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[Ne] See Through the Eyes of an Enthusiastic Dreamer

Dreamer

Potential is My Addiction
Joined
Jul 26, 2015
Messages
4,539
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
794
This is going to be my interpretation of Ne and how it applies to the often, well frankly, overused term "possibilities" in online descriptions of this function. It's just one of those things that irks me when describing Ne since I do agree with it, but it really sort of dumbs down the process to such a simple word. As we are all individuals, and thus, no doubt have very personal uses of each of our functions, this may not apply to all Ne users, but nevertheless, this is how I see the world each and every day, and I would like to take you all on a brief trip in my mind and allow you to walk in my shoes.

To begin, I experience the world in the way I am about to tell you, most easily and apparent when I am surrounded by nature, but I also experience it in the middle of a large urban center. It just takes on a different form, a different flavor.

When I walk out onto a beach at night, look up at the night sky with stars filled throughout my peripheral vision, I see a vast array of wonderment. A physical realization that I am indeed a part of something greater. My being is one with the cosmos. I can feel that everything is tied together, even if I don't yet understand it. I can feel that there are relationships between each and everything, even if I haven't yet discovered them. To me, Ne is a very humbling experience because unlike Ni, where one steps back and sees the situation as an observer or third party to the system, I see the system surrounding me, and as one with me. I am neither above or below this framework, but merely a cog in its workings. This may sound like a personal spiritual experience, and I can't say that it might not have at least a tinge of that, but it's not spiritual in the sense that this experience is directly relating to a God or religion, but spiritual in a sense that what you experience, what I experience, day to day, is something unknown, but at the same time, a comforting experience.

I used to feel I experience Se, possibly being an ESFP, but after discussing this personal experience and other modes of thought I experience, with people in the past, I have come to acknowledge this as my understanding Ne with Si. I am not experiencing the world as it is, but instead, seeing it through this lens, this "fog" so to speak, awash with layered perceptions and understandings of things. This is not something I can so easily "turn off" either. In fact, it's rather difficult. In a sense, what I see is not the object itself, but something in relation to the greater context of its surroundings and of its being. Each object, each experience to me, belongs to this greater framework of mine, and therefore, are all interconnected through relationships of shared understanding. Ne is about getting to the essence of something, getting down to the core of what something is, and seeing how it aligns with other "essences". What that leads to, is where we finally arrive to that popular word "possibilities". When I create new things, new approaches, new abstractions, I am doing this by seeing objects of similar or like-minded essences, or rather aligning them, since in my mind, I am not actually forming new entities, but rather categorizing shared essences. I am not seeing them as factual objects, but rather, looking through them, and playing with these elements and juggling them in my mind as I work with them and tinker about, coming to uniquely new relationships. Further, there is never any end game with me. I am not bringing things together towards a defined vision, but playing with things, the moving on, playing with things, then moving on. It's a never-ending process that leaves my mind more stimulated and feeling alive.

Now, how exactly, is Ne a humbling experience to me? Because to me, Ne allows me to experience our world in a vastly exciting way, through a particular scope that feels individual to my experience, but at the same time, not of my creation. It is as though I am merely a conduit, a messenger, to then relay that understanding and meaning to those around me. I feel with Ni, you are approaching things and coming to conclusions in a way that feels more like you are the sole architect of that creation, whereas what I experience, feels much more akin to a young child discovering something new and magical for the first time.

That often described ENFP enthusiasm, excitement, and idealism, comes straight from my personal experience of the world. None of it is exaggerated nor heightened. If I tell someone how amazing something is to me or how beautiful a sunset was, it is only because I experience the world with this level of intensity, and cannot contain that enthusiasm.

So with that, Ne is indeed, about finding new discoveries and making new connections through discovering those underlying relationships between objects, concepts, and ideas, but what I feel the word possibilities fails to do, is to express just how expansive and wondrous this world really is to an Ne user.
 
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