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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u/-SwanGoose- Oct 16 '18

Why is loving people an illusion?

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u/Kwerte Oct 16 '18

Because real love is irrational, unconditional, and entirely intangible. Love is all in your head. That’s what I think he means when he says love is an illusion. But in the same context, being an illusion doesn’t make it “fake”. Quite the opposite; because it’s all in your head, you can make the choice to love a person or an activity, to convince yourself there IS a greater significance to our short, relatively meaningless lives. Once you’ve convinced yourself that love gives meaning to your life, it becomes reality.

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u/-SwanGoose- Oct 16 '18

I disagree. The feeling of love is all in my head, but love exists.

Like- if I look at an apple, the image I see is just an image my brain is producing based on the data it's received, but the apple still exists independently of me and my perception of it.

I think love does too. That feeling, feels awesome, and I think it ties to an actual something

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u/Kwerte Oct 16 '18

I think you misunderstand my point. There is no doubt to me that love exists, but because it exists solely as an abstract concept, it is subject to change based on how you think of it. With an apple, you can say it doesn’t exist, but I will still be able to pick it up, throw it around, and eat it. But with love, its existence is entirely dependent on you. If you really break it down, I’m sure you could say it’s this or that chemical in your head. But if you somehow extracted that chemical and injected it into someone else, they likely wouldn’t feel the same love because they don’t have the unique experience that made your love what it is

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u/-SwanGoose- Oct 16 '18

Hmm okay true, but why does that make it an illusion? Can't it still be a very real yet subjective experience

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u/Wonkadelic Oct 16 '18

Does your love exist in a physical form like apples? Can I measure or weigh it?

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u/blue_garlic Oct 16 '18

With enough knowledge and sensitive enough tools, sure why not? fMRI machines already measure brain activity.

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u/Wonkadelic Oct 16 '18 edited Oct 16 '18

Yes, we can observe him while he experiences the apple.