[NF] Earliest memories

[Thalassa]

I have a lot of pre-school memories. I wouldn't know how to pick just one. I remember wandering around the house alone when my grandmother was taking a nap. I remember jumping on my bed and talking to my imaginary playmates (Tommy and Lisa). You want to know something really deep, and maybe even gross? I remember having nightmares when I was three or four that I was being suffocated by what I thought of as raw hamburger (I think I actually have trauma memories of being born, looking back on those nightmares).

 

[Thalassa]

Interestingly, neither of my kids seem to remember anything from those early years (< age 5). And to think I took them to the playground almost every day and to all kinds of educationally-stimulating places, to amusement parks and other fun places too and barely a single memory made! LOL!

It still shaped their brains and personalities, even if they don't remember it, so it wasn't in vain.

 

[PeaceBaby]

^ Thanks - I hear you and realize that too.

 

[INTJ123]

I remember alot from around 3 on up. I remember learning how to count to 100 around age 3 or 4, someone in the family taught me.

I also remember this toy robot I had that teaches you things like left and right with flashing arrows and numbers and letters, I remember I didn't know what left and right was and after playing with the toy for a good while I finally realized what left and right was, lol.

 

[Bubbles]

I remember mostly from 3 onward. I remember my little sister being born, and how excited I was to have someone to pull into my dastardly INFP schemes.

 

[Ruby Tuesday]

I have never heard of this third person aspect before, nor experienced it, that I know of. How fascinating. Is it because the memories are difficult, unpleasant, and that perspective provides a welcome distance? Or is it more general?

 

[INTP]

I have never heard of this third person aspect before, nor experienced it, that I know of. How fascinating. Is it because the memories are difficult, unpleasant, and that perspective provides a welcome distance? Or is it more general?

Nothing to do with painfull memories, usually the older the momery more further away i see myself on in. Memories from like 2 months ago i see myself only like 0.5 meters away, memories about 6 years old i see myself about 3 meters far away and first memory(when i was bit over one year old) i see myself atleast 5 meters away.

 

[sculpting]

Try this:

Close your eyes. remember/imagine past or future memories. Imagine christmas one year ago. Now try and locate it in space around your head. Does the memory feel more to the left, or right, or maybe behind you or up in front of you? Noe imagine christmas next year... where is it?

It is a fun nlp excercise.

My earliest memory is dancing on my dad's feet and pretending to be asleep while he carried me to bed.

 

[Queen Kat]

If I think about my earliest memories, then I'm not pretty sure if they're even real. My earliest memory is about three fat people dancing and singing in some stupid way. I even remember things that I thought while I learned talking (about how stupid some words sound) and about when I climbed out of the window and landed on the roof when I was one year old (I'm pretty sure that one is real, I remember how my mother rescued me and how I got this scar there that is still on my stomach).

 

[grasshoppersings]

When I was about three years old, I parked my red tricycle on the corner of the front lawn near the telephone pole next to the curb. A few hours later it was gone---stolen! I was outraged. There were no clues as to the scoundrel who stole it. I was devastated because I had just learned how to ride it---it was past down to me from my two older sisters---and I realized the independence and freedom it gave me. But it was all ripped out of my pudgy little hands so fast and we were too poor to buy another one. I've been walking ever since.

 

[Lux]

I remember some random things from when I was two. I have a vivid memory of a nightmare I had when I was two. I remember my crib. We moved when I was two and a half and I distinctly remember the layout of the old place. I remember riding my Mr. Turtle to the neighbors house and her mom making me try iced tea when I was three.

Who makes a three year old try iced tea?

It's interesting how many people have solid memories of being really young. This is a good thread.

 

[neptunesnet]

I have a theory that many if not most NF's have incredible long-term memories: longer, fuller, and clearer that average. Do you think this is true?

