Summary of the Site 

Copyright 2003 -  Revision Feb 15, 2010

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This site is about a conflict of human physiology that shaped history but was undetected  until the 1960's.

In the entire history of man on the planet Earth this phenomenon was discovered only once.

It caused mental breaks for office workers.

You will find this material hard to believe.

This phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology lectures where students don't believe it either.

For that reason I wrote a demonstration that will allow you to experience the phenomenon.

The Everquest Connection page has the explanation and assumes you have not taken basic psychology.

The solution for this problem was the office Cubicle.

This site argues that the this phenomenon causes College Suicides and Missing Students.

The phenomenon causes mental events around the world, Chaco Canyon.

If you use computers in unprotected workspace such as homes, dorms, student apartments, and small business offices read  ...Prevention... at the bottom of most pages.

Long  term exposure can cause severely altered mental states. Qi Gong  Kundalini Yoga

There is a steep learning curve for this phenomenon. I suggest you read all the way through then go back for a slow digestion of the material. TOP

The problem on this site was discovered and solved forty years ago. It is not a brain disease or mental disorder. Most who have this episode recover quickly with no after effects.

The risk is that someone  having the episode will act out the delusions causing harm to themselves or others.

At a minimum they might make life altering decisions unaware of their altered perceptions.

In extreme cases those altered perceptions may include hallucinations or hearing voices.

This is a lot of information to grasp all at once. I have been investigating seven years. Although true, the basics are taught in first semester psychology, most who hear about this problem don’t believe it. 

All of the information is available to anyone. It is in plain sight. All that is needed is a small piece of information, a key, to understand how the puzzle pieces fit together. In this case the key is needed to understand what and where the puzzle pieces are.

That information key is that a normal feature in everyone's physiology of sight is capable, under very special circumstances, of causing mental breaks.

 The first phase of my project is finished but the  investigation is not complete. The next step is to connect the leads and get case histories. That will examine and test the premise eliminating false leads.

You don’t need the finished project to learn enough to act by making small changes in computer workstations and student study areas to avoid it.

Although this is a problem that was discovered and solved forty years ago there is evidence it continues today.

The thought process behind this site is that if Subliminal Distraction is a serious problem, ... evidence exists. The problem is finding it. No one is aware of Subliminal Distraction. They don't use that term. Other terms must be used and set into Google Alerts that report news stories to be investigated over time.

This page  is the thread of information you should understand from reading the research pages. You would not be able to put this together quickly from a first reading.  When you go to the associated site page there will be links to articles and papers used to gather data. None of those Internet sources mention the conflict of physiology or Subliminal Distraction. No one seems to be aware the problem exists. In most cases psychosocial psychobabble reasons are given to explain bizarre behaviors.

The only source to verify this phenomenon is to talk to designers working for Herman Miller Inc., Steelcase, Knoll or other manufacturer. Only the designer will have the information and they will not be willing to talk if they think you intend to reveal the information.  They believe the phenomenon causes a harmless temporary episode.

Designers recognize only the episode they see from business office exposure. They have no reason to guess what the outcome from different lengths and intensities of exposure would be.

There are posts I wrote about the problem you can find by Googling my name, L K Tucker(with spaces), LKTucker(no spaces) LK Tucker(initials not spaced), Researcher, or Researcher44. I would have also used VisionAndPsychosis.Net or VisionAndPsychosis_Net in those posts. Some sites will not allow posting of a URL.

___________________

This information does not prove the case but represents only circumstantial evidence a that Subliminal Distraction is a major stressor for mental illness.

Conflict of Physiology - The Basics

This information about human physiology, but not the name ”Conflict of Physiology,” is from first semester psychology the ‘physiology of sight.’

The subliminal detection of threat movement from behind to cause a startle or peripheral vision reflex happens at a level in the brain below thought, reason, or consciousness. At that primitive level there is no memory associated with the subliminal detection of movement and only movement and position are involved.  This signal is carried on the M-Channel for vision in the brain.

