What's real? The nature of an individual's existence etc. | INFJ Forum

What's real? The nature of an individual's existence etc.

Feelings

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Sep 27, 2009
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I'm sorry that this OP isn't going to be too coherent. I'm very Ni dominant and I'm very confused.

I've always been spacey. I look around my physical environment, and it feels like everything is a hologram. Like nothing's real. The only thing that's real is how I feel. Information and ideas seem very real. I think it might be a strong Ni weak Se thing. Anyhow, I feel like this a lot of the time to varying degrees. I don't mind it, it's comfortable. It's always stressful trying to do Se dominant activities like sports or many computer games.

I just watched Inception with sandra_b (who JUST watched it yesterday as well, guess it's that good), and the Matrix touched on some of the same ideas. So I'm thinking about this stuff again.

I don't even have a specific question. Can we just talk about this?

I think about my inevitable death. I mostly believe that when life's over, it's over. It's freeing. I laugh. I stop worrying. I stop feeling guilt.

I consider that all I do is perceive and process. Contemplate the nature of my existence.

Also, my Te strength makes me actually filter out and ignore a ton of information that seems unimportant to me for whatever reason.
 
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When I start thinking about stuff like that I go crazy, I can't follow my own thoughts anymore after a while lol. I always guessed that this life is some sort of 'test'. Like a virtual world created to prepare you for the 'real' world. Kind of surreal, but that's what I think ...
 
Going through an emotional period by any chance?

Neurologically speaking, our feeling centres aren't connected to our language centres in the brain. This is why we can't explain our feelings. The connection just isn't there.

I get the impression from your OP that you have something profound on your mind but don't know how to put it inot words. Perhaps it's because it's a feeling.

Welcome to the wonderful world of INFJ

Frustrating as hell aint it
 
Today I got to thinking that as Te dominant, I spend most of my time being focused on some objective and forget that every precious moment is my life.
 
I'm sorry that this OP isn't going to be too coherent. I'm very Ni dominant and I'm very confused.

I've always been spacey. I look around my physical environment, and it feels like everything is a hologram. Like nothing's real. The only thing that's real is how I feel. Information and ideas seem very real. I think it might be a strong Ni weak Se thing. Anyhow, I feel like this a lot of the time to varying degrees. I don't mind it, it's comfortable. It's always stressful trying to do Se dominant activities like sports or many computer games.

I just watched Inception with sandra_b (who JUST watched it yesterday as well, guess it's that good), and the Matrix touched on some of the same ideas. So I'm thinking about this stuff again.

I don't even have a specific question. Can we just talk about this?

I think about my inevitable death. I mostly believe that when life's over, it's over. It's freeing. I laugh. I stop worrying. I stop feeling guilt.

I consider that all I do is perceive and process. Contemplate the nature of my existence.

Also, my Te strength makes me actually filter out and ignore a ton of information that seems unimportant to me for whatever reason.
I often reference THe Matrix, and Groundhog Day as exemplifying deep truths.
The whole world as we see it is just a projection constructed from the set of our sense data overlaid by the years of experience we have used to construct our views of the world. Even if there is an objective reality- we sure as hell don't get to see it.
 
I often reference THe Matrix, and Groundhog Day as exemplifying deep truths.
The whole world as we see it is just a projection constructed from the set of our sense data overlaid by the years of experience we have used to construct our views of the world. Even if there is an objective reality- we sure as hell don't get to see it.

Of course we see objective reality - but we just have to see it from our perspective. Our perspective of reality might be terribly shallow, but it is usually proportionate with our capacity to see/understand. For instance, when a snail or caterpillar sees something, it truely sees a true leaf - but it doesn't think about the leaf or even understand that it is a leaf (a structure, part of a larger plant which supports the plant's photosynthetic functions). Nevertheless a snail sees a leaf to the full capacity it can see it and is kind of content - without even being aware it is content.

What we see/experience of reality is very shallow - and we have the difficulty of being able to perceive things sensibly or intellectually - but with application, we are able to "fill our glass" to the brim, even as snails do, in terms of our grasp of reality.

If you're religiously inclined, of course there is always going directly to God and instead of "filling one's glass with water", one throws the glass into the ocean.
 
i had a dream last night that we'd genetically modified humans to be mermaids the size of goldfish, and housed them in huge tanks as pets. as they still had the minds of humans, they called out to us through the glass, and demanded an answer for their existence. we, as scientists, told them the truth as we knew it- something like "there is no reason" and they responded by charging at the glass all at once, causing the tank to tip over, and they and their societies to drain out all over the ground. the thought i was left with as i awoke from the dream was they had caused their own destruction.

why am i mentioning this? couple of reasons:
1. it was a dream, but by virtue of me putting it in writing it has now become 'reality'
2. it was a dream, but it was inspired by reality, by real events and real emotions
3. it will now be converted into the subjective reality of whomever reads it, thus being translated from a reality-inspired dream to reality (via text), and back into a "dream" like state (superficial thoughts)

this occurs with every expressed thought; every subjective experience we give physical expression.

and the fact that we can remember a dream as vividly or even moreso than an actual event should indicate something of how the subconscious perceives reality -it makes no distinctions between imagined sensations and actual sensations, one is intimately linked to and feeds off the other, in a natural symbiosis. both also have the potential to evoke strong emotional reactions, which is one way of measuring "true" reality. strong emotions will likely be perceived as "more true" than weaker emotions, whether or not they originate from the imagination or from external reality.
 
pierce, you're trapped in the matrix
 
There is no spoon huh. I get more of a "what are you hiding from" kinda vibe. Detachment is a passive agressive way of avoiding something. I sense conflict. I love my inner world but you seem like you are drinking too much of the grape kool-aid. You won't feel more grounded until you begin to confront what is causing you to be anxious and leads you to escape into your inner world.