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Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

nature.com

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Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#131

Post by paperskull »

fibonachos wrote: post #44
superswordfish wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I ended up depressed and anxious for about three or four months afterwards Holy shit, that sounds awful.

Damn. This is my normal without any drugs. No LSD for me.

Probably a good idea.

I have a great circle of friends and family and would describe myself as possibly more stable and relaxed than most people, yet I had a similar experience to the above poster. Then again, I was kind of asking for it.

My tip for anyone wanting to try hallucinogenics is to micro dose (~10µg) and to be really cautious about the set and setting.

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#132

Post by gjm11 »

martin1975 wrote: post #70
lsd_throwaway wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a fairly introspective person and I wouldn't say that it shook my world view - in the sense that I went in with a scientific world view and came out with one. I do have a better empathetic appreciation for mental illness and psychosis though (read And Then I Thought I was a Fish if you want to scare yourself). A trip makes you realize how incredible differently someone else's mind can perceive the world. The chal…

Religion is what the unconverted soul does in order to do right by God. To "make it to heaven", so to speak, by doing good things and avoiding doing bad or downright ugly things. All attempts at pleasing God - i.e. religion - are doomed because you inevitably will fail to meet the standard, because it is an impossible one - i.e. don't lust for women in your heart. Just as I wrote that...probably a thought or an image…

> I'll stop here before I start to proselytize

Too late.

(Also: If the standard is an impossible one, that is a problem with the standard.)

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#133

Post by p0nce »

lsd_throwaway wrote: post #16
lossolo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did ecstasy and i did LSD. Ecstasy is like a lie in this quote comparison. You get high in the beginning and it brings you down at the end, really awful feeling at the end. LSD is different, i experienced world differently even for couple of days after i took LSD. World seemed different. I knew what was important in life and what not, very clear. I can't describe how you feel on LSD, and people that didn't took LSD…

For a counterpoint to this - I decided to do 150 micrograms of LSD after reading a lot about it on HN, talking with many friends that had tried it or do it fairly regularly and reading as much as I could find (Sam Harris, Huxley, What the Dormouse said etc.). Nothing can really prepare you for it - the dream like state, the visuals and just the capacity of how different things can be. When looking at things I saw the…

> I was terrified that I was going schizophrenic or losing my mind.

This is probably depersonalization/derealization with a bit of HPPD

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#134

Post by zby »

lsd_throwaway wrote: post #16
lossolo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did ecstasy and i did LSD. Ecstasy is like a lie in this quote comparison. You get high in the beginning and it brings you down at the end, really awful feeling at the end. LSD is different, i experienced world differently even for couple of days after i took LSD. World seemed different. I knew what was important in life and what not, very clear. I can't describe how you feel on LSD, and people that didn't took LSD…

For a counterpoint to this - I decided to do 150 micrograms of LSD after reading a lot about it on HN, talking with many friends that had tried it or do it fairly regularly and reading as much as I could find (Sam Harris, Huxley, What the Dormouse said etc.). Nothing can really prepare you for it - the dream like state, the visuals and just the capacity of how different things can be. When looking at things I saw the…

I recently tried to read 'The denial of death' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death). I did not manage to go too far - but one of their theses, maybe the main one, was that we are basically crazy not to fear death, that in the childhood we learn how to ignore the objective reality which is too much for us to bear.

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#135

Post by simon_baker »

codebolt wrote: post #130
lsd_throwaway wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a fairly introspective person and I wouldn't say that it shook my world view - in the sense that I went in with a scientific world view and came out with one. I do have a better empathetic appreciation for mental illness and psychosis though (read And Then I Thought I was a Fish if you want to scare yourself). A trip makes you realize how incredible differently someone else's mind can perceive the world. The chal…

Personally, I'm not really worried about death at all. Having spent years of my life studying physics and coming to the conclusion that an eternalistic view of (space-)time is more likely correct, as seems to be implied by the theory of relativity, I know that my life here on earth won't disappear as a consequence of death, and this gives me solace. I absolutely detest psychedelic drugs though, they nearly ruined my…

I'm curious, would you be able to go into how they nearly ruined your life?

