# Is there a psychological term for this line out of Comfortably Numb? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429 "2013-04-22T19:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/1 "2013-04-22T19:59:33Z")
In Comfortably Numb, towards the end, it goes “When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone,…”. When this song came out, my friends and I agreed this line articulated a phenomenon we experienced as kids: for a very brief moment there was something very profound just out of my field of vision and upon making an effort to actually see it, it and that profound feeling would disappear. It wasn’t just a sight thing. It was almost like a lucid dream or hypnagogic state but more awake, brief, and intense. Is there a term for these teeny-bopper fleeting glimpses of bliss or whatever the hell that was? That’s what we thought the line meant anyway.🙂 And something tells me this has been asked before. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/2 "2013-04-22T20:05:37Z")
I don’t know what it is called [but it is a widely reported phenomenon](http://forums.explosm.net/archive/index.php?t-54315.html). Many people report seeing cats out of the corner of their eye but other things are common as well. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/3 "2013-04-22T20:45:01Z")
I’ve seen references to the concept of [sehnsucht](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sehnsucht) before. The Wikipedia page gives a full description of sehnsucht, but doesn’t mention the song. [This site does:](http://scraps.bethanynewman.com/post/7627979373) > [@Scraps](#): > > Another feature of Sehnsucht, as we see in the preceding quote, is that one may have the impression that in childhood we were much closer to a grasp of the object of the Sehnsucht-longing whereas now we have only the remembrance of it, or even merely the shadow of a remembrance. There is regret in that we no longer know what we long for, if we ever did. So, for instance, in “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd we hear: > > _When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse, > Out of the corner of my eye. > I turned to look but it was gone. > I cannot put my finger on it now. > The child is grown, the dream is gone. > I have become comfortably numb._ ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/4 "2013-04-22T20:54:57Z")
Weird. One of the examples is from C.S. Lewis - “That unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, . . .” Some of us feel an overwhelming sense of unity and completeness instead - a feeling we want to last forever. I feel this when I step off my back porch in the middle of the night and look into the ‘lovely woods, dark and deep’ heavy with smell of organic decay. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/5 "2013-04-22T21:40:13Z")
I once experienced this when hiking in a Southwest canyon. I was suffering from heat exhaustion, migraine, extreme fatigue, and other problems. I saw and heard people walking to my left and right, but they disappeared when I tried to look at them. I occasionally experience this with one of my cats . . . never with the other one. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/6 "2013-04-22T21:51:01Z")
The unfulfilled literature teacher in me imediately thought, _Intimations of Immortality._ Apparently Wordsworth had the experience. In the case of Pink Floyd, was the lyric by Syd Barrett? If so perhaps it was a precursor to his later mental health issues? Or the great compromisor within asks, “Could it possibly be both?” Why not? ETA: Wait a minute - Young English lyricist was cribbing Wordsworth! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/7 "2013-04-22T22:07:57Z")
One term that is used to describe this (or maybe a related phenomenon) is [_presque vu_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu#Presque_vu) (almost seen) > [@](#): > > Presque vu (from French, meaning “almost seen”) is the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany. Often very disorienting and distracting, presque vu rarely leads to an actual breakthrough. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/8 "2013-04-22T22:09:57Z")
Yes, I thought of [Intimations of Immortality](http://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html) too: > [@](#): > > Originally posted by **William Wordsworth** (opening stanza): > > THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, > The earth, and every common sight, > To me did seem > Apparell’d in celestial light, > The glory and the freshness of a dream. > It is not now as it hath been of yore;— > Turn wheresoe’er I may, > By night or day, > The things which I have seen I now can see no more. The lyric is not by Syd Barrett, though. It is Roger Waters, from long after Syd had gone off the deep end. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/9 "2013-04-22T22:54:07Z")
