Does life seem surreal to you too?

I can relate to the sentiments expressed in the OP. I too feel like a foreigner on this planet, and this world definitely feels to have taken on an artificial quality as of late. I think it comes down to waking up and experiencing cognitive dissonance; your brain and body recognise that all is not what it seems, but it's too uncomfortable to digest when you reflect over these feelings in your mind.

As somebody else experiencing these sensations, my advice to you is this: don't be so hard on yourself or others around you. None of us knows for certain why we are here or what our specific purpose happens to be. We know that while there is pain and negativity in this world, there is also the potential for beauty and positivity. Continue in your quest for knowledge, but remember to experience the emotions of happiness and love and enjoy your life to the best of your ability.

OP, you have perfectly articulated my own feelings that I could not define myself. Thank you!

I recently had a baby and I have been avoiding extended family and friends simply because my immediate family is in such a blissful state, I hardly want to contaminate it with the bizarre reality that is the rest of the world.

It's as if my relationships with my IRL extended family and friends are artificial, strange and wholly unsustainable. I find them exhausting really. I just can't fake it anymore. I have my husband and two close confidants and everyone else is about as conscious as a zombie.

ETA: I wonder if this feeling is a result of a world too slick with marketing, to superficial and too artificially connected? I wonder if this is how the brain processes a media saturated world?

Originally posted by randomname

Originally posted by RealSpoke

Derealization (sometimes abbreviated as DR) is an alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems unreal. Other symptoms include feeling as though one's environment is lacking in spontaneity, emotional coloring and depth.[1] It is a dissociative symptom of many conditions, such as psychiatric and neurological disorders, and not a standalone disorder. It is also a transient side effect of acute drug intoxication, sleep deprivation, and stress.[citation needed]

en.wikipedia.org...

describing the symptoms doesn't tell you what causes it. without knowing the cause, you cannot find an answer, a solution or a way to defeat it.

you have to find the cause first to understand it and beat it.

You feel disconnected with mainstream society. You've stepped out of the 'wanting' stage. To 'want', you don't take a step back and ask why do I want that.

Most people want what other people want or deem as needing to achieve.

As you have stepped out of that, you don't need it and question why others blindly follow that dream. They look blank, false, that's because they are being false.

Tykonos ......There's a new psyhcriatric term (excuse the spelling) for that after the film with Jim Carey. I can't remember the one but it's the one, off the top of my head, about a person believing they are in a reality type situation, where they are being watched and they are the source of entertainment..........The Truman Show

Realities are traded like commodities at the bazaar in this Age of Subjectivism. No one trumps the other and they all pull at the collective. The experiencer cannot be separate from the experience, and must proceed as the hands are dealt.

Originally posted by ecossiepossie
Tykonos ......There's a new psyhcriatric term (excuse the spelling) for that after the film with Jim Carey. I can't remember the one but it's the one, off the top of my head, about a person believing they are in a reality type situation, where they are being watched and they are the source of entertainment..........The Truman Show

Oh yeah.... lol.... It was on the tip of my tongue.

Originally posted by Qi Maker
Realities are traded like commodities at the bazaar in this Age of Subjectivism. No one trumps the other and they all pull at the collective. The experiencer cannot be separate from the experience, and must proceed as the hands are dealt.

Yes but there are those that have a good poker face. Making the experience of reality in a subjective way seem warped and a little confusing.

So the reality is reality but not in the way that reality is felt but perceived and dealt by other players....Then think about all the other players...oh my god...mind melt.

reply to post by daynight42


I thnk there may be a limit to our ability to assimilate information. If you are like me, you have spent a good portion of your life gathering information to serve as a foundation for your own growth. In the past the flow of incoming information was always regulated by whatever dominant paradigm one lived within, ones religion or belief system. Now however the consistency of paradigms is faltering as more and more we are nurtured by not only different paradigms but conflicting paradigms. For instance, sixty years ago we all seemed to live in a simple universe. Steady state gave way to big bang. The big bang was to expand until the big crunch brought it all back into a small hot ball and it all started over again. That has been tossed out in favor of continual expansion until everything froze to lifelessness. Now instead, we may be looking at the big rip, where the expansion continues to excellerate until our finite universe rips apart across the board at a subatomic level and it becomes infinite. With all this going on, how's a person to feel connected. Connected to what, and will it change next week?

I

I trust the Mayans. They were masters of time. This planet is going through changes. We are connected to Gaia. What she feels, we feel. Our material pursuits are becoming trivial. This is a process we must endure. We are begining the return to nature. We can't become robots, its unatural. A reset button is about to be hit.

