LastThursday

Other than the negative physical effects of alcohol and how it personally turns me into an insufferable idiot, I would say that there is some spiritual dimension to it. The thing I take most from it is the dreamlike quality of the experience when sufficiently intoxicated. Whatever it does it removes some of that rational veil to how we perceive reality, and in some sense we can experience things a little more "as they are". We are living in a dream all the time.

Motivation is hard. It's shouldn't be a surprise how much being ill can affect your mental state. I've had a head cold since the end of last year and it's dragged. Today is probably the first day where I don't feel too bad. I know enough to know that all the symptoms I feel: migranes, head and neck ache, copious mucus, trouble swallowing, lethargy, brain fog, sleepiness, are all caused by my body's reaction to the virus or bacterium, not by the things themselves. The question then arises, why is my body sabotaging me so much and for so long? It's a combination of things. But the main thrust of my idea is that these symptoms are strongly negative motivators, they are very hard to ignore. For example, I feel lethargic because being still and not using up energy is precisely what my body needs to pour resources (energy) into overcoming the infection instead. But why trouble swallowing? Because my throat is sabotaging the infection's ability to take hold in the moist warm environment that it likes, it takes away the moistness and makes it dry and scratchy, it inflames the area and floods it with histamine and heats it up so that my body's own cells go into overdrive and kill off the infection. Notice how good the body is at (anti) motivating you just when you need it. The symptoms of disease have largely nothing to do with the disease itself, it's all your body. Only in cases where the disease causes outright bodily damage is it different. How amazing would it be if the body actually positively motivated you? What would this look like? I think you only have to look at how most children are: running around expending vast amounts of energy, exploring the world, making up realities and getting to know how to be human, exploring themselves and experimenting in the world. Now imagine the adult version of that. But who do you know that is like that? Nearly no one. Everyone seems locked into their particular life circumstances and everyone seems to be suffering one way or another. A lot of that suffering is exactly like the symptoms of disease. Subconsciously, your energy and vitality are being sabotaged by your body, mostly enacted via your mental state. But what is the disease exactly? It's a whole plethora of factors, including nutrition, exercise, sleep, level of connection with others, the social matrix, the grind of work, stress responses to money and status and obligations. All of which mostly occur with adulthood. It's like we have a chronic illness but we just don't realise it. It's only when we begin to dig into ourselves with self-help and spirituality that we realise what's up. Some amount of mental re-programming and awareness can help alleviate the symptoms of our suffering. Understanding what humans need: sleep, good food, movement, the support of others, can also help. But ultimately the "disease" is systemic in the way we're plugged into society at large. And largely there is no escaping it, because our body's symptoms sabotage our attempts at escape. And society also doesn't want us to escape. Masking the symptoms ultimately doesn't help rid us of the disease. Only awareness and very strong motivation can do it.

My father could easily have died recently when he was hospitalised. The thing he appreciated the most was just my constant daily presence throughout the whole ordeal. Yes I spoke to him, and asked him how he felt and what he was thinking, and I gave him some advice, and joked around with him about the hospital food and about doing laps around the ward with his movement therapist. But just being present and having that connection there is the most important thing, everything else is a bonus.

I totally get it. You seem like the type that needs constant stimulation just to tread water. Tell me if I'm wrong. It does get to the point where whatever you do everything seems "the same" and it gets repetitive and boring, because you've done the exciting stuff already. I think what you call passion is just what I call stimulation. We all have different thresholds for stimulation. But nearly all activity in life is passionless, it just needs to be done to achieve your goals. I need to buy a car, I have absolutely zero passion for it, but I have to do it. And so it goes on. Aim for big passionate goals in life and then do all the boring drudgery to get there - at least there's a payoff at the end. That's the only sustainable way. Maybe on the way you'll stumble upon something new to be passionate about.

Solipsism depends on the unity of experience, yet that unity can’t be established without an external vantage point. From within experience alone, plurality and unity are indistinguishable. And solipsism denies the certainty of an external vantage point. It seems like solipsism only has the certainty of one experience and experiencer, and everything else it uncertain. But solispism itself can't verify its own claim. But yes, it's still a useful idea as a basis for good ethical conduct. We should give uncertain things the benefit of the doubt.

My first self-aware memory was of me being picked up by my mum and tucked into my pram, with her looking down directly at me. It's interesting because supposedly you don't form solid memories until you're about two years old. But I guess there's wild variation between people. My next memories are of me walking about, so there's definitely a gap of at least half a year or more.

What can be learnt from the idea of solipsism?

Master of understatement.

Connection between people is a beautiful thing. First and foremost let yourself enjoy the connection. Is it better to capture a butterfly and study it, or to watch it fly?

Sure. Sounds fun.

Life isn't anything in particular. You exist, and you must do lots of things to carry on existing. That's it. But we're all free to see it as we want to see it, if it makes existing more pleasant.

Ah yes. Life could also be a game and you could be the main character in it. What a blast. But of course life isn't really a game either.

It's the human condition to believe in stories and characters. If believing you're the main character motivates goodness in life, then why not? But once you've exhausted it, believing you're a character in a story is limiting and also on some level untrue.

I definitely agree there. But people are not conscious enough to find the right words (sorry I laugh at my own jokes). I don't know. There are plenty of synonyms: existence, awareness, self-awareness, knowledge, qualia, experience, God (on this forum), thought, inner dialogue, feelings and so on. But on a forum you're not going to get accurate language in general. I'd also say in general it's not even possible to agree if my experience has any overlap with your experience at all. Because all agreement is done through language, so it's already once removed. It's quite possible we're not even talking about the same thing when we say "consciousness".

I find it amazing that a word like consciousness exists. It's like a fish describing water. We pretend we all think we know what "consciousness" refers to. But it's a completely relative notion, not absolute. I'd say that there's several different definitions floating around: the sensations of experiencing, the awareness of existence, the awareness that you as a person exists, and a more general "knowledge" of the world and how it works. All of which causes no end of confusion.