How do you perceive life in general?

[Visual]

I am always watching humans interact with their surroundings. I find it fascinating. When in a city I will look how light and other objects reflect and refract off others. When visiting a mountain lake that takes hours of travel to, i'll watch the animals go about their ritual of living. See how the light reflects off the surface of the water. Close my eyes and see in my mind what you hear.

Mostly, I see people staring into digital gadgets and aren't much aware of anything around them. I have been on vacations in beautiful places and will spend hours in one place to soak it all up. I watch the ants come and go. What are ants? The people who take the time to drive 4 hours to a place that they'll never be again. The jump out and snap a few photos. They pile back into the rental, because they have a schedule to keep. I'm sad for them. I watch car after car do the exact same thing. I'll climb a ledge behind and above a scenic overlook so I can get a better view. I'll sit their and wait for the sounds without cars or people. I'm sad, because they seem not to understand what is in front of them. They just want something to post online. Life is so much more than what it looks like something is trying to push it towards. Experience life, just don't look for ways to get attention from going through the motion of it.

[BoltBait]

How do you perceive life in general?

Through my 5 senses.

[Kemaru]

Mostly with my senses, as well. Although I see sounds as movement in my mind.

I try to combine what I perceive with what I know to create something new.

[minners71]

Living in NZ I feel extremely lucky I do a lot of mountain biking and running in very secluded areas and get to see some fantastic views miles from any people or cars and just the sound of nature all around me. I normally take lunch with me and just rest for an hour or two after a hard run/bike and just enjoy the solitude. Like you mentioned every other person seems to have their head buried in a digital device unaware of anything around them

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Middle age has mellowed me. As a teen I was fairly angry and aggressive (not violent). Generally unpleasant to be around.

I've learned to accept others as they are. Find their good points. Enjoy solitude. Found pleasure in helping people when I can.

I'm contented. Happy. Not sweating the small stuff. Oh I still rant and rave occasionally - but once it's out it's done. Gone.

Life continues to be good to me and mine.

Through my 5 senses.

Tasting complete strangers will get you into trouble....

[BoltBait]

Tasting complete strangers will get you into trouble....

You're telling me!

[pdnnoob]

BoltBait knows through experience...?

[minners71]

Who's criticising I'm just making an observation.

[pdnnoob]

every other person seems to have their head buried in a digital device unaware of anything around them

Or you could think of it this way: every other person seems to be buried in the things around them, unaware of the endless possibilities available in the digital world

[minners71]

^No worries I went on a chat forum the other day and made a bit of a fool of myself ( was in a <No cursing.> mood myself ) didn't help that most of the people on there were tools though

[barbieq25]

Welshy, you old crab Ya need a hug as does Minners. Do we have a huggy smilie? We need one. Mind you, I am not in the best of moods either. Well, we could always have a group hug. I do however draw the line at LICKING

Visual & Minners what you are talking about is taking the time to smell the roses. There are so many variations on the theme & some are related to meditation or prayer.

Yesterday I found for the first time in my life (it's been quite a long one) a flower from an old man's beard plant. It is tiny & a nice shade of green. I felt privileged. Raced upstairs to show my find to hubby who was not nearly as excited to say the least. Lesson learnt: what floats my boat is just flotsam to someone else.

[AGJM]

I am always watching humans interact with their surroundings. I find it fascinating. When in a city I will look how light and other objects reflect and refract off others. When visiting a mountain lake that takes hours of travel to, i'll watch the animals go about their ritual of living. See how the light reflects off the surface of the water. Close my eyes and see in my mind what you hear.

Mostly, I see people staring into digital gadgets and aren't much aware of anything around them. I have been on vacations in beautiful places and will spend hours in one place to soak it all up. I watch the ants come and go. What are ants? The people who take the time to drive 4 hours to a place that they'll never be again. The jump out and snap a few photos. They pile back into the rental, because they have a schedule to keep. I'm sad for them. I watch car after car do the exact same thing. I'll climb a ledge behind and above a scenic overlook so I can get a better view. I'll sit their and wait for the sounds without cars or people. I'm sad, because they seem not to understand what is in front of them. They just want something to post online. Life is so much more than what it looks like something is trying to push it towards. Experience life, just don't look for ways to get attention from going through the motion of it.