I trust the Mayans. They were masters of time. This planet is going through changes. We are connected to Gaia. What she feels, we feel. Our material pursuits are becoming trivial. This is a process we must endure. We are returning to nature. We can't become robots, its unatural. A reset button is about to be hit.

"Does life seem surreal to you too?,"


I feel like I am a figment of someones imagination in a dream they are having or a character in a poorly writen story with no plot. Like there is no rhyme or reason for anything. It is like I have done what I was meant to do in life and now I am just waiting around for the end. I feel out dated as a 8 track tape player in a CD world.

Yes I know just what you mean.

All of you guys just sound depressed

De-realization is part of the modern hero journey of modern mystics. There is no spoon.

We are all the willing data miners for our exalted Queen Noosphere.

Originally posted by RealSpoke
All of you guys just sound depressed

I'm not depressed!

I woke up to the fact that to be free is to be the person you want to be, not what's expected of you.

Sure it may make you seem a little odd but I call it living creativity.

Originally posted by BlueMule
De-realization is part of the modern hero journey of modern mystics. There is no spoon.

The experiencer cannot be separate from the experience.

reply to post by daynight42

When existential philosophy became well known in the 1940s, it was actually considered a "fad" by many, from what I've read. But I've always felt that existentialism is the philosophy which is closest to my own thought, and is very much a contemporary way of thought. That feeling of alienation and surrealism is, to me, the most honest portrayal of life in this society

Originally posted by Qi Maker

Originally posted by BlueMule
De-realization is part of the modern hero journey of modern mystics. There is no spoon.

The experiencer cannot be separate from the experience.

edit on 24-6-2012 by Qi Maker because: (no reason given)

Yes it can, by their perception of that experience.

The experience may be very different for all those that experience the 'event'.
Without the experiences or narrative, there is only fact. No feeling or emotion. Each that can feel that experience will have a different narrative.

edit: each experiencer has a narrative. Therefore to have a difference in narrative, you have to have a separation from the experiencer to the experience.

Originally posted by daynight42
The way that I have found to cope with this is really to isolate myself from most people to keep away from the harsh reality of it all, but I can't do that enough, it seems. I feel wrong, at times to judge others, but I know these same people would judge me in the same way on certain issues if I were to share them. I consider it my responsibility to judge the world, including the people in it, if I am to live here. Maybe that is my purpose, to sort of be the eyes and ears for something bigger that I don't know about. Or, maybe that's what I tell myself to accept the state of my world.

One thing I have noticed is that it is easy for people to judge. It is funny because in my terms I call it hate. It is not true hatred but it is a mix of apathy, judging, and negativity. For instance, any group judging me should know that I don't want to associate with that group, so why would they still communicate with me? It would be for an emotional response, like a doll that responds - you press the button and the arm moves or something. When engaging with these types of people we have to comprehend the 'art of war' theme psychologically, as they are common in the world. We are still not to judge and keep communicating with everybody, but we have to apply that to them only.

10 signs of spiritual awakening:

1. Your sleep patterns change. You feel restless but seem to have more energy.

2. Activity at the crown of your head, Shivers, crawling sensations, tingles on your scalp, feelings like someone is applying pressure on the top of your head. Flashes of great inspiration creativity and thoughts feeling vibrations around the head and ears. this is the opening of the crown chakra and define energy flowing in

3. Sudden waves of emotion. You feel like crying, lonely, angry, happy for seemingly no reason. This is a release of blocked emotions from the heart chakra.

4. Old issues keep coming back and at times you feel very lost.

5. Your physical body begins to changes. Weight loss and a desire to eat healthy.

6. Your senses have increased sensitivity. you may hear your name called more often voices and sounds that you never heard before you may also begin to see sparkles of light, shadows, different types of movements and auras around objects. This is your sixth sense opening up.

7. You begin to view the whole world and all that it supports in a new way, with a new understanding and a new reality that may look fake to you. Keep in the flow. Be compassionate and loving as best you can and don't be hard on yourself when you're having a bad day. Be gentle with yourself as your awareness expands.

8. Your intuition becomes heightened, you feel more compassion and loving to all things and you start to feel what truly "is".

9. You desire to break free from old habits and restrictive patterns and try new things that you never once tried before.

10. Synchronicity events flow faster as you are being shown that you're on the right path including number sequences, meetings, pictures and visions start flowing in your direction. These coincidence have great meaning and tie in with your thoughts and speak directly to you on a very profound level only you understand.

I think you are experiencing Number 7.

I hope this helps you understand why you are feeling this way.