astraboy

Right this is a bit weird so bear with me. I've thouhgt about posting this for a long time but I was afraid of people laughing at me. But it happened again last night and would like to know if it was just me or whether other people get it.
I was having some fun in the 3-door a while back round an old industrial estate round the corner from me. I was having a a great time broadsiding it round the corners.
Now I spent around 15 minutes doing it and got it perfect round this one corner so much so that I didnt bother doing it round the other bends as it was so much fun. Now. The strange thing is I cant remember driving the car at all during this time. The only thing I can remember is how the car looked as if I was standing in the street watching it and not driving it. The really weird thing is the clarity of the image in my mind I can see the muck being chucked up by the back wheels, I can see the front inside tyre running on the sidewall during the drift and thinking I would need to inflate it some more.
Now I was having a play last night and I got the same feeling. I dont remember driving the car at all, just seeing what the car looked like from the outside.
The reason I call it break off is I remember reading about fighter pilots getting the same feeling on long transit flights. "A feeling of non reality where the person feels like he is looking into the cockpit from the outside or looking over his own shoulder." is how the blurb described it. They called it break off.
Anyone else get this when they are having a tickle? or should I book myself into "pront-a-labotomize" for the full scrape.
You can start taking the **** now.
astraboy.

Rusty Festa

...and I thought I read on another of your posts you don't pop pills

Little Miss WRX

I think you ought to wander back into the hutch you naughty stray.

General Forum warps your mind - I should know.

ianfergus0n

Give the PS2 a rest me thinks

SiPie

Astraboy

This is apparently pretty common (especially amongst racing drivers) when effectively they zone out to such an extent that they feel they are looking down on themselves driving the car.

The more boring explanation is that the subconscious is doing most of the work as you'd already repeated the task quite a few times and your conscious mind is doing all the usual crap like thinking "so what will I have for my tea" etc.....

Oh and by the way...

I know exactly what you mean and have had it too on a number of occasions....

Normally after a few big green sticks though

BOB.T

I kinda know what you mean.... I haven't quite got to the stage where I'm outside the car but have deffo done stuff without making a concious descision!

Also if I go out for a spirited drive, I can sort blank the car out. It's almost like the car isn't there, you're just blasting down the road on you're own.... in a seated position

DavidLewis

Too much CMR if you ask me as thats the only time I can look down on myself whilst driving

SiPie

Shame on you David

You know you should be using the behind the wheel view......especially on the Japanese or UK stages when it's chucking it down

Next you'll be telling us that you play CMR3 in automatic mode as well

Jonto

Happens to me, i drive home from work, and when i get home, i sometimes can't remember anything about doin it !

Weird huh !

Phil Harrison

Astraboy
Weird. Unsettling too, and you wouldn't have posted if you weren't unsettled

Worrying question is..... is your concentration actually heightened, or is it reduced?? I needn't labour the implications of the second possibility Ummmm

I'm sure an hour's research on the internet ought to yield something??? I've had the same thing (twice)in very different circumstances..... while in the process of winning a 'Major' at my Sport. Tony Jacklin calls it "the Cocoon of concentration", and it's a very descriptive phrase.

Not much help..... but not a pi$$-take either

Phil
"Calibra-boy" 4x4 Turbo mid '90s.... so you know why I love my impreza!!

RichardPON

Astraboy,

I know exactly what you mean!

I used to sing when I was younger, and I remember being at a performance that was going really well. I then just zoned out, and can only describe it as a sort of out of body experience! I could see myself on stage, and was aware that I was there, but was looking at it from outside myself.

Have never forgotten that experience my whole life......

Never done it in the cossie, but it'd be interesting !!!!

scrappydoo

Sounds kinda like a outta body experience to me astraboy. However i know what you mean when you say breakoff. It is like going into a relaxed state of autopilot really. It is more than likely that you are so comfortable doing what you are doing that this then leaves your mind open to other things i guess and you can concentrate on that other thing. I sometimes experience it when driving but more when im boxing. Ive got so used to punching and moving in different directions after years and years that now it is just totally natural to me and leaves my mind to think out strategies and moves, about what im going to do next.

Well thats my theory anyway. Bloody interresting though astraboy.

Craig Mac

i kind of have the same thing when banger racing.
after ive raced when i try and remember what happened i cant remember what it was like in the car, but i can visualize the race as if i had been a spectator. then when i watch the video back its as if ive seen it before.........
weird !

