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The difference between "remembering" and "experience"

deborah

deborah

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I have noticed a difference in the language used in posts and books when describing past life memories. Angela and I talked about this last year and my mother and I talked about it last week. I would like to discuss it here.

For example - Fiziwig asked Is it wrong to remember? Other posts say - I had a past life memory. If you stop for a moment and think - what happened to you last Christmas....what do you remember? How is that memory experienced for you? What can you recall? Do you feel it? Do you hear it? DO you smell the food and hear the conversation? Probably not. You recall what was said - you remember the food, the presents -- but it is not as if you are THERE. To me - this is remembering and is a memory.

When a past life experience happens for me, it is not a memory - it is as if I have been plucked from the here and now - and I am IN THAT PLACE and in THAT TIME again. Every action, every detail is experienced as it was then. The thoughts - feelings and emotions are present in that moment. I have a different body, am a different age, and in a different country.

This is also true for spontaneous experiences. The only way I can describe it is Holographic -as if I stepped into and through a veil in time and am in another place. My clothes are different, the surroundings specific - detailed and in the NOW.

Past Life experiences don't happen day after day - or even often. But when they do happen, there is no doubt, no wondering if it is fantasy or imagination.

I am wondering - Do you agree that there is a difference between memory and experience? Or disagree? What are your thoughts about how people recall past lives? Should the language used be more specific?

I also wonder about small children who spontaneously remember past lives and talk about it; I wonder how it is for them - if their experience is holographic, and when trauma is experienced if it is as I described -- in the here and now for them? The evidence suggests so; it also illustrates my point.
 
Good question.

Myself, I have only ever "remembered," and not "experienced," so there's not much I can say from person experience. In fact, I hadn't really thought about that distinction before. I can see how it would make a big difference.
 
That is very good question Deborah. :)

I think it is easier for kids to remember their PL's since they don't have to deal with any real problems yet... I am talking about having money to pay the bills, making dinner, doing the laundry... :D
Kids are fresh in the body and not yet absorbed by our daily problems.
I think that when kids have PL memories they "experience" that moment again and that makes it different from just having a "memory".
I've read a lot of posts here and usually when kids are remembering their PL's they act like there were "puckled from here and now" like you mentioned. It's like they are going under a quick trance.

Adults on the other hand, seem to have more of a problem to identify if their memories are real or "fabricated".
I don't recall reading a lot of posts here about adults going under a quick trance in the middle of the day and having PL memories...
What i've noticed is that adults usually remember their PL's in dreams and it makes it hard to know for sure if it is actually a memory or just a dream... That's the problem i have. ;)

I my opinion there is huge difference between "memory" and "experience".
When you remember a PL in a dream it appears to be like a memory... But when you go under a trance you end up "experiencing" that moment again. The thoughts, feelings and emotions are present.

That's how i see. ;)
 
Hi gang :) ........

Deborah as usual you write another great post and make a very valid point to boot. There indeed is a big difference between remembering something and experiencing something. Here's what the dictionary say's about them:

REMEMBER - 1. A) To recall to the mind with effort; think of again: I finally remembered the address.
B) To recall or become aware of suddenly or spontaneously: Then I remembered that today is your birthday.
2. To retain in the memory: Remember your appointment.
3. To keep (someone) in mind as worthy of consideration or recognition.

EXPERIENCED - 1. The apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind: a child's first experience of snow.
2. A) Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill: a lesson taught by experience; a carpenter with experience in roof repair.
B) The knowledge or skill so derived.
3. A) An event or a series of events participated in or lived through. B) The totality of such events in the past of an individual or group.

Honestly I never thought of the differences between the two and their relationship with reincarnation until you pointed them out hun. Imo when describing the divine, including reincarnation and the like, language many times falls a bit short on being completely accurate. Why? Because in our physical world all things have limitations and that includes language to an extent, but the infinite and divine are truly boundless and are are not subject to such physical limitations.......

