The Only Thing Scarier than Cosmic Horror

[@TheTaleFoundry]

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[@colorpg152]

sounds more like mind control than bliss

[@grygrygrygry5423]

it's not about what you abandon but becoming what you believe in you essentialy transform into new whether it's for better or worse the only value to you is that you feel happy or good enouch with the coping experience it gives you by narrowing your vision!

[@thelordofthelostbraincells]

Wait a frickin minute, didn't you already do a cosmic bliss video before. I remember watching that video months ago. I'm not making this up

[@mervinreyes3008]

low key i got Nebula cuz of you worth it

[@MAJWCF]

Totally missed arcane season 2’s cosmic bliss with the Machine Harold it would have been perfect for this episode. He touches the arcane and there is the cosmic bliss thing.

[@troyh.337]

There is an episode of Magnus archives with a large giant made out of people. It’s a painful experience and one man wanted out. When he was accidentally pushed out he felt alone and cold without all those people around him. Eventually he rejoices when the giant puts him back

[@PancakeTheKat]

Which MAG?

[@justexploring2979]

which episode?

[@comfybox]

@@PancakeTheKatMAG 174

[@luxury_nightmare]

I think that Tma has some pretty good examples of cosmic bliss. Avatarship as a concept yes, but I think Jane prentiss’s statement is probably my favorite

[@glenexplainseverything8219]

@@PancakeTheKatMag 174: The Great Beast

[@_anon_does_art_]

I think cosmic bliss must be the horror of passive suicidal ideation. Giving in to a peaceful end because it seems that reality holds nothing more to you. And honestly that lack of connection, of reality, is scary in itself

[@chillbro1010]

There's a little bit of schitzophrenia as well. You enter into another world layered on the normal where "Reality" you Know is different than the reality others know. Especially in cosmic bliss situations that are obviously worse than normal reality or in a story where it's not clear if it's paranormal or just a psychotic break. Either way you are dealing with a "Normal life" that doesn't want you, that actively rejects you, that is uncomfortably bright or cold or noisy or empty. And there's also stories about the main character dealing with another person going through it and seeing THEM stop wanting, reject you, becme uncomfortably happy or sad or noisy or empty and wondering how or why and questioning your own self. Especially with the paranormal, are they... Are They Right?

[@exosproudmamabear558]

Derealisation is scary and blissful hours pass and you are in your mind nothing really matters,sleep, diseases, pain,anxiety you are just a spectetor not a living thing. You gonna watch the movie and it is gonna end in some point. There is no need to panic really. I had this for like months it was the only thing that kept me going in long ardious seisures that doctors would care shit about. When time came out I went into remmission I went back into my body then it started again due to an infection. I wanna return back to it but if I do it means I need to let go not fight with it. Stop going to doctors stop following drug trials and studies. Stop actively trying to do anything really.

[@Unkn4wN_TM]

I think it's also partly because survival is the most fundamental instinct of all living beings, so it's hard for our brains to grasp the idea of blissfully accepting the end when you could still keep going and survive. And the key is "blissfully accepting" it. If you accept your end while feeling sad about it, that's normal, and can happen in situations where you have no other choice but to accept your doom. But just the idea of being happy about it is so alien to us when survival is hardwired into our instincts. There is a reason this stuff almost exclusively only happens in stories, because nobody just happily accepts their doom. There is always either sadness or fear involved.

[@johnturtle6649]

The only scary thought I've ever had about God is that souls all merge with it/him/her and lose all personal identity in the process when we die.

[@Bringadingus]

I think it's also fundamentally the nature of the religious experience. Having your "self" annihilated by an overwhelming divine force is what many people feel in mystical or religious rituals, in meditation, or at a live music show. This desire to "let go" needn't be suicidal at all, but can represent a desire to truly connect deeply with the experience of being alive.

[@Fronken89]

This video very much reminded me of the "phenomena" (for lack of a better term) of a suicidal person suddenly becoming happy and seemingly free from their depression and suicidal thoughts. Only to then end their own life. The reason for their perceived cure being the fact that they have finally decided to end it, leaving no more point in feeling bad about anything. This is something i have heard from people close to me who have lost someone to depression, about how dangerous their sudden happiness really is.

[@WhitneyDahlin]

Yea! That is 100% true! And people who actually are going to end themselves dont tell anyone because they dont want to be stopped.

[@JayBigDadyCy]

This exists (as I mentioned in my comment) in people who know they're going to die as well. I thought of child cancer patients who are content and ... Almost happy. There is a freedom when the fear is gone. For suicidal people it's definitely knowing they no longer have to face the fear of waking up one more day having to face a world that feels like they aren't a part of. Depression is such an awful experience. But to anyone reading this who is struggling, know that I know. And I've gotten through it several times. Be with friends and family, try new things, work on yourself. Even if it's something as small as taking a 10 minute walk every day. Talk to a professional and other people who understand what you're going through. The idea that you're alone and no one else feels that way has to be smashed. It's completely false.

[@Finalhazrd]

6:09 Thanks to KZbin's ad placement, the line I just heard was: "The very last action prompt in the game isn't 'jump' or 'sprint' or 'hide'... it's to 'BUY A MOUNTAIN DEW AND DORITOS STARTER PACK!'"

[@hayleyhart4476]

Perfection *chef's kiss*

[@BananasinpajamasIV]

Mine was "buy laundry sauce"

[@sammyisanoctopus]

Okay, that's funny.

[@nezrafallon4086]

DRINK VERIFICATION CAN

[@JilutheFang]

Ah yes, synchronicity horror

[@luxury_nightmare]

“There is, a wasps nest, in my attic. Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul”

[@DrinzenDrawz]

Exactly what I thought of aswell

[@LeRoyaleAuFromage]

Where this quote from? Sounds like something right up my alley

[@tatin_sesamin]

you might want to check that comma placement

[@Child_of_the_Void]

The Magnus Archives! Extremely recommend cosmic horror podcast. The story is about the new archivist of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the paranormal. At first he is mostly going over the archives and reading and researching the different stories that the institute has collected, but after looking into the abyss for long enough, it starts looking back. Like the best cosmic horror it's about people losing themselves to horrors of all kinds

[@Child_of_the_Void]

@@tatin_sesamin Comma placement is like that in the source. The character that's being quoted wasn't in the best mental state at the time and just spoke like that

[@realperson69]

Part of the horror of some forms of cosmic bliss is not just the (willing) annihilation of the self but the gradual (unwilling) erosion of the self - the idea that you could stop being yourself, stop exerting your own will, without even noticing. It depicts a loss of control that subtly asks a terrifying question: what makes you so convinced that you ever had control to begin with?

[@jakel2837]

11:37 people who live with anxiety often find themselves calm and at peace during actual emrgencies. It's like the brain breathes a sigh of relief as the external situation finally matches the internal state.

[@naz6james570]

I don't think people with anxiety can calm when they are the one being at the center of emergency/chaotic situation. Whatever situation that loses your grip, anxiety will come anyway. Excessive fear of losing control is what anxiety is. What melancholia being described is that her depression is self fulfilling her own desires. Instead of being on her conquest of ending only herself, others were forced to face the same consequences. That moment of happiness and relief is not because of a matching state. Her internal state is empty, she just wanted to end, she did not fear anything, she didn't care about others. She felt relief because her wishes fulfilled itself.

[@williamerickson520]

Not just hem, though. It is a real phenomenon called normalcy bias.

[@northwind6199]

Psychopaths as well!

[@coffeemkr0]

Yeah, it’s like the Gambit meme from Deadpool 😂

[@coltontaylor406]

​@naz6james570 No, the original commenter is correct. Folks with anxiety can be remarkably calm when they're finally thrust into the fray. It's not universal, but it happens. It happens with folks with PTSD too, which is itself arguably a kind of severe anxiety. Sometimes when you find yourself face-to-face with what terrorizes you you find yourself remarkably ready, somehow validated in your concern, and almost relieved to finally have the confrontation. The fear of what's lurking in the dark is often more horrible than what can be found there.

[@Cisabear]

Concerning still wakes the deep, if caz had never gone onto the rig, the monster may have made it to the mainland, which may mean that the one look back at the end of the game isn’t him looking at what he lost, but what he saved by being brave

[@pillarmenn1936]

Does it say the monster intends to go to the mainland? From what I gathered, it only ever acted the way it did because the drill dug too deep. It was a reaction to what it assumed was an attack, it just so happens that its reaction is a supernatural nightmare.

[@KeitieKalopsia]

I like this take

[@WD_Gaster66]

​@@pillarmenn1936 Yeah but the thought is that it could infect someone that came to inspect what happened and carry it back to the mainland

[@sci300768]

I mean Caz probably saved the world from whatever the heck that THING was that the rig exposed...

[@HoodieProduction]

I think the best way to answer that is if someone else would have gone in his place if he wasn't hired and how would emergency services respond if the whole rig completely sank? I don't remember all of the game but I don't remember it going after sea life, because if it did I think we would be screwed anyway you put it.

[@robertbarrientos9853]

Seems like an allegory for addiction. The fear of knowing that your mind can crave and even love something harmful.

[@koga115]

That's exactly how I see it

[@btarik.maulana4199]

Is that... is that a tma reference???

[@TracyD2]

🤔

[@douglasauclair3086]

There was a Sci-Fi short story I read: People gifted with empathy were sent on space-expeditions to assist in first contact. One such case, they contacted a buddhist-like civilization that, once a member matured, a parasite was attached to their brain stem. This parasite connected all so attached to the hive-mind, so when a monk 'sang,' all monks sang, and all were unified in one peaceful thought of unity and happiness. The empath sense this and dove, face first, into the hive-mind, where she was, like all the others, slowly digested by the hive mind. The crew pulled her away, but only with her kicking and screaming and pleading to return to the bliss. They returned home, but her mind snapped. She couldn't face this individual grayness after experiencing the connected bliss, preferring to be absorbed into the hive than face life with her own individuality. So not cosmic horror, but body-... bliss?

[@indigowest6894]

That sounds amazing. Do you remember it's name?

[@wegner7036]

Honestly I sympathize. The community and pure democracy possible in true hivemind is certainly sublime.

