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Comment by lobster_johnson | Hacker News Reader

One of the weirdest cognitive experiences in my life (as a drug non-user) was when I walked through a very crowded, dimly-lit bar and suddenly came face to face with a person who, when I tried to pass him, kept moving to the same side that I tried to pass on. It took me probably 3 seconds to realize it was a mirror and that I was trying to pass myself (meanwhile, one of the employees who was sitting next to the mirror was giggling loudly while profusely apologizing for doing so; not my proudest moment).

The cognitive weirdness was that during those 3-4 seconds, I genuinely did not recognize the person as being myself. It was a kind of out-of-body experience.

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Try just staring at yourself in the mirror for 10-20 minutes. It is a very strange, disorienting experience, almost like a dissociative drug.

Here is a thing which, once I've told you, you'll never stop noticing:

Your reflection is always staring you fixedly in the eye.

No, use your peripheral vision.

It's even worse! That bastard is intent on whatever you're paying attention to!

I remember realizing, as a kid, that if you could see someone's eyes, then -- like if you're trying to hide -- they could also see yours. Mind blown, at the time.

If the enemy is in firing range, so are you.

Tracer rounds work in both directions.

Oh good, it's not just me :D. I don't think I've done it for 10-20 minutes; it doesn't take that long for me to get the effect if I'm trying (and sometimes it'll happen on its own when I just happen to be looking at myself in the mirror), though maybe there's a higher-level effect I'm missing out on because I'm not doing it that long. Perhaps because of doing that occasionally, I can sort of create a similar kind of mild dissociative effect even without the mirror, just by visualizing myself or looking at my body, that sort of thing. Basically, to generalize it, your trying to see/consider your body as if it wasn't yours, not just at an intellectual level but at a more instinctual level.

The mirror definitely helps though. To anyone who wants to try it: try looking yourself in the eyes and tell yourself (and try to believe) that that isn't you. Don't just stand still the whole time; move around a bit, tilt your head, etc. Try to open your mind to it. It's an interesting feeling. :)

I'm short-sighted, and I've long noticed this when standing somewhat far away from a mirror. If I'm close enough that I can easily see my reflection, but not so close that I can see that it's definitely me, I get the illusion that I'm looking at somebody else, and then I see myself as the older person that others see rather than the younger man that I'm practised at seeing ;)

Aging doesn't seem to be linear, so I have to say this was more alarming when I was 30 (expecting to see a 24 year old) than it is now I'm 39 (expecting to see a 33 year old).

But ask me again when I'm 50.

> try looking yourself in the eyes and tell yourself (and try to believe) that that isn't you

I do something similar but the opposite: I keep telling myself that the reflection IS me. After a while I end up in a loop that goes like "I need to snap out of it and get back to reality" -> "I can't because this is reality" -> "no way, this can't be real?" -> repeat. It's both scary and amazing. The only way to get out of the loop is to look away and stop thinking about it, which itself is a dissociative feeling because you feel like you escape the truth.

Old LSD prank: hand tripper a mirror ;)

This is true especially between two people as well.

Right, just being with.

I read about a similar effect in one of Richard Wiseman's books: Look into a big mirror with no light in the room except for a small lamp behind yourself. After one minute, your face should look bizarrely distorted. (I never tried it, BTW).

I used to drive to work in a business park full of reflective glass buildings. It was always heartstopping when I would see the reflection of my car coming straight towards me on the wrong side of the road; no matter how often I saw it, I'd always interpret it as a different car, not mine.

In hindsight, failing to self-identify as a car is probably not a bad thing?

I wonder how self-driving cars would do there.

Not related to mirrors, but I sometimes have similar experiences when waking up, except with regards to spatial recognition: I'll lie on my bed with my eyes open for 15-30 seconds and genuinely not be able to recognize where I am or how I got there.

I think that's happened to my a couple of times.

I sometimes cannot spontaneously remember, when waking up, where I am. It is not related to the place (usually happens in my own bed), nor to events the night before (standard evening and night) neither to the sleep phase (I usually wake up on my own).

I then need to think hard about the place, the context, etc. before rationally settling up on the place. I only then open my eyes.

Kurt Vile has a great song about that sensation, "Pretty Pimping".

https://genius.com/Kurt-vile-pretty-pimpin-lyrics

> Didn't recognize myself in the mirror ... I proceeded to brush some stranger's teeth

I always thought that song was about DPD, arguably a more serious syndrome than the parent poster described :).

EDIT: Depersonalisation disorder - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder

I think many people can relate to the feeling he's describing. I've on occasion felt like I'm looking at a stranger in the mirror.

I've had the same experience in busy environments where mirrors are placed in unexpected positions where they could be interpreted as another space. Those 3-4 seconds are your brain first assuming that the reflection is another space, then the mirror model kicks in. More likely to happen when one is tired or distracted.

That reminds me about this video: https://youtu.be/TfgDFRyAYVA

Like that, but less vodka.

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