I'm not saying there COULD not be a benefit to this kind of behavior, but it also wouldn't require much more than two already accepted brain behaviors. We dream

I'm not saying there COULD not be a benefit to this kind of behavior, but it also wouldn't require much more than two already accepted brain behaviors. We dream, sometimes vividly, sometimes incorporating things we've done or regretted, or things that seem to define us. And some experiences, particularly smells, can suddenly bring back memories you didn't even know you had. So we have the ability to recall things unexpectedly, or maybe just suppress them in normal routines. (I'm not suggesting "suppressed memories" as is usually understood.) It's not a bad hypothesis that the brain, in extreme moments, would enter a dreamlike state with long-buried memories.