strange mental experience when playing chess

It's called thinking.

Just kidding, its possibly because you saw a pattern which you recognised but didn't fully register what it was, subconciously you feel like there was something there.

Have you remebered to turn the bath off?

... the Freudian answer would be that you are a perfectionist and as such will always believe that you've missed something which should be obvious. You need to cut yourself some slack!

Same happens to me...It's the most annoying and frustrating thing in chess in my opinion

This explanation does not involve nearly enough incest for it to be an explanation of Freuds!

It will become obvious when  the water starts dripping through the ceiling.

Yes. It's kind of like how we can only process a finite amount of observations at any given time while the rest is doomed to the peripheral until our focus deems it priority enough to let one of the objects in the forefront dismissed to the outer with the trivial.

I think that sensation is common in many aspects of life.  It may not always come from a suddenly-apparent philosophical or emotional vacuum, but that sensation appears nonetheless.

You can't find your car keys.  You start looking for them frantically as you will be late for work without them, then realize after a few minutes that you have them in your hand already.

You drive to work.  You get there and lock up your car, then it occurs to you that you do not remember most of the trip that you just took.  Nothing stands out. 

You have an incredible urge to evacuate your bowels.  You are delayed for some reason--life presents delays for these things at times.  You finally get to do your business, and rather than expected immense relief, you end up feeling somehow less whole and even dirty for the loss.

Maybe that last one only happens to me.  ;-)

reminds me of that question to Andrew Martin

Tom Terrific Hi, Andrew, I'm in my 50's. I've been fascinated by the game of chess since my teens. Perhaps I'm imagining things; but I've always intuitively sensed an inner poetry to the game, and my principal interest in chess is not to win games, but to discover and appreciate this inner beauty. When I was younger, I thought that discovery of this "essence" or spirit of the game would naturally lead to faster learning of openings and more quickly becoming a winning player; but, while this intuitively seems likely, these are no longer principal concerns.

My inability to find any help in this quest, combined with my inability to make headway on my own, has led me to abandon the game multiple times, only to return later, sometimes after years, drawn again by this hidden "something." I've tried to get some help from books; but books quickly become incomprehensible. The enunciate principles, and then violate them without adequately explaining why. They may say why such-and-such a move is important in the situation; but what they never explain, and what they should explain, is the thought process that led them to question the fundamental principle they just violated - how the values were weighed. I know that the actual weighing of values is something one learns over time; yet the initial starting point should be explained. The author should say, "I know the rule says we aren't supposed to (put the knight here, move this pawn, or whatever). The reason the rule doesn't apply in this case is ..."

The spirit behind each piece, each line, each opening, and the game itself is my objective. It's more than philosophy; for lack of a better word, it's a question of poetry. All the books are written as if the poetry of chess could be reduced to merely its component elements; but, as everyone knows, poetry is much more than that. I want to see the soul of chess. Can you advise me?

Hi Tom. I don't know what you are on about!  Regards, Andrew.

The OP plays 9 bullet game in roughly nine months??  So Active.

So the drip of which @Stevie speaks (above) might be post-nasal.

Apparently this is the OP's "coming out" thread.  Scary stuff.

A bit of advice -- If you start having flashbacks to the Woodstock festival, maybe check with Health Services.

I believe I'm starting to have that exact same experience from reading this thread.

Yes fingers! I have the same anxieties..My keys are simple though ..I just whistle and they come to me..but i find that most, other people get anxious about my bowels and not me...always wondered?

It is the unknown unknown!

Maybe he should of landed this in help and support,the mods often reveal the unknown

Their bathroom might be leaking water too.

Oh no i have just taken the red pill....down the rabbits hole i go!  or was that the plug hole?

I often feel the same way. It normally occurs after I have made an error, and felt like I had seen this all coming. I also sometimes feel this way after missing a really good move. It is alright to do so, just relax and focus back on the game.

Perhaps chess gradually sucks your soul away.

wow