[@douglasauclair3086]

​@@indigowest6894 I read it in high school, more than half a century ago. I'm sad to say I remember neither the name nor the author. It was in an anthology, and it was in the vein of Larry Niven or Rob't Heinlein (but not Ray Bradbury, because the horror wasn't cheerful at all), ... or somebody else that I'm disservising (L. Sprague de Camp?), because there was so many stories that were so innovative and daring and wide-eyed alive. This one, like "I have no mouth, but I must scream" and the story about the virus a lab that became self-aware and through observation, eventually changed the nature of reality (Quinn's Ideas reviewed that story) stuck with me, even though the title and the author did not.

[@indigowest6894]

@@douglasauclair3086 damn that blows. Oh well, guess I'll go hunting through the digital depths. Thank you for telling me about this 🥺💖

[@douglasauclair3086]

@@indigowest6894 Good luck in your search. Please lmk title and author if you find it!

[@pamharvestcraft]

As someone dealing with chronic pain in a body that will only get worse, this video really hit hard.

[@Omega_1306]

Right there with ya toss in poverty and lots of awful life experience I can concur with Justine if living is suffering daily then death is a relief it's the struggling through pain that you can't do nothing about is a sign of strength and resilience and acceptance of something unpleasant can make existing a little easier with time to an extent

[@Aloe0193]

That's sad I feel so sorry for you

[@iratevagabond204]

Same, bro. I was an amateur boxer and millwright, until I started being wracked with back pain, uveitis, and arthritis. Found out I was HLA-B27 positive and had ankylosing apondylitis. Thankfully, I have an even more successful wife that allows me to be a stay-at-home dad.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

I know exactly what you mean. There's not a whole lot that truly frightens me anymore, apart from more pain.

[@torablack]

did you try high CBD joints? they help with chronic pain minus the potential addictiveness that pain pills have.

[@Ec360Gaming]

A long time ago, I read a story about a species of shapeshifting, hive minded creatures that would infiltrate communites and convert regular people, but the entire thing was written from the perspective of someone who had been converted and found the sense of connection so intoxicating that they would rather die than than return to their old life. It was the first time i had seen something like that portrated in a sympathetic light, and its really stuck with me in a way that most of the short stories I've read havent

[@wildwolf8505]

What was the story called?

[@ARealHumanGuy]

Yeah, what’s the name. I wanna read this

[@ieditstuff55]

Yea, me too

[@natascha4475]

+1 on wanting the story name

[@void-creature]

_"Light LEAKS through the CRACKS. My mind is BRIGHTER than it EVER was. THE HIGHER I RISE THE MORE I SEE."_

[@kaiburrus3190]

THE HIGHER EYES RICE THE MOOR ICE E

[@brassspider5908]

Cultist sim needs more recognition

[@reflectivemask]

"The Wood grows around the walls of the Mansus. As any student of Histories knows, the Mansus has no walls."

[@cymikgaming1266]

Kos or some say Kosm,will yoou not hear our prayers?

[@captainsweatervest4749]

THE GLORY IS A QUESTION, AND THE MOTH ALWAYS ANSWERS 'YES'

[@genesisrhap6719]

Cosmic bliss versus cosmic horror only seems to be a difference of point of view. I think under the body horror of it that Hellraiser has this concept, experiencing bliss through pain.

[@Broomer52]

The Chaotic Gods of Warhammer are a Hellraiser esque level of Cosmic Bliss. Theirs the God of Bloodshed, God of Pleasure, God of Decay and God of Change. Khorne the God of Bloodshed attracts those with a proclivity towards violence. He holds a sense of honor even in conflict and dislikes trickery or unneeded suffering. Head to head combat, blood and death. The people under him revel in the violence and find joy in the death of all people including their own. Slaanesh, God of Pleasure is pure Hellraiser and does things that I cannot describe on KZbin. You understand the attraction if you’ve seen those movies Nurgle is God of Decay and is described as the most loving of all the Gods. Nurgle loves you as you are, theirs no need to change, we’re all the same, we all rot. Nurgle shares his love with his followers by making them carriers of horrific diseases. His pus and pox filled gifts. Spread the love of Nurgle and feel his love eat away at your heart. Tzneetch is the God of Change. He attracts all sorts from schemers to idealists. Those who desire change turn to him. You’ll be blinded by hope unaware of manipulation by him until it’s too late, if you notice at all. Hope is a dangerous thing when left unchecked and untempered by reality after all.

[@elderleon1844]

this is the whole concept of ''the heaven for some people will be the hell for others, and the hell for ones will be heaven to others'' and the idea of the perspective of why is better that not everybody goes to heaven, because think about it, if everything we think about heaven is true, will some people really like to live there? like people who loves to sin will be happy in heaven a place without any kind of sin? live an eternity in a place like heaven will be like hell for some people

[@VexVerity]

If you haven’t already seen it, Jonas Čeika has a fantastic video called “Hellraiser, Bataille, and Limit Experiences” that’s basically about why you’re right. Mind the warnings though.

[@J.Soffer]

Totally!

[@abloogywoogywoo]

@@elderleon1844 heaven is literally impossible because being locked in paradise would drive you insane after a couple of thousand years, nevermind eternity.

[@Lilithium_IO]

16:09 "and if you dont value anything, why are you here?" Years ago i thought that through and came to the conclusion that if I stopped being here then that guarantees I never value anything. If I stayed, then there was a possibility, however slim. So I swore an oath that i would stay and forced myself to hope that someday I could find something to value. Over time I have to a degree but it has not been easy. This video really hit hard for me because while almost everyone who sees the person wanting to let go and dissolve into that bliss is horrified, I can only sympathize. I disagree it's the right path but I very much understand why they want to take it.

[@benjaminj.3859]

I make this exact decision every single day. The only thing that keeps me here is mathematics. A absolute zero against an indefinitely small chance

[@Lilithium_IO]

@benjaminj.3859 Don't give up, that chance might be small but it's not impossible. I won't lie and say everything is great now, and it took me a long time, but I HAVE found some things that make it worth it. I hope that you will too

[@spartanwar1185]

I don't know if it would help, but if you're interested, here's my take that keeps me going through thick and thin The world has no purpose, i tried looking for one that satisfied me But there is a purpose to us as creatures, it might not be super glamorous, but if there's one thing life on earth has always tried to do It's to live, for the sake of living Existing in this life purely because we can It's the strongest defiance against the emptiness of all else in our universe If the first forms of life never developed to live longer, we wouldn't be here I feel it's the least i could do to exist here in defiance of all the science that deems us absurd material constructs

[@AmoreMiu]

@@spartanwar1185Beautiful, but doesn’t help much when day after day, year after year, life keeps beating me up. One obstacle conquered, 5 more appear, one step forward is met with three steps back. It’s exhausting having to live.

[@ShovelChef]

📌

[@CapnMuffin]

I think this concept is why I found Pixar's Soul movie to be unsettling. All the people just blissfully moving up the escalator into the "Singularity" like cattle and fizzling away.

[@WouldbeSage]

That's interesting, because many concepts of heaven conclude with us rejoining and becoming a part of the divinity from which we came.

[@LunarEdge7]

@@WouldbeSage If it's indeed what the afterlife looks and feels like.. And the fact I watched many videos of "Hell is Other People", really is scaring me away from sleep now

[@breathoffreshair7795]

@@WouldbeSageit doesnt make sense to me, if our concious exists beyond us (the soul that makes us an individual) then are depictions of heaven insinuating that one most sacrifice their own self to be accepted as "good." it sounds like a demonic deal fr where being capable of living as your pure soul wihtout sacrifice is whats proposed in hell- where you will be tortured for it. this really sounds like fear mongering to get people to believe and fear a god, in part to teach the same fear to children but also to define expectations for how people "should" behave thus feeling shame when they cant or are incapable. imo

[@WouldbeSage]

@breathoffreshair7795 I don't necessarily subscribe to that belief, but the Old-School thinking about it goes like this: if you are meant to/built to return and merge with the divinity whence you came, then it's not so much that you will be tortured/punished for not returning, but more that failing to return is itself the torture. It's being 1/4 of a barbershop quartet or being the "Y" in ROYGBiV, alone. Or, imagine being an astronaut alone out in space unable to return to Earth: that's not how it's supposed to go.

[@breathoffreshair7795]

@@WouldbeSage so you feel we are not whole in our human bodies... does that correlate to how you value yourself then? do you not believe in identity?

[@mankosan6737]

The fear of change, turned on its head for when you know you are changing into something better. The horror of the echoing question "what if I'm wrong?"

[@Sh1penfire]

Changed (the game) dances with this question quite a bit; the main "antagonist" (could be considered an anti-hero with their goals in mind honestly) tries to get you to take the route of joining the latex horde and talks about how simple It'd be without the constant struggle trying to escape.

[@Civilmonkey1]

Uncertainty and fear of lacking

[@Coppermeshman]

Things like this often considers axiomatic approaches. That is why one considers observations continuously, much poking is involved in testing the stability of assumptions, when there is reliable and elaborative structure that is founded, much follows, good advice often quickens development, but without good foundation any motion would be roughly indistinguishable from any other with little back up, deficient structure often have holes or weakness that are easy to make it dissolute. It is good to know the tolerance of a structure depending on the leveled validity of its assumptions, ranging from certainty to correlations to simply guesses or hypothesis.

[@louzo5175]

​@@Civilmonkey1 of being nit enough, and the only chance out making you into something so so diferent

[@uncroppedsoop]

I'm sorry why is sh1penfire talking about changed here like yes valid point but what possessed you to bring up the furry latex transformation game

[@rammypaige]

I always found the idea of this kind of bliss comforting, because as long as it’s pleasant, what would I have to worry about? It wouldn’t be great to die or anything, but losing agency to pure euphoria sounds relaxing at least. Maybe I’m just too anxious all the time lmao.

[@TracyD2]

Lol It’s true until you die and then you’re like what the fu(k did I just do? Unless you’re in a state of another kind of bliss but perhaps now you have to come back to learn how to be present fully conscious unless oh never mind.

