Ask yourself, ‘What is the number of things I actually remember each day?’ Most people estimate somewhere between 100 and 10,000. The answer is in fact in the multiple billions. The human memory is so excellent and runs so smoothly that most people don’t even realise that every word they speak and every word they listen to are instantaneously produced for consideration, recalled, recognised precisely and placed in their appropriate context.
Nor do they realise that every moment, every perception, every thought, everything that they do throughout the entire day and throughout their lives is a function of their memories. In fact, its ongoing accuracy is almost perfect. The few odd things that we do forget are like odd specks on a gigantic ocean. Ironically, the reason why we notice so dramatically the errors that we make is that they are so rare.
There is now increasing evidence that our memories may not only be far better than we ever thought but may in fact be perfect. Consider the following arguments for this case:
1. Dreams
Many people have vivid dreams of acquaintances, friends, family and lovers of whom they have not thought for as many as twenty to forty years. In their dreams, however, the images are perfectly clear, all colours and details being exactly as they were in real life. This confirms that somewhere in the brain there is a vast store of perfect images and associations that does not change with time and that, with the right trigger, can be recalled.
2. Surprise Random Recall
Practically everyone has had the experience of turning a comer and suddenly recalling people or events from previous times in his life. This often happens when people revisit their first school. A single smell, touch, sight or sound can bring back a flood of experiences thought to be forgotten. This ability of any given sense to reproduce perfect memory images indicates that if there were more correct ‘trigger situations’ much more would and could be recollected. We know from such experiences that the brain has retained the information.