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it's the same issue as the advice "just be yourself". aren't you always yourself? how can you not be yourself? doesn't trying to be yourself defeat the purpose?

lucid dreamers can get around this using a technique that habitually tests for a dream state even when awake e.g. trying to fly. if they literally start flying they realize that they are in a dream and can then take control of the construct

many gamers get mad when their character gets defeated in a game. they become "toxic" because in order to play the game well they become "one" with the character. the game becomes life and loss triggers the same anger and fear as actual deathhttps://twitter.com/a_yawning_cat/status/1411877541107822592 …

this means that even if you are a hooman and are playing a literal spaceship or an orc or a monster that you can STILL get confused even though it's literally a fictional species or an inanimate object

you could say that "all life is just the performance of God" and end smother the line of questioning with woo but there *is* something to feeling "real" and feeling "fake" yes? there *is* a difference to a dream and reality even though it's only obvious in retrospect yes?

similar to lucid dreamers, there's a way to habitually "check yourself" like with dreamers, as a habit it a becomes an idiosyncrasy and part of your character. e.g. you can't literally be trying to fly all the time and not come across as somewhat "airheaded"

this is "humility". a constant background process of "do i really understand everything that's going on?" "is this really who i am?" it creates a "listening" to life rather than an acting of life

the point isn't to always be listening. u need to eat and poop and kill and so on. but it leverage how obvious it is when you lose track of a conversation "sorry i wasn't listening, can you repeat that?"