There are many signs or byproducts of noticing our nature.
One is our perception of distance.
How do I experience distance?
CONVENTIONAL DISTANCE
I experience it as anyone else in terms of things being closer or further away. I know where things are in space just like anyone else.
NO DISTANCE
And at the same time, there is a sense of no distance.
Everything is happening here, within and as what I am. There is an absence of distance.
It makes sense. Since, to me, the world happens within and as what I am, there is no sense of distance to what’s happening.
MENTAL FIELD OVERLAYS
There is another side to this as well.
I am aware of my mental field representations that create a sense of conventional space and distance in the first place. It’s a kind of mental overlay depicting space. It’s an overlay on the other sense fields, mostly the visual one. And it also serves as an image to put other mental representations onto, including objects and physical locations. There are also other overlays, including the ones serving as a kind of yardstick telling me roughly the distances between objects in the world.
These mental field overlays are essential for me being able to orient and function in the world.
THREE LAYERS
In a sense, there are three layers to this.
In my immediate perception, there is no distance to anything. It’s all happening within and as what I am.
In a conventional sense, I operate with distances just like anyone else.
And I am also are of how my sense of space and distance is created by my mental field representations of space, distance, and so on. I am aware of these since I have taken the time to explore them in some detail so they are more easily recognized by me and they are familiar to me.
DISORIENTING?
This shift happened in my teens, and I have lived with it for a while, so I don’t remember specifically how it was to notice this at first. I assume it took some getting used to. What I do remember is that I was frequently disoriented for a while after the initial shift, perhaps a few years. I had trouble functioning normally in the world. For instance, I remember walking straight into a glass door that I normally would have easily avoided.
Note: I have written similar articles on movement, time, doership, the physical, and this human self.
INITIAL NOTES
Time and distance: Distances
- regular
- No distance
This is something familiar enough to me that I don’t consciously pay attention to it unless I am reminded of it.
When I function in the world, I obviously use and relate to distances in a conventional sense. Something is a certain distance from me, from this human self.
And in my own first-person experience, it’s all happening within and as what I am. It’s all happening at no distance.
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I can also say it in other ways. For instance, to me, the world is happening within the field I am. It’s happening within and as the consciousness I am. That’s why there is an absence of a sense of distance. There is no distance.
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I can also explore this logically. Since, to me, the world happens within and as what I am, there is no sense of distance to what’s happening.
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