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Ni users, have you ever had an existential crisis?

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
19,769
Truth to be told I am not sure that I ever had anything except existencial crisis in my life. However I don't feel bad about it.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
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Jan 15, 2009
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6,180
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INTJ
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5w6
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sp/so
Well that one is obvious. It is just I was/am wondering if there is s deeper point behind his words.
No, he just likes stating what functions you use when you use them. He always does this if you've ever read any of his other posts.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
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Ya know, the kind where you think to yourself "Why am I here? I can't really come up with a rationale for the continuation of my existence, so why does my life continue?" Do you feel like you are minutiae on the grand scheme of things? Like the Earth is just a speck of dust in the universe's elaborate lasagna dish, and anything having to do with you or the rest of its inhabitants doesn't ultimately affect the rich, bold flavor...

I was having a conversation with an INTJ friend of mine the other day, and he seemed to exhibit this kind of philosophy. It seems rather depressing to me, and it's not really something that I can analyze too much on my own, as I use microNi, if that. I can, however, begin to fathom it once it's explained to me. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you Ni users empathize with the above in any way.

I don't just mean Ni-dom/aux people either, k?
There are 2 ways to look at reasons when it comes to stuff like this. You can either look at the factual reason or the philosophical reason.
For example: A plate falls off your hand. You can either say it fell off due to the pressure of the wind blowing away at your hand causing you to drop the plate. Or you can say why did such an event happen. For what reason did that whole ordeal happen?

I guess the latter is what we are looking at.

I've come up with an explanation. If we look at our thoughts and dreams as an inner world than we can observe things from there. We are in the 3rd dimension whereas our past and future events are in the 4th dimension. Our thoughts and dreams would be in the 5th dimension. So we are a core of the 3rd dimension to the 5th dimension. So, (calling the 5th dimension the inner world) we are in the middle of what is this world and the inner world. So every human being would be a bridge between their inner and the outer world.
If we look at the 4th dimension the future and the past are one. Therefore what has yet to happen and what has happened is happening. We are but the object of the happening. If we never existed would there be anything happening?

What if absolutely nothing living ever existed? Would there be a future or past? What would time be? Nothing is there to perceive time or physical objects therefore time and physical objects would probably not exist.
So we are in the middle of things.

Pretend no one existed except for you. Then you would be the only one the objects have left to perceive therefore you would be the only one that made these objects exist.
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
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sx/so
I'm Ni-dominant, and of that i'm more certain than about these four-letter codes or numbers.
I've been thinking about existential things for a long time, and in truth I do feel quite insignificant.

Places in the universe with matter so dense that a teaspoon full of it is heavier than our solar system?
Dark matter? Supermassive black holes? Supernovas?
Somehow it seems we're just a fluke in this chaos, without apparent purpose.

I wonder if we can create a purpose? Or if we're just like a viral infection, polluting and destroying our planet.
Maybe changing mentality and ways, and getting off this rock to achieve a galactic civilization is our long-term goal?

The world needs cooperation, the ideal communist society. We're not there biologically or mentally speaking, but we can strive.
Imagine building huge ships and space stations without any actual material costs because there are no private enterprises, no countries etc?
Anything would be possible.
That is probably one of our evolutionary goals.

Ya know, the kind where you think to yourself "Why am I here? I can't really come up with a rationale for the continuation of my existence, so why does my life continue?" Do you feel like you are minutiae on the grand scheme of things? Like the Earth is just a speck of dust in the universe's elaborate lasagna dish, and anything having to do with you or the rest of its inhabitants doesn't ultimately affect the rich, bold flavor...

I was having a conversation with an INTJ friend of mine the other day, and he seemed to exhibit this kind of philosophy. It seems rather depressing to me, and it's not really something that I can analyze too much on my own, as I use microNi, if that. I can, however, begin to fathom it once it's explained to me. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you Ni users empathize with the above in any way.

I don't just mean Ni-dom/aux people either, k?
 

JustHer

Pumpernickel
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
1,954
MBTI Type
ENTJ
I've pretty much always realized how insignificant everything is and I always have that thought somewhere in my mind. It's probably why I'm always so skeptical of people who have really strong opinions or values.

It doesn't bother me though, Te and Se don't search for meaning or truth.
 

bcvcdc

Permabanned
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
215
MBTI Type
INTx
I've pretty much always realized how insignificant everything is and I always have that thought somewhere in my mind.

Yeah, we're all insignificant and there really is no practical meaning to the lives we pretend to live. And this, I feel, is why the Epicurians were/are Epicurians.
 

The Outsider

New member
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Feb 3, 2009
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intp
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I've pretty much always realized how insignificant everything is and I always have that thought somewhere in my mind. It's probably why I'm always so skeptical of people who have really strong opinions or values.

This.
 

BlackCat

Shaman
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Nov 19, 2008
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ESFP
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I've pretty much always realized how insignificant everything is and I always have that thought somewhere in my mind. It's probably why I'm always so skeptical of people who have really strong opinions or values.

The insignificance thing comes in random bouts for me, and it almost always freaks me out when I think about it. :)
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
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25,183
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ISFP
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sx
Ya know, the kind where you think to yourself "Why am I here? I can't really come up with a rationale for the continuation of my existence, so why does my life continue?" Do you feel like you are minutiae on the grand scheme of things? Like the Earth is just a speck of dust in the universe's elaborate lasagna dish, and anything having to do with you or the rest of its inhabitants doesn't ultimately affect the rich, bold flavor...

I was having a conversation with an INTJ friend of mine the other day, and he seemed to exhibit this kind of philosophy. It seems rather depressing to me, and it's not really something that I can analyze too much on my own, as I use microNi, if that. I can, however, begin to fathom it once it's explained to me. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you Ni users empathize with the above in any way.

I don't just mean Ni-dom/aux people either, k?

I'm not sure that this is an Ni thing - I went through a phase where I was not only completely atheist, but also completely existentialist and I was overwhelmed with the meaninglessness of everything (outside of the meaning we ourselves assign to it, and agree upon). While initially freeing, it eventually made me feel very depressed. That was certainly a crisis. I was living and thinking so far outside of the box that I was afraid that I would wake up one day and be a giant Kafka-esque cockroach. ;)

I still think that lots of things are arbitrarily meaningful or meaningless, and in fact last year I chose to write my final paper for my World Lit class on Albert Camus' The Stranger.

I think having spiritual beliefs protects me from having an existentialist crisis now. But I think enough to sometimes wonder if my spiritual beliefs are a protective measure to keep myself from becoming completely nihilistic. Usually, though, I'm fairly certain that something is there.
 

cascadeco

New member
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Oct 7, 2007
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9,083
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INFJ
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I've pretty much always realized how insignificant everything is and I always have that thought somewhere in my mind.

Yeah, pretty much.

I had a massive existential crisis when I was 24-26, and it took me a long while to work myself out of it. Since then I have little bubbles on occasion, and I know I'll have future bubbles, but I *think* what I concluded after those couple of years keeps me from obsessing, caring, and really getting upset over the fact as much anymore. It just is. I'm actually kind of at peace with it. Moving on.... ;)
 
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