I am going to perpetrate a little bit of the sin of amateur psychological diagnosis over the Internet. Sorry about that.
I’m not sure that the substance of the philosophical and cosmological concepts here is what is afflicting you. After all, many people engage with cosmological horror recreationally — see, for instance, the continued popularity of writers such as Lovecraft, Stross, Banks, or the “SCP Foundation” folks.
Exposure to weird cosmological horror does not cause most humans to freak out, at least not for very long. Most people more-or-less instinctively take Egan’s Law into account (“it all adds up to normality”) — to the extent that this Law is only needed as a reminder for people who don’t automatically do so.
It sounds like you are having trouble disengaging from these ideas. So you might want to go seek treatment specifically for anxiety. This doesn’t mean “stop thinking about these issues and thereby give up any possibility of coming up with good solutions to them”; it means “become able to stop thinking about these issues when it’s getting loopy and unproductive, and get back to ape mode — and remember, ape mode is acceptable; we’ve been living with it for a long, long time.”
If Egan’s Law helps, good. OTOH, if prescribed beta blockers help, good too.
On the other hand, many people have struggled with the existence of sickness and death, and not every one of them became a Buddha. Some of what you write seems to be heavily concerned with the notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion. This is an area in which the Buddhists seem to be way ahead of the clinical psychologists in giving people tools to deal with it.
It sounds like you are having trouble disengaging from these ideas. So you might want to go seek treatment specifically for anxiety. This doesn’t mean “stop thinking about these issues and thereby give up any possibility of coming up with good solutions to them”; it means “become able to stop thinking about these issues when it’s getting loopy and unproductive, and get back to ape mode — and remember, ape mode is acceptable; we’ve been living with it for a long, long time.”
Yes, you’re quite right, I even had a short panic attack from reading Sam Hughes’ SCP fiction. It’s just that ape mode isn’t acceptable all the time. When it comes to very serious issues I don’t think it’s acceptable at all, no matter how much I suffer.
Some of what you write seems to be heavily concerned with the notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion. This is an area in which the Buddhists seem to be way ahead of the clinical psychologists in giving people tools to deal with it.
Buddhism just seems like nihilism to me. Not that I know much about it. Anything you could recommend?
When it comes to very serious issues I don’t think it’s acceptable at all, no matter how much I suffer.
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff. And maybe they dream about bacteria once in a while, and maybe some of that is upsetting and some of it is informative. But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Buddhism just seems like nihilism to me. Not that I know much about it. Anything you could recommend?
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff.
If they or their kids have the horrible disease? I think they’d react differently.
But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
How do you know? The question isn’t whether obsessing fixes the problem; it’s whether taking breaks speeds up the overall process. You don’t need tons of hours to fix the problem; as you said earlier, a few minutes to explain the right insight is quite sufficient. What you actually need is the right few minutes of work, spent finding the right key insights.
Thinking longer about a problem is only helpful to the degree it produces new insights. As you’ve found, this can be very inefficient. If taking a break and not worrying about an unsolved problem increases the efficiency of future problem-solving even a little bit, it could well be worth it.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
Yes, there are various Buddhist writings about it.
No, I’m not sure that any of them make much sense without actually doing the meditation. There are certain things which are stupidly obvious and okay from a meditative point of view — like “the self is an illusion” — that are either obviously false or incredibly scary from the kind of point of view you’re expressing.
I am not an expert in Buddhist practice, though,, and not qualified to provide much advice. I would note that serious current Buddhist writers such as Daniel Ingram make it very clear that people should deal with big psychological and emotional problems before engaging in heavy meditation.
I am going to perpetrate a little bit of the sin of amateur psychological diagnosis over the Internet. Sorry about that.
I’m not sure that the substance of the philosophical and cosmological concepts here is what is afflicting you. After all, many people engage with cosmological horror recreationally — see, for instance, the continued popularity of writers such as Lovecraft, Stross, Banks, or the “SCP Foundation” folks.
Exposure to weird cosmological horror does not cause most humans to freak out, at least not for very long. Most people more-or-less instinctively take Egan’s Law into account (“it all adds up to normality”) — to the extent that this Law is only needed as a reminder for people who don’t automatically do so.
It sounds like you are having trouble disengaging from these ideas. So you might want to go seek treatment specifically for anxiety. This doesn’t mean “stop thinking about these issues and thereby give up any possibility of coming up with good solutions to them”; it means “become able to stop thinking about these issues when it’s getting loopy and unproductive, and get back to ape mode — and remember, ape mode is acceptable; we’ve been living with it for a long, long time.”
If Egan’s Law helps, good. OTOH, if prescribed beta blockers help, good too.
On the other hand, many people have struggled with the existence of sickness and death, and not every one of them became a Buddha. Some of what you write seems to be heavily concerned with the notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion. This is an area in which the Buddhists seem to be way ahead of the clinical psychologists in giving people tools to deal with it.
Yes, you’re quite right, I even had a short panic attack from reading Sam Hughes’ SCP fiction. It’s just that ape mode isn’t acceptable all the time. When it comes to very serious issues I don’t think it’s acceptable at all, no matter how much I suffer.
Buddhism just seems like nihilism to me. Not that I know much about it. Anything you could recommend?
People who work on drugs to cure horrible diseases don’t spend 24⁄7 in an airtight suit in the lab, dropping samples on the floor because their hands are shaking. They go home and watch football and play card games and go to the kids’ school play and stuff. And maybe they dream about bacteria once in a while, and maybe some of that is upsetting and some of it is informative. But being unable to disengage from the Big Problems and live your little ordinary life is not heroism, and it actively gets in the way of solving any of those Big Problems.
Find a meditation teacher and spend some time doing that. Practice > theory.
If they or their kids have the horrible disease? I think they’d react differently.
Not my Big Problems; they get solved from doing just that.
I’m going to have to disagree. I thought you were talking about philosophy when you mentioned “notions of personal identity and continuity, and whether this is an illusion.”
How do you know? The question isn’t whether obsessing fixes the problem; it’s whether taking breaks speeds up the overall process. You don’t need tons of hours to fix the problem; as you said earlier, a few minutes to explain the right insight is quite sufficient. What you actually need is the right few minutes of work, spent finding the right key insights.
Thinking longer about a problem is only helpful to the degree it produces new insights. As you’ve found, this can be very inefficient. If taking a break and not worrying about an unsolved problem increases the efficiency of future problem-solving even a little bit, it could well be worth it.
Yes, there are various Buddhist writings about it.
No, I’m not sure that any of them make much sense without actually doing the meditation. There are certain things which are stupidly obvious and okay from a meditative point of view — like “the self is an illusion” — that are either obviously false or incredibly scary from the kind of point of view you’re expressing.
I am not an expert in Buddhist practice, though,, and not qualified to provide much advice. I would note that serious current Buddhist writers such as Daniel Ingram make it very clear that people should deal with big psychological and emotional problems before engaging in heavy meditation.