I’d go with ‘optical illusion.’ Peripheral vision is more illusion than actual data, anyway. The ability to see clearly and recognize what’s happening in just peripheral vision is weak and the brain makes up for it by filling in the gaps. And so, we have a part of the brain running a subroutine, as it were, always filling in the gaps of peripheral vision to give us the illusion of clear and accurate sight in a wide field of vision… and things can go wrong. Several pop eye-teasers play on that optical illusion going wrong. And it can go wrong on it’s own. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/10 "2013-04-22T22:58:59Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I occasionally experience this with one of my cats . . . never with the other one. So . . . you have a familiar eh? WITCH!!! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/11 "2013-04-23T03:42:58Z")
I should have known there’d be a word for it in German. Sehnsucht seems to be close. Thanks for the Wordsworth and other interesting links. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/12 "2013-04-23T03:50:38Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I once experienced this when hiking in a Southwest canyon. I was suffering from heat exhaustion, migraine, extreme fatigue, and other problems. I saw and heard people walking to my left and right, but they disappeared when I tried to look at them. Sounds like you damn near died of dehydration. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/13 "2013-04-23T04:33:39Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > One term that is used to describe this (or maybe a related phenomenon) is [_presque vu_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu#Presque_vu) (almost seen) This drives me absolutely batty. I attribute it to my brain damage. This is going to be hard to explain and might not make sense but as you may or may not know, most mental processing happens well below the level of conscious awareness. My theory is that in a whole, properly functioning brain, processing can bubble up from those lower levels to the conscious level in a variety of ways - a little like the scientist who discovered benzene’s ring structure when he dreamed of 6 snakes in a ring biting each others tails - or something like that (might check wiki if I’m not too lazy). He had puzzled over it for a very long time and on some level had made the connection but this is how he had to “see” it. I “see” things like this all of the time but can seldom make the necessary connections and it pisses me the fuck off. Sometimes it turns out that I’m simply trippin’ yo. Other times I find out what the connection is and end up kicking myself. 99% of the time I never find out. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/14 "2013-04-23T14:56:13Z")
I never had that, but a couple of times as a child I had a fever and my hands really did feel like two balloons. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/15 "2013-04-23T15:03:58Z")
> [@mack](#): > > teeny-bopper fleeting glimpses of bliss This was an early teens thing for you? The “when I was a child” segments of the song always made me envision a kid of maybe 6 or 8, and so did your post, up until this line. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/16 "2013-04-23T15:13:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The lyric is not by Syd Barrett, though. It is Roger Waters, from long after Syd had gone off the deep end. Syd never went off the deep end, he was just too far beyond the horizon for anyone else to follow. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/17 "2013-04-23T16:19:36Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > This was an early teens thing for you? The “when I was a child” segments of the song always made me envision a kid of maybe 6 or 8, and so did your post, up until this line. I don’t remember what age this started, exactly. 6 or 8 seems young. Maybe more like 11 or 12/onset of puberty. I’m 51 now so it was a while ago. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/18 "2013-04-23T16:29:54Z")
This phenomena seems to me to also be related to the conceit that the world we experience is something like an illusion or construct, and that if you could just ‘turn around’ quick enough you’d get a look behind the curtain and see the world’s real workings. I’d also bet it’s related to the more or less vague feeling some have that one is some kind of imposter or fake (for me, it’s that I was literally an alien) and the world is an elaborate stage upon which they act or are studied or whatever. Also, didn’t Plato basically think that babies are born with perfect knowledge of all things (or maybe just of the Forms) and that life’s experiences kind of beat that knowledge out of you? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/19 "2013-04-23T16:34:56Z")
> [@mack](#): > > I should have known there’d be a word for it in German. . Boy, those Germans have a word for everything! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429/20 "2013-04-23T16:44:30Z")
I’ve been reading \*Hallucinations \*by Oliver Sacks, and in one chapter on hemianopia (loss of sight in one-half of the field of vision), describes how people keep hallucinating stuff in the nonfunctioning half-field. The brain has a way of filling in what it expects to get, but isn’t getting, from sensory input. Maybe in the outer edge of the field of vision, the brain is expecting something that happens to be just out of reach of ocular perception, and just makes up something. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-term-for-this-line-out-of-comfortably-numb/656429.md?page=2)