MEMORY RELEASE

On memory

(from process notes)

What is the process of encoding (recording) and releasing a memory?
What is the relationship between body and brain in this process?
Are memories housed in our organs?
Is there a correspondence between organ, emotion and memory?
Does the body in motion relate to that correspondence?

Current studies in neurology strongly support the notion that a memory is a set of encoded neural connections. Encoding (or recording) can take place in several parts of the brain. The stronger the connections, the stronger the memory. A certain stimulation – such as a present association to a past event – will create what’s called a “retrieval cue”, a trigger for a memory to be released into consciousness once more.

Based on the creative hypothesis that memories may be housed in the physical body, I would like to suggest a two way connection between the central nervous system (the brain) and the peripheral nervous system (the body), so that information may travel freely from one to the other via the connective highway – the spinal chord.

Eastern medicine believes there is a correspondence between our 12 organs and our emotions.

Our experience of memory is often attached to an emotional state. It is interesting to imagine that certain memories might be located in certain areas of the body (It is said that the liver houses anger and the lungs are a storage for grief). Eastern medicine links those areas with detailed maps of energy points called the meridians. Body movement practices like Yoga or Tai Chi are based on that relationship.