Virtual Illusions

I don’t believe in gods or the supernatural, but about a dozen years ago I had an experience that if I did believe, I’m sure I would have attributed to a religious experience of some sort. Oddly enough it is very comforting when I become long term overwrought.

I experienced Douglas Adam’s Total Perspective Vortex, though on a limited scale.

I was in college at the time being torn appart by the fact that the woman I was enamored with had indicated that I was alone in this feeling. While meditating on this while listening to suitable depressing music and staring at the bunk above mine. I began to have a scale change. I just sort of zoomed out. First all the people in the city and all of the petty connections of love, hate and indifference. Then further, the whole country and further. Earth, The solar system, the galaxy, everything.

In that moment of perfect clarity of context, I realized that my feeling toward the woman weren’t relevant. They simply didn’t even register. Too much else was happening, too much that mattered to allow this to consume me.

The Total Perspective Vortex is supposed to destroy your mind, for me I found it very freeing. I’ve never gotten the perfect clarity I had that night, but I have called upon the memory on a number of occasions and found its almost nihilistic vision very comforting.

Philosophy/Religion