What Mechanical things have you caught yourself out on?

[Johnno]

There seem to be instances where we catch oursleves in a state of "sleepwalking" where our automation or mechanicalness can create a state of confusion in our thinking. I was recently discussing this with Ryan and both of us came up with several of examples where the mind was completely out of whack with what was really happening. The mind going into a state of confusion as it tries to catch up with what actually IS.

For example one is walking down some stairs expecting another stair at the bottom and jolts the leg in question, or one does not expect another stair and finds themself stepping of into air. The push/pull door is always a trap, Ryan brought up Garry Larson's "School for Geniuses" cartoon with the kid pusing with all his might against a door with "Pull" written on it.

So we both had a couple of examples of being at total odds in an environment where we had found ourselves experiencing an almost vertigo as we tried to rationalize where or what was going on.

Mine was finding myself in a location in Sydney, recognising where I was but feeling totally out of whack and momentarilly being unable to discern which direction was which. I was lost in a familar location so to speak. The mind had a hard time trying to catch up with where it had wandered to.

So I'm wondering of other examples of this on forum where the mind finds itself out of whack to where you thought you should be and the shock that comes with this experience. Further to this, is it a case where the YCYOR (You Create Your Own Reality) comes unstuck. If I created my own reality wouldn't the door I expected to push, push all the time?

 

[Russ]

A funny one is when two people meet and try to get out of each others way, but move aside in the same direction, so they're still in each others way, and keep doing it until one of them just walks forward or stops :D

 

[ArdVan]

Meeting at the office. People follow a person to the wrong meeting room because all 'think' that person knows where the meeting will take place.

 

[Keit]

Maybe those "mechanical responses" also connected to how our brain interpretate this reality. That's why we need couple of seconds to realize what just happened or where we are. Classic example: sitting in the car (but not driving) and suddenly having a feeling of movement, but what was really moving, is a bus near the car.
I also noticed something while I was using graphic editor. I tried to modify some picture and scrolled middle mouse button in order to magnify it. Every time when I expected this and for some reason picture wasn't magnified (window not focused for example), I felt a little dizzy, like my brain needed a moment to realize that what I expected didn't happen.

 

[Cyre2067]

Catching myself being mechanical more often comes from watching myself speak, especially to groups. As soon as i start talking ill notice a "program" which is trying to present the most desirable version of me to that particular group. Ill subtly change the language and topics discussed to "blend in", in high school i discovered this as the key to being "cool".

Now i just observe the differences in different settings and try to take mental note of each.

 

[RflctnOfU]

There are a couple of mechanical instances that I notice in myself. In one on one conversation, I tend to 'lose myself' and get caught up in the moment. Another, and one that I really am not fond of, is driving. I am a reactionary beast! This particular form of mechanical-ness I have been noticing for at least 5 years. Technically it could be called road rage, but relative to stories I read ABOUT road rage, it seems I have a mild case - usually four letter words to myself.

One thing I have noticed, is that the more I "practice" self-observation, the more intense is the moment when I remember I'm not self-observing! The frequency of observation is increasing as well. (Hmmm...I wonder what "pitch" the frequency of my remembering is in general at this time.)

Kris

 

[Mike]

I was recently discussing this with Ryan and both of us came up with several of examples where the mind was completely out of whack with what was really happening. The mind going into a state of confusion as it tries to catch up with what actually IS.

A similar but different experience can be called 'losing the bubble.' This is where you are doing some action, such as running an engineering plant, and the amount of information or some circumstance, such as an equipment casualty, causes you to be overwhelmed and the mind goes into a form of gridlock in dealing with the issue or reacting to the situation. Getting the bubble back, in such cases usually required having outside help.
I would describe the 'losing the bubble' feeling as being confused, lost and feeling helpless.

Driving a car and talking to someone where you lose your attention on the road and don't initially see the car in front of you break and the split second where you are trying to make sense of noticing the car in front of you getting closer can give a similar feeling.

 

[Tomiro]

Waking up at an unfamiliar place could cause these short shocks of complete confusion or reorientation, when you might expect to be someplace else.

Also sometimes when I'm driving and deeply thinking about something, talking to myself, or just "spacing out", I could suddenly find myself heading the wrong direction. That is I've automatically taken the road I usually take, which was not where I was headed this time.

About reality creation.. I remember one instant being in the woods at night, and being quite tired (lack of sleep, food.. cold). The surrounding was unfamiliar, and I couldn't really see much, being dark, but my mind was quite desperate to search for something familiar. So suddenly every second tree or rock reminded me of some familiar place, like my parents back yard. This didn't make it any easier to orientate, but for short periods of times the illusion was quite real, and almost believable. It was also quite confusing constantly shifting back and forth between two completely different places.

Maybe I should have tried harder, and been transported there, hmm.. ;-P

 

[Beau]

One thing that has caught my attention is when I am driving and talking on the phone. I do not like to do it so I avoid it as much I can. Typically every time, while I'm talking or listening, I find that I am driving but I'm not really paying attention to driving. I am fully engrossed in conversation, so much so that I don't even remember the driving actions that occurred while I was talking. Afterwards I think how dangerous it was, that if I would have needed to make a quick decision or move I probably would have been unable to. I found it strange how I was still able to drive efficiently without really paying attention.

