Memory suppression: Difference between revisions

#'''Partial short-term memory suppression''' - This is a partial and potentially inconsistent failure of a person's short-term memory. It can cause effects such as a general [[focus suppression|difficulty staying focused]], an increase in distractibility, and a general tendency to forget what one is thinking or saying.

#'''Complete short-term memory suppression''' - This is the complete failure of a person's short-term memory. It can be described as the experience of being completely incapable of remembering any specific details regarding the present situation and the events leading up to it for more than a few seconds. This state of mind can often result in [[thought loops]], [[confusion]], disorientation, and a loss of control, especially for the inexperienced. At this level, it can also become impossible to follow the plot of most forms of media as one cannot retain the memories long enough to do so.

#'''Partial long-term memory suppression''' - This is the partial, often intermittent failure of a person's long-term memory in addition to the complete failure of their short-term memory. It can be described as the experience of an increased difficulty recalling basic concepts and autobiographical information from one's long-term memory. Compounded with the complete suppression of short term memory, it creates an altered state where even basic tasks become challenging or impossible as one cannot mentally access past memories of how to complete them. For example, one may take a longer time to recall the identity of close friends or temporarily forget how to perform basic tasks. This state may create the sensation of experiencing something for the first time. At this stage, a reduction of certain learned personality traits, awareness of cultural norms, and linguistic recall may accompany the suppression of long-term memory.

#'''Complete long-term memory suppression''' - This is the complete and persistent failure of both a person's long and short-term memory. It can be described as the experience of becoming completely incapable of remembering even the most basic fundamental concepts stored within one's long-term memory. This includes everything from one's name, hometown, and past memories to the awareness of being on drugs, what drugs even are, what human beings are, what life is, that time exists, what anything is, or that anything exists. Memory suppression of this level blocks all mental associations, attached meaning, acquired preferences, and value judgements one may have towards the external world. Sufficiently intense memory loss is also associated with the loss of a sense of self, in which one is no longer aware of their own existence. In this state, the user is unable to recall all learned conceptual knowledge about themselves and the external world, and no longer experiences the sensation of being a separate observer in an external world. This experience is commonly referred to as "ego death".  

The most significant aspect of complete long-term memory suppression (level 4) is the way in which it suppresses the ability to recall and comprehend conceptual information including concepts associated with one's sense of self-hood and identity. The experience of this is colloquially known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death ego death] and its occurrence is well documented throughout the modern [[psychonaut]]ic subculture.  

Complete memory suppression can result in the profound experience that despite remaining fully conscious, there is no longer an “I” experiencing one's sensory input; there is just the sensory input as it is and by itself. Ego death suppresses the otherwise nearly constant sensation in waking life of being a separate observer interacting with an external world. Ego death does not necessarily shut down awareness of all mental processes, however, it does remove the feeling of being the thinker or cause of one's mental processes. It often results in the feeling of processing concepts from a neutral perspective completely untainted by past memories, prior experiences, contexts, and biases.

 

Ego death has been speculated to be associated with a decrease in activity in the Default Mode Network. Activity in this neural network is linked to the sensation of a cohesive sense of self.{{Citation needed}} There is an especially large correlation between the sense of self and activity in and between the posterior cingulate cortex, the thalamus, and the medial prefrontal cortex.{{Citation needed}} A decrease in activity in these regions could potentially lead to the dissolution of the feeling of a boundary between the self and the outside world.