<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>On Dec 11, 2015, at 4:33 PM, Anders Sandberg <<a href="mailto:anders@aleph.se">anders@aleph.se</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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On 2015-12-11 23:54, Will Steinberg wrote:<br>
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<p dir="ltr">I just don't understand particularly why you would
believe that besides cultural bias. Do you know what receptors
psychedelics act on? Do you have evidence that the insights
would be poorer than "sobriety"? </p></blockquote>
Sorry, but the onus is on you to give evidence for your claims. The
simplest explanation is that nothing much happens. <br>
<br>
Now, I happen to agree with you to some extent, but I am travelling
so I cannot easily bring up my research library on drug effects on
creativity. <br>
<br>
But receptors are the wrong level to look for support of creativity
enhancement - there are plenty of serotonin receptors that merely
handle blood pressure and gut functions.<br>
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<p dir="ltr">Another effect of psychoactive you CANNOT have
without them is: being able to look at receptor affinities and
compare effects. If one takes two drugs with different
affinities for the 5HT1 or GABAB or CB2 receptor, then one can
compare effects and gain insight on what it feels like to have
sets of those particular receptors active. It is very valuable
in neuroscience. And there's a long history of enthusiastic
scientists using themselves as subjects.</p>
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<br>
That also require doing proper science: record systematically what
happens and measure as objectively as possible. This is very hard
with psychedelics and creativity each, and even worse in
combination. It can be done, but it is usually not done.<br></div></blockquote><br><div>I've used psychedelics.</div><div><br></div><div>A big problem is advocates (of their use to boost creativity) all too often rely on self-reporting. And like a drunk or high person playing a musical instrument (or trying to be funny) -- which I've been on both ends of -- your mileage may vary. I know mine did. ;)</div><div><br></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books via:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://author.to/DanUst</font></a></div></div></div></body></html>