Some days I'm a rabid solipsist, some days I'm a plain subjectivist. This essay assumes you know the basics of subjectivism and magic. Read essay on Subjectivism
- What is Solipsism?
- LaVey and Solipsism
- Greater Magic
What is Solipsism? Solipsism: Latin, only the self
This is the belief that only the self is real. Because we only have access to our own thoughts and all our experiences are filtered into our own brains (including experiences of our own bodies and emotions) a valid conclusion can be drawn that everything we think we see is not real, and that our self and our own thoughts are the only things that exist.
Solipsism is the extreme subjectivist belief that all reality is inside your own mind. It the resultant philosophy of realizing that you cannot verify that anything you feel, see or experience is real, it could all be fake and misunderstood; it is therefore the belief that everything you see is due to your own fiat.
Solipsism, is therefore, in accordance with chaos magic and subjectivism. It, however, an unscientific theory in that there are no tests that you can perform to test it's truth; it is irrefutable. It is based on reasonable logic - but taken to an extreme.
There are differing interpretations of reality which can be classed as solipsism:
A reality per person
This is the belief that all beings exist in a completely different reality. That every living person views their subjective universe in such a different way to everyone else that it can be said to be infinitely different and fundamentally separate from other people's realities. This means that all interaction with people is indecipherable, meaningless and infinitely obfuscated. What one person views as an "interaction" could be something completely different from the other person's point of view.
One reality, one self
We cannot verify that any other living being exists except for ourselves. All interactions with other "people" are, just like reality, constructs of our subconscious desires. Our own consciousness is also a part of our subconscious (of course), but our subconscious is also responsible for creating other people, objects, the laws of physics and all of our own experience. All reality is imagination on behalf of the subconscious, but our conscious self (the self we feel to exist in our bodies) is only a part of our subconscious.
It is like stating that all the universe is a single conscious being, and that being is one person, like Pantheism but the perceived universe is believed to be the self.
Both of the above admit that conscious beings have some basic way in which they interact which probably makes this an impure form of Solipsism.
Please note that I do not believe that Solipsism is true
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