Strange Thought Patterns & Memory Lapses

[The Raven]

I was a bit hesitant to post it in this "Skills and Abilities" section, but these strange feelings have been bugging me for so long I thought I might as well give it a shot.

First of all, take note this has happened my entire life.

Once in awhile, usually about once a day, my mind will be concentrating on a task with it's "Conscious" part and something much different in it's "Subconscious" part. It's nearly impossible to explain this, but for matters of ease, I will call them lapses.

I am always concentrating on something, or relaxing, and am aware of what I am thinking. Very often, though, a "lapse" will occour in which my mind is still focusing on a task but uncontrollably it is analyzing something else, and I don't even know it until it slowly starts to surface. One moment I may be relaxing and thinking "happy thoughts", then when I stop for a break these "lapses" will become apparent. Without any control over it, it is as if a thought is being forced into my mind. I may be thinking about getting something to eat and then all of a sudden my mind will be shown a city and for just a split second, focus just on that. Once I have focused on the thought that sprung out of nowhere, it vanishes and I cannot remember anything about it, only that I was thinking about something, yet not what. I can remember bits and pieces of random ones, though. Thoughts and pictures of a city seem to happen most often.

There is absolutely no pattern to these events or their topic, if I am lucky enough to recall it. I've got no idea why random images, places, and thoughts will pop into my head having nothing to do with what I am thinking about and then vanish. It's nothing that impedes my thought process but the mystery of it claws at me.

If anyone has any idea what this is, or experiences random thought patterns such as this, please post feedback. If you need an expanded and less confusing description, I can post a better one later since it is 3am.

Your feedback will be appreciated.

[Tia]

Hi Raven,

The closest I've come to that is when I'm driving somewhere and I have what I call a mind slip and I go totally somewhere else and then come back to reality with a jolt and find myself a couple of klms down the road.

Is that sort of what you mean?

[The Raven]

Hi Raven,

The closest I've come to that is when I'm driving somewhere and I have what I call a mind slip and I go totally somewhere else and then come back to reality with a jolt and find myself a couple of klms down the road.

Is that sort of what you mean?

788023[/snapback]

Actually yes, to put it in a much more easier to understand manner. When these "Mind Slips" as you call them happen, I still do everything like I'm focusing on a task but I'm really in something like you said, except it seems to be for a very short time. I noticed that it happens most often when I am relaxed, like "Pre Dreams" that are even stranger than dreams.

[Firien]

I didn'y know what those were called. Sometimes I ill be sitting thinking too, and what im visualizing will completely change into something else. and I can see it. Sometimes I will see a place Ive never been. Its strange.

[The Raven]

It's now very reassuring that I'm not the only one that experiences these strange lapses or mind slips. I thought I was going crazy for awhile and that no one would respond because they did as well.

[Tia]

I've been doing it for a while, and after the first major one I ended up at the doctors worried that I was go crazy.

Some still worry me as I really come back with a jolt but after talking to others I found quite a lot of people do it maybe not to the extent I do but it is pretty common.

I've even had one where I've felt and responded to what was happening in my mind slip.

[LarryOldtimer]

It could be worse. Once (1986) I was going east on the Rte 91 Freeway in Los Angeles (actually, in Carson) and looked at the clock at 3:20 PM (I needed to see the time to decide whether I would go back to the office, or go directly home and work the remainder of the afternoon at home. I was returning from a meeting with a client.) In the blink of an eye I was on another freeway, a much older one, and had no idea of what had happened or where I was. Moreover, I was in the right lane doing only 45 miles per hour. (which I never do) After driving bemused for a few minutes and looking at freeway signs, I realized where I was . . . the northbound I-110 freeway just south of Los Angeles, about 12 miles away from where I was when I had looked at the clock. I got off at the next ramp, and on the reverse (southbound) ramp and then looked again at the clock . . . it was 3:25 PM, and I drove about 5 minutes figuring where I was and getting off and back on the freeway! So, I had been displaced 12 miles with no time missing. Interesting? It shook me up so much I didn't even tell my wife (at the time) about it for 10 years. It is when things like this happen that you really begin to doubt your sanity!

[Tia]

It worries me a bit too when it happens while your driving.

You wonder if you'd react if an accident was looming.

[Megalomania]

I'm a little confused, how can you remember bits and pieces of random thoughts, if they vanish completely once you finish them?

I dunno.... just confused me.

(trying not to sound skeptic )

Edited August 14, 2005 by Replacement100

[Tia]

Vanish, mine don't vanish.

If I'm driving along and have a mind slip, I drive on automatic polite while I seem to travel to where ever my mind slip takes me. I don't get a warning I just go. I'll often come back with a jolt and realise what's happened but can still remember what I did in my mind slip.

[Nadia B.]

Larry, what you're referring to has happened to me numerous times. The first time was about 10 yrs ago. I worked as a copier tech going from business to business fixing copiers. Well, I left a call and started off to lunch. The next thing I know, I'm on a wooded road, nothing around. No signs, nothing. My shoes were off, too? So, I finally get to an off road going toward some houses and came across a mail truck. I asked him where I was and turns out, I was about 15 miles out of town. I'd lost 45 minutes when I checked my clock. I got directions and headed back.

