Cassandra Syndrome

[MjrMarshmellows]

As an INTP I am plagued with intuition, and that intuition tends to turn against me. I play out the future in my mind so often, that I have become VERY good at it. I can often predict the future almost exactly but cannot for the life of me, do anything about it. (Naturally I am not talking about chance occurences or anything I wouldn't know about, (I don't have ESP)) but rather how people will react, how a person WILL do something stupid, How a person will get hurt, how a persons feelings will lead them to distruction.
Knowing what will happen and not being able to change it is the worst feeling I know. I feel useless, I'm sick of being right.
Anywho, I would be very interested to hear peoples thoughts and oppinions on, well... anything.

[Warrior413]

Same here. Pumpkin muffins are good. Perhaps I took you too literally... but they are good.

[Arcael]

Mmmm pumpkin cheesecake :D

[CeSoirNoir]

Have you studied psychology? Sounds like you'd be good at it, considering one of the goals for psychology is to predict behavior.

[MjrMarshmellows]

Same here. Pumpkin muffins are good. Perhaps I took you too literally... but they are good.

*gets in car, drives to store*

[HeyBooU]

As an INTP I am plagued with intuition, and that intuition tends to turn against me. I play out the future in my mind so often, that I have become VERY good at it. I can often predict the future almost exactly but cannot for the life of me, do anything about it. (Naturally I am not talking about chance occurences or anything I wouldn't know about, (I don't have ESP)) but rather how people will react, how a person WILL do something stupid, How a person will get hurt, how a persons feelings will lead them to distruction.
Knowing what will happen and not being able to change it is the worst feeling I know. I feel useless, I'm sick of being right.
Anywho, I would be very interested to hear peoples thoughts and oppinions on, well... anything.
You aren't responsible for them. It all comes down to their own choice.

[Arcael]

That's what we do, we observe others. This gives us a decent ability to predict the outcome of certain events.

[Phreon]

You'll eventually become cynical enough to stop caring about people (in general) and their stupid decisions. Once you lower your expectations of humanity, life will hold far fewer surprizes.

Phreon

[Edmond Zedo]

It's a common trait for smart INTPs (read about it on my favorite website, www.socionics.com !)

I use type as a tool daily (accessory to "plain" intuition), to predict both peoples' actions and results of intertype relations, however intimate.

[Warrior413]

*gets in car, drives to store*
I knew you were going to do that. My intuition told me so. ;P

[Edmond Zedo]

Knowing what will happen and not being able to change it is the worst feeling I know. I feel useless, I'm sick of being right.
Anywho, I would be very interested to hear peoples thoughts and oppinions on, well... anything.
If you come to realize that we're of the type who's more concerned with logic than any other, and that some want nothing to do with it, it's easy to accept this typical behavior. You'll probably begin to dissassociate your version of consciousness from that of others, and be content.

"Well if you come away...With more than you ever thought that you could...
Tell me I'm wrong someday...And have never understood.
I think you'll die someday...For if you don't you would be unusual...
But I hope you hesitate...Before you give in to the world." (Me)

[ObstinateBane]

Good Stuff!


You'll eventually become cynical enough to stop caring about people (in general) and their stupid decisions. Once you lower your expectations of humanity, life will hold far fewer surprizes.


I think a big reason why people get cynical is because they love others. They want the best for them. They want to see people get along. When it doesn't happen, it hurts.


As an INTP who is 100% introverted, I have always been quite "detached" from the world. I don't know any other way to say it than to say it has always felt like I'm an alien walking around on a foreign planet. I imagine several here know what I mean, and I needn't explain further. Anyway, when people said this about Twain, I realized that I had been observing the world from my usual distance and getting cynical about the people "out there." I know I have lots of faults, so it isn't like I thought I was superior. It is more that my existence is in observation of others. When it seems like the majority of those observed are not living as happily as they could because of their own behaviors and choices, and when they don't listen to an observer who really does know where that behavior or choice is going to lead, it is maddening. Gradually, one becomes cynical


You aren't responsible for them. It all comes down to their own choice.


Lately, I've been learning just to accept this and then focusing on the love. It has helped.


Pumpkin muffins are good.


*gets in car, drives to store* :)

[euterpenc]

I know how "feel" too. I find that it's a lot easier for me to just understand things and once I understand them/predict them, decide whether it's best to act or not. Some things should be changed, some shouldn't. As far as "helping" humakind is concerned, that'll be very difficult, but part of understanding and observing is observing when to help and such. Life is Life and fate is fate. You may not believe in fate, but you may find that everything happens for a reason.

I also agree with the previous post about going into psychology. In that manner, you can help people using what you know. People who hire a psychologist are ready to accept help (direct help) and then you know that's a good time to help them.

Also, sometimes, help isn't always direct. Being the somewhat unemotional INTP that I am, I find it does more good to most people, to not tell the truth or tell them about your abstract ideas or predictions. I find it to be more helpful to them if you just play along with them and tell them it'll be alright (whether it will be or not). Just encourage people's strength and more often than not, they'll be better for it. Just try and put yourself in their shoes (though that's not a trademark of an INTP, I find that it gets better results, which is logical).

