Filling the void?

[statiktech]

Then you should understand why my initial response was to ask what, exactly, constitutes "void"? "The void" is about as abstract and ambiguous as you can get.

If your void ever extends beyond your apparel, you may see the merit in 'filling' it with something other than your red tie. Now, on the other hand, if your void is, say, having too many friends -- keep the red tie and the unbridled enthusiasm about it. It'll work itself out.

[Trevor]

The "void" ain't nuttin' worth takin' serious, y'hear?

It ain't got shit! An' if dat muthafucker want some, then it knows where the fuck I am. Me and my motherfuckin' nine, beeaatchhh!

Y'hear me void? Y'HEAARRRR!!!!!111


(Sorry, I've been watching too much tv)

[statiktech]

Wow. The void is perpetratin'' something serious. I suggest you bounce or get bounced, void. Yeah, you better walk away...

[James S Saint]

I'd say "the void" is the uncomfortableness of existing - a kind of underlying anxiety of sorts.

Anxiety, the seed of all ailments, medically created, mentally abated, and until death do us part.

[anon]

I'd say "the void" is the uncomfortableness of existing - a kind of underlying anxiety of sorts.

Anxiety, the seed of all ailments, medically created, mentally abated, and until death do us part.

Medically created? I disagree. Also, I don't think anxiety is the seed of all ailments.

[statiktech]

I've got to agree with Anon on both counts. "Anxiety" is a medically created term, and a medically recognized 'condition', but it is a description of what is, in my opinion, a very natural consequence of sentience.

Also, some ailments do precede the anxiety associated with them. Say you wake up in the morning with a fever. You're physically sick. The fever progressed in your sleep, so you weren't exactly aware you were getting sick. The anxiety comes with the realization, and consideration of possible ramifications [ex. can't make it to work, can't keep food down, etc.].

[GaryK]

What is the "void"?

Emptiness, hollow, hunger, a vessel that needs filling.
It could be one of our basic needs, If it is a human need then I suppose it can be satisfied temporarily...... Our needs if not fed eventually do us damage of one kind or another.

Perhaps Jokesoflife gives us a clue in the "urequited love" thread, maybe we need love...... But what is Love? It would seem impossible to define. (in thread "a bit about love")

If we consider the human need for food we may get some answers. Food: we all need it, we get hungry without it, we eventually die if we get none at all.....but is it food we need or is it the minerals, vitimins etc. that food gives us.........Perhaps it would be easier to understand Love if we considered what it was that we get from it.

Attention.
identity confirming feedback (good and bad).
Affirmation.
Acknowledgment.
influence.
Evidence that we actually exist.
Listened to.
Contact.

This list is by no means complete or accurate, it's just a few words thrown together really. I know I get anxious when I get low on these, evidence suggests that most others do too. (see Maslow amongst others). .....also, there are other ways to get these needs met and they aren't always positive and caring, so i would say love is not a need in itself but the things we can get from love possibly are.

It seems there are many ways to get these needs met depending on how hungry we are or what situation we're in, we may just want a quick snack so we say Hello to a stranger, if we're lucky we may get acknowledgment, it feels good. We could stroke a dog and enjoy the wagging tail and eye contact. If we need a larger meal then we could ring a friend...If we're starving we may declare our undying love for someone (all our eggs in one basket, lets just hope the basket is strong enough).

[Amorphos]

Ladies* fill the void with shopping, chaps with shopping for their* void.

Jokes aside, we either do stuff or get bored by not doing stuff, there is no solution. Life is mundane and pointless, banal even, but that doesn’t have to be a negative thing. Our human ability to think over and above life such that it all seams pathetic, can be like the jesters wisdom, just shake yer stick at it and ring some bells.



.

[Arcturus Descending]

The void is filled with the will to fill it.

And this is why it is always with us.
Surrender to it and it disappears.
That's all it wanted in the first place -
For us to make our peace with it.

[seanapte]

Where would we be without said void?

[Arcturus Descending]

Dead...

[Trevor]

It's strange to come across an old thread forgetting that you've posted in it, then compleltely failing to recognise yourself in the things you've said.

What the hell was I talking about? Eurgh...

[Arcturus Descending]

It's strange to come across an old thread forgetting that you've posted in it, then compleltely failing to recognise yourself in the things you've said.

What the hell was I talking about? Eurgh...

I think that's called personal evolution.
It also begs the question perhaps of how meaningful are our posts to us that we sometimes get so bent out of shape by them and so egoic when they are attacked - being that at some point ultimately our opinions and views may change, ought to change anyway, as we change.

Perhaps that is not to say that if we still hold to the same beliefs and opinions as before that we haven't changed - or does it?

[FilmSnob]

The void isn't life, it's death. We fill the void of death with life.

