Liminal Spaces: A Theory Concerning Our Existence

content warning the contents of this video have been formatted in a way that is likely to disturb you and might even cause an existential crisis in those with neuroticism make sure you're in a good place mentally and please don't watch this at night making this video is rough on my mental health at times so be good to yourself NAA that feeling you get when you watched the only DVD you had in the car for the 14th time and have now made you a wretched attempt at falling asleep in the car while your parents drive you

home from a long trip you hear them turn on their Char signal and open your eyes briefly to notice from out the car window that you've turned onto a familiar Street you're just slightly too hot your foot is falling asleep and you haven't eaten anything with protein for ages not to mention you're dying of thirst the colors outside all look washed out there isn't a cloud discernable in the entire bloody Sky do you merely feel disgusted or does this reality demand that you be imagine now that you were to hang suspended in this moment for

an eternity that the world never changed its presentation and that you were cemented in this transitional space never ending being itself reeks the fumes of purgatory and an otherworldly strangeness forced to confront a scene like this and thereby feeling philosophically sick one begins to inquire into what it means that anything exists at all if this is existence what does it mean this is an idea that has been discussed by countless existential and phenomenological philosophers it's been dubbed and LA and most fittingly theier have a look at this picture this is an example of what is

called a Lial space the term Lial is not at all novel or new however it's an anthropological term used to articulate the ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a right of passage and though this term is mainly used to describe Lial periods of time in your life it's been slightly adapted to apply to places such as these when you're interacting with a Lial space you're quite literally standing on the threshold between two realities for example a gas station by the highway is designed to be a rest stop between your place of

departure and your destination the space itself is not the destination and holds no conventional utility or value other than as a medium for an end at least for limal spaces proper as observed on the subreddit the term is used liberally to cover a whole series of disturbing images what all these images have in common is not the definition of a term but a feeling after which philosophy has crafted its many names after looking at over 6,000 images of limal spaces over the course of a week I discovered that there were four essential conditions though there

are more still less important factors that would instill in us that eerie and uncomfortable feeling one if I couldn't locate an exit and I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable right off the bat two the image is dark and or it's night three they are fluorescent lights or some other form of unnatural lighting four this is the most important crucial and necessary one there cannot be any people under any circumstances at all in these photos adding even the silhouette or shadow of an individual or animal would instill in us a different feeling than the

existential anxiety that I wish to discuss some of the other features that would assist in producing anxiety that do deserve honorable mentions in my book include washed out vibrant colors low image quality a sense of familiarity and Nostalgia and these scenes involvement with modern architecture but I am not so concerned with why we feel perturbed by these images as I am with what it means that we are perturbed many think that to explore the wise of a phenomenon such as this is to debunk it or to explain to the world why we should not be

afraid as a philosopher I disagree with his approach and thus the video will take a different one what can these supposedly altered realities teach us about the very nature of reality itself besides the fact that we take for granted the mindboggling idea that by simply perceiving these spaces we can feel uncomfortable we also take for granted the fact that we exist and God Only Knows whatever that means perhaps these two axioms have something in common hust has long been considered the principal founder of phenomenology thus making him one of the most influential philosophers of the

20th century in his book introduction to transcendental phenomenology he proposes the idea that Consciousness intends the world while this statement might be confusing at first due to hust roll's unconventional use of the word intend what this actually means is that Consciousness is always consciousness of something Consciousness is never not conscious of of something however the truth of our visual perception is that we can only experience the immediate facts I can only see what is immediately in front of me and looking at a nearby object I can only see the side that is angled towards me

yet we consciously understand that there is a back to every front and a set of inner layers to every outer shell not only that but we can project ourselves in our imaginations to a position in which we could observe the currently unobservable facts or Consciousness placing ourselves in spaces that we do not currently occupy hust calls us the Horizon of our intentionality just as a central as the actuality of life is its potentiality and this not as an empty possibility and every thought we find Horizons and this in various ways perception occurs as a progression

it sketches out in Horizon of expectation and Horizon of intenti indicating in advance what's coming and this as perceived in other words indicating future series of perception thus we are able to insert ourselves into these pictures as if the camera were our eyes we completely disregard that there had to have been someone who took these pictures to your conscious mind this is irrelevant however these images of dark hallways and Corners when we place ourselves into them fail to offer us an out that we could project ourselves to walking down a hallway we are able to

