History Main / MemoryJar

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', soul crystals are a form of magical technology that etches the ebb and flow of the holder's soul onto it, thereby preserving an imperfect echo of the holder's memories. These memories may then be viewed by the next holder of the soul crystal to aid in their studies. However, these memories may only be viewed if one has reached a sufficient level of skill to properly grasp the same concepts, preventing someone from becoming a complete InstantExpert.

* The Diary in ''VideoGame/TheHayseedKnight'' allows Ader to view Sep's memories. Every entry allows Ader to see the events through her eyes though the events do not occur in chronological order.

* A particularly horrible example in ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': John encounters a sweet, grandmotherly old woman who [[spoiler:sends her son to kill prostitutes and hack off chunks of their flesh with a razor which she then keeps floating in jars. She can then relive the victim's happiest memories, which John compares to a drug high]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'', ComicBook/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} visit the vault of the House of El to learn the history of their ancestors. Most of statues carry objects -a building model, a book, a gun...- which project the memories of the bearer into the head of whoever touches said object. Also, Supergirl's father Zor-El reveals he has built a machine which can use a deceased Kryptonian's headband to draw their memories into someone else's brain.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': During UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, the Amazons use a memory machine to create copies of important memories. Diana uses her own stored memories to restore her mind after it comes to light that her mother altered her memories so that Diana wouldn't remember the grief of Steve Trevor's (second) death or realize he had been replaced with a Steve pulled from the multi-verse whose own mind the Queen had overwritten with memories that wouldn't contradict Diana's. Learning what her mother had done made Diana cut her ties with her.

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': In the ocean, pearls are called tears of the moon because they can be enchanted to hold regrets. In ''Tempest Unleashed'', Tempest finds a cave full of pearls, each containing a memory that her mermaid mother Cecily regrets, as well as pieces of sea glass containing happy memories. When Cecily picks one up, she witnesses the memory in the third person while feeling the same emotions Cecily had at the moment.

* In Creator/KeithLaumer's ''A Trace of Memory'', an amnesiac alien living as a human on Earth must recover the device in which his full memories are stored. He later discovers that on his home planet almost everyone has this problem.

* ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' introduces the "stack", a cigarette-filter-sized implant at the base of the brain. It contains a complete record of the user's personality and memories, which can be backed up, sent elsewhere, or installed in a new body (aka "sleeve"). If your body dies but the stack is not destroyed, you can be revived. As an added bonus, a human brain is the only thing that can readily make use of the information in a stack, so even if others get access to your backups, they can't view/edit your mind in cut-and-paste fashion. Your memories can only be recovered by creating another "you" in the process. The novels come complete with a very large and well-thought-out list of the technology's consequences.

* The revival series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' introduces the Chameleon Arch, a device of Gallifreyan origin that can change a person's DNA and species. Time Lords who use this device store their essence, including their memories in a fobwatch, which when opened restores the Time Lord to their original self. The Tenth Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch to hide from an enemy in the two-parter "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood]]", becoming a UpperClassTwit named John Smith in early 20th Century England. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]", [[spoiler:it is revealed that "Professor Yana" is the Master after using the Chameleon Arch, having used it to escape into the end of time to avoid the Last Great Time War]], and in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon Fugitive of the Judoon]]", [[spoiler:"Ruth" turns out to have been a previously-unknown past incarnation of the Doctor, who had used a Chameleon Arch to evade the Judoon sent by the Time Lords]].

* Dr. Schriber of ''Film/DarkCity'' implants FakeMemories into people's heads with syringes, and he's later seen concocting the fluids that make up these memories.

* ''Literature/{{Ambergris}}'': The Memory Bulbs from ''Finch'' allow the Graycaps to access the memories of recently deceased individuals. You simply sprinkle some spores on the corpse, wait for awhile for the fungoid bulb grow from their head and then [[{{Squick}} eat it]]. The experience is extremely confusing, at least for humans, trying to perceive range of events in a non-linear fashion, like picking them up randomly from the air. Since the memories always belong to a dead person, experiencing the memory of their deaths can be traumatic, as well. But worst of all, sometimes the process simply goes wrong when a human ingests the bulb; one detective's body breaks down into a mass of spores after going through the process one too many times.

* In ''Literature/TheWorthingSaga'', the cold sleep used to enable starflight has the unfortunate side effect of completely wiping a person's memory. The solution, spheres which record this and replay it into the subject's brain.

* From ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'', we get the Mnemoi and their Arcanos, Mnemosynis, the sole purpose of which is to transfer and manipulate memories. In a place where memories are important for maintaining one's existence, the Mnemoi are far from welcome, and are therefore one of the three Forbidden Guilds. [[spoiler: In actuality, the Mnemoi are using their talents to store the memories of Charon for [[RightfulKingReturns his return]], and the whole persecuted thing [[FakeDefector is a ruse]]. One that, sadly, works a bit too well in the end.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', there are braindances, which are human memories saved as computer data that with the proper equipment allow the viewer to relive the recorded memories of someone else with all the senses they experienced at the time, including emotions. This being a CrapsackWorld, there's also the illegal SnuffFilm variant called Extreme Braindances ([=XBDs=]) that allow people to relive gruesome and bizarre scenes, including violence, torture, and even rape and murder.

