When I was about 11 years old, my best friend and I were playing during recess at school, and I was carrying him around on my back, presumably pretending to be a multipart attack robot. All of a sudden, my heart started hurting, and I collapsed to my knees, and the robot was no more. Every time I inhaled, it would feel like a spike was being driven into my heart, and my breathing got completely shallow. I was sure I was done for, when all of a sudden, after an exhale, it disappeared.
It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I learned this was called Precordial catch syndrome and it happens to most everyone. Every friend I've told about it was surprised, and also most knew the feeling.
I collected a growing list of strange things bodies do ever since. And now finally I made it into a little page for others to see:
It includes a form to tell me about new things, if you think they belong on the page. Feedback welcome!
treetalker•1h ago
When I see someone else jump or fall from a height, I sense the fall in the bottoms of my feet and my lower legs. I feel both the drop and the landing. It also happens if I approach a ledge or dropoff.
vesterde•1h ago
Lovely! I mean odd… I will look into it, thanks!
treetalker•35m ago
Is this not something everybody feels?
vesterde•33m ago
I keep being surprised at both which feelings are universal, as well as which aren't. I think I know the one your'e talking about but from being kicked in the balls... For jumping I might have experienced it playing video games and falling further than I expected.
yzydserd•44m ago
Only 30-40% of people encounter brain freeze?
Fabulous site.
vesterde•40m ago
So it seems, it just happens to include everyone I've ever talked to about it
pixl97•15m ago
I have to be so careful eating cold things, it's like freeze++, brain glaciation.
I wonder about these sites that appear to be vibe coded from a simple prompt. Has the author even looked at the data or just did a little sample and figured that looks about right and hit publish
vesterde•29m ago
To either my credit or against it, wikipedia provides a lot of the raw data. However that makes you feel.
I've been making this list for years as markdown files with a few sentences and links to wikipedia (or xkcd for his visual field comic), but the site is indeed made with the help of AI.
SA9G•10m ago
They left out "autoheadslap", the sharp pain you get whenever anyone mentions Nvidia and you smack your forehead as you remember cancelling your massive buy order back when it was $110 and had not split yet!! It is often accompanied by uncontrolled twitching and repeatedly saying "fuuuuuuuuu" as you bite your tongue.
vesterde•2h ago
It wasn't until I was in my twenties that I learned this was called Precordial catch syndrome and it happens to most everyone. Every friend I've told about it was surprised, and also most knew the feeling.
I collected a growing list of strange things bodies do ever since. And now finally I made it into a little page for others to see:
https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/
It includes a form to tell me about new things, if you think they belong on the page. Feedback welcome!