Thread: Can we remember in dreams we thought we forgot?

Hi Guys,

Introduction:
This is my first post on this forum. Although I've been into Lucid Dreaming for quite a few years now. I actually made the account because I've been thinking of an interesting experiment and was wondering if you guys could help me with it. Possibly with feedback, if you think it's interesting or not, or any insight. Not sure if it's been done before but I haven't come across it yet.

The Idea:
So getting to the experiment. Considering the mind is very powerful and can store quite a lot of data. I was wondering if we are able to "dig" into our minds (in dreams) to remember things we thought we have completely forgotten. For instance, we've all learned about the founding fathers and the first 4 presidents but sadly I can only remember the first. I know its in there somewhere but I can't pull it out. So for the experiment I was thinking this:

The Experiment:
During your next lucid dream try to remember one of these two things which we all knew at one point in time:

• What was the name of Simba's girlfriend in the Lion King?
• What color was the pendent that Rose throw in the ocean in the end of Titanic?

This is not the actual experiment but I wanted to get feedback on what you guys think and what might be some good alternative questions. And more importantly, whether this is a good idea overall or not.

Thanks guys

PS: I initially posted this in Research but considering it's not an experiment yet I think here would be more appropriate.

Welcome to the forums!

I know several people on Dreamviews who did exactly what you are doing. From what I heard, the more they practiced the better they got I remembering details they couldn't before. You should try it and let us know your results. I will try to find the that thread they made and send you a PM with the link if I find it.

This is one of those topics and uses of LDing that I am positively fascinated about. The concept of being aware of and closer to your subconcious mind while you're practically living in it is astounding.

Now, I see this as having two main parts to it : 1) The storage of memories in such a way that only our subconcious can access them, and 2) The storage of memories in general. I would love to see more about how our brain works (especially in this aspect), and I think studying this will help with that.

Will definitely give this a try.

Very cool idea! I'm interested in the results.

It probably has to do with letting your conscious mind get out of the way and searching for more and more remote associations, which the unconscious is profoundly good at.

I am sure this could work, but meditation would probably work better. LDs are often hard to focus in. Remembering goals you have set can be a challenge, so trying to get specific info would be challenging.

My recommendation is that you simply try to remember where you were sleeping and what you did IRL that day. That can be a challenge in itself.

Thanks for the support guys. I'm glad this subject interests you too. Sivason you make a good point, simply remembering what you were planning to do in a dream can be a challenge in itself. I guess I was going off of a couple of stories I read around here.

One person said that he couldn't remember where he left his keys and in his dream he asked a DC where his keys were. I can't remember exactly but he remembered where he placed them while in his dream.

Unfortunately as much as I was waiting for a Lucid Dream last night to try this out, I didn't get one. Stayed up for a whole hour trying to WILD. It was weird. Kept going in and out of Sleep Paralysis.

I tried it last night. I asked a DC for the name of Simba's girlfriend and he responded first by saying "Margaret" and again by saying "Kimba". "Margaret" is obviously not correct but Kimba had me intrigued so I just googled it and got this wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimba_the_White_Lion

Never heard of this in my life. Thought it was a funny coincidence. If it was a coincidence.

That's quite interesting and very funny. I did make the assumption that most people trying this probably came across Simba's girlfriend's name at some point in time. So looking back at it, do you think you would remember her name if you came across it today?

And Kimba could be either very random or you might have come across it before but don't remember. It sure was new to me though.

Haha.. Margaret. That's some Dream Character with a sense of humour. lol

I'm a beginner in the world of LDs but this sounds like a fascinating thing to try and I'd love to see the results. I think you may need to adjust your questions, though.

You want to make sure the question you ask is one the subject definitely can't remember the answer to (consciously). Maybe if I really thought hard I could remember the colour of the pendant, even if right now I'd say I couldn't. But you also want to make sure it's a question they did once know the answer to. I haven't seen either film so would come up blank however amazing my subconscious is.

How to work around these problems in an experimental setting? Maybe present some arbitrary info (like a list of 50 words) for a short period and later have the subjects recall as many as they can with conscious effort, then ask for more in an LD?

Unfortunately that would still be cheatable, intentionally or not: I might have been able to recall a few more but I "hold something in reserve" for my LD... you'd be amazed how honest people can fool themselves into cheating something like this without realising it simply because they're eager to please You may have to offer some kind of inducement for remembering as many as possible. Maybe you set a minimum number to have recalled in order to take part in the second part of the experiment (the LD part), but don't say what that minimum is...

Another problem is the lucky guess. Maybe my DC tells me the colour was blue. If it is, does that mean I remembered it or I had a lucky guess? I would say having a larger number of things to recall might mitigate that one though.

That would really be too challenging. I imagine it would be hard to clearly remember and state your full name and birthdate, plus the city you were born in, during an LD, and we all know that info by heart.

@bodin you have a lot of good points. I guess the hardest part in this experiment will be coming up with the right questions.

@Sivason Remembering things in dreams is indeed challenging, but I think the reason it's so hard is not recalling the memory itself but the way we go about recalling the memory. It seems that you could see a friend you haven't seen in over 10 years in your dream or a certain toy you used to play with when you were a kid. So the issue is not the memory itself but the way you recalled it, in this case visually.

I think we might be able to bring up memories the same way you would summon a person, not by simply calling out his name or thinking about him but actually imagining that he will appear behind some object or enter through some door. Maybe we can recall old memories in a similar way, by sort of summoning them.

Funny story, my friend had a dream last night that he saw an old friend of his and hugged him so hard he accidently crushed his rib cage. The interesting part is, while we were discussing the dream he remembered that the sweater the guy was wearing was the same sweater he bought the day before.

I have no doubt that you are correct about it being some matter of a modified type of memory that we are just unfamiliar with. You have your whole life to explore lucid dreaming, maybe you will someday be able to explain a bit more to us, as you come upon any realizations.

Thanks