Mind eraser

If you could erase parts of your memory, would you? Is there anything so terrible that you would be willing to erase any bit of it from your mind? If you did so, do you think you would end up being a different person? I can think of some scenario's you might want to block out of your mind?

Being the first to find a suicide victim, being in the pit at a place like the Oklahoma City bombing or Ground Zero, the death of a child, combat, POW or kidnapping experiences all come to mind. However, by removing those memories, would you become somehow less of a person? Would you be less whole or more whole?

Does pain in some way help define our shining moments? Is there anyway you would ever delete a happy memory? What would that take? What kind of incentive would be required to induce you to delete something good from your mind? I've been curious about memory for years. Pick any year of my life, I can probably pick out some terrible memory from that year. Something I'd like to forget. Ask me for a happy memory from many of those same years, I'd likely draw a blank. I think most of us would. I'm not saying they aren't there, I'm saying that are archival systems in our brains are not set up to retrieve the good as easily as the bad.

So, at this late stage in our lives, can that system be rebuilt? Can you redesign your memory and thought process as an adult to assist you to be able to get to positive memories faster and negative ones slower or not at all? Would we be happy zombies? Would the lack of bad memories somehow make us all smiles and good thoughts? Yeah, I didn't think so either. But, it's an attractive thought sometimes isn't it. That memory of the time... Never mind, I'm sure you are picturing just the thought that you'd like to zap. Good luck.