Funny how most in this thread are unwilling to interpret the experience at face value, probably because of certain taboos among scientific and technically minded types.
Maybe people here have more knowledge of neuroscience, and physics, than the general population? Knowledge brings biases, of course. But those biases aren't necessarily wrong. You have a blind-spot (at least one) on each retina that you never see. Does this mean that there is a secret hole in reality, just out of sight, that science won't accept? Or does it mean that there's an area on your retina with no visual sens…
I'm not saying that the experience is not likely an illusion. But its funny that you mention a blind spot, because why entertain every theory except the most obvious one?
I believe this world is basically a playpen in a universe having 5 spatial dimensions. I've had a very interesting side-effect immediately after coming back from a DMT trip of being able to see around things. Like you look at a box on the table in front of you and you can see the side facing away from you. Faded gradually after 5 minutes. This seems like extremely fruitful territory for trying with ESP test cards, MR…
> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. This, I believe, is one of the most powerful and profound lessons hallucinogens can teach us. If you can experience, first hand, that even the sensory input from your eyes and ears can not always be trusted, then it tends to make you very, very skeptical of things that are held as immutably true beliefs.
It would be hilarious if math, science, and logic turned out to be consensus hallucinations that were not only incomplete but could not make more than limited patches of sense.
There's an old saying, if a problem seems insoluble, perhaps you are asking the question the wrong way. It ties (ahem) in with the parable of the Gordian knot. We've got a few seemingly insoluble questions (such as the nature of consciousness, the unification of gravity and quantum theory, etc) that are just screaming at us.
I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was rel…
> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. Back when I was a teenager, I got interested in the idea of lucid dreaming. One of the suggested ways I'd read of gaining awareness that you are in a dream is to habitually ask yourself if you're dreaming -- sooner or later, you'll do it in a dream. I tried that for a while, and sure enough, I did actually ask myself if I was dreaming while in a dream, and c…
I used to be quite good at this. In a similar vein as asking "am I dreaming?" I got into the habit of slapping my hand palm up on a table and saying "apple!" while willing an apple to appear. One day, it did. I realized I was dreaming and simply started bicycling my legs into the air, and I proceeded to fly around my city (Boston at the time.) The first time, it was exhilarating, but my excitement kept me from easily falling asleep, and I'd wake from dreams really easily. Then, few months later during a period of high stress, I did it again and managed to stay asleep while swimming above my neighborhood. I found when under high stress, I'll get these aware dreams where I can just imagine whatever and it manifests. However, its sorta boring after a bit, you can't surprise yourself, and my life is not so stressed anymore, so I have not had such a dream in a few years.
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can fill-out missing parts of images that fit plausibly into the existing scene. These are computer programs that are much less complicated than our brains. So, you have one interpretation, but there's no reason to think it's more likely than the fact that your brain is really good at filling in missing details.
That was my first thought, too. But there are other elements which are relevant: I could literally walk my eyes along the roots, up and down, they were static and didn't move an inch. And during an earlier experience (and to a good extent during the 2-3 following days), using about 150ug only, I felt something like a strong connection with the tree I was standing in front of. It was like we were communicating (for as…
There's nothing in your extra elements that precludes it was just your brain filling in the details. I think you're underestimating how capable we are of hallucinating things in proper spatial placing, even with motion going on. The strong connection feeling is often felt by LSD users, but is a separate phenomenon from being able to see through solid objects (the ground), and is just a feeling that your brain can arbitrarily assign to anything, including hallucinated objects. Ex. you can easily feel connected to things in dreams that have never existed in real life at all.
I'm all for meditation and realization of the interconnected nature of all life, though. Keep at it.
There is some evidence that seems to indicate that the humans have an evolved "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.c... As reptiles, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other pri…
Interesting that Satan is described as a "serpent" in the Old Testament/Garden of Eden story.
The verse most specific to a "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns (per OP) is Genesis 3:15:
"I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspringe and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel." (ESV)
I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE .
Just a fair warning, I've never once seen a depiction of the effects of any kind of psychedelic drug that matched the effects I've personally experienced. And I've tried quite a few of them. A lot of the experience is the head space and body load, which you're just never going to get from way over the top visual approximations. If you haven't experienced those, you aren't going to be able to imagine them very accurat…
> For instance, the most psilocybin does (for me) is cause text on a screen to wiggle around by a few pixels
Take more. I've been sitting in my living room literally holding my eyelids open seeing a completely different world. I agree 100% about the visual depictions though. Never gets close.
I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was rel…
> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. Back when I was a teenager, I got interested in the idea of lucid dreaming. One of the suggested ways I'd read of gaining awareness that you are in a dream is to habitually ask yourself if you're dreaming -- sooner or later, you'll do it in a dream. I tried that for a while, and sure enough, I did actually ask myself if I was dreaming while in a dream, and c…
Conversely it is impossible in dreams to read the same thing twice. Take a book, newspaper and read a sentence. Look away. Try read again, the text/meaning will have changed.
There's bee a bit of fuss over here in the UK recently about homeopathic medicines, which are supposed to be ridiculously over-diluted, containing dangerous amounts of various substances. The basic idea that tiny amounts of substances that harm you in various ways might benefit you in a related way is magical thinking. But when you can't rely on the 'tiny amounts' part, you're in pretty nasty territory.
Magical Thinking, eh? Vaccines and the entire concept of hormesis is something you should research when you get the chance.
Vaccines operate on a completely different principle....You get exposed to live but neutered or dead bacteria/viruses so your immunoresponse mechanisms learn how to fight it if you ever come across the full strength version. It has nothing to do with homeopathy.
I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE .
This video is a better depiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpCqOPFG6V4&list=FLugyqeLh8e... That's not to say it's more 'accurate' than the other, but rather I think it more fully captures the impossibility of the experience.