* In the episode "Glass Labyrinth" of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', Motoko seemingly gets hacked and finds her way to a curio shop where the store owner holds onto items full of memories from the customers who left them in her care. The psychic imprints that each object gives off allows her to tell the full story behind it. [[spoiler: Motoko is soon reminded about the story of her and Kuze's past, and the tragic plane crash that brought them together when they were both just six years old.]]

* A particularly horrible example in ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': John encounters a sweet, grandmotherly old woman who [[spoiler: sends her son to kill prostitutes and hack off chunks of their flesh with a razor which she then keeps floating in jars. She can then relive the victim's happiest memories, which John compares to a drug high.]]

** The Shi'ar gave Jean Grey's family a crystal ball full of their and other people's memories of Jean Grey after she saved the universe, but before ComicBook/{{the Dark Phoenix Saga}}.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: During the Silver Age the Amazons use a memory machine to create copies of important memories. Diana uses her own stored memories to restore her mind after it comes to light that her mother altered her memories so that Diana wouldn't remember the grief of ComicBook/SteveTrevor's (second) death or realize he had been replaced with a Steve pulled from the multi-verse whose own mind the Queen had overwritten with memories that wouldn't contradict Diana's. Learning what her mother had done made Diana cut her ties with her.

* In ''[[Film/TheNeverendingStory The Neverending Story II]]'', Bastian is slowly losing his memories which Xayide is keeping in glass orbs.

* The Memory Bulbs from Jeff [=VanderMeer's=] ''[[Literature/{{Ambergris}} Finch]]'' allow the Graycaps to access the memories of recently deceased individuals. You simply sprinkle some spores on the corpse, wait for awhile for the fungoid bulb grow from their head and then [[{{Squick}} eat it]]. The experience is extremely confusing, at least for humans, trying to perceive range of events in a non-linear fashion, like picking them up randomly from the air. Since the memories always belong to a dead person, experiencing the memory of their deaths can be traumatic, as well. But worst of all, sometimes the process simply goes wrong when a human ingests the bulb; one detective's body breaks down into a mass of spores after going through the process one too many times.

* The Rambosian aliens of Creator/JasperFforde's ''Literature/NurseryCrime'' series are filled with a fluid that keeps their memories. They keep jars of this fluid, and regularly back them up with newer memories. If they suffer some fatal misfortune, they can be patched up, refilled and returned to life.

* Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series introduces the "stack", a cigarette-filter-sized implant at the base of the brain. It contains a complete record of the user's personality and memories, which can be backed up, sent elsewhere, or installed in a new body (aka "sleeve"). If your body dies but the stack is not destroyed, you can be revived. As an added bonus, a human brain is the only thing that can readily make use of the information in a stack, so even if others get access to your backups, they can't view/edit your mind in cut-and-paste fashion. Your memories can only be recovered by creating another "you" in the process. The novels come complete with a very large and well-thought-out list of the technology's consequences.
* A Creator/StrugatskyBrothers short story involves the attempt to store the mind of a dying great scientist. The story goes into detail about the limitations of this new technology. The entire town is blacked out and perpetual storm clouds block out the sunlight in order to remove any EM interference. The "town" is actually made up of large warehouses holding a special substance that can contain vast amounts of data. After all, it's not just the information from brain cells but also the neurons that link these brain cells, and neurons that link those neurons, etc. The experiment is a partial success, as the man expires with 2% of his mind still unrecorded. Additionally, the scientists performing the experiment have no idea what to do with the stored memories, as they have no way to actually interpret the information. The idea is to eventually develop the means to allow people to live on as electronic entities, but that is far off.
* Creator/KeithLaumer's ''A Trace of Memory''. An amnesiac alien living as a human on Earth must recover the device in which his full memories are stored. He later discovers that on his home planet almost everyone has this problem.

* The ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E09Deathwalker Deathwalker]]" had Talia Winters meeting with Kosh and a strange cybernetic man who apparently was recording her thoughts and saving them on a data crystal. WordOfGod is that it would be used to restore her personality after she was taken over by the Psi Corps personality, but Andrea Thompson left the show, so that [[AbortedArc never came to fruition]].
* The revival series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' introduces the Chameleon Arch, a device of Gallifreyan origin that can change a person's DNA and species. Time Lords who use this device store their essence, including their memories in a fobwatch, which when opened restores the Time Lord to their original self. The Tenth Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch to hide from an enemy in the two-parter "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood]]", becoming a UpperClassTwit named John Smith in early 20th Century England. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]", [[spoiler:it is revealed that "Professor Yana" is the Master after using the Chameleon Arch, having used it to escape into the end of time to avoid the Last Great Time War]], and in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon Fugitive of the Judoon]]", [[spoiler:"Ruth" turns out to have been a previously-unknown past incarnation of the Doctor, who had used a Chameleon Arch to evade the Judoon sent by the Time Lords]].

