it to something that happened to you before.

Memory alters with time. It degrades. Unless it's a flash memory, but those are very shallow anyway. Under hypnosis, people can recall incredibly vivid memories, however they are not incredibly valid. People's minds create new details to fill in gaps, they alter old memories to make most sense to them.

I'd like to think lucid dreaming can match recall under hypnosis. It's not 100% accurate, though I'm sure you could retrieve key points.

You all seem to miss out on an important aspect of memory.

For one, every single letter of every single page of every single book...not true at all. Certain passages, yes -- passages that are brought into Long-Term Memory by elaborative rehersal (basically putting meaning behind it). Otherwise, the things stay into your short term memory for a short while and then disappear, since they were not consolidated into your LTM.

Also, memories don't exactly "degrade with time," it's more like certain aspects of memory are added, replaced, or are not conjured up when trying to recall memory.

Long-Term Memory is stored in three different ways: Semantic memory (concepts, vocab, rules), Episodic memory ("episodes" of your life), and Procedural memory (how-to things).

Each peice of information stored in each system of LTM respectively, and scattered throughout the brain. When you try to recall memory, it basically "links up" in the brain and is recalled. Peices of information ARE still there, but they may not be recalled, or extra information may be recalled (usually through manipulation).

And when you said "the brain records each bit of memory brought to your senses," that's even less true. Sensory memory has an even shorter recall time than short-term memory unless it is rehearsed, and then if it is elaborated, then it goes into LTM. So no, you don't store every peice of memory, not by a long shot.

If you did, you would have sensory overload. Right now, the TV is on, the fan is on, sounds from my computer and my computer's fan are emitting, i can feel the bed under me, my fingers as they touch the keyboard, my clothes on my body, the way my hair falls over my forehead, and all the other tons of information i can sense right now. I either adapt or habituate so that not all of this information is recorded into my memory: only what's important.

So even if you relive memories, you may not relive the full memory, or your memory will have modified/recalled extra information so the memory may not be exactly what happened, etc...

Sorry to be the bad guy here. :(

Oh, i almost forgot to mention: Yes, i'm pretty positive you can relive these memories during Lucid Dreaming. I almost forgot about the whole LD aspect of this, i just went on a tangent :-P

Since LD involves your subconscious, i'm absolutely positive these memories will be intact within your lucid dream, since your subconscious is just...sweet.

b12, you seem to post a comment in everyone of my threads and they are always welcome. You bring a lot of good information to the table. What you said is true, though. Unfortunately it seems that you can't recall every little bit of detail; however I'm more interested in the major details.

Would anyone be able to LD a past memory?

I'm curious to see if you are an important character in the memory or simply watching it like you would a movie.

I remember learning in physiology class about an experiment that was done to show the fragility of human memory. They took a classroom full of people that attended a party - and 2 who didn't. The 2 people who did not attend the party pretended like they had gone and (I think) made up stories about events that occurred. 1 year later they brought the entire group back and the people who actually did attend the party *remembered* those 2 as having been there, as if they had actually experienced their presence, interacted with them etc.

So, you may be able to remember a really old memory in a dream, but probably not very like what it actually was, You will probably only remember the very good or the very bad - the things that stay with you.

Also it has been suggested that dreams themselves (non lucids) are the brain filtering through useless memories and information to discard. So I think during a non lucid dream is when you are likely to recall something from the distant past - and if you remember it, you save yourself from losing those details forever.

Id say the danger here is looking for a memory that doesnt exit.
Your brain may just create something...and youd remember fiction as reality.

I think the answer is mostly yes to the question at hand.

During dreams we have access to those same corners of our mind which we would have access to under hypnosis - and can we not recall "forgotten" memories during hypnosis?

It is possible that our mind may augment a portion of a memory, depending on how much of an impression it had at the time. At least, that's my opinion. I guess the real question comes down to how much our senses processes in every day life and how much gets 'impressed' in our mind. I tend to think we process everything that comes through our senses - we merely choose to filter out those that are insignificant at the time. However, it doesn't take away the fact that we DID experience the sense.