When did you become you (conscious)?
Discussion
I assume that everyone on here experiences consciousness sort of similar to myself in that you are aware of your own existence and that the conscious experience exists all the time you are awake (and even when asleep if dreaming). I also assume that when you wake up you can connect your current conscious experience now to yesterday and the day before and in fact all they way back to your childhood and that although you can’t remember every second of your life you feel there is a continuous connection and that “you” have existed for your whole life. At least up to a certain point. I can sort of remember some things from when I was around three but not before then. I don’t remember being born, nor breastfeeding (probably for the best!), nor learning to talk or walk.
Does that mean that I wasn’t conscious from birth? Or that I was conscious but I can’t remember that I was conscious? Or that perhaps language is required to be fully conscious (as people don’t tend to report past conscious experience prior to learning language)? Maybe that is just a coincidence.
What are your own experiences and thoughts? How far back can you remember?
Does that mean that I wasn’t conscious from birth? Or that I was conscious but I can’t remember that I was conscious? Or that perhaps language is required to be fully conscious (as people don’t tend to report past conscious experience prior to learning language)? Maybe that is just a coincidence.
What are your own experiences and thoughts? How far back can you remember?
Apparently my parents took me to stop in a static caravan, I was very small probably less than 1 or 2.
I have two very clear limited memories, my dad holding me and looking at a clock on the wall and Grandad saying, they're nice these new vans and sitting in a sandpit and being picked up.
Then very little else until now, 52!!
I suspect that's quite an early memory?
I have two very clear limited memories, my dad holding me and looking at a clock on the wall and Grandad saying, they're nice these new vans and sitting in a sandpit and being picked up.
Then very little else until now, 52!!
I suspect that's quite an early memory?
I do have a very clear memory that's stuck in my mind from around the age of two or so, so around 1968 or 1969.
Playing out in the communal gardens where we lived in Leyton, East London and police cars turning up as a little girl had gone missing. A kind of rust coloured Vauxhall Viva HA is also part of that memory.
Then visiting a friend of my father's in Birmingham which would have been the same time and him dropping us all off home in his ice blue Daimler 250. Can visualise it parked outside the Baker's Arms pub in Leyton.
My oldest memories seem to have cars in them.
Playing out in the communal gardens where we lived in Leyton, East London and police cars turning up as a little girl had gone missing. A kind of rust coloured Vauxhall Viva HA is also part of that memory.
Then visiting a friend of my father's in Birmingham which would have been the same time and him dropping us all off home in his ice blue Daimler 250. Can visualise it parked outside the Baker's Arms pub in Leyton.
My oldest memories seem to have cars in them.
Giles Brandreth does a (sometimes) very good podcast – called 'Rosebud' where this topic is the very first question he asks his guests.
I've got a lot of fuzzy memories of early childhood but can't remember which was first exactly. I reckon I must have been about two and half because I can remember going to London on a steam train, and I can just remember being held up to look at the big black things waiting at Towngate level crossing in Poole (the one that isn't there any more).
I've got a lot of fuzzy memories of early childhood but can't remember which was first exactly. I reckon I must have been about two and half because I can remember going to London on a steam train, and I can just remember being held up to look at the big black things waiting at Towngate level crossing in Poole (the one that isn't there any more).
vixen1700 said:
My oldest memories seem to have cars in them.
One of my first memories was sitting in the passenger seat of a Cortina Mk2 with the 'eyeball' vents. I had been ill at playschool so was taken home by one of the staff. I must have been 3 or under, around '68 I guess. Probably no seat belt and certainly no child seat. 
Funny - was chatting about this with my Mum and cousin only last week.
For me it would have been around 18 months to 2 years old. I recall (quite vividly actually) making a mud pie in a plastic yellow bowl in my Grandad's garden in Forest Gate while he cleaned the aviary he had.
We'd moved out to Upminster and I can recall the drive from there to Grandad's to this day: A12, Wanstead Flats.... And I can also recall looking at the Lesney toy car factory nearby and remember making the link between the big logo on wall to the logo on my toy cars.
For me it would have been around 18 months to 2 years old. I recall (quite vividly actually) making a mud pie in a plastic yellow bowl in my Grandad's garden in Forest Gate while he cleaned the aviary he had.
We'd moved out to Upminster and I can recall the drive from there to Grandad's to this day: A12, Wanstead Flats.... And I can also recall looking at the Lesney toy car factory nearby and remember making the link between the big logo on wall to the logo on my toy cars.
StevieBee said:
<snip>
We'd moved out to Upminster and I can recall the drive from there to Grandad's to this day: A12, Wanstead Flats.... And I can also recall looking at the Lesney toy car factory nearby and remember making the link between the big logo on wall to the logo on my toy cars.
Used to go to the Christmas parties there when I was a little kid as one of our neighbours worked there. Think there's an old black and white photo somewhere of me eating jelly and ice-cream wearing a pirate's hat. We'd moved out to Upminster and I can recall the drive from there to Grandad's to this day: A12, Wanstead Flats.... And I can also recall looking at the Lesney toy car factory nearby and remember making the link between the big logo on wall to the logo on my toy cars.
OldSkoolRS said:
vixen1700 said:
My oldest memories seem to have cars in them.
One of my first memories was sitting in the passenger seat of a Cortina Mk2 with the 'eyeball' vents. I had been ill at playschool so was taken home by one of the staff. I must have been 3 or under, around '68 I guess. Probably no seat belt and certainly no child seat. EmailAddress said:
Whatever123 said:
I remember it being very dark and cozy and then all of a sudden a light! lots of noise and fuss, i remember wanting to go back to where i was 5 minutes ago and that feeling has never really gone away, so i guess i’ll be happy when my time comes
OP is talking about consciousness, not losing your virginity.
From about 2 I have clear memories of certain toys, the garden in my parents house, Grandparents houses, Grandad's Rover and Dad's C reg Cavalier Hatch. I also remember clearly the day my brother was born (I was 3 then) and we had to get a tax disc for the Cavalier (31/01/92). I remember vividly everything until I was about 16, then things get less in focus after that. Can remember at 3 being at nursery and my mother warning them that I was an escape artist. They dismissed this, thinking it was all fine. I remember getting out of a gap in the fence and walking the 1/4 mile home.
Edited by KobayashiMaru86 on Monday 9th December 14:51
The only memory I can date with some certainty is from before the age of 2. I know that, because the memory is of standing next to one of the family cats, and that particular cat died just before my second birthday. At that age, the cat seemed huge. It's probably the earliest memory I have. Lots more memories after the age of four - the first time I was aware of a year with a number was 1975, which was my fourth birthday.
I can remember waving my Dad off to work on his BSA.
He took it apart in 1981, so I would have been 2 or 3.
This seems to be my earliest memory. I can't think of anything else that would have been earlier.
As an aside, the bike still awaits its rebuild. We moved house in 1985 and my Mum tells a tale of the removers happily declaring everything was out of the house and then she opened the garage to reveal the 14 boxes of BSA inside it!
He took it apart in 1981, so I would have been 2 or 3.
This seems to be my earliest memory. I can't think of anything else that would have been earlier.
As an aside, the bike still awaits its rebuild. We moved house in 1985 and my Mum tells a tale of the removers happily declaring everything was out of the house and then she opened the garage to reveal the 14 boxes of BSA inside it!
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