“You entirely create your reality. It is only by complicit agreement that the world as you understand it exists, your shared human beliefs giving it shape and substance. It is not that the tree falling in the forest makes no noise if nobody is there to hear it; it is that without a hearer, the tree itself cannot be.”
The woman’s transformation was astonishing. While in the trance, her cadence changed. Her closed eyes twitched and fluttered, her voice abnormally deep. She had a strange accent and seemed to stare through closed eyelids as she raised a crooked finger.
“You question the reality your dreams, but I tell you the world you create in them is just as real as the one you now see around you. Because a dream is yours alone, its world requires no outside reinforcement. You create a wholly separate reality.”
I had the curious feeling we’d had this conversation before.
Note: Depersonalization disorder, also known as depersonalization-derealization syndrome, is a DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.) diagnosis assigned to individuals who persistently experience feelings of detachment, either bodily or cognitively, from themselves or from their environment. Depersonalization disorder falls under the dissociative disorders group of conditions, which are characterized by feelings of disconnection from reality. Sufferers of derealization may experience:
-Feeling detached from their surroundings
-Feeling that general life events are unreal
-Perceiving objects as changing in shape, size or color
-Feeling that people they know are strangers
-Feeling that environments they know are unfamiliar
Other cultures consider psychic events and perceptions differently. One person’s mental illness is another’s divinely gifted vision.
I find this very disturbing . . . in an interesting way, I guess. I didn’t realize there’s a depersonalization disorder ~ sounds interesting. Thanks for making me think!
It’s all a matter of perspective!
As disturbing as the results of the double slit experiment. I don’t know what to believe next… Well done.
Very disturbing, but yet, not. In Native American culture such experiences are common and are considered to be communication with the spirit realm. I don’t believe in that aspect of my culture, but I do understand it. Our dreams often give us a place wherein we can work out the ‘disharmony’ of our reality and help us to find ‘balance’ in our lives. Not necessarily a bad thing or a mental illness.
Dear Josh,
What’s disturbing to me is that I’ve felt some of these things before. Hm. Well written as I’ve come to expect.
Shalom,
Rochelle