I read something today, in the NY Times I think, about some researchers looking at how the brain "experiences" events.
Turns out, that those sudden memories, those involuntary, immediate ones that spring up, have incredible power behind them. These events, forgotten through our conscious days, suddenly spring to life from a scent in the air, an old picture or video.
The brain is fooled momentarily, and actually re-lives the experience as if it were in the midst of the moment. To my mind, then, that event is every bit as real as the moment it happened in linear time.
This could be a great thing - a wedding, birth of a child, some great achievement relived.
Or it could be brutal - a breakup, a fight, a death...relived.
Today I experienced one of the latter. One minute, I'm walking into a shop to get some coffee. The next, my heart is stung. My body recoils inside-out. I saw someone I thought was gone forever, a ghost from a past recently forgotten, and there I was...right back in it, fighting within myself for emotional survival.
Seems they were right.
1 comment:
i cannot standby without applauding you, sir - for the textbook perfect blog post. It was interesting (i've heard about this study, i think in a radiolab, and the following supposition that if memories are the same thing to your brain as experiencing the first time, then how do we know when actual experiences are happening vs. memories, etc etc and so on)
and it was also emotionally charged and ambimguous. well played.
i love you.
-db-
Post a Comment