Depth, starry skies and intellectual isolation

[solenoid]

There is a point in everyone's childhood, when one realizes that other people are also beings who see the world through their own eyes. Other people exist, and by understanding oneself, it is possible to interpret other people's actions, as they act on similar principles.

On a superficial level this seems trivial, but i was intrigued by how far their inner world would reflect mine, or whether it existed at all. Once in a blue moon, when talking to someone, I could hit the right topic, and a glimpse of their internal monologue would shine through. Maybe they are not that different after all?

But beyond that, other people are empty shells to me. Extras in my own private movie. Conversations are a predictable rehashing of the same content.

The sole exception to this is through art. I can't listen to certain music without imagining the depth of the world enclosed in the mind of the artist. Hey, this might be a fellow traveler! This means I am not alone! Someone else sees the inner abyss.

I live life in my own mind, and the further I go, the harder it is to connect with others. I talk all day with other people, but hardly anything meaningful is ever exchanged.

 

[avalokitesvara]

I feel you. There's something kinda intuitive about solipsism. It is so rare to genuinely be able to communicate with anyone, sometimes I feel like any attempt at communication is really two blind and deaf creatures passing by each other in the dark, just hearing their own footsteps. The only times I've felt a genuine shared experience with someone have been either non-verbal (touch, movement, eye contact), or through a formalised performative practice which had the specific goal of going beyond limited self-image and trying to connect on a "higher" shared plane of universal consciousness…

 

[Abandoned Character]

I experience this through eye contact. It's really special when you look through someone's eyes and you can tell they are trying to do the same, to try to glimpse the consciousness on the other side.

 

[JoysoftheEmptiness]

"But beyond that, other people are empty shells to me. Extras in my own private movie. "

Yeah, I've gone through life exactly like that. And when it comes to art...

I think artists, whether they are painters like Monet, or composers like Beethoven, or singer song-writers like James Dean Bradfield and lyrists like Richey Edwards both from the Manic Street Preachers, are speaking to us through their works. Their attempt to speak to a world that largely ignores them.