Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture • Hacker News Board

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#51

Post by bsenftner » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 12:58 AM UTC

mahathu wrote: post #44

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had this idea that meditation was the long way to the shortcut drugs offered. I am saying meditation, because, despite using fancy new terminology (RS)( ..[is] facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation, concentration of attention, and autosuggestion ), the paper does not really describe new phenomenon, but rather.. a new generation rediscovering 60s. History. Rhymes. And all that.

>I always had this idea that meditation was the long way to the shortcut drugs offered. Very well put! Every time I'm on LSD or psilocybin (or even THC in higher dosages) I think "I should learn how to properly meditate to get into this state of insight sober"

It is really quite easy: have someone you know provide a nonsense word. In needs to have no logical sense or connections to to anything - pure nonsense. Then, with that phrase held in your most present and loudest inner voice you repeat that phrase in your head. Repeat it over an over, forcefully to drive any other thoughts or thought fragments out of your mental conversation(s) (at all mental conversation levels, if you have more than one going at once). After a few minutes of forceful repeating, it echoes on it's own, and a few realization moments later 20-30 minutes have passed and it feels like waking from a refreshing dream. When in the "state", it really can't be described because it is whatever your imagination and recent experiences feedback froth back and forth. It's relaxing and refreshing, and a great way to clear one's head when working on difficult complex mental goals.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#52

Post by throwaway13337 » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 12:59 AM UTC

This idea seems remarkably similar to an idea that was popular in Russia about 15 years ago - "reality transurfing" popularized by Vadim Zeland.

The same sort of shaky quantum physics justification is used for it.

It might be reaching but I'd say the Russians that grew up 90's were captivated by this idea perhaps because of the similar desire to escape a bad reality. That time was awful for a lot of them and covid restrictions have a similar sort of hopelessness and helplessness. When you do not feel you can have an affect on the world, it's best to focus on changing your perception of it.

The reality creation in Russia's version notably lacked the application of simply going to some commercialized fictional world. Instead it simply focused on creating your reality - whatever that may be.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#53

Post by vorpalhex » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC

sleepapnea wrote: post #47

alan_n wrote: post #45

This just sounds like lucid dreaming awake imo. Kind of scary some of these people believe they're actually jumping dimensions or something. Wonder how much control they can exert compared to a lucid dreaming. I've not managed LD awake/meditating yet , but I can fall asleep awake if my body is tired enough but I'm mentally awake, though it requires a lot of concentration. And doing it does not feel nice (you can feel…

That sounds like hypnagogia. Have you gotten checked for sleep apnea?

Hypnagogia is the transition phase of the sleep cycle. You experience hypnagogia everytime you go to sleep. No, it's not a sign of sleep apnea.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#54

Post by Waterluvian » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:13 AM UTC

elliekelly wrote: post #50

alan_n wrote: post #45

This just sounds like lucid dreaming awake imo. Kind of scary some of these people believe they're actually jumping dimensions or something. Wonder how much control they can exert compared to a lucid dreaming. I've not managed LD awake/meditating yet , but I can fall asleep awake if my body is tired enough but I'm mentally awake, though it requires a lot of concentration. And doing it does not feel nice (you can feel…

Every once in a while there are posts on r/LucidDreaming from people who are beginning to believe they’re time traveling or dimension hopping or the like.

This touches on something I took away from Interstellar and Inception: our grounding in reality is deeply important and surprisingly brittle.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#55

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:22 AM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #11

Interesting to see them mention tulpas here. It's always been a bit of a meme online, but I knew a pretty tenured hypnotist who was utterly terrified of the things. He'd seen tulpas cause irreversible psychological damage to the people who adopted them, where many people would become completely attached to a character or particular fiction in their head. This could cause them to act out involuntarily, induce constant…

[deleted]

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#56

Post by PaulHoule » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:24 AM UTC

There is an huge area of possibility in exercises like Hypnosis but involving intense emotions.

We discovered ‘rewriting personal history’ to be a useful tactic for addressing pain in the past. I am right now thinking of when and if I want to make myself fall in love with another person. Another one is the deliberate flooding of the self with sadness (e.g. read the names at war memorial) to drown out feelings of anger to (i) never even in the face of provocation and (ii) intensely influence the other party.

Sometimes I get a download from the ‘Department of Emergency Psychology’ such as the above techniques, a phoenix visualization, etc.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#57

Post by Eelongate » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:29 AM UTC

codezero wrote: post #33

Interesting. I have been doing this for decades but I absolutely started to get more intentional and in depth during the pandemic. I’ve never been good in social situations and I generally avoid them, and I used this kind of day dreaming to play out various scenarios like a decision tree to “workshop” how to interact with specific people, and it has served me well for practical purposes, but I started using it more f…

> day dreaming to play out various scenarios like a decision tree to “workshop” how to interact with specific people

Seems like a reinvention of empathy.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#58

Post by Tenoke » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:42 AM UTC

eightails wrote: post #35

In a way it reminds me of being engrossed in reading, in that there's an almost complete suspension of awareness of the outside world in favour of the fictional one. The fact that RS users report writing detailed scripts seems to support this: > Before I plan on shifting, I write myself a script in the notes app on my phone, in which I plan exactly what happens in the desired reality. This makes it easier to visualiz…

>is a shame it has to come laden with bogus rationalisations via the occult or pop-quantum physics

I'm guessing those help them though. The more you believe in it the better it works so having plausible (to laymen) explanations and talking as if the characters are real people improves the experience.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#59

Post by nine_k » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:43 AM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #10

Interesting phenomenon. I'm not super well versed on quantum physics, but I'm not sure that a system that includes travel between universes should be described as 'rooted in extrapolations of modern cosmology, quantum theory,[...,],' so much based on fictional systems lightly inspired by quantum physics. Anyway, given the state of the world it isn't that surprising that people would like to indulge in a bit more dayd…

You can see any quantum event, such that is only described by a probability, as a fork. It produces two universes, in one if which the event has occurred, in another has not, otherwise identical.

Using this model, it is easy to imagine "parallel realities" which are very close to ours and thus amenable to fantasizing, but different enough to contain whatever makes the fantasies attractive.

Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture

#60

Post by bee_rider » Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #59

bee_rider wrote: post #10

Interesting phenomenon. I'm not super well versed on quantum physics, but I'm not sure that a system that includes travel between universes should be described as 'rooted in extrapolations of modern cosmology, quantum theory,[...,],' so much based on fictional systems lightly inspired by quantum physics. Anyway, given the state of the world it isn't that surprising that people would like to indulge in a bit more dayd…

You can see any quantum event, such that is only described by a probability, as a fork. It produces two universes, in one if which the event has occurred, in another has not, otherwise identical. Using this model, it is easy to imagine "parallel realities" which are very close to ours and thus amenable to fantasizing, but different enough to contain whatever makes the fantasies attractive.

Right, and it is interesting because 'quantum events' happen very often, which would seem to indicate an infinite number of universes, which means that any particular fantasy you'd like to think about is occurring in some of them.

The bit I get fuzzy at: something I believe, but without proof, is that any scheme that involved any communication between universes would fundamentally violate a ton of basic physics principles. I mean, it would seem to violate the definition of universe as the totality of existence, but that's just a definition. But I'm sure (again, without actually doing any math or physics) that it must violate some conservation of energy rules as well.

Edit: I bet there's a really slick line of argument like: if you want to duplicate a universe, there's all that matter in the second copy to make, which you've got to pay E=mc^2 for. This is OK in the many worlds interpretation because . But if they were connected to each other .

But filling in those two blanks -- that sort of stuff is why I retreated to thermodynamics, with the rest of the engineers.