Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Episodic Memory Context
Last week, Day 279, I wrote about how good it was to get a different instructor for Bonfire Yoga. Today, I was so looking forward to going back. And even with the weekly visit, my flexibility is improving. Another topic that dominated my thoughts were from an interview with Bjorn Ulvaeus, and he suffers doesn’t have episodic memory.
By the way, in an interview on Skalvan (2014), Bjorn talked about not having Episodic memory or emotional memory of specific events during his time as part of ABBA. One description of Episodic memory is: “Episodic memory, on the other hand, refers to the recalling of particular and subjective life experiences” (Ayesh Perera 2020). Moreover, to help clarify with examples, the VeryWell mind website lists some, making it more relatable.
Memories that are “global” snapshots, like where you were when you first heard of 9/11, are mass episodic events. Then there are the memories that a specific to you. I can only imagine that it would be difficult for a musician on the road to remember what city he or bus leg he was in when he heard about, say, a grandparent dying. From what I can gather, it’s like driving a vast desert distance and someone expecting you to remember you were 150 km/mi out from Dustytown when that happened.
Nonetheless, it reminded me of personal experiences I may have forgotten, and I’m certainly guilty of losing track of some of those memories. Isn’t that why we take photos? To put us back into the place and reinforce situational recall. The other question I have, and I haven’t done the research yet, is, does hypnosis recall episodic memory loss events?
Today's Cards
The Cards - Episodic Memory Analysis
Carryover Cards
One card carried over from yesterday; Politics moved from Future Energy to Now.
Cross
Interestingly, Rebirth is in the Distant Past at a time when I’d outgrown my previous ego (the lion) and emerged renewed in who I am, or so I thought. The Fighting card in Recent Past implies a sensitive spot has triggered, and I got caught up in it. This recollection, I believe, comes from my discussion with people after yoga about how much I enjoyed having a female instructor, and I felt reinvigorated.
While I wanted to be effusive in my praise, I was in two minds (Schizophrenia) about how much I could say without ridiculing the previous instructors. The Goal was Suppression. Suppression of my true feelings at that moment because I knew in retrospect, I’d regret it.
The truth is the previous instructors were also magic but in a different way. Besides, they weren’t my true feelings; they were just my “Now” feelings. Hence, I played the diplomatic card of Politics with two faces: one for the world and one for me.
The effort to suppress is exhausting, and too much of it leads to Exhaustion, as per Future Energy.
Base
When Bjorn spoke of having episodic memory loss, I stopped and examined my Feelings and discovered that there are probably certain areas of my life that I feel I should remember but don’t. Regarding these situations, I feel like I need to “make them up” like The Creator using factual knowledge and weaving some expected emotions into the memory regardless of whether it’s true or not.
On the other hand, or tangentially, Others’ Views are of me are of Intensity, a single-minded enthusiasm on the topic at hand, aka Bonfire Yoga.
My Hopes & Fears admit I, too, have some episodic memory losses that might isolate me from others (Ice-olation). As you may know from Day 063, the fear is the “fear of missing out”.
Finally, the Outcome has Existence and with it comes the simple act of being oneself.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
- Tarot Layouts per month
SEO – Going back to yoga felt good, but the focus was the startling revelation that Bjorn from ABBA has episodic memory loss from days past.