Also, I've always been fascinated by people's 'first' or 'earliest' memories, and have collected many of them over the years. Some people don't remember anything from before they were 5 or 6, or in a few cases even 8. That astonishes me. My earliest memory is, as far as I can work out, from when I was 2. Nothing traumatic, very pedestrian really, but very clear. (Lying in my parents bed trying to see shapes in ceiling cracks the way you can in clouds, before being scooped up and carried out). And you?

My earliest memory was when I was two. It was my birthday and, because my mom and I lived with my grandparents--who still had my junior high and high school aged uncles and aunts living in the house--when we moved back from Cali, all of my closest family were there. I was slouched over the birthday cake, and everyone was telling me to make a wish. But instead of making a wish, I was thinking about what a birthday actually was. What was it to be two? What was it to be one? Then, I started to get frustrated because I couldn't figure out what I was before I was one. All I could come up with was zero (I had only learned the numbers zero through ten), but I couldn't have been zero because zero was nothingness. So, I kept thinking and thinking and thinking but couldn't get anything other than zero, so I told myself to always remember that moment because eventually when I was older I would know what came before zero and could remember what it was to be an infant.
...I was weird. And precocious.

I also remember wondering when I was around five what my purpose on earth was. Since I'm a southern, the concept of God had already been introduced to me by time I could walk, and bibles were all over the house that I grew up in. So once on a lazy afternoon when I was bored, I picked up one of those Christian inspirational books and asked one of my aunts to read the writing on the back of the book to me. Oddly enough, the writing had things like, "Have you ever wondered about your place on Earth?," "Do you wonder why God gave you life?," "Do you ever feel like this world is too big and too vast, sometimes?," etc. I was shocked because I had asked myself all those questions before but never knew how to articulate it (I mean, of course I didn't know how to articulate it. I WAS FIVE!). I really didn't know why God wanted me on the earth or what my purpose was while here. I remember being so excited about that book and running up to everyone and telling them about it. Most of the time, they ignored me and thought I was silly when I asked them to read the entire thing to me. It was tough being an NF kid in a world of crazy SPs .

Oh, and I have several memories of when I was three. Just too many of my favorite memories in that batch.

 

[neptunesnet]

On a general day-to-day basis, my Si is crap. But I can remember how I felt during memories and provide general color impressions of scenes, even if I can't recall physical details.

I remember all my memories(that include me in the picture) from 3rd person view. Would be nice to hear why is that, if someone knows.

Totally. On. Board.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

My first memory was probably when I was around 4. I remember because I was the exact height of this small side table and I used to climb on it. My mom is a huge Bob Dylan fan. I remember hearing "Blowin' In The Wind" and there's a lyric about cannonballs flying through the air. I just remember seeing that image.

 

[phthalocyanine]

i remember i really liked opening drawers to inspect their contents as a toddler.
my earliest memory is of crawling up to the desk in our dining room, hoisting myself upright with one of the legs, and opening the bottom drawer to find a box of playing cards which i promptly dumped out onto the floor. i remember being attracted to the hearts and spades suits especially and actually trying to separate them into their suit categories. loose little piles. i don't remember exactly how old i was, but that was some rudimentary Ti at work..

 

[Snuggletron]

I also have memories as far back as when I was 2. I can even place myself back in my body at that point in time like a 3-D memory, although it's very ambient and strange if I want it to be, like I'm on some sort of strange drug. I tend to relate memories to certain impressions I got at the time and this helps me get back into the mindset of that period in time now.

 

[Laurie]

I have no memory. No one else in my fam does either, other than my brother, who isn't NF.

 

[Snuggletron]

that's a sad thing. How's your short term memory? mine's shit.

 

[Ringtone]

I'm not sure exactly how old I was, but I know I was 3 at the oldest because it was when I lived in MA (and moved to where I am now when I was 3), sitting in the backyard on the yellow round swing thing, in which I am assuming was the fall because there were trees everywhere and very red/orange.

 

[WieldingTheSword]

I think my earliest was around 2-2.5, which astounds me.

Are any of you familiar with the developmental psychological concepts of "infantile amnesia" and of Piaget's "false memory" theories?

Worth looking into when talking about your early memories!