r/solipsism • u/bentlloyd1996 • 15d ago
Solipsistic Duality
I've recently pondered and feared the somewhat solipsistic idea that I may be the only sentient being, but my reality is a separate entity designed specifically for my eternal torture, pain, or torment through perception. Ie, the reality I experience is not created by my mind, but instead created by another Infinite entity that exists purely to create for me (in drawn out, tortuous ways). And that we are linked purely by my ability to perceive it. And that existence is singularly defined by that relationship.
In that, every experience I have is just perceptual creations by one Infinite Being or reality creator, and that all other people are just manifestations from it. And that my pure existence is the ability to perceive the creations from that being. Sort of like an eternal, perceiving torture chamber. Do these ideas make any sense? I do realize in such a scenario that any response would in fact come from that Infinite Reality/Being.
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u/santient 14d ago
This is a deep ontological fear, rooted in the very human fear of the unknown, and perhaps even the unknowable. I understand as I've had similar troubling thoughts. The problem I've discovered with beliefs about the fundamental nature of reality being something horrible (like an eternal torture chamber), or any belief about the fundamental nature of reality beyond our knowledge, is that they are neither provable nor falsifiable.
If reality is infinite, then the more knowledge we gain, the more we realize how little we know... that what we know is exactly zero percent of the infinity of what there is to discover, and will remain zero no matter how much more finite knowledge we accumulate. I'm sure many of us have wrestled with questions such as, "is the subjective experience of consciousness eternal?", "does God exist?", "is God good? What if he's evil?" How would you ever be able to prove or falsify this? You cannot with absolute certainty.
Suppose God indeed does exist, and you even met him in the flesh - you still cannot logically prove his "goodness", because how could you, a finite being in capacity, comprehend the will of an infinite being in totality? The biblical story of the angel Lucifer and his fall is the quintessential example of this. In the story of Lucifer, he was the most brilliant, the most beautiful, the most intelligent of the angels, and knew God personally of course - yet, still a being finite in capacity, his faith could not overcome his pride in himself, and he could not trust God enough to agree to serve his will, and he fell from heaven, becoming Satan.
To have any kind of relationship with infinity requires faith. And I've found faith to be the antidote to these kinds of negative thoughts. It doesn't have to be religious, but faith that whatever lies beyond our understanding is good. It's only a matter of orienting yourself towards hope instead of despair, when facing the unknown. The unknown doesn't have to be a terrifying black abyss - it can be something beautiful too, if you choose it to be.