Here are 25 Kickass and Interesting Facts About Memories.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Memories
1. In 1986, a woman who sought psychiatric help discovered memories of being in a satanic cult where she was forcibly raped, had to eat babies and as a consequence developed 120 different personalities to cope. The memories were later found to be false and the therapist was sued creating false memories. – Source
2. In 1963, a CIA-funded psychiatrist, Dr. Ewen Cameron managed to completely wipe a woman’s memory by using electroshocks and hallucinogens over a 86 day period. – Source
3. A drug known as “reverse marijuana” exists, which induces a pharmacological response exactly opposite to that of tetrahydrocannabinol (main mind-altering ingredient found in the Cannabis plant). It suppresses appetite, betters short-term memory, etc. – Source
4. Diane van Deren, one of the world’s top ultra-runners, didn’t start running until a seizure crippled her ability to form new memories. She has the psychological advantage of never knowing how far she has left to run. – Source
5. There was a song written in the 1630s that was performed only in the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican kept the composition of the piece secret for 150 years until the 14-year-old Mozart listened to the piece two times, transcribed it from memory, and produced the first unauthorized copy of the song. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Memories
6. The notion that goldfish have a memory of a few seconds is not true. In fact they can be trained to react to light signals and perform tricks. – Source
7. Believing your memory is good will actually help you have good memory – Source
8. Actor Richard Dreyfuss’s drug problem was so serious in the 70s/80s that he still has no memory of shooting the film ‘Whose Life Is It Anyway.’ – Source
9. British musician Clive Wearing suffers from amnesia so bad that he thinks he is becoming conscious for the first time every 7-30 seconds – Source
10. When you get blackout drunk you don’t actually forget anything. Your brain just wasn’t “recording” in the first place. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Memories
11. When American voice actor and comedian Mel Blanc went into a coma in 1961, his doctors got him to communicate by addressing him as Bugs Bunny. Blanc responded in character but did not remember the conversations. – Source
12. We sometimes forget what we needed when we enter a room because of a phenomenon called ‘event boundary’. – Source
13. Hyperthymesia is a condition that allows people to remember every detail of their lives. – Source
14. Stephen King used to have such a crippling drug addiction that he can’t remember writing his novel Cujo. – Source
15. When you remember things from a 3rd person view (typically your oldest memories), it’s called an Autobiographical memory – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About Memories
16. NFL legend Herschel Walker has multiple personalities. He doesn’t remember receiving the Heismann Trophy because another of his personalities was in charge at that time. – Source
17. Highway hypnosis is a mental state in which the person can drive a truck or automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. – Source
18. Gaslighting is a form of mental abuse in which false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory, perception and sanity. – Source
19. Grand Master of Memory is awarded to people who are able to successfully negotiate the following three memory feats: Memorize 1,000 random digits in an hour, the order of 10 shuffled decks of cards in an hour, and the order of one shuffled deck of cards in under 2 minutes. – Source
20. “Smound” is a recently discovered perception, created from the convergence of scents and sounds in the brain. It explains why popcorn smells better in movie theater or a song can bring a rush of scent memory. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Memories
21. Spices and spicy foods aid in memory production by acting as stimuli for the brain to remember that moment, and may be used to treat Alzheimer’s. – Source
22. Solomon Shereshevskii, a guy with a perfect memory didn’t realize that other people didn’t have such perfect recalling abilities until his thirties. – Source
23. Around 33 people have been recorded to have a “super memory”, or highly superior autobiographical memory. This means that they can recall almost every personal event in their life and the exact dates – Source
24. Brain scientist Karl Lashley found that no matter what portion of a rat’s brain he removed he was unable to eradicate its memory of how to perform complex tasks it had learned prior to surgery. – Source
25. A neuroscientist successfully planted false memories in mice to prove how unreliable memory can be. – Source
