What is your earliest Memory / Can you remember being Born ?

What is your earliest memory ? Most of us can remember back to starting school, or slightly earlier. We can sometimes recall the birth of a sibling. But how far back does our memory reach ?


I have a memory, which I admit can read as a bit dreamlike in the sense that, I find it really difficult to translate the memory into language. Instead it is like a collection of sensory images and feelings that seem to hover just outwith the reach of my grasp. But this is not a dream, or a dream memory.
I know it is not, because decades later I can still feel the experience.

So as uncomfortable as it is to share this memory on an ATS forum, the reason I choose to is in the hope that somebody within the ATS membership may be able to offer a theory or explanation.

Over the years, my whole life really, this memory has stayed fresh in my mind, not fading in the least, and the only plausible explanation I have is that I remember being born. My actual birth.

There are flashes of blood, lots of it, just appearing like red on white, along with the smell of blood. The cold feeling of metal, sharp and shiny. Pain and tightness and a feeling of terror. All of these descriptions are overwhelming, it is like it is the only things that I can sense, and I sense them all at once, like you do when you experience something. I know that this description may seem vague at best. But is the only way I have to put this memory into words. This stays with me, even today.

I have tried to research memory a little bit, to find out when it starts, and how far back our memory can go. When we are born, our hippocampus is not fully formed, and this is the part of our brain that structures and forms memory. So how can I have this stored within my memory for what seems to me to be like forever. I mean, I cannot think back to a time when i didn't " know " this.
There is another part of our brain the amygdala, which is where our emotions including fear are stored, and this is fully mature at birth.

I couldn't talk about this to my parents, when I was a child as I didn't have the language to explain it. But I have strong memories of kind of re - living this sensory experience even as a child and I do remember it being horrific and terrifying for me.

I do remember as a young child talking with my parents about an early memory. I remembered a house, described the layout, ( which was odd in itself, with a sort of hexagon shaped hall with doors all going off from the hexagon shape ) the furniture around the room, and being carried into the house by my father, at night time....all wrapped up in a checked blanket. When I told them about this recollection, they just said that there is no way I could remember that! They went on to tell me that this was a description of my grandmother's house and that the night I was describing was a night when I had been really sick, and my dad, in a panic, had taken me to his mother's house. I was only 4 months old, and it turned out I had Scarlet Fever. But to their complete astonishment, I did remember. They still to this day have no explanation as to why I would remember this night. They told me that when I was about 6 months old, my grandfather passed away, and soon after that my grandmother moved to a new house. A terraced town house type, no hexagon shaped hallway, just a small entrance hall. She lived there for years and of course I remember this house very well.

The other strange thing though, I can remember my grandfather, sitting by the fireplace in an old high backed chair, and he is holding me. I was only 6 months old when he died.

So ATSers.....What are your earliest childhood memories?
Can we remember our birth experience ?

I remember my 2 year birthday as clear as a bell. Even who was there. I remember learning to walk before that.

a reply to: cosmickat

One of my earliest memories is a giant Star Wars mural my mother painted on my bedroom wall. I was about 3 or 4.

a reply to: cosmickat

I cannot remember my birth, but I remember my last death. Does it count? Technically, it was earlier than my birth...

I remember a farm that I went to with my family when I was 3, especially the pigs.

The next earliest memory I have is from kindergarten. For some reason I have a very vivid memory of a day at kindergarten waiting in line at the water bubbler.

I know it's boring, but that's all I've got.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: cosmickat

I remember my last death. Does it count?

very interesting ! do tell more

a reply to: charolais

I wouldn't say any of these early memories are boring at all.

I find it interesting that these particular events are held by our memories, or perhaps whythese particular ones...

We remember trauma more easily apparantly, that makes sense since one of my earliest memories was when I had chicken pox on my first birthday.

I remember the white iced cake with a pig's face on top, I remember my grandad visiting and I also remember the soothing of camomile ointment being applied to the pox.

My earliest memory is of my grandmothers, sitting playing with the fire place utensils with my brothers and them getting wrong. I was about 3 month, my grandmother died a month or so later.

I do also have pretty good memory, It's something people always mention about me... Although it tends to be selective. Good thread

a reply to: RAY1990

thanks for sharing ! Some really early memories that you have.

like you .. I too have a pretty good memory but I would say that my long term memory is much better than my short term. Quite often these days I wander into rooms around my house and forget what I went in for !

Interesting that you say we remember trauma more easily, I know that in some instances of extreme trauma our mind will effectively block it out.