Visual Subliminal Distraction happens when you create a situation so that your brain repeatedly attempts but fails to trigger the vision startle reflex.  

When you decide that threat-movement is actually safe you can attach a zero level of attention to it, ignore it. The startle will stop. That blocks the second half of the reflex which is to turn and look at the movement. After that point you never gain the information about what the object that moved is.

Far peripheral vision consists of movement and position information only. Stationary objects in this area of vision are invisible. Your brain will never be aware of the source of movement.

 It is a normal feature of everyone's physiology and  is usually harmless. Serious problems can happen when your exposure is  many times each hour, for several hours daily, and for several days.

The failure to discern the object that moved means you can have exposure from more than one source every day. Your brain can’t tell that there is more than one source or that a source is repeating . When a threshold of exposure is reached the mental break happens.

The conflict of physiology is that while you can learn to ignore the movement that would break your concentration, you can’t “stop seeing” anything in your vision field and you can’t tell your brain to stop subliminally detecting movement then acting by  attempting to force a reflex. The subliminally functioning brain system continues as long as you maintain the circumstances of concentration to a level of full mental investment while there is detectable movement nearby in peripheral vision.  

Our physiology is not adapted to sitting, concentrating, in unprotected space with movement in peripheral vision. We developed as hunter gathers and there was no activity to shape our evolution to the modern business situation.

When you understand that it should be obvious that location is irrelevant as is the source of movement. It’s not a problem of business offices but one of human physiology. That means it has been happening as long as man constructed shelters and several family members lived in too-small single-room arrangements. Sooner or later an arrow maker, flint knapper, leather worker, or other family member would work on something while others moved in the small space.  If there were enough light SD exposure would have happened.

In most primitive societies hearing voices is understood as speaking to ancestors and those with this power are revered. Hearing voices was one of the first things that happened to Connie when she had this episode.

History and the basic thrust of my site.

Insanity has been with us as long as there has been recorded history and before. The Bible recounts healing of madmen by Jesus. The casting out of demons was the Biblical solution for madness.

As early as the 1500’s people were put in mad houses. In one instance in London, 1783, they were left alone except for feeding because it was believed nothing could be done for them.  Caretakers were surprised when some of the madmen recovered without treatment. This is called Spontaneous Remission.

Reverend George Trosse, noted churchman and author, was confined in a mad house, then recovered and left three separate times.

The last time he recovered it was permanent. He lived a normal life with no further episodes.

Today the cause of spontaneous remission as well as the cause of mental illness is unknown.  No matter what you have heard, read, or watched in media there is no consistent stressor known to cause madness. There is no ’testable objective evidence’ that mental illness is caused by chemical imbalances. There are those with mental illness but no chemical imbalance, and those with chemical imbalance but no mental illness.

The believed-to-be causes represent statistical correlations not proof. This belief system of investigators that correlation equals proof, has led to wasted research time and money.

Drugs

Drug companies are allowed to sell psychotropic drugs if they beat random chance or placebo in trials by any amount no matter how small.

One investigation gathered all the data reported to the FDA for six current anti depressive drugs. That information  revealed that to get the two required positive tests for each of the six drugs a total of forty seven tests had been run. The companies suppressed the failed testing. Failed tests do not count against the drug being tested.  

Why should there be failed testing for drugs allowed to be sold?

In studies patients will get better on placebo but fall back when told they were taking the placebo.

(The drug page is being written but there are notes, links and quotes, on the Psychotic Mental Illness page.)

The accidental discovery

In he 1950’s and 1960’s office furniture manufacturers began a program to modernize the business office. Haworth introduced the first room partition walls in 1953. Herman Miller introduced the “Action Office 1” in 1964 but by 1968 had modified it by adding moveable panels creating the “Action Office System” or Cubicle. A biography of Robert Propst on the Herman Miller site claims the invention of the Cubicle in 1968.

