[INFJ] INFJs and feeling drawn to the otherworldly

[Lightyear]

I was wondering how far other INFJs and other types can relate to feeling drawn to the otherworldly.

I don't have any of the visions we INFJs are supposed to have and I am too sceptical to be new-agey hippy dippy but I have always felt drawn to what is unseen and mysterious. My brain is like a radio station that is constantly tuned into "what lies beyond", that is my natural state even though (often out of necessity) I can be very practical and decisive too.

I am not sure how much others can relate to this but for example Thomas Newman's soundtracks have an otherworldly atmosphere to them that make me feel like I am finally at home, like I can finally breathe out and be myself. (Revolutionary Road: YouTube - Revolutionary Road End Title - Thomas Newman American Beauty: YouTube - American Beauty Theme)

I find it really hard to put these things into words or even to just talk to other people about them since especially S types seem unable to understand what I am talking about. Or am I underestimating them?

What are you other INFJs thinking about that? And you other types?

 

[violaine]

I have always been drawn to the hidden and mysterious. It is very difficult to put into words other than that I feel like my focus is automatically on the subtext running like an underground river through something. It feels effortless and very satisfying to be able to focus on hidden complexity. I love turning things over in my mind and following my instincts towards the hidden or deeper meaning.

 

[Kyrielle]

Yes. (That's all I have to say on the subject at the moment.)

Now, from that notion, what could drive us mad is finding something that is so simple that there is nothing more about it than what it is.

 

[violaine]

Now, from that notion, what could drive us mad is finding something that is so simple that there is nothing more about it than what it is.

QFT!

When I was younger (like 14 or so) I would get really tripped up by this. A silly example is that I would so often take the more obscure meaning of a word used in conversation if a word had several meanings. Then find something quite profound in what someone was saying or totally vague out trying to think wth they could mean... lol.

 

[PuddleRiver]

I, too, have always been drawn to the strange and unusual. I can't articulate it for the life of me, nor am I sure that I would want to be able to (it can get pretty weird). People get all funky lookin' on me. But yes, pretty much what's been said I can agree with.

 

[EcK]

Otherworldly?
Yeah, astronomy is pretty cool

all the pretty stars!!

 

[BlackCat]

Yes I do feel drawn to it. I am a Wiccan and new agey person.

 

[StoryOfMyLife]

I'm drawn to all things 'otherworldly' or...paranormal or mythical. Sometimes I even feel as though I'm walking through a haze, like I'm not myself and suddenly nothing makes any sense at all. And on occasion, people stop looking like people and my brain decides that we are all pixelated computer game characters [because it's amazing how the Sims have a likeness to real people sometimes...]. I believe in aliens and the Loch Ness Monster [I want to prove Nessie exists!] and my dreams can be so real that I don't know what is reality and what is fabricated in the first few moments after waking up.

Maybe it's just an overactive imagination...

 

[tibby]

Yea. I feel very comfortable with symbols and metaphors... They're not really "otherwordly", but just, unseen, tied to everything. Like peace of music, a photograph, a painting etc.

 

[INFJ*]

Yes, agreed on everything in the original thread.

You may like this

 

[Lightyear]

Now, from that notion, what could drive us mad is finding something that is so simple that there is nothing more about it than what it is.

So true. If I can figure something or someone out within a few minutes I am bored and start looking for something more interesting. No challenge there.

 

[Werewolfen]

To Lightyear, I have similar feelings, they were off the chart intense when I was growing up as a kid but have weakened greatly since I have been grown. Things such as hearing the phone ring a minute or two before it would actually ring or hearing a knock at the door minutes before it would happen, or thinking of a particular odd word then hearing someone say that exact word just minutes later, stuff like this happened to me very often when I was a kid, I used to have bad dreams when I was young too, the most powerful thing I will always remember is jumping up in my dad's lap in my granny's kitchen when I was 5 yrs old and telling him "your gonna die soon" , one week later he was killed in a wreck...I didn't know how or when I just knew it was going to happen soon.

I like instrumental background music , the American Beauty Theme is a good one, I like the Dances with Wolves theme > YouTube - Dances with Wolves Soundtrack

I know that feeling of being like a radio station and staying constantly tuned in a natural state, paranormal stuff can be interesting. I don't believe in aliens,bigfoot, or other tabloid type stuff. As far as dreams go, I've had and continue to have really lucid dreams, when I was younger like 5-to-9 yrs old I had really bad nightmares but from then on really weird dreams. I've always been able to see patterns and angles in people, especially picking up on what moves them. You say these things are hard to put into words...they are.

