Staring trances: is this an aspie thing?

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my eyes sometimes fix on a certain place and just stay there without blinking whilst my mind clears and heartbeat and breathing slows. its like a trance but im still aware(awareness varies), mostly, of whats going on around me but im far away from everything and mightn't sense the passing of time or people talking to me. don't think i've described this well. is this just me being weird or is it an AS thing? do any of you, wherever you are on the spectrum, do this?

I don't.

My boyfriend does this, a LOT...he can be like this for 30 minutes (he will blink during that time, of course)...he does this because he's weird, lol so maybe it is something weird people have in common

I do this. I tend to have ... a certain level of awareness but I'd say I don't really have any volitional thought while it's happening. Most often everything just becomes a blur and I can't interpret anything or even think about the fact that I can't interpret anything. Sometimes I am able to see shapes and make out sounds but I don't know what they are because whatever attaches meaning to sensory input is shut off, and still no volitional thought.

I often wished I could press a fast-forward button in certain situations (I.e., waiting for a bus), and so I've been trying to perfect my "zoning out" mode so I do occasionally do it during boring situations where the only option is to wait (Almost never at home - I always have something to do.). However, it seems to creep some people out, so it's not always 'practical', dammit.

I do this quite often actually. I can't help it, sometimes I just get tired of taking in a whole bunch of information from being alert and I just have to focus on something, while ignoring everything else. Usually it doesn't happen for more than a few minutes at a time.

Always thought everyone did that.

I do that. (and far too often, probably)

I saw a study linked somewhere recently that said most people zone out to some extent and that apparently it helps with certain kinds of problem solving. I think it is more likely on the spectrum (or with ADHD) but most people seem to do it.

I do that but more often when I was younger than now. More than that, mind would go completely blank and I mentioned this to a shrink one time (1970ish) because it bothered me. He told me how lucky I was because in those days people went out of their way to achieve a meditative state but I could do it so naturally.

When I'm on line at a store I like to stare at the ceiling and when outside at the sky and I either zone out or get lost in mindless analysis of whatever's there. I've done it for years and remember making a conscious decision to look in a neutral direction, specifically away from people, in order to lessen the reactions.

I don't know if this what you're talking about but I can zone out and not realize it until I come back. I don't do it for a half hour or anything like that though. At least, I don't think I do.

Yeah, I do that sometimes.

The times where I don't blink, my eyeballs usually start to hurt, which motivates me to get out of that state. I don't think I've ever done it more than 10 minutes. The weirdest is when I'm eating and end up "paused" with a fork full of food halfway to my face. (But that doesn't happen often, and I can control it enough not to do that in front of people.)

If I've been wearing sunglasses (colored ones that let me see more 'coherently' than otherwise) all day, I tend to space out as soon as I take them off. It does feel like it's my brain is taking a rest. I've always wondered if it's "cheater meditation," or if meditation is a different from that.

Let me quote Thoreau from Walden, Chapter 4:

"I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveler's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time."

I think that everyone does this stuff to a certain degree.
But I've found that I'm more like Thoreau on this one

Yes, I do this in a pub and people see it as a sign of submission. I try not to do it but I feel my senses becoming overloaded, especially when I can't see a lot in the first place due to poor eyesight.

wow everyone does it huh? interesting. i've never been normal before... i don't try control it because it feels good but as a few of you have mentioned it does freak people out.

I do this, and I have seen plenty of NT people do it too. It's usually associated with fatigue, though I find myself doing it far more often than the average Joe.