Our knowledge about how memory works keeps increasing. And previous notions of fallibility have been overshot by new evidence that its worse than we previously suspected.

Search for the recent episode of NOVA, to see just how bad it is.

Those who have been tracing how long-term memory forms in the brain have found that after we recall a memory, we don't return it to "storage" so much as we reconsolidate it from recall much as we had to consolidate in the first place. We aren't "returning" it, we are re-remembering it. And this process invariably creates something different than what was recalled.

Researchers have found that by taking advantage of this vulnerability, they can interfere and prevent aspects of the memory from being part of the reconfigured version.

Ferinstance. By injecting a fear-blocker after an episode, they can prevent someone who is phobic from associating their trigger with fear in the wake of an encounter. It has worked in 100% of arachnophobes who were doped after being freightened in order to prevent the memory from reconfiguring "properly."

Those, like Ethan, who treat memory as if it were a recording device have been known to be ignorant for decades. But with every progress in the study of memory, his claims become ever more removed from reality.

Dante