BBC Focus Magazine

[Flakkarin]

Have you ever had that feeling when standing on the edge of a precipice or a tall building, that you just want to jump off? Why do we feel this?
I've heard this from other people so I assume I don't just have hidden suicidal tendencies !

[M Paul Lloyd]

I never had much of an issue with heights, after all altitude sort of goes with the territory when you work with aircraft and stuff, but a few years ago I was standing on the old High Level Bridge overlooking the river Tyne and I felt and overwhelming sense that I was being drawn by some irresistible force towards the edge.
I wasn't alone in this as Mrs.MPL was with me and she felt exactly the same. However our eldest, then aged 18, felt no such compulsion and though we were 'just nuts' !

Unfortunately I have no idea why.

The urge thing not the nuts.

[Lateralman]

No, I can't say that I have ever had that feeling. In fact to be honest, I don't like heights.

Everyone has a bad day or goes through a rough patch. Suicide is stupid and selfish!

As an Irish friend once said to me when I was getting stressed out at work, "There are plenty of people down at the local cemetery, who would love to have your problems!"

If I was ever to get any thought like that, I would first think about the people that matter to me and how hurt they would be if I was no longer around and then take a walk outside and think what a beautiful world it is and how lucky I'm to be alive!

Death comes to us all soon enough. What is the point of hurrying it?

My own daughter, is also highly intelligent and is still studying, at times gets over whelmed with her workload. She hopes to achieve great things! And as her Dad, I would like her to. But if she doesn't, so what, the worlds not going to end. She will just take a different path and live out her life. At the end of the day that is all that matters!

Like all young women she is in a big hurry, never listens and thinks that she knows everything!

I advice her to slow down a little. Patience, everything will come in time. Plant some flower seeds, appreciate life's little marvels. One door closes another opens. You will be fine. Stay grounded! Choose your friends wisely.

[Hyrulian Outlaw]

Getting a little off topic there Lateral and please remember this is a science and technology website. As such while your opinions are valid perhaps when talking about such sensitive issues phrases such as "stupid and selfish" should be ommited. You clearly do not understand the pre-cursors and mental health problems often associated with taking your own life and I for one find some of your statement ignorant, rude and very insensitive.

Back on topic, I have never had the urge to jump from anything tall but often get that 'standing on the edge of something tall' feeling in my belly even at low height.

Have you ever stood directly next to a tall building and looked up? I get a reverse vertigo feeling! That is to say my senses become confused and and I may as well be standing at the top looking down.

[Thinker]

I think the reason we get this urge is not to do with suicide, but the feeling of letting go of a fear. I've always wanted to do a skydive, BECAUSE of that feeling you get when teetering over the edge of a cliff, etc. I want to be able to let go! Plus, it's probably one hell of an adrenaline rush.

[Lateralman]

Fair point! Criticism accepted. Perhaps I did read a little too much into it. It was a fathers reaction to this early morning topic. Plus, I never get the urge to jump off any tall building! I will stay out of this one from now on. Sometimes, we can be too intelligent for our own good.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Point is this topic is not actually about suicide Lateralman, and speaking as the brother of someone who did throw themselves from a high place to achieve that goal I can only sympathise with anyone who might feel offended by us covering such a topic on here....................... so we won't.
Rather this is about the human psyce and how our survival instinct appears to malfunction in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

[Nike2020]

What would happen if a fatty bungee jumped on the moon?

[The Beige Avenger]

What would happen if a fatty bungee jumped on the moon?

The same as what would happen if a skeletal person did it.

[M Paul Lloyd]

I think I should point out that this topic was only intended to centre around the strange urge that some people feel when near a cliff or high balcony, something that is more akin to self preservation and is not in any way related to suicidal tendancies, or indeed parachuting out of an aeroplane or bungee jumping rather than merely fearing that you might fall off a high cliff.

[Flakkarin]

Ha, "Nine replies??" I thought, "What are they talking about??"

Lateralman, I appreciate your concern, but honestly the suicidal thing was just a quip. I honestly feel life is too important for that sort of thing.

Have you never had the feeling pulling you towards the edge of a precipice? I guess it's hard to explain if you've never felt it, but I know many who have, the feeling as if if you jumped off you would somehow magically grow wings and fly. Like MPL says, "...survival instinct appears to malfunction in the most extraordinary of circumstances"

[Lateralman]

No!!! It's too late! You have all upset me! Driven me to the edge! Lateralman soon to be Flatman! Goodbye cruel world!!!

[Jamie]

I know what you're on about Flakarin. I get the same kind of feeling near water too, like something subliminal is saying 'Go on, just jump in!'

[Dark One]

I have also had this feeling many times, and i may have some insight into it. I remember reading somewhere (sorry, i know im rubbish at remembering sources) that this urge is a relic of our primal ancestry, when our simian ancestors would judge the jump from one tree branch to another. This is apparently the reason behind the sudden urge to jump, though of course seeing as there usually isnt anywhere to jump to, it seems to be a malfunction caused by an obsolete system. Or something like that

[Shadowwolf]

Sounds reasonable if nothing else.

[Lateralman]

What does it all mean? Very strange? Do some of us have the Lemming gene hidden in our DNA??

Or could it be the trees? Like that Sci Fi movie I saw the other month where when the wind blew, everyone suddenly decided to top themselves?

Looking at the positive side of mass suicide, we would no longer have a population problem!

Then again, this could be the physiological start of someone telling us all, that the big spaceship is going to arrive any day now, to pick us all up for a journey to the stars!

In fact, now that I think about it, are you lot a bunch of aliens from Roswell trying to convince me that it is quite normal to be drawn to the edges of buildings, bridges and rivers and then making the leap of faith?

Is that it! You are trying to tell me to go and jump in the river!

OK, I'm sold, no problem.

This is the last thought I will take with me, in my final attempt to find a scientific solution to the,"My legs are about to walk off a cliff and I don't know why?" gravity problem!

Once I have cracked that, I will progress swiftly on to, "Can the power of pure thought, help you fly like a bird?" and after I have received the rush from that one, I will be tackling, "Is there really life after death?"

And much, much, much, later on, once I have seen everything there is to see, in the whole universe, (for the answers really are out there,) I will spirit my way back, dressed in a big flouncy white sheet, to let all of you know the results!

Then we can all gather together and discuss our, 'not look before you leap theory' in the nut trees, like our ancient ancestors, whilst sharing a cashew or two.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well that's most interesting Lateralman but totally off topic, after all we are trying to examine the sensation of being drawn towards our doom AGAINST OUR WILL! Which is, to my way of thinking, as far removed from suicidal tendancies as you could possibly get?
I know you like to take a sideways approach to things but hells teeth, you are positively horizontal here!

[Jamie]

Lemmings jumping off cliffs to commit suicide is a common misconception.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Yes, a very good point Jamie.

[Lateralman]

Yeah! I started out thinking about Lemmings and I guess I got a little carried away! Drawn into the abyss, you might say.

Anyway to get back on track. Don't some of fellow creatures have a tendency to reduce there own numbers when times are hard?
Could we have a unknown, little bit of that, built in to our genes?
Common misconception or not?

Or is there a link to when you have that common dream of standing on a cliff edge, with the sea thundering about below and then you jump! Only to wake up bouncing in your bed. Or is that just me?? Perhaps, it's not common? I hope I haven't said to much?