My wrong statement:

I sense that you feel you are enlightening us in a way we simpletons could never think of on our own? Mainly because of one of your other posts that said something about how one could never stop learning. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but it seems like you have a "High and mighty" type attitude. People's minds work differently, they experience differently - they aren't naive for using a digital gadget. Silence is nice, as is instrumental music or even dubstep, and they all evoke emotions as nature does. One doesn't need to have a wilderness experience or inconvenience themselves by giving up technology to experience life. The majority of people think that the majority of people are shallow and are like you say they are. My point is, life is made of memories. Memories of sitting silently, to me, are mundane and seem short and tame. However, to you, this could be entirely different. To me, making a picture in Paint.net, a dark picture with glowing lines and pleasing features, is how I enjoy life. Experiences in nature or going somewhere or seeing someone end with disappointment, but just opening up the application without a plan ends with satisfaction - you may learn a new technique if it didn't turn out well, but if it did, you already exceeded your hopes. Sometimes a nice gradient can clear my mind, and, with the right music in the background, I can create some of the best memories of my life. I do enjoy nature, but setting hopes to do something typically ends in disappointment - bad weather, the area lacks the type of features you thought it would, you accidentally end up in an argument with a family member over something such as forgetting to change the car's oil or bringing water bottles, and so on and so forth. My entire thought process has changed throughout the writing of this, and it did so with the music in the background. Sorry.

My re-thought statement:

I experience life through music and pictures. I don't get along with people well, and I constantly find myself being hypocritical. I can enjoy nature, but I like things that I don't set high hopes for that then exceed all expectations more. Something like creating a picture in Paint.net without a goal and accidentally creating a great image is satisfying, and if you fail - you didn't mean to succeed in the first place, just see what you could do fiddling around which is nice in and of itself. Life can be enjoyed in more ways than nature. Color, creating, music, smells, visuals, anger, sadness, joy (my least favorite, for some reason - perhaps the feeling when it's gone), curiosity, learning, relaxing, seeing, doing, sharing, interacting, making friends, going somewhere and having it exceed your expectations, music that moves you, looking through an old photo album of someone's life, thinking about the past, planning for the future, experimenting - these are the way that I experience my life.

Gosh, that will be far less moving without the music. Listen to this while you read it, maybe read it slow too :

Anyways, I understand how you feel with everything, some people - but very few - do seem to go through life that way. Pity for them is well intended, but I felt like you were assuming all of us were those people. Anyways, gadgets and such can be just as inspiring than the power of nature. Nature, however great, is stretched out with the inspirational areas few and far between. I used to live two miles from the beach - I would go into the surf and think about life. Now, the most moving "nature" I get is a park with trash littered around everywhere, with a few friends that can't bother to stop insulting each other. Being alone tends to make people think you are sad, too.

I just realized that I was mad at you because I feel the same and unrecognized, by the way, except it's a bit fewer than it seems that go through life like that - half the posts on facebook are about how everyone else is awful and shallow.

But, anyways, my favorite "place", of all time, is on the beach in the rain. The cold water beating against your skin, sitting on the sand, watching the lightning strike and the waves pound the shore. Perfectly alone, perfectly peaceful, no obligations, the ability to forget about everything I needed to do or fix or anything - a clear mind on a cloudy day, uninterrupted. That is, until someone called me back to the hotel everyone was in, because something about lightning while your sitting right next to the ocean is "dangerous". But whenever I'm told to think of my favorite place, it's somewhere on the beach or in Florida (I lived there for four years). Even my dreams are still about that place. A moment in stillness, a calm and peaceful moment, free of everything - that's what I wish life was like. Things like those images - empty black space - help me re-create it and relax. Glowing lines of the lightning, the infinite black of the sea, and I even take showers with cold water because, most likely because of that moment, the cool water relaxes me.

