Problem/struggling with perception of size/reality?

Question

This has been happening to me a lot lately. For the most part, it had been in class. I'll see a teacher in front of the class, lecturing and I'll start sizing them up...I'll think to myself, "He must be 6'2" or 6'3"..."

When the lecture is over and I get up to leave, I stand up, face-to-face with the lecturer and sometimes we are the same height, or I am even taller than he is! (I am 6 foot tall.)

This has happened approximately 4 times in the past year. To the point of complete and utter internal shock on my behalf like, "how could I have been so off?"

Also, on the highway, I was driving and was in a, "zone," so to speak, just reacting to conditions on the road. Sooner or later, I looked down at my hand and I felt this overwhelming sensation and urgency to ask and answer the question, "is this real? What am I doing right now? Am I real?" It alarmed me and I resumed driving--but it has been sort of nagging me ever since. It's almost as if I doubted I existed in the first place...

The one answer had deemed me as obsessed. Do I seem obsessed? I don't lay in bed all day, fretting away the sunlight, worrying about whether the next time I "size something up" incorrectly shall be my last. It's just that, what does this mean, when my emotional self feels that it is so profound? Why does my emotional self take on such lengths?

Is it naturally a part of me? Or, rather, some sort of terrible "fetish" as one answer said, acquired? I ask your thoughts because I am interested in what you have to say....not whether you think I need professional help or am on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Answer 1

Firstly, I think the size thing is perfectly normal. I think almost everyone compares their size with someone else and its not always accurate because we can't see ourselves in comparison to that person etc.

As for the reality issue, I don't think its a pyschological problem at all. I think you've been subconsciously thinking about your existence and then tiredness took the better of you.

I seriously don't think there's anything wrong with you. But I do think you're thinking too much that its affecting your emotions. Maybe you should try to take things easy and simply.

Answer 2

I think that we all have weird thoughts from time to time and still fit into a "normal" slot in life. The part that bothers me is you seem to be establishing some of the weird thoughts as patterns. If you can, try to get an appointment with a good psychiatrist or psychologist you may be on the verge of some serious oc disorder. The fact that you have a thought from time to time shouldnt scare you but the fact that you then obsess about that thought is creepy. It almost sounds like Flashbacks from an acid trip. Good luck -k-

Answer 3

Take your second question first. Perhaps none of us are real, and we are but a figment in someone's dream.

However, reality begins with sentience. Since you are sentient of your own existence and question it, then you must exist.

The first question as to whether this is real? Only you can tell us, since none of the rest of us were in the car with you.

Don't know about sizing up your profs. Sounds like that's just a fetish as part of your new-found sentient thinking. Call it a nascent desire to compare sizes.

Have you ever thought of picking up Sartre's works and reading them.

Answer 4

This doesn't sound as much like a philosophical problem as a physiological one. I suggest you speak with your doctor, because there are health issues whose symptoms include warped depth/size perception. Either there's something wrong with your vision, or there's something wrong with you physically otherwise that's affecting your vision. A warped visual view of the world is no indication that the world isn't real. That's why you can "tell" that you're dreaming when you have a dream and then something physically impossible happens.

Answer 5

Such questions are philosophical in nature. What you are
experiencing is just the beginning. You will learn many
more things on your own.

"Our two minds .... One is an act of the emotional
mind, the other of the rational mind. In a very real
sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that
feels" (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence,
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 1996, page 8).

The rational mind is connected with reasoning and
mathematical calculations. This component of your mind
is working with less efficiency. And your emotional
component of mind is working dominantly. The Upanishads
call the emotional mind as Chitta - read its characteristics:

In Upanishads, Chitta is the component connected with
intuition and emotion. Modern psychologists say that
passions have the same limitations of senses as they
tend toward immediate emotional discharge. Chitta is
the quick acting component of the mind which can be
termed as leftist or negative thinking part. It is
called negative because some psychologists felt that it
separates the received information into pieces,
contains unintentional and contradictory ideas, and
lacks internal organisation, inner consistency, and
concrete solutions. On the contrary, some philosophers
thought that this is the 'idealistic view' of thinking
about a problem. Chitta is connected with instincts,
urges, impulses, desires, emotion, imagination,
sentiments, passions, caring, pleasure, exploration,
unconventional ideas, moods, insight, superstitions,
immodesty, analysis of details, concern about
particular features, capacity to find novel
relationships, unrestrained expressions connected with
body or mind, molding of past experiences into new
constellations of meanings, creation of artistic,
poetic and musical works and the like. Seeing a good
work of painting or listening to music of one's liking
will set waves of emotion in Chitta. It helps us to
imagine things in new ways. It is known that lighter
side of life like fun may contain silly and ridiculous
situations. An artist is said to go to the extremes to
divorce himself from environmental constraints.

Write to me if you need more information:
(I will not accept any money)

[e-mail]

Answer 6

You need to come back to earth, a bit.
Sounds as though you are astral travelling.
You may need to mix with more people for social groups and outings for fun.
A fellow student that I studied with some years ago, would often see things in colour like you are experiencing. It's not unusual, but could spoil your life in time. Lighten up.

Answer 7

It sounds like you are losing touch with reality. See a counselor.