Mirror Reality

artifacts subsequently found with the letter, the group illusion of nonexistent patterns. While we can explain each of these instances independently, in combination they paint a different image, one which has more connections inside itself than its individual components have with external factors.]

Is this mental state a dangerous place to be? Yes.

Absolutely. And not for the faint of heart. You must prepare for anything when you venture beyond the boundaries of what you think you know.

It behooves you to create a special room inside your mind for these kinds of exercises, a pain free, shame free, guilt free, fear free room where anything is possible but nothing is real, and make sure its crazy doesn’t bleed into the real world. Never confuse your real life with the life of your mind.

The two constantly influence and shape each other, that is true, but you must always act and think according to the lay of the land.

Can I give you an example of a free forming concept that involves emotions?

Can I elaborate on this state of mind where you are immersed in unfamiliar feelings and thoughts?

I’m not sure I understand the question. Oh, how do you navigate a realm where your instruments don’t work?

To preempt the easy way out, no, it is not like moving to a new city at all. When you are learning a new city, you can fall back on your knowledge of cities, streets and landmarks. Unfortunately, in the case you’re asking about you have to do what all the good scientists did throughout history to bring us to this point in our knowledge: rely on your instincts and your power of observation, go through trial and error, extrapolate on situations that feel similar, try to find connections between things, quit going in the wrong direction immediately upon getting proof it is so, no matter how long you took and how attached you are to it, share your theories with others who might have a different perspective. Even though people’s observations of this unglued realm are often too private to share, you’d be surprised of how much some of them may resonate with you. It never hurts to ask. There are emotions so weird people don’t think others could have experienced them, so they never talk about them, but they have happened enough times to enough different people to get named. Who would have thought, for instance, that the wish you could go back in time and tell your younger self not to worry about something is a named emotion?

Also, it is not true that your instruments don’t work. The instruments you normally rely on don’t work, but you have other instruments, some of which you may not even be aware of, that come to life to measure and assess unfamiliar states. For instance, you may never pay attention to the wind, but a farmer or a sailor knows its every whim. They can feel the moisture in the air, predicting stormy weather, or the dry hot gusts that rain will surely follow. You don’t know things about the wind because you don’t need to know things about the wind.