I think it's time to wrap up here, I could ramble all day. So, forget any derogatory remarks I made as my mind keeps shifting between things. ADD. Probably won't be helpful while I'm driving.

[Visual]

I experience life through music and pictures. I don't get along with people well, and I constantly find myself being hypocritical. I can enjoy nature, but I like things that I don't set high hopes for that then exceed all expectations more. Something like creating a picture in Paint.net without a goal and accidentally creating a great image is satisfying, and if you fail - you didn't mean to succeed in the first place, just see what you could do fiddling around which is nice in and of itself. Life can be enjoyed in more ways than nature. Color, creating, music, smells, visuals, anger, sadness, joy (my least favorite, for some reason - perhaps the feeling when it's gone), curiosity, learning, relaxing, seeing, doing, sharing, interacting, making friends, going somewhere and having it exceed your expectations, music that moves you, looking through an old photo album of someone's life, thinking about the past, planning for the future, experimenting - these are the way that I experience my life.

Anyways, I understand how you feel with everything, some people - but very few - do seem to go through life that way. Pity for them is well intended, but I felt like you were assuming all of us were those people. Anyways, gadgets and such can be just as inspiring than the power of nature. Nature, however great, is stretched out with the inspirational areas few and far between. I used to live two miles from the beach - I would go into the surf and think about life. Now, the most moving "nature" I get is a park with trash littered around everywhere, with a few friends that can't bother to stop insulting each other. Being alone tends to make people think you are sad, too.

I just realized that I was mad at you because I feel the same and unrecognized, by the way, except it's a bit fewer than it seems that go through life like that - half the posts on facebook are about how everyone else is awful and shallow.

That was a well thought out answer. Very lucid and honest. You impressed me, thanks.

The social postings are very disappointing these days. That's why I don't use them personally. It's too easy to say something during a bad day, and then it's there forever. There's a saying I made for myself on this.

"Point to others flaws and mistakes, so the ones around you point at them as well. This way they don't look at your flaws and make fun of you".

This seems sad to me, but seems all so true. Can you imagine someone posting things that are wrong in their own life? Not likely to happen. It's too easy to play the bully, and get some sick sense of satisfaction from the crowd. This is the mob mentality. Brave in groups, and cowards when it's time to cash that check that their mouth wrote.

I have a nice computer and some very nice programs that make creating art much easier. I shut everything off when the day is done. I don't feel the need to walk around connected 24 hours a day to the net. Many believe that they're more efficient, when I see them always interrupted. They are actually much more inefficient.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Visual

[cr88192]

me, new here, coming in a bit late, but this is something I have thought about before.

so, I will attempt my explanation here.

I think I experience my world mostly through my senses, but this mostly gets boiled down into a form more like a collection of pictures and text, with various links between them. other thoughts may sometimes look more like informational-graphics or exploded diagrams.

besides text and information, there is my memory of senses and experiences, which often seems to be more like a 3-sense video (audio+video+tactile), but has the problem of fading and breaking up, and generally not being all that reliable.

a lot of thinking I think is basically like manipulating these objects within ones mind, which seems to all happen very graphically.

a partial exception though is when reading/writing natural language, or trying to organize something to say to someone, which may sort of form an auditory echo of these thoughts, but usually this goes away if the natural-language aspect isn't really important (or if I am just quickly skimming for information), in which case, it mostly just all becomes text represented visually.

I have observed that a lot of my thoughts seem to use an inverted (white on black) drawing style (white text on a black background), and are typically high-contrast.

sometimes I am left thinking/feeling that there is a "myself" beyond these thoughts, but I haven't really able to be able to find or effectivelly describe it, nor do I really know how my own thoughts work. it is almost as if thoughts just "float in space and do stuff". I just have a feeling though that I am not my thoughts, I am the space they are contained in.

