elevatedsoul,

I don't know if or what you're describing has a technical name or not. Frankly, I guess it doesn't make much difference to me. I believe that I understand what you're talking about. I've done the same sort of thing that you described all my life. When you mentioned "zooming" out and experiencing thoughts and feelings that aren't a part of your everyday life... whoa... Oh yeah... Does THAT ever ring a bell! I remember "zooming" away from myself and going elsewhere when I was 3 or 4 years old. One of the things I remember being conscious of was of profound sadness. I remember laying in my bed and feeling the sadness that a neighbor woman was feeling. I will never forget the intensity of that feeling. I know that it wasn't something that had to do with me.

The next day, I asked my mother why our neighbor lady friend was so sad. My mother eventually told me that this womans husband had been killed in a car accident a few days earlier on Guam. He, like my father, was a Navy Seabee too.

That sort of "zooming" out to another place has happened to me my entire life...

I still do it today. There have been many times I'd be laying in bed at night, talking with my wife... and I could feel myself zip off into la la land, all the while still talking with my wife. I don't think about what I'm saying, but oftentimes the things that come out of me are things that I have absolutely no knowledge of what-so-ever. I'm always surprised to hear those things coming out of my mouth, because I never thought of them or sometimes I don't even understand what it was that I said! There have been times when, afterwards, I had to Google what ever it was just so I could get a handle on what it meant.

Yeah, that sort of stuff used to spook the heck out of me because I didn't understand anything about it. It doesn't really bother me anymore though. I guess I've just sort of gotten used to it happening. I still don't know what it is, what causes it, or even why I do it. It's just one of those "weird" things I do... and I do a lot of very unusual things...

Anyway, I don't know if what I just described doing is anything like what you're talking about or not. I hope it is. I mean, maybe if it is, maybe I wouldn't feel like such a freak of nature after all!

I KNOW that as soon as I hit the "Submit Reply" button I'm going to regret it. I know I'm going to... I don't talk about this sort of stuff very much... I suppose because I don't understand it and can't explain it, it makes me a little bit afraid that people will think that there's something wrong with me or that I'm a little bit too far "out there" for their taste...

Oh yeah... You definitely hit a home run with that "zooming" thing... been there, done that... Uh, well, been there, DO that... still.

Ha! I just remembered something... when I was very little, when ever I talked to my mother about this "zooming" thing, I used to call it "getting small"... That was because it always feels like I'm this little tiny... something or other... that's surrounded by an infinitely, unimaginably gigantic emptiness... and I feel so small in comparison... but at the same time I also know what it is to expand myself to fill that emptiness... anyway, yeah..."getting small".

Hey! Gimmee a break! I was a child when I came up with that!

Anyway... "Submit Reply"!

Dan