Does life seem surreal to you too?

reply to post by daynight42

I know exactly what you mean.
I had this surreal feeling too for a while, until I started to work outside / in contact with nature.
Leaving the city for work in the morning and having flora and wildlife arround me all day got me back in balance.
Nature feels always real you know. Because it is.

reply to post by daynight42


I often have that same feeling regarding the overall nature of this reality. I also sometimes have the feeling that I am living in a nightmare and can't wake up. This is due to the very real and personal disasters that seem to plague my family.

Just a couple of weeks ago my husband and I both went through this when a new round of small catastrophes hit us. It wasn't just all of the negative events, but the nature of our reality also seemed akimbo. Things we knew were no longer true. Items that we both know were in our house were missing. If it had just happened to me I would bite the bullet and accept that perhaps I was having some psychiatric response to the mega-stress in my life. But my husband experienced it as well. We discussed it at length and then decided that the best reaction was just to go with the flow. Pragmatism is our friend.

But, we also understand completely the way you feel. Not to make light of this phenomenon but it seems most apparent if I have to go into a walmart. Now that my friend is the definition of surreal on too many levels to safely contemplate.

reply to post by Dreine


No matter how disconnected it may all seem, you need to focus on the wife and kids. They're what's real. Not all the other crap. The world makes it so hard, I know. I think especially for a mom or dad. As LesMisanthrope said above, it's like a test - you must rise above the easy, the mundane, the base and find the higher purpose of being human. Create not destroy.

Don't let the heavy, suffocating delirium caused by a shallow, false world destroy your family.

reply to post by KillerQueen


Sound advice, I thank you for it.

I know someone mentioned depression above, and I'm fairly certain it isn't that. I think perhaps it's just that as I look at the world, and the people in it, I find little that I think is interesting or worth my time.
Not that I think I am 'better' than anything or anyone by any means... more like I just have little interest in it all, that I want the world to be more. More grand. More epic. More something.

reply to post by intrptr


Don't compare this state of being to enlightenment or the awareness experienced outside Plato's cave heh. Just because we don't participate in the routines of the majority doesn't make us more aware. I think that most people know perfectly well what is happening to us all, how wrong things are, but they simply choose to fake it. I would never call them 'sheep' -that's the most pathetic word you can use if you are on this quest, in my opinion,
Let's be honest, just because we're wandering confused doesn't make us more in tune with what-is-real. We're just lost for now and that's the scariest thing to me- that I'll experience this state of neither ignorance/nor true awareness for an eternity. What is also frightening is that lack of will to do or be something/anything. Which is better than living a lie..but still.
True awareness is surely different..like a fresh breeze of clear light. Maybe this is some kind of bardo of becoming, but it feels like forever. Anyway my advice is-don't stagnate, realize the meaningfulness of this state of mind but don't let it settle in.

Originally posted by Eirian
reply to post by daynight42

 

Tell me, along with this feeling of surrealism, have you noticed patterns or things that happen too regularly to be just coincidence?

I'm not sure what you mean by "notice patterns or things that happen too regularly..."

I have never felt like I might be in a simulated world. I have wondered if such a thing were possible, and I do believe it is possible for a few reasons, but I have never told myself I felt that way.

I haven't really had experiences that stand out to me like the ones you described. There have been some strange times when I have talked with someone, and we practically complete each others sentences or what the person would say next. That is a bit creepy, and I wondered what might be going on. These were not people I knew well, so I couldn't say that was the reason. That's the only thing I can think of, but it was several month ago.

Originally posted by Dreine
reply to post by KillerQueen

 

I think perhaps it's just that as I look at the world, and the people in it, I find little that I think is interesting or worth my time.
Not that I think I am 'better' than anything or anyone by any means... more like I just have little interest in it all, that I want the world to be more. More grand. More epic. More something.

For me, yesterday, it was as if I was seeing things around me as just some kind of party or game. It didn't really seem to mean anything to anyone around me. It's like they were just there, doing things on autopilot.