Can words truly describe the beauty of a sunset no matter how eloquently it is described? I do not think so, but we still strive to do so because that is our nature. You are absolutely correct Deborah, there is a big difference between remembering something and experiencing something. One can never truly describe a experience in whole, only describe remembering the experience. After all a person may describe his life's experiences in great detail but one truly cannot understand it fully till one experiences "walking in their shoes" so to speak.......

Most people I have discovered get a bit complacent on describing a memory of an experience due to one's disposition and knowledge of language. It is a habit of life I am sure and by no means wrong. It is just the best one can do I am sure......

When I "remember" (lol) a past life it is generally threw dreams which I "experience" said life. When awake however and I "remember" a past life, my vision blurs and the world fade's away. I truly "experience" said event as if I was actually there in that time, not here in my current one. It is all a mater of perspective I am sure and one's boundaries of language to describe said event. At times these two simple words blend in meaning but as you stated there is a big difference between the two........

So yes, in truth I do "experience" my past lives and try to explain them to the best of ability (which is very limited btw lol) threw my remembering of said lives. To put this simply consider this.......

How many of us describe a past life WHILE at the same time we are actually "experiencing" it? Not many I am sure though I am sure it is possible, but if so does this not blend with "channeling"? IE: Channeling the past life event threw words as you are experiencing that past life as it occurs......

Do I experience my past lives or remember them? Simply put, I do both. I experience a past life and describe my remembering of it to those who will listen. I hope that makes sense as my limitations on using language does hold me back at times.......

"Should the language used be more specific?" Yes perhaps that would help but in my view it might be a bit of a moot point because any language we may use is automatically doomed to fail to TOTALLY be accurate. It is the nature of this physical plane to be so limited so as we may learn things better. The best we can do however, is only do the best we can do is all.......

At times it is not enough but for the most part it is adequate.....

Peace.........
 
Storage vs. access

As I understand it, our memories actually contain every detail of every lived experience... it's all recorded, like a movie, in our brains somewhere. Most of us, however, under normal circumstances, cannot access most of it that way, most of the the time. Accessing the "files" as it were is the bottle-neck for most people. We retain pictures, concepts, etc. -- most likely reinterpreted, possibly inaccurately.

This explains phenomena such as eidetic (aka photographic) memory, repressed experiences (either from this life or a past life) re-emerging and being "rerun" due to hypnotic regression (hypnosis can get around the usual inhibitions to accessing memory), autistic savants who are able to memorize phone books, etc.

So I think if you get full access to a remembered event, it is as if you are there, as if you are reliving it. You undergo what Deb describes as experience, which apparently transcends time.

My .02 anyway. Most of what I get from past lives is impressions -- just knowing that something is true -- and emotions.

Warmly,
Karen
 
*S*S*S ((((((Karen))))))) ;)

Lemurian - you said -
Honestly I never thought of the differences between the two and their relationship with reincarnation until you pointed them out....
Click to expand...

What I am seeing in the posts here so far - is the recognition of feelings, thoughts and emotions...sensations -- flash images and the many ways in which people can get in touch with a past life. Which is cool.

I agree that when we share a PL we are remembering it in order to share it. Just as the dictionary said - To recall to the mind with effort; But my point is - that in that moment - when I have a Past Life experience -- it isn't a memory. It is in the NOW just as the dictionary described -Active participation in events or activities. I guess the concept of a hologram is the best as I can describe it.

So I guess, what I choose to do is state - I had an experience...because I am describing something that happened to me - that I was active in -- with all my senses.

I look forward to your thoughts.
 
Yes :D ........

I also experience my PL in much the same way as you describe. It IS (at least for me) as if my current "now" is interchanged with my PL "now". Perhaps that's why some feel like they have time traveled. In a way, we have :) . I also wonder if one's perspective in a PL "experience" has any bearing at all.....

