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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>BillW might know the answer to this given his professional background or anyone else here might know.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We have a concept called PTSD which might be thought of as the memetic counterpart of cancer in a way: a tumor consists of cells that keep making copies of itself, but PTSD is where a memory (usually a bad one) makes copy after copy of itself until the mind is distracted: everywhere the thoughts wander, it encounters copies of the memory. Is that about how PTSD works?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Most of us here have had one of those dreams that is so clear and so detailed we remember that dream nearly the same as actual events, or even more clearly than actual events. If so, it follows that one could get PTSD-like symptoms from an event which never occurred.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Example: when I was much younger than I am today, my girl and I did something that was dangerous as all hell. We had to be very careful, and neither of us were scared at the time, but long after the fact I realized how dangerous that was, and even had a very real dream or vision about how that event could have gone very wrong. It didn’t: the other party is alive and well, there were no injuries. But that event that never happened has somehow created multiple copies of itself in my mind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>BillW, have you ever heard of this? Is there a name for it?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>