re: What horrors really lurk down at the deepest part of our oceans?

One of the most remarkable, and probably unique, characteristics of humans is the way we remember events. While we still don't know the exact mechanism with which our brains record memories, we know for absolute certain that, as we repeatedly recall them, they change.

Each time we call up a memory it's like taking a book off a library shelf. However, we never put the memory back as we would the book. A memory is made within the context of the environment we're experiencing at the time, the way we feel, and the nature of what we're experiencing; for example, a dangerous experience is more poignantly recorded than is a blasé one.

The call up of a memory is total. We actually are reliving it in a new environment, feeling different and certainly not in the same context in which it was recorded; for example, the same danger level wouldn't exist.

It's called the Reconsolidation Theory. It isn't re-recorded as it originally was. It has changed and each time it's called up it changes more.

That's why the 18" bass becomes 2 feet. The 4' alligator becomes 7 feet. The 3-foot rattler becomes 6 feet, and so on.

It's human nature and there isn't a thing we can do about it short of making a video of everything we experience. My point is that our memories are faulty and stories about monsters usually originate from this involuntary embellishment by our brains.