Terrified thoughts

A few times While lying in bed at night, I would start thinking about the universe. Then I would think about infinity. How the universe have no beginning and no end. What if each of us were to exist forever. After we die, our consciousness would go on living infinitely. There is no end to our existence.

I would go deeper and deeper into this thought, then suddenly a wave of extreme terror came over me and I had to get out of bed. This is probably the scariest experience I've ever had. It's as if I've reached the limit to the human mind and nothing makes sense anymore. Has anyone ever experienced something like this before?

Well, i can understand that it could be scary depending how you look at it ofcourse.

Your consciousness could be eternal but that is not the same as your personality as you are now. So even if your consciousness is eternal it is not that you as a person are eternal, so when you die, you really die as you are now.

It is not something to be scared or terrified of as i see it really, it would get incredibly boring if it was like that. I do think that whatever peers out of these eyes of mine will be in some kind of essence immortal but that is about it. Maybe when we die we know everything we ever did in whatever life we ever lived but who knows.

Originally posted by Truth07
Has anyone ever experienced something like this before?

Only like EVERY DAY. Not necessarily about that, specifically. Years ago, hypothetical and philosophical things could sometimes trigger a reaction like that.

Then I got married, had some kids, mortgage, job pressures... yeah I'd say more often than not at some point in the wee hours I'll have a wave of extreme terror come over me.

No kidding.

I consider this daily, but I have never been gripped by terror over it, to me it's beautiful, even perfect. I think each life is designed to test us, to help us understand different factors of our 'eternal self', personality, perception, our interaction with the world, or our assumption of it, how we interact with each other as an individual. Don't be afraid of death, but rather hope that by when your time comes, you will have learnt or discovered what you were supposed to, otherwise, you may have to do it all over again.

May I ask, why did this terrify you? I found this rather profound when I considered it, would certainly give a meaning to life.

EMM

reply to post by Truth07

What you're describing sounds like an abrupt form of existential crisis. There was a thread a little while ago about those:

Describe your existential crises

The mind can get 'freaked-out' sometimes, when trying to understand itself. That, and, oh by the way, everything you think you know about reality is just an assumption.

You sure your third eye wasn't starting to open? If your consciousness was focused in your forehead, that could be the case. When the third eye opens it often feels like one is standing on the edge of the abyss, a feeling of panic and even vertigo can occur. It can cause a feeling of fear and nausea, sort of like your body is afraid to give up the ghost.


[edit on 4-8-2008 by Sonya610]

reply to post by Truth07


Don't worry about it- it is very normal. The same thing happened to me as a child and, oddly enough, the same thing you were thinking about is what sparked the episode. While spending the night at my aunt's house one night, I began to think about the same things that concerned you and ended up in a major panic attack that resulted in my parents having to come get me.

Ian beat me to it but HERE is the Wiki article on Existential Crises if you want to read that along with the thread he pointed you to. It's very common and is a form of panic attack.

Thanks for the information everyone! Just the fact that many people also get this, and that there is a name for it, makes me feel very relieved.

Originally posted by ElectroMagnetic Multivers

May I ask, why did this terrify you? I found this rather profound when I considered it, would certainly give a meaning to life.

EMM

For me, it's pretty scary to think that existence goes on and on and never ends. It's like we're trapped in existence. We must be conscious for eternity and there is no way to escape it. At the same time, to think that I might just die and go into nonexistence forever is pretty scary also. The universe would go on and I won't be there to experience any of it.

Maybe we should just accept our existence and live life to the fullest. I don't think our limited mind can ever resolve the question of existence. Hence the creation of religion. This panic feeling could be the mind's way of telling us that it has reached a dead end thinking about these things.

I can understand the way you feel about infinite existence. Your story sounds like something that happened to me word-for-word actually! There are some points of thought that our minds can't easily comprehend- nothingness for instance. Have you ever simply thought about what nothingness would look like or what everything would be without anything at all? No universe. Nothing. Not even a gaping blackness. What does nothing look like? The thing is, it doesn't. Nothingness, is in my opinion, the hardest instance for human minds to comprehend, and infinity is pretty close.

reply to post by Truth07


You explain the circumstances to get such crisis just perfect. i think ppl who tend to go very deep in subjects tend to get desperate at one point. i totally know what you mean. and thinking about infinity mostly leads to feel everything is senseless.
something really helped me to be a little calmer about death and questioning the sense of all - it was an explanation in a book of Joseph Murphy. he said, that when you look at nature you will diagnose, that everything makes perfect sense: everything works perfectly together, develops and always becomes something better or new. that is the same with death. it makes perfect sense, because it is another development that leads to something better - otherwise death wouldnt even exist. nature doesnt do something senseless or something for disprofit.
i absolutely believe, that when we die we will transform to something better - it will be kind of like : "why were we so scared about that - it is so much better".
that thought of murphy seemed so logical to me and helped me a lot to deal with death and the feeling of insanity. for me every new development cant be senseless and also shows that nothing is infinite.

reply to post by Truth07

Definately.

I think a little TOO outside the box sometimes!

There's nothing wrong with it, though. I encourage that you continue, now don't drive yourself insane, to think in this nature.

What I do is, when it gets too far, I mix it with my imagination and wonder.

This might help.

reply to post by Truth07


Hi. The terror is coming from your mind as it becomes aware of its limitations. The mind is very limited, but you are not your mind. If you can be aware of your mind, then you are not the mind. You are actually the awareness behind the mind. Part of the reason we are here, I believe, is to learn how to separate from our mind/ego complex.

So the terror reaction is just you becoming all tangled up in your thoughts.