This thread exists for your existential crisis... or does it?

[gaggle64]

About a half hour a go I suddenly flew into an absolute panic suddenly remembering I exist and that I was spending my improbable existence playing Risk: Factions. I've calmed down now after a cup of Earl Grey but does this sort of thing happen to anybody else? Every once in a while I'll fly to inwardly-screaming panic about if I'm making the very best of my life until I calm down enough to remember I'm clearly doing a fair bit better then some, or possibly even most and I'll very probably be okay in long run.

 

I find this sort of crisis rather silly because the only thing it seems to do is get in the way of the business of existing, and I probably wouldn't be having them if I was somebody who's daily struggle for food & shelter was a little bit harder.

 

So it just me? Or does this sort of thing ever happen to you? Assuming you're not just a figment of my fevered imagination and I'm actually tied up in a padded room, psychosomatic drugs coursing through my veins at the touch of button controlled by an unseen handaaaaAAAHHHHHHH *runs around screaming*

Edited July 23, 2010 by gaggle64

[Coolness Bears]

I love it when I suddenly feel very small in the world. When this happens the world zooms outwards and I get a bird eye view of my surroundings. I become aware of all my surroundings and the people around me, it's a wonderful feeling. I notice the little things that you usually take for granted that are going on around me.

 

Then I start to imagine what every other persons life is like and think about what they might be doing as oppose to what I am doing at that very moment and it splits up as two screens in my mind watching what I'm doing on one side and what the other person is doing on the otherside.

 

So when that kind of thing happens I don't panic but appreciate it. I already knew ages ago that there is no point to life its just about the moments and age is all in the mind. (and the hips if you get TOO old. :p)

 

i like to ramble.

[Platty]

Looking up to the stars does this to me quite a lot. Not so much if I exist or not but it makes me feel really insignificant and I start to question my life and choices. Then I remember I actually have a good life compared to so many in the world. I'm alive firstly and enjoying it, I have a fantastic girlfriend, great friends and a good job. Apart from getting balder everyday I can't complain.

 

However, a few days later, I look up to the stars and get the same feeling again. I like the stars, I find them very relaxing to stare at so I do it quite a lot.

Edited July 22, 2010 by Platty

[Guy]

I constantly ask myself if I'm making effective use of every moment of my life. The answer is usually no. I vow to change things but change is really, really hard. Two reallys hard.

 

I pretty much know I've wasted my life and opportunities up to this point and although I do cling onto some idealistic kinda dream existence, I doubt I can realistically attain it just as much as I genuinely kind of believe I can. I think it's going to eventually just become a case of saying to hell with failure and just going for it.

 

Like all of you, I don't want to wake up in several years and realise I've wasted my life. This is a fear I figure we all share... that and chalk. Chalk is disgustingly awful to touch. Is it just me who thinks that?

 

Thinking about stuff like this always leads me to consider just how lucky and crazy it is I'm even alive. So many things can go wrong during creation that it's a miracle for anyone to make it through even as the most defective mutant. Doing nothing a lot of the time makes me feel kinda guilty since there are people who got dealt a way shittier hand in life than I have. I'd take my tail over being born blind any day!

 

I think this thread just re-energised my desire to go for my dream. Thanks for that.

 

Looking up to the stars does this to me quite a lot. Not so much if I exist or not but it makes me feel really insignificant and I start to question my life and choices. Then I remember I actually have a good life compared to so many in the world. I'm alive firstly and enjoying it, I have a fantastic girlfriend, great friends and a good job. Apart from getting balder everyday I can't complain.

 

However, a few days later, I look up to the stars and get the same feeling again. I like the stars, I find them very relaxing to star at so I do it quite a lot.

 

Oh man, the stars are what put everything into perspective for me. They make me feel so insignificant it's unreal, yet instill this kind of... confidence and drive in me to do better. The feeling I'm lucky to be here now and I won't be here forever... so you gotta make it count.

