Exomemory and applied "confabulation" experimentation thread

[The Candlelight Society]

Cinderella: The purpose of this thread is simple, Over the course of the last couple months I and a couple of the others, mainly Junior and Tony, have been working on a hypothesis to help develop a new pseudo PP skill based upon the at this point infamous phrase "It's just confabulation."

 

The concept of false memories is an old one and while psychology is still iffy on the concept of memory in general, it is generally agreed upon that false memory development is indeed a real thing. This is something that has appeared in the tulpamancy community quite often, especially when discussing the holy grail of true parrallel processing, the ability to go do stuff completely independent of the current fronter's attention at all. It is obvious why such a skill as parallel processing is persued by the community, as it would solve so many of the basic problems a tulpamancer faces. The current science is not shining favorably on parrallel processing when held to such a high standard though. Only time will tell on how that supposed phenomenon is eventually classified, but my system is going to be exploring alternative options alongside it so as to not end up pursuing an impossible mission. In this regard it is my opinion that purposely developing "confabulation," the power to quickly make semi-detailed memories that feel as real as a true experience, would be an excellent way forward in solving the wasted time problem and generally improve the lives of the system as a whole. 

 

I have already applied it to a messy extent in my own life, Junior and I choose to believe that we do things in the inner world when dormant, and low and behold when we actively think there are memories availible of what we did during that time. Sadly as many others report these memories are foggy and when looked into lack as much detail as experience produced memories. These memories are still important to us though and even include some of what we'd consider important memories to our lives. I do not see them as lesser inherently and so the personal motive for this thread is obvious, I wish to improve my life and relationship by offering a way for more experiences to be subjectvely had regardless of true time of happening. The mind is a subjective instrument at the end of the day so if the experience feels real enough why should it matter to me? 

 

There is also a fascinating concept we continually ran into within the wider plural community when we went in search of new potential tulpamancy techiques among them, the phenomenon of exomemories. To put it simply, an exomemory is a memory that appears to come from outside the body's experience, including the wonderland/inner world. The most obvious example to a tulpamancer would be the case of a fictive that claims to have detailed memories of their source lives despite never actually experiencing it. In more superstitous or spiritual people this could be viewed as the truth of the matter, but I personally am a materialist and view exomemories as a unique and beautiful form of artificial memory experiences. These reported exomemories can be a vague as my personal experiences with artifical memory, but are also often reported as being extremely detailed. Alters have claimed to experience entire second lives before introjection with advanced exomemories to prove it that sometimes make real memories pale in comparsion. These memories can have intricate subtle details, high emotional impact, and there is even a common phenomenon of people experiencing actual trauma responses to source exomemories, I cannot be the only one who see's the implications of such a experience. Quite frankly, I want this level of detail and depth in my own artificial memory experiences. 

 

Now that all of this has been said I shall explain what this thread is for. This thread is a commitment from me and the others in my system to dedicate time to personally experiment with artifical memories, both exo and inner world, in order to improve upon amount, quality, detail, duration, and frequency of occurence, then share findings with the community. 

 

Our system has quite a share of diversity in terms of tulpa origin and experience, and so will have many great candidates to experiment with. The main subjects will be myself, as I am the one most interested and hold resonsibility for the effects of this on the mind, Junior, who is my closest partner and a Majima fictive, making him ideal for exomemory experimentation, Rarity, also a fictive, and Tony, a walk-in who already possesses some basic exomemories unrelated to an outside source. 

 

Over the course of the next couple months I will report hypotheses, experiments, and personal findings to you all and ask for discussion and ideas to further my work. As should be obvious this is a highly experimental and subjective practice so if anyone decides to try it with us the potential risks fall upon you to mitigate and handle. 

 

That should be all for the introductory piece,  feel free to share thoughts, comments, concerns, and potentially useful material in this thread aswell as discuss your own experiences and experiments with the subject matter, I want this to succeed to the more data available to tinker with the better. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Michael Blackwater

[YukariTelepath]

Sounds very interesting, I look forward to updates.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Michael Blackwater said:

I personally am a materialist and view exomemories as a unique and beautiful form of artificial memory experiences.

 

I think there could be bias of interpretation, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, I wonder if you go into it with the supposition that all exomemories are false without question, then they may be less believable from the start. Additionally exomemories may not necessarily be "confabulation" but hey I've beat that horse for years and it ain't budging with a strict materialist mindset.