Years later, this started happening again. God, I know this sounds crazy. It happened more frequently. I realized that during these "blackouts" I'd go about my business as usual. But when I put the dishes away, the forks would end up in the freezer, plates on top of the fridge, etc. I had EKG, MRI, everything you could think of. Docs couldn't find anything wrong physically. When I was in these states, I would ignore some people, some I would converse with. It was very strange. I haven't had it happen again for a few years now. Scary.

[Monkyburd]

This is fairly common actually. Especially when you're driving on a boring road, studying in a boring class, or sometimes even reading a book. You lose track of time because your mind starts to wander, even though your consciousness still focuses on the task at hand.

Kinda like,... subconscious hiccups I'd say.

[LarryOldtimer]

Larry, what you're referring to has happened to me numerous times.  The first time was about 10 yrs ago.  I worked as a copier tech going from business to business fixing copiers.  Well, I left a call and started off to lunch.  The next thing I know, I'm on a wooded road, nothing around.  No signs, nothing.  My shoes were off, too?  So, I finally get to an off road going toward some houses and came across a mail truck.  I asked him where I was and turns out, I was about 15 miles out of town.  I'd lost 45 minutes when I checked my clock.  I got directions and headed back. 

Years later, this started happening again.  God, I know this sounds crazy.  It happened more frequently.  I realized that during these "blackouts" I'd go about my business as usual.  But when I put the dishes away, the forks would end up in the freezer, plates on top of the fridge, etc.  I had EKG, MRI, everything you could think of.  Docs couldn't find anything wrong physically.  When I was in these states, I would ignore some people, some I would converse with.  It was very strange.  I haven't had it happen again for a few years now.  Scary.

789735[/snapback]

Yes, but you at least had the time to get where you were, presumably. In my case, I did check the clock, and I was displaced some 12 miles without any time havng passed (or certainly no where near enough time to have traveled that distance.) This only happened to me the one time, whew. And I don't think you are crazy, either. The world can be a strange and alien place at times. I am reminded of a Shakespeare quote: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

[Cadetak]

Yes! Absolutly! I find my self playing a computer game and become intranced in one of your lapses and unlapse to find out I beat the entire game.

I also stare into blank space. Certain instences I will stare into space and be able to to keep my "trance" without even blinking. After I come out of the trance Ill try to do it again starring at a different space but no luck...just the single area.

[The Raven]

Yes! Absolutly! I find my self playing a computer game and become intranced in one of your lapses and unlapse to find out I beat the entire game.

I also stare into blank space. Certain instences I will stare into space and be able to to keep my "trance" without even blinking. After I come out of the trance Ill try to do it again starring at a different space but no luck...just the single area.

790777[/snapback]

Interesting, I also experience some of these things. The mind is such a strange object, and although we have learned so much about it, I doubt we know more than 1% of what there is to learn.

  I'm a little confused, how can you remember bits and pieces of random thoughts, if they vanish completely once you finish them?

Sorry if that was confusing, it was 3AM. It's 2:21 now but I'm wide awake and can explain it better;

I do not forget that I had a lapse/slip but I cannot remember anything about it, only that it happened. Its like remembering that you ate breakfast this morning but not what you ate.

Kinda like,... subconscious hiccups I'd say.

Just thinking about these strange instances make me interested in learning everything I can about what conciousness actually is. Spiritual, organic, what? There are so many possibilites and answers that it seems like we can never know.

[franciscomaribel]

I have something very similar happen to me, though I'm often lying down as opposed to being up and about.

It starts with a slight feeling of massiveness, and I gradually become aware of every part of my body, and I feel as large as the room. Then, sometimes, as you were describing, my thoughts seem to be acting completely on their own, without any action on my part. What's more, I feel as though my awareness is centered in my chest, just where it starts, where my neck ends, and that my thoughts are occurring at the top of my head. That is where I can feel them occurring.

During this, I don't feel any less intelligent, and my thoughts are no different from how they normally are: I'm simply not a part of the process. I am an observer.

My thoughts on the matter are that we are truly not in control of our thoughts; it seems as though we, the me, the I, is something akin to awareness, centered in the body. Our thoughts are simply a mechanical process the brain uses to solve problems. Its as mechanical as breathing, or controlling heart rate.

On a neuroscientific note, it has been shown that all the thoughts we have, all the decisions we make, etc., are created and made first in the unconscious, without our being aware, and then, milliseconds later, we become consciously aware of them.

[White Crane Feather]

On a neuroscientific note, it has been shown that all the thoughts we have, all the decisions we make, etc., are created and made first in the unconscious, without our being aware, and then, milliseconds later, we become consciously aware of them.

Not so fast.. Many of those things bury themselves only to be delt with latter, its a temporal mind ****, trust me.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Seeker79