[Diageo]

I don't ever feel panic over my existence, "sure it will be grand" is my philosophy. I don't care about the meaning of life or if I'm living my life to the full. Who can say what fulfillment is. I just live as it is and then die. It's not like I'll regret anything when I'm dead.

[Paj!]

Most of my thinking is about this. It's not fun.

 

I can't face the concept of non-existence. It terrifies me/makes me incredibly sad. My one big (genuine) fear. I can't bear it.

[Diageo]

I don't really understand how non-existence can scare you. Are you scared of the time before you were born?

[dwarf]

Yeah but you weren't aware of the thought before you were born. You weren't even aware of it when you were a foetus.

 

I guess it's kinda horrible because noone knows what comes after, I just imagine that I'm just going to be a camera, pointing into a sea of black, and nothing will ever happen.

 

I do contemplate whether I will achieve any of my potential. I'm almost 18, and I've been building the foundation for a person I could be but whether I'll actually do something memorable, different, be really good at something etc etc I don't know. Will I seize the moment or just constantly think it will come later 'when I'm ready'.

 

Scary.

[Diageo]

Unlike most people I talk to, I have no desire to make a difference on the world, or do something to make sure I am remembered throughout the ages.

 

Well before you were born you weren't a camera pointing at black so there's no reason to think that's what you'll be like after.

[Paj!]

I don't really understand how non-existence can scare you. Are you scared of the time before you were born?

 

Err...no. The opposite, death.

 

If you believe in heaven/hell, I suppose it wouldn't make sense, but I can't believe lies, even though I'd prefer to.

 

Death is incomprehensible, and that thought really affects me. When you're younger, like Dwarf says, I imagined a camera, or actually, when someone is like "When you die..", you just imagine, visually, life without you (family and friends and stuff), from a distance, like in a film. But that's not true. It's not like when in the end, you wake up, and are semi-aware of an indeterminate period between when you lay down and when you woke up...how can anyone else deal with the idea of one's own death? It's unthinkable. And I know chair's (very logical) answer is always "You won't be aware/care, so why worry?", but that's not really a help. That to me, suggests sleep/peace, or at least being concious on some level to not care.

 

 

 

Argeheehgreheheiu

[dwarf]

Unlike most people I talk to, I have no desire to make a difference on the world, or do something to make sure I am remembered throughout the ages.

 

Well before you were born you weren't a camera pointing at black so there's no reason to think that's what you'll be like after.

What gives you the authority to say that? You monster!

 

I wouldn't say I want to be remembered throughout the ages, that would be a bonus, I'd just want to say that I'm happy with myself, and did something that I would've really wanted to make myself do. E.g make others happy through the medium of dance (This doesn't really relate to me, though I am a damn fine mover)

 

And btw @ Paj - not a camera per say, there will just be black, and that's it. I will still be seeing this black, but it wont mean anything to me. (Obviously the black could be anything, something incomprehensible to humans, i.e. not a colour we know of/whatever)

 

I agree with you Paj in a way but it never troubles me deeply or for long. It's just a weird moment. I usually worry about life, seeing as it's tangible and changeable.

Edited July 23, 2010 by dwarf

[chairdriver]

I'd rather die than survive and everyone else I give a shit about die.

[Paj!]

I'd rather live forever/ not really, just become a cartoon ghost, haunting things and still being aware.

 

Or just go to the cliche heaven.

[Diageo]

Err...no. The opposite, death.

 

I think it's the same. Before being born and after dying are the same in my mind.

The only thing I'm scared of related to death, is the pain that might occur just before it.

[dwarf]

I think it's the same. Before being born and after dying are the same in my mind.

The only thing I'm scared of related to death, is the pain that might occur just before it.

 

So you're into Reincarnation then?

 

(I'm guessing not, I understand what you mean, but that's essentially it if you think about it)

 

(or not if you think about it for a bit longer)

 

(this is confusing)

[Diageo]

No I'm not saying I'll be reborn because I don't believe in souls and all that. I'm saying the feeling is the same in both scenarios, as in, there isn't a feeling.

[Paj!]

I don't care about pain.

