tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2619743764213415433.post7685900921506472857..comments2023-11-03T07:07:55.456-05:00Comments on CoPhilosophy: Installment 2: Psychedelics in America: H1 Jake DanuserPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02115141650963300011noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2619743764213415433.post-79147797427568555232016-12-07T19:06:24.216-06:002016-12-07T19:06:24.216-06:00I forgot to link my first post, it can be found he...I forgot to link my first post, it can be found here:<br />http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-history-of-entheogens-in-philosophy.html<br /><br />@Ben Waldecker<br />I would say yes, given both biological and testimonial evidence psychedelics allow one to both expand and rewrite one's mind. In this installment, I discussed how psychedelics causes the brain to create new neural pathways, quite literally rewriting your brain. But this effect is a double-edged sword, abuse of LSD will turn your mind into what is essentially a blank state. Researchers believe there is a link between heavy LSD use and schizophrenia, but because LSD is a Schedule 1 substance any long-term testing of the effects of LSD is illegal.<br />And as to whether the drugs change the person using them: William James defends any experience as religious or important if the user views it in such a way that it changes them. Basically, I think we attach meaning and truth to what we want to. If you took some LSD and experienced things that made you question or change your beliefs you could take the experience one of two ways: the first choice is to dismiss the thoughts as nonsense that were created because you were “just tripping,”; the second choice would be to embrace the new thoughts, and strengthening the new neural synapses that were just created. I would imagine that genuinely believing that you are dead and believing that all matter is slipping from your body would have some sort of effect on your beliefs. Alan Watts once described LSD as putting mysticism in a bottle because of the transcendental type experiences that are made so easily obtainable through the chemical. <br /><br />@Phil <br />I love that quote from William James. Alcohol has played a heavy hand in human history and dates back almost 9000 years. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin that said that beer was proof that God loved us and wanted us to be happy. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14532969087987718514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2619743764213415433.post-5331411688777225752016-12-06T23:42:25.689-06:002016-12-06T23:42:25.689-06:00Very nice introduction into the world of psychadel...Very nice introduction into the world of psychadelics and it's key founders; I myself have always thought that there is a strong connection between psychadelics and philosophy. However, if one uses lsd to expands one's mind, is it really them opening their mind or the drug creating a different experience in the user? Does it really change a person and their mind, or does it allow them to think in other ways? Basically I'm asking if the drug is a kind of shortcut, or cheat code to other ways of thinking or not?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07500672983948528385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2619743764213415433.post-44076857262743346692016-12-06T17:27:00.720-06:002016-12-06T17:27:00.720-06:00"The more you use your brain to think a certa..."The more you use your brain to think a certain way, or think of a certain thing, the stronger that connection, or muscle, becomes" - and the weaker becomes your capacity for empathy and discovery. Critical/philosophical thinking also counters this phenomenon and encourages more open thinking, though with perhaps less vivid imagery and color than LSD, but also fewer unintended consequences (like tumbling from your bike).<br /><br />I too endorse "open-minded questioning of this [and every] authority" along with prudent caution. William James, again (he mentions alcohol but I think these remarks apply to entheogens as well):<br /><br />"Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. To the poor and the unlettered it stands in the place of symphony concerts and of literature; and it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning. The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole."Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02115141650963300011noreply@blogger.com