Future, Past and Identity

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First of all, I enjoy checking in as much as I can and I'm very glad to see the usual suspects still around here, and some new faces! Hope all are well Big Grin

Got myself into a strange state of mind recently, as I sometimes do! And maybe some of you can relate too. If not, it's just a wee snippet of the vast potentials of consciousness that humans can experience  Wink


After a 'little session' of daytime beer, having gone home and slept for a wee bit, I awoke in a strange state of mind. I had the urge to review my past 10 years, mostly through Facebook pictures and thinking of old friends that I hadn't seen in a while, lovers past and all that kind of stuff you do from time to time. Thing is, I've slowly been becoming less interested in my past and greatly interested in my future over the past 2 or so years. I've hardly given a thought to my past, when previously all I would do is LIVE in my past as I hadn't gotten over certain things, kinda wasting a lot of my younger 20's and stuff. 

So when looking over things, and thinking about people no longer in my life who were previously very close, I just felt strange. I could 'see' my future and past clearly in a kind of expanded present, as if I had done this a hundred times before in previous lifetimes and I was having a 'quantum' chuckle at myself with the journey of life. I was also aware that I didn't really relate to the person in the pictures from years ago. Who was this guy? He lived this life? He knew this person? How? Why? Really? When I compare 'myself', my 'identity' at this present time, to the person in pictures, it seemed like this was honestly something I had never lived, especially as ones memory does fade over time; the small details, the smells, the vibe etc etc.

How can this be? How can I have done something and 'lose' the experience? Or is it more that the present changes the past? I remember (ha ha) reading something about how the present does indeed change the past, particularly when writing about it. It is a form of ‘reframing’, if I am not mistaken.

Anyone else had the experience of the present changing the past in such a reality bending way?
[-] The following 3 users Like diverdown's post:
  • Hurmanetar, Typoz, Mediochre
I would argue you're literally not the person now you were then, that's why it's different. That's how I tend to interpret these things. Though I'm not sure if I've experienced the same thing.
"The cure for bad information is more information."
[-] The following 1 user Likes Mediochre's post:
  • diverdown

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