The Existentialist's Universe or It's all in your mind

[Elizabeth]

Hello girls,

The entire universe exists only in my mind. At least for me. Everything I see, everything I hear, everything I feel, everything I taste, everything I smell, everything I imagine, in fact every single part of everything I perceive all happens in my brain.

In fact we know that the way we perceive our universe is nothing like it really is. We see things and interpret color, not because some matter is really that color, but because that piece of matter will not accept photons of those wavelengths and reflects them back to our eyes, which then in our brain tells us something has color. In fact the truth is that the object is every color but the one we see.

We see objects as being solid because of the electromagnetic field created by protons and electrons. In fact most of an atom is empty space. If a peanut were put in the middle of a football field and that represented the proton of an atom, the electron would be 8 blocks away, the size of a grain of sand. Most particles fly right through atoms. However the electromagnetic force will not let our atoms past certain other atoms, so we perceive theem as being solid, yet they are not.

So in reality, the reality we see in our brains, is nothing like the reality that really exists. Which gets me back to the point, reality, at least mine is only in my brain. Everything in the world, solar system, galaxy, and universe only exists as I imagine it in my brain. Look around you right now. Look how small your universe is. You can imagine the rest, but that is all you can do. You can leave that room and go to another and that becomes your reality.

I think that is why humans love wide open spaces. It expands our universe. And each person has their own universe in their own heads. At least in my reality they do. Which gets me to my reality.

If it's all in my mind anyway? Why not make it what I want it to be? If my entire experience is only in my head? Can't I make it whatever I want? I think I can.

I went from a world where I hated my life and tried to kill myself to a life where I live full time as a woman. I have a woman who loves me and I just adore her. She not only accepts me, I am the person she has been looking for. We are sexually compatible and most of all, we are best friends forever. We do everything together.

My kids not only accept me, but apparently it is now "cool" and many of my kids friends, friends, want to meet me. Not only are my kids not treated bad, they are treated better now, because I am transsexual. I am going to college where I am also not only tolerated, but get treated great. People want to know me, want to sit by me, want to be in my group, want to form study groups with me. Something I never thought possible, I am popular. Yet I make no pretense. I am always myself. I drive a ten year old car and I don't own a cell phone any more.

At college I go by Elizabeth now. Everyone always uses the correct pronouns, I have doors opened for me and gentleman always let me go first.

I guess what I am getting at is, I created the universe I wanted to live in. It's all only in my brain anyway. All of you only exist in my brain. I have chose to have a positive experience, so I do. I can perceive the events anyway I want, so why not perceive it in a happy way? It really is my universe to create. My whole life all happens only in my brain. I can choose the experience I am going to have. So I do.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[Carol Ann]

I'm so happy for you, may all your days be peaceful and filled with joy

[Absaroka]

Elizabeth what a nice post. And I like how it's really on two levels.

I'm glad that living as a woman has worked for you. More importantly I'm glad that living seems to be working out.

As for the universe, it really exists in my mind not yours........


I think it is intriguing that most of the universe doesn't exist. It's really there but it doesn't exist. It does something else, whatever it is that something that is nothing at all does. Because you're right. Atoms are mostly empty space. And space itself is mostly empty, devoid of even atoms.

Moving a few steps into even wierder: When you get into theoretical physics there is the problem that according to physics theory, there should be a lot more matter than there is. Don't ask me to explain how they figured this out. But basically it boils down to scientists can't seem to find the universe.

Virginia will love this topic since it supports her contention that we really know next to nothing about anything, what the bleep do we know.....


Absaroka

[Anita]

That is such a fine post, Elizabeth! It's wonderful to hear how things have evolved.

I do not know the extent of our ability to shape our own worlds. It seems to vary, for one thing--at times it can appear that there is a direct connection, and other times it seem that there's no corrolation at all--the unverse rides rough-shod over our best-laid plans. That's not news.

But so-called "positive thinking" does seem to have benefits, no matter what our attitude is about the result. Studies show that thoughts can have a powerful effect on our bodies, and that's the immediate universe that we know. Whether things outside our body are going good or bad, it's helpful to have our own thoughts as support.

Personally, I practice being grateful for many things during the day. The other day, I realized that for me, there will always be something to be grateful for, no matter how bad the outer world may look on a given day. No one has to agree with my reasons for why I choose this attitude, but I think that almost all of us can agree that it can be beneficial to make our own little 'universe' [i.e, mind and body] as supportive an environment as we can make it.

[Elizabeth]

...
As for the universe, it really exists in my mind not yours........
...
Absaroka

Exactly. To you, I am only a part of your reality in your mind. Maybe I don't exist at all, except in your mind.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[Elizabeth]

...
But so-called "positive thinking" does seem to have benefits, no matter what our attitude is about the result. Studies show that thoughts can have a powerful effect on our bodies, and that's the immediate universe that we know. Whether things outside our body are going good or bad, it's helpful to have our own thoughts as support.
...