I have also made the self observations that I can roughly execute code fragments in-mind (probably due to high levels of exposure to source-code), but tend to fall on my face trying to understand or work with traditional math. funny is that a lot of what I do involves math, just it seems considerably different. like, the "math" in programming is more like assembling structures out of blocks, rather than whatever is this bizarreness going on in math classes. sadly, my "actual" math skills aren't much beyond algebra, but algebra at least mostly makes sense, and it is usually more possible to "brute force" the answer.

yes, and then there are also things like emotions, ... emotions are a strange and complicated area, and are not easily understood or classified either, for that matter, they are "just there", and usually pop up in response to whatever.

one usually doesn't know why emotions have popped up, usually it is more like "oh bloody potato, I seem to be upset for some reason", usually with a "mental highlighter" which goes and starts bringing up pictures of whatever has gone and set off a bad mood or similar... then thinking has to go and try to make sense of what all this imagery means (like if there were a yelling cat in ones' mind holding up pictures of an item or a person, and then bringing up rainy/stormy weather on everything else, and bringing up tactile-like sensations, and similar...).

but, yes, I could be wrong on all of this, given that this is introspection, and introspection is generally regarded as somewhat unreliable anyways.

or such...

[doverdemon77]

This topic has made me want to weep in joy.

 

Personally, I think all that "God cursed us", "Tower of Babylon" stuff they kept telling me (over and over ever damn Sunday) is true. Therefore, not sure the best way to perceive "life" when a gigantic supernatural force is actively "cursing you".

 

For instance, you could be looking at a calm flowing stream with rocks and babling water and it's all serene and such. You could be quietly reflecting on the tranquil nature of the stream and thinking of good things. While someone else might see mowing your yard. And even "others" might see you being interogated by a group of facists. Where were you? I dunno...

 

My guess, use your "ching". That is, move without knowing. Know that you have moved. Silence.

Edited September 20, 2013 by doverdemon77

[RFX]

My answer is rather complex but it explains a lot when you think about it. (excerpt from my blog)


- "sm+i=v / sm+n+i=va" - The basis for my theory. -

In Latin, these represent the formulas for the body and spirit. First you have to
understand a fundamental aspect of the universe which is "coalescence".
Matter coalesces into larger masses, masses coalesce into planets, even
people ourselves coalesce in our everyday activities from working jobs
to enjoying a movie. Everything attracts everything else.

Another aspect is the Miller Urey experiments which involve synthesizing
organic compounds like complex amino acids from inorganic precursors.
When a gas vapor is bombarded with charged particles simulating
sunlight, or a jolt of electricity simulating atmospheric lightning
strikes, the gaseous compound will transform and as a result, organic
matter is created from inorganic precursors.


- Latin translation of both formulas -

"sm+i=v" means "substantia materia + iunctio = vita"
(substance matter + coalescence = life) which explains the physical body

"sm+n+i=va" means "substantia materia + navitas + iunctio = vita anima"
(substance matter + energy + coalescence = spirit or essence of life) which explains the spirit or soul


- What is the body? -

Think of the human body as we know it, a collection of tissue cells,
bones, muscle, a nervous system, digestive system, a brain, etc... It is
basically a coalescence of organic matter that has evolved over time.
We can prove it has evolved through human history in the last 100 years.
We've made advances in metallurgy, physics, health, mathematics,
semantics, etc... are all things we've learned. Learning itself is
evolving. With enough time, the coalescence of matter will bring about
more advanced forms of life due to the genetic makeup of each species
evolving with each new generation.


- That explains the physical body but what about the spirit or soul in which our identity or consciousness lies? -

As matter accumulates, energy is formed from physical interaction
amongst particles, by energy such as charged particles from sunlight to
static electricity interacting with matter, and even mass itself if it's
big enough in size will generate thermal energy due to immense pressure
such as the core of a planet. Energy cannot be destroyed, merely it
transforms from one form to another. Light radiation transfers to
thermal, thermal to inertia motion, etc...

Our bodies generate energy or you wouldn't be reading this nor could I
write it. A spirit is nothing more then that same energy minus the physical
matter. If an entity's energy level is high, it will be able to interact with matter.
Keep in mind, since matter generates energy, energy interacts with
matter at the same time. Since energy can never be destroyed, our spirit
or soul also can't be destroyed, simply transformed into another form
of energy.


