i am having bad anxiety over the thought that nothing exists outside my mind...........?

Question

and everything and everyone i have ever known and loved doesnt realy exist. if love cant be shared by 2 people then why keep going on? whats the point? the only living thing feeling emotions are you and it doesnt matter cause you can share it.

Answer 1

Not to worry. It is causing you pain therefore, regardless of anything else, it exists. Pain lets us know we are alive.

Answer 2

It sounds like you have been reading some new age type books, such as, The Disappearing Universe. I am very much into new age stuff, but some of it is totally wacked. And the idea of everything existing just in your mind is just that - whacked. I'm not saying you are nuts - please don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that your thought processes have been influenced by some not so legitimate ideas and authors.

Let's think about this logically. If it's all happening in your mind, then who are you? If you are the only one who exists then are you God? If not, then where did you come from? If you were created then some higher being must have created you and therefore you cannot be alone.

You have life, and that is very special. Appreciate it. When you die someday, you will know what life is and was all about. Until then, be a good person, find a purpose and enjoy life.

If you are into new age books I can suggest an excellent, uplifting one: The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

Answer 3

Panic not. By asking the question you accept that others exist. So there is an external reality. Of course, we cannot be aware of all of it - not even of all of ourselves, because whatever we are conscious of at a particular time cannot be all of what is available in our mind to be conscious of. Whatever ideas we have of anything are not all there is to it, anyway. And not definitive (trees look green to us because they are the colour they reflect, not because that is what they "are"; and insects etc. see them differently). However we respond to anything or anybody is also often somewhat open to choice - love ends ... disaster ... or a great memory and a new opportunity. Think, and choose. We cannot fully know the feelings of others; nor can we own them. And the reverse is true too - which is comforting, if you think about it. For anyone who thinks, the mind is a wilderness, and exploring can be alarming when young; but it's there, alone, you'll find what is true for you - and learn the joy of it, knowing you have survived and can do so again, and again. It enriches life as nothing else can - whether alone or shared. I think it was Plato who said: The unexamined life is not worth living. I wouldn't go so far, but it's certainly a waste of life. "Spirituality" is a term much abused and misused - but I define it as a sense of connectedness to all things (an idea that dawned in a desert). It's based on science, and a better walking stick than most. Good luck, and again, don't panic!

Answer 4

This is a VERY old question. In fact, it's one that's come up for as long as there's been people who can ask it. It's part of a school of thought called "skepticism".

The bottom line from the many people who addressed this is: There is no way of knowing.

The problem is, no matter what happens to you, it can always be internalized. There is nothing that can logically disprove that. Many famous people have tried, and failed (from the Greeks to the Moderns).

The best counter to this line of thought, is an attack on it's utility. Assuming it's true, what can you do about it, and what does that mean? Nothing, And you can't anything about it. In other words, it's totally impractical, even if true. Maybe the whole universe, is in your mind, so what? And if it is true, then you're the god of your world, so make the best of it.

That's why that line of thought is dead. Everyone agrees there is no solution, and agrees to move on.

Now as to your anxiety. If you worry about the ultimate meaning of life, join the crowd, and get on with making the best of it.

The best proof I have ever had, that love can, and is, shared, is looking deeply into the eyes of someone I love, while knowing they love me, with us both trying to express it.

In the end....Love is stronger than doubt.

Answer 5

What an existential thought. I loved Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. It ultimately deals with what you're going through.

I actually sometimes think of this, too, but not to the extent you are - it doesn't cause me anxiety.

Here's the way I figure it. *IF* this is all a dream, but it feels good - our maternal love, our great friends, our families - then really, so what? In the long run, if we are just simulations in a computer game (or something similar), but we have the ability to *feel* whatever's "programmed" into us, then enjoy it. I mean, what is "living?" Is it a construct by some alien race to keep us alive for battery power (thank you "Matrix")? Me personally, with the life I have now, I don't know that I'd take the pill Neo did - my life *feels* good. With all the attendant pain - like the loss of my grandmother, the attendant joy is wonderful.

Or if your anxiety is more along the lines of, "Maybe I'm in a mental institution suffering from some awful form of mental illness," again, I say, so what? The only thing that is real is what you experience on a level you understand. Sometimes I imagine that my children, while still inside me, were on some fantastic voyage - spiritually speaking, of course - in the universe, learning everything there is to know. Maybe conversing with God, who knows? But as they grown and begin to understand "this world," they begin to lose their connection to the unknown - because in this form, it's incomprehensible. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just means it doesn't "work" in this vacuum of Earth and its limitations. I think that maybe when we die, that's heaven - we begin to understand the incomprehensibility of the vastness of "everything."

I can't help you with your anxiety - if you can't find comfort in the idea that what we have is what's real, then a good counselor can help you with the anxiety. I hope this helps a little bit.

Do some research. Check out some churches. Take some science classes. Search yourself and find out what it is that makes you believe that this is a "dream." Don't sit and wallow in your thoughts - take some kind of action. Research. Look around. Go to a forest and walk for a while. Find reality where it presents itself - and if you can't come to believe it's real, then accept that whatever reality is presenting itself still presents amazing opportunities to *feel.* If you only allow yourself, that is. Good luck.

Answer 6

WOW! Do you meditate? You sound like a new student to meditation and the opening of the 3rd eye. Nothing really exist except in your mind. True and not so true. The world will continue to exist just not to you if you do not expsoe yourself to it. If you are new to meditation and travelling then you will notice that your body feels and records everything you experience as it is real because it is. Whatever you mind sees whether your eyes are open or closed is real. Love can't be shaed by two people but by all people. It is limitless. It is emotional attachment that should not be shared. (relationships) We go on to experience the physical wonders. Though your mind is weightless you need the electrical impulses of you nervous system to initiate it. Study the Nervous System and "the 7 Chakras". Also "the 7 Dimensions of the Mind" Mindblowing info. Becareful of what is real and what isn't physical. One can get lost easily. Even a pinch can be deceiving.

Answer 7

Don`t you feel anxious that also your anxiety could not exist? What is the use to share your anxiety if nothing exists? If anxiety cannot be shared, why not just drop it? What is your point in keeping it?
So if the only thing really existing is your mind and you are having this anxiety, what is then the point of sharing that at all if nothing can be shared by 2 people????

Answer 8

What will really flip your noodle is: how can you prove that the past existed?How can you be sure that you didn't just start everything a second ago with all the memory just there? How do you prove the last second existed? YOU can't ever prove this but if you die before me, then I can prove it isn't just all you.
Who said love can't be shared by 2 ppl? I think you can share love.
If you can control something than its you, if you cannot control it, it someone else's.

Answer 9

don't despair, it is a very frightening power, the power of self-awareness. The fact that the brain is powerful enough to think of itself as the soul/spirit of a body.

But what can you do about such a world?
Belief.
Belief in anything will give you strength and serenity.
Belief in goodness in this world, karma, heaven, it doesn't matter.
Because in the end, if the world is as you fear, then its all perspective. And if you view the world as a pleasant place, then your mind makes it so.

Answer 10

If we do not really exist, why are you communicating with us? You could just save yourself the trouble of typing and imagine the whole thing. Love does not necessarily have to be shared; just given.

Answer 11

I agree with sheila,and while your at it lay off the acid too,for a while before your mind tells ya flying can be done without an airplane or a parachute