@mdhughes Mmm, quite! I was also thinking, a significant part of human intelligence is dedicated to recognizing and working with minds - so, it might just be that on acid, those parts trip out and start recognizing the whole universe as a mind, because why not? :/
Like, sometimes when I'm listening to really good new music or wrapping my head around a really cool new concept or the like, I get this sensation of transcendent awareness?
Like an infinitely bright light seen from an infinite distance, or dividing one by zero, or falling into a black hole, or simultaneously flying into the sky and having the world fall away beneath me, or approaching the limit where a mathematical function becomes infinity, or the like. It's pretty crazy. :/
I think it's literally a neurological function tripping out and hitting infinity or something? Or, a layer of buffering, wrapped around such an event to protect my squishy human mind. XD
I get a similar thing sometimes, though a bit different - perceiving the universe as all one thing, every part of it reflecting every other part of it in infinite symmetry. Not exactly the same though? :/
My opinion here, is that none the magic and spirituality and metaphysics stuff is real - but some of it is useful metaphors. The human mind, failing to grasp some concepts directly, invents metaphors and similes and parables and other more accessible concepts to help it along.
Though a lot of it is just plain noise, obviously. When trying to grasp at things at the very limit of human understanding, sometimes you just hallucinate instead. :/
Well, I've been continuing to experience this, and yeah, I think that's it. Neurological functions pushed to their breaking point, like a mathematical function approaching infinity or zero, or NaN. And then then mind reacting to this by wrapping it up in further processing, to recruit the phenomenon to some useful purpose, or to protect itself from it, or who knows what. :/
Most notably, when my cat died unexpectedly, there was a moment when I felt... Well, a small part of the grief that sometimes drives people to God, I suppose. My beautiful little cat friend was no longer part of this world and I missed her terribly. Just for a bit, my grief was... Impossible. And then it felt like I was in an infinite empty darkness, looking up at an infinitely bright star, infinitely far away.
And I felt this impossible need for my cat to still be alive. For her to still exist, somewhere. For me to see her again, somehow, someday. It was... A little like a shader glitch? Again, like a mathematical function pushed as far as it will go?
Bending and distorting, floating point errors, impossible emotions beyond the limit of what the human brain can support. Like a singularity or an atomic bomb, maybe. Like standing next to a supernova and letting the light and heat phase through you harmlessly - and then being obliterated by the neutrino radiation. :/
So, to answer the question you might be asking by now - no, this experience hasn't made me think that God is real. But it has made me think that... It doesn't need to be. Indeed, I'm not sure it should be. I don't know, it feels to me like most people want to wrap god in imaginary humanity, and have it be their daddy. Have it comfort them and protect them from difficult truths. But, I would rather face those truths head on? :/
Or maybe I should say, face the emotions surrounding them head on... Though, I dunno. We'll see if I still say the same after more difficult things than losing a cat. :/
To continue, though - I think the experience has value? I'm not pooh-poohing it - I'd far rather have an experience of God while grieving for my cat than just be miserable. And beyond that, when I experience it while considering difficult philosophical concepts or the like, I find it worthwhile. I think it's purpose, or part of it's purpose, is to help people more rapidly adjust to difficult things. :/
And of course, this says nothing about all the societal epiphenomena surrounding God. The way it gets recruited to serve a billion and one other different purposes, as any human experience may be. People anchor their morality to it, their personal value, their desires, they use it to try and provide these to (or enforce them upon) others... Things get very complicated, very fast. :/
@Angle you did not encounter god, you encountered mysticism. The things you described sounds pretty much like any account from any mystic in history. being one with the world, encounter infinity, this is mysticism 101. you don't have to be an theist to be a mystic.
If I did, I'd call it Open Source Atheism, I think. The central tenet would be very simple - Do Better. Just that. All the rest would be commentary. XD
Though there would be a lot of commentary. It'd include this description of God, lots of practical advice, some explanations of my worldview... And the explicit instruction that each person should, over time, edit and modify the book to match their own experiences and struggle. Add their own commentary. Every single person who follows it, forever, to the end of time. :/
I'll admit, I'm not entirely sure how that should work - but the point is that this is not an endpoint, not a final product. It is another step in the path, another brick in the road. Another step forwards. And everyone should be called to contribute, somehow. :/
I guess I should arrange it in layers? And the outer layer is just, simple short personal experiences. So people start by adding their own to these, and publishing them to a git repo or something? And then the next layer in is practical advice, and after a while people can publish their own versions of this. And then after that is worldviews, and people can publish their own explanations of these. And then, finally, core principles and unifying works, for the truly determined.
And as the very last step, for those who feel the need to fully go their own way - editing out their own unified collection of these things, a fresh starting point for other paths. Though hopefully they'll be considerate enough to include a note as to where this all came from. XD
Anyway fuck it, I'm going to go ahead and just make this. Expect it by the end of the day. Nothing fancy - It's literally just gonna be a git repo with folders and text files in it. Not even fancy rich text, just text files. Make it as accessible as possible. :/
Oh, huh, I need to find a license for this - anybody have any suggestions? Creative Commons, probably. I'm thinking something roughly analogous to the AGPL 3.0, but I'm down to hear comments!
@piuvas I am doing well! I still miss my cat, but that's just the nature of things. And I'm glad I got to meet her and hang out with her, and I feel like I've grown from the experience? Though that part feels really selfish to say. :/
Another note - I heard someone say somewhere that a healthy person should experience God regularly - and I think that's false. Indeed, I think precisely the opposite - that it is the unhealthy, those people pushed to their limits and struggling there, that experience God the most.
Because it's them who need to. So, if you're reading all this and thinking 'Wow I've never experienced anything like that', it's probably for the best. :/
@Angle As a #Christian I think there's something to be said for this, I think a lot of people want God to be the way they want Him to be, rather than the way that He is. God doesn't just give magically comforting answers to everything in the universe, although He might provide some of them.
@realcaseyrollins Maybe, but I assume you would argue there is an actual, real entity beneath it all, right? I wouldn't. I don't think that's the point. :/
Add comment