The term noumeno comes from philosophy and refers to something that exists independently of our perception.

The noumeno is reality as it truly is, beyond how we perceive it.

A U.S. study titled Long-term Memory for the Terrorist Attack of September 11: Flashbulb Memories, Event Memories, and the Factors That Influence Their Retention highlighted how, in most cases, the personal experience of September 11, 2001, is merely an emotional projection.

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, researchers from several American universities collected personal accounts from over 3,000 individuals across seven U.S. cities.

The two fundamental questions asked of each participant were “Where were you?” and “Who were you with?”

After intervals of 11 and/or 35 months, the responses had changed completely-or nearly so.

At 15 months, just under 40% of the flashbulb memories examined showed no distortions, and only about 10% showed significant distortions.

At 32 months, the pattern had reversed: only about 20% of the memories remained distortion-free, while over 40% displayed serious inaccuracies.

Based on this study, researchers hypothesized that nearly 40% of Americans (and likely citizens of other countries as well) have distorted memories of where they were and what they were doing during the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

In the research sample, one man remembered being on the street, while in reality, he had been in his office during the 9/11 attacks.

Others now believe they heard the news on TV while sitting with their children, when in fact, right after the event, they had said they were with their partner.

“Human memory is not like computer memory”, said William Hirst, Professor of Philosophy and one of the study’s authors-so from a scientific perspective, this shouldn’t surprise us.

What is surprising, however, is that many people who never changed their story were contradicted from the very beginning by those who had actually been with them at the time.