To me, if they were really alive, they would value their life and take a stand against what is going on in this country and around the world or at least be aware of it, or have a desire to be aware. As I may have said, I've tried to tell people things, and they just ignore me or say very little. So, it really seems like they don't value freedom. They're okay with more and more suffocating laws and cruelty and criminal acts by the hypocritical elite. That to me, is so...not something a real, live human would do. It really is so absurd, that it makes the world seem surreal. It would be like if there was a picture, and in it, there was a really grim background of, say, a town torn apart my a bomb, and in the foreground, there is a yard with green grass and people smiling and excited for a birthday party, as if nothing near them looked like it was in a state of war-torn decay. It might make you say, What the hell is going on with these people? And yet, you've asked that question plenty of times, and it's getting old. Why should I care about the future, if everyone else is throwing it away and living only for today? How can my future be secure and worth something, if I know it will be lost in a matter of time unless society cooperates to fight to regain freedom?

I see people worrying about retirement or how they'll pay their debts, and I think to myself that none of that will matter in a few years. I don't see how. Hyperinflation is bound to screw us all (except for the "inflation proof" uber-rich). Everything people worked for, could be gone. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have lost confidence in the future.

I know this feeling well. Discuss in a pub I go to only to fall on deaf ears.


It actually has a label now "The Truman Show Syndrome"

Of course they also say this is an early symptom of schizophrenia, I just happend to think it is depression caused by a dismal state of the world. And I think a lot of people don't want to face it because of denial.

That said, planting a Garden and being with Family and friends helped me, might help you too I hope.

reply to post by daynight42


Sounds like you are experiencing a state of depersonalization. Some drugs (such as anesthetics) can do that at sub-clinical doses. But it can also happen spontaneously from time to time, or be triggered by exposure to a new environment, the loss of a loved one, loss of a job, etc.

-rrr

reply to post by daynight42


I think you're talking about things in a more philosophical sense, but it made me think of Derealization. It's happened to me before and it feels exactly like you're either in a dream or someone else's movie.

Wiki says this about Derealization:
"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.

Derealization is a subjective experience of unreality of the outside world, while depersonalization is unreality in one's sense of self. Although most authors currently regard derealization (surroundings) and depersonalization (self) as independent constructs, many do not want to separate derealization from depersonalization.[2] The main reason for this is nosological, because these symptoms often co-occur, but there is another, more philosophical reason: the idea that the phenomenological experience of self, others, and world is one continuous whole. Thus, feelings of unreality may blend in and the person may puzzle over deciding whether it is the self or the world that feels unreal to them."

Originally posted by daynight42
Today, driving around, I felt that life has taken on such a surreal nature to me. It's as if I am wandering around aimlessly, and that nothing matters. Things happen, but they happen just to happen. I look around me, and it's as if I'm part of a dream that is very life like but that I cannot wake up from. I look around me at people just going about their lives, and I wonder how they do it. They don't seem the least bit bothered by what is going on in the world. It's really as if I'm almost living a completely different life than they are, in another world. Yet, I see them, and they see me. I feel like a foreigner even though I can remember being here for as long as I can remember. This existence has taken an artificial quality. It's like nothing really matters to me, because nothing (important) seems to matter to anyone else, except trivial crap. I feel like I'm paralyzed and can't move, but the people around me are moving and carrying on; they notice me, but nobody notices that I'm not moving. It is a very odd feeling. It's like I do not belong here.

It reminds me of nihilism of some kind. The things that are so important to me and to our advancement as a species are ignored by most people. It's like I realize this now, and I have given up on the world around me. People have traded reality and a quest for progress, for entertainment and shallow pleasantries. It really bothers me, but there's nothing I can do to change the people around me. (I have tried.)

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.

Is this maybe just some kind of growth phase that I'm going through? Has anyone felt the same, and did it pass or did it get better or worse for you? It seems I'm at a very confusing point in life, which is kind of okay if it teaches me something. I realize the people who feel they have the most answers are often the most lost. I'm just looking to see if anyone else has felt similar.

