Religious reality

[quinntar]

Christianity has a way of growing roots in your reality, it changes your perspective so much you're facing another world. Lately I have been having these reality attacks, that my mind is shaking off my old biblical mindset. 

 

It's fucked because for that moment it feels like I have no reality at all. My mind is peeling off the religious nonsense that layered itself on my normal perspective.

 

I wonder what's underneath all these layer's.

[ToHellWithMe]

Void and emptiness. There's no meaning except what our instincts and emotions dictate to be meaningful.

We gotta become godlike and give the meaning to everything.

 

In Christianity, I really liked the idea that life is just a test and what we are prepared for is the real thing. I still like to think that might be the case, and that Christianity is just a human construct, a religion among others leeching off that higher truth.

[mymistake]

As a small suggestion, don't skip the words "perception of".  I get lazy too.  We all do from time to time.  But on this topic including the words can be vital for reminding everybody of the difference.  I don't have my reality.  You don't have your reality.  There is only one reality and it is in our own best interests to try and perceive it as it is.  We have to recognize our own biases and compensate for them.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

It does take time to recondition the responses of the mind. Ten years after deconverting, I still find my mind testing me in dreams to see what my reaction will be to something odd. In dreams, I used to default to "the light won't turn on - the DEVIL is here" and then try to squeak out the name of Jesus. But over the years the light not turning on has become "I guess I'll use my flashlight - oh, it won't turn on either - that's stupid".

 

I have flirted a bit with pagan concepts but for the most part have adopted a naturalistic view without gods and overlay meanings to things. Why would a god need to give me a sign instead of talking to me directly? Believers justify such malarkey by saying "Who are we to demand direct interaction?" or "God doesn't talk to anyone anymore, or the Bible wouldn't be finished" and other excuses for a non-existent god.

 

Perception of reality is an interesting thing to study. Puzzles are fun for me because they aren't immediately obvious, I have to think to figure out what is going on, and sometimes (though I hate this part) I have to guess and try out possible solutions. Optical illusions are fascinating because they seem to show one thing, but are actually constructed differently. They purposefully find exploits or patterns that the brain relies upon for giving us accurate information and demonstrate how the brain can be completely wrong, even after seeing how the illusion was made.

 

Cannabis changes how I see reality, and parts of my mind spring to conscious life that are usually more under water. It changes desires, sensual feel, creativity, visual patterns, and lets at least part of my shadow self express itself.

 

Christianity had my mind for 30 years, during which I was convinced that an invisible and enormous war was going on all around me. Demons, angels, and various levels of powerful beings were locked in combat over the invisible souls of mankind. I thought I could feel physically the change in power when I crossed a state line or other border, due to "princes of power" in the air. I was superstitious as a child so was a natural fit for such myths. Because other people talked about them and wrote books about them, they seemed more real. Now it is like cosplay gone wrong, and people really believe they are Klingons and anime characters.

 

I saw an illusion in a bathroom not long ago, and thought I saw a bug moving on a wall in my peripheral vision. On closer inspection, it was a booger and not capable of moving. But the flat color of the wall and the minimal lighting in the room didn't give my mind an anchor point, only the dot on the wall.

 

I've attached a few illusions. The first exploits our sense of perspective. The second appears to be in motion, but is not. The third appears to have bands of blue and green, but they are actually the same color (you have to zoom in with a graphics program to see).

 

[disillusioned]

On 23/02/2018 at 8:47 PM, theanticrash said:

 

I wonder what's underneath all these layer's.

 

In my case, I'm afraid to say that I think it's turtles all the way down.

[quinntar]

2 hours ago, disillusioned said:

 

In my case, I'm afraid to say that I think it's turtles all the way down.

Hilarity.