At what age did you become conscious?

[an anarchist]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

 

[JustGeorge]

I remember being toilet trained. I also remember picking out my cat, which baffles my mom, because she said I was 2.

 

[The Hammer]

4 I think?

 

[Eyes to See]

I remember the first time I realized I was alive. I was 3 or 4 and my dad had a cassette recorder and was recording messages from all us kids to send to our grandma in Nebraska. And I remember saying something and then thinking, 'hey, I'm talking.' I thought it was so cool. Then I realized I was alive. I remember thinking, "I am alive, wow!" And I started moving my hands and fingers and making noises just because I could and thinking, wow I can move and speak and do all kinds of things. Being alive was wonderful.

My earliest memory that comes to me as I sit here was probably when I was 3 or 4 and I was just put to bed with my twin brother after lunch and we were just jumping up and down on the bed and giggling and playing and making a big ruckus and my dad came in and we got scared and laid down and acted asleep real quick, and he laid down on the bed with us. We remained quiet because we knew we were supposed to be taking a nap. My dad started to snore, but back then I didn't understand it, I thought he was turning into a monster so I didn't move I was too afraid of what would happen.

 

[Estro Felino]

I did recall when I was a baby. As a very short frame.
I was in a train. The sun was overwhelming the room.
I recall the bottle. I recall the bag.

Then...I recall the very first days of kindergarten...and I was 3...so the kindergarten memories were vivider.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

My oldest memories are:

Somehow getting part of my skin stuck in the safety bar mechanism when I was in a chairlift with my mom.
Being afraid of the screws in my crib, my mother always had to slap the screws before I could sleep safe and sound.
Being afraid of the huge silo on my aunt and uncle's farm.
I remember potty training and that I got a toy bus as a reward.
I remember eating my mom's rolling tobacco because my child-like imagination told me it was "Chinese food", so it was okay to eat.
I remember getting sick and throwing up after that.
I remember we used to have a dog who was pretty big in my memories, but it was only a Jack Russell Terrier.

The first example I mentioned is probably the oldest.
According to my mother I was probably two.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

I remember the first time I realized I was alive.

This makes me remember the moment I learned we are mortal.
There was this singer my mom liked to listen to, and the chorus in one of his songs went like:
"In a hundred years, you are all dead,
In a hundred years, you are all dead,
In a hundred years, you are all dead,
And you too, and you too."

I remember thinking: "How does he know?"
I already knew one could die by accident, or by being murdered, but when I expressed my thoughts to my mom she explained to me that people can die of old age!

 

[Sedim Haba]

Four, perhaps earlier. I know it wasn't later because we moved, and it was the old house.
Night Terrors made me aware the most, as terror usually will, and that happens year 2 - 4.

One particularly bad nightmare basically shut down my dreams for the rest of my life.
To this day I can't remember my dreams that I have at night, only from naps.

It was a Lucid Dream. More real than any waking memory I've ever had, bar none.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

Four, perhaps earlier. I know it wasn't later because we moved, and it was the old house.
Night Terrors made me aware the most, as terror usually will, and that happens year 2 - 4.

One particularly bad nightmare basically shut down my dreams for the rest of my life.
To this day I can't remember my dreams that I have at night, only from naps.

It was a Lucid Dream. More real than any waking memory I've ever had, bar none.

Do you still remember, and if you can, explain what happened in the dream?

 

[Sedim Haba]

Do you still remember, and if you can, explain what happened in the dream?

As I alluded to, I remember it all. It's more vivid than ANY memory I hold.

I don't want to remember, but I have no choice. It was a Lucid Dream, which raises it to a level far FAR beyond a simple nightmare.

What happened? Well, imagine you're a little kid, at a family event. And all your family slowly turns into monsters.

One question I will ask of G-d, is why. What did I do?

 

[Mock Turtle]

My first quite clear memory was about age two, and being lost on a beach. A policeman carried me to some home and I waited there, looking out of the window whilst knelt on a chair and crying all the time until my mother came to collect me. I can remember some of the conversation leading up to why I became lost - my misunderstanding apparently - and also some other kids in the home who were playing on the floor with some toys, seemingly unconcerned. My only other memories are of being rocked in a cradle, and even though I had some small facial injury (not really noticeable) very early on, I have no memory of getting this.

