Chris and reality

“	You can only escape in your mental depths and recluse for so long before you are pulled back to reality, and too many things leave you feeling like you get little peace at home.	”
Chris, December 2016, in a rare moment of self-awareness.

File:Hi5.jpg

This is what Chris actually believes.

… for real.

Reality is a concept that Chris desperately tries to avoid acknowledging, instead retreating to the comfort of his imaginary world and hoping that reality will eventually bend to his whims. Many people with autism struggle to distinguish between reality and fantasy, but most make an effort to reduce the impact on their lives. Chris, on the other hand, embraces his realm of fantasy, especially as escapism from stress, life responsibilities, and his bleak future, trapping himself in a feedback loop whereby his real-world life and issues are further neglected while his devotion to his fantasies gets stronger.

Chris's perception of reality has been on a downward spiral for most of his life, due to a lifetime of being coddled by his parents. Following the death of his father in 2011, and amid the increasing infirmity of his mother, Chris was forced into shouldering more responsibilities which he was mentally ill-equipped to bear, and consequently, he invested more heavily in magical beliefs as solutions to the problems presented by reality. In 2017, the Idea Guys, trolls who utilized role-playing as Chris's imaginary friends, further exacerbated Chris's grasp of reality, giving validation to his fantasies and encouraging him to stay rooted in his fantasy world - a trend continued at present-day by waves of enablers.

Notably, Chris believes that his imaginary friends are real, and has been spotted conversing, interacting and dancing with them on many occasions, even believing that he is married to multiple imaginary friends. Chris also holds many delusions of grandeur, from believing he has the power to curse people, to thinking he has psychic powers, and even to believing he is a god with the power to unite entire dimensions and that this Dimensional Merge would make him rich and bring his fictional characters, and those of others, to life.

Chris maintains his beliefs even in the face of mental health professionals - for nine months between summer 2018 and spring 2019, he was required to see a psychiatrist and therapy group at Region Ten and told them of his beliefs on his imaginary friends and multiple dimensions, to which their reaction was to simply hand-wave him through their program.

Causes of Chris’s poor grip on reality

Parental enabling

Although autism is one major factor, his parents contributed a lot towards Chris’s warped perception of anyone or anything that antagonizes him: Bob and Barabara regularly fed Chris conciliatory platitudes about how he was mistreated out of jealousy, and that “special rules” exist for the benefit of autistic people. The platitudes cemented Chris’s all-pervasive sense of entitlement, as well as his indiscriminate belief that anything bad that happened to him was a conspiracy, whether or not it was caused by his stupidity or stubbornness.

Psychological problems

The only known formal diagnosis of Chris is of autism, dating from when he was five or six years old. However, his behavior in adulthood suggests he has undiagnosed issues.

Chris exhibits Maladaptive Daydreaming, a psychiatric disorder comprised of vivid daydreams and excessive fantasies that can interfere with socializing or even replace it altogether. This behavior is observed in Chris with his imaginary friends and CWCville, the Dimensional Merge, and especially his polyamorous marriage. Maladaptive Daydreaming is also associated with pacing and musical stimulation. Eyewitness accounts of Chris such as The Tale of the Crazy Pacer mention these behaviors in him.

Chris wearing his "I'm Done Adulting" T-shirt while begging for money and surrounded by toys in Patreon announcement.

Peter Pan Syndrome is a pop psychology term to describe those who are immature and refuse to grow up and accept adult responsibilities. Chris has demonstrated this with his refusal to seek work, instead begging for money or ignoring his debt payments to afford more toys. An eyewitness to one of Chris's debt hearings noted that Chris was "trying hard to revert to childhood," based on how he made childish noises during his time in the courtroom and talked back to his mother in a childlike voice. The Dimensional Merge represents Chris's ultimate desire to hide from adult responsibilities, as he believes it will grant his wildest power fantasies and enable him to continue living like a child. Chris's devotion to rejecting adult life has warped his perception of reality, as he spends all of his free time playing make-believe as if it were a religion.

