lancelac

6:04am - You open your eyes, and you're riding on an elevated train. Unrecognizable scenery rushes by and your first thought is "where the hell am I, and why am I on this train?". As the fear and panic rises in you it gets worse. Not only do you not know where you are, you don't know who you are. You have no memories whatsoever, no identity, no friends, no childhood, nothing. You can walk and talk, the learned memories for skills are there, but as to any event that occurred more than 5 minutes ago, blank.

What would you do in such a situation? Your family and friends are now complete strangers. Your apartment, clothing and possessions all seem borrowed. You need to relearn your surroundings, what food tastes like, what it feels like to see the ocean or a sunset. Would you end up being a similar person, or completely different? After a few years spent reforming yourself, would you even want your memories back?

Last night I checked out "Unknown White Male" at the Chicago Film Fest. It's a documentary about a guy who went through the above experience 2.5 years ago. No trauma, no drugs, no brain hemorrhage, just a sudden unexplained loss of everything and his process of dealing with it. It really brings up a load of questions about how we define ourselves and live our lives. Check it out if you ever get the chance, it's really interesting!