Local Man Still Unable to Unsee 9/11 Footage, Citing ‘How Eyes Work’

Twenty-five years on, Greg Halvorsen reports the images are still there. An optometrist confirms that this is, in fact, how eyes work.

By Everett J. Coyle, Contributing Correspondent · Edited by Marguerite Vandersloot, Editor-in-Chief · Verified by Standards Desk · Filed September 11, 2026 · 3 min read

Photographed — Greg Halvorsen in his living room on Long Island. He reports the footage is still there.Photo: Supplied

NEW YORK — A Long Island man confirmed Thursday that he remains completely unable to unsee the images he watched on television the morning of September 11, 2001, attributing the phenomenon to the basic mechanics of human vision.

“I saw the planes hit. I saw the towers fall. I saw the people jumping,” said 47-year-old Greg Halvorsen, staring blankly at a wall in his living room. “And now, twenty-five years later, those pictures are still just… there. Behind my eyelids. On the backs of my eyeballs. Wherever they keep the permanent stuff. That’s how eyes work, I guess.”

Halvorsen, who was 22 and home sick from work that day, spent several hours in front of the television as networks looped the same catastrophic footage. He reports that the images have not faded, softened, or politely left his memory despite the passage of time, therapy, alcohol, or deliberate attempts to think about other things such as baseball or soup.

“I also cannot unhear the things I heard,” he added. “The anchors’ voices cracking. The phone calls. The impacts. The silence after. That’s how ears work. They take the sound in and then they just… keep it. Forever. Like a very depressing tape recorder that only plays one day.”

Local optometrist Dr. Elaine Crowe offered a clinical perspective. “Yes,” she said. “That is, in fact, how eyes work. Light enters the eye, hits the retina, gets processed by the brain, and certain high-impact visual data can become effectively permanent. Same principle with auditory input. We don’t have a delete key. Evolution apparently decided trauma was more useful than peace of mind.”

When asked if there was any treatment, Crowe shook her head. “Sunglasses don’t help. Neither does closing your eyes. Especially not closing your eyes.”

Halvorsen said he has made peace with the situation in the only way available to him. “I just live with it,” he explained. “Some people have birthmarks. I have September 11th playing on a continuous loop somewhere behind my face. Could be worse. At least I know how my sensory organs function.”

At press time, Halvorsen was staring at the ceiling, quietly confirming once again that the footage was still there.