The Magic Of Memories

OUR LIVES ARE FULL OF RANDOM, JOYFUL EXPERIENCES, BUT WE DON’T ALWAYS REMEMBER THEM. ULRIKE FACH-VIERTH FINDS OUT HOW TO ‘HIT RECORD’ ON OUR HAPPIEST MOMENTS

Before bed, I always open my bedroom window for a moment, close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. In winter, the crisp, cold night air filling my lungs brings back fond memories of skiing holidays. I’ve always loved snow, and was an avid skier – but now I suffer from multiple sclerosis so I can’t even walk on snow without falling. But while my skiing days are long gone, just breathing in the cold air conjures up vivid images of mountains, ski jumps and rustic cabins. These images make me happy, and cast light on my darkest moments.

“Anyone who doesn’t remember the good things has no hope,” said German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and I couldn’t agree more. The power of happy memories is wonderful, and I wish I could fill my head with them so I’d never have reason to despair. It also makes me ponder how much influence and control do we have over our memory?

THE THEATRE IN OUR MIND

Why we’re working on the screenplay of our life

The memory is something that has fascinated philosophers, artists and scientists since time immemorial. Ancient Greek philosopher Plato, for example, compared memory to a wax tablet engraved with our experiences. One idea from the Renaissance period suggests that we think of the memory as a theatre. The past is re-enacted in our mind, and we are the screenwriters who continually reinvent our own life story.

Modern science backs up this idea of a “theatre in the mind”. In his new book We Are Memory, memory researcher Martin Korte writes that “at no point in our life can the memory store information precisely, flawlessly or completely, nor can it create an accurate picture of our past. That is in fact not its job. We instead store feelings and