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Does anybody else notice the strangeness of reality?

there is evidence that bonobos and chimps notice/place value on aesthetic scenes with no pragmatic value, e.g. sunsets.
 
Well, I sat here and stared at the reply box, cursor blinking, for a long time, and could not think of where to begin. "The strangeness of reality", that statement barely scrapes the surface. I feel like a big shift of consciousness is in our near future and that all this "strangeness" about our reality will all come together and begin making sense. In short, our brains are radio receptors, and this "reality" we perceive is merely a broadcast that we recieve, similar to a Pandora radio station. Whatever the main server decides we will receive, is what we will receive, and we will never know what else we could have potentially received instead if the server had decided otherwise. However, when we use drugs like DMT, we open pathways and alter the programming of our radio receptors, and not only can we receive a large feed of information than usual, but we can also seemingly transmit information as well, back to the server.

These are the things that keep me awake at night...
 
Thanks for all the support guys. Strange is really a bad word for it. It's a difficult thing to explain but some of you guys seem to get it. I know there's no logical reason for it to bother me. It's just... I wish I could have never noticed it =( . When I was JUST anxious and depressed, I didnt think it could get any worse, and then he existential thoughts I had completely forgotten about since I was little came back. Weird thing is, I didn't remember much of my early child hood until I remembered how bad these thoughts were.
 
Im sorry, strange is a perfect word for it. This is something that is difficult to approach and seems to be best done in small 'one step at a time' and with simple cliches, because they are true.

Nothing is any different then it ever has been, think of it as a milestone, a rebirth or change that is not so comfortable as most are. Personally what I refined to a point and notice that bothered me the most was eventually the diamond in the rough needed to gain the tools to over come the rest in a more organized methodical way.
 
I know what you mean JasNod.

It's just the point in your life where you go from accepting the world as you've always experienced it to realizing that everything you've ever experienced and everything you see and feel is just perception. I can't put into words what it is I understand differently than I used to, but I know this is why it is.

You can think of it as a sort of enlightenment if you want.

My original point was that you shouldn't stress yourself out. Though perception can indeed seem "strange" at times, you have to remember that the universe is what it is, and will always be. You're just along for the ride you might as well live life and enjoy it like the rest of mankind that isn't "enlightened" about this.
 
Seattle_Stranger said:
Well, I sat here and stared at the reply box, cursor blinking, for a long time, and could not think of where to begin. "The strangeness of reality", that statement barely scrapes the surface. I feel like a big shift of consciousness is in our near future and that all this "strangeness" about our reality will all come together and begin making sense. In short, our brains are radio receptors, and this "reality" we perceive is merely a broadcast that we recieve, similar to a Pandora radio station. Whatever the main server decides we will receive, is what we will receive, and we will never know what else we could have potentially received instead if the server had decided otherwise. However, when we use drugs like DMT, we open pathways and alter the programming of our radio receptors, and not only can we receive a large feed of information than usual, but we can also seemingly transmit information as well, back to the server.

These are the things that keep me awake at night...
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+1 for this. couldnt have put it any better myself. i <3 your analogy seattle. i would normally describe it more as a code and our brain decodes the code so we can interpret it but i love that last part. with the radio analogy you could easily describe the info sent back (e.g. prayer or the "law of attraction"). i wanna fit yin and yang into this analogy too o.o
 
Biovail said:
I know what you mean JasNod.

It's just the point in your life where you go from accepting the world as you've always experienced it to realizing that everything you've ever experienced and everything you see and feel is just perception. I can't put into words what it is I understand differently than I used to, but I know this is why it is.

You can think of it as a sort of enlightenment if you want.

My original point was that you shouldn't stress yourself out. Though perception can indeed seem "strange" at times, you have to remember that the universe is what it is, and will always be. You're just along for the ride you might as well live life and enjoy it like the rest of mankind that isn't "enlightened" about this.
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Aporia and other states.
 
qwe said:
Aporia and other states.
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Cool article. Aporia sounds like what I was describing, but I think there's a difference. Maybe I was talking about something different than JasNod too. What I was talking about is that we live our entire lives in a box. I had a moment where I realized that my box was actually just 6 sides, and there was no such thing as a box, or a side for that matter.

It's like the step beyond thinking outside the box.
 
