Epiphanies, anyone?

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In my late teens and early-to-mid-twenties, as I was busy screwing up my life with alcohol abuse, I would look at the misery that was my existence and hope for some sort of epiphany, a monumental shift in consciousness a la Paul on the road to Damascus (or your average character on your average sitcom who is headed down the wrong path in life and suddenly realizes the error of his ways twenty minutes into the program). In college I was good friends with a gay guy and thought one night, whilst stoned, that maybe my "epiphany" was that I was homosexual, so I made out with the guy only to discover that, nope, that wasn't it, and instead of an epiphany I merely ruined a fond friendship. Thus ended my search for epiphanies. Eventually I stopped drinking, but that wasn't from an epiphany, it was simply to curb the endless series of catastrophic disasters that kept befalling me as a result of my drunkenness.

Still, I cling to the notion that profound, life-changing epiphanies really do happen ... Can any of you point to an experience that would confirm this?

― ScottRC (ScottRC), Sunday, 21 September 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

By definition, you cannot "maybe" have an epiphany; it hits you like a bolt of lightning, and voila, suddenly everything makes sense. If you were thinking "maybe" that was your epiphany, then for certain, it wasn't. You cannot search for it; it will just happen when you least expect it.

I suppose I haven't really had epiphanies, though that doesn't necessarily mean the idea is invalid. I guess a Christian would argue that there is nothing for you to do; have faith, and God may make himself known to you when He feels you are ready. Or something like that.

― Nicholas, Sunday, 21 September 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never had a religious one, but there have been moments where a thought occurs to me that immediately eradicates an issue that had been plaguing me for ages. It feels great and it seems to come out of nowhere, so "epiphany" feels like the right word for it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 21 September 2003 17:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I've surely experienced the opposite of an epiphany by the above definition ---> suddenly, everything stops making sense and the world collapses, after you've been hit by a bolt of lighting. I guess this could also be called "breakdown"

But I could say I had an epiphany or two as well; once I got one just a few hours before the breakdown, and yeah i'd say they were related

― Vic (Vic), Sunday, 21 September 2003 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

yes i have had reverse-epiphanies. i suspect these are temporary moments of sanity. feeling for a few moments that everything is utterly meaningless is quite nice in a weird way.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 21 September 2003 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

epiphanies usually occur to me right after I wake up, but they usually involve remembering where I put a book I've been looking for or something just as banal.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 21 September 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe those don't count!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 21 September 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Aren't epiphanies usually brought on by exposure to art, in one form or another? Sometimes I will view a painting or an installment or a film and the world's my oyster for the next half hour or so.

― Aaron A., Sunday, 21 September 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Aaron's hit upon something there.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 21 September 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read many philosophers had an epiphany that kickstarted a creative period in their lives: to come up with his method Descartes had a weird freudian dream about an old mathematician friend, for the better and the worse to start a career in philo Rousseau reading the question of a contest of entry for a philosophy fac, to come up with the idea of Zarathustra Nietzsche while walking in some beautiful mountains, etc I forgot about the others.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Sunday, 21 September 2003 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

my epiphanies tend to be slightly different from nicholas' definition upthread, they sort of creep up on me, and then i one day realise i'm a raging feminist, or no longer a homophobe, or whatever. i guess my feminist epiphany had a lot to do with exposure to a kind of art form, but getting over homophobia was due to having my ideas challenged by my friend steve, but maybe he is a work of art :-)

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Sunday, 21 September 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually yeah, I've had Lurex's sort of slow realizations too.

― Nicholas, Monday, 22 September 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

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