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The Great Existential Crisis
Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about the nature of personal experience. In particular, I was considering what it means to transition through what is termed in psychology as the existential crisis and how the outside world relates to that experience. This podcast episode is about that.
There is the world of people and society and things, a surface reality you might say, where everybody lives. Beneath this, there is something else, something that we have the opportunity to see if we have the courage to open the door. Often, the ones on the outside perceive a completely different, often flawed view of the what is actually going on.
Notes From The Show
I believe that everyone must at some point experience this existential crisis and it is ultimately to our benefit. However, many people I feel will do anything and everything possible to hang on to their idea of who they are.
This idea of who we are is a psychic construct that has been building since we were babies. Why this crisis comes about then, is because we believe absolutely in this identity and the pursuit of the idyllic future that doesn't exist.
We rarely question it.
Even when all the signs are all telling us that something is out of place, we will do whatever we can to preserve ourselves and our ideas. We'll even sacrifice relationships with the ones we love for their survival.
But eventually something will give.
We eventually see that time is an illusion and all this striving for a better future has been an enormous waste of energy.
I'm not referring here to the often cited need to transcend the ego and all the misunderstood ideas around that, that's not what this is.
What I'm referring to is the moment or series of moments whereby we come to the understanding that this personality we've constructed is not us. It is a realisation that the identity is an illusion and we are nothing.
Then after a while we know we are something again, only bigger. We know we are the personality too. Both exist in tandem. We develop the psychic ability to ride two horses so-to-speak. It is a broadening of awareness.
Despite the benefits though, it can be a very difficult time for us.
The World's Idea Of Existential Crisis
Those outside our personal experience, the ones who have not moved through this yet, or who think they are so spiritually advanced than poor us, often have a huge misunderstanding of what we are experiencing.
They feel sorry for us. They see our material loss and offer us pity and help to recover, to get back to the real world. If you too can't see what you're experiencing you will try to follow them. But that just delays the inevitable.
You've started down the rabbit hole and there's no going back.
For some of us it can take a lifetime of discomfort to get beyond it. For others it can be overnight. But one thing is for sure, if we can't realise what's actually happening we can be led further astray be well meaning stupid people.
Unless you've had this experience yourself, you can never know how to help anyone else move through it. And the only way to help someone move through it is to let them do so.
What's amusing though are the opinions and misled ideas of the existential crisis by friends and family. All they see is you falling apart. They don't see the personal benefit or gain to be had.
Best policy therefore is to keep your experience to yourself.
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