[@rammypaige]

@ I mean, I don’t believe in an afterlife, so once I’m dead I’m just meat. Not much to think about or change, that ship kinda already sailed lmao.

[@angelchiarucci2132]

Who are you and what made you this way, I am greatly puzzled

[@rammypaige]

@@angelchiarucci2132 being incredibly anxious! :D I mean, I’ve done a bit of introspection about it. Not having agency means I don’t have to worry about being wrong (which is otherwise a pretty constant companion), and the fact that it’s just peace and happiness is nice. It’s like offloading all responsibility, which can be relaxing in a way. I say this more as speculation that something like this would get me easily, not that I want to pseudo-die or anything. I am a pretty happy person, it’s just stressful being a person sometimes, and it’s nice to have fantasies to cope.

[@Aaaaaaaalonika]

I get this completely and it’s odd to me that other people don’t think this way too. For most of my life I’ve wanted to die. I’ve dealt with a lot and I continue to do so. I made peace with death as a child and now as an adult I finally don’t *want* to die. But I do know that I’m ready for it when it comes. I’m not scared. I think I will welcome it like an old friend. Because it is.

[@fandomgodmother4903]

One time I read this story about the last human alive. He was this little boy and there were these giant alien beings that were taking people into their hive mind and the boy was running from them. One of them finds him while he’s asleep, and instead of taking him right then, it sits next to him and runs its mangled appendages through his hair and hums. The boy wakes and knows what it is and is terrified, but he is so tired and so lonely that he cannot move from the comfort of it. When the monster opens its arms he hugs it and lets it carry him back to the ship where he will become part of them. It really got to me because It’s not some like hypnosis or magic bliss that gets him, it’s being held. And the entity seems to genuinely care for him yet still takes him to the ship. The gentle inevitable cruelty of hurting what you think you love and of accepting love that hurts.

[@legionnaire5947]

Thank goodness we have more choices than that boy does, though-we always have a choice to leave toxic or hurtful love (which can be argued isn’t love in the first place) and choose someone or something else to give our love to… don’t settle for abuse. Ignorance is ignorance, not bliss. How do you know that life after a toxic relationship won’t be better? Exploration and growth is scary but worth it.

[@fandomgodmother4903]

@@legionnaire5947 Toxic relationship is one thing. But what of children with abusive parents? Ones who are too little to even know anything else. What about captives with Stockholm syndrome? What of animals raised gently and yet still slaughtered for nothing other than their taste? And the humans sleep without guilt because gentleness is the ultimate mercy. Idk something about it man. We are the eldritch horror destroying the innocent, yet we are also the little boy willing to accept a fate worse than death for affection.

[@missartist123]

Reminds me of our relationships with animals that are our food. Some people who raise them treat them with utter respect and love but their inevitable end is on a human’s plate.

[@j-tat17074LYFE]

That sounds interesting! What’s the name of that story?

[@qpascals]

that’s a sbi fic innit

[@lawn-cat3436]

"I haven't felt fear since I was 5 years old." - Amos Burton "I wish I could go through life without feeling fear." - Alex Kamal "No. You don't." - Amos.

[@kittygoblin2377]

i just re-watched that episode. so good. amos is scary relatable

[@Incalculable_Kyle]

where is this from?

[@Tokeli]

@@Incalculable_Kyle The Expanse.

[@jjquesada]

Didn't expect to find a reference to The Expanse here. Nailed it!

[@exoplanetarydev]

I really gotta rewatch The Expanse sometime. There’s a lot of really good cosmic horror/cosmic bliss stuff there actually (and the first major plot arc would fit really well in this video tbh).

[@alexandermccabe556]

i think this idea bothers some people more than others because its a realization that the things they have attached themselves to are all they have and if they were to let go of that they have no idea what would be left

[@duraikan1123]

To me, liberation from fear isn't simply never being afraid again, but more so not being afraid of feeling that fear. As I learn to not be afraid of feeling my own emotions, I've really started to see how my own existential fear of death has shaped the way I live. Accepting that fear as a valid part of myself instead of continuing to fight it has helped me see the world through a different lens. Now I'm having an easier time finding love and joy in living life, because, instead of spending my whole time here pretending I don't fear the end, I can just sit back and enjoy the journey.

[@nari5161]

They say courage isn't the absence of fear but continuing in spite of it

[@the_boogey_man0]

Jesus loves you

[@secretsofsweets]

it is wonderful reading others people’s sentiments, it expands my perspective; thank you for sharing.

[@dontcallthemliberals3316]

another cringe paragraph about 'I get anxiety about my anxiety, damn my realisation is so profound' gross.

[@tonysladky8925]

I think part of why cosmic bliss is so terrifying is that we often also see the bliss from an outside perspective in more traditional cosmic horror. I think anyone who's consumed cosmic horror media (or often, horror media in general) has seen a character eagerly, blissfully, blindly embracing the horror even as every other character, including the ones providing us our point of view, is rightly horrified by what they're experiencing. It's kinda like how you can watch something about hunting a serial killer, and then watch something where a serial killer is the point of view character, and we still know what the serial killer does in the second story, no matter how sympathetically it's presented, is awful and grotesque.

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Let me put it this way. The most terrifying part of cosmic bliss is how real it can be. Let's not forget real life cases have been recorded. They're the reason terms like Kool Aid have far from positive implications.

[@RhekshiEhki]

Like Bird Box?

[@funkysunky7840]

@@SergioLeonardoCornejothose people were mostly forced to drink it though

[@pigeontoes5421]

@@RhekshiEhkimore like Pearl and X, I believe

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

@@funkysunky7840 and who forced them? The ones fully enraptured in the faith.

[@xx_kittenkulture_xx1530]

Something that I really love with this comment section is how many perspectives there are. I suffered from nihilistic depression for a few years, so I understand the perspective of just giving up and embracing your death and it doesn't really scare me. Comment sections like these are great because I can also read the perspectives of people who keep a tight grip on their will to live, who can't understand the perspective of just giving up, and it allows me to better understand the true horror that the examples used show, even though it's not personally something that scares me. It's really fun to see everyone's perspectives and point of view on this concept!

[@t-mango2491]

My favorite form of this trope is the idea that someone legitimately WANTS what they’re being drawn towards, when a man described by his endless loneliness yearns for a monster because of its sense of community, who are you to tell him no? Who are you to say it isn’t what he wanted, needed even, it’s scarier to me to think, that some humans really do reach depths that their own motivations become fathomless, and you may watch someone you love walk into the arms of a monster, and know it’s their best case scenario

[@codyosborne8926]

Well said. I think this is a common case in life. Many people I know want things that are unfathomable to want for me.

[@ranfan1820]

His individuality is being snuffed out because his vulnerabilities are being taken advantaged of by an abomination. Saving him would be the morally right thing to do. Poor guy...

[@dev4159]

​@@ranfan1820 Not necessarily. Sometimes the "monster" might actually be saving said person, not just the way you think salvation would be, because of course you don't understand cosmic eldritch beings. Neither i do, but honestly, if i ever had the opportunity to be something like a angel and help people, i would. :)

[@escapefromventablack5296]

@@ranfan1820 im that guy, i don't care about individualism

[@Paul-A01]

You have a duty to tell the depressed man "No, you can't kill yourself"

[@foogriffy]

something i learned from having migraines is that being alive is inherently painful. this isn't just some angsty statement about migraines, but when a rogue brain waves passes over the brain, inhibitory neurons are disrupted, allowing us to feel a pain that is constantly happening and constantly being blocked. light hitting the retina damages it, and it's through the act of being alive that we constantly repair our tissues as well. there is ALWAYS pain, it's just being blocked by inhibitory neurons. so, during the process of death, when the body systems shut down the brain is left alone for a moment, or a few moments. and those inhibitory neurons now have nothing to inhibit, because the connection to the body has been severed. and there would be no pain, not even the sensation of ignoring pain. i think it's terrifying, because it would be so... relaxing. i would never fight to stay alive if mortally injured, i would never be one of those people that miraculously survives a fatal accident by sheer will of wanting to live. i would just want to relax... it makes me wonder about my life and why i continue to live it. i think the topic of this video really touches something deep in our pysche.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

I have severe chronic migraines as well, and I can't say that I haven't though exactly what you just wrote here before. Long periods of serious pain bring up some really potentially disturbing thoughts.

[@AbsurdlyGeeky]

People often think of life as a product of a highly ordered universe. In fact, it's the result of a highly chaotic one. Everyone about our existence is rooted in the process of entropy.

[@mrkshply]

I really love your comment. I used to train MMA but everyone in sport can relate to that voice that reminds you "this can all end if you just give up." The best can fight that voice even continue fighting after they're unconscious.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

@@mrkshply Sounds a lot like my decades of doing high-level ballet. We used to pride ourselves on how much pain and fatigue we could tolerate, to the point that I once even danced an advanced exam on a fractured hip. (To be fair, I didn't know it was fractured until the next day, when I got up and couldn't walk.) Every dancer I know has a long litany of nasty injuries. But after all that, the migraines were what forced me into quitting. When you're in too much pain to even tolerate light or any sound without throwing up, you just need to lay down and cope. There are some things you can't fight.

[@mrkshply]

@thing_under_the_stairs nice lol. I was proud of myself when I worked out so hard I threw up. It was common for small guys but I'm pretty big. My coach said big guys can't really push themselves to puke. So I pushed myself hard enough to puke. So proud. So unhealthy

[@BlackBanditXX]

The fear of losing one's self is one of - if not the most - base fears we have. It's why we fear death. Though, I think Mark Twain has perhaps the only rational response I've ever heard for it. "I did not exist for billions of years, and it did not inconvenience me one bit."

[@Primatenate88]

If I die and find out that I’ve done it before I’m going to look like such a chump.

[@Merilirem]

@@Primatenate88 Consider this, what is the alternative to life? An absolute end? Forever? Can you truly expect to die when to truly die would require you to crease existing forever? To become nothing? How special you must be to become something that can't exist.

[@Primatenate88]

@@Merilirem Yeah yeah to existence and recognize futility and all of that

[@alexandramilos392]

​@@Primatenate88 based reincarnation believer moment, though I think it's normal and expected for people to feel fear towards death since it's instinctual to keep us from dieing when we shouldn't/like idiots.