I have felt similar in the way that every single word you wrote has crossed my own mind many times...

I think it has everything to do with raised awareness. When your own awareness has reached 'the next level', you automatically see the contrast with others. I know that will sound arrogant to some. I don't care.

There are people who are diffrent, they dont see the world diffrent but just see it as it is. There are very very few of these people in the world, where as shamen must use drugs and drums these people just go to these places as a normail part of there life. To these few people the most powerful shaman are only children playing with toys. The world hates these people as all shamen do. When people feel strange and feel that the world is diffrent they are at the start of not understanding.

Originally posted by Dreine
reply to post by KillerQueen

 

Sound advice, I thank you for it.

I know someone mentioned depression above, and I'm fairly certain it isn't that. I think perhaps it's just that as I look at the world, and the people in it, I find little that I think is interesting or worth my time.
Not that I think I am 'better' than anything or anyone by any means... more like I just have little interest in it all, that I want the world to be more. More grand. More epic. More something.

It's not depression. I say that because it is clear that you value yourself. As long as you don't lose that, you will not go into depression.

Yes, very surreal. Kind of like there's a missing puzzle piece waiting to be placed.

gratitude+acceptance+trust+honesty = connectivity

self-pity+resentment+fear+dishonesty = disconnectivity

I also feel this and recognize what you're saying. I've been feeling this way for about a year now. I was walking through campus the other day and everything just looked and felt like a dream, I stopped and just watched people flow through and thought 'any minute now Reality will shine through- something will happen' but it didn't and I had to continue on my way. For now, I'm just living the life I have while striving to reach my 'authentic self'. I don't really know what it all means or where or how we'll end up, but I definitely feel what you do and have noticed a shift in perception.

..In response to the above post-- I feel MORE connected now than ever, I feel MORE compassionate, understanding and accepting. I am sensing the interconnectedness of all Life more. It's not a sensation of shutting oneself away from the other world, it's just a feeling of 'stepping outside of it'. (for lack of a better definition)

reply to post by sleepdealer

Don't compare this state of being to enlightenment or the awareness experienced outside Plato's cave heh.

But I do. Once you come out of the cave and see a sunset for the first time... there is no going back to the cave. There is no more pretending the "story book cave" has any merit. Unless you want to help others of course.

Just because we don't participate in the routines of the majority doesn't make us more aware.

Criminals don't participate. Neither does "the enemy". The elite don't participate. They made "the system". They also know. No, most people are hard nose system oriented. They have to be. They are fully trained from youth to become it and now they are completely dependent upon it. Even if they do get "glimpses" of awareness they quickly squash those for in their mind it is too big a shock. They are too committed, there are few alternatives. And there are too many distractions to float away on.

I think that most people know perfectly well what is happening to us all, how wrong things are, but they simply choose to fake it. I would never call them 'sheep' -that's the most pathetic word you can use if you are on this quest, in my opinion,

I hate that word. It is derogatory and demeaning. It lumps people into less than (like the Nazis did). We are all human. And as such we are fallible and malleable.

Let's be honest, just because we're wandering confused doesn't make us more in tune with what-is-real. We're just lost for now and that's the scariest thing to me- that I'll experience this state of neither ignorance/nor true awareness for an eternity. What is also frightening is that lack of will to do or be something/anything. Which is better than living a lie..but still.
True awareness is surely different..like a fresh breeze of clear light. Maybe this is some kind of bardo of becoming, but it feels like forever. Anyway my advice is-don't stagnate, realize the meaningfulness of this state of mind but don't let it settle in.

Being "awake" is not "lost". That is your fresh breeze. Sorry it is so mundane. And boring. But... solid. And you must wait like the rest of us for what is next. Just try to be more of the solution on your level, and less and less of the problem.You have been given the most precious element: awareness. Now what you do with the awareness is up to you.

reply to post by Starcrossd

I feel MORE connected now than ever, I feel MORE compassionate, understanding and accepting. I am sensing the interconnectedness of all Life more. It's not a sensation of shutting oneself away from the other world, it's just a feeling of 'stepping outside of it'. (for lack of a better definition)

Being in it, but not "of it" ( or not a "product of it"). Thats wonderful. Make sure you use those feelings of compassion and accepting on others. Thats the gift, now put them to work where you can.