What happened? …Knowledge workers using the first prototype models of newly designed workstations began to have mental breaks. Subliminal Sight and Peripheral Vision Reflexes had operated in the “special circumstances” the new workstations created to cause mental events. (I know about this because I was there in engineering school in the 1960’s.)

Those designers, engineers, and human factor scientists thought they had created this problem for the first time. They failed to understand it is a problem of human physiology not office workspace. It will appear anywhere the “special conditions” are created and maintained long enough to cause a critical level of Subliminal Distraction exposure.

In the entire history of man on the planet Earth that was the only time this problem was discovered.

What do these things mean?

Without a known cause of mental illness nor a reason for spontaneous remission it cannot be determined if a treatment worked or if there was a spontaneous remission while under treatment.

It should raise your suspicions when it was reported that talk therapy often works as well as drugs for treatment. …Say What!

No one is testing, nor is it possible to test, the same cases to see if waiting, withholding treatment, is just as effective as talk therapy or drug treatment. You can’t wind back time and have a do-over.

Cases for study are selected because they have the same diagnosis from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness of the American Psychiatric Association). That does not assure that each case is the same problem.

The question is, …are drug and talk therapy treatments claiming credit for people who had spontaneous remissions?

No one knows nor can anyone know. We believe the doctors because they wear white coats.

Altered Mental States

The exercises discussed below demonstrate the basis for my discovery that there are levels of exposure that allow altering thought and reason without the full mental break. Unaware of the subliminal stimulation of their subconscious, it would allow someone to make life changing mistakes while believing the decision was their own thought process alone. Note that with enough exposure the full mental break does eventually happen with both exercises. It has been reported to happen after retreats when the exercise was performed many times daily for a few days.

For over 3000 years users of Qi Gong and Kundalini Yoga believed that their group exercises allowed them to transcend normal reality.  It is called ‘Opening the Third Eye’ in Qi Gong and the ‘Awakening of Kundalini’ in Yoga. It is generally described as “enlightenment.”

Qi Gong masters say they are manipulating Qi (pronounced Chee). In Yoga it is called Prana.  Qi Gong Psychotic Reaction or Deviation is listed in the DSM as a Culture Bound Syndrome of China. Victims function normally except for the bizarre beliefs and the occasional temporary mental break.  It takes imagination to see it but their activity copies the business office “special circumstances.”   

 DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness of the American Psychiatric Association, the Bible of mental illness.

I want to impress on you that these people believe it they stand in a group and perform slow motion martial arts movements in unison they will be able to transcend physics, gravity, and normal reality. In Kundalini Yoga they perform a set of Yoga poses and do not hold the pose.

In both cases there are named katas that are said to improve specific ailments.

Do you really believe waving your arms and legs around in group exercises commands powerful supernatural forces? There must be a simple explanation for these mental states and bizarre beliefs.

The Answer

The moving meditating groups are engaging full mental investment to correctly perform the katas during eyes-open meditation. That allows them to subliminally detect the movement of those performing the exercise near them. That’s Subliminal Distraction. The bizarre beliefs happen with long-term low-level exposure. Full but temporary psychotic events happen with intense exposure in a compact time frame.  Stopping the exercise allows a spontaneous remission. But long term exposure fixes those bizarre beliefs into permanent altered mental states.

Those who simply perform the movements with little concentration or without eyes-open meditation can not have Subliminal Distraction exposure from the exercise. .

That is a very important point. It is an observation not a theory or guess.

Qi Gong masters begin to believe they have superhuman or supernatural powers. They believe they can cast Qi (chee) energy from their fingertips to strike opponents. The leader of the Falun Gong movement has performed Qi Gong since he was six. He recently declared that he is God. In a Time Asia interview he said the most serious problem facing the world today is that extraterrestrial aliens are cloning humans to take over the Earth. (He lives in New York.)