imagine ourselves at the end of it and if we can see a door we can imagine ourselves walking through it but there is no such relief here our minds struggle in their Panic to imagine the Horizon of what lies behind us or Beyond Us in the dark and we are unable to we can only insert ourselves into this exact place Frozen in time we are forced to confront this reality in conditions altered from the norm this idea of there being no exit is surely a terrifying one inducing a form of existential dread if pushed to

the limmit I think that's why some video game spaces such as the end in Minecraft feel Lial there simply is no exit it's an Infinity that will always continue on with you and Transit that concept is truly understood there isn't any way that we can't feel a little uneasy it isn't the way we like to think of our existence or the spaces we occupy because we can't imagine ourselves beyond what is immediately presented in these images is we can only imagine that the Beyond is more of the same or at least something similar allow me

to remind you of the second essential element I mentioned previously that these images of Lial spaces are to some degree dark this means that an interior Lial space can be poorly lit it's night or something similar I'll separate interior and exterior Lial spaces into their own categories and handle the Phil opical thought that applies most especially to each when I first started to sort through what would later total 6,000 or more images of Lial spaces I was very surprised to discover that the Interiors of modern architectural spaces were not the only angst inducing manifestations of

Lial spaces taking images like these as an example I noticed that there was still that pervasive and palpable sense of uneasiness why was that once again I turned towards hust roll Horizon of potentiality take a scene like this and peer out into the darkness let your Consciousness try and insert itself into the scene what could be out there understanding this is a bridge we reason that surely it is a bridge over something perhaps a river lake bay or Ravine our minds make the attempt to filter in some hills trees or water yet there is nothing

here in the end the darkness becomes an ever expanding Infinity this bridge the solitary point we can reliably trust to orient ourselves no exit No Escape there's a shocking similarity between that picture and images such as these Martin haiger in his essay building dwelling thinking expounds the phenomenological truth of space coincidentally he also uses a bridge here as an example the bridge swings over the stream it does not just connect banks that are already there the banks emerge as Banks only as the bridge crosses the Stream this is because there is a difference between phenomenological

spaces such as the way we use the term to identify Lial spaces and space as the threedimensional plane of physics the latter term is indeed infinite and ever expanding that's the reality of what space is but Humanity can't function on the conditions of infinity it's simply too broad a context we need something smaller and more approachable as context determines significance which in its own turn determines Behavior thus heiger explains we use buildings to create spaces with the intent to divide up the Infinite Space that we inhabit although in space there are no true points or

spaces we are able to create them naturally on a phenomenological level we build roads Bridges homes and stores thus cutting up the chaotic and infinite into what is habitable however there are times when we lose ourselves in the infinite moments when our phenomenological and spatial context grow to cover a perimeter and area simply too great or when anything at all just seems meaningless for the sake of it being ever so expansive this is why we can observe the phenomenon during the day as well albeit in more restrictive conditions one can experience this while driving through

farmland or flat desert landscapes in the United States where it seems as though the insignificant scene spans off forever even more specific while preparing to land on a flight one might turn out and see the little squares of Farmland in the tiny houses all of it looks so insignificant when you see it from this high as if mankind chose to settle one plot of land over another but it would all be the same in the end and to be frank it probably would be it is in these moments that we feel much like this man

the first to float freely in space with no control over what happened to him except a solitary jetpack it's a terrifying image a terrifying idea and a terrifying feeling having destroyed the context of our existence life itself thus becomes meaningless similar in effect is this illustration from The Lorax it's wastelands like these that drain one's will to live I can only imagine that one would ever push on in these Landscapes with the hope that there lies something meaningful and important out there when we cannot find it because that meaning does not exist all that's left

for us is to submit ourselves to non-being and die meaningless death but this is not the only way that Darkness can influence or produce ainal space in fact in my opinion that these interior Lial spaces are dark is of the utmost importance as far as producing existential angst because context is so important to our conscious perceptions seeing spaces that we would otherwise only occupy during the day adversely at night or in the dark feels strange this is an atmospheric emotion that was dubbed The Uncanny by early psychologist it was first explored in this way in