 

In our experience we don't have any meta soulbond type experience because my two soulbonds understand their history is 100% fictional, I wrote it myself and I would know. However there are other exomemories we have from hypnagogic state "adventures" that are at times dream-like but certainly not dreams and especially those that include super-real experiences that can't be fully remembered for whatever reason. The experience memories are no less real than any other "real" memory.

 

As far as fuzzy memories while switched out and someone else is fronting, we've perfected that one and explored it. It's a bit more touchy feely for actual proof even in system but it's convincing that they (and I) can do things and report back progress in those things that would otherwise have taken deep thought and concentration. It's touchy feely because it's not like "solve this mathematical problem" it's more in line with "I'm going to ask a question before bed and when I wake up I want an answer" kind of thing that also does work. 

 

Additional benefits include a sense of rest, a boost of mood, and otherwise feeling refreshed. I too believe that this could be somewhat like self-hypnosis but as to the actual how, it's all up to interpretation. I no longer care too much about even our own interpretation as it just works and that's good enough for me.

 

My interpretation of PP is that it can occur subconsciously through some greater tradespace of consiousness that is opaque to the experiencer. Work accomplished was seemingly multiplied by the number of headmates working on it. Brainstorming is a good example of what works. If a group of headmates are discussing a topic in a virtual room the volume of progress on the topic is seemingly proportional to the number working on it. Add tulpish and progress can virtually occur with a real time multiplier.

 

In studying what the conscious mind is and how I can resolve what it's responsible for, my conclusion is that it's nothing more than a watcher, the POV of experience and memory is then not actually making any of the choices or giving any of the directions, rather it's a lens into that. It's also strictly linear, as in one stream only, however it can "catch up" experiences of others off stream and this is the point where exomemories are at work.

 

Still it's no less potent than any other memories and since all memories seem to be a reenactment of past events anyway, it's hard to know what is actually stored and may be very lightweight and sparce but may also may be more but that's hard to know as memories can also change.

 

So I too am left with more questions than answers on this topic other than we these  methods successfully and often, and it makes doing hard thinking easier and more enjoyable. 

 

So you have to ask, what is my goal in this?

 

For me, I suppose my goal would align well with how it turned out and I don't believe that to be a consequence, but rather the opaque work of my headmates "behind the scenes". Of the members of my system, Joy and SheShe are exemplary of this, and seemingly have answers before "I" understand the question. Ashley has noted many times that I am behind the curve wrt in-system workings and understanding. Of course being the one who fronts 99% of the time leaves me out of their deeper shenanigans.

 

That's my 2 cents, take it for what it's worth and good luck!

 

 

[harvestmoon]

I was excited to see this as memories and the ability to manipulate them fascinate me. I want to experiment with creating memories, but it’s tough for me to jump into. Partly because it “feels wrong” and partly because I want to plan how I go about it, but I worry the more I plan the more I will break immersion.

 

My angle is wanting a more concrete feeling of having a past (especially a childhood). I hypothesize I could give myself a memory by going through the memory repeatedly and professing my belief in it repeatedly (“forcing” the memory).

 

I have looked into hypnosis as well. I actually tried to forget a show I watched through hypnosis: no luck. It would be great in general to forget things but I feel forgetting can be more difficult than remembering new stuff. It was hella relaxing though and we still use the imagery from it to calm ourselves.

 

Spoiler

We may already have artificial memories, but I cannot point to one in particular. I think, much like it’s best to assume a tulpa is a real person from the start and continue so forever (unless you want them gone), it’s best to assume a memory is real from the start, and continue so forever (unless you want the memory gone). It’s funny. Experimenting with sort of thing and documenting it can be useful to us readers but make the memories you document feel less immersive or real. I’d be careful about that.

Edited November 19, 2022 by harvestmoon

[Ranger]

I have always wondered if you can turn "confabulation" onto it's head and turn it into a tool. Good luck guys, I'm excited to see what you guys come up with!

 

I personally also struggle with the idea of viewing it as a memory. However, as long as you can tell your created memories and real memories apart (labels like lore, exomemories, fiction, etc.), then you should be fine.

 

My current thinking is parallel processing may be caused by dissociation, whether or not it's actually parallel I can't tell you. However, I'm very curious if your "confabulation" quest will ever need to enter that territory.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, harvestmoon said:

I hypothesize I could give myself a memory by going through the memory repeatedly and professing my belief in it repeatedly

 

It's not as hard as you think. Especially if you're the only witness to the contrary.