You need something to focus on. You can't worry about these things. You have to get involved un something and put all this energy into something productive. You can find a lot of love and beauty in this world and it will outweigh any strangeness you feel. Live your life in this way and you will soon find purpose in it. It is up to you to find freedom inside your mind.
 
hiphophippy said:
The pain is real, you can measure pain you can measure the signals of the brain. Don't let all the hardcore fallacious existentialists fool you.
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Action potentials transmitted up the spinal cord and to the brain are not objectively what is usually called "pain" Pain in most common use of the word refers to suffering, or else, to the perceived unpleasantness of the stimuli. A wonderful example is that a large number of anesthetic agents have no inherent effect on the conduction of the signal. They work simply by altering the conscious processing of that signal. i.e. barbiturates have no analgesic effect, however if you are profoundly unconscious, you lack the ability to interpret that signal as "pain" same idea with midazolam for procedural sedation. Simply by reason that the signals are being transmitted is not sufficient condition to experience pain.
 
rangrz said:
Action potentials transmitted up the spinal cord and to the brain are not objectively what is usually called "pain" Pain in most common use of the word refers to suffering, or else, to the perceived unpleasantness of the stimuli. A wonderful example is that a large number of anesthetic agents have no inherent effect on the conduction of the signal. They work simply by altering the conscious processing of that signal. i.e. barbiturates have no analgesic effect, however if you are profoundly unconscious, you lack the ability to interpret that signal as "pain" same idea with midazolam for procedural sedation. Simply by reason that the signals are being transmitted is not sufficient condition to experience pain.
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Indeed please see Tumor Necrosis Factor Pain Blockers.

Meditation/Yoga is very beneficial the same way, the science, biology, physiological reaction kundalini takes in part is the same course of action as Rangrz described, via. the spine. At the moment I am in a decent amount of pain, a 4-6 on a scale of 1-10 daily but it is surpassable and motivates me like not much else, knowing that the same is possible for other people. Taking myself off of Oxy, Klonopin, TNF pain blockers and allowing myself to go into that pain totally raw was only possible because of this reason.

It seems much more hard-core to not allow that inert gift we all have to exist, choosing to suppress that take a great deal of strength. Personally the drs and side effects, physichal dependency, monetary value($2500 per month for TNF's alone) ... and so on, the struggle to keep up with that pales in comparison to breaking the train of thought and routine acquired to break-through and trust in your capabilities, it is just easier to be amazed, and to see what has been presented as fleeting and momentary when we live in a culture based on the comfort of a quick fix.

We can change almost anything in the push of a button, we have almost endless options provided with detailed instructions for use, why, and when to use it, although most of this stuff is toxic for ourselves and/or environment and pets.

Having all of this stuff done for you seems like it leaves more time for the self, but, while having all this stuff done and explained for you, doing and understanding much else including the self is difficult.
 
^

Yeah, I was just trying to illustrate the difference between physiological functions and conscious perception as that particular poster seems to have a very hard time with "the boundary problem" aka "the heap problem" I guess to him psychology is just a subset of quantum mechanics. Since psychology is emergent from physiology, which is emergent from cellular biology, which is emergent from molecular biology which is emergent from biochemistry which is emergent from chemistry, which is emergent from atomic physics, which is emergent from quantum mechanics. But the poster seems to not get that in each case, what emerges from something is qualitatively quite different from its proginator, and that in this case, The Standard Model is not a good approximation to cognition.

TNFa antagonist as pain medicine!? holy holy holy batman! Never seen that before. Sounds scary cause TNFa ant seem to be linked to neoplasm. But sounds cool and I shall take peek into that.
 
rangrz said:
Action potentials transmitted up the spinal cord and to the brain are not objectively what is usually called "pain" Pain in most common use of the word refers to suffering, or else, to the perceived unpleasantness of the stimuli. A wonderful example is that a large number of anesthetic agents have no inherent effect on the conduction of the signal. They work simply by altering the conscious processing of that signal. i.e. barbiturates have no analgesic effect, however if you are profoundly unconscious, you lack the ability to interpret that signal as "pain" same idea with midazolam for procedural sedation. Simply by reason that the signals are being transmitted is not sufficient condition to experience pain.
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not sure if what you said is 100% correct. i'll just lend what little i know about anesthetics. general anesthetics keep the pattasium(which is negatively charged)channels open. local anesthetics keep the sodium(which is negatively charged) channels open. in turn the neurons are kept at the resting state and no pain is felt. there is no pain felt because there is no "signal"
 
rangrz said:
^

Yeah, I was just trying to illustrate the difference between physiological functions and conscious perception as that particular poster seems to have a very hard time with "the boundary problem" aka "the heap problem" I guess to him psychology is just a subset of quantum mechanics. Since psychology is emergent from physiology, which is emergent from cellular biology, which is emergent from molecular biology which is emergent from biochemistry which is emergent from chemistry, which is emergent from atomic physics, which is emergent from quantum mechanics. But the poster seems to not get that in each case, what emerges from something is qualitatively quite different from its proginator, and that in this case, The Standard Model is not a good approximation to cognition.

