Recent first time experience: Traveled by car some six hours north and west, and for 3 days felt north was south and east was west. I had to carry a compass at all times to understand directions to places and to use maps. I felt the directions and maps were wrong but by slavishly ignoring my directional sense I got along fine. Very disconcerting.

Watching the sun rise in the west and set in the east was eerie. Finding south and north consistently changed places was literally disorienting. I kept thinking if I concentrated I could reprogram my sense of direction, but that failed.

About half way on the drive home my internal gyroscope or whatever re-set and I am once again able to trust my sense of direction.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Moving temporarily from W-coast (Skandinavia) to E-coast of U.S. offset my internal gyroscope. I intuitively know where the Atlantic ocean is. Trouble was - the Atlantic ocean was now EAST of me, not west.

Even after 4 months I found myself repeating that "I'm going inland (away from the Atlantic), that's to the east" kind of mistake. Kind of annoying. Everything I entered an east/westbound highway in that part of the U.S. I need to double check that I'm not going in the opposite direction.

I've read of something like this affecting pilots. Despite their instruments saying one thing, they become convinced that they are wrong and go off in a different direction. Of course, the instruments were right and trouble ensues. Some people think this is what might have happened to the famous lost flight of Navy planes in Florida after WWII and usually blamed on the "Bermuda Triangle."

I think it is a topic worthy of study. Why does it happen? How many people who got lost and perished while hiking etc. became totally convinced that they were walking in the right direction (e.g. East) when they were actually walking west?

Moral: have, use and trust your compass.

Carry two compasses. They're cheap, and small. When you question one, consult the other.

It's not like watches. Confucious say: Man with one watch always know what time it is. Man with two watches never sure.

It doesn't get much better. I've been off the west coast for years and still do that. Usually with freeway directions - probably out of habit I want to jump on east-bound freeways (out in Cali, you run out of road pretty quick if you head westbound)

I've also had the disorientation thing. I currently live in VA, near a very large Navy facility. When I first moved here I was all sorts of screwed up in my internal compass (which was GREAT in numerous states). Eventually it's gotten better, but I think it may be a large amount of steel in the area - wonder if humans have that little compass-like organ that migrating birds have?

A college classmate in Oregon was from New Jersey and freshman year got up super early to drive to the Oregon coast to watch the sunrise. We kidded him about that for a long while.

I'm just back from a week in Tennessee, adjacent to the Smokies. Took me a frustrating couple of days to get my bearings so that I had a rough map in my head. I'm accustomed to knowing instantly what is N-S-E-W. Easy in DC since the streets are in a grid and the major monuments conform. Was easy growing up in Oregon because of the Cascade Mountains running due north. We lived on Mt. Hood.

I've marveled at my dogs' geospatial sense and recall over the years. They have an uncanny ability to remember specific rowhouses belonging to friends -- even when there are several identical alongside one another and we haven't been there for a long time. The rod iron fences and gates are virtually identical all over my neighborhood.

If I ever get lost and have no map, compass or GPS, I'll trust my pup to find the way home or trailhead.

It is known that many animals and birds have been observed to loose their sense of direction a few days to a week before a major earthquake.

I'm a snowboarder. What's a good compass for me to put in a jacket pocket?

I generally always have a wrist watch band compass on. Most of the good compass companies sell them, some a bit smaller than others.

I've been all over and never really had this problem. I know the sun rises generally in the east and go from there. I'm from NE, where the roads meander and US 95 (a N/S road) runs E/W thru CT, go figure. DW is from Idaho, where she used the Tetons as a visual reference for North. Considering we are now in NC, she never knows which way is what. Lack if her visual reference is my guess.

Slightly off topic - On a cross country drive preceeding me going to Korea for a year, we went from TN to RI to ID in that order. The first night, we slightly passed our exit to find a motel. The next morning it was very foggy. We took off onto an empty road, no traffic, and going in the wrong direction. To this day we use the phrase I used that day -- "Dunno where I am, where I'm going, but I'm making great time."

Here's what you do to really screw your sense of direction over. Go from living on the east coast of a big country in the southern hemisphere to living on the west coast of another big country in the northern hemisphere.

Have the climate and the vegetation and the terrain and the houses/buildings and the people be almost exactly the same, and you sometimes snap to attention thinking, "Wait a minute. Where the hail am I?!"