a 1906 essay on the psychology of The Uncanny written by German psychologist Ernst yench yench describes the uncanny as being a byproduct of intellectual uncertainty so that The Uncanny would always as it were be something one does not know one's way about in the better oriented in his environment a person is the less readily he will get the impression of something uncanny in regard to the objects and events in in it 13 years later Sigman Freud would become interested in this phenomenon as well adding that The Uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely

familiar rather than simply mysterious it may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling Eerie or taboo context while you may be seeing the obvious connection here what this means goes way deeper than one might assume at a first glance turning again to hyder's building dwelling thinking hydar outlines the natural way we experience the world which he classifies as dwelling Mortals dwell in that they save the Earth to save properly means to set something free in its own Essence saving the Earth does not master the Earth and does not subjugate

it what it means to dwell essentially is to be placed at peace and to feel comfortable in our environment even more important to my point however is the following paragraph Mortals dwell in that they receive the sky as Sky they leave to the Sun and Moon Mo their Journey they do not turn night into day nor day into a harassed unrest hydar felt that a very large amount of feeling comfortable in the world took place in the way we interacted with the world the world has a natural order and to go against it is to

Define nature an act that pits us against the unnatural and the artificial what yench and Freud would call The Uncanny biologically our bodies are formatted in a way that instinctually tells us to sleep sleep at night heating our body's call to sleep when it is dark and likewise Rising with the sun has been shown to provide numerous benefits to one's physiological and mental health Darkness has always been a source of Terror for Humanity especially for those that are young vulnerable and small facing the unknown a thing full of potential we are instantly drawn to conjure

up ideas of the worst rearing its ugly head some evolutionary theorists might argue that this is something that We inherited to keep us safe from potential Predators but I find such reasoning to be Superfluous the fundamental truth is that it's something that's kept us alive phobias and fears of the dark are not merely mental constructs filled by irrational thoughts our bodies react on a physiological level when faced with such environments so that it feels very ominous to wander spaces at night that are typically reserved for the occupants of the day in order to feel most

at ease in the world we are as Hy says to receive the sky as sky and to leave to the Sun and Moon their own Journey but her deeply ingrained biological instincts are not the only factors that ultimately produce The Uncanny either for both interior and exterior Lial spaces alike modern architecture Reigns Supreme throughout there is something deeply ugly and unsettling about modern architecture something that causes despair in those well acquainted with the country or with the beautiful details of European Cathedrals and castles it is incredibly cold and impersonal uninviting is an even better description

if these walls could talk they would say nothing their silence is their judgment and their indifference their condemnation but there's one thing in particular that stands out in the images on the linal space with subreddit something that when added to these images exemplifies that uncanny trait most of these images are unnaturally lit Often by an LED or fluorescent light there is much to be said for this in another one of haider's essays this one named the questioning concerning technology he describes the platonic essence of Technology a thing altogether different than the things that are considered

technological as you and I might consider them as hydr himself States technology is not equivalent to the essence of Technology when we are seeking the essence of tree we have to become aware that what pervades every tree as tree is not a tree that can be CED among all the other trees likewise the essence of technology is by no means something that is technological so then what is the essence of Technology as previously discussed dwelling the way that we can fill most to ease in the world in the natural mode of being for human beings

means to set something at home in its own Essence to accept things as they are roughly speaking the essence of technology is that it does the opposite locking a thing in an appearance in essence altogether not natural to the thing in question Hyer cites the example of a mountain being turned into an or mine the mountain thus ceases to be everything it could be and Ever Was and is forced to be only one thing in particular aori he dubs this Hallmark activity of Technology's Essence in framing term in his native German derived from the word

for skeleton this sort of thing has infected the essence of humankind at the detriment of its ability to dwell as long as we allow ourselves to inframe the world via this techn logical Essence we will find ourselves growing more and more uncomfortable and lost within it it's no wonder then that we find ourselves especially perturbed by these hallways noisily occupied with the buzz of fluorescent lights these lights are a thing which inframe the night forcing it to be day we understand light to be an indication of life when things are lit we expect people to

be up and working to be moving freely about we understand that it is natural for people to sleep when it is dark during that period of time that we call the night but when we see light we think that this will indicate some moving conscious party in the area all life on earth is made possible by the Sun and our biology understands this it's particularly odd and yes uncanny to find these spaces Lial or otherwise lit by something that isn't natural most especially when there is no life present it's a contradiction as to what things

