What If Not Everything We Remember Is Real?

How many of the memories we carry (and believe) are real?

After releasing her memoir The Tell, Amy Griffin was widely praised for her courage. Celebrities voiced their support, and readers called her story life-changing. The book shot up the New York Times bestseller list, a testament to the power of healing and the promise of remembering.

Amy’s vivid and emotional memory of long-buried trauma resurfaced during and MDMA session. She used it to map out her healing journey, and the book was a step forward to releasing what haunted her.

And now, six months after the book’s release, people are saying it never happened. Amy is being called a liar.

But what if she isn’t? What if she told the truth as she experienced it, even if the events never took place in the physical world?

Maybe she remembered a shared thought. A feeling that passed between her and someone else. Something that existed in consciousness, not reality, yet still left an imprint.

This is where the nuances of memory become complex and muddy. What if not everything we remember comes from this lifetime, or even from our own minds? And if that is possible, what does that mean? How many of the memories we carry are real? And how many are impressions passed through the collective field and happened to land in us?

I just can’t stop thinking about this.

The Accusation

What fascinates me is how people responded to the accusations. It shows how uncomfortable we are with ambiguity. In our culture, if something does not happen exactly as described, it is immediately labeled false. And if it is false, the person who shared it is assumed to be lying. People are quick to dismiss, cancel, and erase stories that do not fit neatly into black and white.

But life is rarely that simple. Two opposing things can be true at once.

On Substack, we go deeper into the nuance of memory, the workings of the subconscious mind, a practice to help you to audit your memories safely, and ways to redefine and refine your healing journey.

If you’d like to go even deeper than that, join my membership program SHIFT.