When Kundalini Yoga users begin to hear voices and feel strange sensations they believe they are experiencing an Awakening of Kundalini. Long term users believe they can levitate, dematerialize at will, walk through solid objects unharmed, read your thought, and control your actions through mental telepathy. This is not considered mental illness because within their groups of common belief set and culture they are revered as enlightened.

(See the National Geographic Channel program clip on the First Psychotic Episode page.)

The DSM only includes as mental illness or disorders those behaviors that are problematic for normal life situations. This is a major mistake. It does not posit that there are low levels of mental disturbance before full mental illness strikes.

Both exercises create the circumstances to allow Subliminal Distraction exposure. It is that simple explanation.

Psychiatric Outcomes

Rarely an incident occurs where the effected group is isolated so that there can be little extraneous input to challenge the connection between Subliminal Distraction and behaviors like mental illness.

Often the comment from academics is that they want to wait until some authority has studied the phenomenon, performed experiments to establish the validity of the new theory.

 First, experiments  that could cause mental illness or even temporary psychotic breaks  would not be allowed under current ethical restrictions.

Second, the experiments have already been performed. They exist as historical events if you can find them.

The most revealing incident happened on the Belgian Polar Expedition of 1898.  Eighteen otherwise normal sailors and scientists began to go insane when the Belgica, a converted whaler, was trapped in polar ice for a year. One man became a deaf mute, another hid in small spaces to sleep believing the others were plotting to kill him. Dr. Cook blamed the twenty-four hour darkness but when the sun returned in the spring the symptoms got worse. Then he blamed the twenty-four hour daylight. They began to return to normal when they worked outdoors chopping the ship out of the ice. Only one man was permanently insane. Roald Amundsen escorted him back to Norway on a mail boat. No one has solved the mystery of what happened aboard the Belgica.

Doctor Cook, ship's doctor, was the only person not effected. He remained active performing his medical duties. The others sat passing time, daydreaming, and doing nothing.  The scientists worked  recording data from experiments they had planned for the normal voyage. Some re-wrote their journals organizing previous observations. 

There are quotes from Dr. Cook's book "Through the First Antarctic Night" on the Astronauts & Insanity page.

Subliminal Distraction is a vision driven phenomenon. Sunlight returning in the spring would have increased exposure.

This incident is important because it reveals that depression is an outcome of Subliminal Distraction exposure.  Depression is viewed as a cause of psychopathology. The cause of depression is viewed as an outcome of the weakness and frailty of the human psyche. Depression is one of the listed outcomes of the mental distress that happens to Qi Gong and Kundalini Yoga participants. While they ignorantly believe the mental events are caused by supernatural forces they correctly record the symptoms. That’s two sources to show depression is one outcome of Subliminal Distraction exposure.

There have been other incidents on modern polar expeditions. “Screaming Seaman” is a panic attack aboard US Navy submarines (“Bold Endeavors,” Stuster). The Russian Soyuz 21 mission was cut short when the mission engineer had a psychotic mental break. The Russian space agency listed twelve possible causes. None were validated. But the tiny cabin of Salut 5 would have allowed the special circumstances for SD exposure to be created. The Cosmonaut recovered when back on Earth which is another feature of an SD exposure episode.

Neither NASA nor the Russian space agency is aware of the problem. Several efforts to reach someone in authority have failed.  Both space agencies have reported psychological problems with personnel on missions.

When fist fights over chess games happened on Russian missions they banned chess in space.  

Bizarre Behavior

In 1880 a New York neurologist heard of strange behaviors in French Canadian lumberjacks at Mooselake Maine. He visited the area and the disorder became known as Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Disease.  Later it appeared in other lumber camps in Canada. Called a ‘Startle Matching Behavior,’ it is known as Latah in Malaysia and by other names around the world. 

