“[T]he seeming continuity of consciousness is really an illusion. . . .

[The blind spot] is due to a two-millimeter gap on the nasal side of the retina where the optic nerve fibers are gathered together and leave the eye for the brain. The interesting thing about this gap is that it is not so much a blind spot as it is usually called; it is a non-spot. . . . [Y]ou cannot see any gap in your vision at all, let alone be conscious of it in any way. Just as the space around the blind spots is joined without any gap at all, so consciousness knits itself over its time gaps and gives the illusion of continuity.”

—Julian Jaynes, from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976.