[Madness]

I feel like playing the preacher is part of the Rants/schtick (: a component, part of the essence, of what something is), Sci.

[sciborg2]

I feel like playing the preacher is part of the Rants/schtick (: a component, part of the essence, of what something is), Sci.

It is interesting that so many people who talk about psychedelics have a "reality tunnel" to sell whether it's gods beyond the hologram or a materialist challenge to antinatalism.

I just think people would be better off with the creative agnosticism of Robert Anton Wilson. Would avoid the preachy feeling, though some people who've committed to Cain's own faith in what reality is might find his words comforting.

[Royce]

It is interesting that so many people who talk about psychedelics have a "reality tunnel" to sell whether it's gods beyond the hologram or a materialist challenge to antinatalism.

Well, as I am sure I have mentioned before, psychedelics bring forth certain insights that are unexplainable. Literally.
So whatever "reality tunnel" they are selling, is only a vague understanding of something unbelievably complex.

To listen to someone talk about psychedelics when you have not experienced it yourself, is really like talking about driving a car when you actually never have driven a car before. It is two completely different things.

This is why I rarely discuss this with people, because it is not something you need to do. If you want do do it, because you think you can learn something, or you are curious about altered states in general, go ahead. If not, then dont.

[sciborg2]

This is why I rarely discuss this with people, because it is not something you need to do. If you want do do it, because you think you can learn something, or you are curious about altered states in general, go ahead. If not, then dont.

I actually feel the same way about the Divine...or perhaps better stated the "Numinous". Too few have really known God in any meaningful way but want to explain away what that feeling is.

As a soft materialist, as Robert Anton Wilson would classify me, I'm okay with resigning myself to materialism until something better comes along. But I see no reason to evangelize the paradigm's supposed virtues, and any attempt to justify skeptical missionary work via appeals to the idea people ought to live with the Truth are IMO self-defeating as there is no "ought" written into the world nor is there Platonic Truth.

Too many materialists seem so desperate to spread conformity to their ideas that they get hypercritical about anyone else's interpretations of mystical/gnostic experiences whether that is religious ecstasy or the psychedelic experience.

Really goes back to the possibility that a lot of intellectual bitterness is self-inflicted.

[sciborg2]

Leaving aside the vital but off topic criticism of materialist evangelism and the personalities behind it, which admittedly is best left for another thread, I'll correct my derailing by getting back to the topic at hand:

Joe Rogan Experience #417 - Graham Hancock

Some interesting discussion about psychedelics and how they relate to the wider availability of drugs out there.

The Psychedelic Reader

Eric Davis's intro to the collection of 60's articles on psychedelics.

[Royce]

As a soft materialist, as Robert Anton Wilson would classify me, I'm okay with resigning myself to materialism until something better comes along. But I see no reason to evangelize the paradigm's supposed virtues, and any attempt to justify skeptical missionary work via appeals to the idea people ought to live with the Truth are IMO self-defeating as there is no "ought" written into the world nor is there Platonic Truth.

I like this

I have a couple of books by Hancock, but have not read them yet. I try not to read books about psychedelics(have read a few), but I feel I have to get through Terence Mckennas Food of the Gods before I try anything else. He is the master you know

[sciborg2]

I have a couple of books by Hancock, but have not read them yet. I try not to read books about psychedelics(have read a few), but I feel I have to get through Terence Mckennas Food of the Gods before I try anything else. He is the master you know

Hancock is interesting. I've admittedly dismissed all his Atlantis type stuff, or at least classified it as so improbable as to not be important to my life.

I like Supernatural [the book] as ethnography, there are so many accounts of shamanism in the book and the comparison to UFO abductions is interesting. But I don't think there's any smoking gun in the book that proves psychedelics transport us to another dimension.

Also, I still think his TED talk was terrible and an utter waste of an opportunity.

[sciborg2]

MDMA and Autistic Adults: A New Research Study [Psychedelic Salon #392]

The latest episode of the Psychedelic Salon podcast features a talk from the 2013 Palenque Norte Burning Man series.  In it, Alicia Danforth discusses the results of a 2013 research study she conducted into the various effects of MDMA on individuals with Autism Spectrum disorders.

Criminals and Researchers: Perspectives on the Necessity of Underground Research

I do not deny that there is sanctioned research being done on psychedelics, nor do I deny that there are groundbreaking results coming out of sanctioned psychedelic research. However, the fact of the matter is that there is not “enough” psychedelic research being done, nor do I believe it is possible to ever pursue “enough” psychedelic research within the confines of sanctioned institutions set within a prohibitionist paradigm.

[sciborg2]

Psychedelic Science 2013 Mini-Documentary

http://the-nexian.me/home/external-news/74-psychedelic-science-2013-mini-documentary

Transforming Medicine is a mini-documentary showcasing the exciting, multidisciplinary field of psychedelic science through interviews with attendees of Psychedelic Science 2013, an unprecedented event that gathered more than 100 of the world's leading researchers and over 1,900 international attendees to share knowledge about the risks and benefits of psychedelic substances.

[Madness]

Effects of psilocybin on hippocampal neurogenesis and extinction of trace fear conditioning

[sciborg2]

Effects of psilocybin on hippocampal neurogenesis and extinction of trace fear conditioning

Good stuff - thanks for that Madness!

=-=-=

NeuroSoup:

http://www.neurosoup.com/about-us/

"NeuroSoup is based upon principles of harm reduction and strives to educate people around the world on responsible drug use. We hope to educate people about the positive and negative aspects of all drugs, whether they are legal, available by prescription, or illegal. Moreover, NeuroSoup aids in addicted individuals’ recovery by providing online self help drug and alcohol rehab resources. As well, NeuroSoup contends that through the use of the many consciousness expansion tools currently in existence (including spirituality, entheogens, lucid dreaming, meditation, yoga, and sensory deprivation, among others), people can grow spiritually to realize their full potential. We strive to provide resources for people as they walk down this path of consciousness exploration"

[sciborg2]

LSD, Reconsidered for Therapy

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/health/lsd-reconsidered-for-therapy.html

...On Tuesday, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease is posting online results from the first controlled trial of LSD in more than 40 years. The study, conducted in the office of a Swiss psychiatrist near Bern, tested the effects of the drug as a complement to talk therapy for 12 people nearing the end of life, including Peter.

Most of the subjects had terminal cancer, and several died within a year after the trial — but not before having a mental adventure that appeared to have eased the existential gloom of their last days.

“Their anxiety went down and stayed down,” said Dr. Peter Gasser, who conducted the therapy and followed up with his patients a year after the trial concluded.

The new publication marks the latest in a series of baby steps by a loose coalition of researchers and fund-raisers who are working to bring hallucinogens back into the fold of mainstream psychiatry. Before research was effectively banned in 1966 in the United States, doctors tested LSD’s effect for a variety of conditions, including end-of-life anxiety.

But in the past few years, psychiatrists in the United States and abroad — working with state regulators as well as ethics boards — have tested Ecstasy-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress; and other trials with hallucinogens are in the works....

[Madness]

Return trip: A new generation of researchers is heading into the weird world of psychedelic drugs.

[sciborg2]

Return trip: A new generation of researchers is heading into the weird world of psychedelic drugs.

Great stuff. Love Erik Davis.

Mystical Experiences Occasioned by the Hallucinogen Psilocybin Lead to Increases in the Personality Domain of Openness

Talk: Katherine MacLean, Psilocybin and Personality Change

[Royce]

I am going to try to read this book at some point.

http://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Information-Theory-Shamanism-Reason/dp/1453760172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397327052&sr=8-1&keyword

It will be refreshing (for me at least) to get a scientific view on this matter.