Well, there is always a certain amount of uncertainty in all systems. There is a built in limit to what we can know. But what we can do is choose how we interpret the signals our senses are giving us. This can dramatically change how we view what is happening to us, whether it is really happening or we just perceive it to be, becomes irrelevant.

In the end, our entire existence from birth to death happens in our mind. We truly are all alone.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[CJ]

Hi all,

Elizabeth wrote: In the end, our entire existence from birth to death happens in our mind. We truly are all alone.

Hey there, Elizabeth, great idea for a thread. I agree with much of what you say. The only problem I see is that, without a brain, a mind cannot exist. This kind of solipsism is a trap many philosophical idealists (Descartes and Berkeley, to name but two) have struggled (sometimes in vain) not to fall into. So something has to be going on outside of our minds. Now, what that something is, is almost anybody's guess. Einstein held that there is really nothing existing except the "field," by which he meant the various forms of energy present within the universe--the weak and strong nuclear forces, electromagnetic energy, and gravity. These forms of energy, as you, yourself, said, constitute the basis of everything that exists, everything there is... including consciousness and self-awareness, both the result of brain activity. And you cannot have a brain without a body (despite what luridly titled 1950's science-fiction B-movies may lead you to believe).

Brains make minds. How they do this, we don't yet know. Researchers in the cognitive sciences are hard at work, studying perception, memory, and so on, in the hopes of one day sketching possible answers to this question. But that's an entirely different matter.

Philosopher Immanuel Kant divided reality (so to speak) into two distinct realms, the phenomenal and the noumenal. The phenomenal world is the world of "our" reality, of things as they present themselves to our mind; the noumenal world is the world of "true" reality, of things as they are in themselves, independently of our cognition of them (and this includes, say, quarks and leptons). Kant believed that we have no way to access the noumenal world, that our senses will always "mediate" it. Again, as you said, Elizabeth, we're not "built" in such a way that we can have a direct, unmediated, experience of the world "out there," of the world of things as they are in themselves. This is all very Platonic when you think about it, in that, in this imperfect world, we only have access to the mere shadow of things as they truly are.

Your question is this: If it's the case that our whole world is somehow constructed from the input our mind (or, rather, our brain) receives, then is there any good reason we shouldn't also build our emotional or psychological world however we see fit? I think you're right: there is no such good reason. As your body, your senses and your brain, all working together, make you "see" and "touch" a (very solid and very green) plastic table, so, too, can your mind mediate your lived experience in such a way that what may be a dark and bleak prospect or event can be "re-interpreted" as a fountain of positive possibilities. It takes a hell of a lot of work, though, and an extremely pressing desire to be happy.

Regardless of the philosophy or physics model we chose to adhere to, if the choice is between death by suicide and the flowering of personal bliss, I'll choose bliss anytime. To my mind, that's a no-brainer.

Great thread, girl.

Love,
CJ

[Absaroka]

Maybe our mind only inhabits our brain. Maybe when the brain dies the mind goes elsewhere and doesn't bother to tell anyone.....

Maybe all of you only exist in my computer. Maybe it's smarter than I thought it is rather than being a bunch of electrons which are all mostly empty space and it made you all up so I will type on it which for some odd reason makes it happy.

After all think about it. We tell each other all this stuff, have all these deep discussions, all in e land.

Absaroka

[SilverLady(SO)]

Maybe all of you only exist in my computer. Maybe it's smarter than I thought it is rather than being a bunch of electrons which are all mostly empty space and it made you all up so I will type on it which for some odd reason makes it happy.

After all think about it. We tell each other all this stuff, have all these deep discussions, all in e land.

Interesting, Absaroka . . . and if your theory were true (that we only exist in your computer), how do you explain the fact that many of us have actually met, talked with, interacted and participated in various activities and events with other Forum members . . . in real life?

The computer and internet are just another means of connecting people, and the successor to the telephone, the teletype, and the handwritten letter or postcard.

- SL

[Elizabeth]

...
Interesting, Absaroka . . . and if your theory were true (that we only exist in your computer), how do you explain the fact that many of us have actually met, talked with, interacted and participated in various activities and events with other Forum members . . . in real life?

The computer and internet are just another means of connecting people, and the successor to the telephone, the teletype, and the handwritten letter or postcard.

- SL

SL,

In my universe you have met no one. You are just a picture I see on my computer. Your reality, beyond my own brain's interpretation, is non existent. Until I met you here, you did not exist in my universe. Your arrival in my universe is no guarantee that other people in your reality actually exist, because in my universe, they do not.

Indeed, perhaps we are all just characters in Absoroka's computer, but we are just as real as anything else in her universe. That is my point here, we all have our own universe, it's all subjective. There is no single, one, reality. In fact test after test confirms there is no local reality.

The point is, stop trying to live someone else's version of your reality and live your own version. Only when you open yourself to the possibilities, do they become possible.