For instance I have experienced my PL recall's from the perspective of my "own" body, the perspective from another person's body who I felt strongly was not my own, and from the perspective of a fixed point in "space". Might one's perspective in a PL recollection dictate if it is either a memory or a "now" experience? Just asking as to "stir the pot" so to speak lol......

Interesting post and discussion Deborah, thanks hun....

Peace.........

P.S: Sorry if I strayed from topic in my last post Deborah. I did my best hun :D .........
 
Yes, I think there's a clear difference. I have never had a PL experience, but I get how it's probably totally different from remembering. All I get spontaneously are sudden flashes. Memories I get in dreams and regressions, but I only trust dreams without further validation. Well, I guess some PL dreams are quite close to experiencing, but it's so different when you're not awake I think it doesn't count.

Also sometimes remembering during a regression I see things through my "PL eyes" but the sensations are not so strong.

Karoliina
 
I have experienced a pastlife and had pastlife memories and I agree 100% that there is a big difference. With the experiences it was as if I was there living it at the time and there was no doubt at all that it was real and that it was not imaginaton. These experiences are sudden and spontaneous and do not last long or happen very often.

With memories it is like remembering something that happened in the past in this life, sometimes with emotion but it does not feel like you are living it at the time just thinking back to things that have happened.

For along time I only trusted my experiences and not my memories as I could never be sure it wasn't imagination but as I have validated alot of my pastlife memories I have started to trust them alot more too. I get many memories but have only had a few experiences which I find a shame as I would like to have more experiences but they do not seem to come very often.
 
I think the concept addressed here is somewhat similar to the one in a thread I once started : The memories and the knowing . For me, mostly, when visualising a scene from a PL, there is also the experiencing of the situation. Along with that comes the knowing/remembering of other facts of that PL, that I don't actually experience while remembering in the present life. But I agree that almost always the memory starts with feelings and emotions, the feelings and emotions of that PL persona.


Eevee
 
HI Eevee,

Actually, you are right; it is another layer of understanding. The experience - as if in another time and place when laced with knowing other things of that life time is an awesome awareness. Hard to explain though huh? I am trying - as you know - to explain it in my book. Not easy.

Lemurian - you bring up another aspect of how people remember and/or experience past lives. Viewing a past life from a third person perspective can present a conundrum for people. It is very difficult to differentiate between seeing a scene from a past life and identifying with the person you are viewing - and actually leaving the body to view a traumatic experience and watching your PL body. Many people believe the person they are viewing is them...when in many cases - it is someone they identified deeply with. Not all cases but many.

You asked -
Might one's perspective in a PL recollection dictate if it is either a memory or a "now" experience? Just asking as to "stir the pot" so to speak lol......
Click to expand...
I am not clear on this question. Could you explain more?
 
Hiya (((Deborah)))

Of course I might be wrong, but it seems to me that you have a rare talent of, through your meditations, accessing in full and experiencing directly from the "Akashic Records", the registry of all past lives, thoughts and events...
 
This is a very good post and a good way to explain the memory experience I had when I told about how I had the wierd experience of dying then fading from that place into this life when I was 14yrs old. It was so real that I didn't know exactly how to explain it or what to make of it, I thought maybe it had happened and I was sent back to the age of 14yrs old, but what you explain sounds just like my experience. :thumbsup: That's the only memory I have that I actually experienced, more than a dream it was an experience, that's why I thought it had really happened at that time. I had no idea that others experienced that. :) This was way before I believed in reincarnation too.
 
fab said:
I my opinion there is huge difference between "memory" and "experience".
When you remember a PL in a dream it appears to be like a memory... But when you go under a trance you end up "experiencing" that moment again. The thoughts, feelings and emotions are present.
Click to expand...

Exactly!! And that's how that experience I had was when I experienced the dying thing and when I faded from that place I was in my bed lying down and I was 14yrs old. But that was no dream, that was an experience! :) I didn't know what had happened but I knew something happened.
 