Leslie

Astraboy

You should not worry about the strange sensation you had. It is quite true that in certain aircraft one can experience this. It has happened to me some years ago when I was flying Canberras. The umbrella type perspex cockpit hood used to induce this effect very easily especially when flying at night with a good view of the stars. You could easily feel that you were sitting on the wing looking inside the cockpit. The Canberra was well known for causing this to happen. The other type of aircraft I flew such as the Vulcan or the VC10 etc. with a solid cockpit roof did not cause the problem.

You are a brave man to post your experience, you are bound to get some stick for it. Not surprisingly, few pilots were prepared to admit it happened either.

Happy New Year

Les

Dodge

Astraboy, I bet you weren't expecting all this agreement! I think I know what you mean, but I've never really noticed it specifically before... You're obviously not as mad as you thought.

Good post!

johnfelstead

Les, you flew Vulcans! Jammy Git!

I know what you are saying astraboy, sometimes things just click and you are not conciously aplying your mind, so it can go off and do other things. In a way its just like walking, you dont conciously move your legs, it just happens. You get someone coming out of a deap coma though, and they have to learn to do that again because the subconcious has been erased.

It happens a lot to me when i drive on track, most of my mental energy is focused on whats coming next and where i want to go, not how i make the car get there, that is all instinct and unconcious reaction. It wasnt always like that.

Senna was probably the most capable of all drivers at this type of aproach, probably M Shumacher is the same.

alternatively, you could just have been dizzy from all those righthanders.

Turbo_Steve

(waits for AstraBoy to take his flame-suit off and then pounces!)
What are you some kind of weir...No..I am just kidding.

I have zoned out just like you in a car: never broadsiding, but frequently when driving by myself for my own pleasure.

Have also done it with a friend in the car on a long journey I had done many times. I zoned out....and felt like I was flying above the car. Then I saw over the crest of the hill I was racing up, and there was an accident at the bottom. I slowed down, and when we crested the hill, there was the accident. Fookin Spooky.
My friend said I went "dead faced" and that he thought I had stopped breathing. It all felt a teeny bit "Matrixy".

Have also had the same thing with stage fright......felt about to fumble my lines and suddenly found myself sat in the audience with a script.

Have also had something similar but different (trick of memory?) when having a car crash. Felt like I was 'driving inside my head': that my brain was moving so much faster trying to correct, but that my body just wasn't responding at all. I put this down to adrenalin in the brain but not in the body yet.
Took a few weeks to shake off the feeeling that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time: Again, probably paranoia induced by massive amounts of adrenalin.

Human mind is a weird thing, huh?
Brave of you to post, though.

mattstant

thought this was quite a common phenomenon
and often occurs when you drive home on a well used route
Im sure its happened to me not an out of body experience but the sudden realisation that you have gone from a to b and cant recall any of the details of your journey i think research has been done and the suggetion was that if anything untoward happened your conscious mind would kick in straight away.

Phil Harrison

Turbo-Steve.

Some months ago I was setting up for my favourite bend....

ClassicFM on the Radio doing their "relax" thing - announcer says words to the effect of "Relax and take your foot off the gas - this is your teatime hour of relaxing classics". So I take my foot off the gas.... and there's 20 tons of farm tractor and trailer smack across the road immediately round the corner!

Yeah, Spooky

Phil

Alas

Sorry but...........
Yeh I get breakoff too.

Had the zoning out effect where you can't remember a journey etc but never outside the motor looking in!!!
So after briefly dipping his toe into the sea of reason he returned to frolic on insanity beach
Now wheres my white jacket with the big long arms?
Alas

rsquire

Les

I assume that you would have been on 10sqn.. Don't suppose that you knew a Nav by the name of Bill Rowley at all ??

Richard

zoog

The "zoning" effect is a phenomena called dissociation by psychiatrists. It can manifest itself in many ways. It doesn't however mean you're mad or anything! It is entirely normal, although some dissociative states are more pathological and may result from emotional conflict or exreme stress, eg hysterical paralysis, dissociative amnesia, and fugue states.

astraboy

Blimey, didnt think I'd get this much of a response.
Good to see its normal though, well not normal but a common occurance none the less.
Cheers for the replies, esp. from Leslie, nice to hear from an old Vulcan jock. Not jelous, honest.
astraboy.

Leslie

Sorry Rsquire, I was on No10 Sqn but do not remember Bill Rowley, I enjoyed that time though. Astraboy, hope my post was of help to you, The Vulcan was as good a hooligan machine as the Scoob, all wing and power and handled like a fighter-great sport believe me.

Les

Echo

Vulcan pilots are way cool man!

:-)

Mike