[monique]

Or practically photographic? I'm wondering if there is a difference in the way Sensors remember things from long ago to Intuitives. The best way I can describe mine is that I tend to recall in flickers of a colour movie with the way I felt playing out as the background score. I recognise certain faces and remember some names. I was trying to explain to one of my friends that, on hearing certain songs from the charts of years ago, I would get this feeling of being back in that time and she mistook it for actually remembering where I was and what I was doing. I can very rarely do that. It is more to do with the mood it sets off in my mind. Call it nostalgia if you wish. Another friend told me that she remembered certain things with extreme vividness and I had to shake my head "no" when she asked if I had ever experienced the same.

[Harley]

I believe the way INTP's memories work has something to do with introverted sensing which is our tertiary function and operates by attaching certain moods, images, and smells to past events and getting nostalgic when we remember it. Here's a quote I got from cognitiveprocesses.com: Sometimes a feeling associated with the recalled image comes into our awareness along with the information itself. Then the image can be so strong, our body responds as if reliving the experience.
I'm not sure about other iNtuitives or Sensors, but I think the higher up Si is in your 4 functions, the more clear your memories? I don't know I'm just speculating on that one.

[monique]

I believe the way INTP's memories work has something to do with introverted sensing which is our tertiary function and operates by attaching certain moods, images, and smells to past events and getting nostalgic when we remember it. Here's a quote I got from cognitiveprocesses.com: Sometimes a feeling associated with the recalled image comes into our awareness along with the information itself. Then the image can be so strong, our body responds as if reliving the experience.
I'm not sure about other iNtuitives or Sensors, but I think the higher up Si is in your 4 functions, the more clear your memories? I don't know I'm just speculating on that one.

Certain smells trigger memories with me or rather they trigger the mood or atmosphere of when I was younger. And yes, if it is strong enough I not only feel my body responding but also my mind. it doesn't last long, though. According to a Function Analysis test I did recently my Si came out as "good use"

[Sily]

I'm going to say something about memories but logically it's not going to make any sense. if anyone wants to doubt what I'm about to say -- of course you can .. ... because you didn't live it -- but know that this is My Truth, because I was there and did live it. I went through it.

Here it is: When I was in my 20's I walked out between 2 parked cars and was almost hit by an oncoming car. Within 2 seconds, flashing before my brain and eyes, was every memory I have had and every moment of my life, up until that time. There was a release of "a lifetime" within my brain within seconds. But how could I re-live or re-visit a lifetime within a few seconds? No clue. I have no answer for that. And it makes me think that my concept of *time* is an illusion.

[kdm1984]

Smells can trigger very strong emotional memories for me as well - I think that's a fairly universal trait. The olfactory nerve is very close to the hippocampus, a brain region responsible in part for emotions and memory, so there you go.

As far as visuals, I don't have a particularly detailed photographic memory.

[Munchies]

My mind is really fucked up, i can't describe it

[monique]

I'm going to say something about memories but logically it's not going to make any sense. if anyone wants to doubt what I'm about to say -- of course you can .. ... because you didn't live it -- but know that this is My Truth, because I was there and did live it. I went through it.

Here it is: When I was in my 20's I walked out between 2 parked cars and was almost hit by an oncoming car. Within 2 seconds, flashing before my brain and eyes, was every memory I have had and every moment of my life, up until that time. There was a release of "a lifetime" within my brain within seconds. But how could I re-live or re-visit a lifetime within a few seconds? No clue. I have no answer for that. And it makes me think that my concept of *time* is an illusion.

Sounds like the classic life flashing before the eyes. It is amazing how our brains interpret time, dreams being a classic example.

[Sily]

Sounds like the classic life flashing before the eyes...

Yeah. I tip my hat to the person who coined the phrase "my life flashed before my eyes" because -- in my humble opinion -- they knew what they were talking about. I mean, in that instance, I remembered things I had loooong forgotten about.