[t]

i find that my intuition is so strong that i always "know" what is going to happen to me with whichever decision i make. well, not all decisions, i suppose, but certainly the majority. i hate it most when it's in a relationship because i always know when things are going to fall apart before they actually do. when i was younger, i swore i was psychic, but now that i'm older & perhaps more cynical, i've chalked it up to a really strong intuition. makes sense that i test as a VERY strong N (almost no S balance whatsoever - hence my huge problems with S's). i've tried just living according to my intuition as much as possible lately, because it always seems to be correct. it's hard b/c i have the tendency to sit and think & analyze everything... but honestly, my gut has shown to be pretty accurate over the past month of so. it's a nice experiment at least. i've pondered if my intuition is truly just a "gut feeling" or a heightened ability to pick up on little minute details of a person's initial actions that give clues into the final result. for example, maybe i notice and mentally note (without realizing it) certain inflections in a person's voice or movements they subtly make towards me.

i don't get gut feelings about other people's situations as much, though. it's mainly a selfish thing, i guess. however, that could stem from my inability to give a crap about most people. i could never be a shrink (except perhaps to myself). ha!

[euterpenc]

Well, I find that anything can be understood or twisted with logic. You can argue anyway you want with it. I also find, that you can manipualte people if you have enough understanding of them and the world or even of their general disposition. If you want less trouble, just manipulate them to shut up, unless you really want to help (which is sort of a manipulation itself).

[Garyincinci]

I originally made this post in the "Do you have a hard time living in the present" under the local pub. Just going to cut and paste directly because it's all relevant.....Here's my theory.
------------------
This is kinda wierd, and has had me going nuts for sometime now. I don't know how I developed it, but as a child a spent a lot of time shunned by pretty much everyone, so I had to experience everything by watching others experience it. I'm the type of person who can walk through your house or life and see things that most of your friends and family, and perhaps even yourself have never noticed. I can sit with you and have a conversation, and pick up on the nuances of your body language, you're respiration and even patterns in your blinking. I'm able to "read" a person so to speak and know a lot more about them than they actually mention. As I've gotten older, I've gotten better and better at it. I've been seeing patterns in human behavior for a long time. The problem is that the past year or two, my "observations" have led me to see familiar patterns and I'm often capable of "seeing the future".

Understand that I'm not seeing the future. I'm simply seeing the outcome of an event...the effect of the cause. However, I'm seeing it before it occurs. The most recent example was from this morning. I was pumping gas at speedway and looking up, noticed a nun pumping gas in the car next to me. In my head I saw a man coming up to me and trying to give me religious material. I went inside and got a pop. By the time I had come back outside the nun was gone. I removed the gas pump from my van and was getting back inside as a guy walks toward me gesturing me to hold on and then tries to give me two religious books. Weird? Not really...It happens all the time. I simply see patterns in things. (I didn't take them btw...just said I was an atheist and student of free thought, no thanks...the guy stood stunned a moment heh.)

As the occurrence of these "premonitions" increased, I found myself truly going nuts (or at least thinking It was a possibility) trying to figure out what was happening to me. That's when I realized that my belief in fate was incorrect. I wasn't seeing some predefined future...I was seeing patterns. Here's my Sherlock Holmesian outlook as I reflect on today's scenario....

I don't generally see nuns out and about driving around. The few times I have, they tend to drive in groups...as in many cars. I'm guessing that by seeing the nun, I realized that there was a "presence of god" in the area...ie...of the 15 cars lined up pumping gas, there was probably 2-4 of them heading to some sort of religious function each in a different car. Knowing that about 1 in 20 zealously religious people aggressively seek to spread their religion you can say there's a 5% chance that I was going to get a religious pamphlet based soley on the nun. However, as I said previously, I rarely see nuns traveling alone..that increases the odds to at least 10% and possibly greater. This was not what was going through my head when I envisioned the guy giving me a pamphlet...but at a subconscious level, I believe my mind runs through the stupid statistic haven that is in my memory. As a result, I knew that by seeing a nun, the probability of getting a pamphlet was increased and I saw the pattern develop...the rest is history. This happens a lot...I don't think that it's an ability that I alone possess, I simply believe it's something that through whatever reason, I have a higher level of ability at it.

Patterns exist at all states and levels...from basic molecular composition to massive universal clusters and even the mind itself. Everyone notices pattern's at some level, but at the subtle level of probability, it's rare. I need to point out that I'm not some supernatural person with this ability. I'm wrong more often than I'm right (at least at a conscious level) since I have random thoughts all the time. I'd say about once a week sometimes twice, something will happen that I saw happening only moments before. Regardless, I have spent a lot of time mulling over the issue. What I determined is that All the "patterns" that I saw in life which led me to believe in fate and in karma was nothing more probable outcomes to events. I'm not "seeing" into a predefined future, I'm simply seeing one of the possible outcomes of the moment which I currently exist.

[Garyincinci]

Here's another freaky thing I experience. I almost never lose the lotto. I also almost never buy tickets. What ends up happening is I'll walk by the scratch off dispensers, and I'll feel (for lack of a better word) attracted to it to a particular game. This happens about 1-3 times a month, and of the last 10 tickets I've bought I've only lost on 1...but.....I actually bought two at once...I bought one for my daughter and then bought one for me (one of those bonding moment things). I only had one attraction so to speak, and as such, only one card won...the one I gave to my daughter. She said "Wow, I'm lucky!" And I perplexed her...I asked "Are you lucky or was I lucky for buying it and giving it to you." After about 2 minutes she came back with "Dad, I think we're both lucky." Of the past 30 tickets I've bought, maybe 3 or 4 have been losers. This has also been happening most of my adult life. This could be simple coincidence...who knows.

[Garyincinci]

PS...I'm very relieved to find out I'm not the only one who experiences this. I truly thought I was going mad and my mind was playing wicked delusional tricks.

[t]

PS...I'm very relieved to find out I'm not the only one who experiences this. I truly thought I was going mad and my mind was playing wicked delusional tricks.

i thought i was crazy. i'm glad to see someone else goes through this.