I’m Having Trouble With The Belief That Other Beings Exist

[Nahm]

@Brimstone my bad, sorry. that’s was just a campfire joke based on the flammability of alcohol.  (“Enlightening”)

[Brimstone]

No dramas at all @Nahm , what arose just arose and with that it was gone, although I do find it fascinating the reflection of the 'permanence of the moment' that platforms like this point towards. 

[Nahm]

I’m not sure you got the joke.

[heisenburger]

@Joseph Maynor how can you know its true?

Other beings don't exist, can you absolutely know that its true?

 

[Brimstone]

52 minutes ago, Nahm said:

I’m not sure you got the joke.

I did when you clarified it mate, lol

Inflection is impossible to pick up on the internet so didn't see you were joking at first glance. 

[Telepresent]

@Joseph Maynor  I wonder if part of the challenge here (and why it can feel like solipsism) is that it can come across seeming to mean "nobody else exists, but I do," as opposed to "nobody else exists and neither do I."  Because if we stop thinking in terms of individual selves or souls (for want of a better word), and think in terms of what IS, then perhaps other people exist to the same extent I does - as a collection of thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, etc., in this knowing-space.  Of course whenever I think about this the thought-train gets hijacked by the "but do they have their own knowing-space?" question which, I have come to suspect, is a giant red herring: we're never, ever going to know for certain, and whatever the case it doesn't exist here and now.  What is true for me must be true for them.  If I don't exist as a self, then neither do the selves I am projecting onto others

Edited October 12, 2017 by Telepresent