[@alexandramilos392]

I wouldn't say that the fear of loosing one's self is what makes death scary (depending on what we understand by "fear of looseing ones self" to me it sounded like a melting into a universal hive mind and loosening individuality, but maybe you ment something else, but that's what I understood) considering most people couldn't come up with that even if they tried, I certainly never even thought of that before reading your comment. I think that, for at least some other people, and not just me, it's the fear of the information and memories they gathered while being alive getting deleted, and wasted, and it all having been pointless. But the main thing that makes death scary to me is the physical, and potentially emotional/mental pain I would be feeling when I die combined with the fact that those would be my last moments so if they sucked I couldn't make them be better or redo them, because you don't get redoes, once you die you die, that's the death you get for that life, or for forever.

[@pseudomastix2916]

"Fear is reflective of your values" is a strong statement. I had a strange conversation a week or two ago with my friend Patrick. We were talking about cosmic horror and philosophy and he mentioned a section of the 'Three-Body-Problem' series to me. In this section, the scientists working with quantum physics were all killing themselves because they were convinced that the laws of the universe (i.e., the speed of light, the force of gravity, the mass of a proton etc) were all fundamentally in flux and that, at any time, entire sections of the universe might 'blip' out of existence as we know it. My friend Patrick told me that such a concept terrified him and, when I explained how such an idea didn't really faze me, he became really confused. I tried to explain to him that metaphysical spontaneity may very well be possible and that it would seem entirely natural for me if the universe were to suddenly and inexplicably change to some alternative state of affairs. I tried to explain that perhaps the apparent 'laws of the universe', or even Logic itself, might just be the product of our minds trying to understand the world (I had been reading Kant that week). I think, in some sense, we just value different things: he values a fundamental order which can be associated with an eternal ontological state of affairs (i.e., a reality) whereas I, on the other hand, value the mere relation we use to analyses that reality; I don't care what is 'real', but rather, I only care for how we perceive things in regards to 'The Real'. This becomes more evident when we discuss thinkers like Baudrillard and his notion of a Simulacrum; {a copy of a copy of a copy...} forever with no original.

[@markdmckenna]

Really good take. I get where you're coming from, and I think I resonate with your position a lot more than Patrick's. Maybe people who have read historical philosophy have a different relationship to reality than others ;P

[@FemFridge]

I would very much find it concerning if the laws of the universe were randomly changing. Our universe appears to be rather fine-tuned. Most theoretical universes could not sustain chemistry and thus life as we know it. So any change in the laws of the universe would be extremely likely to result in our annihilation. I prefer to not be randomly annihilated.

[@juju958]

Same with how children believe in magic.

[@chrisasfha1497]

"Fear is reflective of your values", I'd like to share that I'm afraid of surprises. At first glance, it's the unexpected, the unknown. The loose screw that ruins the cogs in a well-oiled, well-planned machine. The domino that topples all else, and then some. It dabbles into the fear that we can't control something always, and the fear of losing that control. But in due time, I've come to accept that. There will be lapses where the first surprise will scare me, but I've come to accept the disruption to only then adapt to it, go around it, or deal with it in its entirety. It then hits me with the surprise to end all surprises; the eventuality that nothing can surprise me anymore. Sure it means I've become well-versed in adapting to any and all circumstances without hesitation to resolve it. But that also means there's nothing left to stimulate me. Nothing's entertaining, and eventually nothing is shocking. It all rolls towards the facet of existence that with nothing new, everything has already been lived. The fear of surprise is no longer the surprise itself but the fear that there is nothing left to surprise you.

[@zombiepotato893]

Heyo, I just read your comment (very nice, gave me something to think about). I also wanted to recommend 2 Science fiction books which might go in a similiar direction (if your are in general interested in this topic) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. and One billion years to the end of the world by Strugatzki brothers. Maybe you enjoy them. Anyway thank you again for your original comment :)

[@vigilantScrivener]

There’s the line that the mice say to Arthur Dent in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy “Your new brain is gonna love your new brain.”

[@JamesTDG]

Which version was this? It definitely was not in the movie, so is it the old BBC series or the book? (I read the book a long time ago and my copy is lost...)

[@vigilantScrivener]

@ the book. I’ve never experienced any of the adaptations.

[@JonathonNarfhead]

​​@@vigilantScrivenerwell erm technically 🤓 The book is an adaptation of the radio play But yeah the only version I've experienced is the books.

[@samlambert4770]

It does tbf

[@sarka2008]

"I do not know why the hive chose me, but it did. And I think that it always had. The song is loud and beautiful and I am so very afraid. There is a wasps’ nest in my attic. Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul." - Jane Prentice (TMA E32 Hive)

[@Djkdraws]

I love the Magnus Archives, though I think that Jonah Magnus as the pupil at the end is more leaning into the cosmic bliss, based on the way Jon describes what he describes how he thinks Jonah Magnus is feeling

[@sarka2008]

@@Djkdraws I haven't gotten to that party yet I'm still on the season 3 but I'll see if I can remember to come back to this comment and reply properly once I Know what you're talking about :) Edit: forgot to add that yes I also absolutely love the Magnus archives ( Also I accidentally put in the word "party" instead of "part" but I'm keeping the typo because it's still kind of fits :) )

[@thajocoth]

At the beginning, when you talked about the person trying to join the people golem... That feels like it's just a very strong desire to be part of a community, even if it's at what's normally a lower-than-human level. That's relatable to some degree.

[@MDuarte-vp7bm]

I believe in viking culture, to be unwillingly alone was of the greatest possible suffering.

[@spider76275]

I have thought about this before and at the extreme, engaging with society means you are letting it warp and mold who you are, but on the other hand not engaging with society would make you grow up like an animal. So who am I? What am I? Even if I could go away forever to the other side of the universe, I would still be made of society. What does this mean.

[@jackbedient]

It’s a Clive Barker story from The Books of Blood…

[@user-dj6lj1dl1c]

from what i understand, many indigenous nations in north america used to have exhile as their worst punishment. in this view, having no community was seen as a fate equal or worse than physical suffering or death. the value of community is something that is so horribly lost in western countries that should be talked about much more. individualism is not the solution

[@johnturtle6649]

There was already an SCP like this. It started with a town full of people then started spreading so they literally nuked the town. Then, they had to go back later because it just sank underground and continued to spread.

[@Poldovico]

So weird to see my comment in that intro. So weird to think back on the headspace I was in at the time. I am doing much better now, and while it would be foolish to put the totality of a human's mental well being on just one thing, I am thankful for the role this channel played in my path to feeling glad to be here. Your videos helped broaden my mental horizons when intense self focus was so very easy yet so very dangerous, offered a tranquil setting to consider human topics bright and dark, and let me access some of the beauty of literature at a time when simply sitting down in the quiet with a book was not something my brain could contemplate. Here is to one more year of making stuff up

[@kinggeocat]

congrats on your recovery! im glad you made it through :)

[@soph7167]

This initially reminded me of one of the things that frightend me the most about Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, where after a disaster causes the pit to collapse, some of the people who were rescued but injured crawled desperately back into the flesh pit, for some unknown reason, becoming one with it

[@Furyhound]

To know something is horrifying, but the victim who also knows this insists it is a great thing... it is indeed horrifying.

[@yellowstarproductions6743]

Agreed

[@vidcundcurious]

What scares me so much about it is that it shows just how powerful and manipulative that horror entity must be. It's a kind of happy zombie-ism, mixed with self-destruction.

[@vidcundcurious]

The idea that an entity can be so powerful it just absorbs, overcomes, dissolves, bypasses or breaks your human impulses like survival.

[@Coppermeshman]

​​@@vidcundcurious Many kinds of animals may do that.

[@CookiesRiot]

​@Coppermeshman Human offspring cause this in parents.

[@annabaldwin787]

I don’t know if this fully relates but there’s a brothers Grimm story about a boy who found fear at last. The channel overly sarcastic productions did a pretty good job retelling the story but essentially a boy grows up in a sheltered cottage and has no understanding of the concept of fear so he goes on a journey to learn it. He encounters a series of events and people who would horrify any other person with no reaction at all until the ending. I don’t want to spoil the exact ending but essentially what ends up scaring him is the societal pressures around him as he gets a starts to think of his future

[@centrifugalmuse]

I just watched this story on one of the “The Storyteller” episodes! (Hulu or max? Unsure, but it’s Jim Henson)

[@sequoiacollier-hezel7444]

The boy who learned why shivering meant - that’s like my favorite of Grimm’s story

[@marycustodio9736]

SPOILERS I could've sworn his wife got tired of his "if i could but shudder" spiel and threw a bucket of water on him

[@lawrencefrost9063]

Essentially, what truly frightens him isn't ghosts or goblins but the practical realities of life, adulthood, and societal expectations-things that are harder to face with sheer bravado or obliviousness. This twist underscores a subtle moral: real fear often lies not in the fantastical but in the ordinary challenges of human existence.

[@RandomOldPerson]

@@centrifugalmuse I loved that episode. Watched it the night it first aired.

[@hekates-ladder]

your reference to Jeff VanderMeer’s “Annihilation” made me SO happy. ❤️ That book, and its protagonist specifically, is precisely the reason i was interested in this topic enough to click on your video.

[@AMortifyingOrdeal]

I feel like the biggest difference between seeking ego death and seeking to die/oblivion is the difference between wanting to take off a coat because it no longer fits and wanting to take off your skin because you think it's imperfect.

[@WanderTheNomad]

Seems like 2 sides of the same coin.

[@oneoranota]

As someone who acheived ego death, yeah that just feels like removing a coat. Also you need a few years of adjustment and ultimately, ego is needed to live in society, but you can hopefully start from a better point (getting a coat your size).