The behaviors are so strange they cannot be mistaken for anything else. Upon startle the victim will copy actions shown them or perform any demand given to them even if that action is harmful to them. They sometimes repeat their last words or the last words spoken to them. Those last two behaviors are usually only seen in catatonic schizophrenia. (See the Culture Bound Syndromes page on my site)

Around the world victims of Culture Bound Syndromes live with families in single-room huts, hogans, tents, or other small easy to construct structures. In low income areas large families are squeezed into small apartments. In Mooselake lumberjacks lived in bunkhouses and in Malaysia entire villages lived in a single-room longhouse.

When you examine the case for startle matching behavior the circumstances for Subliminal Distraction are there.

This behavior demonstrates that hyper-suggestibility is an outcome of Subliminal Distraction exposure  

It posits the explanation of why placebos appear to work at least in mental illness. Suggestibility explains why some get better on placebos but relapse when they discover the medicine wasn't real. 

Culture Bound Syndromes

The DSM included twenty-five Culture Bound Syndromes for the first time in the last printing. CBS's are mental events that happen around the world. An example, Ghost Sickness, among plains natives in the American west, has symptoms that parallel mental illness, hearing voices. Hearing voices is not recognized as such but it is mentioned in cases of hearing earth banks collapse when there is no earthen bank within hearing distance. The voices, sounds, must come from memory. When the sound of something crossing dry leaves is heard where there are no dry leaves natives would return to the spot looking for the tracks of spirit animals they believed caused the sounds. They did not have the concept of hearing voices or mental illness. The cause of Ghost Sickness was believed to be too close contact with the dead.

No one has had the key piece of information to allow all the syndromes to be connected. That information is the accidental discovery that Subliminal Distraction can causes psychiatric symptoms and that small single-room living arrangements allows SD exposure

Because Culture Bound Syndromes are a poorly understood phenomenon there are illnesses included that should not be there. Fever is one indicator that the distress listed is not a CBS.

One of the last ongoing Culture Bound Syndrome behaviors is called Grisis Siknis among Miskito Indians in Nicaragua and Honduras. During a sudden mental event they pick up sticks or other objects and fight with invisible foes.  Women claim these invisible people are trying to have sex with them.

Strange skin sensations like ants biting are one of the symptoms not listed in on-line pages about Grisis Siknis. That points to Subliminal Distraction as the source of these temporary episodes.

I am in contact with a Christian Missionary group working with these natives. Toxic foods are suspected to be a cause by the American medical establishment but an outbreak after hurricane Fredrick points to Subliminal Distraction. The effected group is teenage girls. What do these girls do during times the whole family is forced to stay indoors for long periods? I plan to find out. This group also quickly recovers until the next outbreak. (Google Grisis Siknis.)

The missionary group is building modern housing for the natives. If the houses are multi-room or dedicated room designs Grisis Siknis will disappear like Jumping Frenchmen of Maine did when modern logging equipment replaced bunkhouses of men in remote lumber camps.

Culture Bound Syndromes page

Disappearances

Artisans, clerks, and small shop owners began to disappear during the 1880’s in France. The problem spread to Germany, France, Italy and Russia. Today it is called Dissociative Fugue. One person walked from France to Moscow before regaining his senses. Dr. Hacking blamed ecological niches and running away from self (“Mad Travelers,” Hacking).  Those occupations involve knowledge work. It is significant that there were no farmers, game keepers or other outdoor workers involved.

In 2003 when I spoke with a cold case officer about the Mary Shotwell Little disappearance, 1965, he remembered that the Atlanta Police Department had a problem with the phenomenon and switched their desks to cubicles. They had never connected the business office problem with Little's strange disappearance. If Little is still alive she would be about seventy. They also did not connect it to Mark Barton the Atlanta Day Trader killer. He put his computer in the Stockbridge, Georgia apartment's living room where his two children and wife would have moved around him as he investigated on the Internet for stock trading information.. Neither trading company had provided Cubicle Level Protection for their computer terminals. They were placed side-by-side on long tables. If you want to understand what having a Subliminal Distraction episode is like read Barton's suicide note. Part of it is quoted on this site.