 

[iwakar]

To Lightyear, I have similar feelings, they were off the chart intense when I was growing up as a kid but have weakened greatly since I have been grown. Things such as hearing the phone ring a minute or two before it would actually ring or hearing a knock at the door minutes before it would happen, or thinking of a particular odd word then hearing someone say that exact word just minutes later, stuff like this happened to me very often when I was a kid, I used to have bad dreams when I was young too, the most powerful thing I will always remember is jumping up in my dad's lap in my granny's kitchen when I was 5 yrs old and telling him "your gonna die soon" , one week later he was killed in a wreck...I didn't know how or when I just knew it was going to happen soon.

I like instrumental background music , the American Beauty Theme is a good one, I like the Dances with Wolves theme > YouTube - Dances with Wolves Soundtrack

I know that feeling of being like a radio station and staying constantly tuned in a natural state, paranormal stuff can be interesting. I don't believe in aliens,bigfoot, or other tabloid type stuff. As far as dreams go, I've had and continue to have really lucid dreams, when I was younger like 5-to-9 yrs old I had really bad nightmares but from then on really weird dreams. I've always been able to see patterns and angles in people, especially picking up on what moves them. You say these things are hard to put into words...they are.

Holy lord, yes. My dreams put LSD users to shame. I had a dream once that was so incredible, I've decided to get a tattoo of it at some point --if I can find an artist to do it justice. I still have nightmares though, terrifying ones, and usually under stress.

Definitely experienced a LOT of déjà vu in my youth, still happens from time to time. Anyone else experienced repeated déjà vu of the same event before? Also have dreams about things that are about to happen. Not big things, not world events. Small things like day to day interactions, then presto! they happen. It still surprises me into silence occasionally. I also catch myself guessing at people's next words, sentences, and the like.

As for paranormal experiences, I had some strange moments in my old house. As to whether it had anything to do with my uncle who killed himself in our garage, or the elderly couple that had died in it before we moved in, I could never guess.

 

[dga]

Holy lord, yes. My dreams put LSD users to shame. I had a dream once that was so incredible, I've decided to get a tattoo of it at some point --if I can find an artist to do it justice. I still have nightmares though, terrifying ones, and usually under stress.

As an lsd aficionado, most of my experiences have not actually been particularly visual in any clichéd sense. Most have been more cerebral. There have been a few which I am sure would be very difficult for dreams to compete with, however.

 

[Cirrus]

Definitely!

I've always been attracted to abstract, otherworldly things! I'm a very New Agey person, we seem to be a common type among New Agers!

I'm also interested in things that are not really the norm, and things people are often sceptical about - astrology and chiromancy/palmistry. Although I'm agnostic, I find religion very interesting. I have very strange views on how we were all created, I'm sure there's some sort of Pagan or Buddhist form my beliefs are similar to.

I wish I could write down just how much I am 'drawn to the otherworldly', I'd like to get across just what I'm like. XD Perhaps other INFJs will understand.

Holy lord, yes. My dreams put LSD users to shame. I had a dream once that was so incredible, I've decided to get a tattoo of it at some point --if I can find an artist to do it justice. I still have nightmares though, terrifying ones, and usually under stress.

Heh, totally get what you're talking about here. My dreams are so totally different to anybody else's dreams it's quite weird...

Usually when I'm very relaxed in a certain week, I'll have a dream each night that's usually so complex and intricate that you could comfortably write a story about it. I want to in the future. People say they 'dream of people they know', or 'dream they're falling' or usual boring stuff, and I've always had dreams so completely different.

So hard to explain!

 

[Sniffles]

I certainly am drawn to the hidden and mysterious, but I wouldn't necessarily call myself otherworldly even though I do have a sense of belonging to another world. When I often hear the term "otherworldly" used, I often imagine something along the lines of the Gnostic notion of this world being evil and that one should try to escape it(through meditation and ultimately death). In other words, a concern for the next world at the expense for this one.

I don't adhere to that. I certainly reject worldliness, which only concerns itself with this world at the expense of the next. Rather I seek to affirm the value of this world under the guidance of the eternal world.