- Miller Urey Experiment -

"One-step reactions among the mixture components can produce hydrogen
cyanide (HCN), formaldehyde (CH2O), and other active intermediate compounds
(acetylene, cyanoacetylene, etc.):

CO2 → CO + [O] (atomic oxygen)
CH4 + 2[O] → CH2O + H2O
CO + NH3 → HCN + H2O
CH4 + NH3 → HCN + 3H2 (BMA process)

The formaldehyde, ammonia, and HCN then react by Strecker synthesis to

form amino acids and other biomolecules:

CH2O + HCN + NH3 → NH2-CH2-CN + H2O
NH2-CH2-CN + 2H2O → NH3 + NH2-CH2-COOH (glycine)

Furthermore, water and formaldehyde can react, via Butlerov's reaction to

produce various sugars like ribose.

The experiments showed that simple organic compounds of building blocks
of proteins and other macromolecules can be formed from gases with the
addition of energy." - Wiki, unknown author


- Evidence of the past -

We have it all around us and even in us. Our solar system itself was
formed after a star much larger and hotter than the sun exploded as a
supernova event. The Oort cloud that surrounds our solar system are the
remnants of it. We also have uranium on our planet in abundance which
even our star cannot fuse anything into uranium, it's not big enough or
hot enough.

The iron in our blood and the calcium in our bones
along with other heavy elements came from that star. The nearest star
cluster is 4 light years away, Alpha Centauri system. There's no way the
large amount of matter that composes our solar system came from
anywhere but within our solar system in itself. Logically, that's a
no-brainer.


- Where does religion stand in this theory? -

The biblical disaster of "the great flood" around 536AD was the
same time frame as when 2 large impact bodies slammed into the Earth at
the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. Aside from the physical
evidence of shocked quartz found, they also found sub tropical
stromatolites located in ejecta over several locations where ice forms
in the northern hemisphere.

In Europe, the era was known as "the dark ages" due to the amount of ejecta

kicked up into the atmosphere taking a year and a half to clear up. Science

has only recently uncovered the evidence at the Gulf of Carpentaria but the

theory on it along with it's results remain unknown to most people.


- So is there a god? -

That's hard to say as it cannot be proven or disproven. In my theory,
energy levels increase as it coalesces and in that sense, an entity or
being can theoretically gain an unknown or unlimited amount of energy
and in turn, could use that energy to interact with matter.

Other than that theory in itself, it's really up to each of us to form
thoughts on what life is. I won't tell anyone what to believe, just that this is
what I believe is the answer to a question I asked my whole life....

"What are we?"... The answer is "We are the coalescence of essence and matter."


Picture courtesy of Wikipedia, The Miller-Urey Experiment

 

Edited September 21, 2013 by RFX

[Red ochre]

RFX - That was fun!

Strikes me that a human brain doesn't have the complexity required to even understand itself, let alone the whole multiverse. No harm trying though! (but wouldn't it be terrible if we knew all the answers?).
 

[RFX]

lol Thanks guys! I'm just thankful to be alive while having only recently found organic matter on Mars. Many say it's not life which it isn't as it's not complex enough although it is the building blocks of it. It's truly fascinating stuff!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

- "sm+i=v / sm+n+i=va" - The basis for my theory. -

In Latin, these represent the formulas for the body and spirit. First you have to

understand a fundamental aspect of the universe which is "coalescence".

Matter coalesces into larger masses, masses coalesce into planets, even

people ourselves coalesce in our everyday activities from working jobs

to enjoying a movie. Everything attracts everything else.

 

Now THAT is a theory!  I'm intrigued RFX - please PM me your blog url.

 

- So is there a god? -

That's hard to say as it cannot be proven or disproven. In my theory,

energy levels increase as it coalesces and in that sense, an entity or

being can theoretically gain an unknown or unlimited amount of energy

and in turn, could use that energy to interact with matter.

 

Got a little problem getting my head around this.  "energy levels increase as it coalesces"?? 

 

How does your theory deal with the idea of entropy (increasing disorder) and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (isolated systems evolve toward a steady state of equilibrium)?

