The Difference Between Si and Ni
I know that typically when people contrast two functions, they will be in the same category but a different orientation (ne and ni) but in typical Ni fashion, this hit me out of nowhere.
I had been doing a lot of reading these past two days about Ne vs. Ni, and I kept coming up even more confused, but then I had this moment when I went, ‘oh yes, I finally understand!’
A little bit of prehistory so this makes more sense, I’ve been in a not so great place emotionally recently, and tonight my lower (not certain yet) Se thought ‘hey, why not have a drink of some sort. Lots of people do it and it’ll make it better, just try it’
So I was about to, and then out of the blue, (I’ll abstract a bit into my experience and then clarify actual logical sense) I felt as if the outside world paused for a moment, and in that second, I had taken a look into the literal future. I separated myself from what I was feeling, and it was like I was watching a movie or looking back at a snapshot of the past. In my mind, I thought “This one moment and decision could be the one that completely changes your future and destiny, and takes you down a path that is entirely different”.
Ok, that sounds weird, and I get it, but let me clarify.
Si (for the most part I think) seems easy enough to understand. It’s a collection of personal experiences and information that you use to help deal with the present. You trust what you know because it makes sense to you. It’s comfort in continuing what you know or changing when there are inconsistencies.
Ni usually gets some vague thing like #goal/future oriented, magic arrow of love BS that the more you try to understand, the more your head starts to spin.
Here is the difference in a nutshell: You know that feeling you get when you remember something you did in the past and you go UGH or awwww or whatever? Like you look back on you’re life and you’re able to pinpoint the defining moment where if that hadn’t happened, everything would have gone differently? Like a famous pianist always having a personal mysticism about that moment when he was 6 when he told his mother he didn’t want soccer and instead pushed for a music lesson?
Ni does the same thing but backwards. Through the use of Se, Ni is in the moment. Se tells me ‘just drink, it’s what you want’, but Ni does what Si does while the event is happening. It acts like Si before the data becomes past. Ni says “If I make this decision, this moment will be one I look back on as a defining moment because…..”
Its future orientation is taking an objective look from a future where that did happen. That’s why I (even as someone with low Se) doesn’t tend to seek physical thrills. I see what will happen (imagine that you took a time machine to the future and used Si to say wow ok) and feel just as fulfilled.
Si: I have leg pain every day and cannot dance because when I was in 6th grade, I jumped off of a swing and broke my leg.
Se: I am going to jump off the swing because I haven’t thought of the consequences.
Ne: What are the different ways this situation could play out? I could be fine, or break my arm, or my leg and never dance, or….
Ni: I am currently on this swing and about to jump but I realize that I will be injured and it can be a defining moment in my life because if I don’t heal I an never dance. It will change the entire course of my life, future, and therefore the universe takes a different course.
If you can comprehend Si (looking back on a past moment and seeing how it changed your life path) but add it to the future (Living in the present moment and knowing how it will change your life path), then you understand Ni.
Ni usually comes with a judging “I do” or “I don’t” want this to happen. Me being ready to take the drink shot me years forward from now, and only now reflecting on it am I able to flesh it out. It’s more of just a feeling otherwise, but I can explain the extent. In a moment’s time, I get the image of the present (me taking a drink), then moving on to know that since that has become a coping option, I will drink more and continue more self destructive behaviors. Eventually I give up all drive and reasoning to do anything with my life because I cannot get out of what I have created, this symbolic turning point in the story of my life. I never accomplish what I want and I end up bitter and alone. Not only is my path changed, but the world that would have been is changed because I wasn’t there to take what was meant to be my part in it.
No, it is not low Ne freaking out, because it can also do this for positive moments, just as Si can look back on defining happy memories.
