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This scenario is mostly the plot of the movie Phenomenon. It doesn't end well for the main character (played by John Travolta) so you might want to get checked

by bane 3y ago

This scenario is mostly the plot of the movie Phenomenon. It doesn't end well for the main character (played by John Travolta) so you might want to get checked out. Maybe more boring, when trying to create I find I spend lots of time in a miserable morass where I feel like my "normal" brain is trying to solve creativity like it's a hard procedural problem, and progress is slow and the result is always uninspired. If I keep at it I eventually "punch through" and it's like an avalanche of sudden ideas and mental connections flow through and out of me and I get into a zone of unreal hyper productivity for a while. Later on when reviewing what I did during those moments while in a normal brain state, I find I can't replicate, edit, or really do much to alter what I created until I can punch through again -- I have basically no ability to replicate what I just made. The level of detail, the inspiration, the raw creativity is just not my normal mode. It's just not on tap. It also leaves me really hungry after a couple hours of doing it. I suspect there's some kind of interesting energy recruitment my body is doing in my brain, sensing it's working hard, and trying to support the emergency with sugars, or oxygen or something.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago
Huh. The closest (extremely weak version) of this with me is I'll try to remember something and fail to. Then, hours or even days later, the answer will pop into my head out of nowhere, as if my brain ran a background search daemon which finally returned the answer.
- bane 3y ago
  ha! I get that sometimes too. I suspect it's fairly common which manifests in people having great ideas in the shower or somewhere similar when their attention isn't focused.
  - smackeyacky 3y ago
    It’s something you can train yourself to get better at. At least in my experience: 1. Get a tough problem 2. Read all the surrounding information about it. If a solution doesn’t appear then it’s distraction time 3. Go do something completely unrelated for a while. I like to tinker with something mechanical but listening to music or doing exercise both work. Anything where you can get a decent flow going works for me. Quite often just after I have finished with the distraction I get a good idea about the original problem. It used to be about 50/50 whether this would work for me but it’s now around 80/20. Like anything it takes practice and you need to find the right distraction for you
  - ted_bunny 3y ago
    But, the shower is when their attention is relatively the most focused. There are few distractions in the shower, making it one of the very few times westerners are unable to choose not to "be here now."
AndrewKemendo 3y ago
I actually did get checked out by a series of doctors at Mount Sinai (After months of nightmare with the VA) who did a battery of tests including an ambulatory EEG, CT scan, MRI, etc. and came back with: “Basically your brain looks perfect so this is confusing.” This was after two severe tonic colic seizures, which put me in the hospital with a half bitten tongue and dislocated shoulders. The initial thinking was epilepsy, but after the ambulatory EEG, and absolutely no history of epilepsy or anything of approaching epilepsy, she’s basically said “everything looks healthy, I have no clue what’s going on, so call me if you feel like you’re dying again.”
- nick7376182 3y ago
  I'd start with first, are you sleeping 6+ hours every night, and then go from there. The brain seems to get pushed into fits by sleep deprivation.
  - AndrewKemendo 3y ago
    I’m good now. It’s been 8 months since any issues and I’m healthier than I’ve ever been - considering thatI was a collegiate athlete 20 years ago that’s not nothing
russellbeattie 3y ago
Phenomenon was meant to be a propaganda film for Scientology, which claims that it's adherents can unlock latent mental capacity. That the main character dies in the end is supposed to represent persecution of their "religion" by the establishment.
- theaussiestew 3y ago
  That may be so, but what if it's actually possible?

by bane 3y ago

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

Huh. The closest (extremely weak version) of this with me is I'll try to remember something and fail to. Then, hours or even days later, the answer will pop into my head out of nowhere, as if my brain ran a background search daemon which finally returned the answer.

bane 3y ago
ha! I get that sometimes too. I suspect it's fairly common which manifests in people having great ideas in the shower or somewhere similar when their attention isn't focused.
- smackeyacky 3y ago
  It’s something you can train yourself to get better at. At least in my experience: 1. Get a tough problem 2. Read all the surrounding information about it. If a solution doesn’t appear then it’s distraction time 3. Go do something completely unrelated for a while. I like to tinker with something mechanical but listening to music or doing exercise both work. Anything where you can get a decent flow going works for me. Quite often just after I have finished with the distraction I get a good idea about the original problem. It used to be about 50/50 whether this would work for me but it’s now around 80/20. Like anything it takes practice and you need to find the right distraction for you
- ted_bunny 3y ago
  But, the shower is when their attention is relatively the most focused. There are few distractions in the shower, making it one of the very few times westerners are unable to choose not to "be here now."

AndrewKemendo 3y ago

I actually did get checked out by a series of doctors at Mount Sinai (After months of nightmare with the VA) who did a battery of tests including an ambulatory EEG, CT scan, MRI, etc. and came back with: “Basically your brain looks perfect so this is confusing.” This was after two severe tonic colic seizures, which put me in the hospital with a half bitten tongue and dislocated shoulders. The initial thinking was epilepsy, but after the ambulatory EEG, and absolutely no history of epilepsy or anything of approaching epilepsy, she’s basically said “everything looks healthy, I have no clue what’s going on, so call me if you feel like you’re dying again.”

nick7376182 3y ago
I'd start with first, are you sleeping 6+ hours every night, and then go from there. The brain seems to get pushed into fits by sleep deprivation.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  I’m good now. It’s been 8 months since any issues and I’m healthier than I’ve ever been - considering thatI was a collegiate athlete 20 years ago that’s not nothing

russellbeattie 3y ago

Phenomenon was meant to be a propaganda film for Scientology, which claims that it's adherents can unlock latent mental capacity. That the main character dies in the end is supposed to represent persecution of their "religion" by the establishment.

theaussiestew 3y ago
That may be so, but what if it's actually possible?