Do you ever feel like you don't exist?

Answer 1

Are you implying that I do?
Truth is, that very few people are actually in touch with their true sense of existence. There is so much pressure from society, family, peers, to put on a front, to wear a mask, to hide ones authentic self, so no wonder you don't feel like you exist. You've got to feel safe and be in a nurturing, accepting, non-judgemental, non critical environment in order to exist in peace and be real. When you feel free to be who you genuinely are-within, you will feel your existence.

Answer 2

Not that I don't exist, but sometimes I feel that my existence just doesn't matter very much. We all feel that way sometimes. (And it's just as well. Think what jerks we would all be if we all thought we were really important!)

Anyway, as Rene Descartes pointed out, -thinking- is the only real proof of your existence! He lived in a time when great minds debated such things. Descartes thought about it and realized that we could be wrong in anything we thought, but not in the matter of whether or not man exists, because just thinking about it proves you exist.

Answer 3

Nope. Call me credulous, but as far back as I can remember, I've never doubted my existence. I reckoned that if I was blinking, I was; if I moved from a less-comfortable position to a more-comfortable position, I was; the onslaught of sensation never ceased, and this anchored me to bestial reality at least, even during some bouts of troubled thought when I flirted with the (non-suicidal) notion of non-existence.

The subtler question of identity, i.e, "Who am I?", with its attendant questions, "Where does identity come from?", "Am I wholly dependent on others for human existence?", and so on--yeah, they came to me, and I waited 'em out. They went away. I'm a critter, always; a human critter in human company; and I suppose I'd be an angelic critter in the company of angels.

If you don't exist, who's working your lungs?

Answer 4

The 'you' being referred to doesn't exist. The only 'you' that 'feels' is completely imagined.
The memories of 'you' having different sensory experiences are collected and replayed in order to create a form of continuity for an idea called 'I'. You project this 'entity' into an imagined future. You have internal dialog with this entity. You create fantastic stories about this entity's 'destiny', 'purpose' and 'fate'.

This 'you' is only a collection of memories and knowledge given to it by culture. It was shaped by parents, teachers, friends, media and every other external influence. You told 'you' that you were or were not afraid of something, believed something, liked or disliked something.

It is the house that culture told you to build and live in. It isn't real and the living organism knows it.

Answer 5

"But I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? No: if I convinced myself of something [or thought anything at all] then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something. So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that the proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind."
- René Descartes




I think therefore I am.....................I think? Damn!
- Mello Yello

Answer 6

Being treated badly means that you do exist. You cannot treat someone badly unless they exist. Ignored, rejected, abandoned, etc. -- there are some actions that could contribute to someone feelings this way if you allow the actions of others to define yourself. I prefer to be ignored.

Personally, I've never felt this way.

Answer 7

how can you see anything in the world in front of you and feel like you dont exist?

Answer 8

As a child I often felt that way.
Now I try to live every moment, so those times are rare!

Love & Live wide open! Pandora

Answer 9

well.... its hard too say! you know you do exist because you make a change in the world but being left out causes such thoughts

Answer 10

most of the time.