Hello everyone. I read ~S.O.S.~'s signature today and it reminded me of somthing. The essence of it was a claim that you can't doubt logic or perception. About a year ago I had some experiences that brought logic and perception into direct conflict. These experiences might be called "daylight hallucinations" by some. By this I mean I was sober (on no strange chemicals) and seeing things happen that just "can't" happen. This happened to me intermittently over a period of several months (and at times was very scary).
I'm not going to go into details here, because its somewhat personal. However, suffice it to say I was faced with a choice: whether to believe logic or my own perception. My choice was to believe the hallucinations were reality (for a while) and construct a logical framework into which my strange perceptions would fit. This, however, lead me to the conclusion that I was....erm....dead....and in the after life. Basically, this perception vs. logic conflict opened a rather large can of worms for me :surprised .
Anyway, I'm better now (and certainly alive, I think :p ). So, my question is, has anyone else here faced a similar mental breakdown and how did you cope with it?
Steven.
I have experienced what you describe. Fortunately, and particularly, this was an isolated event caused by an extreme, traumatic event (as my psychiatrist deduced, in my case); "feelings of disembodiment or observing yourself from afar"-- "am I dead, am I alive?". This was quite odd and frightening.
I know the difference between hallucination and reality, but I do believe logic and reality is relative. The "strange chemicals" you refer to can do strange things to the mind but one usually knows this is the cause of a given, recreational drug; but try to convince the Apache shaman that his visionquests are hallucinations. Drugs (marijuana, LSD, mushrooms) never truly ever worked for me (whereas, the legal, prescribed drugs work wonders: Lithium && Lexapro for Bi-Polar); not until I found the Spirit did I find true knowing of the things I sought a decade ago through recreational tinkering. Try to convince a true Christian his or her belief in Jesus is imaginary and only a subconscious need for a "saviour". That is not only insulting but potentially the spark for a Holy War and wholly untrue in most cases. I am a Christan and I struggle with this belief and my own faith sometimes (and I know for certain that Yahweh is all I
truly have going for me!)
Mathematics, Platonic debate, binary, computers, Art, Chemistry, Astronomy, Physics, Programming-- I worship these as almost false gods most days. But, when it truly comes down to it at the end, the things that matter cannot be computed, tested, debugged, or measured. These aforementioned studies (Math, Chemistry, etc) are wonderful humanoid ways to understand our carbon-based selves, and we MUST learn them and evolve while alive but, in my opinion, the only thing to take away from these standards cover everything simply: "energy cannot be created or destroyed".
Regards,
matty d
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