Talking about memories this month. Bet a hat the first thought that gets triggered is something to do with nostalgia. Sure, memories come back to us with a pleasant glow sometimes. We like to linger in the warm places in our minds. Nothing wrong with that at all.

At other times, memories can bite. They bring back sorrow. They remind us of loss. Harsh memories play a major role in mental disturbance. Think about PTSD. Inability to shake free of horrible memories can be crippling. Hypnotherapists have even found that the body has a memory of past injuries: under hypnosis, visible signs of trauma can reemerge to haunt us.

Memory has other uses, though. It isn't just about our feelings, is it? Memory provides continuity in our life's narrative. Have you ever watched an absurdist drama? Like, say, 'The Bald Soprano'? What makes absurdist drama so weird is that it has no memory: everything that happens is based on what has just happened. Maybe not even that. There's no continuity. The action just runs amok and makes your head hurt – often in a good way. It's kind of like trying to follow the logic of the average Faux News broadcast, but funnier, since an absurdist drama is unlikely to affect the political scene. Few politicians are intellectual enough to follow absurdist drama.

Continuity in life (as opposed to absurdist drama) is a good thing. Memory helps with that. This is, of course, part of the tragedy of diseases that attack the memory, such as Alzheimer's. Patients who lose memories may lose connection with their friends and family. That's a lot of heartbreak. People with dementia often end up talking in loops, getting into conversational grooves which are all-too-familiar for the listener, but to them might seem fresh ground.

Best of all, I think, memory can help us learn from the past: our own, or other people's. Your grandmother's tales may have seemed boring when you were a kid, or not. They definitely seemed odd and perhaps unconnected to anything that interested you at the time. A few decades down the pike, though, you suddenly find that an anecdote from the old folks comes in handy: oh, that's how that works. Thanks for the tip, gran.

Books are memory in print. Films, recordings, digital archives? Ditto. Having a chance to rummage through our collective memories? A priceless gift.

If we paid a little more attention to our collective memories as humans, we might learn to avoid the really stupid mistakes we keep repeating. I'm not going to say what they are. This isn't because I'm shy with an opinion or anything. But the second I mention a particular case, you'll all jump on that and start arguing about it. So you can find your own examples.

Starting around 1890, there were movements of vaguely New Age, spiritualist, occultist movements. Mostly harmless, though not all, obviously. They played mix'n'match with old superstitions, belief systems, and religions and came up with a mélange they called 'the Western Occult Tradition'. It has everything in it, that 'tradition': tarot cards and alchemy, weird symbols, chanting, trances, and WB Yeats poetry. Like I said, mostly harmless if no Nazis are involved.

The Western Occult Tradition tends to go on about the Akashic Records. Probably one of its more useful notions. The Akashic Records are located on a special mental plane. Everything that humans have ever done or thought up is there. You just need to learn to use your library card.

I used to give my college students an 'Akashic Library Card', all nicely printed up, after they passed their course final. Signed by Asmodeus, the Keeper. It was a souvenir to remind them that anything another human did or thought was theirs, too, part of the shared heritage.

I hope people will help out in February by sharing memories that could be meaningful to all of us. That teach us something. Memory is not a contest to see who has the nicest, or worst, or most exciting, or whatever. Nothing in life that is worth anything is ever a contest. Memory is a tool by which we can help improve each other's experience. And if there's a Library somewhere, we can make it more comprehensive. [Insert Edited Guide plug here.]

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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