are supposed to imply and and it's something that really does get to us on a similar note so does the fact that there aren't any people in these scenes this is something that's true across the board while some might say that isolation and Solitude are enough to terrify them alone it's the Hallmark of a good Lial space why aren't there people here we unconsciously ask ourselves and come to some awkward conclusions the chief among them being that it must be wrong for people to be here for the reasons already discussed we all understand that people

are not meant to be shopping at malls or at school roaming the hall at 3:00 a.m. the shops are closed or abandoned and people do not go to closed or abandoned stores so then why are you here you are surely transgressing some sort of code that the others understand and this is to some degree alarming if it is wrong for people to be here and you are here that means that you must atone for that air by paying the price whatever that might entail is even worse when these abandoned spaces are lit by fluorescent lights

which speak to her desire for life but having addressed what I consider the four most Essential Elements to a highquality linal space photo I returned to my initial question what can these seemingly altered realities teach us about our own reality about existence itself things exist this this is a statement that you might consider so obvious you're wondering why I'm bringing it up but if things exist then there must adversely be a dichotomy partly consisting of the opposite we have all asked ourselves what nothing means as a child we have riddled ourselves with this question often

telling ourselves that the moment we have conceptually thought of nothing we have made it into something this is true but that does not mean that true nothingness true non-being is not real or that does not haunt us so what does this have to do with linal spaces according to Martin haiger there are emotions which reveal to us the nothing these include boredom and love but most especially anxiety or angst while boredom is just as much an equal Contender for the realization that Hyer goes on to describe anxiety is the emotion that is most prevalent amongst

these Lial space photos Hyer states that anxiety is most concerned with beings and doesn't face the nothing headon it does not as we did as children take things and then subtract them to get nothings this is ultimately unproductive zero is still a thing however because the nothing concerns itself most thoroughly with beings as does anxiety this is the preferable route to understand non-being in anxiety Hyer says beings as a whole become Superfluous this is the case because in anxiety there occurs a shrinking back before because we encounter the nothing in beings to abstractly engross ourselves

in them is to simultaneously encounter the nothing this repels us because it's the real deal the nothing itself annihilates and how could we not find such a thing disturbing but what is the consequence of such an awful encounter Hyer explains it in a way that seems confusing at first but is actually quite simple when understood as a repelling gesture towards the retreating ho of beings Annihilation discloses these beings in their full by heret for concealed strangeness in the clear night of the nothing of anxiety the original openness of beings as such arises that there are

beings and not nothing just as the nothing is found in the existence of beings the thing we find ourselves engrossed in when anxious we similarly find the existence of beings in our encounter with the nothing we ask ourselves what does it mean that there are things and not nothing what does it even mean that anything exists at all ALU explained this strange and disturbing Awakening as such the world evades us because it becomes itself again that stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is it withdraws at a distance from us just one thing

that denseness and that strangeness of the world is the Absurd while looking at many of these images of Lial spaces I began to notice how the walls in my apartment looked awfully similar to those of some of these photos I noticed the way my room looked at 4:00 a.m. and the way the street lamps in the street outside my window shined their terrible yellow Hues I took walks around the neighborhood I grew up in at midnight in December and felt despair shake me to my utmost depths Lial spaces are indeed a kind of threshold or

portal and valuable one at that these spaces taken out of their usual context to be presented to us in this uncanny manner show us how strange the spaces we see every day can be once we've seen this and pondered on it we reduce not only these places but the world to what it is stepping outside the way we usually encounter the world to investigate what is supposedly an altered reality we discover what is in fact the true reality we are asked to question what it means if this is existence that anything exists at all and

the world offers no answers the only thing we are left with looking at these spaces or asking such deep and pensive questions is uncertainty it is as Robert Frost so aptly described I have been one acquainted with the night I have walked out in rain and back in rain I have outw walked the furthest City Light I have looked down the saddest City Lane I have passed by the Watchmen on his beat and dropped my eyes unwilling to explain I've Stood Still and stopped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted Cry came over

houses from another street but not to call me back or say goodbye and further still at an unearthly height one luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right I have been one acquainted with e