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Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

sprott.physics.wisc.edu

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Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#151

Post by remir »

GordonS wrote: post #94
spacehacker wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the same skepticism you could also ask yourself to which extent the hallucinations were actually due to subconscious recall of all kinds of memes surrounding hallucinogens like "out-of-body experience", "consciousness", "parallel worlds", "breakthrough", "feeling like dying", as well as imagery from all kinds of drug films and literature etc.

It's a good point, but I had a similar experience in my teens, before I'd been exposed to any such influences.

Same thing for me.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#152

Post by oniMaker »

dragonwriter wrote: post #150
oniMaker wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occam's razor would immediately discard quantum theory. Does that make it false?

> Occam's razor would immediately discard quantum theory No, it to wouldn't; quantum theory is quite plausibly the most parsimonious explanation consistent with the evidence.

The point is that it would seem ridiculous to start from nothing and jump to such a counter-intuitive theory.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#153

Post by dragonwriter »

oniMaker wrote: post #152
dragonwriter wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Occam's razor would immediately discard quantum theory No, it to wouldn't; quantum theory is quite plausibly the most parsimonious explanation consistent with the evidence.

The point is that it would seem ridiculous to start from nothing and jump to such a counter-intuitive theory.

Occam's Razor has nothing to do with starting from nothing, it has to do with selecting among competing explanations for a set of known facts.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#154

Post by swayvil »

colordrops wrote: post #66
swayvil wrote: post #54

Maybe they visit a parallel universe where they meet insects.

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.

I doubt it's a conscious thing. Some kind of explaining reflex.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#155

Post by remir »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #101
colordrops wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How would you define reality?

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#156

Post by collyw »

pseud0r wrote: post #110
benevol wrote: post #91

I've seen the roots of a tree (at at distance of about 300 feet) through the ground, while on LSD (about 500ug). I'm sure those really were the roots, because the visible part of the tree (the trunk and the roots that came up above ground again at a few spots) matched completely with roots in the ground I was seeing. The image was stable and lasted for about 45 seconds. Something (not like an external voice, more lik…

I've had similar experiences, but I don't think they're anything other than internally generated by the brain, especially since I've also been able to morph what I've seen into other objects at will. I've also been able to see objects in more detail on LSD, like I was wearing extra glasses or something, but again I suspect the extra details were just created by my visual system, though it would be interesting if ther…

I do a few outdoor sports and I have noticed that when I get into a particularly bad scenario time seems to slow down. Actually I am not sure that it does, but the adrenaline seems to turn off the filtering so I remember it in slow motion and in a lot more detail.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#157

Post by collyw »

oniMaker wrote: post #149
axefrog wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occam's razor is a guideline, not an immutable law.

Occam's razor would immediately discard quantum theory. Does that make it false?

Forgive my ignorance but haven't there been experiments that prove quantum theory? Why all the fuss about quantum computers if its just a pie in the sky hypothesis? (It's not a field I am familiar with other than on a very superficial level, so an "explain it like I'm 5" would be most useful in responses to my points).

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#158

Post by abecedarius »

Anthony-G wrote: post #129
sokoloff wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cats display what appears to be an instinctual (and often hilarious) fear of some snake-shaped objects, like cucumbers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNycdfFEgBc

As a cat owner, I recently heard about this phenomenon and looked it up. Many of the Quora answers [1] seem to concur that cats would be startled by the sudden appearance of any novel/unusual object in their vicinity. 1: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-cats-afraid-of-cucumbers-1

If that were the true explanation, I'd expect followup videos of cats freaking out just as much over other innocent objects -- it's what some people would try and others would upvote. I didn't see any when I first heard of the cucumber thing, so I'd guess that the phenomenon's real: cucumbers seem especially like poisonous snakes to cats. I won't try a controlled experiment on my own cat, though.

The opinions on quora don't appear to be backed up by anything more than 'not proven'. I think it's reasonable to be skeptical, but also that experts are still pretty ignorant and prone to dismissing phenomena they don't already know about.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#159

Post by abecedarius »

saywatnow wrote: post #37
GuiA wrote: post #16

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…

> This makes sense, as humans have co-evolved along venomous snakes for presumably a very long time. I always find appeals to evolution for phenomena like this a bit weak. In the Darwinian sense, this response would have to be a random mutation that is environmentally selected for. Not a biologist, but that seems a very high-order function to be subject to random mutations.

That's a general argument against any complex adaptation. Here's some experimental evidence I found on a quick search: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... (I only skimmed this paper.)

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#160

Post by abecedarius »

anigbrowl wrote: post #68

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…

"A few experimental attempts have been made to elicit parapsychological phenomena through the controlled administration of LSD-type substances... None of them produced statistically significant results" http://stanleykrippner.weebly.com/lsd-and-parapsychological-...
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