Another important point:

I came across this on a site by Charles Richard's Ph.D. He wrote the book Karmic Relationships:

What's the difference between recalling and resolving past-lives?

Difference between Remembering and Reliving Past-Lives

There is a distinct difference between remembering and reliving past-lives. A past-life recalled is not always a past-life resolved. If this was the case, a good psychic could just tell you what happened in a past-life that has caused your present life problem or condition, and with that information you would be cured.

To resolve this hypnotic effect of past-life trauma you must re-experience the past-life in full-consciousness. We can then discharge the painful emotion stored in the experience. The emotional charges from these past-lives must be completely resolved.

"Past-life recalled is not always a past-life resolved."

"Unless you are able to neutralize the painful emotion charges these memories carry, you will be at the mercy of their influence like puppets on a string, reacting to random cues in your environment all the time."
Click to expand...
 
I thought perhaps new members might have some thoughts on this.

I am wondering - Do you agree that there is a difference between memory and experience? Or disagree? What are your thoughts about how people recall past lives? Should the language used be more specific?

I also wonder about small children who spontaneously remember past lives and talk about it; I wonder how it is for them - if their experience is holographic, and when trauma is experienced if it is as I described -- in the here and now for them? The evidence suggests so; it also illustrates my point.
Click to expand...
 
I agree there is a difference for me too. However, I do not experience "holographic" visualizations. I see past lives somewhat like I do dreams. These are in first person limited view. Names and dates are usually easy for me to divulge if I can remember to think to take note of it.
I have not expeienced any pain or stayed in this state long enough to experience cause of death, somtimes I just seem to know what happened next. One of the most painful, panic stricken times was when high in the mountains, my child was about to fall from a high place. I seem to "duck out" of my visualization just before I get to a terrible memory.
 
Deborah,

Thank you for starting such a great thread...and, yes, memory and experience are like two different sides of the spectrum for me. Twice, I was going for a run through a wooded area, and suddenly I WAS an Indian boy running through the woods!! Both times, it was like I had stepped into another time and place as another person. The experiences lasted less than a few minutes each, probably even less than that, but I could feel, see, hear everything at that time.

One memory, chilling as it was, was a memory because it came in a vision...it was very important, though, because this memory helped me make some ties into my legal career!!

I think memory and experience are two different avenues leading to the same ends...to learn more about past lives and how they related to the here and now. However, the experience was interesting but I have had no other memory or experience regarding the Indian Boy. The memory of being shot in the bathroom, though, is strong to this day. Guess I was...uh...a pretty crooked lawyer in those times!! :butbut: :eek:
 
Thank you for posting Susie. :D It is an interesting thing to think about -- how we experience a past life, and how it can vary between individuals and circumstances.
 
Mine show up as memories usely in the form of watching a movie. the insights come later as I contemplate on what I saw. i am aware of the emotions without having to expirence them again.

Jack
 
For me, I don't actually remember a past life event until I've experienced it. Over time, I had forgotten, but something triggers the memory and causes me to experience and relive certain moments. Only then can I truly remember.
 
jackh said:
Mine show up as memories usely in the form of watching a movie. the insights come later as I contemplate on what I saw. i am aware of the emotions without having to expirence them again.

Jack
Click to expand...

You made me realize that even when I'm a participant in my dreams, or memories, which I've always thought of as PL episodes, I sense the emotions and feelings rather than actually having them at that time. The vast majority of my PL episodes are, like you said, like watching a movie. Sometimes I'll be watching myself, and much less often I'll have an active role, where I'm part of the movie. I've come to be able to know when it's "me" I'm watching rather than mere entertainment.