A common theory since the Dimensional Merge saga unfolded is that Chris may have schizophrenia, based on his rantings about his imaginary world seeming as if he cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy. However, a closer look at Chris's ramblings shows that he's capable of discerning the difference, but avoids it in order to preserve his escapist fantasies. Unlike a schizophrenic, Chris will distinguish between reality (or as he calls it, 1218) and his fantasy domain (named C-197).

“	Damn Dimension 1218’s “Reality” Limits and Shit!!!	”
Chris's reaction when reality's dimension and his fantasy dimension did not merge as predicted, a prime example of him being able to differentiate reality from his escapist fantasies.

“	though not fully doable on the 1218 side of the Dimensional Curtain yet, [I am] able to draw up a water-to-wine conversion and vice-versa.	”
Chris showing he is aware he doesn't have super-powers in reality.

Also unlike a schizophrenic, Chris's fantasies do not involve paranoia or hallucinations and are entirely self-serving. While Chris has made statements implying he is hallucinating, such as when he insists he can see or interact with his imaginary friends, he often omits that he uses techniques such as meditation or astral projection, another indicator that his issue is Maladaptive Daydreaming.

“	I’ve had to commute to here, Dimension C-197, via astral projection [...] The tough part is having to leave my body behind in 1218. [...] Oh, but very soon, I shall finally, finally, be able to bring mys--body here to C-197.	”
Chris giving a rare explanation on how he delves into his fantasy world.

Lack of grounding in the real world

Chris's lack of purpose, combined with his enormous ego, further fuels his disconnection from reality, compelling him to instead seek out purpose with make-believe, such as being the mayor of CWCville and being the goddess CPU Blue Heart.

Since the government provides for him with the monthly tugboat - subsidized with money from financial enablers - and his parents provide a roof over his head, Chris has had no tangible reason to get a job. Without the structure that a job, even a volunteer position, would impart to him, Chris is instead free to wallow in his fantasies.

Chris rarely leaves his room, instead preferring to daydream for "three to six hours per day". When he does socialize, it is mainly on his terms, role-playing with enablers who keep him invested in his fantasies or appearing at conventions with fans who treat him as a celebrity.

“	As for what I do while awake, on the recent, I get up, take my meds, meditate while playing Tetris 99 to at least take on the daily tasks for the game. Most days, I go out on errand or simple walking and bursts of Fast running speed on impulse. My typical walking pace is comparable to that of a speed-walker, and yet I'm not speed-walking, and I don't get tired out. Anyway, during the time at home, I tend to binge a show, do some drawing or creative, work (namely the TSSSF cards and the comic pages).	”
Chris describing his day-to-day life.

Cult of the Idea Guys

Main articles: Idea Guys and Enablers

Consequences

Beyond making a fool of himself, Chris's poor grasp of reality has compelled him to self-harm and fall for con men exploiting his beliefs.

Self-harm

Late-onset gender dysphoria is a psychological disorder describing those who identify with another gender over their own, and can present with the desire to be rid of their primary sex characteristics and prefer those of the other gender. Like with everything else in life, Chris sought out mysticism to treat his gender dysphoria.

In March 2016, he discovered Subliminal Frequency Hypnosis, a collection of music tracks on YouTube claiming to, among other things, magically grant larger breasts and transform a penis into a vagina. Chris's confirmation bias over his breasts increasing, crediting it to the mysticism instead of his gynecomastia and poor measuring of his chest led him to believe that the claims made by the channel were true.

He pursued the penis-vagina transformation, and began to prod his taint while under the impression there was a hidden vagina there. Though the Subliminal channel claimed the transformation would take six months, Chris eventually lost patience. In July 2016, he grabbed a knife and made a self-inflicted taint wound to an effort to free his vagina. Chris's devotion to the delusion was so potent that he initially resisted efforts by concerned fans to pressure him into going to the hospital, though he eventually wore down and admitted it was a wound and obeyed treatment instructions.

Con men

While Chris has long been taken advantage of by trolls, the tactics and goals from the likes of the Idea Guys and Jacob Sockness surpass the typical catfishing-for-content.

