[stoney]

Here's what I figured out. I had to train myself to do this, but it worked over time. When I would get to the point of "paralysis" I would look around the room at the DETAILS of the room. What seemed to be my actual surroundings, was in fact just my mind's idea of what the room looked like. I started noticing small differences to which I could finally conclude that the visuals were indeed "a mental model based on expectations".

This wasn't just an overnight whim of an idea, I've had these experiences for almost 10 years now, usually 5-10 times a month. It took months to train myself to start taking control of these experiences.