I've moved several times for my job, all in the North Central United States. In one, and only one location, I was unable to get my bearings, especially East-West, right for about 3 months. After 10 years, I moved away from that location. My bearings are fine here and there too. Go figure.

Dweste, were you in a place where the mountains were on your left as you faced north, instead of the usual right?

I grew up in southern California, living there from the age of 5 to 30, and I always had the San Gabriel Mountains a few miles to the north of me, running east to west.

For several years afterward, when I was living in Eugene/Springfield, OR, I would get disoriented because the mountains were to the east of me. My internal compass always seemed to keep swinging, trying to make the mountains North, which made South, East, and turned North into West. What was really stupid was that it affected my night driving there, too, when I couldn't even SEE the mountains.

Sue, another space cadet

This side of The Equator,With the sun on your Leftside,West is infront of you,North to your Right,Simple!

"This side of The Equator,With the sun on your Leftside,West is in front of you,North to your Right,Simple!"

I think that's mainly in winter, when the sun is low in the south. Here in WA, by the time we're near the winter solstice (Dec. 21), the sun only gets 19º above the southern horizon at noon, and the sun is rising in the SE and setting in the SW. At the summer solstice, it's 65.8º, and the sun is rising in the NE and setting in the NW. So, only around March and September is the sun close to rising in the true E and setting in the true W.

I have to remember this, because everytime I move, the mountains are in a different place!

Sue

Hills close to north and visible both east and west, open country south.

Home territory has Coast Range to the west and Sierra Nevadas to the east, both ranges running north-south.

Yes, I had that problem when I went to Zimbabwe. Had no sense of direction what so ever.

Most disorientating parts were:

Sun tracking across the skye to the North instead of the South.
The stars were completely different.


Serious sense of We Are Not In Kansas Anymore Toto......

For those of you who have shared the "lost in space" experience, did your sense of direction recover? Did you find any technique or practice that seemed to aid in your recovery?

Thanks.

Yes, turn R when you think you should go L, and vice versa. Fixed it completely. ;-)

If I may be slightly non-PC, this whole discussion reminds me of the story of the old Native American found wandering aimlessly and alone in the woods. When asked if he was lost, he replied, "Indian not lost, teepee lost."

Plus, you need to figure which direction the sun is going. If you're "lost in space", it's not obvious.

Dagny: I imagine your dogs were using their keen sense of smell -- they remembered the smell of the places. Tim

That's what I too was thinking.

Yes, eventually. Like I mentioned, usually the freeways get me. Plus, the big freeway here is a fricking loop, so the east/west becomes north/south and eventually west/east as you keep going around the loop.

Part of the problem too is unfamiliarity with the geography, I think. Once I got a decent mental image of the area, it's a lot easier. This area has a TON of swamps,rivers,peninsulas and lagoons.

However, I find that usually I do pretty well in cities that I have never been or rarely frequent. A few minutes with a map (more to find the destination), and I can usually get there relatively easily. My wife comments on it often. Somehow I seem to get my general direction instinctually (not necessarily looking at the sun or shadows or landmarks). So i don't know why I do poorly where I am now.

Well, no --- not for that particular experience. I still think Atlantic = West when I'm at the west coast of U.S.

Whenever I've been lost in the city or in the woods that "lost-in-space" feeling goes away pretty quick when I get my bearings right.



Substituting the east/west = direction of Atlantic thing is a conscious mental effort that I repeat whenever experience has taught me it may be nescessary. I.e. I think twice before I enter an eastbound/westbound highway in the U.S.

When I'm otherwise lost, a map and/or vantage point plus direction indicator (distant landmark or compass) is what I use to become un-lost.

When in a new location, I spend a bit of time early on, looking at a map and getting oriented. If I do this, I seem to do OK.

However if I neglect this step and get my orientation screwed up, it is almost impossible to get it right again.

There is one particular town in Florida that I got "wrong" many years ago. I get lost every time I go there.

Nomad.

That happened to me in the Orlando area. I would have sworn on a stack of sacred texts that I was heading east. I was heading north. Holy mackerel was that disturbing!! Also, I do not even venture off-pavement unless I know I will be able to keep a road in sight or auditory range. I am a basket case.