The Idea Guys gradually built up a strong psychological hold over Chris by affirming his fantasies and playing along with them, to the point where Chris had full faith over anything they told him. They then used their influence to con Chris out of $6,000 by threatening to blow up CWCville with a moon laser if he failed to comply, manipulate him into punching his mother, and had him make videos slapping himself in the face and shitting on the floor.

Jacob Sockness, following the example set by the Idea Guys, nearly succeeded in manipulating Chris into a sexual relationship, holding the Dimensional Merge over his head and faking a conversation with Chris's imaginary friend to convince him they should meet and consider marriage.

Though both the Idea Guys and Sockness were eventually ousted - by people countering their role-playing with their own - Chris has failed to learn and continues to leave the gates to his imaginary realm open to anyone who will validate his fantasies further.

Fantasy and fiction

See also: Reality Cartoon

“	You think that comic character wouldn't have its own thoughts and feelings?	”
Chris's question to Alec Benson Leary.

“	NO!	”
Alec's response.

“	You are naïve.	”
Chris's response to Alec.

The chances of this happening are staggering

When the internet first discovered him, Chris believed that CWCville and his characters were real, and that he had the power to curse people. Since then, and partly due to interference by the Idea Guys, Chris took on larger-scale fantasies, such as parallel universes.

CWCville

Main article: CWCville

CWCville is Chris’s original vision of an imaginary and idyllic fantasy world, where everything is build around his comfort and convenience, and where he enjoys great power with scant responsibility. Chris believes that CWCville is real, and uses the city as a way to “escape” from a world that does not give Chris what he wants. CWCville was originally an infill city within the state of Virginia, but it became part of the larger C-197 dimension when Chris started toying with the Dimensional Merge.

All of Chris's characters are aware that Chris is the creator of their reality. Sonichu and Rosechu both refer to him as "father", in much the same way a Christian might consider God to be his or her Creator (it is unknown if the comic exists in the universe of CWCville). Chris believes his characters possess the free will to make their own decisions, and that he is not responsible for their actions. This is how various events, both major and minor, such as Sonichu and Rosechu's wedding, the birth of their children, Kel's romance with Naitsirhc, and even Bubbles and Blake's wedding are said to actually happen "off-screen", instead of just being a spur-of-the-moment throwaway plot elements that Chris is too lazy to depict. Without prior explanation, Chris made a "spoiler" in his own comic that Magi-Chan will eventually get together with Silvana, implying that, in Chris's head, this has already "happened". It is Slaweel Ryam, not Chris, who apologizes for slandering Mary Lee Walsh. Chris once justified his refusal to write Simonla out of the comic by saying that she would not want to leave CWCville, and that she and Wild would fight for her right to stay.

Chris considers everything drawn, written, or even said about CWCville to be canonical if he's the one stating it (regardless of contradictions) and feels it necessary to explain away undesirable changes to CWCville made as a result of outside influences (e.g. BILLY MAYS, as Mayor). The fact that he needs to explain this in his comic pages shows that he assumes everyone else shares this belief as well. Despite considering his own judgement infallible as applied to his own work, he forces others to accept the "corrections" he has made to theirs.

When the Asperpedia Four used systematic trolling to make Chris kill off the character Simonla, Chris viewed it as a deliberate attack on his fantasy world. CWCville, which had always been Chris's way of retreat from the real world, had been infiltrated by outside forces and was no longer impenetrable, so this is likely why Chris put the comic on hiatus; to stop outside forces from causing any more damage.

On 23 July 2017, Chris responded to his True and Loyal Fanbase, who wondered why Chris wouldn't reboot his comics. As a response, Chris explained that if he were to reboot his comics, that would mean that history in the canon would have to start all over again, and all of the characters would have to start over from their original origins. Essentially, he thinks that if he pulls the plug on his Sonichu franchise and reboots it, that would mean that all of his characters would die, and they would somehow reincarnate into their newer upgraded versions.

