So my mom grew up in a Greek Catholic house, she isn't too religious, but does believe there may be a higher power like a god or something of that nature. One thing that's kind of strange to me is this. She has 2 children, myself and my brother. She also had 2 miscarriages, where after about 6 weeks, the fetus died. She told me that it wasn't particularly easy to conceive, and that there were times where it didn't work. However, when she became pregnant with me (the day before she found out) she had a dream with mother Mary telling her she was going to be giving birth to a child. It happened to be true. Then, her next attempt to have a baby was a miscarriage, and while she was at one point pregnant, she did not have a religious dream. Then, she had my brother, and the day before she found out about being pregnant with him, she said Jesus came to her, lifted her up, and said she would be giving birth to another baby.
I know these could be written off as just dreams, coincidences, potentially anticipation lead the brain to expect pregnancy, but these dreams didn't occur for the 2 miscarriages, does this potentially mean anything supernatural at work here?
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I think a great deal of evidence is now indicating that our brains store false memory as well. There is also false memory syndrome, though this is quite an old idea and remains controversial. The idea we store false memories however is fairly well validated.
"False memory syndrome recognises false memory as a prevalent part of one's life in which it affects the person's mentality and day-to-day life. False memory syndrome differs from false memory in that the syndrome is heavily influential in the orientation of a person's life, while false memory can occur without this significant effect. The syndrome takes effect because **the person believes the influential memory to be true.** However, its research is controversial and the syndrome is excluded from identification as a mental disorder and, therefore, is also excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. False memory is an important part of psychological research because of the ties it has to a large number of mental disorders, such as PTSD"
As I understand it, by and large, for anecdotal memories, the brain does not store the memory as such, but just stores some significant "signposts". When recalling the event, the brain reconstructs the memory. As a result, people are notoriously bad at recalling events. A sole person will find their memory to have fidelity, but when two or more witnesses to crimes give their accounts, there can be widely varying accounts given. (*)
If a brain is conditioned to think of, and to see the world in a certain way, (maybe as a place where "God" rules, angels come and go, souls exist etc.), it seems highly likely that in remembering past events, that memory will be inaccurate, (as is the norm), and highly 'coloured' by the person's view of what is important, usual, possible, essential etc.
Mutorc.
* as a postscript, it just occurred to me that this could be the source of many a marital or other relationship argument - you know - Wifey, "Did", Hubby, "Did not"; Wifey, "Did", Hubby, "Did not"; Wifey, "Did", Hubby, "Did not" . . .
LOL
When I first saw this post, I could have sworn it said "seductive memory."
Boy, I feel stupid...
rmfr
I can remember flying in my dreams in my childhood. I'd jump off the brick stair rail 18" or so above the front yard and away I'd go. I'd try it for real the next day and it never worked. I still can't fly. Damn.
You're using a common logical fallacy, called post hoc ergo propter hoc, which means "after this therefore because of this". The fallacy arises when causation of an event is assigned to a prior event without proper evidence just because it preceded the second event. Theists and religious apologists use this all the time when trying to claim validation of intercessory prayers. There is usually a selection bias as well, where they ignore failed prayers.
You need to widen your research here from one test subject for a start, you also have assumed the information is correct, when your mother may have misremembered, or even be distorting what happened for your sake. Nothing in your story evidences anything supernatural here.
"does this potentially mean anything supernatural at work here?"
Not unless you can define "supernatural. "
Let me save you the trouble:
of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
The event is manifested in reality - a dream. Prove that a dream has a supernatural cause., We know brains dream. We cam map the function of the brain and the movements of they eyes as the brain dreams. How do you get from the function of the brain to a "supernatural cause." If you can not get there then the correct answer is "I don't know." NOT "It must be supernatural." All you are doing is using the word "supernatural" as a place holder for "I don't know."
RT didn't you posted this topic before??
hhmmm...weird. really peculiar
Woooo! Deja Vu! Scary,,,, it's probably "SUPERNATURAL."
yeah cog, and i didn't even read the whole thing, i just feel i've seen this post before..yeah and the sane person...oh..i mean the same person posted it..(intentionally putting the "sane" word there.) hehehe...
RT, are you putting curse on this site?? don't you dare...don't you ever dare...this is a bad oman...AR is doomed. *mumbling*
@Quasi
Nah. In RT's other mother dresming thread, her dreams predicted death. Quite the seer, RT's mum.
So! You are a special magic haby! God intervened so you could grow up and post on internet atheist forumsl
Ditto!
Russian Tank, did you mother speak of her dreams the day after, but before the birth? Or conveniently years after?
Ever consider your mom was lying when she told you that story RT? Has your mom ever lied to you at all? Even if she did not mean too?
I agree with @Sheldon (he took his time to argue it properly) and the rest: nothing special about the story. Most probably just a fabrication of false memories.
Here's a consideration. Most moms like doing things to make their kids feel special. Without any malicious or deceptive intent whatsoever, she could have told them that story as a way to reinforce how important they are to her. Considering all the other failed pregnancies, the two boys she had would indeed be very special to her. Therefore, to impress upon them how much they meant to her, she uses a bit of "innocent exaggeration" in her story by telling them, "God told me I would have you." Of course - naturally - the more she thought about it and the more she told others, then the more she came to actually believing it to be true. Willing to bet she could even pass a lie detector test if she were asked about it. *chuckle* Basic psychology, really.