When you become self-aware, i.e. knowledge of one's own existence, how do you not go crazy?

Question

And if you know that you exist and you know that going crazy isn't an option, how do you NOT become so disassociated with everything and everyone on how little(if any) of an impact most of us have on anything.... is there anyone who might relate?

Answer 1

"Crazy" is a somewhat-vague term.

"Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy" (Jackson Browne song line) is about as close as it gets in this context.

"Self-aware" is similarly vague.  Elephants are noted by scientists to be aware of their own existence, for example.

Being low-impact, and being a minor actor in a great and not-perfect world, is obviously the "fate" of everyone.  Even the "major players" are mostly gone and forgotten within a very short while.  It is inevitable for each person, given the energy dynamics of the billions of players and the accumulation of institutionalized power.

This more general awareness is what Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and later thinkers (Husserl and Whitehead being two of the more profound and successful) have typified for mankind in general, about this condition.

The Bible notes the human is as "dust in the wind," etc., so the 19th-20th century insight is not novel, though it may be so for the infant-becoming-adult who becomes self-aware in the greater context that he or she is no longer the center of even Mommy's and Daddy's universe.

Suggested authors who've examined this in some depth and insight:

"The Path of the Higher Self," Mark Prophet;

"Testimony of Light," Helen Greaves;

"Expecting Adam," Martha Beck;

"To Live Within," Lizelle Reymond;

"Man, Master of His Destiny," O. M. Aivanhov;

"The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis;

"Watch Your Dreams," Ann Ree Colton;

"Babies Remember Birth," David Chamberlain, Ph.D.,

"Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D.,

"The Master of Lucid Dreams," Dr. Olga Kharitidi;

"Extraordinary Knowing," Dr. Elizabeth Mayer;

"The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock, http://www.divinecosmos.com

http://www.carolbowman.com

Answer 2

what makes you go crazy, you exist thats it

Answer 3

by doing it slowly

go out in the bright sun for 3 hours and get a nasty sun burn

but go out 15 Minuts a day and work up your tolerance , you get a nice tan

if your mind expanded totally your head would explode.

Answer 4

No you can't say useless or what's the point because i am just the same as you or maybe i posted this myself but if i did then i am finally fully schizophrenic!!

Answer 5

How DO you go crazy?

Answer 6

I've dealt with feelings of depersonalization quite a bit growing up. I would work myself into this cycle of existential thinking:

I'd see my hand or I'd be in a crowded place and I'd suddenly realize that I exist... and then I'd start wondering how I even exist and how am I here and where is here and before long I'd work myself into this dissociative episode of total disorientation where I felt like I was truly in a nightmare or a dream world.

It's a scary thought to realize that we EXIST, that we actually, are tangible beings in a tangible reality, in a place in time.

So back to your question: how do we (or I) not go crazy with that self-awareness and knowledge?

Well... first, realize that you're on the opposite end of the spectrum as being "crazy". To be clinically "crazy" you lose this consciousness and self-awareness, while on the other hand, by grasping it, you are becoming the very opposite.

You are a true human, a true "eye of the universe", however strange it sounds.

I relate to what you're saying very deeply, but to answer the second part of the question, about how "little" impact we have on anything, I want to tell you a comparison.

Imagine eternity- something without a beginning, without an end. Most scientists will tell us time is just an illusion masking eternity. So get this:

Eternity is represented by a horizontal line, with an arrow on either end,  showing that the segment continues each direction eternally. Lets pick a huge number, say 3 trillion.

We graph that number with a dot somewhere on the graph, anywhere, and write 3 trillion under it. Now, here's the kicker:

Let's pick the number "1", and chart it.  No matter where you chart it, it is once again on this horizontal line, with the same relationship to infinity as 3 trillion.

Any number you choose in the terms of infinity is equal, which means, the very smallest action, thought, emotion, that you have, is just as important in the scheme of reality, as the collective thoughts, actions, and emotions as everyone in the world and everyone who ever lived.

I know... its rambling and a little out there... but its just one of those things I learned along the way to start to piece things together. I hope I explained it well enough to make sense.

Just relax my friend, when these thoughts overcome you... welcome them, and realize that it is an absolute gift of consciousness, a higher plane than many people will ever experience

Answer 7

you remember the end to it's a wonderful life, made me cry one holiday season.

the worlds an ocean all you can do is dive in and swim around. not much else to do, sitting around the apartment is boring.

Answer 8

I think we do go crazy and dissociate and all that - I did anyway - well still do - craziness often is about what we cant cope with understanding but cant ignore. Its a mixed blessing having awareness but ultimately you cant switch it off just have to live the life - I have found quite a few others who are similar so I don't feel alone with it.

training in person centred counselling helped me with my sanity - it was a way to get on top of it without reshaping it - sorry probably sounding as clear as mud..

Answer 9

That is where ego comes in to play .

Answer 10

We do....but,usually we do not know that we are crazy being busy with self awareness.., those who is not self aware diagnose us time to time...