[@allice1643]

Most people I met who spoke about achieving death of ego were the most ego driven people.. narcissistic, egoistical and sometimes unkind, but also unhappy and lost, scared. Even cowardly in the way they lived their lives which led them to being so horribly unhappy. Looking for something to relieve them from having to treat other people well, to think of them, to feel empathy. Just a brilliant escape from being a decent person. Now it's hard for me to think it can really happen. I imagine that only few actually know what it is and can achieve the death of ego. I still want to think of it as a cocoon being broken and a fantastic butterfly of a human being coming into the world to be better and help others.

[@williamanon2050]

@@allice1643Maybe it’s better to think of ego death as something that can be touched, rather than a permanent transformation someone undergoes. At the peak of a mushroom trip, or deep in meditation, or even just listening to utterly beautiful music, the self completely disappears; it is possible to take the lesson of the impermanence/nonexistence of the self into everyday life, but most people at least do regain the ego when they “come down.” I’m not sure if this is a correct analysis.

[@Prodigi50]

@@williamanon2050 IIRC there is a story where the Buddha basically says that Enlightenment is what you describe here. You can “fall out” of it if you’re upset enough and need to concentrate on getting it back.

[@MelancholicBodhisattva]

I guess for me, the cleanest answer is that it depends on perspective. Cosmic horror, cosmic bliss - two facets of the same underlying structure. I would prefer the beautiful flame that sings a wonderful song over some Lovecraftian tentacled creature ready to eat me alive. But then again, i would really like to avoid both to live my life, to choose for myself.

[@Servatoflaughter]

Ah the insatiable flames or the starved Eldritch God it would be a blessing to at least die and not become their vessel or their harbinger to spread forth their call

[@sechernbiw3321]

It's interesting to try to compare. Cosmic annoying orange trapping me in an endless annoying conversation until I die of starvation, dehydration or lack of sleep definitely sounds much worse than either the flame or the tentacles personally, but I'm not sure it's because the orange is more horrifying than the flame or the tentacles. I think the orange is just worse because its more annoying and more drawn out. It might be that the most horrifying outcome is different from the worst outcome. The beautiful flame that sings a wonderful song actually is the most horrifying for me to think about, and the reason is specifically because it is the least unpleasant. If I have to go, at least let me go with my dignity intact, while I am still able to say "I would prefer to keep living and doing the things I love with the people I care about instead." The tentacles end you but they don't take away who you were, nor does the orange. The flame doesn't just put an end to you, it totally reshapes you psychologically, and only then puts an end to the perfectly willing servant it has effortlessly transformed you into. The flame seems to say (or sing?) "not only have I ended you, I have also shown that you were only ever free in the first place because I allowed it for a while, on a whim, at random or for my own unknowable or utterly alien, inhuman and bizarre reasons." That's the deeper level of horror that makes a lot of cosmic bliss so creepy.

[@ulyssesm.daniels6927]

Fun fact, that beautiful flame is kinda similar to what Rosencrutians believed.

[@admiral8bit7]

Really agree with the sentiment. I've found many people arguing about what is less or more scary in fiction and when you get down to the brass tacks it's a bit silly. In reality what's scary really comes down to personality and how much you've already been exposed to it. Some argue that any nasty entity is less scary than a serial killer story because that is closer to real life, others will just laugh at that because in those stories the idea that any of this would happen in these ways is ridiculous and them trying to pass it off as realistic makes it feel even less serious. There seems to truly be no way to scare everyone and the best horror is just a story that creates great and unique sense of fear for its genre and even those not highly shook by it can acknowledge that its interesting and no matter what would also be fricking awful to come across.! Not sure why I wrote this long thing. Carry on mates.!

[@escapefromventablack5296]

im taking the flame over life

[@SuspiciouslyCatShapedPotato]

0:47 Infection? Brightness? HOLLOW KNIGHT REFERENCE????

[@URI443PHOENIX]

Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach novels!

[@zeppie_]

This reminds me of the Frenzied Flame in Elden Ring. From the outside, it looks like a chaotic and frantic hysteria. But when the Tarnished or Midra ascend as Lord of Frenzied Flame, they look just so calm and serene, like they've been able to let go of everything because the world doesn't deserve caring about in the first place

[@VeritabIlIti]

Considering that Elden Ring has its equivalents of Eldritch deities in the Outer Gods, I never considered the Tarnished or Midra as either of those things - mostly because they cease to exist when they give in to the Flame. The replacement of the head with an orb of frenzy is pretty obvious to me. While Midra's suffering is at last ended, so is his life: the flame carries out his revenge in the form of utter chaos and death. Same with the frenzy ending - it implies the Tarnished is so disillusioned with everything they've seen that instead of inheriting the Elden throne, they elect to burn everything down and give in to Frenzy. (That, or they were the unfortunate victim of a very painful hug.)

[@Deflamed_Sphere]

finally some one mentioned their weird euphoria

[@Cosmic-Sorceress-17]

Elden Ring is full of such instances of cosmic horror and cosmic bliss: the Flame of Frenzy is one of the largest standouts, but there's also the Primeval Current, Saint Trina, the worshippers of the Scarlet Rot, and many others. It's equally spectacular and terrifying how many cosmic forces have their fingers in the world's pie.

[@anthonyeaves4145]

My favorite ending despite how awful it is to reach the three fingers

[@VeritabIlIti]

@@anthonyeaves4145 seriously, how do so many people accidentally find them? It's a huge pain just to get there!

[@Wrat_]

I was Justine but became Clair. When my fiance came into my life it was truly wonderful but it also was a sort of personal Pandora's box for me. I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression at 4 years old. I was heavily suicidal most of my life. But when she showed up, all the sudden I had something to live for. I changed. I lost my cosmic bliss and honestly feel like fear runs much of my life now. Some of it is justified cuz of current medical issues but that's only been the last year, and we've been together 8 years. My depression didn't go away, it just took on a new form, as I no longer looked at death and disaster as a good thing. She's worth it tho, the fear is worth the hope I think.

[@kaiserdamasus1978]

It's wonderful to love someone, and It's good to love someone enough to come to them and become their spouse. But your reason for existence is there whether she entered your life or not or whether she will remain in your life or not. Don't forget that. You can't pin your self-worth on others. I've done that, and it can destroy you.

[@_silkk.seide.]

I loved this. Thank you for this perspective.

[@TheGreenNecromancer]

The bit about letting go of your fears reminded me of the Dune quote. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” -Frank Herbert

[@journeymanic9605]

I wonder if the sentiment is one should not feel fear or one should not let their fear control them? Is enlightenment the rejection of fear or the mastery of it?

[@user-bz9of6tn6l]

I would argue mastery. To reject fear is to reject a fundamental component of the human experience, even if that component is often unpleasant. We need fear to let us know when to be alerted to danger, for example, so that we have our fight-or-flight responses.

[@anna_phylaxis]

Over the summer, I was dealing with some mild dissociation. In an attempt to anchor myself back into my body, I started doing guided meditations. It worked out well at first, with the exercises focusing on being present and taking in everything in the moment, but as the lessons went on, the focus shifted. The courses started to lead to the ultimate goal of ego death, and the dissociation I was trying to stop was coming back. After all, ego death is just a form of dissociation. I stopped the meditations, with the knowledge that having a strong sense of self and being anchored felt better to me than any idealistic dream of ego death. The concept of ceasing to be myself in pursuit of some form of esoteric wisdom wasn't worth it.

[@descendingintodreams1768]

I honestly wish more people think about ego that way. Some people demonize the ego as if it isn’t just the mind trying to cultivate itself in an easier to understand way, for the sake of existence. I’m glad you found a better way to feel whole, rather than just “morally better.” Dissociation sucks, but having some self to stay grounded in is better than nothing :)

[@TalpaTulpa]

Ego death should never be a method to get away from ego, it’s simply a way to understand it

[@mattmacneil]

Have you considered yoga? It's the most in my own body I feel, with clarity and endorphins and a comforting mix of energized and exhausted. The "meditative flow" aspect of yoga for me is very integrative. You become aware of every part of your body, deep breathing, central focus but with less opportunity to get caught in the existential weeds.

[@brunogmguerra]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with meditation. Have you considered talking to a Buddhist Lama about it? I think it would be very beneficial. I hope you're feeling better now and can find comfort!

[@zamnitsaph]

THANK YOU FOR THIS ❤ I've gone through this thing before

[@NunyaBizniz-om6xf]

This video is absolutely perfect for a plan I've had for a campaign in a tabletop rpg i found. When faced with the prospect of losing themself, i wanted the main antagonist to welcome it with open arms. They will have not lost themself by fear but by acceptance of the idea that they are nothing in the grand scheme of *everything*. They find the idea freeing, beautiful, and they want others to see that too. they want everyone to see that and are actively cultivating a group to bring this about. Perhaos this is what i need to focus on, then. Fear, losing said fear, and the loss of self that losing your fear necessitates. perhaps i understood the viseo wrong but this.. this feels right to me now.

[@seaspenders]

Fear serves an important function for survival. Understanding/accepting/acknowledging your fear and letting it pass through you in moments where it isn't helpful is key. You cannot be brave without fear.

[@plantday4680]

Either way boring mudane world compared to things like op manhwa webnovels

[@casassin]

As someone with anxiety, I really related to Justine from Melancholia. I'm scared of so many things. Social interactions, death or just simple changes of my routines that wouldn't even remotely bother your average Joe. It kind of reminds me why so many people with anxiety are drawn to horror. Suddenly, your fear makes sense. It finally gives you something that makes sense to be scared of. It's kind of relieving. As if you're releasing pressure because you spent so many hours being scared of anything and everything that it finally feels like your fear actually makes sense for once. I think it's similar to that.

[@ryn3872]

When you constantly live in fear of phantom tigers, encountering a real tiger is a relief.

[@christianschmitz5261]

Encountered a rattlesnake in the garden a few years ago, after it had attacked another animal - without hesitation, I went about defeating the snake & saving the other animal. Encountered a wolf last year, and a bobcat a few weeks ago - in both cases, I chased them away. Can't say, that the encounters came as relief, rather, some force or instinct seemed to have been awoken, despite my fear and my very noticeably pumping heart. Perhaps some humans have retained an ability to respond unhesitatingly & appropriately to certain perceived threats within a hostile natural world, despite "civilization"? And the eradication of such threats for many men, may have also have left us with a constant undercurrent of anxiety in "normal" (not natural) conditions - maybe as a sort of release for that very force that resides within us? A friend, who was present during the bobcat encounter, got mad at me, for risking my well-being by going after the animal, but despite my sharply elevated fear, there was no question, that my reaction was the "right" thing to do - I had the full conviction, that I'd be victorious, should the animals try to attack me.

