How They Did It

It really is a frightening thought to wonder how many of our memories may simply be fabrications or second hand accounts the brain has tricked us into believing are real.

I'm pretty sure I remember that being NOT true.

This can probably be compared to the term "flashbulb memories".
The very vivid, traumatic memories are usually the most fabricated over the years. Was a study done on people remembering their experience of 9/11, they wrote it down, and then were asked a few years later and told it very differently. Tis inteeeresting.

Sounds like a bit from Radio Lab.

Kind of brings into question the validity of eyewitnesses in court cases, doesn't it?

I was reading the other day - in 'Time Paradox' by Philip Zimbardo (previously mentioned on Neatorama - thanks alot! :D ), that we misremember between 10 and 25% of memories. In some cases people imagine traumatic experiences that never happened, or forget the most traumatic experiences - which means our own sense of reality is mixture of imagination and forgetfulness! Hence, my developing theory disjunctioned reality.

p.s. Talking about spotting a celebrity - I thought I saw Justin Bieber on chatroulette the other day! Now I am not so sure, and I may have misremembered it! He didn't seem keen chatting, musn't be his sort of person.