Much of the current interest in psychedelics has grown out of the life-hack movement - a movement I like very much but one that operates on what I like to think of as the Pareto fallacy... applying Pareto's law to everything in life and assuming it works equally well.Slevin wrote:IMO psychedelics are simply another (possibly more efficient) way to jumble the information you hold between those boxes in your mind to create something unique (i.e. permaculture, etc) or a new perspective. Can you have these crazy insights without the use of drugs? Certainly. But a drastic change in perception can accelerate this process heavily.
Shortcuts can be great. But there are times when the trade-offs for reaching the goal quicker are not readily apparent, (a hidden damage, an induced weakness) caused by the shortcut itself. We live in a short-attention-span society so we become very skilled at ignoring the subtle trade-offs to GET IT NOW!.
I chose my name well.bottlerocks wrote:Might be why people describe going through "ego deaths" when taking certain psychedelics.
Is the drug induced ego death the same as naturally reaching this enlightened state through years of practice? I have not experienced either, so I cannot say for sure.
We have lots of examples of those who claim to have reached this ego-death pinnacle by way of drugs and others who did so through meditation/mindfulness. Since many of the drug-induced folks had their experiences in the sixties, we can see how they have lived their ensuing years. Same for the gurus.
Here's the thing that bothers me. When I look at them, the two groups seem very, very different.