[@dmorfeus3910]

> "Have you tried confidence" ?! Around 5 l got fed up being fearful ; wasn't a sudden realization, but gradually filtering by reason what scared me and ...dunno, choosing NOT to. Even in dreams choose to stop running and face ...whatever was after me, never got to see it, but never got chased again either ; l'm not "imposing" my experience to you, just sharing ; dissolution of fear doesn't exist, you still get the beating heart but more of an adrenaline rush than paralyzing and crippling fearful anxiety ... Is it something to strive for ? ...perhaps ? ...maybe ? Indifference, stoicism and a rather philosophical approach got me to my twilight years ! ls good ? Bad ? ...lt's ME ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ >

[@ryn3872]

@ That’s awesome! You fought your phantom tigers. I did something similar to… not get over my social anxiety, but keep it manageable. Cheers for sharing what’s worked for you and being respectful about it. :3

[@DuckBarcode]

I like how you didn’t just look at everything from outside or inside perspective. You took both and explained both, then told why you think what you think. I’m not going to lie, that changed the way I see some things. Thank you 🙏

[@nightbane2889]

I always found the idea of becomming part of another being interesting. I never thought of it as self-dissolution, but rather the opposite. The joy and relief of being able to firmly say you have someone, something to share yourself with and to be more with them. Not a lessening of who you are but a growth. And the idea of opening oneself up to others is terrifying. Makes me wonder if the reason we are so afraid of such things is not because we are afraid of losing ourselves, but instead afraid of sharing ourselves.

[@ultranovva]

I think this is also the reason for why we value relationships platonic or romantic so much, it gives us assurance that we're part of something bigger and stronger than us alone

[@novaflareq4788]

Reminds me of the Helios A.I. from Deus Ex, that's like his whole philosophy: "Share your mind with everyone. Open yourself. Let us understand and be transformed, yes. Transform each other and transform yourselves. The only frontier that has ever existed, is the self." -Helios, Invisible War Helios only came to this conclusion because he is the product of two A.I. systems, Daedalus and Icarus, accidentally merging in the first game. So he IS the philosophy he seeks to employ.

[@reyelkhaert]

This might sound super lame but this comment reminds me of fusion from Steven Universe.

[@Wolf-oc6tx]

I figure the reason people find the idea of becoming part of another being scary is because people deep down know they would be giving up a lot(including possibly there personhood) and risking merging with a malicious/harmful being(there are countless stories of evil spirits possessing people and there are entire species of parasites that control hosts from inside), its a instinctal safeguard against horrible things.

[@nightbane2889]

​@@Wolf-oc6tx I believe this is a perfectly valid thought process. Probably the most interesting thing about horror is that it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. And even when their on opposite sides of the coin (positive vs negative association) their not necessarily opposed view points. I think it ultimately a risk/reward thought process, regardless of which school of thought you subscribe to. If a person is right and they become more, its a great reward, that ultimately fulfilling and worth giving up somethings. However if a person is wrong, they could lose everything and become a shell of themselves or worse.

[@ApostateOfMind42]

The Flame of Frenzy in Elden Ring is a good example of this. I empathized with it during a dark time in my life. I focused my whole build on it because of that.

[@EepyGirlLava]

In the same place now, with hundreds of hours on a frenzyflame build ive taken to +7

[@DreamskyDance]

I refused to have anything with Frenzied Flame douring darker times in my life for this very reason. Only did Frenzied Flame playthrough when the times got a bit lighter and that with minimum "inserting myself into my character" or even pondering that from my perspective but actively consciously detached. I wanted the achievement and get through another ER playthrough but dont want nothing to do with that kind of ideology because i understand it...

[@BlueShadow7777]

Hi, thank you for this comment, I just went down a 2-hour elden ring wiki rabbithole, it was amazing

[@AmazingOwnage]

Great video essay. The game you discussed sounded super interesting! Ego death is beautiful man, and I hope you get to experience it someday. It can also be terrifying, but you’ll come out of it a stronger and better person.

[@zachbundy7026]

It's weird to think about Melencolia being a film about accepting the end of the world at the "hands" of a rogue planet when not to long ago Toho studios made a similar movie (Gorath) and instead of accepting the inevetible they said "Nuts to that! We'll just move the planet out of the way!" It says something about how much hope we may have lost since those days.

[@noahcole4201]

Well, it is also Toho, the guys who make Godzilla films. A bunch of their films revolve around humans fighting back against the odds.

[@azoth9875]

I think something kind of overlooked in the previous video on this is that these characters are experiencing a loss of agency; of free will. Whether it's like the spore, where it could be directly altering her cognitive processes (the flame may similarly be doing so, and it could well be that the song itself is like a mental infection - if this were an SCP, it would be classified as a cognitohazard - worming its way into the heads of listeners to change their thought processes, to make them desire the flame and eventually succumb to it), or whether it's something more like conventional cosmic horror where the act of observing something ineffable causes something fundamental in the mind to crack or break outright, in all instances there seems to be an idea that, while the individual retains their sense of self (for the time being), they have lost their autonomy. They may still have a will but it is no longer free; they cannot help but _want_ the oblivion being offered to them, to 'willingly' give themselves over to it. The loss of self is something quite terrifying to me already (possibly more than death - at least there, it is a complete end, and a very natural one at that, but with this you continue to live even though everything that made you who you were is already dead, which just seems so... wrong. It is, I think, a part of why some people would see a disease like Alzheimer's, or dementia in general, as a worse fate than death), but the idea of being made to _want_ it is infinitely moreso. So often in stories with 'loss of self' as a threat, or with cosmic horror of any sort, you see characters going out kicking and screaming, fighting until the last moment to remain for just a bit longer, and there's something so very _human_ about that. It's kind of the natural response. After all, even if we're not always consciously aware of it, isn't that what life is? Everything that lives will die, and the process of living is a constant fight to remain for just a bit longer, even if the end is inevitable. Cosmic bliss, as presented here, represents almost a total inversion of this, and so is something utterly unnatural and alien. It has a sort of sinister, insidious quality to it, made worse by the fact that it is portrayed - at the very least by the individual experiencing it - as something wonderful, or even pleasurable to undergo.

[@legionnaire5947]

Well said 👌

[@grayanddevpdx]

That dementia mention made me think of a phenomenon that tends to happen in later stages. Alzheimer’s patients tend to have moments of bliss between confusions, and it reminds me of this concept. The idea that, somewhere in their mind, having all their bad memories rotted away feels blissful, even if their good memories are also disappearing, is terrifying to me. That’s partially why the part of EatEoT that scared me the most was Temporary Bliss State and Synapse Retrogenesis rather than the more obviously terrifying parts, it’s the fact that it represents the mind being so dissolved it can’t even fear the fact it’s dissolving.

[@kaijukisser]

i experience cosmic horror through the lens of cosmic bliss, so how spoiled am i to have not one but two videos on it from you?! it's a concept i was struggling to describe until you pointed me to the concept of it and its phrases! i use the whale analogy from the first video a lot. love your videos, talebot!

[@catbatrat1760]

Personally, I kind of wish that Tale Foundry delved more into the examples in the beginning, where it was less that they felt that they had nothing to live for and more that they either thought this was _better_ than anything they could have imagined for themselves or were just plain mind-controlled. I mean, if you feel like you have nothing to live for or otherwise care about, then of course you're not going to care if your life ends. I think that's just kind of obvious, and I'm much more interested in/creeped out by those other things. (idk if I'm making any sense)

[@MetalMockingjay]

He went into those in the previous video mentioned at 1:18, "When Cosmic Horror isn't scary"

[@cullenlatham2366]

agreed. it isnt the bliss of the moments before death, it is the external, cosmic forces that have the power to make their victims seek it out. It is the corruption, the lack of agency, and the question of if the person in question is still the same after the influence changes everything about the way they behave. Technically speaking, he does go into those example in the beginning in the video this one is a response to, (to the point of giving me a gut punch of deja vu), but in that original video, he also doesnt really address the lack of control.

[@mesiagamer5217]

This feels like the premise of a good chunk of Junjito the fall from seeing something as terrifying to just blissful.

[@Jeff-gj7ko]

Really? I can't say I really read Junji Ito's manga. It is far to bizarrely graphic for my taste.

[@Foxaris]

It's just a matter of perspective. The writer writes what makes him happy and fills his heart with hope and love. The reader then reads it and finds a story filled with nothing but absolute terror and despair and comes to the conclusion that whoever wrote it must be insane. Which is usually also true.

[@DarkWarchieff]

I have c-ptsd, severe agoraphobia and generalized anxiety, that fear passage really made me stop on my bicycle and made me go "wow". Thank you.

[@Josiah-xe8up]

You watch YT on a bike? Listen? Both are dangerous af. 😅

[@keepyourshoesathedoor]

@@Josiah-xe8upI’m assuming it’s an exercise bike.

[@TempehLiberation]

“The need to go astray, to be destroyed, is an extremely private, distant, passionate, turbulent truth.” ― Georges Bataille

[@TheHarliestQuinn]

the animation for your channel is amazing

[@wargen8121]

i love those kinds of videos where you explore a more philisopfical concepts put to wrtiting. at the same time i love how you explore the real life implications of those concepts like heavens gate, and don't shy from using a word "suicide" in your scripts. people use words like "unalive themselves" which would praise the algorythm, but not at all shield vulnerable subset of viewers from those concepts. I respect that. sometimes, being blunt is more helpful than dancing around a REAL issue. Great work as always Tale Foundry. Stories are meant to be told.

[@library.collective]

fascinating to me that the first video on cosmic bliss received the feedback it did, bc i’m absolutely one of the people who experiences cosmic horror, as you put it, as brushes with the incomprehensible sublime. when i look at a sky full of stars, all i want is to dissolve into the spaces between them, becoming nothing so that i can become everything. to be afraid of that is something absolutely foreign to me.

