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

Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 116 posts

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#71

Post by ngai_aku »

huytersd wrote: post #51
bobosha wrote: post #3

I wish there was more support to not just decriminalize but legalize psychedelics broadly. I know there are plenty of ongoing clinical trials, but the collection of Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, Ibogaine is genuinely a treasure chest and probably the best thing that has happened to medicine in a long time, if not ever. Edit: i highly recommend watching Michael Pollan's "How to change your mind" (Netflix documentary). h…

I understand that people are very different because if I took mushrooms when I was terminally ill, I would have a trip so bad it would break my mind.

Did a previous trip lead you to this belief are you just speculating on what your experience would be like?

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#72

Post by jonathanlb »

gehwartzen wrote: post #69
freedomben wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the former precludes the latter? This seems to be like if someone comes to a doctor with an arrow stuck through him, someone saying "don't give him any pain killers, that's bad. Just take the arrow out so the problem is solved." You should obviously remove the arrow to correct the root cause, but you don't need to deny the patient pain killers in order to do so. Judging him morally or legally for wan…

For me it depends on context; Pain exists for a purpose (i.e don't put wait on a broken leg otherwise you could extend healing time or make things worse) but if technology allows us to mitigate the potential problems (i.e fixing the bone and apply a cast will allow you to walk but not add strain) getting ride of pain in the meantime is probably a net good. If you have chronic pain of some sort and you use substances…

Your point is taken, but it's not quite apples-to-apples.

Therapy can be a deep healing process or a superficial fix, just as psychedelics like shrooms, LSD, or MDMA can be used daily by some (suggesting a shamanic lifestyle, in my opinion) or lead to profound insights in a single ayahuasca trip for others.

It's true we shouldn't judge what works for someone without knowing them well, and even then, we can only offer suggestions. But when comparing, we should ensure we're not misrepresenting the situation, whether intentionally or not.

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#73

Post by specproc »

gehwartzen wrote: post #64
specproc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, it's perfectly fine, positive even to escape one's problems with drug use. You just can't do it every day.

If one could do you think that would be a problem?

I guess depends on the drug and the problem.

Daily use of lots of substances, e.g. alcohol, isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself (though it really can be), but if it's to escape a problem then there's a serious risk there. As the above suggested, the problem also remains unresolved.

So yeah, I don't think a person self-medicating on a daily basis is always problematic, but it's never worked out well for me, and it's not something I'd advise.

My original point was really that getting out of one's head once in a while can give a fresh perspective on a problem.

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#74

Post by zozbot234 »

wholinator2 wrote: post #68
pizzafeelsright wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accept it fully.

It seems you're nearing the message. How does one accept that fully? What do we do in the face of struggles with what may be the greatest struggle a human being ever faces? Could there be some technique that could help? What would that technique look like? Could it include the ingestion of a substance? If ingesting said substance along with guided meditation was vastly superior to all other techniques of death accept…

The drug is just exposing these subjects to the experience of living fully in the present moment. This is not something that can be done as "one weird trick", it requires true spiritual maturation-- and yet, people who haven't learned how to do this are literally dying every single day, whether they realize this or not. Whatever time is past for them, is in Death's hands already. They can choose to dwell on this, or just not bother and live life to the fullest as best they can.

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#75

Post by 0max »

pizzafeelsright wrote: post #8

How is this different from escaping problems through drug use?

Most folks associate taking psychedelics and hanging out in a living room, out in nature, being at a club, festival or warehouse. The difference here is that the dugs are being used in a directed mental health setting with process and procedure. This has roots going back to Native American spiritual and communal experiences like the ayahuscaeros of today.

Joe Rogan's old content postulates that religion as we know it today was formed from psychedelic experiences. For example, the bush that burned in front of Moses was acacia and widely known in the levant to have psychedelic properties

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwV8_Oc0EuY

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#76

Post by dartos »

nwiswell wrote: post #54
ganzuul wrote: post #9

"This life is only a prelude to eternity." - Seneca You can mostly avoid upsetting people with the God language by talking about love of truth instead.

Can't we say, with nearly as much accuracy, that this life is an epilogue to eternity?

I don’t think so. Eternity, by definition, never ends, so this life couldn’t come after the end.

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#77

Post by JasserInicide »

gehwartzen wrote: post #64
specproc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, it's perfectly fine, positive even to escape one's problems with drug use. You just can't do it every day.

If one could do you think that would be a problem?

Depends on the drug.

Caffeine? Probably the most used and least worst, could still cause sleep disruptions.

Weed? Could be a problem. It's very easy to get mentally addicted to it and turn you into a bowl of mush, but if you're using it in medical doses I imagine it's less so.

Microdosing LSD? Depends from person to person. I think using it too often isn't good for the heart.

Alcohol? Absolutely a problem, even if the worst side effects take years to manifest.

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#78

Post by jareklupinski »

nwiswell wrote: post #54
ganzuul wrote: post #9

"This life is only a prelude to eternity." - Seneca You can mostly avoid upsetting people with the God language by talking about love of truth instead.

Can't we say, with nearly as much accuracy, that this life is an epilogue to eternity?

it's a stop along the way from infinity to forever

stretch your legs :)

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#79

Post by nwiswell »

dartos wrote: post #76
nwiswell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we say, with nearly as much accuracy, that this life is an epilogue to eternity?

I don’t think so. Eternity, by definition, never ends, so this life couldn’t come after the end.

Mmm. That presupposes infinite linear time. By most accounts, "this life" bookends about 13.7 billion years of linear time, but how do we understand the state of things before that?

How could we understand the state of things once the heat death of the universe is a distant cosmic memory, and entropy no longer provides an "arrow of time"?

Re: Psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

#80

Post by huytersd »

ngai_aku wrote: post #71
huytersd wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that people are very different because if I took mushrooms when I was terminally ill, I would have a trip so bad it would break my mind.

Did a previous trip lead you to this belief are you just speculating on what your experience would be like?

I’ve had one bad trip (not terrible) when I was expecting some bad news. I’m basing it off of that experience. I’ve had a dozen other good trips but I was always careful to make sure I was in a good headspace before doing it.
Post reply on HN