“	I believe in the alternate dimensions where each set or all of our animated characters reside and live their lives, and continue growing long after their series is finished (or stay kids; whatever).	”
Chris to Doopie.

Dimensions

Main articles: Dimensions and Dimensional Merge

Chris’s belief in alternative dimensions allows him to disconnect from the poor and mundane life he currently resides in. It probably gives him solace to believe that he, or other versions of himself, exist in other places where he is content, successful, and surrounded by characters and people who love him.

The Dimensional Merge is a phenomenon which Chris describes as the process of the sister dimensions 1218 and C-197 unifying to incorporate characteristics of both dimensions in one universe. The dimension "1218" (sometimes referred to as "Earth 1218") is the universe which all of humanity inhabits. The dimension "C-197" is a creation of Chris' imagination which contains all of the fictional characters and original creations featured in comic books, animated television shows, movies, and video games. In addition, the dimension C-197 includes a mirror version of Earth that hosts all of the fictional locations which the OCs of C-197 reside, including Gotham City and Equestria. The merge was originally scheduled to complete by the end of 2018 leaving behind a universe known as 1C-211987 with elements of both sister dimensions.

Imaginary friends

“	I don't have to Justify Sonichu and Rosechu; they can take of that themselves.	”
Chris, being completely delusional in IRC (20 January 2009).

“	And One Day, Very Soon, my family and I will be able to show ourselves to you all, then you will be taking back your own “scizzo” labels. Harrumph!	”
Chris, nine years later.

The intro to the fan-made CWC’s Adult Chronicles references Chris’s belief that his characters are real.

Main article: Imaginary friends

Chris belief that CWCville and his Electric Hedgehog Pokémon are real have caused him to simply conjure up visions and voices of imaginary friends‎ and other characters out of thin air, similar to the intro to the fan-made version of Christian Weston Chandler's Adult Chronicles.

There are many instances of Chris openly conversing, interacting and even dancing with imaginary friends‎ over the years, some of which occurred well before the internet discovered him. Examples include his confrontation with Mary Lee Walsh in 2004, his imaginary dance partner at the 2017 BronyCon gala, and social media messages either from a point of view of any of his characters, or in which he claims to be with any of his characters.

Magic

Main article: Mysticism

In addition to conjuring up visions and voices of characters and worlds out of thin air, Chris also believes that he has magic powers: the most notable is the ability to curse his enemies (as well as to undo it).

Other magic powers that Chris claimed to possess include the ability to communicate with dead people, and the ability to brainwash people. In recent years, Chris has looked into Subliminal Frequency Hypnosis and psychic powers.

Superstitions

While most of Chris's superstitions are his own, he also takes part in popular superstitions as well. Autistic people in general tend to be predisposed to wishful and magical thinking, finding superstitions to be comforting.

Chris dislikes the number 13, because he thinks it is an unlucky number: triskaidekaphobia (the fear of 13) is already a common American superstition, with Microsoft Office notably skipping version 13 during the development of Office 2010. However, Chris's fear of the number 13 had an unusual effect on the numbering of the Sonichu comics, where Sonichu #13 was numbered as Sonichu #12-9 (showing his incompetency with either logic or math) and where the Episode "One Lucky Dog" from Sonichu #6 was labelled "Episode 12.5". On Twitter, when going into multi-tweet rants, Chris numbers the tweets. For Twitter messages which exceed 12 tweets, Chris either replaces the number 13 with a repeated 12 or with 12-9.

Chris has also shown belief in astrology. He included his and Sarah Hammer's zodiac signs in the Life-Shares. In his OkCupid profile, he wrote that his sign is "Pisces, and it's fun to think about". He wrote to Jessica Quinn, "I am emotion-prone, and I tend to do as I feel and life flows, like the Pisces I was born under." One of the quotes on his first Facebook was "I was born under the Sign of PISCES, the sign of the PROVIDER. I am fully capable of providing the necessities, and then some, for the Lucky Woman who loves me for me, and becomes my True Sweetheart". His belief in star signs may explain why he holds such a high significance to his birthday.