 

How anyone can not be horrified by the concept, and genuine thought of, the end of your own existence baffles me.

[drahkon]

Awesome thread.

 

I pretty much know I've wasted my life and opportunities up to this point

 

It's the same with me. I've made so many choices that I regret it's really kind of awful. Sometimes I'm asking myself only one simple question: "Why did you do this?" I can't answer it. No idea why.

I think that in - future - retrospective (I hope you understand what I want to say) about 95% of choices I made/will make were/will be wrong.

 

I'm twenty, so many of you might ask "wow, what serious choices have you had to made?". Well, to be honest. Not that much. They were all kind of trivial (sometimes being lazy at school, although in the end I did graduate quite good; "choosing" the girlfriend; say things that hurt other people) but I do believe that those choices made the majority of my life.

 

I'd like to change, I'd like to be friendly, I'd like to be single, I'd like to do more sports. Again everything is quite trivial. But as Scoop said:

 

I vow to change things but change is really, really hard. Two reallys hard.

 

My thoughts about the "afterlife":

 

The End of Mr. Y., A novel about a woman who gets the ability to "walk through" minds and travel time. I don't want to go into detail but I have to explain a bit. I'll put it in spoilers just in case anybody wants to read the book (actually it's not that spoilery since you get to know this quite early and this is not a plot twist...still I want to be careful):

 

The woman discovers a mixture which allows her to travel through minds. When she drinks the mixture she falls asleep (or whatever) and finds herself in another world. This is where she is able to "jump into" other people's minds, allowing her to read them, feel them or even partially control them.

 

 

I am an atheist. I don't believe in god and I don't believe in heaven or hell.

What I do "believe" is that people, after their death, are - I don't want to use that word, but I have to - reborn and experience something similar to what the woman from The End of Mr. Y experiences.

 

THIS is what scares me. What if dead people have the possibility to invade everyone's minds? What if someone can implant his or her will into you? Maybe even control you.

 

I admit that this is not the view most people will share and it is definitely "different" (damn you, vocabulary...I don't even know the German expression I want to use -.-).

[Diageo]

 

I am an atheist. I don't believe in god and I don't believe in heaven or hell.

What I do "believe" is that people, after their death, are - I don't want to use that word, but I have to - reborn and experience something similar to what the woman from The End of Mr. Y experiences.

 

THIS is what scares me. What if dead people have the possibility to invade everyone's minds? What if someone can implant his or her will into you? Maybe even control you.

 

I admit that this is not the view most people will share and it is definitely "different" (damn you, vocabulary...I don't even know the German expression I want to use -.-).

 

That certainly is different, I don't get why you would believe that if it just scares you.

[drahkon]

That certainly is different, I don't get why you would believe that if it just scares you.

 

I don't get why I shouldn't believe in it just because it scares me.

If I believed in the concept of hell (purgatory and all), it would scare me, as well.

[chairdriver]

Why do you believe in something when there is ZERO evidence to support it?

[Diageo]

Why do you believe in something when there is ZERO evidence to support it?

 

Also that, that's the main thing. I meant, out of all the "different" unsupported theories, why would you go for one that scares you. Normally people seek these "different" theories because they are comforting.

[drahkon]

Why do you believe in something when there is ZERO evidence to support it?

 

Why do people believe in god then?

 

Nobody knows what will happen after you die and I think that in many years to come we will have absolutely no evidence about it. So I might as well believe in something which is scientifically not confirmed, at all.

 

I meant, out of all the "different" unsupported theories, why would you go for one that scares you.

 

Maybe it's because I'm pessimistic. I don't need to believe in concepts that I find comforting, I believe in a concept that I want to believe in.

[chairdriver]

Why do people believe in god then?

 

At least God has some vague scrap of evidence to support it (Jesus and miracles and whatnot). Still, it's so fucking retarded to base your whole life around something based on nothing.

[Diageo]

If you're gonna believe in one thing that isn't scientifically confirmed or supported, then why not believe in all things thats are unconfirmed or supported. Why go to this specific one instead of believing in fairies and ghosts and all that jazz?