Do I have Hyperthymesia? I remember as far back as an infant!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:01:59]Mhm.

[00:02:37]>> Hi all of you. This is Gil. So today it's May 27th, 2026.

[00:02:45]So I kind of discovered the something that I that I actually have or I mean it's an interesting thing. Hyperthymesia.

[00:02:56]I mean, it's something like it's to do with like superior memory. I mean, yeah, because I had like, you know, I I mentioned that in a video before that I have very good memory like remarkable memory like where I can remember as far back as when I was a month old, you know, like even when I was born. I mean, yes, I remember. I mean, it's crazy because and you would wonder, I mean, because like the first thing that the furthest back I can remember is my mom holding me in her lap like when we were riding in a car.

[00:03:31]And then I distinctively remember that that um I was looking through to the windshield of the car that we were riding in and and I would see the blue skies like my face would be like facing up when my mom was holding me and I would see blue skies with pretty white clouds. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean And so you kind of figure maybe that was probably some of the first things that I ever saw when I was a kid.

[00:04:00]So, you know, [clears throat] like the heavens, you know, like the heavens.

[00:04:04]So, yeah.

[00:04:06]So, but you kind of figure like I can remember that when I would be sleeping or when I'd be relaxing in the relaxed state, I just know that I had nothing in my mind, not a care in the world while that I had nothing in my mind. My memory was blank when I was born, right? I mean you figure my memory's blank. But for some of you you'd probably think that a blank memory would sound like scary to look at, but in reality it's not exactly like that for me because the things I can remember is like the memory was blank, my memory was blank at the time, but the thing was that instead of seeing a uh uh uh a white background or instead of seeing a black background or nothing like with nothing in it, I see a a like a really nice pretty blue sky with clouds in the background instead. So, yeah, I mean that's what I remember is like that's what my mind looked like. You know, it's just a plain um just um cloud like a a really pretty blue sky that the sight of a really pretty blue sky and clouds. That's all it was in my memory at the time.

[00:05:26]telling you. So, you figure that this is an illustration of what was it what I saw. Like let's say that my mom was sitting here and I was born, barely born and you kind of figure my mom my head would be pointing up like that.

[00:05:44]And this is what we would see.

[00:05:46]That's what I saw.

[00:05:48]Yeah, I mean yeah.

[00:05:51]That's I distinctly remember those moments.

[00:05:55]Like riding in a car and and my head was like this.

[00:06:01]And I could see you could see the uh the you could see through the windshield.

[00:06:08]And then you could see the clouds.

[00:06:11]Yeah.

[00:06:13]By having the the hyperthymesia, I mean they say it's very rare, but but I I could tell you I mean there's no denying that I can remember those things in detail. And I can remember pretty much every single year of my life in detail. Pretty much all maybe like the first five years, maybe not perfectly detailed, but it's enough to be of significance. I mean so yeah, I mean to be able to pass out a good story about the things I remember. I mean But you know, I I all I could tell you is like I remember in detail everything everything that's happened in my life from when I was born all the way until today. Every you every single year. You give me a year or you give me how old I was and I'll remember in detail what what happened on that year.

[00:07:09]Like for an example, if someone's going to tell me five years old, well I remember five years old. We were living in the the the house in in Encinitas. And I remember my life there. I loved Batman.

[00:07:22]And then what's crazy too is like I can remember dreams that I had as a kid, you know. I can remember I can remember a bunch of dreams.

[00:07:32]And everything about me when I was a kid. You give me a year and I'll remember I'll remember in detail what happened and on on to me on that year.

[00:07:40]But for the most part my life was fun. I mean, throughout my while, the things were fun. I remember mostly fun things, but I also remember um bad things, some bad things, too. I mean, like So, yeah, I mean Yeah, I I've never been No one has ever diagnosed me with that or anything, but I mean, it just came to my attention, you know, because I Googled it the other day about about like I asked um AI or Google about what if what if someone remembers when they were a kid, and then they brought up that word, hyperthymesia.

