Director Haibara's Notes (3)

Director Haibara's Notes (3)
Kanji	灰原院長の手記　三 はいばらいんちょうのしゅき　さん
Game	Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Author	Shigeto Haibara
Chapter	Phase X: Fallen Petals
Located at	Haibara Infirmary, Director's Office
Obtained	On the shelves to the right
Description	Notes by Shigeto Haibara about memory.
Additional Description	Old research papers.
Related Notes	Director Haibara's Notes (1) & Director Haibara's Notes (2)

ENJA

Thanks to Soya's assistance in my mask experiments, I have finally come to understand how to use masks to control human memory.

But just what is memory?

When someone is possessed by a spirit, they become a completely different person. It's as though their words, actions, and memories belong to someone else.

Taking that idea further, couldn't it be said that their original memories are also a kind of spirit possessing their body?

Memories are what make a person. It is because of memory that we retain our sense of who we are. Not only that, but our remembrance of the dead allows them to overcome death by remaining alive in our memories.

To forget them is to lose the proof that they ever lived; a second death for the dead.

But if a person loses all of their memories, what is left behind?

A soul?

I don't think there is such a thing. People may simply be masses of memory.

There are medical cases of people unable to forget anything. Far from finding this useful, they end up wishing they could erase their memories. Perhaps remembering everything is worse than forgetting it?

I have seen such patients crushed under the weight of their accumulated memories...

Memories remind us of our sins, our mistakes and our regrets...

Memory is not just something people use to hold themselves together. It can also be a prison for someone to die in.

Are those who hold on to their memories really the happy ones?

宗也の協力を得た面の実験により、
面による記憶の制御は
徐々に明らかになってきた。

しかし、記憶とは一体何なのだ？
霊に憑かれた人間は、
まったく別人のように見える。
言動も記憶もあたかも他人の様に振舞う。
だとしたら、本人が持つ記憶も、もしかしたら
憑き物のひとつではないだろうか？
⋯人間は記憶の生き物だ。
記憶があることで、人は自らを保つ。
死者を忘れないのも、死者を記憶の中で
生かし、死を乗り越えるためだ。
忘れることは生きていた証を失うこと。
すべてを忘れることは、死と同じだ。

しかし、全ての記憶が無くなったら、
何かが残るのか。
魂⋯？
いや、それは、無いのかもしれない。
人間はただの記憶の塊なのかもしれない⋯
全てを忘れられなくなった人間の症例。
その患者は、記憶を消して欲しいと願っていた。
記憶が消えることよりも、
すべてを憶えていることの方が
つらいのではないか？
私は、あらゆることが忘れられず、
記憶に押しつぶされる患者を何人も見てきた⋯
罪の記憶、過ちの記憶、後悔の記憶⋯
記憶とは、決して自我を支えるだけの
ものではない。
時に人は、記憶の檻の中で獄死する。
⋯記憶を保ち続ける人間は幸せなのだろうか？