And this is why I fear Cthulhu

Lovecraft Mythos - Cosmic Horror @lemmy.world

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I wanna be where the Old Gods are.
I wanna see, wanna see them writhing.
Tearing souls apart with, what do you call 'em? Teeth?
- Up where they watch, us tiny ants
  We cannot comprehend their plans
  I want to be, I want to see
  Ṕ̵̨̹͙̮̯̜̙̹͚̈͑͗́̉͊̋̊̉͗̕͘ā̵͇̩̟̲̬̼͔̹͇̥̱̪̭̲̈́̐͒͂̂͌͂̔ͅȑ̴̨̛̞̪̰̟̠̠̓̈́̀͜͜ͅt̵̝̘̙̪̖̱̰̘̦̜͕̖͎̿̃̃͊̐ͅ ̴̧̢̛̲̤̭̟̲͉͚͖͔͍̞̭̀̽̿̎̇̐͗̀͘͠ọ̴̡͉̻̹̍̀͋̌̃̈͋̈́͘͝f̸̡̢͔̰̹̟̔̇̈́͑͆̿͝ͅ ̵̛̘̒̅̆͐̌͂́̓̕̕ͅt̶̨̿̏́̿̑̍h̷̨̛̞̤͖͙͚̗͉̳͒̈́̂̀̽a̷͈͙̱̗͂̌̽͗̕t̸͕̝̫͚̝͓͎̳͙̟̰̠̅̑̆̽̏̃̍̓̈͆͘̚͘͝ ̸̢̧̫̤̤̯̠̗̻̩̬͉̠͉͘w̷̡͍͖̪̄̍̈́́̾͆o̸̧̪͍̮͉̟̲̜̟̎ͅr̴̡̪̞̳̣͖̺͓̣͆͛̆͂̓̈̌͝l̷̠͎̣̼̥͖̫̣̔̍̽̓̉̀̀͆̎̉̽͘͠d̸̢̛̥̭̮̜̪̼͚̟̦͗́̇͌͆̓̏̏͝͝
  
  One of my greatest fears is that there is a fourth dimension of space where they are watching us, only inches away. Waiting.

Putting aside for the moment the fact that psychedelics are essentially just causing your brain to [temporarily] malfunction, this description eerily resembles the post-trip phase of psychedelics. You come back from essentially getting your blindfolds taken from you, seeing the world in ways that make sense only during the psychedelic trip, and even then it's all overwhelming, only to come back and question just about EVERYTHING about reality. It's been 3 years and I'm still going down the quantum physics/cosmology rabbit hole (as well as the philosophy and metaphysics rabbit holes, thanks exurb1a), all due to a strong bad LSD trip. It's beautiful, it's expanded my knowledge of things, but it is, indeed, very much like madness.
- Psychedelics definitely aren't causing your brain to malfunction. If anything, most of the research around neuroplasticity and using psychedelics for traumatic brain injuries and dementia and such show that they seemingly kick your brain into an overdrive mode where it is able to form connections at a much higher rate than normal.
  
  Taken in measured, clinically understood doses, sure. Taken to meet Vishnu, I assure you, none of what your brain experiences is normal function. Not to say they cause damage, but your brain definitely operates way out of spec for a while there.
  
  I mean, they kind of are...
  LSD especially "breaks" pattern recognition and so does mushrooms to a lesser extent.
  That's why faces can freak people out, especially your own. Very very few people have faces that are perfectly symmetrical, and our brains do a lot of subconscious processing to make them symmetrical. That's why symmetrical faces are enjoyable to look at. They're literally "easy to look at".
  On LSD and mushrooms, that just stops happening.
  It's why people gain insight from psychedelics, their "autopilot" stops functioning. It might not seem like a malfunctioning brain because that's the entire reason people choose to do those drugs. But it's still making the brain malfunction
- I've experienced LSD a few times and Mushrooms once. They are subtly different but I like to lean into the difficulty of the experience (when or if it starts to go that way). I feel like I'm being taught something important and doing so has been beneficial. To me it feels like a death and rebirth experience. I'm not foolish enough to think it's the answer to my problems, but boy does it ever shine a light on things! For me, they bring me back to being a kid, experiencing everything with wonder and curiosity. It's a breath of fresh air because I spent my young adult life trying to "grow up" by trying to fit into everyone else's expectation if what adult means. It made me realize I am individual as well as connected to the human race and I should enjoy and embrace that.
  