The Janet March and Beverly Watson disappearance cases have information that suggests they were victims. No one gathered critical information that would have been there at the time. Both husbands were convicted of murder in the two cases.

Historic Disappearances

In the 1300’s in the American southwest an entire culture disappeared, the Anasazi.  Modern research shows they actually abandoned large multi family cliff dwellings and moved to smaller single family houses. Many solutions to the mystery have been proposed then discounted with additional research but mental illness has not been proposed.

Investigators have remarked that the building of single family houses in inaccessible locations makes it appear they were fighting some enemy. Trails have been found with hideouts so someone could, unobserved,  watch their back trail for anyone following them. No such enemy has ever been found. Instead they were experiencing paranoia from Subliminal Distraction exposure. Houses and even cliff dwellings had single rooms for family groups. That would have allowed SD exposure.

Burials where the bones had been smashed into tiny pieces have been found. This suggests that entire families were killed for some infraction. It is believed that the crushing of their bones prevented the deceased from returning and seeking vengeance. What do you think would have been the understanding when someone began to act out the delusions, visions, hallucinations, and hearing voices from a sudden Subliminal Distraction episode? We still don't understand what hearing voices is today.

Today the Navajo still use Hogans that are essentially a single room dwelling.

 Chaco Canyon page

Missing Students

Subliminal Distraction exposure is proposed as the cause of bizarre disappearances and suicides of college students,

There has been a problem of student disappearances at US colleges although they actually happen around the world.  Often it appears that the student just stopped what they were doing and walked away.  Brian Shaffer, Maura Murray, Michael Negrete, Josh Guimond, and Justin Gains are examples. Other cases go back fifty years. (I have a Google Alert that turns up additional old cases on the anniversary of each disappearance. News reporters write follow up stories on significant anniversaries.)

A clue to what is happening lies in very few who have recovered and returned.

Ahmad Arain disappeared after leaving a bus in Watts while on his way to a meeting at UCLA. He walked to Mexico, recovered enough to remember his email address after six weeks, and sent a message home. The family stated he had a mental break.

Hannah Upp, teacher and grad student, disappeared while on her daily run. She was seen several times but was rescued while attempting suicide in New York. A family statement admitted a fugue state.

Mathew Wilson was arrested In Berkeley California eight months after he disappeared from Rice in Houston. He was placed on suicide watch because of bizarre behavior then released to his mother. He, like Arain, was a computer science major and Rice does not offer Cubicle Level Protection. He also played table top dungeons and dragons games in his apartment each week.  There has been information from China that games requiring planning, Mahjong, can cause episodes that present like epilepsy It is likely the Chinese doctors are seeing SD exposure. One of Matthew’s friends believed he was a dissociative fugue victim, contacted me, and supplied information for my site.

The most revealing story is the oldest. It was so strange newspapers and local police recorded enough information so that I can conclude fifty six years later it was a Subliminal Distraction caused event.

An outbreak of disappearances at Miami of Ohio in 1952/53 begins the story. Several students disappeared, recovered, and then returned with amnesia of the events during the episode. When Ron Tammen disappeared they thought he would return too.

When they began searching for him a woman, who lived a three hour walk from the school, said he walked up to her porch and asked directions to a bus stop. He was too lightly dressed for the cold night. There was snow on the ground.  He was confused and didn’t know his own name. Ron Tammen is still missing,

You can link to the site sponsored by the Library at Miami University from my Missing Students page and see his unprotected study desk in a tiny room for two people. Fisher Hall was donated to the University. It was an insane asylum. The room had been sized, intended, for a single patient. The psychology department knew what was happening but not why. They called it 'a case of  amnesia.'

While on vacation after graduation, Amy Bradley said she was not feeling well but blamed it on the movement of the cruise ship. (Cruise ships don’t appear to move to the passengers.) She left the family’s room at about 5:30 am as the ship entered port and vanished. She was sighted on the beach and there have been other sightings. But she is still missing.