That's a living testimonial to the dangers of cell phones :)

 

[Marie]

So I'm wondering of other examples of this on forum where the mind finds itself out of whack to where you thought you should be and the shock that comes with this experience.

One that I have experienced is when you"re very tired and your thoughts just kinda drift off and you just stare in the air, and then your bubble bursts on its own or someone talks to you or something such and you feel like you're waking up - you're confused for a few seconds, and a bit disoriented too. Sometimes you're also surprised because, say, you're in the living room, but some part of you just assumed you were sleeping in your bed.

Not sure if that's the right "phenomenon" or something completely unrelated having to do with sleep cycles/ brain waves or something such.

About mechanicalness in general, I am more and more realizing that almost every single thing I do is mechanical. It's a different thing to read it than to see it and realize it - more and more I see that the things I do are the result of external stimuli and internal patterns, that I am really like a machine with buttons that can be and are pushed, programs of all kinds - some partial ones that will only manifest in specific situations or regarding specific subjects, others that are pretty much always running in the background.

Another freaky thing is when I catch myself thinking the way they want me to think - that tends to happen a lot when I watch the tv news, for example, and all of a sudden I'll realize that what I'm thinking, that I thought was my own opinion, is precisely what they want me to think because it is useful to them, even if not immediately. I see a lot of "divide and conquer" tactics at work in the media these days, and they seem to be depressingly effective.

 

[manitoban]

A similar but different experience can be called 'losing the bubble.' This is where you are doing some action, such as running an engineering plant, and the amount of information or some circumstance, such as an equipment casualty, causes you to be overwhelmed and the mind goes into a form of gridlock in dealing with the issue or reacting to the situation. Getting the bubble back, in such cases usually required having outside help.
I would describe the 'losing the bubble' feeling as being confused, lost and feeling helpless.

This happens to me when I am doing stuff on the computer a lot - my computer will freeze, or do something I don't expect or don't understand, and I'll lose my train of thought completely, and start feeling helpless. It's happened to me a number of times when I'm about to post something and then have a computer problem, its like my brain stops working and I get stuck and then I forget what I was going to post.

 

[Keit]

Sometime ago I've noticed that if I start to think about something (events, people, responses etc) and my thoughts wander to things that I've done or said and were unpleasant to me or I regreat doing them, I start to hum :) It's like there is some kind of reaction program when I try to avoid continuation of the unpleasant thought line (facing with the realization of mistake or failure maybe?), so I distract it by humming some melody. It's been a while that I am aware of it and actually spot it and observe every time, but still have a hard time to control it completely.

edit: Actually, maybe I can use this "hum" to my advantage:) Everytime I notice that I do it, I can go back and observe the thoughts I had, and then work with it. It's like a marker or something :)

 

[Tigersoap]

I think I am always mechanical but I tend to notice it more often than before.
It's harder for me to notice when I am in a bad mood and my thoughts just get hold of me, like a huge black cloud surrounding my head.

I sometimes suddenly snaps back to a lesser mechanical state and I am wondering where was I ?

Usually a repetitive task (like driving for a long time) makes me "turn off the light" in my head, I try to avoid these kind of tasks but I think it's just a way to avoid staring at my mechanical behavior osit.

Edit : and on the computer as well, It really has a mesmerizing effect on me sometimes, I intend to do something but how so suddenly I am doing something else instead and I forgot about what I wanted to do in the first place. it's so subtle I really have to be grounded and shake myself up to counter-act the "drift"

 

[Justin]

Riding elevators and getting off on the wrong floor. I've done this quite often. It happens mostly in office buildings where the elevator lobbies look alike, so I walk off the elevator and start walking a few steps before realizing that I'm not on the floor I expected to be on. There is a mental jolt as soon as I realize I'm not where I thought I was, and then it takes a few seconds for me to figure out where I am and which direction to take the elevator next. It's also slightly embarrassing at times when there are people I know waiting for the elevator and they see me get off the elevator, take a few steps and then turn around and wait for the next elevator. :)

 

[Johnno]

There's a concurrent thread on forum about deja vu and looking at the wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deja_vu

It described what I felt when I felt "lost" but knew I had been there before. It was a case of Jamais vu

Jamais vu is a term in psychology (from the French, meaning "never seen") which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer.

Often described as the opposite of deja vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before.

Jamais vu is more commonly explained as when a person momentarily doesn't recognize a word, person, or place that they already know.

Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of amnesia and epilepsy.

The Timesonline reports:

Chris Moulin, of Leeds University, asked 92 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. At the International Conference on Memory in Sydney last week he reported that 68 per cent of his guinea pigs showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word. Dr Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies a phenomenon observed in some schizophrenia patients: that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor. Dr Moulin suggests they could be suffering from chronic jamais vu. [2]