[00:08:18]They say that it's very rare. It's a very rare to come around someone who remembers every detail even especially when they're a baby. I can distinctly remember my mom changing my diaper when I was like 2 months old or a year old or something or 2 years old. I can distinctly remember things like that. I mean, I remember like in detail. I mean, like I remember my childhood like like on the first 5 years of my life in detail. Like that, but yeah, in detail. I'm not going to be able to know month to month, but I remember enough detail like from one from when I was born until I was 5.

[00:09:01]But I just know that on the first parts of my life on the first like couple months of my life, I mean, if I remember like what was in my mind, it was just a it was just a nice pretty blue sky and clouds in the background.

[00:09:16]That's all that was in my mind, you know. So, yeah, I mean, instead of a empty box. Yeah.

[00:09:24]But now now if anyone was going to say what's the what's the disadvantage of having superior memory like that, what Well, I mean, it could have its drawbacks. It's because like it's like my mind is constantly busy. I mean, I researched a little bit about that. I mean, about the downside. And one of the downsides, too, is like I mean, I can't remove I cannot remove any kind of memory that I remember, including bad ones. I mean, I mean, I have some bad memories and I cannot remove it. I mean, there's no way I could never forget those things, you know, like and it it could be it could be kind of a irritating, you know, like to have to be remembering all I I I don't want to I don't want to remember some of the bad things. I mean, I don't want to remember, but it just I can't remove it.

[00:10:10]I mean, it just I mean, it's like it's like a read-only memory on a computer that you can't remove that. I mean, it's like it could be a disadvantage, I mean, about it. I mean, like it could be a drawback about having this condition. But what what what do I think is a good thing about it? I mean, what what I think Well, I mean, it's a nice thing because I can remember in detail pretty much every year of my life. I mean, starting at age of say, um, 10 years old, I can remember month-to-month.

[00:10:42]I can remember in detail month-to-month in my life, you know, like from 10 years old on, all the way until how old I am now. So, for an example, give me, um, I'll just give myself an example. But what happened on, um, >> [clears throat] >> on July 1981? Well, July 1981, >> [clears throat] >> we were living in Mexico at the time.

[00:11:09]In 1981, like it was I was not 10 11 years old yet. I was just really into my cassettes and my tape recorder. We were living in Mexico and we were going to move into, um, back to USA later like a month later or 2 months later. I mean, we were in summer school. Okay, give me another year. I'll say 1984, January.

[00:11:32]Well, on January 1984, that's when my dad started building the rooms in the in the house.

[00:11:40]In the um uh the the Covina house. That's the month that my dad had started to dig something in the backyard and that's when that he officially decided to start building the the addition the room addition in the house that we lived in the the Covina house at 1634 one at that place. I mean it's like I can remember in detail I mean and in some cases I can actually even remember like what I what what I wore on some on some days. I mean I can remember what I wore for an example.

[00:12:18]But you you know what you know what I remember a lot of it's dreams. Dreams that I had in my day in my past. I remember a bunch of dreams. I I I recall a lot of dreams in my past you know like when I was younger I mean I can remember a dream I had when I was like 6 years old you know like it was to do with Batman you know or I know it's like it was a dream I had at 5 years old where I felt like I was a kid a very important kid and I had superpowers or something you know and I pointed the sky and then the sky started turning into colors or or turning into like a thunder and lightning or something you know like the show Voltron or Yeah that's an example I mean yeah. And another thing too is like you know like the you know like dreams as of today 2026 I remember pretty much every dream I have like in the night well of course I'm not going to be able to remember like by the day and I'm not going to remember but every day when I wake up every morning I wake up I remember the dream I had cuz the most most people actually forget their dreams. I mean like most I mean it's always a case of that where like most people most of you probably will forget your dream the moment you wake up and stuff. You like forget all about it. But for me, I I remember pretty much every single dream I have when I wake up in the morning.

