Sibling photoshops family photo tricking younger sibling into thinking for 14 years that they met "Harry Potter" when they were 6-years-old: '

Memories are a funny thing in that each memory is shaped and reformed every time you recall it, making them easily susceptible to suggestion. Essentially, every time you recall a memory, you destabilize it and partially "destroy" it with your brain, then completing a process called reconsolidation to again store the memory it with your current thoughts and emotions added to it. (As a brief tangent, this is one of the reasons why witness testimony is so problematic.)

This fluidity and fallibility of memory and ability to be changed by suggestion means that whatever memories you have from your younger years almost certainly didn't happen exactly as you remember them.

Now, my memory is terrible, so take this with a grain of salt, but I'm pretty certain that every early memory I have is based on or at least partially formed from old photographs I've been shown over the years from which my brain has recreated events based on the stories associated with them.

So, it makes sense that this younger brother would be subject to the same. Having his memories shaped by photos that were unfortunately photoshopped with the stories to go along with it. 

Unfortunately, this memory wasn't just any old memory and became a "core memory" of foundational importance to the brother's core identity. Having the rug pulled out from under you like this is sure to make you question your entire existence, especially when you've been telling everyone about something that happened to you as a kid that didn't actually happen. It's like learning you've been living in "The Matrix" your entire life, and everything you know isn't actually real.

Talk about diabolical things that only siblings are capable of doing to each other…