Sep 20, 2016 04:19 PM
I was on my way home from shopping. This was about ten years ago. I was on the freeway doing about 65-70 mph. I noticed brake lights ahead of me. Traffic was coming to a standstill. I attempted to slow down but my brake pedal went all the way to the floor. I lost my brakes in bumper to bumper traffic. I was able to cut across four lanes of traffic and get to an off ramp. As luck would have it, the off ramp was slightly uphill. I was able to come to a complete stop by using my emergency brake. It was strange, though. It felt like it wasn’t me. I looked back at the traffic and thought, "How in the hell did I manage to do that?"
We hear about them all the time…stupid little angel stories. People saying things like, "I felt like someone else was guiding me." "Time slowed down."
We all know that adrenaline heightens all our senses, our thought processes, and allows us to focus. We know that we unconsciously process information. We filter out all the non-significant details, that is, until we need them. During emergencies, our brain is flooded with details, causing slow motion perception. Our conscious mind is introduced to our unconscious mind. Hello, guardian angel.
I have to tell you about this guy. He’s a psychologist and a strange character. He invited me to this monthly get together with a few other psychologists. He knew that I’d read Jung’s "Red Book", which was supposed to be the topic of discussion, but when we arrived, we were told that a woman from a retreat was here as a guest speaker. She was going to demonstrate the practice of feeding your demons. It was like the friggin twilight zone. It was developed by some Lama Tsultrim Allione. I couldn’t participate or keep my mouth shut. I told them that I thought it was nonsense. It didn’t go over so well.
On the way home, he starts telling me about an experience that he had. He described it as magical, heavenly, with bright lights. From what he told me, I think he may have had a stroke. I tried to discuss it with him, but he immediately shut me down, said he didn’t want me to take anything away from it. He said that he needed it. He has his M.D. for Christ’s sake. Okay, whatever…stroke away. Wow, scary…crazies treating crazies.
Well, anyhow, there’s several medical conditions that provide some insight into how our conscious and unconscious minds work. A couple of good examples are blindsightedness and simultanagnosia.
Here’s an interesting case of simultanagnosia.
We hear about them all the time…stupid little angel stories. People saying things like, "I felt like someone else was guiding me." "Time slowed down."
We all know that adrenaline heightens all our senses, our thought processes, and allows us to focus. We know that we unconsciously process information. We filter out all the non-significant details, that is, until we need them. During emergencies, our brain is flooded with details, causing slow motion perception. Our conscious mind is introduced to our unconscious mind. Hello, guardian angel.
I have to tell you about this guy. He’s a psychologist and a strange character. He invited me to this monthly get together with a few other psychologists. He knew that I’d read Jung’s "Red Book", which was supposed to be the topic of discussion, but when we arrived, we were told that a woman from a retreat was here as a guest speaker. She was going to demonstrate the practice of feeding your demons. It was like the friggin twilight zone. It was developed by some Lama Tsultrim Allione. I couldn’t participate or keep my mouth shut. I told them that I thought it was nonsense. It didn’t go over so well.
On the way home, he starts telling me about an experience that he had. He described it as magical, heavenly, with bright lights. From what he told me, I think he may have had a stroke. I tried to discuss it with him, but he immediately shut me down, said he didn’t want me to take anything away from it. He said that he needed it. He has his M.D. for Christ’s sake. Okay, whatever…stroke away. Wow, scary…crazies treating crazies.
Well, anyhow, there’s several medical conditions that provide some insight into how our conscious and unconscious minds work. A couple of good examples are blindsightedness and simultanagnosia.
Here’s an interesting case of simultanagnosia.