Chris places significance on his birthstone, which he calls "amnyfest". He believes the class ring with the stone is what gives him power, and even pointed it out to Emily on their date. More recently, he has attached an amethyst quartz crystal to his medallion.

Chris also obsesses over popular "rules" about relationships. He's held onto the idea that sex should be given on the third date, as well as other overly generic dating advice.

Perception of reality

See also: Chris and mathematics

“	A CAR WEIGHS A LOT MORE THAN 10 TONS	”
Chris, being unaware that most cars weigh two or three tons.

Chris has a tendency to hugely exaggerate estimates of length, weight, and strength in his favor, as evidenced in his description of a 12-pack of canned lemonade as being fifty pounds (22.7 kg). This behavior is symptomatic of dyscalculia, a common symptom of autism, which leaves the sufferer with poor comprehension of time, measurement, or spatial reasoning. However, Chris does not really display any other symptoms of it, suggesting this behavior isn't mere ignorance, but rather Chris telling childish lies to try to impress people with his physical strength.

Chris automatically assumes his lies will be believed, even if they contradict existing information. This is copiously evidenced in his constant lies during the Father Call, wherein Chris fibs incessantly about his health (among other things), frequently denying things or changing his story whenever he gets caught out. His habit of lying and lying about his lies is likely inherited from his mother, whom his brother described as a pathological liar. When asked by Evan to remove Simonla from his comics, Chris decided that he could have created her without the inspiration of Evan's character Simonchu and, thus, effectively had. The fact that he demonstrably could not have done this did not factor into his reasoning. Chris "corrected" Simonla's CWCipedia entry with a "retraction" denying that Simonla had ever been inspired by Simonchu. Chris expected that this revised version of the truth would be happily accepted by all concerned parties.

Chris considers people with Asperger's syndrome to be "fakers" who are taking "the Shine and Limelight" away from genuine autistic people such as himself. Although Chris has admitted that this "fact" is only his "own idea," he still believes that to think otherwise is to "conform to blasphem[y]." As with many other things which antagonize him, Chris simply assumes Aspergers to be significant of a conspiracy targeting himself.

The Sonic Boom Protests further revealed Chris's delusions about his power and influence in the world and showed he was willing to physically assault somebody to defend the honor of a fictitious character whose arms were recolored.

Unsurprisingly, Chris can come across as highly delusional when he expects to be taken seriously. For example, on 28 April 2012, he made an empty threat to the Kiwi Farms about hunting down each of its members; he claimed to know where each of them lives in an attempt to intimidate the trolls. Even if one were to gloss over the fact that he wouldn't even cough up $800 to travel to Redmond to see his dreams come true (and it should be noted that there are trolls all over America, and indeed the world), there's a high chance that there will only be one outcome of Chris actively pursuing his trolls with the purpose of doing them harm. All things considered, Chris ended up making himself even more of a laughing stock in the process.

Chris has no idea on how the billions of people on the planet think. He thinks that all men would happily wear bras and skirts (It must be noted that Chris thought these ideas so that he and he alone would feel more comfortable crossdressing), and that every Sonic fan on the planet would support him in his Sonic Boom Protests. When somebody informs him that they have a differing opinion to him, he throws a tantrum and denounces that person as a troll.

Chris also seems completely unaware of what current technology is and is not capable of. In his Sonichu article on the CWCipedia, he suggests that Nintendo pour their resources into developing a Poké Ball peripheral that would have slots for every generation of Pokémon games, including a slot for the GameCube memory card. He expects users of this peripheral to be able to read party data from the inserted game/memory card, display a holographic image of the Pokémon in play, and challenge people in real life who own the same peripheral (in a manner much like on Yu-Gi-Oh!). In addition, Chris has no idea how everyday machines such as cars work, evidenced in how he claimed that a 1997 Cadillac with a cracked engine block was a great "fixer upper." Normally, any serious physical damage to a car's engine can only be repaired by a very skilled mechanic, or cannot be repaired at all and one must buy a new engine (both of which are not cheap, but that's an entirely different problem).

