“The appetite for silence is seldom an acquired taste.” — Emily Dickinson
He lapsed into a fugue state. Eyes rolled back in his head. Body rigid in the distant past where crimes go unnoticed, and the present is a blur.
I can only imagine a body dissolved into inertia, finding comfort in a safe space. Catatonia is like a meditative coma without a zafu cushion.
It takes patience and trauma to make a silent escape. Something you can’t do on a whim, or practice blindly, but a skill like holding your breath underwater.
Frozen between now and then, labeled psychotic by many, drooling dreams and memories from an open mouth, sipping the world through a broken straw.
Mental illness is so misunderstood. The silent escape from catatonic schizophrenia seems akin to alzheimers(body existing separate from the mind). Thanks for sharing this Mark.
The idea of the mind making a silent escape while the body stays behind is fascinating, but also a really scary thought. The thought of being there physically but completely unreachable is frightening.