I also, occasionally and rarely, receive what I call an Imprinting, which is like an instant Flash, as if my mind/memory, is downloading information from my heart/soul. Over the past 35 years I've only had 6-10 Imprintings, the last one possibly yesterday. It's as if a file marker in placed upon my mind, and over the next months to several years I'll learn, or remember, details about the Imprinting. The details will either flesh out information on existing PL knowledge, or present a new PL episode.

Over time, I've come to know which of my memories are genuine and which are merely entertainment, maybe a way to unwind. Most of this is instinct on my part, and may not be valid, but I choose to believe that they are insightful. My intentions, after an early curiousity, have always been sincere, which quite possibly may be the determining factor in what we are able to recall. This forum is a great help to me, since although I don't know a lot of the standard lingo, I'm able to expand my knowledge and fine tune my beliefs and opinions. I'm always open to new ideas and advice.

John
 
Woo Hoo!

Deborah,
Hi and thanks for bringing this up in the other threads.

I've been poking around the forum for about a month and I'm still amazed at the information that's here. I find something new every time I come, which lately, is daily. Sometimes I get so excited to see someone talking 'right out loud' about some of this stuff that I jump right in with questions. lol

I read through this thread and had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I had never even thought about it before and feel it is an important distinction. In reading this discussion I realized why it has been so difficult for me to talk about other lives. It's because they are full body/mind experiences for me. It wasn't until I was speaking with Mikesoft about memory and validations that I realized this was how it worked for me. And then off I go to this thread and suddenly everything clicked together for me. Thanks!

I now understand more about what I was going through as I worked through the Little Wolf life. People asked about the detail and how was that possible and that seemed a strange question to me. I guess I just assumed it worked the same way for everyone.

When I speak of doing the work, I mean that I step out of myself and into that other life. I am that other person and I fully experience the life. It is no different from looking around in this life and knowing what's going on, where, who's doing what, what the scents are, etc. Every sense is there in that life. I become that other person. And you're right, that is NOT remembering. It's reliving.

This is an astounding revelation that you've given me and another piece of the puzzle in understanding. Thank you again for bringing this thread up. I'm grateful.

Thanks to Mike too for inspiring the conversation to begin with!

Wulfie
 
New members? What are your thoughts about the differences between memory and experience?
Click to expand...

Memory and Experiance.

Memory is the remembering of the events, however isnt experiance part of the memory? Surely both of these factors are both of one? Unless you say experiance as in present day practice.

I have memorys, I can remember noises, smells etc. I am remembering those experiances from my memories.

How do you explain both of these as seperate beings?
 
Deborah said:
New members? What are your thoughts about the differences between memory and experience?
Click to expand...

Not a new member, but I missed this thread, somehow.

To me, there isn't a difference between a current life memory and a PL memory. I learned that as a result of my regression. The 'texture' of both is the same. Ditto with experiences, I can go back and re-experience something that happened i this life or in another one, and again the texture of both is the same.

Knowing is different to me, in that is usually just a bit of verbal memory-in that I'll remember it in words and not visual, etc.

But that's just me...

Phoenix
 
Mikesoft,

I know it's hard to understand - did you read the first post explaining the difference's?

When a past life experience happens for me, it is not a memory - it is as if I have been plucked from the here and now - and I am IN THAT PLACE and in THAT TIME again. Every action, every detail is experienced as it was then. The thoughts - feelings and emotions are present in that moment. I have a different body, am a different age, and in a different country.
Click to expand...

The experience is as if I am there - it is not something in the past. Here is an example ---

Imagine closing your eyes before bed, ready for sleep when suddenly, you are in an old log cabin, there is no electricity. You look around and see the fireplace, the tables, lanterns, and mom spinning wool. You look down and see that you are maybe five years old and not a boy but a girl. Your father comes dashing through the door, rifle in hand and you are shuffled to the loft away from the door and the only window.

You feel the fear, hear the noises of intruders outside, you cover your face with a wool blanket and huddle next to your sister. Tears streaming, you cannot catch your breath............then as fast as you were there- you are again in your room, but you have tears steaming down your face NOW, your heart is pounding with fear. You are no longer a little girl.

