There have been many cases of individuals disappearing off the face of the Earth, never to be heard from again nor found (and if they were found, they’re already dead).

Some notable disappearances:

Steve Fossett, American businessman, aviator and sailor. Disappeared Sept. 3, 2007. Last known activity: flying over the Nevada desert.

Richey Edwards, Welsh rock band member of Manic Street Preachers. Disappeared Feb. 1, 1995. Last known activity: his car was found abandoned near the Severn Bridge and looked to have been lived in. Unconfirmed sightings thereafter.

Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister. Disappeared Dec. 17, 1967. Last known activity: swimming near Portsea, Victoria.

Amelia Earhart, American aviator and author. Disappeared July 2, 1937. Last known activity: flying across the world.

Those who feel like disappearing, apart from taking one’s life, will do so for a variety of reasons:

Escape

Whether you’re fleeing from a scam, a con gone wrong (or right), an affair revealed, the law, never-ending stress at your job, or other scenarios which would cause you to take extreme measures, escaping society and the life you’ve known is one reason why people would want to disappear.

An example.

There used to be this man that worked at my old job, who used to manage and organize the company’s file storage room. He had worked for the company for a number of years with seemingly no problems.

Then one day, he just disappeared.

His wife didn’t know what happened. His manager and colleagues were clueless. He simply vanished. That is, until he showed up again.

Turns out this man had up and left his wife and job in order to run away with his mistress in another state. The story ends with him, weeks later, coming back to Illinois and begging to return to his wife and job.

Guess what?

He got neither. His desperate act of disappearance didn’t work out so well because he reappeared, tail tucked in between his legs, defeated, confused and ever remorseful.

If you’re going to disappear, then you do it all the way. Otherwise, assimilation back into the old way of life is a joke. There is no turning back once you go through that particular door.

Regret

We regret a lot of things in life, most of which is time wasted on frivolous endeavors or not taking that opportunity we so achingly wanted.

So when one disappears on account of regret, it is partially due to one trying to take back what he had lost. Or at the very least, to try and make up for lost time. If that was even possible.

An example.

A guy I used to date back in 2009 had some major regrets in life. A failed first marriage, for instance. He had problems dealing with this regret and this led to a downward spiral of depression.

Depression, once you are mired in it, is a deep hole with which you believe there is no reprieve from.

As a result, he rejected those who were closest to him: his parents, his brothers and sisters, his friends and coworkers, me.

Regret is painful, there’s no doubt. But when all you want to do is disappear, regret has taken over and consumed you completely.

Starting Over

When you burn your life down, sometimes there’s no where to go but away.

People pick up and move across the country or world in an attempt to start over. Hell, that’s what I did.

Starting over can also include disappearing and severing all previous ties, leaving nothing in the past and everything in the future.

People will go to far reaching measures to sever such ties and individual-identifiable characteristics, such as changing one’s name, getting cosmetic surgery, creating a fictitious life with a fictitious trail that will lead those searching for them absolutely nowhere. When one desires to start over in all sense of the words, he will do whatever it takes.

People who have money to spend and who truly, truly want to fall off the grid, will hire Frank Ahearn, an American skip tracer. Read this article for how he does it and why some people hire him to help them disappear.

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Short of hiding out in a dark cave, trekking off into the wilderness, taking to the sky for deliverance, or sailing out into the vast oceans, you may sometimes feel like disappearing from your day-to-day routine.

But is it such an overpowering feeling that you would do it — forever?

Whether you want to escape due to an overwhelming sensation of regret, or the unbreakable desire to escape or start over, disappearing from all of society is what people do every single day, and we don’t even realize it.

If I’m sounding a bit loopy or crazy to you, that’s fine. But it doesn’t mask the truth that disappearances occur voluntarily every day. [Abductions are another thing altogether.]

Realize what you are trying to disappear from. We all have our own personal demons. But do we always have to run from them? I believe we are stronger than what we give ourselves credit for.

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If this article at all concerns you that I might dive off the deep end and never be heard from again, don’t. I just wanted to address the very real happenings that occur all around us, that with which we are blinded by.

The last act of disappearance is due to our forlorn wanting for our lives to appear to us as having meaning.

That is, above all, what humanity wants out of life, is it not?