  Honestly, even bad trips are good trips. The trip I reference in my post (500ug LSD + cannabis during the peak for added mindfuckery) was, by all means, a bad trip that left me with PTSD and on at least one occasion I had a panic attack during a work call, where reality felt a bit too much. Not something I enjoyed, but even then I could appreciate that it had changed me for the better. I got a lot of my shit together after that trip and I appreciate life a lot more than I used to. I was fat, single (and had been all 28 years of my life), had no aim in life, had no hobbies, no appreciation for leaving my room at all or interacting with people in real life. Today I proposed to my girlfriend of two years, I do photography as a hobby and actively try to go out and appreciate the world around me, reached my target body weight, vastly increased my social life, and I am paving the road to a life I desire to live. Not everything is perfect, and maybe I am attributing too much to the trip and not enough to simple aging and maturing through that time, but there was a stark before and after for me. As far as I'm concerned it's been the most positively life changing event in my life that I absolutely cannot recommend anyone in my life to ever try.
  
  The ego death many experience can really teach us a lot. The self replicating machine elves found by doing DMT offer a totally different perspective too.
- Incorrect, it's not a malfunction, it's your thought process in overdrive. You're thinking so fast and so clearly that your brain literally can't keep up. You have overclocked yourself.
- Ayyyyy, exurb1a fans rejoice!
  
  I used to love his video's too, too bad I can't enjoy them anymore, knowing he's a rapist.

Fiction aside, you can learn how to resist this sort of madness.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pieces-mind/201207/radical-acceptance
This isn't just a defence against the eldritch, radical acceptance is a paradigm that will let you move past being a victim of circumstances, it will allow you to transition yourself into a person that dictates your circumstances.
- You couldn't have known it, but this is exactly the article I needed to read right now. Thank you.
- And, like all things, it's a question of wise measure. Too much radical acceptance can bring you in the vicinity of dangerous fatalism. And like fatalism, it's a tool, right, and an important one. Mind the dosage, though.
- See funny enough acceptance has just made me casually suicidal and uninterested in participating in the grander world because of it's bullshit. I'm not directly suicidal just completely done with self interests or dealing with others so... You know... Be careful if what your normalize and how you feel about things.
  
  You can't accept what hasn't happened yet. You could do something about circumstances to position yourself for the future.

This is the Cthulhu post I can't stop thinking about
https://img.ifunny.co/images/e2b6d159130c074adda63fe1ee4e7c2efd6a297ff6c9b5d5429843121c5bb116_1.jpg
So good.
- Pro tip: in lemmy you can embed an image in your comment by using the following markup syntax:
  ![](www.blabla.com/link_to_imag.png)
  
  Oh! Like markup! Which is obvious in hindsight!

Imagine a commoner from the Roman Empire waking up in a Tokyo Mall for a couple hours... and then going back and trying to explain his adventures...
- There was an anime based on that concept, Thermae Romae I think.
  
  I enjoyed that show a lot. Even if you're not into public bath houses (me), you might have a very enjoyable watch.

The problem is that there's only so much of that which can be expressed, the only way to experience the latter part is if that madness drove the experiencer to becoming your story's or game's antagonist force tearing their world apart trying to recreate the conditions they think will take them back to that higher world of alien understanding.
- Congratulations, you reinvented the Faust saga. Faust was given not just a brief moment but several years of understanding before the devil would claim his soul but narratively speaking that's not a bad idea, gives our protagonist (not every protagonist needs to be a hero) plenty of time to fuck up. Goethe gave the whole thing a happy end, quite non-standard actually.
  
  No I meant antagonist because the best way to actually give perspective to this madness is to see it from the outside. It's a prospect that inherently defies the ability of humanity to understand, so don't try to, make our protagonist a secondary actor who enters the story where some raving mad lunatic has already torn through screaming about the flipping towers of lightning or words who's writings encompass the universe or having witnessed and moved the hands of a god.
  Leave the incomprehensible for a perspective we don't need to fully comprehend to be able to interact with it.
- I seen a similar explanation that would work quite well for a game. It was a 2D world and the knowledge was seeing it in 3D. Combined with your description would definitely be able to be translated into a game.
  
  Super Paper Mario
  
  Flatland: The Video Game!
  
  Fez made me quite mad ngl.
  
  Do you mean something like this?
- So, basically the plot of Star Trek Generations?

That's why I like shrooms, god I hope the afterlife is just that.. forever...
- I'd like a nice phasing between shrooms, lsd and DMT while being fellated for eternity thanks
  
  I just want to evolve beyond humanity

The ant trying to tell other ants about the incomprehensible world beyond sounds a lot like the allegory of the cave.
- Or like trying to explain something to someone who’s sober while you’re tripping on psychedelics

This reminds me of Taravangian from the Stormlight Archives. He experiences exactly this, a few hours of clarity when he understands everything... and then it is gone. Those few hours determine his actions for decades.

This is why I like to visit the internet.

The Rats of NIMH live on the edge of madness, it would seem.
- what a pleasant children's novel

Like in Life Of Brian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slSb72vwaBc&t=0m27s

As someone who experiences audio and visual hallucinations due to a sleep condition there are days when it feels like Cthulhu could show up at any time and I would ask him if he wants to get lunch.

ok platon

Madness? This is Sparta.

especially since ants can't see

You needn't worry, it's a fictional character from a book.

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