Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 220 posts

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#151

Post by RobertoG »

Lewton wrote: post #132
alexmat wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Post-solopsism? Fck me dude, I mean say want you will about nihilism, at least it doesn't attempt to invalidate the experience of qualia.

It's just materialism taken to its logical conclusion. We're just a bunch of atoms bumping into each other in a way that fools ourselves into believing that we're a cohesive entity. Ever been tired and run on autopilot? Our experience of ourselves vary in strength all the time. If I'm really really honest with myself, I don't actually have the experience of qualia all the time

>>"If I'm really really honest with myself, I don't actually have the experience of qualia all the time"

That's is what you say, but how can we know that you are not a conscious being imitating a p-zombie? ;-)

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#152

Post by cptn_brittish »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #69
maxander wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the reason that it’s done indoors is that, most places with a high enough density of humans for this practice to be available, the outside is a dangerous place for a tripping patient. Someone driving by blasting a rap album out their window could send a trip in some bad directions.

Also, it’s a clinical study. They need to control the conditions or it’s not science.

It wouldn't be science but at the same time those conditions are horrible in order to study the effects of psychedelics.

The conditions are almost a sure fire way to make someone have a troubling experience if they were given the doses knowen to be taken in those times and did not have prior experience dealing with the reality altering effects of those substances.

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#153

Post by bfuller »

tigershark wrote: post #148
bfuller wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This person was unwilling or unable to assimilate their experience and now they are blaming LSD. Funny enough, if he kept taking LSD and exploring his spirituality he could deal with the feelings of believing in science but being shaken by the possibility of the supernatural. That's actually pretty straightforward. But he is choosing to close the book on it, and now is blaming the drug when really its himself. An act…

It’s bewildering how many drug defendants are here on HN. For you the solution is not to avoid assuming dangerous drugs that can mess badly your mind, as happened to the gp, but on the contrary is continuing to assume it once your mind is messed up. Maybe if one day the same things happen to you you may change your point of view, although it would be too late at that point I fear.

LSD didn't mess up his mind. It made him feel conflicted about ideas that are in his head. He literally started the post saying he was sane and doesnt suffer from depression or any other mental illness. psychedelics are safe for those people.

That is ENTIRELY different from being predisposed to psychosis, which psychedelics can bring out.

And your logic can be reversed. Lives have been saved from giving extremely depressed people microdoses of LSD. But people like you would rather throw those people to the wayside and tell them they can't take the drug that works for them because you have some kind of personal agenda.

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#154

Post by bfuller »

pwm wrote: post #133
bfuller wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This person was unwilling or unable to assimilate their experience and now they are blaming LSD. Funny enough, if he kept taking LSD and exploring his spirituality he could deal with the feelings of believing in science but being shaken by the possibility of the supernatural. That's actually pretty straightforward. But he is choosing to close the book on it, and now is blaming the drug when really its himself. An act…

While I agree, please realise that your approach is really not helpful! We don't tell someone who just fell off the bike and afraid of sitting back that "if you've just sat back you'd now be riding, hair in the wind". This only alienates people.

Yeah well he alienated a bunch of people by misleading people saying it was LSD that caused his hallucinations when really it was Nitrous.

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#155

Post by simplemts »

gepi79 wrote: post #134
collyw wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of things can potentially destroy healthy minds (relationships for example). According to David Nutts study psylocibin is regarded as one of the least harmful drugs. I have also seen a study showing that use of psychedelics was associated with lower rates of mental health issues later in life. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... Sounds to me like it put a crack in your ego rather than…

Sounds to me like it put a crack in your ego rather than a crack in your sanity. This is what many so called psychonauts do not understand. A bad trip can be traumatic and can revive other traumatic experiences. https://www.verywellmind.com/ptsd-triggers-and-coping-strate... https://www.reddit.com/r/LSD/comments/630i1g/trauma_from_bad... Psychedelics can lead to decreased wellbeing, decreased psychological and emotio…

I have never, ever met a psychonaut that doesn't advocate "set and setting".

