Osaid

Can Leo also please provide references in MLA format. Thank you.

You think you understand what life is? If not, then why make such statements? And then why act and suffer as if those statements are true? Isn't that a waste of energy? Of course you will feel trapped. Your ideas of life feel very constricting and claustrophobic, because life is not an idea, and it's not gonna be captured by ideas, it's too big for that.

Dopamine deficiency, maybe. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22588-dopamine-deficiency

Ultimately, yes. You are being biased though. I'm sure there are many events which you don't relate to eachother, even though they are technically all related. There is infinite potential for what you can relate, and thus infinite potential for reasonings, and thus also infinite potential for bias. Just be mindful of this. I think you can see how easily this can go out of hand if you give all your mental reasonings so much significance. For an average person, they are unrelated, as in, they don't bother to create meaningful relations out of it. For someone like you, you are a bit more obsessive and open-minded, so you decide to create many relations out of it, and so certain troublesome thought patterns start to occur when you give those relations so much importance. If you see your ideas as they are - just relations - then you can live and co-exist peacefully. If you see them as something more than relations, then you've gone off course, because now you're believing in something that contradicts reality, and so resistance is created. Here's another relevant post:

Ironically, I think you did a pretty good job of communicating beauty. It is unfortunate that most people nowadays get obsessed with fabrications of experience rather than focusing on their actual immediate experience, thus never allowing them to actually make contact with their experience. I like to think of words or communications as pointers, like a finger that points to something, and then it's on you to direct your attention there, because obviously my finger can't shapeshift into that experience, it's just a finger. Good post!

Those are some interesting coincidences, but ultimately, it's just a reasoning that you made up. You can come up with an infinite amount of reasons. It will be very exhausting if you decided to entertain all of your reasons. There's no need to give it so much importance, especially since you've strung it together from so many unrelated events. Fearing death is normal, everyone does that. Dying is also normal, everyone goes through that. You're not being targeted by the universe or something, these are just normal everyday occurences.

This. So rare.

Yes, lots of them. Why aren't you experiencing your thoughts? Because they're just thoughts. Your experience is not God, but your thoughts are about God. Your thoughts can only get you so far, though. You're frustrated over some story about God that is being recycled in your head. Of course you are frustrated, because you have turned God into something very limited, so limited that it can fit snugly inside your tiny little human imagination. Maybe you should tweak the story a bit, since you're the director. It looks like the story you have right now feels a bit limiting and claustrophobic for you. That's a good start. Don't you feel better already?

Don't make me unimagine you.

The only thing unoriginal and uncreative are your own personal ideas of reality, which you are mistaking for reality.

I am the only one on this forum*

Ever since I was a teenager, the TV in my living room was always displaying scenes of torture and murder. I couldn't stop watching what was on the TV. I mean, what if the stuff in the TV happened to me one day? Everyone will go through something like that some day, right? If not in this life time, I will reincarnate into some other life, and what is happening in the TV will happen to me anyways. I can't bear the burden of having what is happening on the TV happen to me. There are many shows on the TV about reincarnation, so it's entirely possible that I would be transported to that type of reality as well. After all, there are no limits to reality. I could try commiting suicide to try and prevent what is happening inside the TV from happening to me, but I am here for eternity, so that won't work. Oh god, is there ANY way to escape from what is happening in the TV? It's impossible.

hahahahaha

That's great. If you just start keeping tabs on it, slowly you will start to see it's nature. It's not about stopping the thoughts. It's just about recognizing what it actually is. When you see what it actually is, the gravity of it will fall away, and then so will the compulsion. When you see it as it is, then you can consciously engage with it without harming yourself. If you imagine a snake, and you know it is imaginary, the way you handle that imagination will be very different to someone who imagines a snake but cannot see that it is imaginary. This is the difference between consciously engaging and unconsciously engaging. When you give it so much importance, you won't be able to stop harming yourself, because that sense of importance creates a compulsiveness that constantly pulls you to it. Now you're stuck, constantly delaying the peace which is inherent to the present moment, because you have some business to deal with inside of your head, but the catch-22 is that the business in your head is infinite and neverending, so you're stuck there until you become conscious of what you are doing. My pleasure.

