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

I can remember learning to walk and more.

-MM

a reply to: cosmickat

I can go as far back as inside the womb...but there's a huge gap in my memory from the early years. Actually, now that I think of it, there's a couple gaps - one was from years 1-4, and another gap in the 5-6 range (I had an evil babysitter, so I didn't want to remember those).

One of the earliest I can remember is somersaulting down the stairs into the basement at my first house - It was a family party and I was half crying and laughing as I fell down them. Dad caught me before I hit the cement steps at the bottom. They were worried sick because I was bleeding on top of my head (there's still a bump to this day), so the rest of the day was me holding a towel to my head in the bathroom.

The scary twist? My parents say I lost my balance - I'll still swear something pushed me (There were a couple spooky things that happened in that house).

-fossilera

a reply to: fossilera

It's funny that I was about to post my earliest memory and then and I see your post and I have just remembered a memory of falling down the stairs as a toddler.

My earliest memory is off getting my diaper changed at about a year old... Funny thing is in the memory I am aware that my diaper is being changed by my mother and feel quite embarrassed about the situation? The memory is dreamlike but is definatnly real... My life then sort of fades and I then have a memory of falling over and having my father pick me up.

It's weird how early memories feel sort of dreamlike yet real at the same time and how they just fade away and into something else that might be a couiple of years later!

The awesome thing about memory is how you can use recent memories to drill down to more distant ones.

For example -- I can remember being 4, living in an apartment complex in Seattle, and sitting in my dad's lap, in his little blue Honda, steering while he pumped the gas and brake pedals. Before that, I remember we had two rabbits, and our neighbor tossed poisoned food into their cages because he didn't like my parents. I remember clear as what I had for breakfast this morning, finding them dead in their cages when I was a week past 3 years old. Before that I remember balancing myself next to our coffee table, and trying to walk from the edge of the table to a lazy-boy style chair a few feet away. I remember that it was easier to reach the chair from the table if I walked really fast and caught myself on the chair before falling over completely.

I don't remember much before that, at least consciously.

I do two things to keep my memory sharp: First -- I create memory warehouses, and stock them with interesting artifacts which I later associate with information I wish to retain. In visualizing a particular warehouse I recall large chunks of data, such as the content of favorite books.

The other thing I do is make a mental note of what I have for breakfast each morning, and associating each of these sense memories with a date. When I want to drill down, I simply summon the most recent sense memory of sage sausage patties and waffles (for example) and then step back (or forward) through previous days until I find a particular date. Because each day begins with a strong sense memory, I can often recall details of other events, conversations or experiences that are associated with a particular day, at least at a rudimentary level, going back dozens of years, since I began the practice in 1987.

None of this has tangible value, but it's great for writing, and makes for fun party tricks.

I remember being born as i'm sure many others do too. I call them hallucinations though

My earliest is actually very young, 6 months. My dad laid down on his side to take a baby pic so the camera was perpendicular to the floor. All the other ones were standard parallel angles, so I think it was the uniqueness of the angle that made it stick in my memory. Was able to date as when I found the picture it had my age written on it. I actually have maybe 10 memories scattered around from then til 4, but only ballpark dates for those.

Awesome thread! Glad you asked. My first memory is me coming into my body I'm pretty sure. It's the first memory i have, regardless of if it is my coming into body or not.(imagine your consciousness traveling by itself) The image appears, I'm like a few thousand feet up i suppose. I have no concept of who or what i am or even able to think really, Just kinda of like Huh? and what? and this is odd. I'm traveling downwards towards this yellow car and eventually i go through the roof of said car and plop into my body sitting in the backseat, I guess around 3 years old? I realize that somebody with knowledge of some new agey type stuff could make something like this up to boost their ego or whatever, but this is the first memory I have, and no douchemasters will stop me from sharing it

The earliest memory i can remember was in 1999, when i was about three years old. I was being held my dad on the ferry towards manhattan. It was a windy day, that i remember. The only reason i know how old i was is because there was a picture taken of me that day and i asked my mother anbout it and she said i was three. I still cant believe i remembered that far back!

I can remember being a baby in my cot .
I am cursed with an excellent memory lol

I have a very clear memory of my mother's water braking and her giving birth and even events after leaving the hospital the thing is I'm her only child and my mother was never pregnant before of after me.

My earliest memory was lying in bed, scared to death of the buzzing of the transformer on the electric blanket in my bed.
I guess 2 or 3.
I still prefer being cold to this day.

Mine is from when I was in the first grade. I missed the school bus and my mom's boyfriend went at me like a prizefighter, closed fists and everything. I remember my mom in the doorway watching and saying, "Don't hit him in the face. It'll leave a mark and the teachers will notice." The beating went on for a long time and she was saying it over and over all the while. There are many other such things I'd rather forget.

a reply to: cosmickat

I for one believe you especially your memory of your grandfather.

Without to much detail on my 21st birthday I asked my mom
about a memory that has always been in my head as far back
as I can remember. When I finished describing the memory I
noticed the shock look on her face and blank stare in her eyes.

She jumped up from the dining room table and ran thru the
house yelling my Dads name. Left me sit'n there think'n what
did I do now? She comes out 5 minutes later stops with a
nervous look on her face. And said " You just described the
day you were born"." How did you do that?" My Dad comes
out behind her mainly cause he made sure he always got
credit for everything. " I told ya he had a great memory!"

My earliest memory is from kindergarten i would have been 4 maybe 3. It was nap time and rather than sleeping I was hiding under my blanket playing a hand held 1980s motorbike racing game.
Beyond that my next memories are first year of school.


When I was younger I had a memory of what I can best describe as pre-birth, its all but faded now other than knowing this was from a time before this life (Hard to exlain)

I have a memory of an event before I was born. It is a strange memory.

I always had remembered that I was in the photo. And what happened before. We all walked over and lined up in front of my Grandads car. And My Dad took the picture. I remember my brother standing beside me. When I mentioned this to my Mum, She said i couldn't possibly remember it as I was still in her womb. I can tell her what flowers were planted that are not in the photo and what day it was.

She showed me the photo after. You can clearly see her pregnant with me in the photo.

I also, through feeling only, but it is a certainty in my heart and Mind know My Grandad was watching with me. But I knew somehow, also with a certainty his Body was not there. As an Adult something like that may spook me, but in my memory I was fine with it, I knew he had no body and that was ok or almost normal. Like I knew him like that. My Grandad Died before I was born. People always say My mind is like his and that we look a like. I always have felt like I met him and knew him. And I mean physically met somehow.

Odd, I seem to remember replying to this question previously, but can't see my post . . . . anyway, I recall being held by my mother, in a thin, white blanket. I was thirsty & crying. . . must have been under 6 months of age & couldn't make myself understood. I wanted a drink of water, but my mother & grandmother rubbed some bitter substance on my gums & discussed my "teething problems".

On another occasion I was given milk when I was also thirsty for water. I also remember a later time when I was a toddler, still in a nappy, running down a paved garden path, holding a camera. My mother wanted to take a photo of me & was annoyed that I had made off with her camera.

And I have unpleasant night time memories of scary creatures with big eyes that appeared round my cot-bed at night; their movements were almost like those of a big bird. I sometimes wonder whether they could have been "greys". My mother was not sympathetic & would scold me for waking her.