[RFX]

haha Thanks EER! My blog has pretty much the same thing on it which was posted but been a bit busy to elaborate on it. Basically though, the laws of physics only partially apply to an entity or astral being. They can interact with the world known as "poltergheists" and whatnot, however they aren't bound by those same laws of physics in which our bodies are bound by.

In short, the "energy levels increasing" comment has to do with electro-magnetic transferrence in which entities (ghosts) feed off of multiple energy sources such as direct current batteries, ambient thermal energy, to even human emotions which are thought to feed them the most. (It's a big theory that ghosts want you to be afraid because your body generates a lot of energy while scared out of your mind...) Although it is yet to be scientifically proven since we can't accurately measure the maximum amount of energy an entity can amass from these sources, we can only infer their levels by the activity that's generated by them.

EMF meters only detect electro-magnetic fluctuations and won't work, but the energy it would it take to throw a brick or move an object would be possible as the energy required to do it can be calculated. Entities have been known to activate / interact with devices and machines which are not plugged into any known power source and could also be calculated. Things like that show that they can gain energy in order to then use it within the physical environment and If enough energy is gained, who knows what's possible.

In that sense, an entity could gain enough energy to interact or manipulate objects on a massive scale which could be interpreted as the action of a god. We may not be able to prove if there is or isn't a god however these aspects help support that a being in some other dimension can interact with ours just like a god supposedly can. It is a big part of religious beliefs that not only does god exist, god is able to interact with our world.

I'm a buddhist but more into astrrophysics than I am into religion or even philosophy. I just try to keep an open mind and put together the pieces of the puzzle of life which are already there.
 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

.... could be interpreted as the action of a god.

Sounds like Dave from 2001. "Oh my god ~ it's full of stars!" Dave.

Q: do only etherial beings have this ability to gain energy/power in this way?

[Beta0]

Life...

I used to perceive it as something...pathetic, cruel, unforgiving, deceiving, and, most of all, a pile of garbage, trash. Dealing with others, family or not, left me bitter and sad for a few years. Now...I see it different. There is more than just bad things happening. I still have problems that need solution, but I'm sure that, with help, I can deal with them. :]

 

One more thing... Whenever I'm walking (from home to college and viceversa), I usually look around me, especially the sky. It looks like a gigantic canvas.

 

(I'm not sure if this comment is coherent. :S)

[Kemaru]

I've started having issues with anxiety recently.

Interestingly, I'm more of an extrovert these days, and my anxiety blooms mostly when I'm left alone with my mind (and by that I don't mean that my mind and "I" are separate, just a figure of speech). The thoughts are ridiculous; solipsism and reality-related fears ("what if this is all an elaborate scientific experiment conducted to study me?" etc. I should note that I don't believe in these ideas, they just torment me), but for some reason they spiral out of control.

This change has influenced the way I see life. I used to live in the moment, I was known as the guy who was zen and never worried about anything and simply floated through life towards Nirvana. But now, even though I do yoga, I exercise, eat right, enjoy school and try to give myself time for relaxation, I still can't get back into that peaceful mindset. Only when I'm with my friends or family do I feel like everything's fine and that I'm safe. For now, I'm trying to not try too hard to relax (wow, could that sentence get more baffling?), I'm trying to survive this phase of my life, one hour, one day, one month at a time.

Nights are the worst, that's when most of my panicking occurs.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Kemaru

[barbieq25]

I'd be more worried if it was the other way around. Anxiety & panic attacks are really scary as you know. I suggest talking to a counsellor if you have access to one. Seems to me you already have the solution. Keep at it & take heart that your feelings are quite normal for many & is a transient phase. 

[skullbonz]

Life is too short to be spent worrying about garbage that is out of our control to the point of anxiety and panic. Live your life for yourself while being kind and thoughtful to others. Impress yourself first and don't worry about what others think. It is much easier and better for your sanity to make yourself happy than it is to make others happy. If you go through life living this way at the end you should feel good about your life and the fear of death will be gone. Death should not be feared but seen as a conclusion to a full life.

Edited December 5, 2013 by skullbonz