Micro Dissociation

The presence of one's own mind is self-evident in that once could not doubt or deny its existence without relying on its existence to do so, though a non-rationalist could go their entire life without ever realizing this extraordinarily basic but deep truth.  However, absolute certainty about the existence of one's consciousness, which is itself in all ways dependent upon the absolute certainty and self-evidence of the logical axioms that underpin even this, does not mean that one can have certainty about the accuracy of externally-facing sensory perceptions, experiences it is logically possible for a person to actually dissociate from entirely.

Spacing out for several seconds by happenstance or because of stress or interest in something is dissociation, albeit a very minor and perhaps easily forgettable version of it that many can relate to on a weekly basis.  A person might literally forget if they momentarily detach in this manner many times throughout the same day.  In fact, it seems utterly normal for people to frequently experience this.  Becoming so inwardly focused that one realizes there is no recollection of sensory events for up to hours or days is just a more extreme type of dissociation that is far more noticeable to both the individual perceiving this and outside observers.

As an incidental occurrence or an outright coping mechanism, dissociation has the power to very literally allow a person to lose themself in thoughts or in a very precise sliver of their current experiences, so that it is as if they are only experiencing a much narrower part of what would otherwise be their perceptions.  That this is possible is of great metaphysical and epistemological significance.  After all, it is relevant to how one's senses can be ignored on the level of immediate focus and how sensory experiences are not the same as introspective states of mind, something which is true independent of dissociation and knowable whether someone has dissociated themself.

Dissociative identity disorder is just an even more potent example of this sort of intentional or involuntary compartmentalization.  Micro dissociation is just that: a separation of concentration from the whole of one's experiences to a specific part or category of them.  Despite how I cannot know if there is a subconscious part of my mind (in that there could be an inaccessible part of my mind beyond my awareness, as unprovable as this would be by default) or if most of my senses are accurate, I can always know my immediate mental experiences and devote attention to whichever parts I wish.

In turn, this self-awareness of one's existence and the contents of one's consciousness hinge on logical axioms for their possiblity and knowability, though the existence of my own mind is also self-evident.  Not even an intensively dissociating person can escape logical axioms or their own self, for these are the only self-verifying truths and the only ones that all other knowledge depends upon.  The exact thoughts, emotions, and other perceptions of my mind are not self-evident since they are not specifically what must be true in order to even doubt them; they require my mind to precede them, and thus my mind's existence is what is self-evident along with axioms, which are more foundational since they are true even if any being did not discover them.

With dissociation, though, either myself or other people could be separating their attention away from an even broader range of experiences that they have forgotten or locked away.  This is one of many possible ways that certain perceptions might not connect with anything outside of one's mind.  The mind is existent and absolutely certain.  So, too, are its direct experiences.  Whether these correspond to anything outside of my consciousness, other than verifiable, distinct existents like the laws of logic themselves, some sort of external world, space, and time, is epistemologically up in the air.