It was not my normal time to eat lunch at the company cafeteria, and my regular lunch bunch had not yet arrived.  I sat down at a table that seemed unusually empty, considering how crowded the rest of the tables were.  A large group must have just left.  One person was left, though.  I sat on the opposite side of him, a few seats laterally.  Before I could eat my first mouthful, this stranger spoke.

"Excuse me, but I need to ask you something."

"Sure."

"I'm a visitor to your company, this is the first time I've eaten at your company cafeteria, and I'm puzzled by something.  I've been seated here for the past 10 minutes, and during that time at least 5 people have come to this table, sat down, and in a couple minutes they get up and move elsewhere.  This is the only empty table, and I can't figure out why.  Can you tell me why?"

"Well, no!" I replied.  "I also noticed that this table seems unusually empty, but I couldn't say why."

Just then the stranger jerked, involuntarily, in a manner so grotesque that I knew immediately why the others had left.  His head jerked backwards, and his elbows rotated outward, and the most scary grimace came over his face!  I froze, partly out of courtesy, but also out of shock.  He continued to speak.

"This has never happened to me before."

He spoke so matter of factly.  The recovery was so quick; it was as if the jerking movement hadn't happened.  I didn't know what to say.

"I didn't forget to shave, and my hair is combed.  Is there something gross in my appearance that I can't see?"

What a puzzling thing for him to say!  He seemed totally oblivious to the movement that convulsed him just moments before.  Could it be that he was unaware of what had happened?

"You say this has never happened before?" I asked, lamely.

"Right.  Well, usually when I travel I eat with the people I'm visiting.  And when I'm at my company cafeteria I eat at the regular time with my associates.  So I rarely eat alone; but still, it just seems strange ..."

Just then he jerked in exactly the same manner as before.

"... that people would get up and leave for no apparent reason."

It was obvious to me that he was unaware of his jerking, as incredible as that seemed.  I decided to confront him with what was happening.

"Did you know that you are jerking?" I asked.

"Jerking?"

"Yes.  Twice while we've been talking, you jerked your head and arms.  It lasted about a second."

"I don't want to disagree with you, but..."

"You must not be aware of things when you start jerking, I suppose."

"But if that is true, how could I have no awareness of it?"

"Well, maybe the brain can blank out intervals of time while still preserving a sense of continuity.  And in your case, whatever causes the jerking also initiates the blanking out effect.  I don't know.  But I assure you, you have jerked twice while I've been sitting here.  And that must be why others have left the table."

"Damn!"

And he got up from the table, thanked me for being candid with him, and left!  Leaving me sitting alone - at the only cafeteria table with only one person seated.

As I sat there alone, I wondered if such "time out's" can happen to just anyone.  And if they happened, they could go unnoticed - unless they produced something noticeable to others.

Might our lives be punctuated by a random sprinkling of "brief blank out's" that are unnoticeable to ourselves and others?  If they are brief enough, our behaviors would be unaffected.  We could listen to people talking, and seamlessly reconstruct the entire flow of conversation well enough to carry on.

A movie is a projection of many still pictures, and the mind creates the sensation of smooth flow.  The mind, which is a master of pragmatism, overcomes limitations of perception to create a reality that will "get on with the job of living."  Perhaps everyone goes through life converting momentary still perceptions to a movie-like smoothness of experience.

Gestalts are perceptions of whole objects as unitary, even when parts of them are obscured.  Could not the same phenomenon occur in the dimension of time?

If our perception of the smooth passage of time is an illusion, then who is there to tell us about our mistaken perception.  If our behavior is not "unusual" during the normal sprinkling of blank outs, there will be no clues for others to notice.  We all may be like the man with jerks, except that our moments do not reveal themselves and we shall never know about them.

While engrossed by this intrigueing thought, I slowly became aware of the fact that although the jerking man had left at least 10 minutes before, I was still the only one at the table.  Could it be...
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This site opened:  October 30, 1998.   Last Update: October 30, 1998