Thank you! I appreciate that. No AI, just my brain. I'm glad I'm a good competitor though. My pleasure, I hope so too. This type of stuff is very hard to communicate.

Yes, you have become obsessed with ideas. You don't fear death or eternity or any of these things. This is a misdiagnosis. None of these are in your experience. You can't fear something that isn't there. You are fearing ideas. It's just that a lot of value is being placed on your imagination and ideas about reality, even more so than reality itself. You have unknowingly created this type of value system within yourself. If I were to wipe your memory right now, you would be at complete peace. I'm sure you have small moments in your day where you are at peace, and then you start thinking about these things, and then you start fearing again. It is very important that you notice when this happens next time to get a good grasp of what I am saying. One moment you will be focused on something else and you won't remember this topic, then once you start remembering this topic, you will immediately become stressed and panicked. Nothing in your experience has changed, yet the imagination creates such a substantial difference in your emotions. When you notice this, it starts to seem like your life would be much better if you could do away with the burden of your imagination. So, your ability to remember and imagine things is working against you now, because you have started to fear the things that you imagine. Imagination can be very vast. It has infinite variety. So, it becomes a big problem when you put so much importance on something like imagination. If you sit in a room with another person, you will be the only one fearing these things. The other person will just be at peace. They wont perceive any of it. So, this fear is ultimately just you fearing your own personal psychology, that's all. It has no existence otherwise. Existentially, things are at peace, or else the person in the room with you would also be panicking with you. You are fearing something you don't know. It's just a "what if." Here's another "what if" for you: What if it never happens? All that stress and suffering for just something you imagined. Wouldn't that be tragic? What if this? What if that? This is just mental drama which you are emotionally reacting to, nothing else. If you don't know, then all you are doing is imagining colorful mental scenarios which have no reality. If you really become conscious that you don't know anything, and that you are just imagining things that you don't know, you will be at peace, because this will immediately remove your psychological drama. The psychological drama runs because there is a misplaced sense of importance. You think there is actually something to get emotional about? No, it's just a thought. It will vanish just like that if you decide to stop it. If you really realize it is something you are just making up, your motivation to continue creating it will immediately collapse. You should understand the absurdity of fearing hypotheticals which do not exist. When you fear ideas, it is because you have separated yourself from your current experience. You are not experiencing your current experience, you have removed that privilege from yourself. Your current experience has nothing to panic you. For someone like you, you cannot even drink a glass of water without simultaneously fearing some idea of death or hell or eternity, so the experience of drinking water is never actually experienced, it has become tainted with some imaginary non-existent experience. These thoughts are like a wall which block you from making contact with your present experience. You don't want to unimagine this wall, even though you could, because it feels like something that you should continue imagining since it is very important to you. So, you compulsively focus on it, and it causes you fear and anxiety. Again, there is a misplaced sense of importance. If you aren't currently experiencing it, it's at best a lie or fabrication or imitation. So, if you actually ever connect to the present moment, if you actually decide to experience what you are experiencing right now, you could only be at peace. At a certain point, you started missing the point of life. The point is not to be analyzing the future at the sacrifice of your well-being. The point is to experience what is happening RIGHT NOW. If you don't do that, you will be unable to experience life, you will only be able to experience your ideas of life. Over time, you've "logicked" yourself into thinking that thoughts and ideas about reality are better and more important than reality itself, even at the cost of your own sanity. Thoughts are SECONDARY, not PRIMARY. Experience is primary, always. I am not saying not to imagine. You can have ideas if you want. It's a powerful tool. But, right now, you're like a chef that's holding their knife from the wrong side and cutting themselves everytime they use it. Having a sharp intellect is good, but if you don't know how to use it properly, it will cut you as you use it. This self-harm is completely unnecessary. It is possible to use the knife without cutting yourself. You can use your intelligence and ideas and imagination to plan ahead, but there is no moment where something substantial enough to fear manifests itself. It's just a thought, after all. If you take the time to really realize this, your experience will be permanently recontextualized in a very powerful way.

