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Ever watched to see what you'd do next?

O

Oberon

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In the MTBI spirit of navel-gazing...

Occasionally...and I'm utterly in the dark as to why...I will be fairly ambivalent about some choice I've got to make, and so rather than make it I just observe my behavior as the opportunity comes, and observe what choice I made avolitionally.

For example, one morning I was driving toward work, and realized that if I wanted coffee I'd have to go straight, but if I wanted to get to work early I needed to turn. I didn't much care either way, so I watched myself drive. As my turnoff sailed by I said "Well, I guess it's coffee this morning."

And it wasn't an exercise in inertia, really--I was as likely to turn as to go straight.

On a smaller and more immediate scale I can sit at my desk and try to guess whether my right hand will reach for the keyboard or the mouse, or move to scratch some vague itch on the back of my neck. If I force the issue of course I can choose what it does, but if I deliberately don't make a choice my hand will still do something.

This seems most strange to me. Has anyone else ever experienced life as being the little person that rides around in your skull and looks out through your eyeballs?
 

Totenkindly

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For example, one morning I was driving toward work, and realized that if I wanted coffee I'd have to go straight, but if I wanted to get to work early I needed to turn. I didn't much care either way, so I watched myself drive. As my turnoff sailed by I said "Well, I guess it's coffee this morning." And it wasn't an exercise in inertia, really--I was as likely to turn as to go straight.

A la quanta: If you hadn't been watching yourself, you would have made the turn and gone to work instead.

This seems most strange to me. Has anyone else ever experienced life as being the little person that rides around in your skull and looks out through your eyeballs?

Not as much in the physical sense. Most often in the verbal sense. ("Hmm... Why on earth did I say that to them?")
 

Vortex

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I start watching what I'll do next when I reach the point of distraction where my legs wander off with me to unexpected places, the words in my head are synonyms to those I write down (I spot it later thinking I wrote something different) I pick other colours and clothes than I intended, tea/cocoa instead of coffee etc. Those are the times I start watching, because it's so funny to see how the body almost seems to be taken over by someone else.

This distracted behaviour will usually last from half a day to a few days in a row, I wonder if people I know notice these occurences.
 

Athenian200

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That's not quite like anything I experience. Most of the time, if I don't consciously make a decision to do something, I'm idle. The only time that I experience that is if I follow the same routine every morning for several days. Then I'll feel like I'm on autopilot, and I won't really "wake up" and feel conscious until sometime in the middle of the day. If I'm relaxed, however, I occasionally do a limited number of things automatically, like get a Coke or snack from the fridge, go to my computer and check this message board, or pace around the room a few times.
 

Zergling

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I occasionally do stuff like this, usually with part of my brain going "Just get up and do something!"
 

niffer

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Yeah...while in motion it makes me bump into stuff occasionally...I have an extremely short attention span, so I may just be walking casually in a hallway and, after letting my mind (and body wander) for a while, find myself in a completely different hall or room than I'd originally intended to go to. I sometimes just kind of sit and let my limbs move to see if they'll start doodling on paper or reaching to scratch an itch or just causing me to fall off the chair. Sometimes when I write or draw or speak, I say the word/thought or subconciously start drawing the image that I was just thinking about. Ever watch The Ring? Remember how people who'd watched the video would start drawing a hair-covered face whenever they let themselves doodle? Kind of like that.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

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In the MTBI spirit of navel-gazing...

Occasionally...and I'm utterly in the dark as to why...I will be fairly ambivalent about some choice I've got to make, and so rather than make it I just observe my behavior as the opportunity comes, and observe what choice I made avolitionally.

For example, one morning I was driving toward work, and realized that if I wanted coffee I'd have to go straight, but if I wanted to get to work early I needed to turn. I didn't much care either way, so I watched myself drive. As my turnoff sailed by I said "Well, I guess it's coffee this morning."

And it wasn't an exercise in inertia, really--I was as likely to turn as to go straight.

On a smaller and more immediate scale I can sit at my desk and try to guess whether my right hand will reach for the keyboard or the mouse, or move to scratch some vague itch on the back of my neck. If I force the issue of course I can choose what it does, but if I deliberately don't make a choice my hand will still do something.

This seems most strange to me. Has anyone else ever experienced life as being the little person that rides around in your skull and looks out through your eyeballs?

Heh, I never really analysed it, but yeah I do this. Especially with the car, sometimes I just drive somewhere without really knowing why I took that route, or to a destination I didn't particularly prefer over the other.
 

wildcat

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In the MTBI spirit of navel-gazing...

Occasionally...and I'm utterly in the dark as to why...I will be fairly ambivalent about some choice I've got to make, and so rather than make it I just observe my behavior as the opportunity comes, and observe what choice I made avolitionally.

For example, one morning I was driving toward work, and realized that if I wanted coffee I'd have to go straight, but if I wanted to get to work early I needed to turn. I didn't much care either way, so I watched myself drive. As my turnoff sailed by I said "Well, I guess it's coffee this morning."

And it wasn't an exercise in inertia, really--I was as likely to turn as to go straight.

On a smaller and more immediate scale I can sit at my desk and try to guess whether my right hand will reach for the keyboard or the mouse, or move to scratch some vague itch on the back of my neck. If I force the issue of course I can choose what it does, but if I deliberately don't make a choice my hand will still do something.

This seems most strange to me. Has anyone else ever experienced life as being the little person that rides around in your skull and looks out through your eyeballs?
I am glad you brought this thing up.

You do the thing before you know it.
And who are you?

You are the other.
 

Natrushka

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This seems most strange to me. Has anyone else ever experienced life as being the little person that rides around in your skull and looks out through your eyeballs?

Yes, quite often actually. Sometimes I realize I'm doing it, othertimes it just happens. Typically when it's a Big Deal I know I'm doing it, and when it's just something like coffee :D I don't.
 

Randomnity

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I often do trivial things impulsively, according to what I feel at that moment rather than any thought process. I don't think it's quite the same thing as you're describing though; I don't have the feeling of consciously "watching myself" do something...it is more a matter of being in tune with what I want to do and then doing it.
 

Veneti

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I've never even considered this. My mind always controls my body. My body cannot do anything without direction, its just the doing part of the brain.

In reverse, I could say that in sports I used to screen out all pain etc that my body was feeling in order to win etc. It's quite surprising how much further you can push past what your body tells you.

Possibly, my body could do something that I consciously wasn't thinking about, but that would be at the direction of my subconscious mind. (If you have thought about programming your subconscious to create autosuggestion via conscious thoughts then you've peered into the dark recesses like me... :D)
 

Recluse

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I'm more apt to do something that I don't realize I'm doing, like putting the cheese in the oven instead of the frig. Since I can go days without using the oven, misplaced food isn't likely to be discovered until interesting smells start wafting through the house.
 
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