I’ve been back to the doctors, well, to the case workers. They ask questions, and you know how those can sound somewhat off after being away for awhile;
“Do you ever hear or see things that no one else can see?”
DO I?!
Gee mister, I don’t know. I try to check as often as I can, but I always suspect I’m hearing things that others don’t. That they don’t see everything I see.
Because of religion and superstition. Years of awful practice learning to see what isn’t there. Not even getting into art and imagination. I’ve seen worlds beyond worlds. I took a stroll through the end of time. I sat an afternoon in the eternal purgatory of nothingness.
So for all I know you’re the hallucination bub. No, I know the right answer to your stupid question.
I hate it, the whole cage. I’m dangling close to breaking, and they see it. Some of them, the workers. They know well enough it’s expensive as hell when I do break. Lots of drugs, lots of consultations, down time. They’re working their darn asses off trying to keep me sane, and I do appreciate it.
But they don’t hear what I hear. I know they don’t.
I know which things they don’t. Because some of those things I used to think are real are about as real as Mickey Mouse. That is we certainly pretend convincingly…… but it doesn’t matter, it is an agreed upon abstract.
PROVE ME WRONG! The proof is in the pudding! I gave my best, my all, and will continue. But I have no delusion any of it matters. It’s for my feeble pride, a weakness of mine and nothing else.
Do you hear what I hear? No sir. I hear music when there’s none around, and my heart beats to the bass line. The lyrics weave absurdity around your pithy daily dilly dally.
Humans always find patterns where none exist. We are pattern finding machines, even when there are no patterns to find. So is it any wonder we impose a narrative when there is nothing but a crash and cacophony of noise and chaos? Fools to a man, I am but an ordinary human.
5 comments
I don’t know how literally I should take your statements about seeing or hearing things that others do’t see. Are you literally experiencing psychosis? I’m afraid I have no insight, if so. I can’t relate. I don’t know how that feels. But I am sorry, for what it’s worth.
Or are you speaking metaphorically? Are you talking about seeing intangible patterns in society? That I can relate to all too well…. humans are indeed wired to find patterns. To impose meaning on randomness. Its one of the reasons why IMO, religions and conspiracy theories are such a thing.
Either way, the place you are in does not sound fun. I can’t offer anything tangible to help. All I can offer is a little reminder: from the little I know about you, I think you are important. I believe you do good in the world, and that you are loved.
I’m mostly poking at religious delusion….. I ran into it twice in a row, and I’m feeling post modern about the whole thing; hearing voices, talking to things that aren’t there? That’s psychotic….. fricken what’s wrong with the world, a substantial portion of the population talking to things that aren’t there, making important decisions based on antique documents of questionable origin
My problem isn’t that I don’t know about Christianity, it’s that I know too much, way, way, way too much
Again I can’t really relate… I’ve been secular my whole life, and glad about it. Feels like I dodged a bullet sometimes. How does one manage this? Are you currently on medication? It sounds like a good sign though, that you are aware that whatever you’re seeing are dellusions… if you do get to talk to the big guy (and yes, if there’s a god, he’s definitely a man), please ask him why everything is so fucked up?
well, I rarely see them, if that’s any comfort. I don’t think my brain has the budget, TBH. Phantom noises, always money for that, that’s cheap apparently. Phantom sensations? Sure, even smells it can manage sometimes, but sights? very rare for my brain to manage a visual hallucination. I can’t think of many.
It’s far easier for it to justify me looking the other way.
anyway, I’m on and off talking to him…. if he’s there to be talked to. I talk to machines I’m repairing so talking to things that don’t respond isn’t that out of character… but still, he’s different. You’d think it’d matter, saying something to him. I just, in so many years of having done it, I can’t tell if it ever did.
and I just had hoped things would look better at this point. As a species, a country, family, and personally, just at every level we’re underperforming.
Can’t help but feel some guilt. I mean, if my personal unit wasn’t part of the trend….. at least we could say we weren’t part of the problem, you know? Someone must still be overperforming, surely? Life can’t be in decline across the board, that’d be totally insane?
The only constant you can say about life is that it isn’t static. So I’m inclined to believe that, no, it’s not in decline across the board. Someone, somewhere, is overpeforming, it’s just hard to see in the moment.
Its also a matter of perspective… what looks like progress to me might be the opposite to others. I’m relieved that the recent British election indicates that the Brits have finally decided to do something about a toxic and inept government. But, many would disagree with me.
That’s the only thing that comes to mind that I can feel positive about. Slim pickings, to be sure….