Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)

[Emlyn]

On 30/11/05, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 7:39 PM
> > To: 'ExI chat list'
> > Subject: RE: Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> > [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Dirk Bruere
> > Subject: Re: Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)
> >
> >
> > On 11/29/05, Herb Martin <HerbM at learnquick.com> wrote:
> > To Spike and Dirk:
> >
> > Spike wrote (earlier):
> > > > recreationals, but not to LSD. The 60s are over, it was bad
> > >> medicine then, still is now. Put that stuff away, too dangerous.
> >
> > Dirk wrote:
> > > I disagree.
> > > IMO the benefits far outweigh the possible dangers.
> > > I'd also say that when it comes to damage most other drugs are worse -
> > and
> > this certainly includes alcohol.
> >
> > What dangers?
> >
> >
> >
> > The danger I had in mind is accidental overdose...
> >
> > spike
>
>
> I googled and found that the risk is not of
> dying with an accidental LSD overdose but
> rather merely psychosis.  OK crazy is better
> than dead I suppose.
>
> spike
>

I'll chime in with the other supporters of LSD... you can't put the
hallucinogens in a group with the other illegal drugs. LSD and
mushrooms can change break your existing worldview. Something not
altogether a bad thing from an extropian standpoint I reckon, because
you can then go about reconstructing using a more rational framework,
rather than just inheriting it from Newton knows where.

But in my experience these aren't things you mess with very often,
simply because the experience is too intense. They seemed to me to be
the opposite of addictive (unless you have a serious love of chaos).

Marijuana is something I've always thought had no serious side effects
(my parents were hippies, you know), but I've seen as I get older that
people really do become dependent on it, in a psychological rather
than purely physiological fashion I think. And the bad thing from an
extro point of view is that it seems to make people really apathetic,
so that they stop doing anything except scoring and getting stoned.
Blah to that!

As for alcohol, well I come from a family of alcohol dependants. My
mother, who took every drug that you can name, I'd reckon, with
extensive habits around anything addictive at one time or another
(including all the big ones), managed to kick everything except
alcohol. She died about almost 2 months ago, aged 55, of a hemorrhagic
stroke (doctors on the list will know the risk factors here, or google
it) after being warned for years to stop drinking or die.

--
Emlyn

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