I’ve wanted to write this post for some time, but I kept putting it off because I could not remember some of the details. But it fits nicely in a Memorial Day type theme so, oh well…
Way back when in the ’08 presidential race, I was perusing talk radio and I came across Dennis Prager interviewing a former Vietnam POW who was in the Hanoi Hilton Prison camp the same time John McCain was. I cannot remember his name and it drives me crazy. And Google couldn’t help me either.
But this veteran was a POW for seven years! Ouch. That’s a long time to be beaten on a daily basis. Of those seven years he was in solitary confinement for two of them. TWO YEARS!!! That’s insane!
Cooped up in a little rat hole for two years with no human contact would drive anybody out of their mind. So obviously, Prager asked him how he kept from going insane. This was the gist of his reply-
“I basically sat there and started with the earliest memory I had -which was when I was about two- and mentally re-created my entire life, moment by moment, up until the time I was in that prison cell. I formed a mental timeline of my life, recalled every single memory I had of everything I had ever experienced and even thought, and filed everything chronologically on my life time line.”
WHAT!?!?! Unbelievable. I was totally blown away by that idea. He said it took him about three months to remember everything about his life. After the initial life timeline creation he would periodically remember something he had forgotten and file it in his mental autobiography. On those days it was huge deal -like somebody slipping him a new puzzle piece under the door. He would be ecstatic and have the energy to exist for just a little longer. Wow. I salute that guy and thank him for going through that for sure.
It is amazing what the human mind can and will do to adapt and survive. Equally amazing is the human mind instinctively creates something in order to survive. He didn’t just count or do something repetitive to stay sane -he created something with the only thing he had control over -his thoughts.
The thought of being stuck in a hole and having nothing but my thoughts is a chilling one indeed, but I am also intrigued by that idea. What if I had to mentally reconstruct my entire life up to this present moment? Would I be happy with it? What would I regret? What would I wish to have done differently?
In communist countries where possessing a Bible or any religious literature was met with severe punishment, people would oftentimes memorize huge sections of the Scriptures. And in some cases, people were known to have memorized the entire New Testament word for word. So the mind is capable of extraordinary feats and I do not doubt its ability to replay one’s entire life back if forced to.
An intriguing and frightful notion in one.
this is an amazing story. I can’t believe that this guy is still sane after all he had gone through. Great post!