Well, Paul is a good storyteller. And it makes a much better story to be at the summit greeting the climbers. But better story or not, Paul was shocked and disturbed to find out that his journal and his memory didn't match. After reading his journal, Paul was convinced that his memory wasn't always trustworthy. Most of the details that Paul recalled matched the account in his journal quite closely.
Human memory can be, in many circumstances, very accurate.
But research has demonstrated that memory can also be prone to distortion and occasionally untrustworthy, a discovery that many find unsettling. In Total Recall, the psychic mutant asks Arnold Schwarzenegger why he wants to remember. It is easy to think of yourself as the sum of your memories-the end product of all that you've ever experienced. But after doing research into memory, we find that it makes sense to reverse that statement. Your memories are the end product of all you've ever thought and done, filtered through your perceptions and opinions.