The single perception of the first person

I want to know do you see beyond the perception of the first person, as in do you know how to accurately put your self into someone else. Alot of people pretend that that they can in order to convince someone close of something but the more i look the less people can put themselves in others shoe's. The mind set of the average person has changed due to the economic upturn from the the late 1980's, which has left people with the thoughts that "everyone else is OK, look after yourself".

Another question i would like to ask is do you think it's a good thing to be able to put yourself in others' skin? I've had conversations with people who think that it's a bad thing for your mind to be able to do and i'll explain later if i get more comments so what do you think?

 

I think it would be probable to put their perception in your own. You can understand better, and you can make better decisions. It means you know what their talking about, and to make sure that you actually understand them.
Also about the single perception; it should be considered. It shouldn't be all about yourself. Yet, you should at least think of yourself in some sort. Not always the other person. It's more about how selfish you are.

 

I know how to feel empathy/sympathy. On a more obscure note, I'd like to figure out how to do out of body experiences in such a way where it's not always just an accident.

 

Thats quiet interesting, thats actually something that happens to me by accident aswell and i can never control when it happens either, it only ever happens when i'm relaxing in the shower.

 

Hmmm...it works 90% of the time if your dealing with an average problem with someone with a certain mind set but others, it's pointless getting into their head because it only proves that you can't help them anymore because they cannot help themselves. I learned that the hard way.

A friend of mine made a good point that if you try to get too much into a peoples heads that you take on parts of them and eventually you lose yourself in the process and thats why he believes it bad to get inside a persons head. what do you guys think.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that empathy on so far as a supernatural level is possible, but individuality exists for a reason; it's the same with time, space, and other natural limits which the more far-out thinkers among us seek to transcend. We need these things for perspective. The stable, discerning individual must reach introspectively before he can reach out to others, and he must stand on his own two feet before he can stand in another's place. Basically, while the question often posed is of the "Can" variety, it would be more prudent to examine the "Should."

Daxma, your friend makes a very good point when he says that one can lose oneself in trying to understand another; this is the concept behind the "Becoming the Mask" trope in literature, but there is most certainly a ring of truth to it. I have to fight with that often, as I am inclined to be very empathic, so I know how it feels. When one reaches out to others, attempts to put oneself in their shoes, this necessitates a contrast. How are you to know how another feels if you cannot compare and contrast it to your own feelings? Without this element, there is no foundation. The mind seeks this foundation instinctively; to go without it into the mind of another is to steal from them their own foundation. And yes, you may make them stronger, but at what cost?

If the concern is helping people, one must remember to help oneself before others. If one is the sort of person who follows and coaches people until they can support themselves, one must be prepared to give 120%, or else find oneself lacking. The most involving assistance granted to others can consume several years of one's life; one must understand this sacrifice before undertaking a task so large.

All that said, empathy is a crucial step towards uniting the world under one banner. One must simply take care not to end up in a hive-mind situation.

While we're on the subject of perceptual personage, I have a trickier question: Is it possible to view oneself in the second or third person? What would this entail? What would be the benefits and/or drawbacks?

 

In response to your question i have been able to master this. To view oneself in the second or third person allows you to pick your falws, it makes you alienated from even yourself. The reason i don't do it now is that it makes me feel distant from who i am and if you aren't even close to who you are then what exactly are you? I myself have put myself in peoples shoe's too often and i've lost parts of myself because of it and am only now finding myself again. At the same time i've had to break myself apart in order to help others, giving pieces of myself to them in order to help them because it was necessary and no matter how much i tried it became worse simply because i became linked with being the solution and if i had none i was the problem.

The only way to truly mend a person who has experianced great truama is by breaking yourself. This means 120% as you've said. The problem is that sometimes it's never enough.

 

Aye, there's the kicker; sometimes it seems beyond you to help certain people. I've hit that wall hard enough to give me a concussion. It's never a pleasant conclusion to reach, and even now I believe it's a surrender through and through. I suppose that's a shortcoming, though, as I don't think it healthy. It goes back to what I was saying about helping oneself before others; one can become obsessed with a problem one simply cannot solve at present, with the incentive to continue being the precious time already invested in it. It's a D.i.Y. vicious cycle. And the longer one spends in that state, the less one cares about one's own foundation, causing it to crumble.

 

Empathy and sympathy are as far as we can go to truly understand someone else other than ourselves. While we can certainly infer the thoughts and intentions of others we lack what is called their phenomenological consciousness--that is, what it is like for that person to be that person. Case in point, I only know what it is like to be White_Rook, because I experience my consciousness first-hand. I can certainly try to guess and form a hypothesis about what daxma is feeling or thinking, and in most cases I will most likely be right. But I can never know what it is like to truly be him, because I'm not him.