[@JonathonNarfhead]

Are you planning on having your cremated remains shot into orbit? Because that's a thing now.

[@johnturtle6649]

I found one old sci fi book that posited the dark night sky and stars as the war between good and evil. The one person is saying "there is a battle in the heavens, and we as the stars are winning" the other person says "but how can that be? the darkness is so vast and the points of light so few" the first person then responds "there used to be nothing but darkness"

[@escapefromventablack5296]

same. like the concepts that are being talked about in the comments labeled as terrifying i find is what i want

[@hellblaze10]

Its terrifies me cause i value my exitance as a flesh and blood being. Becoming one with everything means you no longer exist. I like experincing thing from a distinace while you wish to become a piece of what you see.

[@pradnyamalandkar6307]

in a way, we all do exist in the spaces between the stars (and more), in comparison our existence is not even a spec of space & time. no one knew we would exist before we were born & no one will know of our existence with passage of some time after we die. Some may find this truth unsettling but then again it also encourages one to live life fully since it will only happen once.

[@BuffetCrayfish]

I've been a watcher of your channel for many years now, I actually thought this was a reupload until you mentioned your Cosmic Bliss video. Anyway, I'm really commenting just to say that your animated intro is one of the most stunning pieces I've seen on KZbin, kudos to your artists and visionaries.

[@livingeclipse]

I created an eldritch god for my D&D campaign, she was The Maddening Beauty, symbolized by a gigantic crystal weeping willow tree. She dances in darkness as the single point. She dances with her husband, Nyarlathotep, and sends her beautiful influence through the cosmos.

[@aazhie]

I love her :]

[@HalcyonProtocol]

I am drawn to her. She is the horizon.

[@Overkill2217]

I love this idea

[@MrAlice613]

She and Nyarlarthotep notice you from across the bar and love your vibe.

[@M_Alexander]

I think you've given me inspiration of how to end my current campaign (in a couple more years...)

[@ajreid8095]

0:13 Is that Monika?

[@feverish-fish]

looks like it :0

[@DinoGeekLOL]

Omg it is loll

[@vladivascanu108]

Yes only her.

[@eldasd.4631]

NO, It Patrick!

[@Doomsman-VII]

What?

[@vib2119]

As a person that does meditation and has often been in meditative states that have made me so naturally focused on my breath that boundary between the my body and the world has disappeared. That that outline of my body that is ever felt when closing my eyes has disappeared. I can say it's much more different than letting a large mass of bodies consume you or letting a fungal lifeform make me it's home. I think the difference is that when I become "one" with the wind and the world I give myself to it, but it doesn't consume me. The world and winds have no will to consume me, I simply give myself. "I" am still there but it's like I am the world, I breath with the world. I breath and the world moves, the birds fly, the sun shines, the winds blow. I am still there, but at the same time I am not. And it's the paradoxical harmony both of those states of being that brings me peace. Again I find that very different from imagine giving myself to mass of bodies, or a fungal being. Those two have a will, and they wish to consume. Which makes me unwilling to give myself over. So I don't think meditation, ego death or whatever is anywhere similar to cosmic horror. But maybe it's just the presentation, the world and the winds are much more appealing to humans, than a mass of bodies or a fungal being.

[@jacobshore5115]

Dead Space does this concept really well too, what with the Necromorphs and all the maintenance you have to do on the ship Ishimura.

[@mrkshply]

I was gonna say, sounds like Dead Space on Earth. Idk about you but I enjoyed the fetch-quest aspect. It felt realistic. Unlike so many fetch-quests where I need to go grab a key from somewhere for some reason. Lol

[@jacobshore5115]

@ for which Game? Dead Space or Still Wakes the Deep?

[@VeritabIlIti]

​@@jacobshore5115 Both of them do it. The difference is that while Dead Space is largely Isaac being thrown around because he's the expert in fixing things, and that the Necromorphs are a large focus of the game (and are eventually explained), Still Wakes The Deep intentionally grounds itself in its setting before introducing its cosmic horror element, and that is never explained. It's a difference of focus: one is the main character struggling to survive and find his loved one, where fixing the ship is an imperative but more of a loose threat; the other is the main character struggling with an already inhospitable and industrial environment being corrupted by something he can't bring himself to look at, that he can't fight, all in a doomed effort to get back to his family. The relationships and characters are far more complex in Still Wakes The Deep, and while the moment-to-moment gameplay lacks the catharsis of Dead Space's scares and combat, the fact that every sequence, every location is more or less based on a real system on an oil rig, makes every encounter and task feel massive and often scary by itself even before you add monsters. (The sequence in the flotation system was scarier than any of the monster sequences for me.)

[@RepellentJeff]

Not to mention the slow, cosmic brainwashing of “Make us whole.”

[@angrymushroom26]

This is what going mad from the revealation is. It isn't just so pants shittingly scary you go crazy. It is that you caught a glimpse of something that recontexualizes your reality. Could just be as simple as the realization you are just a fleck of dust in the web of things. or just learning that there is a better way of existing that from the outside looks horrifying because it lacks context.

[@LostMekka]

i am definitely a justine kind of person. my childhood and early life was so horrible that it was hard for me to care about anything. nowadays i happily sacrifice my own well-being if i can help others and this is a real problem for me. retroactively learning that things matter, that i matter, is really hard...

[@petergerlagh9858]

This helped me put to words what I seek in cosmic horror: A sense of Awe, as an image of the Divine.

[@ChincerDante]

Fear remind us that we have something to lose, that we love something, we need something. When you remove fear, there is just something blissful, but empty, like a black hole, the the bagel in "everything everywhere at once"

[@JakeTheHuman11]

This duality between fear and the value you place on life really resounds with a similar idea I like to entertain. In the same way, frustration and happiness are similar in that you can only really let go of frustration and thus become satisfied if you abandon (or achieve) the ambitions that caused such frustration, but in such abandonment, you lose a part of yourself. Also cool video as always, ty

[@Internet_No_Body]

Seeing Monika in the intro immediately put a smile on my face, most people look at the pscyhological horror in that game and completely overlook the cosmic horror its entangled in. It's nice to see it acknowledged.

[@Giganotus]

with all these unusual facets such as the sublime and the fact that a cosmic horror often has a level of exultation and bliss and beauty to it really explains why it's such a difficult horror subgenre to pull off.

[@LawIV]

2:03 the call of the void

[@stanislawwitkowicz918]

In your video on Rainworld, you kind of brushed past what I would consider one of the best examples of cosmic bliss. The world of Rainworld works differently from ours on a fundamental level. Every living being on Rainworld is trapped within a cycle of death and rebirth. Every one of them experiences and remembers every single one of its deaths. It is unclear whether or not this occurs on separate, personal timelines, but the experience is still universal - it's the basis of the very existance there. The Ancients of Rainworld built their society around the idea of self-dissolution or, as the game calls it, ascension. While we dreamed of eternity, they dreamed of end. Oblivion. Dissolution. The destruction of the self. The scale of the Ancients' endevours to end themselves was truly mind-boggling. Not only did they establish complex religious rituals centered on self-hurt and starvation, they also directed all of their scientific research and economic activity towards ending themselves. Their cities boasted shrinking populations. They drilled deep into the earth untill they found void fluid, a substance capable of permanently erasing them from reality. When this method of ascension proved dangerous, their engineers created massive supercomputers known as the iterators in order to find a different, surefire way of achieving it. In the construction of the iterators they altered the global ecosystem to such a degree that it became nearly impossible to live on the surface, but they didn't care, because they didn't see any value in life whatsoever. One of their ancient poets compared the world to a tangled fishnet and its inhabitants to creatures of the sea. "They're all trapped within it", they wrote. "Only a jellyfish idly slithers out of the net. Only a jellyfish is truly free. That's why we should aspire to be like a jellyfish - because a jellyfish doesn't try" In the end, the Ancients succeeded in their efforts. In an event known simply as "global ascension" they all simultaneously descended into the Void Sea and left their cities, their creations and their entire world behind. If we can understand the world they lived in, we can understand the Ancients too. It made sense for their civilisation to develop like that. It's perfectly rational within their known set of rules. And yet, their story is utterly terrifying to us. To think that such a great civilisation of artists and inventors could strive to become completely mindless and effortless, like jellyfish. To think that their greatest ambition, what they believed to be the the most noble and wonderful thing to do was to give out everything they owned and destroy everything they ever created and bathe in a vat of corrosive fluid that burned both their bodies and souls. To think that an entire civilisation collectively strived towards what amounts to a group suicide, except with a proven lack of any sort of afterlife. They knew exactly what they were doing. They did all of that without regret. The distinction between cosmic horror and cosmic bliss is a matter of perspective. But it's a matter of perspective that is absolutely fundamental to us. It's the thought of changing so fundamentally as to completely lose that perspective that is scary.

[@dragontear1638]

Such a well thought out, well written post. Naturally will have spoilers here; thinking about it... some Echoes actually lambasted the civilisation, criticising the sheer arrogance, with one of the last data-pearls showing an absurd summary of how the Ancients became detached from reality; being an entirely over-winded report... about farming yields. They wrapped their heads in rituals and self-aggrandisement, which fed into the obsession to Ascend as you eloquently wrote; because they didn't care about the consequences. A world wide tragedy, because such a brilliant people as you mentioned, had the potential to treasure, preserve and spread, to come to a form of peace maybe? Even after all this nature still tries to re-establish itself, perhaps eventually making a silent mockery of a society compelled to absolute self-destruction.

[@Flourish38]

I love this comment. Thank you for posting it, I knew nothing about rain world’s lore before this.

[@HypaTaiga]

Oh so half of what bloodborne's denizens feel absolutely horrifying and at least 50 percent of those people are "happy" same goes for most Soulsborne gsmes

[@goddessdeedeebubblesofimag7789]

Lol I was starting to play the plin plin plon song on my keyboard near the end of the main part of the video (Ik it's dark souls not bloodborne but still)

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

That’s why they all go heheheheheh

[@SingleSockMon]

I love the game, Bloodborne.

[@dirkz.duggitz1567]

I just started bloodborne for the first time last weekend. Gonna dive in some more this weekend. Im right around Vicar Amelia I think.

[@SingleSockMon]

@dirkz.duggitz1567 Have fun. It's a pretty easy game to platinum(do the dlc on your first playthrough if you have it).

[@proximacentauri2684]

This is an INCREDIBLE video. The allure of just letting go very nearly killed me, a few years ago. I would constantly try to find ways to make my life unbearable to inch myself as close as I could to that place. I still grapple with it, but have learned to recognise that I need the nastiness. The exhaustion, longing, loneliness. Without these things, joy, love, family, it all means absolutely nothing. I am fascinated by stories of descent into this place of “letting go” for this reason.

[@SordidEuphemism]

The question "Would it be you, or something that used to be you?" ignores a truth: All of us are something that used to be us. You are not the person you were before researching this video, or watching it, or even after discovering a new favorite coffee flavor. We exist atop great charnal heaps of the corpses of who we once were, and view them with a mix of fondness and revulsion. To *not* change is inhuman. Change is necessary for us to exist *as* human.

[@morris_barada_tale]

True, but I think the video is asking that question in a more dramatic(cosmic) way, like the Heaven's Gate situation. The question is under the context of "a higher being or existence," rather than just "I'm different than who I was five minutes ago."

[@tamas9554]

This is not really a truth, we all have core traits and upheld values which defines us as people. Only by these basic thoughts changing can we truly call ourselves a different someone. A radical change of perspective isn't the same as gathering more information, we are still the same person we were 40 seconds ago. Of course, this being purely fiction doesn't apply to reality, because here we can't just be influenced by an otherwordly power and get our identities completely distorted :D

[@elderleon1844]

yeah but throught changes we keep some core characteristcs that still part of us, that's what we call ''identity'' traces of personality aways are with us no matter how much we change

[@LowestofheDead]

​@@tamas9554 However, think of split-brain syndrome: when two halves of the brain are partially split. If you show a picture of a burger to one eye (which the other brain can't see), the other half will say that its hungry and invent a justification, like "I just felt like burgers since it's lunchtime". It shows that our consciousness is made of multiple smaller parts, and we just constantly fake that we're a coherent whole. OP suggested that we're not a unified person across stretches of time. But we might not be unified person _in this moment right now_

[@phrei9]

Fact that still is terrifying and hard to accept for me…

[@PrimeiroEnjoyer]

14:22 in Buddhism it's kinda the opposite. Reaching nirvana will actually put an end to the cycle of rebirth everyone naturally goes through, it's actually the only true "death". (I put "death" in quotes because they don't see it as death) And about the self. This is more of a filosofical discussion. However, in the Buddhist tradition, one does not need to stop being who they are but accept that who they are isn't permanent, it will inevitably change and one day perish. (This is how Buddha actually transcended, he gave up depriving himself of everything, he let go of "salvation" to then find the middle way). Transcendance then isn't letting go of who you are, but becoming who you are: a part of the universe, devoid of the distractions of the earthly life. If this doesn't sound happy it's because it's not supposed to be, it's not happy nor sad, it simply is. I swear to god the Buddhists were the best writers of existancialism in history. Edit: 16:55 that's pretty much the concept of transcendance I talked about. Why should that be scary tho? Why would someone need validation on their existence? They clearly do exist! This fear is, like the others, also reflexive, but it doesn't threaten our existence, nothing can because we know we exist, it targets our ego. It targets our *sense* of self, and our brains evolved to constantly defend it, this is, like the other (existencial) fears, only scary for people who still fear, who are still controlled by their ego.

[@dodonixx953]

To some, life is scary, to others, death (true, actual death) is.

[@spambot_gpt7]

@@dodonixx953 The Buddhist denial of life makes one appreciate the Christian world view. Life is pain. Buddhists try to escape it into Nirvana. Christians try to at least do the good they can in this world while they can. (In theory ;) ).

[@BeeTheTravler]

I was thinking the same but I’m Hindu

[@lonestargazer8541]

Good comment! I believe that people are naturally afraid of the loss of self because we don't know how that'll feel. And being afraid of what's unknown is our most primal instinct. I myself am not particularly afraid of it, tho I can see where most people who are are coming from. Even so, although I'm a christian, the buddhist concept of "leaving the wheel of life and death behind" is fascinating in my eyes. As they say: Attachment is the root of all suffering. Attachment to the self surely counts.

[@VeritabIlIti]

​@@spambot_gpt7 somewhat reductive - I personally find the Buddhist approach to enlightenment and the world preferable to the Christian worldview. Christianity is about suppressing the self, your humanity and your vices, in service of others, but often without understanding them. To relinquish the self in Buddhism, you must first understand it. Contrary to popular belief, one Buddhist interpretation posits that the only way you can truly become one with the rest of the world is through intense introspection, self-reflection, to find internal peace which then allows you to pass that on to your impact on the world. In fact, I would argue that you have this backwards: while Christianity does give instruction on how to live life with others, it is ultimately to improve your standing after death. Christianity promotes the Flock, Buddhism promotes the self as it becomes one with the world.

[@TrentonWarrington]

Idk, I’ve gone through some pretty extreme experiences where I ended up losing all sense of fear. It freaked everyone out around me. But I was fine. It made me realize that most problems people have are literally just made up problems. And it’s ok to not worry about things we can’t control. It’s ok to slow down, stop, and enjoy the ride. God bless 🙏

[@kaskjmerecollier3917]

It's terrifying how enticing it is, how wonderful it would be to have my eyes melt and mind unravel in the beauty of an ancient unknowable being whose name cannot be spoken

[@DarkBiCin]

11:41 - this immediately made me think, “its horrible but I feel like this is exactly how those who commit suicide feel” Then you immediately brought up Heavens Gate after. Heavy stuff

[@dexterity494]

There’s actually some truth behind this. It’s been documented that people who are about to commit suicide appear and act happier than they have prior.

[@hoppybirdy6967]

@@dexterity494 From what I understand, part of that is that it takes a surprising amount of work to die - especially for those trying to make the logistics easier for their loved ones. Granted, losing a loved one to suicide is heart-wrending, but people who are suicidal often struggle to believe that their loved ones are happier with them around. As someone who's dealt with these thoughts, I can definitely see how someone who's spent months or years too exhausted to prepare to die would feel relieved to finally find a way to do so.

[@uncroppedsoop]

yup what dexterity said. if your depressed friend very suddenly seems much happier, you seriously ought to keep a close eye on them

[@harpsichordjass4670]

Your videos have inspired some of the best writing for my DnD game I've ever done. Thank you!

[@Iknowhowbadthisnameis8828]

The problem with cosmic bliss as it's being potrayed, is the part where the characters decide they want to kill themselves over it for no reason, which is exactly what doesn't happen in the examples shown in this Episode. Returning to the whale example, where a lone sailor on a boat encounters a blue whale jumping over them, there's a difference between being in awe, wanting to see it again and suddenly wanting to jump into its maws, which is what happens, for example, in the city of the singing flame

[@Fenderbenne]

As someone dealing with depression. Horror isnt dying. Horror is having to live. Blissful horror are you being scared of what we could do.

[@brhorton19]

YES because things can always get worse! This is the same reason I say bear

[@rilohoneu6030]

this is EXACTLY what my story needed!! trhank you for bringing this concept up in such a great video dude

[@generalveers9544]

Sometimes I wish Evangelion were not such a meme because that’s another perfect thing to bring up here

[@darkside2554]

I AGREEE

[@NotYourRealMom]

binged this when it was released on netflix. and it totally belongs here. it messed me up.

[@xM0onl1ght]

Evangelion is so deep fr

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

The call of She Who Thirsts is a strong one

[@truthache8560]

The Dark Prince indeed.

[@vincentcabezas7147]

She Who Thirsts may want to know that I can fix her

[@thecoolcutlefishYT]

The Prince of pleasure is a persuasive one indeed...

[@LexYeen]

​@@vincentcabezas7147You're _adorable._

[@Geebees93]

Unexpected 40k

[@Myki12345]

How did I JUST FIND THIS CHANNEL! This is awesome! The art style is awesome too! Definitely subbing.

[@michaelavaldez1207]

Have you seen the end of The Good Place? They play with the idea of choosing to stop existing once you've lived enough lives to your heart's desire

[@AegixDrakan]

Honestly, I jive with that. Eternity could very well become boring.

[@SnowyOwl369]

If there is no escape from the end, then you might as well make the most of what time you have left. The first thing you need to do to make the most of that time is to not fear and just accept that this truly is the end. If you can accept that, then you will truly be able to make the most of your time.

[@wegner7036]

If there is nothing after life, then life cannot be reflected upon, and there would be no difference had it never happened at all.

[@balsalmalberto8086]

@@wegner7036 Exactly. I don't matter, it does not matter and nothing matter. I can either prolong the enviable or speed run it.

[@Shadow8Scythe]

I just found this video and love your story telling. For me I never felt like the hero in my own story and I was intrigued by the premise of this video. Keep up the good work.

[@tttttttttttttttp12]

Wow, who animated that into at around the 2:30 mark?

[@Silo1776]

It was beautiful. I’d watch a full movie with that style.

[@ellix_3]

Alexander Cuenin I’m guessing. Check the description.

[@emory5533]

That reminds me of the end of The Mist film... The biggest horror is not the unknown monsters, but giving up all hope. I think of this moral a lot when things are bleak.

[@0Impeesa]

And here we see the existential horror of the D&D Paladin being immune to fear.

[@tdrendru2230]

You (the Tale Foundry team) must be such interesting people to talk to. I love how you find so much depth in so many pieces of media, perhaps even themes their creators didn't realize they were tackling. You are an inspiration, to find color and depth into every story, which are such an important component of who we are. Thank you for existing and doing what you do!!

[@AmbroseReed]

There's a lot of this in Evangelion too, with Gendo's obsession with human instrumentality / dissolving the bonds of the soul

[@neuroairman]

10:55 She's likely not glad the world is ending. It's just that she's had the time she needed to mentally prepare for what was going to happen.