Was it a memory? Or an experience? How would you define that if it happened to you?
 
Wow! Great thread! Can't believe I missed it!!!

The "memories" I've had that I trust would be classified as experiences. Usually in random dreams, but occasionally in what I refer to as "flashes" where I'm completely awake and generally doing some mindless task like vacuuming, dishes, etc.

Now, I can "recall" those experiences as memories. I find that I never forget them, once they happen. This is something that I personally find important. I have come to the conclusion (in myself), that if it was just active imagination, it wouldn't stick with me.
 
I'd agree with you MoonDansyr. A memory that you experience would make a lasting impression, where imagination is much less memorable and usually is fleeting. When I write, I rarely remember the creative imagination that results in my article or story.

John
 
Experience and memory

I think the differences people are describing in the way they have their past life recalls could well be to do with what state they were in during their recalling? Just a thought.

Only twice have I been actually deliberately regressed while in a trance state by another person (back in the day when we used to mess around with that sort of thing at Uni while studying psychology). Those experiences were much more vivid, detailed and intense. When in those states I certainly felt the emotions and the 'realness' of the experience with much more 'depth' and 'intensity' than usual.

Mostly my memories just pop into my head and have done since I was a small child. Sometimes they are in response to a physical experience (getting on a horse for the first time, holding an object in my hands) or to meeting a person who I think I have known before. When I was about 11 or so I had the feeling that my bus driver was once the captain of my cossack regiment in Poland sometime in the 'old days'. I could just 'see' him in his military uniform (blue with red piping of some sort) although in real life he just wore normal clothes. I could well imagine us storming across the plains on horseback brandishing our sabres. The image I had is of seeing him riding beside me and exchanging a look of fear mixed with excitement and bloodlust. It is just a flash, but it was me and I remember how that felt (very exhilarating, but scary). But that sort of 'fantasy' was not at all unusual for me and I did not really think too much about the whys and wherefores of it all. I was used to it. Things like that still happen on a semi-regular basis. Occasionally hearing a certain piece of music as I have previously described in other posts will prompt a memory. But I experience these types of memories in a very similar way to present life memories with the exception that they maybe seem a little dimmer - being from longer ago - kind of 'sepia toned' if you know what I mean. Much as Phoenix says, though, they have the same 'texture' to them as real life memories. They don't feel like dreams or fantasies.

I know that some people in the forum use deliberate and formal practices to regress themselves, such as going into a meditative state, using tapes to regress and so on. This could explain why they experience their past life memories with a certain element of intensity? Because they are in a different brain state to begin with - not in their 'normal' state (if I can use that word in relation to the way my brain works :tongue: ), but in a somewhat heightened state such as meditation?

When people are regressed under hypnosis, for example, by a psychiatrist to uncover a childhood memory in Freudian based therapies, they will also often experience a lot more intensity than someone just sitting in an armchair and casting their mind back to their fourth birthday party or similar. Of course, what they are remembering will usually be a fairly intense experience, which would only add to this.

Both my present and past life memories can induce laughter or tears though when I am in a certain mood, or something reminds me of something intensely. I certainly feel like it happened to 'me' although my physical body might not be the same one it is still me.
 
Thank you for sharing Tanguerra. :) You have a point here.....
This could explain why they experience their past life memories with a certain element of intensity? Because they are in a different brain state to begin with - not in their 'normal' state (if I can use that word in relation to the way my brain works ), but in a somewhat heightened state such as meditation?
Click to expand...

But what about spontaneous memories, when someone is walking (for example) and walks through the veil; the hologram -for lack of a better word. What about when the time, the place, the body, the experience is not a current life, and the awareness lasts for several minutes? Every detail - as if you stepped into a movie? (The person is still walking - let's say - out to a parking lot in day light)?

To me that is an experience, not a memory. ;)
 
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