[ExI] Religious Idiocy Triumphs Over Science Yet Again

[Max More]

Adrian: It's hard for me to assess your dismissive claim about insights
while under the influence of drugs, partly because it's not clear to me
whether you are talking about one or two drugs that you are most familiar
with, or all drugs. (There are *hundreds* of mind-altering drugs, if not
thousands, that we already know of.)

These days, I have too many and too consistent and persistent
responsibilities to experiment with major mind-altering substances. In my
20s and early 30s, however, I became very "experienced" (in the Jim
Morrison sense). Back in April 1989, I wrote a (now) slightly embarrassing
and over-enthusiastic piece called "Psychedelics and Mind Expansion",
published in *Extropy *#3. (Good luck googling that. Pre-Web!) I'm pretty
sure that you are *mostly* correct. I do recall two separate LSD
experiences. In one, I "realized" that the core of reality is unity. In
another, I "realized" that the core of reality is duality.

On the other hand, I can say for sure that LSD enabled me to experience
things (music, interactions with people, and interactions with nature) in
ways I never had before, and that have continued to have (positive if
occasional) effects since. For instance, I found myself (contrary to my
then-highly reserved nature) talking to and *seeing* people like the
postman and a grocery store clerk in ways that I never had before. In
addition, while I would not recommend over-indulgence with THC, I have no
doubt that it enabled me to overcome some deep-rooted emotional blockages
that led me to talk to someone very close to me about a critical issue that
I never been able to broach before. (Again, this was late-1980s/early 90s.)
That opening up has had long-lasting benefits.

So, I think your comments are mostly but not entirely true. We may be able
to gain more value (apart from simple enjoyment/joy/engagement -- also
worthy outcomes) from mind-altering drugs if we (a) could design them with
greater specificity, and (b) had a much better understanding of how they
would affect any specific individual.

On the latter: Many people apparently have wonderfully enjoyable
experiences on MDMA (unless they overdose or combine in stupid ways). I did
not. In fact, I had some truly emotionally horrible experiences on the few
occasions that I tried it. (Was it the substance? Was it the time in my
life? I don't know.) That's interesting, because my LSD experiences were
almost all good to fantastically great, with only one or two not-good (but
not bad) occasions. (I think the least enjoyable was going to a Grateful
Dead concert in LA -- I was not familiar with their music -- at a time when
I really wasn't in a good mood.)

I'm surprised I'm commenting at this length... The topic takes me back.
[Not a flashback!]

--Max



On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 12:26 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 8:08 AM, William Flynn Wallace <
> foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't think that is anything invalid about these, except that insights
>> regarding understanding of the universe usually turn out to be as Adrian
>> says:  nothing brilliant.
>> Often wacky.  Disappointing compared to our feelings for them when stoned.
>>
>
> Exactly right.  And I'm not suggesting they're invalid: the sensory
> impressions are indeed more vivid.  Just...they don't actually produce
> better results for anything you want to matter to anyone outside your own
> mind.
>
> Assuming radiotelepathy (brain to brain communication at some level deeper
> than language, via electronics wired to the brain and linked via
> radio/wire/whatever electronic bridge) was a thing, what would happen if
> one of a pair of linked minds were to trip while the other did not,
> assuming they are sharing full sensory impressions with each other and
> started the experiment already used to this connection?
>
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>
>


-- 

Max More, PhD
Strategic Philosopher
Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader*
http://www.amazon.com/Transhumanist-Reader-Contemporary-Technology-Philosophy/dp/1118334310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372225570&sr=1-1&keywords=the+transhumanist+reader
President & CEO, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
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