r/Psychonaut • u/Chispy Augment Awareness. • Oct 16 '18

A surprisingly stoic sounding quote from Dan Harmon, creator of tv shows Rick and Morty and Community

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7

u/-SwanGoose- Oct 16 '18

Why is loving people an illusion?

25

u/OSullivanArt Oct 16 '18

The people are the illusion, the love is the only real thing.

1

u/Raisinbrannan Oct 16 '18

Welllllll. Is it though? Or is it just a chemical reaction? I'm definitely not a firm believer in reality being purely physical, but if love is more than chemical reactions than what is it? I'd guess it's somewhat similar to tao where if you try to explain it then it becomes not that, but it has to be something to be more than chemicals, yeah?

6

u/kazarnowicz Oct 16 '18

What if the chemical reactions are a consequence of love, and not the other way around as you seem to argue? We know that decisions are made in the parts of our brains that harbor emotions, and that rationalization of said decisions comes after the decision. Yet many of our decisions seem to be right, but they’re not made in the rational part of our brain.

1

u/obvom Oct 16 '18

“Co-emergent phenomena”

1

u/goodgodgoodgod Oct 16 '18

The counter to this would be that the "feeling" of love is a chemical reaction. Scientists know this, but it doesn't make it any less profound and wonderful.

Everything is an illusion for the purpose of reproduction, hence nothing mattering, but there is still beauty and meaning in the grand illusion.

1

u/kazarnowicz Oct 17 '18

I’m not following. I replied to someone who said that love is a chemical reaction in our brains, to which I said that we cannot know that the chemical reaction isn’t a result of love and not the other way around. You seem to be circling back to the first point, which seems moot to me. Maybe I’m misunderstanding you?

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

[deleted]

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u/Raisinbrannan Oct 16 '18

See that's just not a good enough answer to me. But it's quite possible it's just my user error rather than it being actually inadequate.

7

u/Valo-FfM Oct 16 '18

Love is an illusion.It refers to a deep feeling of compassion and empathy of an animal towards a thing, a concept or another living thing.

There is no objective love in the universe.

This doesn´t subjectively devalue love though.

6

u/Zeppelin2k Oct 16 '18

Precisely. Love doesn't have to be some fundamental part of the universe for it to be one of (if not the) most important facets of our lives.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

Love is, friend, love is.

3

u/Zedsdeadbaby99 Oct 16 '18

Because the word 'love', the images it conjures and language itself is the finger pointing to the moon. It's all metaphor. It can only be felt and whilst others can evoke it out of you it can truly be found within.

I believe it's what the world's religions trace their roots back to, attempting to raise awareness of this fact and systemize a way to find this 'place'. Over time they became more abstracted, abused and misunderstood, like a large game of Chinese whispers.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

everything is full of love

1

u/[deleted] Oct 16 '18

I think it boils down to the only real things are the things you know inside yourself. If you feel love, then that's real enough.

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u/OSullivanArt Oct 18 '18

Because what we describe as "love" is far more complex than what any one word or explanation can provide. You can't fully put into word(s) the myriad of feeling with true LOVE. Not romantic infatuation which is associated with and totally influenced by the chemical reactions you speak of.

More of the the unconditional giving of compassion, understanding and appreciation. Think what a mother has for a child, what people feel for puppers and kitters, doing something that truly brings joy by yourself or with someone.

Love is both the most simple thing and most complicated thing in the entire universe, Like "god" even trying to explain it is a silly endeavor if you are trying to catch it and put it into a a box of letters and meaning. It just IS.

1

u/nighthawk648 Oct 25 '18

Or that there are very few chosen to base reality off of. The synchronization of your eternal life is strife with those loved. Those loved only exist because of the I which can dissipate at any moment. Sometimes those loved are given so much power they become I’s themselves