But it's all a big joke because the void is artificial, after-the-fact.

[Arcturus Descending]

The void isn't life, it's death. We fill the void of death with life.

But it's all a big joke because the void is artificial, after-the-fact.

Is the void death or is it our fear of death and dying (not necessarily that final one)?
We may try to fill that void, with whatever we think will work - drugs, liquor, sex, gambling, ilp - whatever, but the more we fill it, or think we have, the larger it becomes. The only way to satiate it is to surrender to it's emptiness and become a part of it, thereby dissolving it.

[FilmSnob]

Which can be easily achieved by comprehending it as a very part of our constitution, as simply feelings correlating with ideas. The whole "void" thing becomes empty ;P.

[Arcturus Descending]

Which can be easily achieved by comprehending it as a very part of our constitution, as simply feelings correlating with ideas. The whole "void" thing becomes empty ;P.

How do you empty something which is emptyness itself, FilmSnob?
And how do you comprehend the intangible? Like a shadow on the wall?

[FilmSnob]

You don't comprehend the intangible, you comprehend that the intangible is intangible, and then are able to move on. The scary "void" loses all emotional relevance once it has been established as irrelevant to anything but relative assertions... "devoid of all reason," say, or "devoid of beauty."

[Arcturus Descending]

You don't comprehend the intangible, you comprehend that the intangible is intangible, and then are able to move on. The scary "void" loses all emotional relevance once it has been established as irrelevant to anything but relative assertions... "devoid of all reason," say, or "devoid of beauty."

Really? Well, then, why all the talk and discussion about a god who may or may not be real? Many of us silly humans do not comprehend that the intangible is incomprehensible or just that - intangible. We continue to grasp at shadows.
But the void is not irrelevant. Without it, we could not grasp the reality that Life can only have true meaning when we're able to see death and accept it as natural thereby transcending it - like the Phoenix does.

[FilmSnob]

Here we disagree, probably irreparably I'm afraid.

To me, death is an undiscernible mistery, and it is foolish to speak of what one does not know.

[Arcturus Descending]

Here we disagree, probably irreparably I'm afraid.

To me, death is an undiscernible mistery, and it is foolish to speak of what one does not know.

That being the case, there would be mostly silence in the universe, don't you think? Not necessarily a negative thing.
Because something is mysterious doesn't mean we don't want to understand it. By its very nature, we want to at least understand more of it.

We can ask questions in order to understand and then we can be silent and listen for something. How could death possibly be such an indiscernible mystery, being that we experience it throughout lives through that void? The closer we can get to experiencing and accepting the living deaths, the more understanding and less fear we have of that final one - it's a piece of cake when we've swam with the others.

[FilmSnob]

Here we disagree, probably irreparably I'm afraid.

To me, death is an undiscernible mistery, and it is foolish to speak of what one does not know.

That being the case, there would be mostly silence in the universe, don't you think? Not necessarily a negative thing.
Because something is mysterious doesn't mean we don't want to understand it . . . we want to at least understand more of it.

It's not about whether we want to understand it or not. It's that we can't. You are either dead or alive, you cannot be both.

Except in a really good zombie movie I'll make some day, but that's another subject.

[Arcturus Descending]

Here we disagree, probably irreparably I'm afraid.

To me, death is an undiscernible mistery, and it is foolish to speak of what one does not know.

That being the case, there would be mostly silence in the universe, don't you think? Not necessarily a negative thing.
Because something is mysterious doesn't mean we don't want to understand it . . . we want to at least understand more of it.

It's not about whether we want to understand it or not. It's that we can't. You are either dead or alive, you cannot be both.

Except in a really good zombie movie I'll make some day, but that's another subject.

Wouldn't you say that true understanding comes from an experience of something? There is a difference between knowing something through experience and simply knowing about something, the concept of it.
And I still disagree with you here - we may have some understanding of death through our individual human experiences of pain and having to 'let go' which is a characteristic of death or that final letting go...

We've all had the experience of being both dead and alive within the same lifetime. Have you ever felt that inner conflict and tried to dissolve it. As for the zombie, it is dead. If it has no consciousness or self-awareness, and the zombie doesn't, it has no life.

[FilmSnob]

We don't experience death, we experience the pain of no longer having something that died.

[Arcturus Descending]

We don't experience death, we experience the pain of no longer having something that died.

For many, that would translate into an experience of death or a living death.
We have no memory of that final letting go - once we've breathed our last, there is either nothing more or something more.
Many of us have experienced exquisite joyful moments of living, of Life - so on the other side of that coin, we have to have also experienced moments of dying or of death...that is, if we have.
You speak to people who have experienced such terrible tragedy and ask them if it was like a death or a living death.