Thanx for the elaborate post Brian, it shed some new light on the whole story.
Still, I have some more questions to get the big picture.
You say you know it before the night starts, but how do you know it? Is it a certain feeling (can you describe it)? Do you know beforehand what it will be about (can you control it in any way)?
How often does this occur, roughly? Have you ever tried filming yourself in one of those nights and watch yourself in that state afterwards?
Also, you say that the next day you get into a trance state when applying your newly learned skills. Is it a feeble or a strong trance? Can you stop or control it? Is it like you are just watching yourself do these things or are you actively using your cognitive mind? For example, while programming, do you just let your fingers run over the keyboard or actively thinking about how the structure of the program has to look like and what step has to be done next?
And of course, what other skills are there that you have gained, and would you say that once you have learned one of these skills, can you use it everytime you want afterwards or does it get weaker over time?
It certainly looks like that accident has sth. to do with it in some way (35 feet...damn). I think one of the more rational and not too out-of-this-world solutions would be that during the accident your spine might have penetrated parts of your brains cortal and/or other areas, thereby changing its working and functioning in some way. Have you had your head X-rayed in the recent past and have experts look for strange patterns and structures?
I agree with RobotButler that this seems like some sort of autism or savant-like abilities. These people are able to very efficiently use certain parts of the brain that most people can not acces that way, but almost always this goes hand in hand with a lack in social abilities (for instance, they might not be able to understand sarcasm or read body language at all, because they are so trained on just processing hard and cold information that other parts of their brains come short and are extremely under-developed).
You say that you can basically "read through" people, so that would contradict this theory a bit. Would you consider yourself a normal person in social interactions (probably hard to answer that question yourself)? Or better, how do you think others perceive you while interacting (talking)? Do you think they get confused about your staring them into the eyes? Can you stop that if you want or is it hard to fight it?
Lots of questions

, but this is just really intersting and fascinating.
If you could control your ability, this would obviously be great. On the other hand, you say you are seeking help, so you might not be too happy about it and see some dark sides to it, maybe you could elaborate on that point a little more, too.
Bookmarks