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Often people report feeling déjà vu and its opposite, something called jamais vu, when everything seems unfamiliar, such as my feeling of alienation in the office bathroom; seeing halos of light or viewing the world as if it is bizarrely out of proportion (known as the Alice in Wonderland effect), which is what was happening while I was on my way to interview John Walsh; and experiencing photophobia, an extreme sensitivity to light, like my visions in Times Square. These are all common symptoms or precedents of temporal lobe seizures.
Researchers have discovered that the BBB does allow for certain B-cells and T-cells to squeeze through, in a process called diapedesis, to do regular “checkups.”
The hippocampus tags the memory with context (the hospital room and the purple lady, for example), and the amygdala provides the emotion (fear, excitement, and pain).
Someone once asked, “If you could take it all back, would you?” At the time I didn’t know. Now I do. I wouldn’t take that terrible experience back for anything in the world. Too much light has come out of my darkness.
