My existential pureO

[OCDme]

so I've been having simulation solipsism pureO for a while and even though it's getting slightly better, it was really terrifying and horrible and I thought I was going insane. I've had long conversations with my mom in the last few days and also with my close friends to try to feel better and then I started thinking what if I'm just talking to AIs in a simulation and I'm just tricked into thinking they're my loving family/friends. And I always seemed to get the same answer from people when I ask about this on the internet. They say that it won't change anything because my external interaction with them will still be the same but that didn't make much sense to me. Let me write about a hypothetical situation below to make an analogy.

Someone you love the most in the world has to move to a far away place for work for a few yearsand it's also kind of a dangerous place. That place also has no internet/phone so you can only exchange papermail with that person and you only know his/her existence by reading mail from that person but then you find out that there's a chance that someone else was giving you fake mail(because the faker is worried that you'd be so devastated to find out the person you love got killed at work) and the person you love is actually dead. so... in that case, is it 'still the same' as the person you love being alive because the mail interactions between you and your lover will still be the same through mails(assuming the faker can pretend perfectly)?

[MyNameIsTerry]

No, that doesn't make much sense to me either. The letters came from the faker, not the loved one. Their motive differs. And upon finding out they were from a faker would you choose to continue sending letters? If you did, wouldn't that be very strange and possibly be about an unwillingness to let go of the loved one and pass through your grief?

What the point might be, although it doesn't work for your example, is that you have been happy with your simulation until you found out that it could be a simulation. So, can you return yourself to a state of being happy?

Whilst I don't agree with that, as I don't agree with Solipsism anyway, what I could take from that is that it is a wake to diffuse your fear. Your fear will continue if you react to it with the reaction expected in the fear cycle, a typically negative reaction. And then there are the compulsions which reinforce the cycle too.

I would also look towards obsessive discussion of this subject. What you give importance too will remain and when trying to reframe or rationalise there comes a point where it tips over into obsession (too much time, too much searching out, etc) or the attempts to rationalise are typically negative rather than an objective approach.

[OCDme]

No, that doesn't make much sense to me either. The letters came from the faker, not the loved one. Their motive differs. And upon finding out they were from a faker would you choose to continue sending letters? If you did, wouldn't that be very strange and possibly be about an unwillingness to let go of the loved one and pass through your grief?


well I didn't mean that I would keep writing to the faker. What I meant was that what if I started having 'doubts' that it might be fake because I realized it is very possible based on the fact that 'it is physically' possible? And even if I believe that the mail is indeed from my loved one, it is still and always possible that it is from the faker for 'whatever motivation' that faker has.

---------- Post added at 00:22 ---------- Previous post was at 00:20 ----------




What the point might be, although it doesn't work for your example, is that you have been happy with your simulation until you found out that it could be a simulation. So, can you return yourself to a state of being happy?




Yeah. I think that's one of the main points that I tried to express(but I'm not good at expressing what goes on in my mind.). so basically, 'because' you do know for a fact that there's a possibility that it could be fake, then the reality itself could be fake, I'm not saying it is definitely fake but it 'could' be fake. and I don't think I can ever be happy again like the past because every time something amazing happens, I'll always doubting and thinking ' it could be all an illusion or simulation fake.'

---------- Post added at 00:26 ---------- Previous post was at 00:22 ----------



Whilst I don't agree with that, as I don't agree with Solipsism anyway,

when you say you don't agree with solipsism, do you mean you don't agree with the notion that 'It is possible that your reality is just a simulation or figments of your own imagination'? Because when I use the word 'solipsism', this is what I mean; 'the possibility of my reality being all a dream or an experimental simulation'.

[MyNameIsTerry]

when you say you don't agree with solipsism, do you mean you don't agree with the notion that 'It is possible that your reality is just a simulation or figments of your own imagination'? Because when I use the word 'solipsism', this is what I mean; 'the possibility of my reality being all a dream or an experimental simulation'.

Yes, I don't agree with it as a philosophy. The same as I disagree with areas of religion or religions in their entirely or other forms of spirituality.

---------- Post added at 02:22 ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 ----------


well I didn't mean that I would keep writing to the faker. What I meant was that what if I started having 'doubts' that it might be fake because I realized it is very possible based on the fact that 'it is physically' possible? And even if I believe that the mail is indeed from my loved one, it is still and always possible that it is from the faker for 'whatever motivation' that faker has.

I didn't mean to imply you would continue but state it is a possibility and that it would feel like the person was clinging to the fantasy when they knew it was only fantasy, something which may be possible in grief.

What would the doubts be based? If the doubts aren't based on anything tangible then they could be wrong. An intrusive thought flashing into your mind that the person may be fake and the loved one has died doesn't change the situation, we get bizarre thoughts but until someone has started having problems with their intrusive thoughts they will just let them pass through without much attention.

---------- Post added at 02:32 ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 ----------


Yeah. I think that's one of the main points that I tried to express(but I'm not good at expressing what goes on in my mind.). so basically, 'because' you do know for a fact that there's a possibility that it could be fake, then the reality itself could be fake, I'm not saying it is definitely fake but it 'could' be fake. and I don't think I can ever be happy again like the past because every time something amazing happens, I'll always doubting and thinking ' it could be all an illusion or simulation fake.'

You expressed yourself perfectly fine.

It sounds like you have some Perfectionism issues tied in here. Simply because you have had a thought, or even spent time considering the possibility, doesn't have to change your beliefs about it or mar it.

Think of this outside of your fears. Consider someone who has as intrusive thought that their partner has cheated or maybe had lustful thoughts about another. Does that really anything? If they haven't cheated then nothing has changed other than whether you choose to change your beliefs about the relationship & partner. Or with lustful thoughts it comes down to accepting that it doesn't imply there is a failure in the relationship or that a partner wants to do anything.

There is a guy on here under the name audi who has similar struggles with this tainting issue. He buys expensive watches, gets them home and then his intrusive thoughts tell him there is some imperfection and he needs to sell them on. His mind will search for reasons such as he missed the defect before purchase, the seller sent the wrong watch, the seller intentionally damaged, etc. But nothing has changed, he loved the watch when he went to buy it.

In your example the fact you had a thought that the person could be fake then seems to mar the relationship even if you find they aren't fake.