When I was 2 and my brother was 4 he woke me up so he could wee in my nappy. I remember because my mum went ape #. I was on the bottom bunk so came with the territory

a reply to: cosmickat

My earliest memory is when i was still in diapers, had to go to the bathroom. Went behind a big recliner we had (to kind of hide from anyone who might see me), grunted, did the deed, filled my diaper. HAHAHA literally that's the first memory I recall

a reply to: swanne

I cannot remember my birth, but I remember my last death. Does it count? Technically, it was earlier than my birth...

of course you do...

a reply to: FamCore



potty training = pivotal moment

thanks for replying

a reply to: woodwardjnr

haha, poor you.

I hope you didn't take the blame for him even with his top bunk privilege.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: cosmickat

My earliest memory is when i was still in diapers, had to go to the bathroom. Went behind a big recliner we had (to kind of hide from anyone who might see me), grunted, did the deed, filled my diaper. HAHAHA literally that's the first memory I recall

Guten Morgen- I'm sorry to report but that wasn't a 'memory' but a 'premonition' . Sadly You saw Yourself at 'Ye Olde Folks Home' especially with the way "Affordable Healthcare" is headed, but fear not, because You kept Yourself hydrated and used Coconut Oil to stave off dementia/Alzheimer's, You just now fill the diaper to keep Yourself amused. You're better off then Your 'suitemate' not "Lou" but "Frank", He craps His pants and doesn't know it, ergo no enjoyment..

Oh and You have FULL CONTROL of the t.v. remote .. hahahaha

Stay Hydrated My Friend..

On a more serious note- For those with the deeper back memories- Try and also remember the weather conditions and who else was present, i.e. a favorite Aunt or Uncle.

If You'd like to delve further back into Your Soul's Journey, try and work on de-calcifying Your Pineal Gland but be fore warned, sometimes You're more successful then You'd imagine and find out things that 'may' be unsettling.

Enjoy Your Trip!

namaste

a reply to: cosmickat

Hey cosmickat! Good question...interesting to see other peoples' answers.

I was 18 months old.
We lived in an apartment building, and my mom and I were walking down the hall to visit her friend. The building manager had left an upright vacuum cleaner (big & noisy) running, but had walked away for a moment.
I was terrified of it. When I mentioned it years later to my mother she couldn't believe I remembered that because I was only a year and a half old.
So yeah...first memory...trauma. It explains so much, lol.

jacy

I'm skeptical of any claims of remembering child birth. My first memory is of everything being not so concrete. The sky, and earth appeared more fluid than other memories. Pretty sure this was in Louisiana before we moved, which was when I was 3.

a reply to: cosmickat

I'm the same with short term memory, it's why I mentioned it I'm really curious if there is a link.

I'm looking forward to reading more in this thread, I find the topic of memory absolutely fascinating.

I'm curious also if anyone has experience enhancing memory, I know of a few tricks but I honestly find long term memory is enhanced in myself when I've drank alcohol.

We drink to forget the now but I find it helps to remember the past.

a reply to: jacygirl

Hi Jacygirl ! thanks for dropping in and sharing your memory

Yes, maybe there is something to this trauma angle, " imprinted on our memory "
My grandson was terrified of vacuum cleaners as a baby. Even cartoon ones !
I will have to ask him if he has any memory of that, he is 12 now and doesn't mind them at all, although he still won't go near one, for different reasons !

a reply to: cosmickat
I've replied to this question on ATS before.

I said; My earliest memory goes back to a time before I knew language.
I could not express my thoughts in words, of course, but I was aware of a number of things, which add up to a kind of thought-process.
I was aware of the place where I was- in my cot next to a light window, probably the morning light.
I was aware that I wanted to get out.
I was aware that i could not manage the catch which would let down the side of the cot (a simple hook-and-eye affair, as I know retrospectively).
I was aware that if I cried, someone would come along and let me out.
Which led me into a course of action. I cried.
My memory stops at the opening of the door (right hand end of the opposite wall) and my father appearing through the doorway.
I don’t know whether this means that the sequel was satisfactory, or whether it means that the sequel was traumatic.

As a revision to the above, I could add that I have another memory of lying on the parental bed while my mother told me that it would be my birthday "not tomorrow, not the next day, not the next day... but the next day".
Since my memory doesn't include any response from me, this may have been when I was old enough to understand langauage but not old enough to talk back.
I spoke my first words at the age of two and a half (which was late, apparently), so the upcoming birthday might have been my second.
I now see the intriguing possibility that this might have been the immediate sequel to the episode of the first paragraph, supplying a date for it, and also answering the question at the end.
It would also modifythe assumption that my thoughts were non-verbal.

But there is another memory which must be older than both of them, as a baby falling and rolling down the stairs.
It is a curiously silent memory, though it includes the sight of my mother on the landing just above and my father in the corridor just below, and they must have been making noises of some kind.