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Originally Posted by
Singularity125
I read this whole thing, Link. Really, I did.
Lol.
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But I still find myself wondering what it is you're complaining about. You're wondering what the point of waking life is? Or are you disillusioned from it because of its limits? And you seem to be on the fence about some form of afterlife -- which, of course, everyone is. It's only natural.
I guess you could say I was presuming waking life to be an illusion.
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I don't think the point of waking life is to pass on our genes and then die. My evolutionary psychology class tried to pull that one, and that was my least favorite psych class. Because it couldn't explain the common decencies that most people have! It had no explanation for altruism besides the fact that those we help might take pity and raise our kids if we die.
What fueled that long rant of mine was the idea behind the Selfish Gene Theory
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Every creature, in the long-run, acts to maximize the number of its descendants. Any creature which does not act this way will eventually be out-bred by those who do. While a creature may have enough for its own needs the number of descendants it can have is bounded only by the resources around it. Hence creatures are generally insatiable..........
This may seem wrong for humans, who have free will and are not mere programmable automaton, but in fact humans make logical decisions to satisfy their emotions, and human emotions are as murky and as illogical as any of those found in their animal counterparts.
Selfish Gene Theory
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Not to mention all the sexist overtones. Not all men want to bang every woman we see, thanks. :mad: ...great, now you have me ranting about a class I took two summers ago. :lol: My point is... the point of waking life, for me, is to grow and learn as much as possible. To be more mature, and kind, and caring... and if we can develop true unconditional love for people, that's a huge cause for celebration.
You see, when I find myself thinking that waking life is just gathering as much knowledge and experiences as possible to add on the the collective consciousness....it just seems too naive for me to believe it's only that.
But that's just me.
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Waking life may be a pain sometimes -- obviously, this thread wouldn't exist otherwise :P -- but it'll be okay in the end, I think. I know it's not as fun as dreams, for sure, but the way I see it, they synergize well. Get a huge mood boost from an awesome lucid dream and it can help you get through your boring day-to-day life.
Yeah, when I do get a lucid dream, it kind of cancels out the negative things in life temporarily, but I haven't had those dreams that are powerful and life changing as yet, so I'm still trying to get there.
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At least, it always improves my mood. And then, as you said, you can take those new experiences and have new ideas and dreams from them. Imagination is the key, I think... and I'm still working on that, because mine is actually really lacking. But if you have a vivid imagination, you can always improve your mood just by daydreaming, no matter where you are. And as long as it doesn't cause you to shirk real-life responsibilities, that's a very powerful skill. :dreaming:
Yes, balancing experiences in dreams and waking life is a challenge indeed, but that's not what I'm concerned about.
I was just concerned that even when one reaches that state, how long with it last before they take it for granted.
That's the question I was trying to answer to myself.