I wouldn't call this a synchronicity. Just your subconscious speaking to you. Your fears and neuroses that you push away in the waking state will manifest themselves in the dream state, because the dream state is made of your thoughts, and there is no ego identity in the dream state to readily push those thoughts away as you would in the waking state. What I would take away from this: There is a lot of resistance in your psychology that you need to take the time to look at and unravel, instead of pushing it away. Your dreams will also change as a result of doing this.

Increase sleep quality, make sure sleep isn't being interrupted and that the sleep schedule isn't weird. IME, if the sleep is interrupted a lot or if it is low quality, it increases the amount of dreams and makes them more vivid as well. You end up phasing in and out of a lot of weird dream states. With a certain sleep schedule, I was able to enter sleep paralysis with about a 80% success rate. I was sleeping from 6pm -11pm and then sleeping again at 3am - 4am. So make sure that there isn't any awkward schedules like that going on.

This thread is mental masturbation.

hyper-disciplined = hyper-logical So the solution is: be more intuitive.

Everything

My cup of tea

Because their bullshit gets smarter too.

I am pleased to see a fellow solipsist, or rather, an imagined fellow solipsist. Allow me to divulge a day in the life of a devout solipsist such as myself. Dare I say, I am the probably the biggest fan of solipsism you will ever encounter in the entirety of existence. Once upon a time in the bustling city of Solipsville, there lived a particular solipsist. That solipsist was, of course, none other than me. Today, I decided to visit the local Solipsville grocery store to restock on my imaginary groceries. As I strolled through the aisles, I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought that all the other shoppers were just figments of my imagination. I picked up a carton of milk and glanced at the label, thinking to myself: "I wonder if this milk even exists outside my mind." Approaching the checkout counter, I encountered a friendly imaginary cashier named Susan. She greeted me with a warm smile and asked, "How's your day going?" Being a solipsist, I couldn't resist the temptation to reply: "Well, Susan, I'm having a delightful conversation with myself, thank you." Susan was taken aback, but not one to shy away from humor, so she played along: "Ah, I see! You must be an expert at keeping yourself entertained." I smirked and nodded, amused by her quick wit. As Susan scanned my items, I couldn't help but wonder if the beeping sound of the register was just a product of my own imagination. Leaving the grocery store, I felt a surge of excitement. I couldn't wait to share my solipsistic musings with the online world. Logging in to an online spirituality forum, I started a new thread titled: "The Profound Wisdom of a Solipsistic Sage." I began my post with a cheeky opening line, "Greetings, fellow fragments of my imagination!" The responses from fellow forum members varied from curiosity to confusion. Some tried to engage with me in philosophical debates, while others dismissed my ideas as the ramblings of an eccentric mind. I found great pleasure in reading their responses, contemplating how their lack of self-awareness further bolsters my solipsistic beliefs. I mean, there's no way that REAL people are stupid enough to not see that everyone is just their imagination, right? The forum quickly became a hub of amused and bewildered responses. Some members poked fun at my unique perspective, while others engaged in playful debates about the nature of existence. I gleefully replied to each comment, relishing in the irony of discussing solipsism with nonexistent individuals. As the thread grew longer and the discussions became more convoluted, I found myself questioning the very foundation of my beliefs. I wondered, "If all these responses are merely figments of my imagination, does that make my belief in solipsism itself an illusion?" The thought sent me into a fit of laughter, as I realized the absurdity of my situation. At the end of the day, I retired to my cozy home, still chuckling at the events of the day. I sat back, sipping an imaginary cup of tea, and I pondered the paradox of my solipsistic existence. With a grin, I concluded, "Whether I'm alone in this world or not, the laughter and connections I share are as real as can be, even if only in my own mind." And so, I continue my life as a solipsist, embracing the humor and irony that comes along with this unique perspective. Each day brings new experiences and laughter, reminding me that sometimes, the funniest stories are the ones we create within our own minds. I continued my day, relishing in the humorous absurdity of my solipsistic adventures. Till next time.

Yeah but apparently second-hand smoke actually carries heavy metals like cadmium: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29224186/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924441/#:~:text=The level of exposure to,concern [6%2C12].