POSTULATING about the egos library of images and how when we first meet someone, the ego automatically creates a folder with an image of that person, including their name and their idiosyncrasies, (their positive and negative traits) in other words, the egos overall summing up of that person is a fascinating pastime.

Each time we meet that person again, the ego immediately updates their folder’s image to take into account, the person’s increasing age from when we last met and any new found idiosyncrasies that are detected by the ego.

This same routine is performed for every person that we meet during our lifetime. People who are nearest and dearest to us have a rather large folder of images that stretch from when we first met until the present day. The early images might fade a bit but the clarity (the ability to remember) increases as the images become more recent.

Such favorite folders contain heaps of past memories – both positive and negative – and we tend to dwell amongst them, reminiscing during idle times. If that person has been out of our life for a time, the negative images are usually ignored and the positive images are mentally enhanced – so we only remember the good times.

The people that we have only met once, or maybe a few times still have their image – obtained at the original meeting, with the egos judgment attached – but when and if we meet again, it is a bit harder to dig up that folder, so we may not remember them at all – or it will take some time before it sinks in who they are (the ego finds their folder) and there is recognition.

As we age, it is more difficult to remember a lot of people that we have met during our lifetime. We accept that as normal. Forgetting is usually not a problem with the ones who surround us, for their image folder is being constantly updated with fresh information.

What happens though to those of us who are unfortunate enough to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s? Why can’t they remember people in their life, especially those that are nearest and dearest to them?

The most obvious reason at first glance appears to be, that the images of those who were once familiar to us have faded and have been corrupted with age, making it difficult – or impossible for the ego to find – so recognition is lost.

As with a faulty computer, any new information that is added to an image already corrupted by age is also lost, so the ability to recall or remember a person fails even when the new encounter is only fairly recent. But all sufferers of memory loss are not ‘old people’.

There is a progressive form of pre-senile dementia that is similar to senile dementia except that it usually starts in the 40s or 50s. First symptoms are impaired memory which is followed by impaired thought and speech and finally complete helplessness. Why is this so in those of us who are young to middle aged, or at any age?

Is the inability of the ego to recover images of the past – not only of facial recognition but also the ability to think and speak – caused by a fault in the images or in the ego itself? In other words, can those lifelong images fade, even in those of us who are middle aged or younger, or are there other causes?

People who have had near death experiences have often reported that their whole life passed before their eyes at that moment -every event, every person that they ever encountered in their whole lifetime. If that be the case, every image that the ego has ever made for us is still there, fully intact in the library of the past.

Therefore, is it really the ego itself that is becoming faulty and corrupted, thus losing the ability to recover those images of the past? Is the whole library of images still as lucid as the day they were made? Does the problem lie with the ego that is floundering confusedly at the library door?

The ego is a part of the body machine and in the case of dementia, a part that has developed an irreparable fault causing the inability to remember people and eventually maybe, the basic functions for surviving independently in the physical world.

If our basic memory remains intact (the story of our life) and it’s only the ego (the machine) that has become defective, does that mean then, that those images of who we are – or were – in our lifetime here on earth this time around remain consciously recognizable and available to our true spiritual self?

Do we carry an indelible image (identity) of who we are now over into our life after death?…
Food for thought!

Dan’s Quote: “At my age the only problem is with remembering names. 
________When I call everyone darling, it has damn all to do with passionately adoring them, 
________but I know I’m safe calling them that. 
________Although, of course, I adore them too.”- Richard Attenborough

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