Losing The Sense Of Distance

[Principium Nexus]

For a while now my perception of distance and separation has been altered. Where it comes down to is that where ever my awareness is my body is experienced there too. Up close I can feel my physical body, sensations on my skin or internal. When I look in the distance I don't really feel that it is far away. It feels like my awareness is projected towards what I'm experiencing and this is a somewhat weird feeling.

All these changes from our surroundings are experienced on our body. We can only experience them on our body, sight is a tricky one because we think we experience it in the distance but actually do this on our retina.

So whenever I see something I associate it with my own body where it is percieved and therefor my idea of distance fades.

Basically we never experience anything further than our body. The universe is somewhat projected on the outside and the edge of our body can therefor be called the edge of the universe in some regard?

I think it semi towards egolessness, anything that tries to interact with me is still seen as foreign. From my own understanding I think this is a new way to perceive the world and if you understand this insight you can experience it too.

Can anyone relate? I want you guys to really think about the concept of distance and separation from the self and the outside world. 

 

[cirkussmile]

You are right. There is no distans between your body and the world. 

[Nahm]

@Principium Nexus I feel I relate. For a few years now I have a very different sense of time and space. I often don't know what day it is and am usually way off on what time it is. When driving these days, I'm lost without GPS on my phone. If I get off the experessway and make one left, I don't know which way I just came from. I find it all very funny, considering the upside. Also, I see the stuff inbetween the typical stuff. Do you see that too? 

[cetus]

@Principium Nexus I've experienced what could be called 'flat screen' from time to time. It happens out of nowhere. Reality looks like it's being projected on a screen.

[Principium Nexus]

@cetus56 Yes it's like becoming aware of being aware which sort of ironicallly speaking distance me from being in the point of experience itself? You could compare it to the movie effect, watching yourself do things.

@Nahm How is your balance in general? Sometimes I get disorientated too because space itself feels void or infinitely large. Knowing that there is actually infinite space im between your screen and where "you" are sometimes feels like throwing a ball of awareness into a bottomless well. So far it hasn't really be a problem and I can function normally.

@Maxx Yes I actually never really have internal chatter and actually experience the world in emotion and feeling. My speech and writing are sometimes also not that great because I'm not really used to express things in confined concepts while their true ground in boundless.

 

[cetus]

9 minutes ago, Principium Nexus said:

You could compare it to the movie effect, watching yourself do things.

@Principium Nexus Yea that happens quite often. For instance, yesterday I was pealing potatoes and it was as if they where pealing themselves. (funny b-c it happened before when I was pealing potatoes) Anyhow, I was watching it all happen as if I was only a spectator.( No doer). Usually when I experience that it is usual 3d.-- Next time it happens I'll observe it more to get a better idea. Usually my mind is fairly still when that no doer thing happens.

The flat screen thing doesn't happen that often but when it does all reality (landscape) becomes flattened. No depth to it. Like a huge theater screen.

[Joseph Maynor]

Wow.  That's cool.  I still believe in distance myself.  Not that I want to believe it, but the belief is still lodged in there.

From the Being perspective it does look like a series of discrete flat planes come to think about it.

Edited September 20, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[WelcometoReality]

@Principium Nexus Yes, I experience the same thing. It started with distant sounds like a far away train feeling like it happened inside me. It developed later to all sound and then sight.

6 hours ago, Principium Nexus said:

I think it semi towards egolessness, anything that tries to interact with me is still seen as foreign. From my own understanding I think this is a new way to perceive the world and if you understand this insight you can experience it too.

I think you are right. Less identification with the body makes it appear like that.

[Nahm]

@Principium Nexus I am loving this conversation. I don't feel the infinite in the sense you explained. I actually feel an opposite sense of space. I don't feel like the stars are real or super far away anymore. I feel like outer space and the atmosphere is a dome and the stars are on the dome. That's admittedly weird sounding, but I'm being honest. "Things" don't look real in the same sense they used to. 

Edited September 21, 2017 by Nahm

[cetus]

1 hour ago, Nahm said:

I feel like the atmosphere is a dome and the starts are on the dome

@Nahm The mind is naturally fine tuned to depth of field mostly for survival. If you where a caveman, you would need to know how far away a saber toothed tiger is so you know when it's time to start running your ass off. It's sweet to have the option to override depth perception when it's not needed.

[Nahm]

@cetus56 reminds me of that joke....wanna see what a void looks like?

(cause that's a void in front of you)

these are the jokes Cetus.

 

[cetus]

@Nahm I never heard that one. So true.

[Principium Nexus]

@Nahm Your jokes lack content ?

[Principium Nexus]

@Nahm The odd thing is that my sense of scale is sometimes very strange. I can feel like a giant sitting in this vast amount of space or I can feel extremely small. Depends really on my perspective.

[phoenix666]

wow, some of the stuff you describe sounds so wonderful  I hope I can experience all of that some day. 

I had a strange experience whilst swimming two weeks ago, where I felt a shift in perception. no changes in space, but in clarity. everything looked sharper, more vivid, more colorful.

sometimes I feel something strange, I'll try to explain: like my experience is splitting into to options for a very short amount of time (for example my mam either says something, or she doesn't. or I choose to either taste a piece of fruit during cutting or not) then I fall back into 'normal' and I have no idea which option actually happened 

during meditation I sometimes feel like something changes in space. It feels like my face starts to open up. like my head/mind/centre of perception starts to grow out of my skull and expand into open space. maybe this is comparable to your changes in space? 

it's so difficult to put certain stuff into words 

[harisankartj]

@Principium Nexus I too had recently been contemplating place AND TIME for quite a while now. For me the experience is same but for a few differences. I see that ANY place i have ever been to is right here. To realise this I look at my feet on where i am standing and contemplate on how my feet being in this point is different from ...say when i was in the grocery shop... and i notice how the social contexts determine place.....this also deconstructed the essence of "time" for me...which is a conceptual projection that is created to make sense of actions that are needed for survival.

[phoenix666]

about time: 

I sometimes feel that my perception of time changes: when I observe something, it's like time slowed down. sometimes when I watch my breath, it feels like it stretches out, expands. 

anyone else having the same experience?

[Nahm]

@phoenix666

[Principium Nexus]

@phoenix666 Yes this also seem to occur in extreme sports. For example in baseball or quick action, they say time slows down and they get more control over how they act. I think when we become hyperfocused the intervals in between strech out and we create more perception of time.

Due to this fact, if we take this to our everyday lives, how would this mindfulness or focus contribute to out whole perception of our life?

A monk/person who is very mindful could therefor have experienced much more time in between than someone who lives in a choatic and less mindful environment. Stress and hypertesion are imo the main factors for a short life, whether in real seconds or perceived vastness.

 

[phoenix666]

4 hours ago, Principium Nexus said:

Due to this fact, if we take this to our everyday lives, how would this mindfulness or focus contribute to out whole perception of our life?

A monk/person who is very mindful could therefor have experienced much more time in between than someone who lives in a choatic and less mindful environment.

this right there. this is so powerful. 

this thought occurred to me many times during meditation.

on my retreat I also had moments where I could literally feel time passing slower.