TNFa antagonist as pain medicine!? holy holy holy batman! Never seen that before. Sounds scary cause TNFa ant seem to be linked to neoplasm. But sounds cool and I shall take peek into that.
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Its fucked I took remicade and humira took and then discovered they were black-boxed at the time, shit tried to kill me and has been a horror. im still recovering from that in 2009, my wbc's are usually 25-30, last check was 27~, they would get down to 15-18 with the meds but far worse then.

Some TNF's are being used for stuff like acne or rosacea and causing things like Chrons, 60% of diseases are auto immune d/o's so these drugs then fit the criteria to treat them.
 
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JasNod said:
I've always had issues with intense anxiety and depression, but never anything like this. I've always thought of things a weird way. It started when I was really little, and went to church with my grandpa. I would ask my parents if they knew heaven was real, and I would be filled with a very intense feeling of dread. I remember very clearly my dad once saying, "You're starting to scare ME now..." After I was a little older I would ask my mom questions like, "Why is pain uncomfortable but pleasure feels good? If it all happens in your brain, why do you have to see it as uncomfortable?", to which she would respond, "What do you mean? Because it is! That's a dumb question." I would start asking questions about how we could know what's real when your perceptions are processed by your brain, they're subjective to however your brain puts whatever input together. I would tell her that people can never truly know each other, because they can't know their thoughts or experiences, they can just describe them, but it never shows them the whole picture. Some things just can't be explained to another person. I was never good at explaining myself, so after a lot of confusion, I stopped talking to people about it. About 6 years passed and I started thinking more deeply as I got into high school. This led to very dreadful thoughts, and lots of panic attacks. I started noticing how strange everything was, stick with me here... this is difficult to explain, but I think I can describe the feeling a bit. It's like... I'll just be at a friends house or something, and I'll notice how strange it is that things exist, let alone exist as they do. Everything starts to seem more like a movie. I can feel myself behind my face looking out through my eyes. I'll look down at my hands and legs and they just look strange... alien to me. It feels strange to have my arms extending out so far, I have to try to do natural things. Walking is more deliberate, I have to purposefully put one foot in front of the other. I have to think about breathing and blinking. I'll look at my friend and wonder why it is I'm perceiving my thoughts, instead of his. It seems so impossible that the same molecules that make up a rock can produce consciousness when arranged a certain way. So this leads to me believing I may the only person who ACTUALLY exists. I understand that logically, it shouldn't matter because your experience is the same regardless, but it's still bring up a very sick, sad and anxious feeling. I can physically feel the feeling in my stomach and chest. I don't know why I care so much. I try to help people out a lot, sometimes too much to the point that it can harm me (and a lot of people owe me money). Maybe this is why I care so much? I don't think so though. I don't notice that strangeness ALL the time, but I can remember the feeling, and it hits me randomly. It seems to be much more frequent. It usually only lasts around 20 minutes to a few hours, but on one occasion, it lasted for almost a week. Does anybody else understand this strangeness I'm describing? Can you explain it better?
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Did we just become best friends?

Story of my life man. It's sort of an empty feeling, I don't know how to describe it but I know exactly what you are talking about.
 
I often feel that our reality is something very fragile and can easily be changed.
I think we do create our reality to a certain extent by working towards certain goals.
Do we do certain actions that guide us to live a certain existence.
Why am I who I am. Why are there so many other people in this world with a completely different reality.
What if we were to enter their lives like a fly on the wall.
What if we were to purposely go against all of societies norms and leave the house in the morning and try to communicate and live a different existence. Would our know reality suddenly vanish.

Sedatives like benzos and barbs do not stop pain signal transmission.
Under anesthesia you must give a sedative to render the pt unconscious and a narcotic
The narcosis blunts the autonomic nervous system response to surgical stimulation.
Often paralysis is used at the tridad of anesthesia but paralysis only functions for skeletal muscle relaxation.
Local a esthetics blunt pain transmission by blocking na channels and stop transmission of pain signals.

So no you cannot have the pain involved with surgical stimulation without either narcosis to blunt the autonomic nervous system or local anesthetic to stop pain signal transmission. You cannot just be under sedation and not have a response to pain. Anesthetic gases are much more complex and are not fully understood. Only anesthetic gas that can produce analgesia is nitrous but it must be given at 104% concentration to fully be analgesic and sedative. Which is impossible because you need a concentration of oxygen also.
 
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