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.
Look around, what do you see? Children playing outside, your office or a train full of people, perhaps? In order to perceive these complex visual scenes, your brain has to process each individual object – a friend’s nose, a colleague’s ear, the door, a seat, a shoe – and then stitch them all together to create a meaningful world.
But not everyone is able to do this. There are some people in the world whose brains aren’t able to place the pieces of the puzzle together; instead they only process one object, or a part of an object, at a time. Called simultanagnosia, the condition means they quite literally can’t see the wood for the trees.
Now, an unusual case of simultanagnosia has provided a unique insight into the condition, as well as a better understanding of how our conscious and unconscious brain works in harmony to create our reality.
The story starts with Agnes (not her real name). Agnes had to have a neurological exam after a short illness. The results were unremarkable apart from one thing – she had trouble describing what was happening in a variety of images shown to her by her doctor, Joel Shenker, at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
In some ways it was a classic case of simultanagnosia: Agnes could perceive individual objects, but could not group several objects in order to perceive a larger scene. But unlike most people with the condition – which normally occurs alongside Alzheimer’s or other kinds of dementia – she had little else wrong with her brain. It meant that for the first time, researchers could explore exactly what was going wrong.
What was really surprising was that Agnes lived alone and was functioning well around her house. “In fact she was curious as to why she needed to see me at all,” said Shenker. “She wasn’t bumping into walls and she could find the peas and the carrots and the chicken and make herself whole meals. We didn’t know how she was doing it.”
There was only one logical conclusion, said Shenker. Agnes’s brain must be unconsciously processing information about her world that her conscious mind doesn’t have access to. {Source}
Strange, I've had similar experiences while driving and since I do not believe in such supernatural things I got myself out of harms way countless times. Even while I was racing motorcycles I found the way around trouble came from my experiences when dealing with such things. So while I can't say that you could have had a "angel, helping you I'd go for your skill as a driver of many years to be the thing that helped you out the most. But if you believe that an "angel' was there helping you then I'm not going to say you were wrong only that it was your belief.
(Sep 20, 2016 07:47 PM)cosmictraveler Wrote: Strange, I've had similar experiences while driving and since I do not believe in such supernatural things I got myself out of harms way countless times. Even while I was racing motorcycles I found the way around trouble came from my experiences when dealing with such things. So while I can't say that you could have had a "angel, helping you I'd go for your skill as a driver of many years to be the thing that helped you out the most. But if you believe that an "angel' was there helping you then I'm not going to say you were wrong only that it was your belief.
Oh, hell no, Cosmic. I’m a diehard atheist. I was just being facetious, while explaining how our brains work.
Besides, I’m a woman. We are, after all, better drivers than men. Our car insurance is cheaper for a reason.
(Sep 20, 2016 07:47 PM)cosmictraveler Wrote: Strange, I've had similar experiences while driving and since I do not believe in such supernatural things I got myself out of harms way countless times. Even while I was racing motorcycles I found the way around trouble came from my experiences when dealing with such things. So while I can't say that you could have had a "angel" helping you I'd go for your skill as a driver of many years to be the thing that helped you out the most. But if you believe that an "angel' was there helping you then I'm not going to say you were wrong only that it was your belief.
Oh, hell no, Cosmic. I’m a diehard atheist. I was just being factious, while explaining how our brains work.
Besides, I’m a woman. We are, after all, better drivers than men. Our car insurance is cheaper for a reason.
Yes, you date the insurance salesmen to get that break in fees. JK
Our perception of events is not to be trusted when we are in a reactionary situation of fight or flight mode when we are in danger, be it real or perceived.
Likewise when we are extremely fatigued, the body chemistry works in specific ways to preserve the integrity of the whole and we can be guided or misguided
simply by an imbalance in our blood sugars as glucose is the preferred fuel of the brain.
Almost all who have participated in the Yukon Quest (most challenging sled dog race on earth) have tales of unusual experiences which are no doubt related to sleep deprivation and mild hypothermia of two weeks duration.
My wife's mother was on her deathbed with a few of us family members on watch. As circumstance would have it, everybody except me went to grab a coffee and after 93 years of living she expired with me the only other person in the room. At the same time she died a small bright blue light appeared on the ceiling for a few seconds and disappeared. After the commotion following her death I told my S-I-L about the light. She was convinced it was my M-I-L's spirit leaving town.
The next day I'm walking down the hallway at home and wouldn't you know it, the same bright blue light appeared again on the ceiling. This time I was holding my cell phone in my hand and its screen had lit up because a message was coming through. I then realized that the night before I had placed my cellphone on a dresser top in my M-I-L's room and because I was sitting down when she died I didn't see the screen light up, only the light it cast. Mystery solved.
Even when I broke the news to my SIL she wasn't convinced. People believe what they want to believe. SS, you and I are going to get along just fine.
SyneSep 21, 2016 06:55 PM (This post was last modified: Sep 21, 2016 06:56 PM by Syne.)
(Sep 20, 2016 04:19 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: 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.
Most people interested enough in psychology to make a career of it typically do so from the motivation of fixing their own mental issues. So yeah, between that and the contagion of mental illness, psychologists have a high propensity for mental issues (although much more so for psychiatrists).
People in general are most adept at lying to themselves, especially where wishful thinking is involved. I'm a theist, but since I do not believe in angels or ghosts, I have not found occasion to convince myself that anything I've witnessed was the effect of either. And I've always known it was my own competency in action in those emergency moments when time seems to slow.
Many people assume external loci, whether to blame for their situation or extol for their experience.
I remember, but since we were always at odds with each other, you would never really explain it to me. I would like to know. What is it exactly that you believe?
I remember, but since we were always at odds with each other, you would never really explain it to me. I would like to know. What is it exactly that you believe?
Sep 20, 2016 04:19 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 20, 2016 04:58 PM by Secular Sanity.)
