[ExI] Religious Idiocy Triumphs Over Science Yet Again

[Anders Sandberg]

Never tried psychedelics, although I did spend much of the late 80s 
looking deep into fractals :-) They are on my to-do list.

Being the typical dry researcher I have mostly read about their effects, 
especially where they adjoin my cognitive enhancement interests 
("Anders, you are studying the *boring* enhancers!" as a noted 
psychedelic expert told me). My impressions are:

* Seems to promote creativity by jostling the normal thought processes 
and creating wide integration for a while. This is a good thing in some 
people and some settings, and useless for others. There are plenty of 
examples of people actually having useful and valid insights, but we 
never hear anything about the other cases.

* Mystical experiences are more common than one may think, and happens 
without drugs (or training) too. Most are not life altering (which is 
one of the saddest statements about the human condition ever: you 
suddenly *know* how the universe works, meet the Divine and have your 
ego oblitterated - and next morning you go back to your job, slightly 
happier). Some are, and those are the ones you hear about.

* Recent studies on psilocybin and other psychedelics are very promising 
against depression. Also, it seems psilocybin causes a lasting increase 
in the openness big-5 personality trait. This is not necessarily a good 
thing: being too open can be impairing.

* Overall, the whole area is understudied for stupid reasons. I expect 
there to be many low-hanging fruits research-wise. But self-reports from 
self-selected people are unreliable.


-- 
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University