Difficult to know when one became conscious though.

 

[ChristineM]

I remember riding a cow. More precisely, by dad sitting me on a cows back and walking with it while holding me, that was my second birthday.

I was about two and a half when i remember dads first tractor arriving on the farm. That is a very strong memory, i remember being frightened of the big truck it came on but loving the tractor on it's back.

 

[Stevicus]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

I think my first memory must have been when I was about 2 or 3. I remember being on a plane. I must have been sitting on my mother's lap while I looked at my father talking to my older brother (who would have been around 6) and pointing at something out the window.

A lot of my early memories are disconnected and disjointed images where I can't really recall the time or place where they happened. My first memory where I can still recall the time and place was when I was about 3, in the summer of 1967, in the Adirondacks. I recall it so vividly because that was the time I was stung by a swarm of yellow jackets.

 

[exchemist]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

I was conscious from somewhat before birth, I imagine, like all healthy babies.

Earliest memory is quite different from consciousness.

 

[Vitality]

My earliest memory was waking up in my parent’s bed, looking down the hallway and seeing them eating breakfast at the dining table with my brothers. I was scared a monster would get me so I yelled for them and dad picked me up. This was at the home we lived in before moving to the town where I was raised, so I couldn’t have been older than two. I have a handful of other memories from living there. I can recall the layout of rooms and the arrangement of furniture. I remember playing a racing game with one of my brothers where we put a rug in front of a door vent and pretended we were in a race car.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

I was about 2 1/2 years, I guess. At least that’s what I was told…

My Dad left us before I was born and never came to see me, his only child, so I didn’t know him. Then one day, this man (my Dad) comes to our apartment. I don’t remember him picking me up, maybe my Mom did, but somehow I ended up in his car. Without her in it. When he pulled away with me in the car (remember he’s a total stranger to me), my Mother who was watching from the porch, said I began crying, the window was down & I tried climbing out of it (no seatbelts? I don’t know), but he grabbed me & sat me in the seat.

I don’t remember ANY of this, but he took me to a nearby park, that had a stream running through it. That’s where my earliest memories began… I was throwing stones in the stream, and looking up at my Dad, this tall guy with the Sun behind him, and smiling. I actually remember smiling.

No fear or crying anymore!

As I got older he came more often. Til it was a regular weekend thing, every Sunday.

Got to know him pretty well. He died in ‘04. Still miss him.

But my earliest memory, was being with him.

 

[sayak83]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

I am conscious??!!
yayyyy

 

[sayak83]

How old were you in your earliest memory? A memory where you had thoughts and words in your head? I was less than two when my memory starts. I remember having clear conscious thoughts as a baby. I can confirm for myself I was that old because I remember someone who died before I was two, as well as the circumstance when they died quite clearly. I remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment, though I was just a baby. I couldn’t talk properly till I was eight, after few years of speech therapy. When I wasn’t able to speak intelligibly by the time I was five, my school taught me to speak in therapy. The point is the whole time I was speaking unintelligibly, it sounded like I was speaking English to me. I had clear thoughts. When I was goo goo ga ga-ing, I was thinking in sentences. I was conscious. What spurs me to make this post is that I’ve seen people in real life assume that babies won’t remember anything, nor do they think they are conscious. And it effects how they treat babies. Babies are conscious I believe! I know I was.
So, how old were you when your memory starts?

I remember remembering the experience of being born. Does that count? The memory was actually quite frightening....a kind of pulsating darkness and pressure and finally the darkness broke into a thousand shards of very very bright light and very loud sound which apparently was me crying.
Other than that, the earliest memory I have is me looking into a sunset in a bored way from bed and thinking "yet another sunset".

 

[RestlessSoul]

I am conscious??!!
yayyyy

But are you awake? Or is it all a dream within a dream?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

But are you awake? Or is it all a dream within a dream?

Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality!