OK - I take that point...
But the general principle stands. You had an instance of night terrors of some sort. Soon after you learned that something bad had happened to someone you vaguely knew.

Had the bad stuff not happened, you'd not have given another thought to the nightmare. But it did happen. Now, the human brain is good at spotting patterns, even when there's none there to spot. It's also quite good at convincing itself of all kinds of stuff.

So here's my explanation. You had a nightmare. You mentioned it in the morning. A little later, something bad happened with emotional resonance. You (subconsciously, if you like) drew an inference about a link. Subequent discussion of events that you would otherwise have written out of your memory has distorted that memory, and now you have the beliefs you have. So it goes.

(I had a friend who was doing a psychology PhD on witness statements - they're often unreliable because people misremember and confabulate what's left. I'd suggest the same is happening here.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 12:49, Reply)