Existential crisis.

[dalohma]

Has anyone else ever experienced one that was pretty severe? I'm coming out of one, I was very "foggy" and I viewed everything, even small things in a warped perception. It was kind of positive, but I ended up hating it. How do people survive through this?

[Samadhi23]

halo to you

Has anyone else ever experienced one that was pretty severe? I'm coming out of one, I was very "foggy" and I viewed everything, even small things in a warped perception. It was kind of positive, but I ended up hating it. How do people survive through this?

People survive by letting go. The heart will beat and the lungs will breathe even when you are unconscious. Nothing easier to do; on the short term.

The perceived difficulty stems from difficulty assimilating the new and different information. As long as one "fights" the warped perception, then one can often unintentionally make it an object of obsession. The more one fixates, the harder it becomes to let go. Fear is not needed when it comes to perception; as perception is too passive to be harmful.

Especially if you would say that it was kind of positive, on the initial, why did you end up hating it? That first piece of information would be my recommended first step towards assimilating the new information.

[Marius Beckett]

Quote:

The heart will beat and the lungs will breathe even when you are unconscious. Nothing easier to do; on the short term.

Basically this. I find existentialism to be a very intriguing curtain of philosophy. It's very empowering to say "I don't need you" to god or meaning or purpose, and to live on your own power. Baring psychological issues which I would say are more of a medical problem than a philosophical one, the only thing you need to live is a life. Who needs to be important? Who needs to be coddled by a loving universe? We could do just fine in a neutral one - by putting one foot in front of the other and building architecture or creating works of art purely for the sake of expression rather than homage to anything greater than ourselves.

Thus to me existentialism doesn't take value away from existence, it takes it out of the hands of external forces and places it in a much safer place - your own heart.

[psycheduck]

We can't assume to know the nature of existence, but literally everyone has to deal with it in some way or another. Religion, spiritual philosophies, passion to do something, they all serve to fulfill this "existential attitude", but when you've already experienced an existential crisis, these usually feel like contrived solutions. But, why do we have to fulfill that, exactly? We don't, actually. Truth is, we can live in mystery, and embrace it. The lack of objective knowledge has created all kinds of beautiful different subjective worldviews, most of which we will never be aware of. But having an objective approach to what reality is really like is probably never going to end with a satisfying conclusion. I don't claim to know anything, but my best guess is that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Only one mind exists at a time (yours, whoever is reading this), you die and are reborn into another conscious entity. As to which entity, I have no idea. Maybe if a conscious omnipotent force that created the universe exists, it will explain everything you want to know as you depart this life, and enter into the next.