[extropy-chat] baloney in the memetic superstructure

Dirk Bruere dirk.bruere at gmail.com
Sun Dec 4 13:12:14 UTC 2005


On 12/4/05, Jef Allbright <jef at jefallbright.net> wrote:
>
>
> 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.


You ought to look into the connection between Readers Digest and the CIA
 http://archive.salon.com/sneaks/sneakpeeks961113.html

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.
>

Which is why people like me do 'reality testing' - we take those insights
and test them for utility. One can argue over the nature of reality, but
utility is a pretty objective criteria. I made a lot of money using LSD for
'business trips'.

Dirk
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