This story has CHANGED MY LIFE ... it may change yours as well.

Excellent. Just excellent. I'm a pretty cynical person IRL. I'm going to have to see if I can change that. Thank you.

/TOA

The world would be a lot better of a place if everyone had a lot more empathy for each other. I think that this would most likely be the case if in western culture it was the norm to take hallucinogens just like it is in many tribes and cultures untainted by western civilization.

reply to post by gatorboi117

Great story! There are videos on youtube showing the results of Emotos experiment.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by gatorboi117


awesome post!

About 2 years ago I remembered having this conversation, or at least a really similar one. After a few months of living with this realization I extrapolated that I am every living being. I have been eating vegan ever since.

That story from the OP really makes me think about things. In a way it would be cool if this world was made in such a way where an individual was in fact everyone. However, given that bad things happen in this world I wouldn't want to be everyone.

That's how I always felt the world worked...

"We are all together as one, I am you and you are me" (some random paraphrased quotes from Nine Inch Nails)

I dont believe I will reincarnate to be everyone that ever existed but I do believe we are all part of a great whole.

very nice to read mate, a very important message.

Originally posted by Big Raging Loner

Originally posted by TiM3LoRd
This story reminds me of a lucid dream I had last month. In the dream I knew I was dreaming(obviously) so I decided to gauge the awareness level of my dream characters who were being animated by my sub contiousness I suppose. I told them they were not real and that I was the creator of their world. They didn't seem to understand what I was saying and they had a blank look on their face. I then showed them I could levitate and fly and that seemed to convince them that at the very least that I was more than what I appeared to be. But they still coudnt grasp the concept that I was their god(so to speak) I then got bored and left them to their mundane existence and took off in search of more adventurous pursuits.

Jessica Alba?

heheheh i see your a frequent lucid dreamer too then. funny enough the chicks i "entertain" are never celebs or anybody famous there the girl next door type. go figure

I am going to come down on this OP rather strongly.

If this story has really changed your life, you should be aware that you are entering into a classical paranoid delusion. There is absolutely no evidence that you are actually all the souls in the world, and you shouldn't be basing any actions on that belief, because it is completely false.

Like all paranoid delusions, this will be difficult or impossible to prove to you. Likewise, it is equally hard to prove you that we are not living in the Matrix, and that life is not actually a dream, and that mirrors are not actually portals to alternate universes. That is how paranoid delusions work. However, the rational truth is that all these things I mention, along with the story you posted, have no basis in fact. (The only argument that might make sense is that your story clearly violates causality, but there are probably better arguments than that -- like where animals fit into this picture. )

Why am I making such a big deal here about this?

For several reasons.

@1. For you to feel strong empathy for someone is natural. It should not require that you think that person is actually yourself. I can see how acceptance of this story, in any part or form could actually blunt your ability to feel empathy. (If I am actually you, then you are less obliged to show kindness to me.)

@2. The thought that you are actually the same person as Hitler, Jesus, Napoleon, Charles Manson, Paris Hilton, etc., is going to warp the way you interact with life, your ability to function effectively. Those people are not you. You share no overlap with them at all.

@3. The belief illustrated in this story based upon total self-centeredness. If you dwell on this belief, give it focus, it will re-enforce other paranoid beliefs. If that runs unchecked, it could lead to very bad consequences (selfishness, theft, suicide, murder, etc.) Unchecked paranoia is highly dangerous both to society and yourself.

I know you started the OP making your point clearly that this was just a story. I certainly don't mean to hammer you. But I can see how someone having a particularly difficult period in their lives (and being 17 is not the easiest time to be alive, for sure) might begin to adopt the viewpoint of the story.

Don't let this story take you down some false path.

Check out the Poem Invictus. It may be more effective literature for affecting change in your life.

www.poemhunter.com...

That is truly a inspiring story!

There is just one thing that bugs me. If you start feeling empathy for others only after you assimilate this concept, then isn't there something wrong. Then you only feel empathy "for yourself" and not to something completely outside of yourself as you should. Isn't that what empathy is? Sharing emotions of another sentient being.


ADDED: ^ beat me to it

Originally posted by gatorboi117
About a month ago, I stumbled across this story. This is a story that, although I don’t believe at all, has completely changed my life.
Here it is:


“The Egg” by Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.......

To understand how this changed my life, let me tell you a little about myself:
I’m a High School Senior, 17 years old. I am a devout Christian, and believe the Bible to be absolutely true.

Great story mate. It's more true than you think. And more true than the Bible could ever be.

been doing this most of my life,actually thought most people did it,but I'm not religious,don't follow any books.not that i think I'm everyone,but feel what they are feeling,like I've been in their shoes,and feel what it's like living and feeling like them,

Well, it does make the saying,..... that you should treat others the way you would want to be treated........ a wee bit more thought provoking.

reply to post by gatorboi117


Wow! Really amazing short story. I didn't expect it to be so powerful to me. It's like the first time I saw the Matrix. Mouth agape, thinking, I really never thought of it quite like that before. A real mind f*** if you will. Great thread!! I will have to pass this story on to others.

reply to post by delta.bravo.delta


Great story and well wrote. I've been a believer of reincarnation for 35 years now, and stories like yours, only confirms that belief.
For me it started with a book called "Towards the Light". A book that made me understand the universe seen through my "innocent eyes" To those of you who loves to read, and where laughter is a must, I can without hesitation turn your attention to book "The Disappearance of the Universe" written by Gary R. Renard.

Please give it a go, and I garantee you, that you shall be rich indeed. Laughter is when used right, is the cure for so many things relating to the body. With laughter your brain creates serotonin, the same drug released by the brain, when you're on top of the world. I Love All of You My Fellow Human Beings.

Peace Out People

How do you know you are not the deluded one? Physical science cannot explain consciousness, and to believe that these few pounds of fat between our ears can come up with beauty; poetry like INVICTUS, art, science, human rights etc and ,,, to me seems ludicrous. Where do you think human consciousness comes from? Can it not be that we are all conscious because we are only one consciousness? Think of all the things you know, how does that meat in your head retain that? It could be that a lot of the things you think you know, you know because it is in the collective unconsciousness-hundred monkey principle dude-you know it because when it is known to enough of us it is knowable to all of us. I guess it it like the slot experiment, we need to get enough of us focused on a unformed thing to form it up into something that we all can recognize. Just because you don't recognize it yet, does not mean it does not exist.

Unity! Peace!

This is a really good story and I passed it along to everyone close to me who I thought would be able to extract something good in it.

I am agnostic and may also not believe in reincarnation, but I think everyone will get out of the story what they choose to. For me, it reminds me of the simple life lesson to treat people as you would have them treat you and not to judge others.

Hence, that is why some people on the thread may completely miss or just ignore the inspiration in this story, thus do exactly the opposite of what the story may intend to bring about and why there's some bashing going on.

I hope everyone finds themselves in due time.

Peace & love.

reply to post by Axial Leader

Comparing empathy based acceptance of the other and possibly belief in reïncarnation with paranoid delusion doesn't seem to make it. You'd have half the world population paranoid deluded.

I see what you mean, but I think the OP only meant his life changed because he learned to understand and accept others behaviour by consciously looking at people in a different, more empathic way.
He doesn't believe this story being true literally, but gained a somewhat different view on/insight in humanity. Correct me if I'm wrong, op.
Also, he sounds way too sane to be labelled as paranoid deluded.