askchapo

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was an owl, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a owl. I was conscious only of my happiness as a owl, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then an enby dreaming I was a owl, or whether I am now a owl, dreaming I am an enby.

Zhuangzi_Owl

bite yojur cheek it ouchie

Doesn't matter, just keep going, outcome is pretty similar if its virtual or 'the real deal' when you can't tell. Its not good to dwell on this low vibe bourgeois Victorian thought.

Reminds me of dreams I have where I live a whole life with a career, or start a family etc, then I wake up back to this waking nightmare.

A long time ago I used to work in roofing. I had a shit that would ride up my lower back (thankfully my pants held up, it just showed my back lol). After this long day in the sun, I felt this odd pain on my lower back. I got a fuckin sunburn. Ever since then, I've known solipsism can't be true because I didn't expect getting sunburned on my lower back.

Now, of course I was young and dumb so to me that was very powerful argument lol but as I've grown older the natural world has only been more surprising and unexpected and same with people. From a place of sincere humility - there is 0 chance any of this comes from within me somewhere, I am not that clever or smart. I could accept that perhaps I am a brain in a vat but the world of experience is definitely not a lie I'm telling myself

Oh man, what a relief that would be. It was all just my imagination

If you all are not real, I nevertheless appreciate getting to know you all here. I wish we could all live in the less doomer fantasy in my head.

There was a kids show with that plot called The Odyssey. The main character was fighting through a fantasy land that reflected their struggle to reawaken - I think I liked it? I can't really remember.

Here's a nicer existential musing (the second paragraph, but the first is related to it):

With some commentary:

The lamp is real

Need to do fanart of the obligatory dark and depressing Hexbear coma fan theory

(Also oh shit happy sitesiversary)

Do those "how to know if your dreaming" strategies, like looking at the time on a clock, looking away, and then checking the clock again for consistency.

All of these comments are way more wholesome than expected

Please wake up im ready to be wind-fished

Have you tried propanol? I have a friend who used to be gripped by existential dread all the time. She's said taking propanol felt like her heart had just been released.

if the lamp looks fine, them everything is ok. should it distort, then yeah, coma it is.

what does 'real' even mean? if you are experiencing something consistently, that responds to your interactions, its as real as anything else imo. does something being temporary or conditional on certain phenomena make it 'not real'? because in that case any living being is 'not real', a mere transitory hallucination that will fade and be forgotten in time like an unremembered dream. maybe the characters in your sleeping dreams do in fact have their own subjectivity independent of your own conscious identity, 'subsystems' running on your 'hardware', as mortal and fallible as any living person. does lucidity or clarity or vividness determine reality? if so, then what about people who experience vivid, clear, lucid 'hallucinations', or people (perhaps with conditions like alzheimers or dementia) who experience waking life as an incomprehensible whirlwind of phenomena? is a lucid dream 'more real' than the dreams you do not remember? 'reality' is kind of a meaningless concept, engage with what you are capable of engaging with and don't worry so much is my advice.

Solipsism on the way to catatonia. The simulation is self-aware but only to the point that it realizes verification is impossible.

Have a donut. You'll feel better as long as you don't let the guilt of enjoying the donut weigh too heavily on your conscious.

Idk, pinch yersel?

Nothing is real except for the endless void that this stimulative universe spawned out of, but I think we should enjoy our unreal reality, because it's all we've got.