I twice jumped into a lake with multiple inches of ice on top for a short swim. It was for a charity event. I learned the following: when your animal brain decides your human brain isn't doing a good job, it will not hesitate to take over and save you.
The experience was:
1. In the air.
2. Hit the water.
3. Several seconds with no memory.
4. Swimming at the far edge of the water, even though I did not tell my body to swim here.
5. Getting out of the water, even though I did not tell my body to get out.
Instincts just took over entirely. I'm grateful the human body comes with autopilot in extreme situations. I've been saved from severe burns by the same phenomena: my instincts kicking in and dodging a plume of flaming oil that was headed for my face.
I've also had this work against me. In a former life, before I was a sedentary software developer, I worked as an apprentice lineman. When climbing a telephone pole, swaying in the wind, 45 feet (~13m) in the air, my animal brain desperately wanted me to get down. Eventually, you're able to convince your brain that this is normal, but it takes some doing. We had one person get stuck in the air because they couldn't get past it.
I am always impressed by my animals brain to identify anything that is heading straight for my eye, perception seems to focus in on the object, time seems to slow and you have that fraction of a second to dodge whatever was heading for your eye(most of the time).
I imagine it as some kind of pre-processor for safety that evolved to protect the eye, it gets the data before the higher conscious functions do.
The experience was:
1. In the air.
2. Hit the water.
3. Several seconds with no memory.
4. Swimming at the far edge of the water, even though I did not tell my body to swim here.
5. Getting out of the water, even though I did not tell my body to get out.
Instincts just took over entirely. I'm grateful the human body comes with autopilot in extreme situations. I've been saved from severe burns by the same phenomena: my instincts kicking in and dodging a plume of flaming oil that was headed for my face.
I've also had this work against me. In a former life, before I was a sedentary software developer, I worked as an apprentice lineman. When climbing a telephone pole, swaying in the wind, 45 feet (~13m) in the air, my animal brain desperately wanted me to get down. Eventually, you're able to convince your brain that this is normal, but it takes some doing. We had one person get stuck in the air because they couldn't get past it.