* "[=XPs=]" (Experience Playbacks) in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' are essentially the same thing as slinkys. Though one with the "mnemmonic augmentation" implant can make them from archived memories stored in their [[BodyBackupDrive cortical stack]].
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' there are several means of memory transfer. The most obvious is the celestial exaltations themselves, given that a celestial exaltation is a recycled part of god-soul that holds aspects of all its former incarnations. The other is dream stones and other memory crystals. These can be found in tombs or on the black market (dream stones are apparently nearly as addictive as the [[MemeticMutation Xbox of the gods]]). Makes sense when you realize that the mortal vessels needed to be brought back up to snuff relatively quickly in order to deal with the [[EldritchAbomination Primordials]] or they'd pretty much be reduced to glittering fodder.
* "Slinkys" (Sensory links) in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' are technically recordings of one's experiences while their "upslink" implant is active, but they fill the same function.
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' has Memory Pearl artifacts which are pearl-like objects that can be used to remove/store memories, often used (especially by demons) to remove inconvenient knowledge from a temporary employee/associate often as part of the terms of employment.
* A central part of ''TabletopGame/{{Mindjammer}}'' is the Mindscape, essentially an entire wireless Internet devoted entirely to storing and sharing "exomemories". The name of the setting even comes from the starships used to keep the Mindscape up-to-date across interstellar distances (FTLTravel but no communications).

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' there are braindances, which are human memories saved as computer data that with the proper equipment allow the viewer to relive the recorded memories of someone else with all the senses they experienced at the time, including emotions. This being a CrapsackWorld, there's also the illegal SnuffFilm variant called Extreme Braindances ([=XBDs=]) that allow people to relive gruesome and bizarre scenes, including violence, torture, and even rape and murder.

* In ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013'' the Whisperers are golems that were powered by one of the Ancients sealing their memories of [[spoiler:their sister Ameonna]] inside. They were originally viewed as an abomination but eventually deemed necessary to recover the Nobitsura Kage.
-->'''[[spoiler:Hoji]]''': I will always remember the day that led me to you. And that is why I must bury your memory. I will not be ruled by pain.
* In ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty'', Raynor is given a crystal that contains Zeratul's memories of what he learned about the Zerg and the Fallen One.
* A more mundane version in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice.'' [[spoiler: Sorin Sprocket and his sister were involved in a car accident, and she died from her injuries. The trauma of seeing his sister die and the guilt of feeling that he was responsible because he was the driver has caused him to develop anterograde amnesia -- every morning when he wakes up, the last thing he remembers is the car accident, and everything else that's happened since then is lost to him. Once he realized that he was forgetting things, he began detailing in his notebook every day of his life in minute detail and uses it as a frame of reference to remember everything, including his fiancee Ellen's love for him. He quickly becomes panicked when he doesn't have his notebook, and the revelation that his trusted butler Pierce has tampered with it distresses him greatly, as it causes him to doubt the veracity of all his entries, and as such, all of his memories.]]
* The Sword of Melqart in ''VideoGame/TearsToTiara2'' stores the memories of all its past users. However, they are not easily accessible, and not being strong enough [[spoiler: would cause the sword to wipe the memory of the user. Hasdrubal uses this to purposely wipe the memory of his son Hamil so the secrets of their family does not fall into the hands of TheEmpire.]]
* ''VideoGame/AVeryLongRopeToTheTopOfTheSky'': Soul Tears are objects that Ivy can get from certain people that store a kind of memory that the reflecting pond can display.

** [[spoiler:The Bronze Sphere turns out to be one, albeit quite difficult to open. If you do so, the knowledge obtained [[EleventhHourSuperpower grants you two]] ''[[EleventhHourSuperpower millions]]'' [[EleventhHourSuperpower experience points, and a few other bonuses]]]].

* The Diary in ''VideoGame/TheHayseedKnight'' allows Ader to view Sep's memories. Every entry allows Ader to see the events through her eyes though the events do not occur in chronological order.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Silverhawks}}'', recurring villain Zero the Memory Thief stores the memories he's drained on tapes worn on his chest.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTeddyRuxpin'': This is the power of the seventh crystal, which resides in Quellor's black box. It can even project the memories it's stolen, a discovery that reveals images of Teddy himself as a baby contained therein despite him growing up in Rilonia. It's hinted that the crystal formerly only copied memories rather performing a BrainDrain, but the crack it's sustained may have corrupted it's ability.

Compare TransferableMemory and NeuroVault.

* The revival series of ''Series/DoctorWho'' introduces the Chameleon Arch, a device of Gallifreyan origin that can change a person's DNA and species. Time Lords who use this device store their essence, including their memories in a fobwatch, which when opened restores the Time Lord to their original self. The Tenth Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch to hide from an enemy in the two-parter "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood]]", becoming a UpperClassTwit named John Smith in early 20th Century England. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]", [[spoiler:it is revealed that "Professor Yana" is the Master after using the Chameleon Arch, having used it to escape into the end of time to avoid the Last Great Time War.]]