Quake3World

People have long sought meaning and significance in their
lives through a variety of spiritual practices including
prayer, fasting, chanting, solitude, and meditation. Historically,
some of these practices have included the use of
certain psychoactive plants. A common theme of these
experiences, with or without the aid of psychoactive agents,
has been to free oneself of the bounds of everyday
perception and thought in a search for universal truths and
enlightenment. To a large extent, this type of subjective and
uniquely human experience has enjoyed little credibility in
the mainstream scientific world and, thus, has been given
little scientific attention. However, it may be time now to
recognize these extraordinary subjective experiences, even
if they are, at present, not directly verifiable by objective
measures and even if they sometimes involve claims about
ultimate realities that lie outside the purview of science.

werldhed wrote:If you need drugs to discover universal truths and gain enlightenment, then your brain is functioning on a level not quite up to par with normal human cognizance.

Therefore, if you're not on mushrooms now, you might lack the insight to understand what I've just said. So I'll dumb it down:

You're a moron.

Personally, I also believe that these
drugs have a role in discovering the brain mechanisms
underlying feelings of spirituality and that such understanding
may lead to our investigation of nonpharmacological
means of engendering such states.

Even a proponent of such research,
Humphry Osmond, who coined the term “psychedelic,”
noted, “Psychedelics are instruments and like most of our
artifacts are capable of being used well or ill. Unluckily,
misuse is at least as likely as good use...”

Accordingly, it is not far-fetched to ascribe to
altered serotonin neurotransmission the subjective interconversion
of senses that occurs with synesthesia. As the
boundaries of our sense of self, our ego, are determined by
the integration of sensory perception, it is conceivable that
changes in serotonin systems mediate the diffusion of ego
boundaries that underlies the transcendent merger of “self
with universe” that is reported consistently by mystics of all
religious persuasions and occurs often under the influence
of psychedelic drugs.

kapitalkev wrote:

Accordingly, it is not far-fetched to ascribe to
altered serotonin neurotransmission the subjective interconversion
of senses that occurs with synesthesia. As the
boundaries of our sense of self, our ego, are determined by
the integration of sensory perception, it is conceivable that
changes in serotonin systems mediate the diffusion of ego
boundaries that underlies the transcendent merger of “self
with universe” that is reported consistently by mystics of all
religious persuasions and occurs often under the influence
of psychedelic drugs.

werldhed wrote: Why should enlightenment coincide with being nonjudgemental?

werldhed wrote: (btw... I'm not making assumptions about you. I'm saying that claiming mystical enlightenment is a pretty weak argument for using shrooms.)

werldhed wrote:This is saying that the merging of "self with universe" is just misintegration of preception. i.e. making up things that aren't there.

Modern fundamentalists claim enlightenment based on things you can't sense, too.

kapitalkev wrote:

werldhed wrote: Why should enlightenment coincide with being nonjudgemental?

I'm not "enlightened" but from what I have read it plays a huge role in enlightenment.

werldhed wrote: (btw... I'm not making assumptions about you. I'm saying that claiming mystical enlightenment is a pretty weak argument for using shrooms.)

I never claimed anything. I just posted a quote with a couple of links.

werldhed wrote:This is saying that the merging of "self with universe" is just misintegration of preception. i.e. making up things that aren't there.

Modern fundamentalists claim enlightenment based on things you can't sense, too.

I couldn't give two shits about "enlightenment." Ego dissolution is why I think psilocybin is valuable to us. Being "one with the universe" doesn't mean much if you are still an asshole. And just popping some "shrooms" down the hatch isn't going to make anyone a better person. The real work happens after the drug-induced experience.

Doombrain wrote: one day you'll grow out of it kid. you'll wonder why you ever bothered and why you liked black army coats and shit rock music.

kapitalkev wrote:...And I don't listen to rock music.

werldhed wrote:

kapitalkev wrote:...And I don't listen to rock music.

That's too bad.