Love always,
Elizabeth

EDIT : The last paragraph was not directed at anyone. It was just me using it in that bad way that your english teacher always told you not to. So? just instert "one's" for "your" and "one" for "you".

[Absaroka]

The computer tells me that you've met as part of it's effort to trick me. Maybe in the innards of my computer your electrons have mingled.

In all seriousness I sometimes think that this entire existence may be part of an illusion and that reality is something far more profound than material existence. But that's getting into spiritual stuff. Someone told me once that if something is not eternal than it is an illusion. So we are left with what is eternal? A difficult question given that we can not comprehend eternity. The person in question was of the opinion that since love can be eternal than love is more real than physical existence. Which is a viewpoint of some of the major religions.

Anyway, I am glad that Elizabeth has gotten her universe into satisfactory condition.

Absaroka

[Elizabeth]

...
Anyway, I am glad that Elizabeth has gotten her universe into satisfactory condition.

Absaroka

Thanks, it's really nice in here. , of course that's because you all are here.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[Virginia]

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Dark Matter????? The Ultimate observer! The expanding/collapsing universe! The big bang theory!!! Metaphysical strings! Even given CJ's use of the word "solipsism" ---- what ever the hell that means ---- I'm impressed!

As for individual realities and perceptions, if we were all to be in the same room, we would all see the same things, furniture, pictures on the wall - Anita's mini-skirt, etc. And, yes, from "What the (bleep)....." it is said that it is possible that our eyes see things around us that just will not register in our brains because they are so far removed from what we perceive as "reality" that we/our brains, just refuse to accept them/it! On the other hand and just the opposite, is how most of us "pass." The eye sees and sends a message to the brain, the brain says. "if it walks like a woman, smells like a woman, dresses like a woman, (in some cases) marginally looks like a woman" (say thank you Dan Rather) - IT MUST BE A WOMAN.

Again, from "What the (bleep)...." the term "Ultimate Observer" is used. It is basically, from what I interpret, it is that part of us that is able to see ourselves from outside ourselves. That, how shall I say, "a sixth sense" or "feminine intuition" or if we sit quietly and "think" about our self we can actually have an "out of body experience" that we can see ourselves sitting there quietly. Those of us who have experienced a true epiphany (relative to our condition and feelings when we are dressed) have experienced this "out of body" experience. Well, I can't speak for my sisters here -- sorry, but I have and on more than one occasion!!

I think I have either confused the hell out of my Ultimate Observer or perhaps I have two, but that's another story.

Absaroka, honey, it is called "dark matter." That stuff we call "space." It exists, it has substance, kind of like the air we breathe. You can't see it (usually) but it's there and scientists know space is there, what it is made of is not known but at least in our science, for whatever it's worth, it does exist and therefore it has substance. What it is composed of, ain't got a clue. And yes, you are right in the part about the "missing universe" but where is it??? Maybe it's been absorbed by a black hole that makes up Elizabeth's universe??

This is just so fascinating to even just think about. You girls are the greatest (uh, what's that? huh?! Oh, yes!) sorry, my Ultimate Observer says she is getting a headache thinking about this.

Love you all,

Virginia

[Elizabeth]

Hi all,

Elizabeth wrote: In the end, our entire existence from birth to death happens in our mind. We truly are all alone.

...
Your question is this: If it's the case that our whole world is somehow constructed from the input our mind (or, rather, our brain) receives, then is there any good reason we shouldn't also build our emotional or psychological world however we see fit? I think you're right: there is no such good reason. As your body, your senses and your brain, all working together, make you "see" and "touch" a (very solid and very green) plastic table, so, too, can your mind mediate your lived experience in such a way that what may be a dark and bleak prospect or event can be "re-interpreted" as a fountain of positive possibilities. It takes a hell of a lot of work, though, and an extremely pressing desire to be happy.

Regardless of the philosophy or physics model we chose to adhere to, if the choice is between death by suicide and the flowering of personal bliss, I'll choose bliss anytime. To my mind, that's a no-brainer.

Great thread, girl.

Love,
CJ

CJ,

Once again your incredibly ability with words comes shining through, when you so nicely summarize what I was trying to say, in a short, sweet, concise way. It's part of that line you love from Contact, "I always thought life is what we make of it" or something similar to that, that Jodie Foster says.

Love always,
Elizabeth

[Absaroka]

Virginia I thought dark matter was just the latest theory to explain that they can't seem to find most of the universe. So they have postulated the existence of dark matter, which is there but can not be detected by us. Back when I was in grade school it was called ether, which confused me since ether was an anesthetic. The universe was composed of anesthesia? Perhaps that explains a lot of things........But I think they got rid of that theory.

It would appear that our universe is expanding at the moment. Which perhaps means that my computer screen has just gotten infinitesimally bigger. So has my dress size, but that's okay since the dresses are expanding at the same rate.

Absaroka