When did you find a passion?

[Maou]

Number 4 actually relates to certain things you have said regarding channelling people, contemplating the simulation theory, and so on. I think you are one I would call a spiritual person. You seem to embrace the increasing levels of abstraction.

I do consider myself pretty spiritual, which might sound weird to some people. Ive always been drawn to the occult type things, and its probably why I ended up here lol.

 

[Firebird 8118]

I do consider myself pretty spiritual, which might sound weird to some people. Ive always been drawn to the occult type things, and its probably why I ended up here lol.

Doesn't sound weird to me then again I found myself joining a pagan coven for some time in my late teens which all started from a wish to protect my mom from my evil paternal grandparents, so...

Anyway, I still find it an interesting subject - I personally feel there lies a strong connection (or at least a certain overlap) between the occult/paganism and spirituality as we know it today.

 

[Maou]

Doesn't sound weird to me then again I found myself joining a pagan coven for some time in my late teens which all started from a wish to protect my mom from my evil paternal grandparents, so...

Anyway, I still find it an interesting subject - I personally feel there lies a strong connection (or at least a certain overlap) between the occult/paganism and spirituality as we know it today.

Oh yeah, I think people are inherently attracted to spiritualism outside of their culture because it still has a sense of mysticism. I converted religions a few times, because I seen them as useful ways of getting your mind into a specific state. I think spirituality is like, a way for you to reconcile and feel at peace with how the world actually is. To also take a step back and observe yourself, in a natural state. As well as guide you into a specific one that is suppose to make you feel at peace. One of the reasons I was so fascinated with Buddhism lite, was it coincided with a lot of what I already believed.

 

[Totenkindly]

At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.

Also related questions:
- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?
- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?
- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?
- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

(provide an approximate age for these things where possible)

My problem was always that my interests changed too much, and it was hard for me to become highly specialized in one area. Maybe "change" is a wrong word, because I still care about everything I cared about on some level, just that what I feel the most intensity towards changes.

Passion for reading - 3. This lasted probably until I was 35 or so.

Passion for music (performing/creating)- 8. This lasted through my childhood, was really intense from 16-40 or so.

Passion for film (actual passion and interesting in how films are made, film review, etc) -- Probably started at 35-40 and is ongoing, although ebbing.

Passion for writing (fiction, journalling) -- started when I was 14, carried on through about 40. I still like to write, but it's been on an ebb.

Passion for art (drawing/photoshop) -- I liked drawing superhero and fantasy things as a teenager. I started cartooning in my late 20's and did that for about 8-10 years.

Of course I have subject matter interests over the course of my life -- mythology, the Bible, dinosaurs, psychology, physics, archaeology, ancient cultures, film/cartoons, horror books and films, science fiction and fantasy, animated film, comic books and graphic novels, hiking, mountain climbing, pizza making. For a long time I had a lot of books on a lot of varied topics.

- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?

I grew up in an alcoholic family with all the expected flaws of that. I wouldn't say "opposite" traits, more just accentuating traits that I already had a bit, to make them much more severe. I think the worst as I entered adulthood was feeling like I had smother the intuitive and logical/critical parts of myself to fit in with religious gatherings and people. The most radical changes were when I was around 35-40 when I left that environment and embarked on a new journey of self, and there were elements of my personality coming out that I did not know existed.

- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?
I always wanted to be great at something. For most of my early life, it was being a professional writer and professional musician. I never got there mostly because (1)i I wasn't great at developing the contacts necessary to open doors and (2) I was too flexy when I should have been more persistent in the face of failure, and (3) I wasn't very disciplined, enough to have a "boring" but productive routine down that would have prevented me from being diverted into the pressing needs around me. I think one of my largest disappointments now is feeling like I have contributed very little to humanity, although I have helped some specific individuals across the course of my life. I feel like my time was mostly wasted and I have little energy to do more at this point.

- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?

In some ways I feel less spiritual now. Most of my intensity of spiritual experience came in the first few decades of my life. But my spiritual beliefs changed. I feel both more embracing while also more tangible nowadays, it's an odd dichotomy. (like, less about heady experiences but just meeting life in the daily grind... which feels far less transcendent from a spiritual POV, but at the same time I am more open to other perspectives and ways of life.)

- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

I dunno. I think what I feel is disappointment on some level. Reality for most people is merely based on wants and perceptions versus reality itself. And does reality even have a point that we don't bring to it ourselves?

 

[Polaris]

At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.

I don't know that I've ever found something I could truly say I've felt consistently passionate about for any great length of time. I have had a number of interests, though, throughout my life. I started taking them seriously at about the age of 18, starting with writing. With writing, I went rather abruptly from being a dabbler in the craft to someone who would spend hours a day hammering out the details of my future novels. I did recently start writing one of them and publishing it online, but the early chapters have received little attention, I'm not happy with some of them, and I find the writing process tedious, so I'm not sure when I'm going to finish what I started. It's a shame, because I have some really brilliant story ideas waiting to be committed to the page. The other major hobby that I've taken seriously and devoted a lot of my time to is music composition. I started doing that a little less than a decade ago, and it has obsessed me like nothing else. The process of putting notes on the screen and then listening to what I've produced is very satisfying to me. What makes it so satisfying is the level of rich and immediate feedback that listening to something I've composed gives me, as well as the capacity a piece of music has to remain fresh and new-feeling even if you yourself have created it and listened to it several times.

- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?

No.

- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?

Not really before I reached adulthood, no.

- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?

Going to the hospital for bipolar a few times changed me quite a bit in some ways. I became a better person, because I realized that a clear conscience is one of the few comforts one can secure in life. I also became considerably more spiritual, due to several events that are best explained in a spiritual fashion rather than by aliens or wild coincidence.

- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

I have knowledge about reality that I didn't have in the past, and this knowledge paints a deeper picture than any I have ever entertained up until this point.

 

[Firebird 8118]

Oh yeah, I think people are inherently attracted to spiritualism outside of their culture because it still has a sense of mysticism. I converted religions a few times, because I seen them as useful ways of getting your mind into a specific state. I think spirituality is like, a way for you to reconcile and feel at peace with how the world actually is. To also take a step back and observe yourself, in a natural state. As well as guide you into a specific one that is suppose to make you feel at peace. One of the reasons I was so fascinated with Buddhism lite, was it coincided with a lot of what I already believed.

True, I agree with you there. Buddhism is also a beautiful philosophy and way of life, so you can never go wrong believing in it.

I jumped around a bit in the past - hmm, 10-11 years? - before coming back to Hinduism in the end, albeit with a new perspective colored by recent experiences. It's painfully frustrating to see so many misconceptions surrounding Hinduism still thriving today, and I hope to someday enlighten others on the truth behind all the myths.

 

[Morpeko]

At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.

I've found around three passions in my life. One was last May, one was two years ago, and the third was when I was twelve years old.

- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?

No, my horrible personality has been pretty consistent through the years. Any shifts in personality I have are never anywhere near the "opposite" to any traits I've ever had.

- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?

Yes, I've always felt that way, and I still feel it right now. But now I know that it is impossible for me to be great in anything.

- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?

No. I'm basically the same person I always was, although I think I'm definitely more self-aware. However, I am becoming less and less spiritual as I become older. As I see more of this world, the less spiritual I am compelled to be.

- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

I think that I am getting wiser as I experience life more and more, but I am nowhere near deep into understanding reality. I will never understand why the world is what it is and why people are the way they are.

 

[GoggleGirl17]

I've come to terms with something about myself, which is that I get bored too quickly to become invested in any one thing long enough to be able call it my passion. However, I love the feeling of exhilaration I get from seeing beautiful new sights in nature (like when you climb a mountain and take in the vast view from the top), so I like to think of travel as my passion, which complements my desire for "new" very well. I might be able to combine this with an activity like photography in the future, but I'm also ok with just absorbing the experience independently.

 

[Sacrophagus]

At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.

Also related questions:
- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?
- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?
- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?
- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

(provide an approximate age for these things where possible)

I don't think I've really found a passion. Most of I do, including fields of mastery, have a fragrance of utility in them. I do love what I do, but I don't think I'm passionate about them since I'm pretty calculating, bold, and cold. What I want to brave does not mean it is something I long for, but pushing my limits is a recurrent theme in what I do.


- Was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?


This question is very vague. Other than the changes that come with puberty including an increasing interest in women, I really can't think of anything else. As a kid, I was shy, puberty comes and I want to mate. No substantial personality traits
have been altered.

Was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?


Always. Growth is my impetus in life, so yes.

Was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?


Yes. I think elements of my core being are more protruding now.
Spiritual mindset? That depends on what you mean by a spiritual mindset. I believe in God/Allah, however.


Do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

The more you understand about life, the more you realize that you know nothing. Our understanding is superficial, prone to subjective interpretation, and the true makings of life are above our wisdom. Only hubris says we know.

 

[Neal Caffreynated]

At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.

I think I was twelve, walking in a garden on a sunny day when I saw sth on a bench which told me its name was Passion. Thus here's the story of how I found a passion

Joking aside I think the interest that persisted for the longest time in my life is art and painting, even if I got many other interests. I must have been like four or five when I went to a museum for the first time, and I started drawing and painting around the same time. I'm 24 now so it's been like twenty years since I've been into art.

- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?

I don't think so, I don't remember. I didn't change that much over the years I guess lol

- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?

I've got really smart older brother and sister so yeah, I had the motivation to excel in things like they did. They were more into computers/music, I got into painting. Like I said I haven't changed so much in my way of thinking so I always wanted to be the best at what I'd do and the smartest person in the room.

- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?

I was maybe less down to earth and logical when I was younger (like in middle/high school), with time and experience I became more cool-headed

- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?

I see reality differently, in the way that I came to realize nothing in life is really written and settled and how sometimes it's more about perception than real facts. Reality is what you makes of it in a way. Its because I've grown up and got more experience, before that I lived in the moment and as a kid it was more difficult to color outside the lines.

 

[Tanker64B]

I didn't find a passion, it just appeared in my life as soon as I could read and think a little bit for myself.