Maura Murray experienced a crying episode at a campus security station where she worked. Within a few days she wrecked two cars and disappeared from the scene of the second accident. She gave different false stories to explain why she needed a leave from school and work. Seen on security video at two stops before she vanished, she was alone.

Four years after he vanished during final exams Detective Lenford Forbes discovered that Joseph Morse died in Miami Florida the day after he walked away from Georgia Tech. His picture from an ATM had been on the FBI missing person’s site for those four years. He took out his last $120. A second engineering student disappeared from Ga. Tech and was found a suicide in his car weeks later. Pictures on-line show that Georgia Tech puts more than two students together in dorm rooms.

I warned Virginia Tech after the Cho shooting and got a confirmation from them. Nothing was done, of course. If they learn that failure to warn students and provide Cubicle Level Protection led to the shooting it would make Virginia Tech responsible for 33 deaths.  In two interviews on different cable TV news programs Cho’s roommates described Subliminal Distraction. Since then there has been a suicide, and then a beheading murder in the grad center snack bar.

In the first few hours it is not possible to determine what caused a disappearance. Investigations of the circumstances in the month before a disappearance should show Subliminal Distraction situations for fugue victims. I am planning to purchase a motor home now that I am free to travel and go to the locations where these events happen.

If schools informed students that Cubicle Level Protection is necessary when a study area or computer work station is located where there is movement in peripheral vision these disappearances and deaths would stop.

Missing Students page 

College Suicides

 Why would someone in college commit suicide? Experts argue that stress leads to depression and depression leads to suicide. But there are cases where the student did not have depression and appeared normal hours before their death.

The College Suicides page has a collection of cases which have appeared in the news over the last seven years. Schools fall behind a curtain of "privacy" for families after a death so that there is little information available. Many of the students were high achievers with no perceived reason to die.

 Families are distressed after a death and do not want to participate in a psychology investigation. Later after the student's possessions have been removed and roommates have disappeared there is no data to collect.

The stories are sometimes absolutely bizarre. One student was so friendly and well liked that he was known as the mayor of the campus. He walked with two friends along a concrete path beside a river engaging what they believed to be a normal conversation. Without warning he said something they did not understand and stepped into the water. His body was retrieved an hour later.

Another was using his computer performing school work when he put it down, left the apartment, and walked to a bridge then jumped off.

Michell Gluckman was sitting with friends on the apartment room floor sharing half of a marijuana cigarette when she said, I" gotta get out of here." She jumped up,  ran to the kitchen, and began to throw things off the window ledge behind the sink. Then she crawled head first out the three story window. Efforts to stop and hold her failed. She kicked free and fell to the roof of the building next door.

Joseph Zahornacky phoned his mother telling her he was on the way back to school from LaGuardia International Airport after visiting friends in Los Angeles. She later phoned him to learn he was twenty minutes from school. Logan Osberg called him and made plans to watch a movie later that night. Zahornacky  stopped to buy gas and make purchases at a Walgreens near I-95 showing he reached a point a few miles from campus. But he diverted, drove fifty miles, and down a boat ramp where he drowned.

Jeremy April  committed suicide with no warning to family or friends. He visited his mother in the hospital, picked up his roommate, and drove to their dorm (hour or more drive). After the roommate went to sleep he wrote a note and took an overdose of medication. He had just been accepted to the US Ski team. His had told friends he was having episodes of deep despondency.

What could strike so suddenly that parents and friends could not detect an oncoming suicide minutes earlier? 

Some suicides had symptoms of mental illness. Bipolar is a frequent diagnosis. It is episodic. The manic and depressive episodes wax and wane. No one has been able to determine why this happens.

If students were warned about Subliminal Distraction one of the side effects might well be fewer suicides.

College Suicides page

Video Games