Do we learn, or remember?

[Saria]

As far as new concepts go, are we really learning new stuff or remembering knowledge we've already been given?

I personally believe that everyone already has infinate knowledge and it's just a matter of unlocking that knowledge. Of course I have no proof on the subject but I do have a few points that I consider evidence. (Although how good it might be is something different but it's enough to persuade me.)

Have you ever had a completely knew concept introduced to you in a dream? If you hadn't known it somewhere before, where did the knowledge come from? For instance, let's say you have a dream where you learn telekinesis and you can work it perfectly. You wake up and it makes sense so you begin to try it. Even if it doesn't go as smoothly as planned, you still manage to make it move without any outside force.

I'll go with another more realistic one:

Awhile ago, I had a dream where someone tried to rape me. I fended him off and with a hardcore punch, he went flying and landed backwards, unconscious. Now I've never actually seen anyone knocked out at least not up close but I realized that he was twitching and I thought it was really odd. I rationalized that it's due to involuntary spasms because the brain was suddenly adjusting to that stage of consciousness. A few days later when we got on the subject, someone brought up that when he passed out, he twitched a lot. (And that wasn't the only circumstance that I've heard that happens.) But what I'm saying is that I had no prior knowledge on that fact and it had to come from somewhere but it wasn't from an outside source.

So do we learn new things, or unlock the things we thought were new?

[lilady_love]

first off i would like to say that i do believe in past lives- reincarnation and all the rest of it, but i think that we gather alot of knowledge unknowingly as well, we could all hear while in the womb we could all hear and feel before we could walk or talk.. i have 4 kids and i know that i had alot of conversations with them on sitting on my knee that i am sure they processed it and stored it somewhere.. not always in the right context mind you... i think that alot of things get awfully jumbled up in little ones heads... i for example believed until i was 21 and said it out loud that (get this)

my mother rode her bicycle up the side of the C.N. tower in Crystal beach and fell off on her ear while she was pregnant with my brother and thats why she is deaf in one ear and my brother had cerbral palsy... all of this is in fact true in little ways... but it certainly did not happen like that.

well take care
and when thinking about things your parents did and said to you when you were little anything that sounds a little odd say it outloud... cause boy it can change you whole perspective!!

Karen

[Sobek]

in answer to your question i say both. the brain is a mervellous thing and thinking is only a small part of what it does. basically your example is flawed, you say you heve never seen someone knocked out, but you may have whether it was a forgotten or suppressed memory, or merely you seen it on TV. that aside if the mind doesnt know something alot of the time it will take it upon its self to fill in the blanks.

without realising it i pretty much agree with the above in certain respects. like we could be walking down the street looking at a path, but generally without giving it a conscious thought, the brain is processing colour, light, smell, texture and a whole lot of other things.

i really hope people make sense of my jumbled thought.

[LaFiamma]

off the subject, but I love your icon. I *almost* got that design tattooed on my back. I still have the email from when I asked the designer for permission to get it inked on me permanently.

[Sercee]

I think we both learn and remember. The human brain holds so much potential that we only use, what was it, 10%? I think it's even less, but I don't recall. Anyway, the way I see it is that we don't know everything but we possess the capacity to reason it out. Therefore, in your dream, for example, either a) you saw a twitching body on tv or something when you were very young and forgot until now, or b) your dreaming mind was able to comprehend that that would be the way it works, or c) neither and your mind was just being morbid and macabre.

I believe, also, that when you die you retain the knowledge but not the tools (memory for example) to access it. Therefore there is more knowledge stored away than in your last life so it can be opened up as you grow in age and experience.