Comment on How can people know what they want at a given moment?

• BladeFederation@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Not saying this is OP specifically or anything, but I have long suspected that some fellow humans just aren’t as…conscious/sapient as the rest of us. Like literal NPCs. It would explain a lot. No I’m not talking about anything race or eugenics related, not going there at ALL. Just sometimes I’ve met people and wondered “…did we grow up on the same planet?”

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  • Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There are absolutely degrees of consciousness.

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  • AloneDownUnder@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s strange. I’ve been in a state of shutdown and disconnect for most of my life. Only recently with lot’s of meditation, I’ve reached a point where I (sometimes) am aware of my own needs and emotions.

    When I look at other people I’m amazed by the capacities they have.

    • They can think about their needs and desire while having a conversation
    • When sitting still and not doing anything, they automatically start thinking about a bunch of things they still want to do or things that happened in the past
    • They can hold their preferences in their head in any circumstance
    • At any given time they have an idea of their priorities or needs.
    • They feel it automatically when they have a certain need, like water, food, connection, etc…

    I suppose this is normal for most people? But for me it has been only a very recent experience, and most of the time I still can’t

    An example of this is meditation. When I sit down to meditate and focus on my breathing, and do this for 1-2 hours, I don’t experience any thoughts about future plans or things that happened before.

    However, with consistency, this seems to be happening occasionally for me now from time to time.

    A few years ago just talking was already pretty hard for me. Nowadays I manage, but it’s mostly talking in a way that I’ve learned from patterns in how other people talk, and i’m not necessarily able to communicate my own state of mind to other people that easily.

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    • Natanael@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sounds like disassociation, perhaps even “anhedonia” (stupid naming, essentially your brain is suppressing emotion). Did you experience any trauma while young? Especially something that lasted a while?

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      • AloneDownUnder@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It does feel like that sometimes. I notice that when there is a moment where it would make sense to be angry, I instead just feel headache or stomachache, but don’t really feel any emotion.

        I don’t know whether I experienced any trauma. I just don’t remember much. Especially emotional things I don’t remember.

        In fact, I had a conversation with my father recently. And I remember we got emotional about something. But right after the conversation, I can’t remember anymore what we talked about.

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    • Awooooooga@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, all those things are normal. I imagine you have went through some very difficult things to exist as you have been for so long. It’s very interesting that you find meditation is helping you. Thanks for sharing. I send you love and wish you success on your journey and happiness in your life!

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      • AloneDownUnder@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Thank you.

        I’m looking into what might have happened to me. But I don’t really remember much from before I was like 15 years old. I even have difficulties remembering things from the day before. Probably related.

        Meditation seems to be somewhat different for me than others. I don’t really think of anything, just feel physical sensations, mostly discomfort.

        Over time, if I practice very consistently, some thoughts start popping up in my head.

        I’ve heard from others that usually their head is full of thoughts and meditation actually helps them to calm it down.

        Maybe another type of meditation rather than breathing meditation would be more helpful for me, but I’m not sure.

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  • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ve noticed there seems to be a divide between deep thinking and wide thinking.

    Deep thinking tends to be directed and has a tight focus. It covers a lot of intellectual thinking.

    Wide thinking is a lot more integrated, it’s how we instinctively know how a particular action will affect others, both directly and indirectly. It integrates a lot of topics, but at a far shallower level.

    As an aspie, I’m good at deep thinking. I struggle with wide thinking. I suspect I am fairly blind to a lot of wide thinking effects. Whether their more intuitive thinking is better or worse than my logical deep thinking is a different matter.

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• Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Plus memory, and probably some chemical trigger (like dopamine or some other).

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• AloneDownUnder@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  For me it’s not simple though. Does that make me non-human? I’m really surprised this is considered a basic thing.

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  • Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Obviously you have memory. Which is a foundation for consciousness.

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    • AloneDownUnder@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I do have memory, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to give my own personal experiences in these comments.

      But I also know that in a few days I will have forgotten that I even made this thread.

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