The White Flash

When pain exceeds what the psyche can hold, it disconnects the “I” from what is happening: sound drops away, thoughts vanish, the body acts on its own, memory tears. This is dissociation — the brain’s emergency fuse, not a loss of sanity.

Simon “didn’t decide to stand” because there was no one left to decide: consciousness had fallen out of the loop for a few seconds. People often cannot remember how they ran out, screamed, hit something. Frequent dissociation is a sign that the load has long been beyond a person’s limit — a signal for help, not for judgment.