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#136

Post by collyw »

nosuchthing wrote: post #25
lossolo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did ecstasy and i did LSD. Ecstasy is like a lie in this quote comparison. You get high in the beginning and it brings you down at the end, really awful feeling at the end. LSD is different, i experienced world differently even for couple of days after i took LSD. World seemed different. I knew what was important in life and what not, very clear. I can't describe how you feel on LSD, and people that didn't took LSD…

*Ecstasy is an undefined product.. it's easy to critique the black market, but even products on Amazon or ebay are known to be counterfeits. It could be caffeine, meth, research chemicals, MDA, MDMA, bath salts... who knows? Who can verify these things? One can only hope even a claim of 'pure' MDMA is what someone says it is. The same issue applies to LSD. How can you be certain it's not DOB or a research chemical? h…

I went to an underground party in Switzerland a few years ago. There was a lab setup in one room to test pills. I am sure it isn't so uncommon.

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#137

Post by dhimes »

lsd_throwaway wrote: post #16
lossolo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did ecstasy and i did LSD. Ecstasy is like a lie in this quote comparison. You get high in the beginning and it brings you down at the end, really awful feeling at the end. LSD is different, i experienced world differently even for couple of days after i took LSD. World seemed different. I knew what was important in life and what not, very clear. I can't describe how you feel on LSD, and people that didn't took LSD…

For a counterpoint to this - I decided to do 150 micrograms of LSD after reading a lot about it on HN, talking with many friends that had tried it or do it fairly regularly and reading as much as I could find (Sam Harris, Huxley, What the Dormouse said etc.). Nothing can really prepare you for it - the dream like state, the visuals and just the capacity of how different things can be. When looking at things I saw the…

it felt similar to those computer vision machine learning videos from google

Very, very interesting observation.

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#138

Post by lovemenot »

fernly wrote: post #52
throwaway163 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience. Except it was caused by marijuana. It sounds like a classic case of Depersonalization disorder, which is a subset/interconnected with anxiety. Google it. The consensus is that it can be triggered by substances in approx 3% of the population. Weed, mushrooms, ectstacy and LSD are the most common culprits. It's extremely common, though it has very little mindshare among mental health profess…

Nasty sounding condition. Here's a link[1] and a summary, > ...a mental disorder in which the people have persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization... Depersonalization is described as feeling disconnected or estranged from one's body, thoughts, or emotions. Individuals experiencing depersonalization may report feeling as if they are in a dream or are watching themselves in a movie...…

Never heard of this before.

It sounds somewhat like what many people report having experienced during their trip proper. But extended well beyond that time.

I wonder whether people with DePersonalisation Disorder had somehow held on at a time when most would have just let go.

Disorder is another word for chaos, which has, of necessity, been embraced by many.

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#139

Post by d33 »

omginternets wrote: post #125

I'm a Ph.D student in Cognitive Science and I'm currently writing my dissertation on the topic of conscious perception. I think this study is pretty damn interesting because the cingulate cortex (ACC & PCC) along with the thalamus are implicated in states of consciousness (i.e. wake/sleep/coma/vegetation/etc) and also in "access consciousness" (i.e.: “consciousness” in the sense of “I am conscious ​ of ​ such and suc…

Interesting! Is there a brain region related to telling apart results of imagination and our actual perception that would work as a fail-safe mechanism?

Re: Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness

#140

Post by dfraser992 »

devishard wrote: post #82
kr4 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern science hasn't even started to appreciate the existence of consciousness let alone validating which is the better method. The Himalayan yogic and tantrik traditions have gone to the depth of consciousness, dimensions, multiverse ETC, and literally have thousands of books written on the subjects (both practical and theoretical). There aren't only drugs but better mechanisms like mantras, rituals etc to actually…

> Modern science hasn't even started to appreciate the existence of consciousness let alone validating which is the better method. Wow, you sure don't know what you're talking about. David Nutt, Albert Hoffman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Charles Darwin... every single one of these scientists has both made statements about the nature of consciousness and done research which has significantly fur…

Look up the field of transpersonal psychology. Ken Wilbur is one name that comes to mind. It is sort of the scientific study of spirituality - I don't have a degree, only a well read layman and can make heads and tails of what the research involves (as well as a informed amateur in religious studies, etc). To the HN crowd, it will seem like New Age woo-woo, but one has to really experience trance states in a Vodoun ceremony (Umbanda specifically) to grok the scientific materialism point of view is overlooking some components of consciousness.

The OP sounds like a hard line anti-science type. Merging the two points of view is the best idea. He is somewhat correct, but to say science will never have anything useful to add is shortsighted

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