What are these feelings telling me? A philosophical inquiry.

2183 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Psyborg, Mar 15, 2019

revuptheglory

Discussion Starter · Nov 22, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Depersonalization, as I'm sure many of you are already aware, is defined as the "feeling" of being unreal. I believe, with further inspection the "feeling" of being unreal is simply a general distrust of.. [insert phonemena]. The specifics of this range anywhere from despair, anger, fear, or even, immense relief. I think most people, such as myself, In attempts to again trust, feel connected to, or gain a clarity from and of reality, began to question the ontological nature of being, of existential consequences of meaninglessness, etc. all in attempt to make sense of what is.. because what does it really mean to be "unreal" and if we are sensing it, it must surely have some grounds, even if those grounds are in anatomy and neuroscience. Personally, I understand it to be a odd metaphysical condition, or an abstract despairancy of the sort.

Dreams, meditation, and drugs are all things known to elicit such particular feelings. I don't like to dismiss the existential thinking portion that usually accomplinies these experiences, because I understand it to be a way of integrating them to your philosophical understanding at large, although the integration portion can be explored through physical means, answering what does this experience mean for how I must live my life.. which seems to be a very, If not a very relevant question. If you are going to strictly ask the questions instead of live them, it's important to ask the right ones, or at least most clarifying.

Furthermore, I think it's important to explore a particular what if.
if these feelings are somehow representative of any truth, to be trusted and believed, than what can we say about our disconnection/separation at the world at large?
If these feelings however, are false, what within us is missing/incorrect about the connections we have to our universe?

Depersonalization is perhaps, a very strange and chaotic manifestation of "universal" connections. What can we do to make sense of not "being real" or in a basic sense, not being connected, and assign meaning to such heavy feelings of estrangement.. an existential take.

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revuptheglory

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 15, 2019 (Edited by Moderator)

I believe a healthy mind can distinguish the sensations elicited in a dream vs.those elicited in reality. I also believe these sensations upon closer inspection, whether derived externally/internally, or in response to internal/external stimuli, communicate essential information. One can reason and speculate what reality is, one can even pass evidence upon this reality to others. I feel it is unfair to say one cannot know reality, not even in the slightest sense. If you are alive and thinking, you must in some sense be real, thus represent a faction of reality. Reality and existence are one of the same.

What I did here, specifically so in my last paragraph, was try to explain this in terms of perception and interpretation which you did pick up on. I understand this phonemena in respect to unconscious and conscious faculties of the psyche.

I want to say that these sensations of being "unreal" but in fact do extend on to a larger scale of objective reality because first and foremost, there must be an engagement or in respect to your description of dp/dr, attachment of the self/surrounding at some point for interpretations to form.

The descriptor of feeling unreal may not communicate anything to you, and that in itself can be argument of it being a poor descriptor due to a lack of representation or technicality. I still see it however as a viable place holder/label for what the experience of dp feels like.

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revuptheglory

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 15, 2019 (Edited by Moderator)

@perfectfifth thank you for your response.

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