Joan and All I have experienced the sensation while paddling, also. We have all experienced the same thing at one time or another if we think about it. Let's stop for a second and examine common situations that most have had this experience in. Situations that generate a similar feeling: I am sure that while sitting at a stop light or in traffic and he car next to you moved forward you caught it in your peripheral vision that you may have experienced the sensation that you are moving when you foot was already firmly planted on the brake. First reaction: Push the brake even harder. For those of you that are pilots you will remember someone teaching you recovery from an unusual attitude (not to be confused with bad moods). You are told to close your eyes and look down. The instructor then makes all kinds of control movements and then puts you into a stall or other benign situation. You are told to look up, take the controls and recover. Regardless of what you are feeling you have to determine which way is up and down. I have also experienced it when the ground wasn't visible and the clouds and sky become the same. Your body tells you that one way is up and your instruments tell what the correct way is. Don't trust your body, it is usually dead wrong in these cases! Divers may have also experienced when they can't tell which way is up or down due to limited visibility and/or darkness except for the direction that their bubbles are going. The common thread in all of this is: Spatial Disorientation. The mind looses the normal visual indicators of up and down and/or left and right. A gray day when the sky and water appear to melt into one another and our body is still experiencing the effects of gravity pulling us down. Combine with the motion of the swells, waves, etc. and you have Spatial Disorientation and vertigo. Add to this recipe a bit of anxiety and one can become extremely disoriented and dizzy, which just adds fuel to the fire. Something similar, without the feeling of dizziness or vertigo is: Autokenisis. This happens particularly at night when we stare at a stationary light off in the distance. Suddenly, we realize it is moving. Maybe Left to Right, Up to Down or who knows. It in fact is a stationary bright single light source such as a street light or a flood light over a dock. It isn't moving at all, but our mind experiences autokenisis and fools us. For these and other strange visual happenings take a look at this web site: http://www.uh60studyhall.com/Nights/illusions.htm. We can exercise control of our mind and create a means to overcome the feeling if it is extremely uncomfortable. Just knowing what it is may help some of us overcome fears and reluctance to paddle to where land isn't visible. Fred At 02:46 PM 11/7/2000 -0500, JSpinner_at_aol.com wrote: >That is the out of control feeling that >leaves me fearful I'll go over, one of the reasons I don't get out of sight >of land. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Nov 07 2000 - 15:07:02 PST
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