OP, I have been experiencing very similar things.

I'll tell you what I have come to believe after trying to convince people around me of obvious conspiracies/cartels inconsistencies in history etc.. otherwise very smart people but still they almost as a rule always just don't ever see it. It is very frustrating and confusing... you begin to question if people are stupid, don't wish to know for one reason or another or don't care, or even if you are going insane.

I don't think we can ever convince a already made up mind of ANYTHING, we can only point towards things and let people choose for themselves. People also want to be right so sometimes being subtle makes all the difference, inception , or open discussions instead of trying to force your views on someone else (these are just my thoughts which are to be taken in whatever manner you wish).

Once you stop trying to force it and simply accept it as it is and what is to come and adapt a positive view on life you will see a difference. To change the external you must first change the internal.. yourself, it is very difficult I know since much of it is your subconscious.

Basically our "reality" is made up of the shared reality and your individual reality. Our individual realities may even be fundamentally different only sharing common features. The only way you can change someone else's reality is if you change your own enough so the shared reality don't allow the same versions of you to coexist in the same reality... this means that you shift to another parallel shared reality more in accordance with your own which instead include a version of other individuals around you who are more on your own wavelength.

Everything that we could ever imagine exist, all simultaneously in different parallel realities.. for we are all one consciousness divided into many fragments which are divided into even more fragments experiencing only a very limited part of the whole through the viewpoint of the fragment.. the mind is not a fragment of the physical, the physical is a fragment of the mind. Source is either imagination of the one consciousness or an quantum computer it seems.

Shifting realities is a thing which we naturally do from moment to moment even as we move.. the question is how big a shift we make, we are only able to shift a little at a time because that is what we are used to. Think of life as a collection of printed pictures each moment in time a different picture, we only think that the pictures in our hands are all there are when they really are lying all around us.

There are many paths to arriving at this current negative reality, most people don't wish to see or simply don't care enough to act on the things they see are wrong in society... or even try to exploit them for their own gain. I think I arrived at this reality through being pessimistic most of my life, although well intentioned positive development wasn't what I believed would happen, so it didn't.

Like Bill Hicks said: "it is only a choice, between fear and love". TV and news keep people in a fearful state, always scaring you with the latest abominations of politics and ideologies and religious institutions... every single one made with the purpose of control... thus we live in a fearful society supporting the manipulators "divide and conquer" strategy allowing them control over us and manifesting negative and fearful developments.

Conspiracy theories are usually sadly negative, but it is still important to see reality as it truly is.. what we could do without is the anger and negativity emanating when we read all the corruption and evil that is happening around us.. Unconditional love is always positive. We cannot focus on hanging all the crooks who make life miserable, that is like fighting fire with fire. Instead we need to focus on making life less and less miserable and the crooks will eventually disappear.

What you put out into the world is truly what you receive back. Intentions are very important, but what you are convinced of is more important still. You must not merely believe, intend, or try, or wish .. You must KNOW it, LIVE it, it must BE your reality and then it truly WILL be. Peace.

reply to post by daynight42

Life is what we make of it, and there are innumerable opportunities to have a positive impact even in the smallest and subtlest of ways. We possess the gift of freedom, so why allow the problems outside ourselves to serve as an excuse to do nothing, creative nothing, and have no fun, it's absurd.

We are either part of the solution, or we're part of the problem.

Screw apathy and nihilism - life is here now, to be enjoyed and actively engaged.

Step one might involve getting off ATS, sitting down with pen and paper to write down what you really want and would like for others in your own sphere of influence however big or small.

I hate to see otherwise capable people, even gifted people giving up just because they don't see everyone else involved in dynamic, creative action.

Pretty sad if you ask me.