[extropy-chat] baloney in the memetic superstructure

[Jef Allbright]

On 12/3/05, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> So LSD has been around since the 60s.  Eight cases since
> then, and those under very unusual circumstances: less
> risky than being devoured by an alligator.
>
> As for those cooking up their own at home and accidentally
> poisoning themselves, I found no cases of that.  The web
> has been with us a dozen years and the internet for over
> three decades.  If it hasn't happened by now, it evidently
> isn't a risk.
>
> So now I ask myself how I got the notion to start with.  One

Spike -

You and I are about the same age, and I remember the memetic source
most influencial to me regarding the dangers of LSD was the Reader's
Digest which, in the 60s, published some extremely dramatic articles
on people taking LSD, thinking they could see God, or were God, and
flying out of windows and such.  If I remember correctly, the articles
also tended to conflate LSD use with death by other drugs by prominent
examples of non-Christian living such as Janis Joplin and Jim
Morrison.  I was only in my first decade of life, but I remember
reading the Digest each month and then laughing to my mother about how
obvious was its propaganda, whether about the dangers of drugs, rock
music, or communism.

Later, in my early twenties I researched LSD both objectively and
(briefly) subjectively, and learned that the physical risk is quite
minimal.  It does open one up to understanding the crucial importance
of subjective viewpoint, but I think it does pose a very real danger
in terms of accentuating a tendency to experience "aha" moments and
mistake them for true understanding.

- Jef