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#156

Post by saiya-jin »

tigershark wrote: post #148
bfuller wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This person was unwilling or unable to assimilate their experience and now they are blaming LSD. Funny enough, if he kept taking LSD and exploring his spirituality he could deal with the feelings of believing in science but being shaken by the possibility of the supernatural. That's actually pretty straightforward. But he is choosing to close the book on it, and now is blaming the drug when really its himself. An act…

It’s bewildering how many drug defendants are here on HN. For you the solution is not to avoid assuming dangerous drugs that can mess badly your mind, as happened to the gp, but on the contrary is continuing to assume it once your mind is messed up. Maybe if one day the same things happen to you you may change your point of view, although it would be too late at that point I fear.

Psychedelics are by far the strongest and most life-and-mind altering thing you can experience in your life, it changed my life for better. It comes with very fat disclaimers and blinking warning signs, and for very good reason.

You can't get similar experience anywhere else apart from years and years of mediation training, I'll believe when I hear somebody who experienced both and compared favorably. So far 0 persons. Look at what people are willing to do to get to Everest for example, and even reaching the top during multi-month expedition won't get you such a powerful experience (didn't do exactly that, but smaller similar stuff - very nice, but 'meh' compared to this).

Sure, I'll keep defending it, against prevalent ignorance and stupidity in the population. It was one of the best things that happened to me in my life (didn't have any for last 10 years maybe, the experience is still part of me and always will be).

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#157

Post by akvadrako »

heracles wrote: post #88
Jedi72 wrote: post #13

Im a stable, sane, not depressed or anything person. I once took LSD (mixed with other things aswell...) and had a trip during which I spoke to God, Satan and various other imaginary beings. It was not a fun experience - I'm a man of science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was shattered. It stuck with me for months after. I've gone from someone who 100% believed in evolution and a materi…

Can't you see it as a indication of the opposite of what we typically call God? That instead of there being an external entity outside our universe interacting with you, you talked to something God-like inside yourself. This might be what you share with every person in history that ever have received divine inspiration. That same experience motivated them. Just like we can share experience with other people when we a…

And that inner God likely lives in the right side of your brain:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#158

Post by akvadrako »

cygx wrote: post #145
krageon wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atheism says "god does not exist and I'm sure about this". This is exactly like saying "it's impossible for me to win the lottery" - that is the stupid position to take, because you know in this case it is untrue. Anything theological is impossible to prove one way or the other (or at least I've never heard of anything remotely approaching proof) and therefore a position of certainty one way or the other must be luna…

Depends on your definition. Hand out sheets of paper and ask people to write down all the gods they believe exist. What's your term for people who hand in empty sheets? For many of us, that's non-theist, aka atheist. Also note that it's not only theological propositions that are impossible to prove: The omphalos hypothesis could be true and the whole universe could have started existing a microsecond ago. I could be…

Agnostics don't believe in any gods but they aren't atheists.

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#159

Post by igravious »

some_account wrote: post #54
itronitron wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only experienced that ego-death through meditation (twice while I was in high school.) Just wanted to mention that it can be achieved without psychedelics. The easier to describe experience consisted of 'me' as a tiny speck of dust floating in a featureless, dimensionless void. As I tried to grasp a frame of reference I snapped back to my normal reality. I did not meditate much after that, mostly because I felt…

Ego death and then you felt good that you accomplished something? That is the ego being satisfied. There is no ego death. It's part of us.

poster said, "experienced that ego-death" – Pollan in the interview describes part of his experience, "[…] what I brought back from that experience was that I'm not identical to my ego […]"

Given everything I've read and heard it would appear that, yes, one can experience ego death and bring that experience back with you and reintegrate it into your life. It is then that you might feel good about the accomplishment because it provides you an immediate insight that is ordinarily far out of reach. Why then could the ego not feel that satisfaction?

I have a friend who whenever we are talking about these sorts of issues (the self, consciousness, that kind of thing) nearly always corrects my phrasing as if to say, "you have less authority and insight than I do". It's so frustrating. It's not some kind of enlightenment pissing contest.

> There is no ego death. It's part of us.

Do enlighten us, oh master.

Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics

#160

Post by akvadrako »

JackFr wrote: post #65
some_account wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got it all backwards. What you think is a crack in sanity is actually a crack in the illusion that the physical world is all there is. But to each their own.

Indeed. Dogmatic materialism is the real mind-virus.

It's not even scientific. Quantum mechanics seems to be how our world works and the only realist versions of it are very exotic, like predicting an infinite multiverse.
Post reply on HN