Chris has also been shown to be completely ignorant of basic human anatomy. In the autumn of 2014, Chris received a piercing to his perineum in an effort to make it resemble a china, such that he could become a full-fledged tomgirl. Despite becoming infected in December 2014, he simply had it pierced again. While Chris was persuaded to have this piercing removed too, he remained deeply interested in becoming a woman by unorthodox means, much to the worry of onlookers. Eventually, he removed the piercing, and the wound healed, but Chris was not to be fazed: two years later, using a knife, he created an open wound on his groin, which he believed to be a pair of female genitals, growing thanks to all the hypnosis videos he had watched in the past few months - the same ones he believes cured his autism. Despite the wound posing a serious, even fatal risk to Chris's health, he did not seek any treatment for it until he was coaxed by concerned trolls to do so.

Chris has also been shown to lack knowledge in basic [1]. When he contracted a cold in December 2019, he had misattributed it to the large-scale triggering he got from a number of people on his Twitter.

Conspiracy theories

Among the many issues faced by Chris in his perception of reality, his tendency towards conspiracy theorism is the one that has caused him the most trouble. Chris views the fact of his own life through the lens of his huge, cloying ego, and as such believes that anyone who prevents him from getting what he wants is only interested in being mean to him for its own sake, something to which neither he nor his parents take kindly.

As stated, Chris believes that he was intentionally infected with autism by his doctor. Anyone who hinders Chris's Love Quest is part of an effort to "make true love illegal", either in Virginia or nationwide. This choice of words suggests that Chris believes that he is entitled to a girlfriend, and that people are attempting to take legal action to deprive him of this alleged right.

When no culprit responsible for his unhappiness is visible, Chris prefers to accuse unseen hands of plotting against him. Chris blamed his inability to find guests to a sporting event on efforts by the Greene County school board to deprive him of friends; including conspiracy with realtors to keep him in Ruckersville and with Michael Snyder to keep him out of his favorite hangout.

Chris's tendencies towards these sorts of thoughts may spiral back to two people: Robert and Barbara Chandler. A phone call between his parents and a GAMe PLACe employee revealed a number of things; most importantly, it illustrated that they believe Chris's entire trolling began as a conspiracy between Michael Snyder, Megan Schroeder, and a number of potential homosexuals to "terrorize", "torment", and "persecute" Chris for being autistic, going so far as to believe they broke into Chris's credit card account and tried to ruin his credit. Considering how readily and fervently these beliefs were held by his parents, it is sadly little wonder that Chris thinks the same way.

When Chris was active on the Tomboys and Tomgirls of Virginia forum, he revealed that he shares his parents' insane beliefs about the GAMe PLACe's position in troll hierarchy. Most notably, he claimed that Michael Snyder was hiding a criminal scandal because the owner of the Place (as well as three other associated hobby stores) is a convicted sex offender. He also tried to argue that the store itself is in violation of the law, simply because it is close to a public school and owned by a sex offender who is never actually there. Ironically enough, acting like a sex offender is one of the many things that got Chris banned from the store in the first place. Chris would eventually accuse Michael Snyder himself of being a child molester, going as far as to accuse him of molesting his own daughter. In case you've forgotten, Snyder once chased Chris down after he (unintentionally) took candid photographs of the same daughter Chris accused him of molesting.

The most telling evidence of Chris's belief that anyone who doesn't agree with him is a 'damn dirty troll' is the case of his white knights. Despite their attempts to offer constructive critique on his art, warn Chris of potential trolling attempts and even plead with him to seek help, they have all fallen on deaf ears. There have even been cases where trolls themselves would respectfully point out what Chris is doing wrong in life. However, as is the rule with Chris, these people were not telling him what he wanted to hear and were therefore ignored.

Fan videos

Chris Chan and Reality / CWCki Discussion
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Stardate	2 January 2019
Made By	Dillin Thomas
Subject Matter	CWCki
TRUE and HONEST Sonichu Fan Videos