Have you ever had a case where perception altered your sense of reality?

[Taverner]

The root canal thread got me thinking...has this ever happened to you?

[hunter]

1. That would be my life...

Self discipline and meds keep me grounded.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be in a place where I might ask a question such as yours.

[Taverner]

2. So if you saw something incredible

Like say, a pink rhinoceros tap dancing with Gene Kelly down 5th Avenue....

You would have to ask people around you if they saw it too?

Well, I guess I'd have to ask that question too...

[hunter]

5. Nope, it's not that way at all.

You don't ask that question because the pink rhinoceros tap dancing with Gene Kelly down 5th Avenue is obviously real.

My own problem, mostly, is that I don't see many things that are utterly obvious to most people, and when I'm at my worst I can rationalize my own and other peoples' behavior in utterly unrealistic ways. If I'm in a mental place where I find everyone utterly irritating, I can assume everyone finds me utterly irritating too. It makes it hard for me to be a social animal.

As a young man there were also times I suffered auditory and some visual hallucinations. I can easily imagine what it would be like to make these part of my own reality, although I never did.

Adolescence was my roughest time, it was like all my memories had been dumped into the mind of a crazy person, but mostly I was very gentle, and at worst could be called eccentric or troubled.

As a young man I was sometimes a great source of amusement to the police night shift, a pleasant break from their own usually hideous reality of domestic violence calls, overdoses, accidents, etc. So there's a naked guy walking up and down the beach at two in the morning... Well, I went for a swim and when I got back I couldn't find my clothes!

[Ariana Celeste]

3. Can't think of an instance that didn't involve drugs

;)

[LaraMN]

7. Ditto. I have a very haunting memory

of looking at myself in a mirror and seeing my face, about fifty years older than I actually was, and freaking out. That moment was followed somewhat later by convulsions. I passed out thinking I was going to die.

[raccoon]

4. Yes. Root canals can be a real gas. :-) nt

[NewWaveChick1981]

6. Well, as a kid, I perceived I'd HATE Brussels sprouts and asparagus.

I like them now. It took me until my late 20s to try them, but they're just fine. Does that count? :shrug:

[pitohui]

8. er, doesn't perception ALWAYS alter one's sense of reality?

who among us can claim that they perceive unmediated reality?

my eyes tell me the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, clearly human perception is limited and imperfect :shrug: