See also: lucid dreaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
[deleted]
[deleted]
Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
91–100 of 105 posts
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#92In 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…
I think that's largely what it is. Reading goes out of fashion, only to emerge from it's ashes with a new, Matrix-y name.
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what your trying to say. I have heard of breadlines and also the toilet paper shortage (in the US) in the 70s. I picked a couple of examples ready to mind, but there's countless more right now that form a constellation of points that eclipse any single phenomena taken from history. Note that I'm also note saying things are worse right now than other times. I'm saying things are stranger, weirder than oth…
There have always been flat earthers. The internet lets the freaks meet and tell each other that they are normal. Now the algorithm fuels it and the media amplifies it. And yet the earth is still not flat, and somehow, still spins. Things are not stranger now, you just hear more about the strange people and unusual things.
Sure, ironic flat earthers bear some resemblance to past cultural touch points like SubGenius, and some people take them too seriously.
That isn't the strangeness I'm talking about. Or rather, it's only a part of it: Awareness of it by rank and file average young people is new and has an impact on their worldview and whether or not the world around them makes any sense. But you're cherry picking things like that which are not part of the strangeness that I mean:
I'm not sure you can look at lockdowns, quarantines, fundamental shifts in how we talk about socializing, a generation of students losing 1-2 years of normal academic and social development, mass shortages of basic items, the emergence of countless strange digital currencies based on mixtures of ideology, economics, and memes, politicians using the rhetoric of murder against their colleagues... How much more should I go on?
I don't think you can look at all of that and reasonably say "things are not stranger now"
Even if all of that had been going on previously (it has not) then greater awareness alone would still be enough provocation to push people into seeking the escapism of "RS".
Perhaps we are misunderstanding each other on the point that I'm making?
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
There have always been flat earthers. The internet lets the freaks meet and tell each other that they are normal. Now the algorithm fuels it and the media amplifies it. And yet the earth is still not flat, and somehow, still spins. Things are not stranger now, you just hear more about the strange people and unusual things.
Sure, ironic flat earthers bear some resemblance to past cultural touch points like SubGenius, and some people take them too seriously. That isn't the strangeness I'm talking about. Or rather, it's only a part of it: Awareness of it by rank and file average young people is new and has an impact on their worldview and whether or not the world around them makes any sense. But you're cherry picking things like that whic…
I think you should go for a nice long walk and read a good book or two and worry less. Swings and roundabouts.
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, ironic flat earthers bear some resemblance to past cultural touch points like SubGenius, and some people take them too seriously. That isn't the strangeness I'm talking about. Or rather, it's only a part of it: Awareness of it by rank and file average young people is new and has an impact on their worldview and whether or not the world around them makes any sense. But you're cherry picking things like that whic…
I think you should go for a nice long walk and read a good book or two and worry less. Swings and roundabouts.
You best start believing in absurdities- you’re in one!
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#96This 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?
Part of it probably is hypnagogia though I was so alert that it did not feel like that normal transition to sleep. It felt more like I had meditated myself into a lucid dream. There were some stray thoughts but none of that cloudy brain fog with senseless thoughts I would normally get going to sleep.
Also from what I understand the feeling of suffocation is quite common for people who experience sleep paralysis. You're not actually suffocating. Given I induced it, that's probably what that was. The first time it woke me up, the second time I ignored it and a few seconds passed and then the sensations stopped and I was lucid dreaming. At least that's what it felt. I slept for slightly more than an hour most times (I've only managed it during naps) and lost lucidity at times. It felt like the dream started immediately but it might not have. Also at other times I could feel my body in the bed again but wasn't dreaming just asleep.
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#97This 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…
> Kind of scary some of these people believe they're actually jumping dimensions or something Every time I have thoughts like this about anymore, I find myself coming back to “well, there are actual Nazi wannabes still, so I guess isn’t too bad” - let them live their life. Once Nazis are out of the picture… then maybe we can justify cracking down on others things we don’t like :P
...um I didn't suggest we crack down on anything. Just personally I would think you're crazy if you tell me you're dimension jumping.
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#98Interesting 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…
This is interesting, because my (more literary than scientific) understanding of ego development includes becoming aware of an 'inner tribe' or 'multiple voices' inside one's mind which simultaneously are and aren't the self, to differing degrees. Integrating these voices, allowing them to discuss with each other, et cetera has been a method which allows great insight into problems where reaching a solution was block…
See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model (of which I am a big fan, and it helped me a lot to work through past trauma and deal with my emotions), https://www.theemotionmachine.com/the-mindbus-technique/ , https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainsnacks/201606/w... etc
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 princ…
>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 bothers me also, it's like every tiny quantum event creates a Big Bang in a new dimension. There is information duplication as well. Without a way to communicate between dimensions there would seem to be absolutely no way to test this theory. Maybe every quantum event is a communication? And why a new universe for every event? Why not just two universes? And how does time fit in? Maybe the second universe would be the first universe running backwards in time? The energy and information duplication seems too extreme. Could new dimensions eventually fill all possible dimensions and start to collide or overlap? Maybe our universe is a superposition of all dimensions?
Re: Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture
#100Also known as having an imagination. I remember doing this on bus rides to better understand quake levels.
Right, lots of people have ongoing fantasies, which is basically the same thing, imagination. The only difference here is people are talking in public about their fantasies and enlisting others to help create and maintain them. And even that is not uncommon, people have used prostitutes this way forever. Perhaps video games have made sharing alternate imaginary realities more socially acceptable. These days you can imagine a fantasy world and actually create it in software and make it an actual reality.