[00:13:51]And pretty much every single dream. Of course, I'm not going to keep keep a memory of every dream that I have in the last 20 10 years or 5 years or months or what Sometimes I may want to document, you know, sometimes I done that a few times.

[00:14:07]But I mean the ones that are that were really fun are the ones that I'm going to actually write down. I'm going to write down the things I remember or I'm going to actually like research on what the interpretation of that dream was why why I had it and and it was a like mostly fun dreams. I mean, but it could be some bad ones, too. That's today. So anyways, So that that could probably explain one of the reasons why I'm so into nostalgia stuff, you know, like why I don't want to leave the past or yeah, it could be a part of the reason why I'm so into like the things of the past or the past. I mean, that's another thing. See, hyperthymesia is going to have the tendency to to not want to not be able to. Like even if I wanted to forget the past, I I can't. I mean, it's something that I cannot do. I mean, it just doesn't get erased in my memory, you know, like like nothing can erase the things that happened to me. I mean, like people all tell me, "Why you got to stop thinking about the past?" Well, I mean, you that's easy for anyone to tell me because it's not something that's easy to do to forget the past. It's not something that someone with hyperthymesia can do. I mean, we can not Apparently, we just can't erase it. I mean, we cannot erase it. I mean, I'm going to record this guy. This is like what my dream that this is what my what my mind would look like when I was a kid, when I was a baby.

[00:15:42]So, yeah yeah, you know, it's a This is what the mind of This is what my mind would look like looked like when I was like 1 years old or less or a half of like maybe a month old. This is what my mind would look like. It was blank, but instead of being an empty space, it's clouds and pretty blue skies and and clouds.

[00:16:06]That's what my the picture of a blank memory looked like in me back in my when I was 2 years or 2 months old, you know.

[00:16:17]But, and for the record, you know, my memory is really good still. I mean, I'm 55 right now, but it's like my memory is really good. I mean, it's like it's really good. I mean, I have not lost any memory or anything. I mean, it it doesn't go away. I mean, it doesn't get erased. I mean, nothing can erase my memory, you know, like yeah. I mean, But, could that be a bad thing? I mean, well, it could be a bad thing. It It could be a bad thing when we have have bad memories. If we have them um bad memory, yeah. I mean, Well, for people who may have post-traumatic stress disorder or something. I don't have any of that though, really.

[00:16:59]>> [snorts] >> But, anyways, I mean, And speaking of this, the hyperthymesia, I mean, as I my memory was so good it's so good that I actually made a life story. I actually written down a life story of all things that I remember as kid. I mean, and I actually put in detail what what I remember dating back to when I was born. I mean, yeah. I mean, you heard me right. I mean, it's very They say it's very rare for someone to actually remember that far. I mean, well, you know, it's crazy because my youngster my kid doesn't have any memory. She tells me that she has absolutely no memory of when she was a kid, when she was little. She has no memory. So, apparently, she doesn't have that hyperthymesia.

[00:17:50]For me, I I I have a big case of it. I mean, I have a a pronounced case of it.

[00:17:54]I mean, so yeah. I mean, it's something that it that I just discovered right now. I just discovered that. I mean, so yeah. So, so if I was going to have my say, what can I do to work with it? I mean, what can I do to work with this uh if if I can't erase my memory? I mean, if I can't erase like the bad things in memory, what can I What would I think I could do? I mean, well, I mean, I maybe create new memories that are fun right now. I mean, I guess. I mean, you well, and then I and then I'm going to remember the things that's happened.

[00:18:29]I keep I'll be adding new stuff in my memory every year. I mean, it's not it's uh infinite, you know, like it's infinite for me. I mean, I'm adding new things in my memory every day. I mean, it's infinite, basically. I mean, telling. Okay, well, I hope you liked this video about what I discovered in myself.

[00:18:52]So yeah. I mean, hyperthymesia. I mean, anyways, all right. I'll see you on the next video.